First Time a Game 'Wowed' You

[aXFireXHeartXa]

The first game that wowed me had to be The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Exiting the sewers and seeing this big open world left me with my jaw dropped. It was also the first 360 title I had played so I'd never really seen a game with such amazing graphics.

 

[Samantha Burt]

My memory for these things is a little sketchy, but the earliest I can remember is the scene in HL2, when you're taking the lift up teh Citadel, and you can see city 17 below... Man, I need to play that game again. xD

 

[Verkula]

This was probably the first, I mean, "wow, more then one screen????"

 

[neonsword13-ops]

I believe it was when I first got my Xbawx and put in Fallout 3 for the first time ever.

Walking out into the wasteland for the first time, with the sun blaring into your eyes, is one hell of a way to start a game.

The second time a game "wowed" me was Mass Effect 2. I couldn't believe so much detail could be packed into a video game before. Like that moment when Grunt had Shepard against the wall after being awakened from stasis, and you could see all of the little details on Grunt.... that part was just amazing to me.

 

[Ocelano]

Perhaps not my genuine first but the first I remember was the fmv sections of ff9 still some of my favourite "PS1 ERA" graphics ever especially when it would zoom out of a regular graphic to a huge scene, yes I know ff8 did it first but ff9 came first to me it took me several years more to get my hands on a copy of ff8

 

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'm thinking it might be Super Mario World. I loved SMB 3, but it didn't really wow me because I was just figuring games out at that point and didn't have a frame of reference, in addition to being so young. I couldn't believe how much better it looked, how bright the colors were, how catchy the music was, the ghost houses, and how many secrets there were. I know I said "wow" more than once.

I'm also sure that Ocarina was very close to, if not the next wow moment. Just moving around in a 3D environment was mindfuck territory for my 9 year old self.

 

[SonOfMethuselah]

I believe it was when I first got my Xbawx and put in Fallout 3 for the first time ever.

Walking out into the wasteland for the first time, with the sun blaring into your eyes, is one hell of a way to start a game.

I think the opening sequence to Fallout 3 is probably the first legitimate 'wow' moment I had with the current gen, but I think it was more a case of, 'wow, that was a rather effective sequence,' rather than being floored by the game itself.

The first game that wowed me had to be The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Exiting the sewers and seeing this big open world left me with my jaw dropped. It was also the first 360 title I had played so I'd never really seen a game with such amazing graphics.

I can remember exiting the sewers and being impressed by the breadth of the world I had to explore. I was jumping back and forth between this and Fallout 3, and I got through Fallout's opening first, so exiting the sewer wasn't quite as memorable a moment as it may have been, but the size of the world was still nothing to balk at. And, as much as I love Skyrim,, it still had a bigger impact for me than leaving Helgen did.

Also:

Snippity-do.

I just had to get your attention. I'm reading your name as 'Captain Signpost,' and I feel like it's a reference to something, but I honestly can't remember what it might be. Is that right, or is my slightly-drunk brain simply creating a reference where there isn't one?

 

[Ryan Hughes]

Definitely Final Fantasy II (or IV) for the SNES. After the opening sequence, where the main character attacks a more or less helpless city for its crystal, he then goes and is tricked into burning down a small village with the FF equivalent of a Weapon of Mass Destruction.

I was 9 or 10 at that time, and I just couldn't handle it, I turned the game off because it literally overwhelmed me. Now, games for stupid people like "Call of Duty" always have their "shocking moment," but that was the original shocking moment in gaming, when Cecil had to choose between loyalty and what was right.

 

[likalaruku]

My "firsts" wowed me. My first Diablo-style RPG, my first 2.5D RPG, my first story-heavy RPG, my first 2D platformer, my first 2DJPRG, my first RTS, my first FPS, my first Episodic Interactive Cartoon (Telltale games), my first Visual Novel, my first Hidden Object Game, my first Escape Game (Myst qualifies as this, yes?), my first Point & Click Adventure, my first MMORPG, my first MMOSG....You get the point.

Anything beyond a first exposure to a genre or split genre just has that status quo feeling to it. Like, I could play a 2ed or a 3ed that was 60 times better than the first, but even then they're just not different enough for that new experience rush.

 

[LarenzoAOG]

KOTOR, before that I basically played Yoshi's Island, Goldeneye 64, Super Empire Strikes Back, Star Fox 64, and that was about it, KOTOR was one of the first games I played on the Xbox, before that I didn't know a video game could have a story as good as a book or movie, RPG's were something I left to my dad and older brother, and it was the first game where player action had serious consequences, in the games I played you messed up and started over, in KOTOR you can mess up and get someone killed, or make someone hate you, or you can do something well and unlock a path that would have been otherwise hidden, it basically opened me up to role playing games, it greatly increased my interest in Star Wars, introduced me to RPG's my current favorite genre of video games, and made me value video game stories, I think I was about 9 or 10 when I played it, and I think if I hadn't played it at that time my tastes in video games might be profoundly different then they are now.

 

[floppylobster]

I remember the first game I played as a kid. It was a N64 game called Buck Bumble. By all accounts, it was a pretty bad game simply because the controls were horrible, but my kid brain didn't care at the time and it marveled at what a video game could be. It has been awhile, but I still remember the basic premise. You control a Bee with a laser gun, and you could fly all around the place shooting down wasps and the like, while looking for better weapons. I really did love that game, but I couldn't play it much considering it was on my neighbours N64, and at the time I didn't have a home console of my own.

But the theme song! What a theme song!

Check it out on youtube, it's got 154,048 views. I'm sure it will stir a memory.

Spoiler

I would normally hate this sort of music, but in a game, with the title screen bouncing in and out, it was just so funny.

 

[Snownine]

I do not know if it was the first time I was wowed by a game, but it was the wow that stuck with me the most from my childhood. I was about eight or nine and had only been reading for a little while when I borrowed my friend's older brother's copy of Final Fantasy IV, although I thought it was II as that is what it was called here in the States back then. I was instantly taken by the turn based RPG gameplay and even more with the fact that the game had a story. Sure the story was simple and the characters were paper thin compared to today's characterization but at the time a game with a real story was something new for me. It was the first game I played that had a story more complex than "Dr. Robotnik's a dick, go get the chaos emeralds from him". It came at such a crucial time as well, right at the exact time that I was capable of actually reading and appreciating it. It started my love affair with the Final Fantasy series and RPGs in general.

 

[NoeL]

The original Zelda, Metroid, Faxanadu and Battletoads were probably the first games I'd played at a friends place and REALLY wanted to own after that.

 

[Sylveria]

Probably the Zeromus Battle in Final Fantasy II.. the intro, that song, the background. It was one of the few moments in my early days of gaming that had an aura of intensity.

 

[aivalera]

That is a really good question...

Maybe Metroid Prime when it came to graphics, I came from a poor upbringing so I didn't truly get into the gaming scene until after the Xbox came out.

As for story I would say that Final Fantasy X was my first OMG moment.

But other than that I can't think of anything.

 

[Zanderinfal]

Being from Gen Y, I haven't experienced any of the older "OLD" classics from previous generations, but I have to say the first time I played Half-Life (the first one) back in 08 was probably one of the more memorable ones. That and the first Halo got me into FPS games, which I will never regret.

And not 5 minutes ago, I completed Dues Ex: Human Revolution. That "WOWED" the FUCK outta me. Sad it didn't get GOTY. Skyrim was good and all, but compared to the sequel of a revolutionary RPG-FPS hybrid focused on story, player involvement with said story and choice, no. It doesn't hold up.

 

[Lazy-Man]

So I have 3 of these, each representing something different from my rather small (can't buy many games, due to lack of cash) time as a gamer.

KOTOR I: When I actually talked to Canderous, wow, those stories are so fuggin awesome - also, my hat's off to whoever voice acted him. Easily my favourite non-PC character.

KOTOR II (this was only activated when the RCM fixed the game): When you enter ,what is essentially a fight with words, with Atris, and you can *****-slap her so hard she gets angry and you can say "Careful Atris, anger leads to the dark side."

Fallout 3: This one was more a matter of introspection, I was pondering my own psychological well-being while walking to Tenpenny Tower after massacring the entirety of Megaton. Enjoying every single kill (with my hunting rifle of course), after this I kinda realised that I really have become desensitized to violence.

 

[ClockworkUniverse]

Well, that would honestly have to be when I unpacked the Nintendo 64 I got for I think my birthday, plugged it in, put in Super Mario 64, and was actually able to control stuff happening on the TV screen.

The second time I was wowed by a videogame was when I switched to the other cartridge and it was Shadows of the Empire.

Obviously it takes more than interactivity or interactivity-plus-Star-Wars to wow me now, but you did ask for the first.

 

[Satan]

Mass effect 1 ending. It was so bootefull