Honestly back in 2006 what blew my mind at the time was the active reload system in gears of war, it made your ammo powerful and I didn't see anything like it for awhile
Hades has something like that, if you reload perfect it makes the dmg stronger / speed up reload. Really love systems like that, makes it hard to learn but so rewarding if you do it right
It was cool, I agree. Returnal takes inspiration from that and does the same thing but the animation happens in the middle of the screen rather than at the corner so you don't lose track of the action. Still, I liked the way Marcus would say "NICE" every time you did an active reload.
I feel like the Arkham combat deserves to be on this list it is incredibly satisfying and it has also inspired a lot of other games. Hopefully in a part TWO.....
Very influential too since so many games copied it to the point of annoyance. In my opinion all those copies didn't top Arkham even the good ones like spider man and mad max.
@@ModestPavement Mad Max didn't top the Arkham games but it does manage to make the combat its own in the way of sheer brutality. The sound design, visual cues, and vibration all work together to make every hit feel far heavier, because Max is a brute who fights dirty with strength over technique. Batman is the opposite, he is very graceful and precise which is reflected through the fluidity of the Arkham combat.
@@jonathanreiher5851 Imo, I think it's not as polished but it is more satisfying. The combat is bolstered by the wider variety of moves, especially in Shadow of War. Batman's gadgets don't quite have the same cool factor as Talion's abilities which are essentially superpowers.
I didn't know that Ghost of Tsushima one...and I gotta say I'm impressed. Such a brilliant idea to turn something otherwise bothering into something cool and epic-feeling!
And the great thing about it is that it actually makes sense when you consider the game's story. So basically the protagonist is an orphan, and when he was on the way to his father's funeral, his caretaker(?) tells him that his father will always be there to guide him as the WIND _wink wink_ and his mother will be there as the BIRDS _cough cough_ . So yeah, really cool.
@@Acoustic_Screecher I particularly don't like the traditional arrow glowing thingy they especially use in Car games like Forza...so seeing that it being used that way whilst also having a narrative backing instead of just a cool factor is amazing
Surely the bit in Titan Fall 2 where you’re travelling between two parallel time points. Absolutely incredible the way you use time travel to traverse the level, avoiding obstacles that are in one time and not the other, AND in combat when you’re battling enemies in both times and using time travel to set yourself up for kills. Could easily be the basis for a whole game but they just used it on one level.
That's basically the major part of Singularity, in wich you use a time manipulation device (TMD) to turn things older o newer to solve puzzles, it's not like you came back in time the whole level or scenario but it's basically the same premise, you may also like it, it came out in 2010.
Tiran fall was overhyped. While the mech calling, sliding and wall running should be in Apex Legends and all games. The gunplay was weak. Nothing like a weak gun feel in a FPS.
and you forgot to mention if you killed an enemy in the past, then jumped to present you'd see the skeleton full of plants and moss growing on it. Easily the coolest one for me!
Yeah, it bugged me how they worded it as though devs just don't seem to care about this awesome concept, when the truth is it's locked behind subpar games. I mean, I don't blame them for doing it, but I sure wish it could be in better games. If you aren't a fan of either of those IPs then you're just not going to ever experience them.
Ghost of Tsushima is such an amazing game. Even love how they fixed the problem of stances in combat. It really feels like a dance when you get it right. Beat it 5 times and still get the itch to play it when I see videos singing its praises.
My personal #1 is the gravity gun from Half Life 2. Using objects and physics to damage enemies was so much fun. Blew my young mind when i got to Ravenholm.
I remember tearing up when playing Ravenholm as a kid. Not cuz I was scared or sad, but because I was so blown away and creeped out that I couldn't blink!
Great list! I love the Portal games, using portals to solve puzzles was incredibly fun and satisfying. Also the squad leadership in Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway was REALLY WELL DONE. I’m pretty sure that game helped me in becoming a site foreman. Leading different crews, choosing which crew would be best suited for which task, problem solving situations and breaking down tasks and steps to individuals in order is achieve the best possible outcome.
Turning everything you know about spatial relationships upside-down with the portal gun in Portal was a pretty unique mechanic (and still is). I just got done playing 1&2 via the Switch port, and it feels just as good as it did 15 years ago.
It feels almost criminal to not mention the blood siphoning system in bloodborne. As someone with a naturally aggressive play style, I absolutely love how it promotes being aggressive and really getting right up in the bosses faces. Brings a totally new way to experience a souls like game
nemesis system is a modern marvel of gaming to me. glad to see it get some love. I've played Shadow of War about 5 times now n every play through has been a story on it's. never stops blowing my mind
Agreed. It's a shame that they copyrighted the system tho so other developers can't add their own twist or improvements to it. Just imagine that system used by some great RPG developers.
Journey was a very nice game to play back on the PS3 🥰 Played through it a bunch of times guiding other players to the scarf pieces you can collect to grow yours longer until you reach a point where you evolve into a White Robe at the end if you've collected a certain amount.
Wow the mikiri counter is indeed amazing! Some more: bullet time in Max Payne, the mechanic where you get back HP when you are attacked and fight back in Bloodborne, the air assassination in Assassin’s Creed, the octocamo in mgs4.
Staged reloads in Insurgency Sandstorm are awesome. Holding X for an ammo check, double tapping X and throwing out a magazine quickly(and losing the remaining rounds in it) as opposed to a single tap and methodically changing magazines whilst keeping that ammo…really adds to the experience for me.
There's a 2012 game called Blades Of Time. It had one of the most enjoyable mechanics I've ever experienced, where your character Ayumi can perform an action, rewind time, and then let the time clone perform your last action while you do something else simultaneously. Best part - you could have multiple clones at a time. It was priceless watching your clone squad take on multiple enemies while you just casually walked past them or deleting a boss' health bar in seconds by having ten Ayumis hammer him at the same time.
Portals. Portal popularised the specific mechanic, but I remember it from the original Prey. I can still recall crawling through a crate and popping up somewhere else entirely, or shrinking down to the fight on the little planetoid. Amazing stuff for it's day and totally blew my mind. Seeing the evolution of it in the new Ratchet & Clank is awesome and still incredibly fun!
'Viewfinder' definitely deserve a place on this list. It's totally unique and ingenious. It starts off simple and gets harder and harder as you go along.
Other interesting mechanics: 1) Shifting into vehicles (Driver San Francisco),i don't remember seeing this mechanic in other game. 2) 2nd person camera (Driver San Francisco),you can do it only in a specific mission,but you are in 1st person camera,you look at the ,,npc" in front of you and you control it while you are in 1st person camera. 3) AC Origins ( i think it's in Odyssey as well). The autopilot. You mount your horse or your camel,hold J to make it follow the road or make it go a reachable checkpoint (it won't swim by itself) or objective destination. 4) Sid Meyer's Pirates,your character ages while the time goes by. (in Sifu you age as you die). 5) Sleeping Dogs,putting people in trunks. Most of the games do this either in a cinematic or only in a main mission (Mafia 2 comes in my mind).But in Sleeping Dogs you can do it in free roam as well. 6) Reversing the arrest,Sleeping Dogs,if you press space when the police tries to arrest you,you reverse the move and handcuff them instead :)) (usually,in the normal games you have to run so you don't get arrested.) 7) Mafia 2,bribing the authorities (50 dollars when they want to arrest you,or 500 when they come for you guns blazing,obviously you have to make the call while being out of their sight). 8) RDR2,the dead bodies that decay over time. 9) Mad Max,the car's grapling hook used to tear the other cars doors,wheels,demolish constructions or pulling the driver out. 10) Overwatch 2,depending on the characters chose by you and your team,they will have different dialogue about the lore.
Web swinging in Spiderman is quite fun, i kinda prefer it more than fast travel, because it also lets the player be immersed on everything that is happening like crimes, etc.
I think the only way they could make super hot better if it didn't already have it. They could totally just show you a whole Normal speed version of your character in third person playing through the whole game.
You mentioned dishonored but I think of the most mind blowing mechanics was the blink move from dishonored, there was something so amazing about how well it worked being able to climb and telaport and stuff just so seamless, while other games may have teleport mechanics none I know of also has the ability to climb up on anything you teleport to like how dishonored does
Teleporting under furniture. It also has some limitations when used repeatedly that made things more challenging. There's also becoming a rat mechanic that was handy with their level design.
Two mechanics that I gotta mention on this list: 1) The whole turn-a-picture-you-took-into-a-part-of-the-map mechanic from Viewfinder. Absolutely insane! 2) The primary mechanic that was advertised in Watch Dogs: Legion, where any and every NPC you encounter on the street is completely unique and can be recruited to become a playable character. I wish more games had that mechanic but at the same time, if they did, Legion wouldn't have been unique!
Two things: 1) Is the Gravity Gun (Zero-Point Energy Manipulator if you will) from HL2 too overqualified to even be on this list or did you guys just forget? Because I think that thing was unanimous in blowing all our heads to the stratosphere. Sure, one may argue that it is more of a weapon than a mechanic, but do recall that a big part of Valve's intention for developing the Source engine was for the benefit of the Gravity Gun, and they created the game with it as the star of the show. 2) The wall-walking from the original Prey deserves at least an honorable mention. I couldn't play the game for more than half an hour at the time because of how queasy it felt BUT it made for some really interesting encounters and puzzle solving.
@@gameranxTV and all of those games I've played, are because your recommendations. And the before you buy videos, so thank you for the great suggestions!
In Superhot MCD you can call your katana back just like lavathian axe and it also goes through and kills all the enemies standing straight between you and the katana. Also with a hack(kinda like upgrade, Superhot calls it hack) the katana goes through multiple enemies standing between you and katana even though they are not really on the line. It's really cool. Also my personal favourite is Lightning reversal from Sekiro. It's kinda clever, really really fun, high rewarding and super satisfying to pull off. Also with Sakura dance it's really beautiful just to see. Mikiri counter is great personally I have always loved Lightning reversal more.
One thing almost NO ONE talks about is the moral point system in the Metro trilogy. It is much more subtle than it's RDR2 counterpart, and the way it works adds to the immersion masterfully. In Metro 2033, Artyom (protagonist) has never left his home before and doesn't know how the world outside his station works. So the moral points are gained via exploring the levels and finding secret spots, as well as being as much pacifist as possible. In Metro Last Light and Exodus, Artyom has gained much knowledge about the world outside, and it's all about making the morally correct decisions. But anyways, great work team Gameranx. Your videos are entertaining as ever. Keep up the good work 👌
I like the chaos system in Dishonored. The game punishes you for being too brutal with more guards, the plague that afflicts Dunwall becomes worse, the guards becomes more rude to each other, the characters view you differently and the bloodbug infestation instead of rat plague from dishonored 2.
I really love the whole hunting system in rdr2. It's so satisfying to track the animal and actually hunt it, then skin it and bring it back to camp for upgrades or sell it in a local town for some cash
What blew my mind was the game Echo. You start with AI that are really basic, but the actions you take to get through the level, the AI will learn and use against you. You open the door? Now they can open doors. You slid across cover? Now they can. And the only time they don’t learn is when the lights are off. So you have to choose what you do and when.
Heaven help you if you actually shoot one with the lights on! Unfortunately, other than that mechanic, the game was pretty weak. Still worth getting on sale just to see the AI mechanics, though, IMHO.
I love the summoning and invasion mechanic in Elden Ring. The fact that you can summon other players to help you fight a boss, or invade another player’s world, while they can summon a Hunter to help defeat you. The phantoms and bloodstains are cool too. It’s almost like a premonition if you see a random phantom fighting or see bloodstains in an area of NPCs.
I have fond memories of fable two when the other players in the world were small talking orbs. Before everyone started living in party chat, this system blew my mind at the time! 😂
Being able to web up to the top of a skyscraper as you're crawling along the side of it, & slingshot yourself into the air in Spider-Man was really cool. Not alot of games let you get such a quick vantage point of the entire map.
Finally unlocking the mech in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I knew it was coming eventually, but it still blew my mind anyway. For many long hours you're running around, mastering all the combat mechanics. This is like going to school, learning. Only when you've proven yourself do you get the mech license. Like a driver's license, it felt so good to finally unlock it, cuz you EARNED it. You did the work, all the sidequests and here's the reward. And boy what a reward it was. You're huge!! You can transform into a car mode and go super fast! Combat changes radically! You can even fly!(eventually) and the music is *EPIC* . I was all goosebumps playing with my friend beside me, giggling with glee like a schoolgirl. It made you feel *powerful* . You could now fight enemies that made your human form look puny and minuscule in comparison, and now crush humanoid enemies. But it also opened up the map in a big way. You could reach places floating in the sky. Each party member can also have their own mech (at a hefty cost, like cars IRL these things aren't cheap), ending up eventually with a team of shiny robots running or rolling or flying along the beautiful landscape. I really loved this game.
An awesome mechanic I really miss in any other VR game are HL: Alyx's Russels. With a flick of the wrist, the selected object is thrown towards you and you can catch it easily.
One cool thing I noticed in Sekiro was how wolf puts his prosthetic hand over his opponents heart before stabbing through it to insure he doesn’t miss it. I actually think he stabs the sword through the hole he makes with his index finger and thumb over his opponent’s heart.
I'd argue that both the fear takedown and batmobile ejection in Arkham Knight are some of the best mechanics ever put in games. Why take out 1 or 2 enemies when you can take out 5 in slow motion, with bullets flying all around batman. Then you can hop into your car, reach high speeds and eject into the night sky looking for the next group of dudes to dive bomb into. Arkham Knight was truly ahead of its time. Correction on Mikiri Counter. It's done by pressing B or O, not dodging forward while pressing B or O. Dodging forward will usually get you hit.
Another example of a game that gives you a subtle way of knowing where to go is the Metroid games, if you pull out your lighter while standing still the smoke made by the fire will go in the direction of your objective.
this is a lot later than when the video was uploaded, but the umbral lamp in lords of the fallen is easily my top feature in any video game ever. the way it serves a very important purpose in the game, as well as just how beautiful the thing looks when you whip it out, I love that thing. super cool.
Super Metroid. I've played that game for over 20 years. And I had no idea until a couple years ago that you can mix and match the arm cannon upgrades to make different looking and functioning beams with different charge attacks too. Not to mention the wall kick ability is very cryptic in how you learn and do it and litterally changes the entire games flow once you learn it. Or the bomb bounce ability. Just a perfect game.
Dragons dogma pawn system still very unique and satisfying up until today. You control your A.i behavior and traits as much as you want. It's one of the coolest game mechanic ever
I think Dishonored 2's level mechanics do not get enough credit. The changing map (Clockwork Mansion) and the 2-time map (the Duke's mansion) were amazingly creative.
One game that had something amazing was Dragon's Dogma and its pawn system. You create a henchman that can be hired by other players in their games, and when he comes back to you he actually has learned things about the parts of the map he visited and will tell you.
Way before Ghost of Tsushima, Shadow of the colossus implemented a guidance system with the sword reflecting sunlight that was awesome. Also those transitions between different "dimensons" or planes was implemented in Soul Reaver for PSX.
The VR game, Ancient Dungeon, has the same mechanic as GoW where your thrown blade only returns when you press the button, however, in VR when it returns, it feels just like Thor's hammer (instead of just watching Kratis catch his axe).
I always love these videos and I especially always love hearing people talk about the Shadow of Mordor games. They are some of my favorite story driven games. Anyways I love the videos and I hope everyone is having a great day.
I think the pseudo-co-op in Devil May Cry 5 deserves a mention in indirect multi-player. You can see either a recording of your own gameplay in the background from another level or play along with random players who chose the other playable character in some missions.
I'm GLAD the NEMESIS system got a shot on this list. It's really revolutionary how in depth it is. It was a scene generator at its finest, but I kinda hate that they Patented it, so nobody can use it outside of their game house. Like Namco patenting Loading screen games
mine was monster hunter. when i was in college back in 2007, my friend introduced me to monster hunter freedom unite in the PSP. i got hooked instantly. i found it very intriguing hunting monsters and also making armors and weapons from their remains.
Figuring out that the new cod actually incorporated a two stage trigger for a lot of their guns with the new haptic controllers was my French chef kiss moment 😙👌
I think the Shadows of Mordor "enemy upgrade" system is patented, so that is why you don't see other studios adopting it. "Fox leads to treasure" and the wind pointing your way are in Skyrim!
I hope you include both Gravity Rush games next time. Mindblowing and one of a kind. Also, DMC has a parry mechanic where you have to time your attack with an enemy, sometimes you have to do it multiple times in a row because the clash staggers both of you. Best demonstrated on Vergil, Caveliere Angelo, or really any of the angelo enemies in any of the games. Part 2? Really happy you included Dishonored and TF|2 btw
The gameplay in bioshock infinite was something, especially when transporting between two dimensions, it’s similar to time jumping in titanfall 2 but not entirely because at least in titanfall you almost always know what enemy is gonna pop and can just time jump while in bioshock there is more thinking needed for it
