240 Days Until Graduation
As a child of the 1990's, I was privileged to be young in the height of the video game renaissance. After it became clear that video games were more than just a passing 80's trend soon to go the way of arm-warmers and hair metal, the modern video game industry started developing itself as a major entertainment force.
It was a fantastic time to be a kid. You could go into any video game aisle and, at any given moment, find games about earthworm superheroes, fairy knights fighting monsters, space warriors killing shipfuls of the merciless undead or farming simulators that had a habit of making players miss meals to finish growing crops. Understanding the 90's in video game history is to recognize it as a time of big ideas, where game designers could sell games based on glorified bug collecting and have the full support of a game company to back it
Then, this happened
Now, realism itself is by no means a dirty word and a lack of any realism ruins the gaming experience. But Microsoft's idea of "realism" skews more nihilistic than most. Realism today means that levels are mostly bombed out cities decorated by smoke and rubble, shooting is done by a "pop-and-drop" cover based mechanic and grim survivalist storylines are populated by grunting, scowling space marines.
Pre-Halo shooters were far more varied starring everything from secret agents to jetpack-riding wunderkind with robot dogs. More importantly, realism was brushed off with a light peck on the cheek in favor of fast, exciting gameplay focusing on jumping and strafing. Most importantly, they were just more fun. Instead of leering down an ironsight from behind a section of broken wall, pre-Halo shooters had players jumping through varied and colorful environments, facing more giant boss battles and swarms of enemies.
Compare modern shooters
To pre-Halo shooters
...and you can see what I mean.
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