Modern games that will become classics in the future.

[FakeSympathy]

During the late 80's to the early 2000's there were many games that became classics. What games of today do you think will become classics in the future? What aspect of the games makes you think will be me remembered by the future generations of gamers? One game per franchise, please.


Here are some of my lists (Keep in mind these are my personal opinions)
Witcher 3
This expansive open world game is filled with grim yet stunning aesthetic, different types of monsters and creatures, NPCs with fully fleshed out personality, and variety of side quests. Plus, the game had one of the most meaningful romance quests I've ever seen.

No man's sky
Will be remembered for how SHALLOW it was

Overwatch
This game will be remembered for being a new IP from Blizzard in a very long time after 17 years. With interesting background stories from each of the heroes, somewhat hit-or-miss concept of loot box, and debatable gameplay, I think this game will still be talked out in the future.

Injustice: Gods among us
A superhero fighting game that made us forget about Mortal Kombat vs DC, AND it's not Marvel vs Capcom? Yep, this one will be remembered

Dishonored
This is one of my favorite stealth games of all time, and will definitely have my children play when they are old enough (ehh, age 8 would do just fine). Multiple endings that encourages multiple playthroughs, freedom to play each missions however i want, dark powers that leaves me with an evil grin, and the artistic graphic makes this game a classic to be remembered in the future,

 

[Fox12]

Dark Souls is the obvious choice. It revolutionized game design, and has one of the best plots out there.

 

[Ryallen]

Witcher 3
This expansive open world game is filled with grim yet stunning aesthetic, different types of monsters and creatures, NPCs with fully fleshed out personality, and variety of side quests. Plus, the game had one of the most meaningful romance quests I've ever seen.

This one, for sure. If only because of the story that drew so many people in and the genuinely fascinating world that hooked people in. It improved on everything that the previous two did and became a masterpiece in its own right.

No man's sky
Will be remembered for how SHALLOW it was

That doesn't make games classics. It will make sure that they are remembered, but not classics. More than anything, it'll just be added to the pile of games that were overhyped and ended up being just alright. Along with Destiny, Evolve, and Watch Dogs. And I only remember those because they came out two years ago.

Overwatch
This game will be remembered for being a new IP from Blizzard in a very long time after 17 years. With interesting background stories from each of the heroes, somewhat hit-or-miss concept of loot box, and debatable gameplay, I think this game will still be talked out in the future.

More than anything, this will be counted as a classic because it's competing with TF2 and is blowing it out of the water.

Injustice: Gods among us
A superhero fighting game that made us forget about Mortal Kombat vs DC, AND it's not Marvel vs Capcom? Yep, this one will be remembered

I can promise you that this game will NOT be remembered. I have several friends who play fighting games competitively, and they all insist that this game is incredibly unbalanced and not at all viable for competitive play.

Dishonored
This is one of my favorite stealth games of all time, and will definitely have my children play when they are old enough (ehh, age 8 would do just fine). Multiple endings that encourages multiple playthroughs, freedom to play each missions however i want, dark powers that leaves me with an evil grin, and the artistic graphic makes this game a classic to be remembered in the future,

This game isn't going to be a classic because it itself is an homage to the classic game Thief. Maybe people will remember it for that. But it won't be a classic.

Dark Souls is the obvious choice. It revolutionized game design, and has one of the best plots out there.

100% with you right there. I also think that BioShock is a "modern classic" as it were, since it popularized the random documents and audio logs method of story telling, not to mention its fantastic atmosphere, gripping story, and the plot twist at the end that had every one gasping for breathe they were screaming so hard. Skyrim at this point has also become a classic, since it's the game that most people think of when they think gaming outside Nintendo. Undertale is another one, thanks to its meta narrative and subversive gameplay.

 

[shaun_m]

Bioshock: Remembered for the world building and plot.
Journey: I can't pick out one element, the whole package will be remembered and I think as time goes on Journey just won't be replicated with the same success which will add to it's status.

I am sure a lot of people will say The Last of Us, but i'm not a big fan.

I still think the SNES, N64, PS1 and PS2 classic will be considered greater than any current gen games.

 

[Fox12]

snip

Oh yeah, definitely Undertale and Bioshock. Those games were brilliant.

I may throw in Spec Ops as well, but I feel like it's too early to say. The stories and psychological horror were brilliant. Honestly, I liked aspects of it more then Apocalypse Now.

 

[DudeistBelieve]

Hotline Miami should be up there. Just for being everything a good indy game ought to be.

 

[Marik2]

The soul series

The batman games

Bioshock series

Cod4

Most telltale games

Deus ex games

Maybe uncharted games

Undertale and other indie games

 

[Adeptus Aspartem]

Bioshock, Souls, Portal, CoD, DotA, WoW, Binding of Isaac, the modern fallouts will follow their older brethren, same with Oblivion/Skyrim, diffrent GTAs and Saints Rows, Bastion, Hotline Miami and Undertale.

Overwatch
This game will be remembered for being a new IP from Blizzard in a very long time after 17 years. With interesting background stories from each of the heroes, somewhat hit-or-miss concept of loot box, and debatable gameplay, I think this game will still be talked out in the future.

More than anything, this will be counted as a classic because it's competing with TF2 and is blowing it out of the water.

TF2 is already 9 years old and basically TF1 + makeup. So Overwatch "competes" with a 17 year old game. That's like saying GTA V blows the first Driver game out of water.
Actually the main reason OW does that well is because there is no competition. It's the replacement for TF2.

 

[Hawki]

Confining this to the 2010s, and one game per franchise:

-Batman: Arkham City

Never played, probably never will, but I'm listing this because while Asylum comes in at 2009, City was released in 2011, and seems to be the most popular Arkham game. At the least, I've seen the ARkham games get a lot of praise, so I could see this becoming a classic.

-Destiny

You're probably giving me funny looks, but hear me out. Destiny was big, in as much that it sold, by my last count, 25 million copies. From what I can tell, Destiny does have a pretty loyal playerbase. There's a lot of people who rag on it, and, like most of the games on this list, I haven't played it. However, I think there's an audience for the game that got its first introduction to MMOs via this game, and I can see it being beloved by those people in the future.

-Dark Souls

Because everyone loves Dark Souls.

-Fire Emblem: Awakening

I'm a weird Fire Emblem fan. I quite like the series, but have only played four games, and only two of them to completion, but those two rank very highly for me. And yet, I've never got round to playing Awakening. That said, Awakening pretty much changed the fandom forever. I don't have numbers, but as far as I can tell, for many, Awakening was their first entry into the franchise, and for better or worse, the franchise changed to accomodate them. So, yeah. Awakening was insanely popular, and I can see people loving it in the future.

-The Last of Us

Yet another game I've never played. I'm not entirely sure, because from what I've heard, the game lives or dies on its story, and how much that appeals to you (it would certainly appeal to me) is down to the individual. But, yeah, I can see this becoming a classic.

-Overwatch

Yep, never played, my lack of PC specs killing my intentions to do so (most of the time I prefer console anyway, but Overwatch is a game I'd much rather use the PC for). But, yeah. Exploded in popularity. No denying it.

-Sonic Generations

...please don't roboticize me.

No, seriously, I'm nominating this. You could replace it with Colours, but I do see this being a classic, but only for a certain group of people, namely those first introduced into the series through it. To explain, I first began playing Sonic from the outset - STH2 (8 bit) was the first game I ever played, STH1 (16 bit) was one of the first two games I ever owned. While nowhere near the fan I once was, I still generally keep up with the series, and I've noticed how there seems to be a distinct generational divide. A lot of people mention SA2: Battle as their first intro to the series - partly due to their age, partly due to it being the first Sonic game on a Nintendo console. This could fill a topic in of itself, but I have a feeling that Generations, as part of a trend that Colours began, would appeal to the next generation onwards. Down to basics in gameplay, character, and story. Same way I was first introduced to Sonic in his most simple form, I could see young 'uns being introduced to him in this way as well. Likely similar to Mario in all of his incarnations.

And again, never played it.

-Pretty much any Super Mario platformer based on the age of the audience that's first exposed to it (see my reasoning above)

-Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

I remember back in school when Magic: The Gathering was huge. I could see this being a classic in the same vein, even (or especially) for those who've otherwise never played Warcraft. Certainly many people were first introduced to the series in WoW, after all.

-Undertale

Because everyone loves Undertale.

And now, as I process the sad fact that practically none of the games I've played in recent years will likely become classics, I'll address the following that others have mentioned:

-Injustice: Doubt it. I can't see people flocking to this who weren't already DC fans, and as a fighting game, I haven't heard anyone laud it for groundbreaking combat. A good game? Possibly - its reception says that it is, but that's about it.

-Uncharted: While this pre-dates 2010, it also comes afterwards as well. So, yeah - I could see these becoming classics.

-Telltale: No, not really. Nothing against Telltale, but their games do strike me as appealing to a niche audience, and are lauded as a group of good story-games rather than being lauded individually. They'd be classics for those who love them, but not classics in the wider sense.

 

[Catnip1024]

Don't really agree that the Witcher 3 will become a classic, largely because it is a sequel, and partly because it only built on existing stuff.

Dragon Age: Origins
I get the feeling this will age the best of the trilogy because of it's more strategic controls. The others have better graphics but devolve into button mashing madness.

Until Dawn
Did something new, did it reasonably well.

 

[Lykosia_v1legacy]

Dark Souls is the obvious choice. It revolutionized game design, and has one of the best plots out there.

How did Souls revolutionize anything?

 

[DoPo]

Don't really agree that the Witcher 3 will become a classic, largely because it is a sequel, and partly because it only built on existing stuff.

That has really no bearing on how people remember stuff. Ask around about the Heroes of Might and Magic - people into turn based strategies would most likely tell you about how good 3 was, some go a bit further and claim 2 was better. As you may guess, both of those game are sequels to HoMM 1 and yet, that game is hardly ever mentioned among the top of the series. Also, the entirely of the HoMM series is a spin-off from the Might and Magic series of RPGs. And those games barely get a mention nowadays, as well.

That's far from the only example, either:

- Counter-Strike was built on top of Half-Life and, indeed, some of the most iconic of mechanics CS it sports come from that fact.
- DotA itself is also a shining example. I'm not even talking about Dota 2 - that game is mostly a port of DotA: Allstars into the Source engine. It's simplifying things a bit but it's close enough. DotA: Allstars itself is the...let's call it "sequel" of the original DotA. Did you know the two were different things? A lo-o-o-ot of people don't and that's not something new - a decade ago, a lot of people didn't also didn't know that even if they had played for years DotA: Allstars. At any rate DotA isn't even the first take on the concept - it is quite truly built on top of a lot of other effort, ideas, concepts - all refined over a very long time.
- System Shock 2 is vastly more popular than its predecessor
- Hardly anyone will mention The Elder Scrolls: Arena in a discussion about the series and its high points. Relatively rare but still mentioned is Daggerfall, while Morrowind and Oblivion tend to take the bulk of the highlight somewhat because Skyrim almost inevitably starts getting compared to at least one of them.
- I actually wonder how many people who've played Team Fortress 2 have played or even seen the previous game which was a mod for Half-Life. And even then, that TF was not the first one - that honour goes to the mod for Quake. That part tends to get lost as some sort of ancient history.

 

[Fox12]

Dark Souls is the obvious choice. It revolutionized game design, and has one of the best plots out there.

How did Souls revolutionize anything?

It completely rewrote the book on intricate level designs and short cuts

Reworked the modern conception of fair and balanced difficulty in gaming

Inspired subtle, nuanced storytelling in a medium that tends to be rather heavy handed

Illustrated that it's possible that the audiance will miss large aspects of the game- and that's okay

Seamlessly blended multiplayer and single player, changing the way multiplayer can be used

Introduced experimental gaming mechanics

Games influenced by Dark Souls's design:

Spoiler

 

[Hades]

I'd say MGS5 will become a classic by reputation alone. The story behind the game's development would be enough to keep it a subject of interest for years to come.

 

[B-Cell_v1legacy]

Doom hopefully. its return to classic after all.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I...don't know. You have to be careful not to put just your personal favourites as a classic, though it may be classic to you, it depends on how it shook the foundations as a whole. Which makes it tricky, as something highly advertised and played by the many masses such as GTAV could be considered a classic, as it won't be forgotten any time soon, but I have the funny feeling not many on this site would agree with that. As our media becomes more saturated with choice, the idea of a classic "classic" is being watered down as the majority of people don't have to accept the single funnel of mainstream entertainment...sort of like why there cannot be another band make a cultural mark like Queen anymore; the landscape of society's access to entertainment has changed too much.

Anymoo, might as well try here. Agree with Bioshock collection and maybe the Witcher 3, but am not certain of the latter as I never hear it mentioned in the casual gaming circles of friends or elsewhere, only in the more serious/core gaming crowd. But hopefully it will be remembered. The problem is that to the uninitiated, it looks just like yet another fantasy world such as skyrim without the character creation or combat freedom. But I have been trying to sing its' praises, so it isn't for lack of trying!

Not sure about Wolfenstein TNO, it is very very good...but again, haven't heard it talked about around the casual scenes. Hmm, must inquire more.

Dark Souls, ehh...I want to say yes...but the player base isn't that big, nor is it really talked about outside of specific groups. Many I know who try it (or bloodborne) and give up right away lamenting its' existence entirely. Which seems to be the rule more than the exception.

Havent played these yet, but Splatoon and Deus Ex MD, they are apparently the greatest things since cubed orphans, and are both rare enough to not be bogged down into sequels. (Though Deus Ex may turn out otherwise).

Probably going to say Inside too; yes it was divisive...but so was Limbo and that stuck around in the mass consciousness for quite a whilsies. Inside has an even more "but, what the?...hmmm, wait, no...that's not right" thing going for it.

To throw in a couple of personal hopes; Enter The Gundgeon which really nailed everything that could be nailed with roguelike action and content. It has so much more over The Binding of Isaac, so one can dream.
Hand of Fate...There is a sequel soon, and not many people I know have heard of it....yet. So a bear must practice his marketing roar it seems.

 

[sXeth]

TF2 is already 9 years old and basically TF1 + makeup. So Overwatch "competes" with a 17 year old game. That's like saying GTA V blows the first Driver game out of water.
Actually the main reason OW does that well is because there is no competition. It's the replacement for TF2.

Plants vs Zombies : Garden Warfare is the same type of game. Though the 2nd one seems to be drastically less popular then the first was. It even has the same RNG microtransaction loot system in a full priced game! Although with much more desirable loot, and not packed with sprays and voice lines.



On the OP

Assassins Creed - Either the original, or maybe the 2nd one since that seems to be a more refined and complete game in most peoples views (Despite shipping with 20% of the game missing, ironically). While the basic concept is "Hitman in Ye Olde Times", at the time the game was pioneering for freedom of movement and the whole free-climbing thing. Even the counter system was relatively an innovation. The series has certainly exhausted that initial innovation to death, but just look at how widely these two things are copied across dozens (if not hundred) of games. Even the Arkham games that people are mentioning are basically refinements of AC's gameplay.


Bioshock (1) - Mostly already covered in above posts

Minecraft - The obvious pick as it were. Sales don't really equate to quality, but at the sheer magnitude its got to make its way on the list. The impact on the industry alone that an indie title could leap up and not just compete, but beat the big boys would qualify it. This despite the fact that the initial version is a ridiculously shallow game, and while they've patched it into a significantly better game, many people would still say its reliant on external mods to stay alive.

 

[aozgolo]

I would define a classic as a game that ages well regardless of it's technology, where it's still as enjoyable in 10 years as it is today. Grand Theft Auto is a great example of a good game series that doesn't become classics. It's very difficult to play GTA:V and then go back and appreciate GTA:III, or GTA:2, despite each entry in the franchise being groundbreaking for it's time, and revolutionary, they just don't age well, especially compared to their newer entries.

I recall a time when I was blown away by the awesome 3D Graphics of the Playstation 1, which have aged terribly. Remember the cubes that passed for hands in Final Fantasy VII? Awful! The best looking PS1 games by modern standards are ones that didn't use 3D graphics at all or were highly stylized. So it's hard to say what modern games will look like under a similar lens, when they don't have the modernity of the technology backing them up.

It's really hard to predict what will be a classic, as I could have never expected that I'd still be playing games like Earthbound today and having so little desire to ever revisit the likes of Metal Gear Solid or God of War.

I'd love to confidently and boldly say that The Witcher 3 will become a classic on the merits of it's incredible story, great pacing, amazing characters, replayability, and highly detailed open world, but can I be certain?

I'd like to say that the quirky sandbox survival game Don't Starve is so fun and customizable while possessing it's own unique charm in it's aesthetics that it has to be timeless but 10 years from now will I even have it installed on my PC?

Stardew Valley I've been following the development of for over a year, and been quietly wishing for for over a decade to have a Harvest Moon like game on the PC, and now it's here, and it's great, better than I could have hoped, but will I ever want to dedicate the hundreds of hours into that game that I have by next decade?

There's so many what-ifs involved in the predictions of what will be a classic, we can't ever know for certain, but it's still fun to throw around conjecture.

 

[Athennesi]

Open world: Witcher III (incredible world building and ambiance, best written stories in video games( Bloody Baron, HoS...), characters, side content), Fallout New Vegas( factions, rpg mechanics in open world)
Action horror: Alien Isolation(best of any "Alien" games and most faithful to it's first), Dead Space I
Survival horror: Outlast, Soma/Amnesia
Classical rpgs...Divinity Original Sin falls just an inch short( DOS II could well top this)
Action rpgs: Alpha Protocol( already has cult status as Bloodlines), Mass Effect II ( that intro and end mission), Bloodborne&DS I
Action games: Blood Dragon, Black Flag( best fun playing as a pirate up today), UC II
Cinematic: Last of Us
Multiplayer shooter: Rainbow Six Siege, Overwatch( started off mediocre, but Blizzard will patch this to death)