Decline 90s and early 00s games had so much style, wtf happened

[luj1]

Soul Reaver - dark fantasy inspired by biblical mythology, a dead vampire travelling through the Underworld

Quake 1 - gothic medieval worlds mixed with cybernetics and augmentations

Perihelion - gods, genetic engineering, occultism, mutation (but on Mars) and also somewhat inspired by Sumerians

Morrowind - Roman-like empire invades a nation living beneath a volcano where fake gods rule and there's a disease which rots your flesh but makes you englightened

Omikron the Nomad Soul - 1984 style city where an AI rules over people's souls

Evolva - not many people heard of this game but it was super unique. split screen TPS where you control a squad of aliens that you can "evolve" to gain upgrades

Sacrifice - somewhat whimsical Terry Pratchett kind of twist on a war between gods in a surreal fantasy world

Giants Citizen Kabuto - an island with 3 species is flying through space, a technological race, a race of mermaids and a giant creature none can control

Arcanum - steam engine is invented in a fantasy world, pretty cool shit

Little Big Adventure - sorta magical realism, you have this whimsical world which is low-magic and high-technology where a guy wants to enslave people with cloning and teleporting tech

Abe's Oddysee - comical but brutal story about workers in an alien factory fighting for their freedom, also has strong Orwellian/Huxleian vibes

Last Blade 2 - a comet in the sky draws out 12 swordsmen each with an agenda, set in 19th century feudal Japan

MDK - dude has a suit which is a weapon and his head is literally a machine gun

Powerslave - stupid story but nicely executed setting of egyptian mysticism

Tiberian Sun - earth is undergoing rapid ecological colapse and discovery of a new mineral dooms earth into endless resource wars




I just pulled this out of my ass and all of these had really great style and art design and settings

The decline of education and culture is insane, it destroyed people's imagination

 

[Ivan]

Cruelty Squad

 

[Machocruz]

Soy happened

 

[Glop_dweller]

90s and early 00s games had so much style, wtf happened

A generational shift; a passing of the baton—to a bunch of $%@& ups.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

millennials ate a bit too much plastic as kids

 

[POOPERSCOOPER]

100% agree I think it was just more freedom with game designers and with more freedom comes more creativity. Usually at the start of the big up ramp of an industry you get a lot of experimentation until they start to settle. Also 90’s was always trying to be cool as fuck but now it’s all about being heartfelt and being a faggot.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

Mid-tier devs that took chances were pushed out or gobbled up when Big Corpo. invaded. None of these wild ideas are on the chart.

The chart says kids like generic medieval fantasy, generic sci-fi and Established Brand™.
The chart doesn't say anything about kids liking Sumerian aesthetics, giant robots or aliens.
It's current year, your choices will be based on the revealed preference of consumers from two decades ago.

"What do you mean things may have changed in 20+ years? Have you even read the chart?! Now, enough foolish talk, it's time to get excited for Call of Duty: Super-Duper Warfare 9 - Remastered!"

 

[Boleskine]

In the 80s and 90s the guys making the games were also the guys who ran the game companies. They were passionate about the quality of the products.

By the late 90s the guys running the companies were outsiders who didn't care about the games or sellouts who didn't care anymore. The only passion was for adding zeroes to paychecks.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Millennials

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Lord of the Ring (the movie) happened. And suddenly a niche genre and a niche hobby became mainstream and more profitable.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Mid-tier devs that took chances were pushed out or gobbled up when Big Corpo. invaded. None of these wild ideas are on the chart.

The chart says kids like generic medieval fantasy, generic sci-fi and Established Brand™.
The chart doesn't say anything about kids liking Sumerian aesthetics, giant robots or aliens.
It's current year, your choices will be based on the revealed preference of consumers from two decades ago.

"What do you mean things may have changed in 20+ years? Have you even read the chart?! Now, enough foolish talk, it's time to get excited for Call of Duty: Super-Duper Warfare 9 - Remastered!"

But to avoid confusing the audience, we will just name it Call of Duty 1. Look, it's right there on the chart.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

But to avoid confusing the audience, we will just name it Call of Duty 1. Look, it's right there on the chart.

Hmm...indeed. You're on track for a bright future in this organisation. Keep up the great work!

 

[Vlajdermen]

millennials ate a bit too much plastic as kids

Exactly. Like I said about Psychonauts 2, used to be in games you'd slay dragons for your kingdom. Now you fight anxiety and depression for women's rights and the environment. Meanwhile japan is pushing out their soulless hentai bentai and Established Brand loli waifus, with all the sense of adventure and discovery equally dead.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Mid-tier devs that took chances were pushed out or gobbled up when Big Corpo. invaded. None of these wild ideas are on the chart.

"Big Corpo" is what gave a lot of them a chance in the first place.

blaming this on anything other than the devs being soy-fueled plastic munchers falls flat. We're at the point where devs are actively fighting against their own employer to include more globohomo shit in their games.

 

[Falksi]

Nintendo & Sony happened.

 

[KörangarTheMighty]

blaming this on anything other than the devs being soy-fueled plastic munchers falls flat.

Disagree. This began in the HR departments, top-down, not bottom-up. The old devs remaining just conformed to the new set standard to get good boy points or else quietly shuffled off. You're seeing the results of these people in charge of hiring where they only propagate themselves, which inevitably shifts the culture of the company. Of course you're also seeing them eat their own because for them the long march never ends when all they desire is power.

 

[Cyberarmy]

 

[Lemming42]

I think part of the greatness of the 1994 - 2002~ era was devs being thrilled by the possibilities of early 3D, and the growing mechanical complexities it facilitated. You can actually feel a certain giddiness coming through in a lot of the games, like "wow look what we can do with our new engine!!"

Otherwise perhaps another factor is that there was less of a set of rules that games were expected to follow. If you look at the late 2D era, a lot of early 90s NES/SNES games sucked fucking balls because they were being made to a template, either as clones of existing games (sometimes decade-old games) or as lazy just-good-enough-to-sell boilerplate titles. The shift to 3D and the dizzying realm of possibilities it invited shook that up entirely, and happened so fast that devs were thrown in at the deep end and forced to figure it all out as they went, which leads to an era of incredible experimentation and innovation.

By about 2004 this effect had worn off and the rot set in. Combined with the shift away from dev-led companies to big corporate publishers who will just order devs to make whatever they think sells, and you've got a massive downturn in quality.

 

[Hobknobling]

Middle market games died. It is either soulless AAA games or underfunded indies now.

The turn of the millennium had the perfect storm of rapidly advancing technology, large tech bubble investments and small team sizes. There were other factors too like the prevalence of independent game stores before shitty retail chains like GameStop destroyed the market in 00's.

 

[luj1]

blaming this on anything other than the devs being soy-fueled plastic munchers falls flat

yeah, now maybe

but soy and pozz are newish concepts, you have to explain what happened between 2004 and the emergence of soy/pozz

 

[luj1]

The turn of the millennium had the perfect storm of rapidly advancing technology, large tech bubble investments and small team sizes.

something like that

small teams, medium budgets and technology which was "just right" (not too primitive nor too advanced) allowed for maximum crativity

 

[luj1]

small teams,...

Also lets not forget these people were traditionally educated

ppl came to game development from literature, art or philosophy

there werent video game design degrees back then

 

[DJOGamer PT]

Middle market games died.

This is the more sensible answer here
People underrate the o imprtance of AA titles, when they have always been the ones that pushed the industry
Come the late 00's, AA's starter to fade away very quickly and now they the rarest they've ever been

Still, there have been plenty of 10's games with distinctive artstyle

 

[luj1]

Still, there have been plenty of 10's games with distinctive artstyle

way fewer

 

[Curious_Tongue]

"Big Corpo" is what gave a lot of them a chance in the first place.

What's your definition of "Big Corpo"?