10 Older Games With Better Features Than Modern Games 

MG Rising blade system would have been perfect for a lightsaber.

Really loved Falcon's enthusiasm & frustration for MGR blade mode

Control (2019) really nailed gravity gun functionality!

The fire from Far Cry 2 !!! Was so cool being able to start fires and watch them spread via the weather to anything

you could make this a 15-part series. games have felt pretty much totally stagnant since the late PS3 generation.

The reason MGR has such a robust physics cutting is because the team working on it originally built an engine designed for that. But when they realized they had no idea how to turn it into a metal gear game they got booted and Platinum had to pick up the slack but they kept the physics engine.

Time travel mechanics like Singularity is something I'd be CRAZY to see in more games. It was sooo good. Update after comment: while the time travel mechanics were good, I was also thinking of the ability age enemies to dusty, change the surrounding via puzzle to age/de-age and the excellent bullet control sniping. Also I did like the Dishonoured 2, Titanfall 2 and Starfield elements, that was the best Starfield mission to me but usually were small parts. I'd love a whole game on it

Prototype series had lots of cool mechanics. You could play it either in Hulk mode OR blazing guns OR stealthy (I loved to infiltrate military bases, consume all web of intrigue targets inside it, leave and them command an air strike to bring it down).

I agree. Physics is not only side lined in modern gaming it feels like they're actively avoiding trying to further enhance physics in games. The late 90's through the 2000's was undoubtedly the best time for gaming.

I like how feature complete older ames are.

Metro Exodus used a lot of light and dark mechanics for stealth. Not quite to the same level as Splinter Cell since its more of a secondary mechanic but you had a sensor on your watch dedicated to letting you know when you were in the shadows. With the Enhanced Edition's fully ray traced lighting system, it became even more impactful on how stealth worked. You could also disable pretty much most artificial light source in the game, not always by shooting but you could put out torches and camp fires etc.

I remember reading in an interview with the developers of Dead Space that their one and only major UI goal was to make it as seamless and intuitive as possible, so they merged everything into the suit and made them as non-intrusive as possible. And it was a genius move, they recognized that, because it's a futuristic space suit, it has all these possibilities which seamlssly and intuitively enhances gameplay for the better, while also keeping all of the elements which are expected/mandatory for a UI/for the player.

This could actually be a whole series, there's a lot of good examples, especially if we're going old-school. The Day/Night cycle in Pokémon: Crystal is a good example. Not only did it change time, it changed how certain NPCs acted (cops would only battle you at night for example) it also changed what wild Pokémon were available and the rarity of others, it also effected the effectiveness of certain moves too. This was all on a GameBoy Color cartridge, too. I don't know many games that took their day/night cycle that far. Keep in mind, my gaming knowledge drastically drops once you hit PS4/XboxOne and after, so correct me if I'm wrong about this

My favourite old school feature was from Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth. The damage mechanics where you have to treat certain body parts or you'll be affected a certain way. Also the sanity level stuff was amazing. Depending on how stressed or panicking you were, you could barely hold the gun to shoot your enemy including hit the thing. Hell, stress too hard and you'll die/lose before having to try again. I loved it and always wondered why no one ever used it again.

Agree on Oblivion. Also it made for some hilarious situations where you'd ask yourself "Did that just really happen?". One of the reasons i always come back to that one instead of Skyrim

Socom 2 had the best lighting system I’ve ever seen. You could shoot the lights out but if you sat in the dark long enough your screen would get brighter like your eyes were adjusting to the darkness . Plus using the microphone to control your AI teammates was so cool.

I still dotn get how the "nemesis system" can even be patented, it rly should not be possible legally

MG blade system is nice, reminds me of ssj future trunks slicing up frieza.

Keys to the city was insanely fun. I spent so much time in this one corner of the map where cars would be speeding around the corner of the highway. I’d clear the roads, spawn in a bunch of ramps and then add the npc’s back. In seconds there would be cars flying through the air and piling up, causing hella explosions. I’ve never had that much sandbox style fun in an open world game since

The Panic mechanic from Dredge and its variety of effects is a good example of a modern (albeit indie) game using similar sanity effects as a core part of the gameplay. Seeing eyes everywhere, rocks appearing before your ship suddenly, etc.

Love all the new Ames coming out lol

The last remnant used a lot of cool systems I have never seen in any other game. Everything from leveling to classes and even difficulty was unique.

Uh, Metal Gear: Snake Eater's camouflage gauge? Where your camo actually effects how the enemy AI sees you. And the camo effect changes based on where your standing, the position your in, and if your moving or not. Gotta wear tan on the sand, green by the grass, brown bark by a tree, red brick by a red brick wall, etc. It totally changes the way stealth plays. Not to mention the footprints you can leave behind, the broken twigs/grass that some AI can use to find you, the bullet shells left on the ground, if you litterally sneeze from being sick, and more.

I felt Falcons frustration with the MGR blade mode. Not too long ago a friend and I were talking about certain game mechanics and features that were in older games that are simply non-existent in newer games where you would think they could be implemented even better. The lack of innovation in modern AAA games is painfully frustrating. But I am glad that indie developers are starting to focus on the joy and innovation of gaming.

Modern ames lovely 😁

One of these days gameranx will invert the colors on their number screens in top ten videos and my eyes will stop bleeding and epilepsy stop triggering every night

with number 10 being blade mode from MGSRR, they had similar in Afro Samurai, plus made it a mini game of "body part poker" the game gave no benefits but was funny hearing Samuel L Jackson judge you. But yeah old game with that mechanic. with it was in more, like Ghost of Tsushima or ghost runner

Grandia 2’s battle system, particularly its gauge. The gauge shows your characters and enemies as icons and how fast they move across the gauge determines the battle order. Stats and certain skills affects how fast the icons move and some moves stagger characters/cancel actions, therefore affecting the battle order. When you’ve reached the Action point about 2/3 into the gauge to select an Action, you can see how enemies who have already selected their Action have targeted members of your party so you can plan better how you want to proceed. It’s more or less a variation of the ATB system other RPGs had at the time and allowed for more refined strategy, which we don’t see a lot of in newer RPGs because they’ve abandoned turn based systems for hack and slash or skill tree progression.

The adaptive ai mechanic that metal gear solid 5 had seemed promising but I wished it went further with what it offered. As you attack the enemy soldiers they wear more advanced armor and gear as you strike them in certain spots, also imagine either a hulk game or a just cause game with red faction's destruction physics

You could do the slice mechanic on the Afro Samurai game years before Metal Gear Rising and I absolutely loved that feature!

The Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor/War was so good. I must have spent 100 hours in that game not even doing any missions, just watching the ebb and flow of the Orc's ranks.

Great video like always!! Thanks gameranx!

I didn't even realize there was a locator system in Dead Space 1 and finished the game without one.

Outriders used that waypoint system you mentioned 😊

Number 9: In Prince of Persia 2008 Elika had a compass ability as well. With the press of a button, she would call forth a blue flame that would draw the line to your objective. Pretty adequate in that game, and helpful since that game doesn't have a clear map to guide you step by step.

Blades that act like blades and not blunt objects are something I have wanted in entertainment for a long time.

Nice to see FFXIITZA on here! I loved the speed up feature so much. When I used to play it on PS2, I could never get past the Leviathan escape section cos I was always so under-levelled and was too much of an impatient kid to work on levels before going there. As soon as the remake came out, I was able to complete the story (beautiful story btw) because I could save precious gaming time working on levelling with the speed up. I hope more games consider this in the future!

Honestly, though, I have to say that with the Dead Space mechanic, it has been used before. If I remember correctly, that was used in the same way in the Army of Two games. They came out the same year, though, so I guess it's still right to say the mechanic hasn't been used since.

The speed up feature is something I loved about the FF7, FF8, FF9, and FF12 rereleases. It made the games soooo much more fun to revisit, because you could speed up the more tedious parts and just focus on the parts that are a lot more fun

The Nemeses System will always be one of my most favorite things a game has ever done.

Bioshock infinite locator system was pretty on point and had a nice sound like dead space too

Modern ames

It's a nice nostalgic feeling to hear 'AI' being referred to as just a game developer designing an NPC so that the player is convinced the game characters have a mind of their own in the game world.... as opposed to what is talked about in the current day and age lmao.

Great video / list! In regards to #9, The Item Locator from Dead Space. The Force Unleashed 2 also had an unobtrusive way to figure out where to go next.

I love to play Modern ames...

The Ascent also had a great feature where it showed you the direction to travel for your next objective. It was very helpful because the maps were often complex or confusing.

Guys, with NPC you didn't mentioned KCD: Deliverance. NPCs don't stay at one place, they have their job and it looks like living game, they don't just walk around without purpose.

Great video! I'm still blown away by the original Alan Wake's flashlight effect. The shadows and the other visual effects from moving and running around with it are still awesome!

The reason why no studios has attempted to remake the Nemesis system is because Warner Bros Interactive filed a patent for the design meaning anyone replicating the mechanics can be sued. Now, that isn't to say a studio couldn't create a similar system but that requires innovation and taking risks - the two things publishers typically hate. I'm sure there will be some indie studio/gamedev that will attempt a similar system though as that is where the best mechanics and most innovative gameplay in the industry comes from these days.

Regarding the "navigation" system, Brutal Legend did it really cool too. It also used kind a "minimalistic" HUD for a game like that. When you were driving your blinkers would tell you if you had to drive left and right

Prince of Persia's inability for characters to move while falling is one of the most realistic features in old games from the 1980s that are completely absent in most modern games only few modern games like Red Dead Redemption II, Assassin's Creed series and the GTA series still retain that feature from Prince of Persia even though Prince of Persia is a 2D game from 1989.

Love this! Hope there is more stuff like this. 🤩

Fast forward/speed up mechanic I agree 110%. Pokemon stadium did that too back in the day, they let you unlock a 3x speed gameboy emulator to play R/B/Y at up to triple speed. Just press a button to toggle between normal 2x and 3x and it made the games much more replayable. I'm torn on having it available right from the start or making the player unlock it like a NG+ bonus though. Mainly because if you're returning and don't have access to your old save that feature would be a life saver.

The original Guild Wars had a Nemesis like system before Shadow of Mordor. If you died repeatedly to mobs, your accumulated XP would become theirs and they would level up. You used it to help you get the "Max level before the Searing" Achievement. It was the only way to get mobs that capped at level 6 normally to get to level 20 so you could make the kind of XP you needed to get to Level 20 yourself. It was long, tedious, and grindy, but it worked. It was also mutually exclusive with the "Don't die before the Searing" achievement.

The Force Unleashed Games - allowing you to go into DEFICIT stamina in order to get more damage in during windows. Really hate how games act like you wouldn’t absolutely launch every ounce of energy you have if an enemy was downed to try to end the fight. Instead you just wait for the stamina to come back up a tiny bit to attack again with no damage falloff from full energy.

Splinter Cell series especially Chaos Theory were timeless. Not only light system but sound system. You can control the speed of movement according to the sound and it has technology that no game had back then and some still don't have today.

Actually, the dog that showed you where to go in Fable 2 was a smart, immersive way to show players where to go. Dead space did a great job, but the pet idea was genius. Imagine something as simple as a drone to guide you across a ghost recon breakpoint no hud playthrough, wolfblade as your guide in a open world metal gear rising 2, an eagle in assassin's creed, a Robotic spider in cyberpunk 2078. So many possibilities but the wind from ghost of tshima was just so perfect

Mercenaries. It was an open world game where you could destroy the whole building, bridges and more.

Although maybe not as interconnected as Dark Souls, I’ll never forget the moment in Bloodborne when I climbed that unending ladder from the poison pits only to end up right in front of Josefka’s Clinic … INSANE

Ace Combat 5 was one of my favorites of that franchise. You had 4 wingman that could be customized for specific mission roles, such as ecm support, and could direct them to attack specific targets. Ace Combat Zero had only the one wingman but also introduced the mercenary rating system to the game. Basically if you let some targets go if they were crippled in combat or mopped the floor with the npcs, you got graded on it. Hell even in Need For Speed Pro Street, some of the mini games were almost simulator in quality like having to warm your tires before a drag race.

Blade Mode physics in a Star Wars game. This really needs to be a thing.

I just saw the Raiden versus MG Ray as the thumbnail, i had to click. MGRR deserves a sequel in my opinion

"It's been 11 years!!" You can hear the pain, hurt and disappointment in his voice 😂🤣

I think the RPG that started the trend of letting you speed up combat was Bravely Default, which was a fantastic game in itself. It also let you automate whatever sequence of attacks you wanted to start your battles with, allowing you to grind super fast whenever needed. It was a great feature tbh.

Control (2019) actually nailed the interconnected places in the game, like secret places, rooms, and all inside a building

The Plague Tale is somewhat related to the #7, although you don't put out fires to be more stealthy but to make it more dangerous for the enemies (and yourself). Regardless, I think they did a good job.

The fast forward feature is such a good one to have. I play a lot of emulators and primarily on old hand held games, that speed feature is so useful.

I literally just played MG Rising and that blade mode was so awesome! I constantly was trying to see how many pieces I can cut up enemies into.

the DeadSpace locator is also used in Fate: Samurai Remnant, and I kinda like it since you don't have to stay still for a second to activate it. Just press R3 while running and it doesn't interrupt with an animation.

Falcon, I would like to mention that Remedy's Control might actually have succeeded at making something as satisfying as the gravity gun.

Splinter cell for sure. I remember when it came out and it was just so much fun to really use the shadows and various tools/weapons to create more shadow or distract from the areas you couldn't avoid light. About the only other game that came close to this was MGS Snake eater with its camo options to lower visibility by blending in.

My favorite Eternal Darkness insanity trickery was making it look like your GameCube reset, with iconic rolling cube and all.

MGR is one of the most underrated games of all time. It should be a crime we never got a sequel.

The time powers in Quantum Break, coupled with the video-story thing we're actually awesome. I would love to see those powers in a more openworld setting. It would be so much fun.

Also not quite the same as the objective locator you showed from Dead Space, but FF XVI lets you know what direction to go by pretty much following the trail of uncollected items. This is especially useful when going through the many castles in the game and having to go through a lot of rooms. You'll know what area you've not been to as there's usually a glowing item to collect once you open the door. The items will also usually become multiple potions as a signal that there's a boss fight coming up. I really like that.

Regarding number 7, MGS used stuff like footprints and even smell. Like hide in a trash can for too long and you will start to smell, which is why you had a wind direction marker since the wind carried the smell and enemies could react if the smell was out of place.

SWAT 3 (1999) - enemy placement is randomized every time you play a mission, enemies have a finite amount of ammo and can pick up a dropped weapon of a dead or incapacitated enemy if they run out, dudes will sometimes even drop their weapons (as if surrendering) and then run, unarmed, across the room and pick up a dropped weapon and fire at you. Never seen this in anything else.

Things that came to mind: - easily nemesis shadow of war system - climbing monsters in dragons dogma - arcades of sega products in yakuza games - the color system in the saboteur upon opening up more map space - ripping weapons out of the environment on condemned criminal origins -recruiting npcs to playable characters in suikoden series (hundred heroes) - playing as any open world character - watchdogs legion -the way gameplay had interwoven genres in nier automata - chaos system in just cause games (mainly 2) -sotryline progression via memory loss or time lapse like the forgotten city and returnal Darkest dungeon did the sanity thing...sort of There's many more im sure

14:50 In Tenchu: Shadow Assassins, there was a technique called the Hayate that was similar to this. You could dart from shadows to bushes undetected, or if you're being seen you could jump back into cover.

Eternal Darkness was soooo good. The one I'll never forget was when I reloaded my muzzle loading pistols, the character accidentally shot himself in the face half way through the reload and the game over screen came up just long enough for me to think I *actually* died, before snapping back to the game.

The guiding wind in GoT imo is much better than the straight up line in Dead Space. You didn't have to stand completely still and stop what you're doing to activate the wind guidance and its more immersive being something natural in the environment.

As a kid who played outside with sticks pretending they were swords and who loved RPGs like Final Fantasy and Legend of Dragoon, I would actually pretend play a video game I had imagined where I could control the direction of my slashes, creating my own combos AND the enemies I imagined were robots. You can imagine how mind-blown I was when I saw the first trailer for Metal Gear Rising. Ended up being so good too, and not just because of the slicing mechanics. Also glad to see the RF: Guerrilla shoutout.

So going through this list 10) resource cost, you basically have to dedicate almost the entire game's engine system to pull this off in a realistic way. 9) No excuse, you're 100% right. 8) This is developer resources. Radiant AI wasn't some kind of automated system where you just set up anything beyond the most basic parameters. Each AI had to basically be tailored specifically to it's own set up. It's a massive investment for, often, incredibly limited returns. 7) yeah kinda agreed here, mostly it's because a lot of lighting stuff is kiiiinda fucky with engines and light mapping is one of the most costly things in games. 6) Another massive case of 'the developers have to invest enormous amounts of effort for very little return' 5) I'm not entirely sure what the hell you're talking about with this... like... I kinda get it? But yeah, it's almost impossible to actually design this, due to the nature of how interconnectedness and itterative design works. You basically ahve to figure out everything you want, get it locked in, and THEN actually make it... which is... not how it works? 4) yeah there's no excuse for not doing this beyond 'we could monetize it' 3) Ehn... technical reasons and rewinding is just hell. ALso you're basically asking the developers to go "yeah we put all this work into this environment but we just let you skip it :D" 2) massive amounts of developer and custom input that has to be really built from the beginning, it's incredibly difficult. 1) half life 2 was a fucking physics engine masquerading as a game. They put in stupid amounts of effort to this because physics are really fucking nightmares to process and run with. bonuses red faction physics stuff: you are seriously underestimating how much effort they put into their destruction engine, they had to hire professional architects to redesign their levels and buildings because the ones they originally ran with KEPT FALLING APART UNDER THEIR OWN WEIGHT. That's how realistic it was and it was something like 40-70% of their budget when you consider all the knockon costs that this cost them. Nemisis System: Blame WB. They patented it, and until someone is willing to challenge that patent over the fact you cannot copyright a game design, nobody is going to fuck around trying too. Swoop: is a fun thing, more stealth games should have it.

Ghosts of Tsushima had a mechanic where the weather changes depending on how you play the game. If you’re dishonorable then you get a lot of storms. If you’re honorable then sunshine and clear skies.

Halfway thru ... Perfect Dark with weapons having secondary/tertiary modes. Laptop gun, farsight. Also, the ability to customize game modes and enemy AI - Dark Turtle Sims ... masterful.

About the dead Space locater: Something comparable was used before in the old MMORPG Neocron (made by germans): The Navray. The player could chose a destination from a menue, like a shop or something similar, and a holographic line would appear on the ground, guiding the player to the chosen destination. If the player was too far away from a possible "line" point, he would get the usual and well known arrow on the screen, leading him the right direction.

Great list, some awesome opportunities for improvement or just to improve the overall fun

The Getaway on the PS2. Instead of giving you arrowheads and a mini-map of where you needed to go, the indicators would flash signalling where you needed to turn. Another feature in the game was that if your character got hurt, you could lean on a wall nearby and restore some of your health.

Honestly, the mechanic I was waiting for was to carry save data between games in a series the was Mass Effect did. This was barely tried in Infamous, but even then just amounted to having kind of a boost at the start of Infamous 2.

Splintercell was the most immersive game I've ever played. I would just sit in my room and stare at the screen, sneaking around trying to make out the data in my dark or thermal vision, oblivious to everything around me.

Dont starve had a pretty good sanity mechanic, where if you were losing sanity, monsters would go after you in a super creepy way :D

You missed Just cause's grapple system. It's just so satisfying in open world.

The enemy AI in the first F.E.A.R. was top notch, I dare to say it's still the best in any FPS game. When the enemies detected you, they were searching for cover, communicated with each other and tried to flank and sorround you.

A level customizer. It was in a multitude of old school games (I mainly remember Jazz Jackrabbit 2), but it’s rarely in any modern games. The only modern one I could think of right now is THPS 1+2, which is a remaster to 2 old school games, one of which had this level customizer.

The objective marker was put into Skyrim, you'd need a spell called Clairvoyance I believe and when you activated it it'd tell you how to reach the current objective you had selected.

The Adoring Fan running off a cliff will never get old

I'd say Lies of P was nailed the interconnected world design like dark souls 1, you should give it a try! its one of the best soulslike game i have played

I really enjoyed every second of MGR! It has a good story, good gameplay, and good mechanics.Everyone should play this game at least once.

Another mechaninc I loved from the first two Splinter Cells, is the mouse wheel controlling your speed, and the bar for sound that if you kept your noise under where it was no one would hear you, having rain and machinary raise the noise bar so you could move faster by slowly scrolling up on the mouse wheel, though how no one saw the giant lights on Sam's goggles and back I'll never know.

As far as locators go, the closest thing to Dead Space would probably be Skyrim’s clairvoyance spell. I like being able to level up the illusion stat at the same time.