The most original game you have ever seen

[DarthFennec]

Oh there are way too many, and they're all original in different ways so you can't compare them. Here's my list:

Thief: The Dark Project - While it's not the only series of its kind, Thief is the first and by far the best. And back when every first person game was about killing the fuck out of every enemy you meet, a game centered on stealth is a welcome change of pace and also, I believe, the most original first person game of it's time. Portal is pretty fucking close, but it's lacking in a few places.

Katamari Damacy - Nuff said.

Silent Hill 4: The Room - You're trapped in your haunted apartment room, and you can't leave throughout the entire game, except through tunnels in the walls to other people's dreams. This game misses the mark in way too many places, but it still has one of the most original premises I've ever seen.

A few more, but I can't remember them right now. Most of them are flash games anyway.

 

[Savagezion]

Planescape: Torment
Sanitarium

 

[Crono Maniac]

Every now and then I ask myself if originality is a vital part of constructing masterpieces. Look at my favorite game, Chrono Trigger, for example. It's a group of teenagers trying to save the world from Eldricht Horrors from space, a plot used in everything from Animorphs to Evangelion. There's time travel, with the adventure starting with one of the main characters accidentally stopping her own birth (hellooo Back to the Future) and seeing a ruined future which they decide to stop with time travel (hellooo Terminator). The medieval times is straight out of a wizards and knights fantasy flick. The prehistoric era is the same. The magic city is from a dozen RPGs. You've got a Dragon Quest-like Silent protagonist, a genius inventor, a princess, a medieval knight, a cavewoman, and a robot as your main cast. Speaking of Dragon Quest, the art is Akira Toriyama, so Crono looks like Goku, Magus looks like Vegeta, Lucca looks like Dr. Slump, and Marle looks like every female except Dr. Slump. The battle system is a refined ATB system starting in Final Fantasy IV.

Originality isn't so important as bringing everything together in a very well done way and adding depth to the cliches. Frog and Lucca may be cliches, but they're cliches with DEPTH and meaning behind them. If Final Fantasy VI (or VII, for that matter) is the Evangelion-esque deconstruction of JRPG tropes, Chrono Trigger is the Gurren Lagaan of the genre, the celebration of tropes rather than their destructor. So you've seen it before, but never done so well. Cliches don't have to be stock.

Super Metroid is just a refined Metroid, which is basically just Aliens the movie with a power suit. Few argue that Zelda: Ocarina is anything short of a masterpiece, but it's nearly identical to Link to the Past in terms of gameplay structure. Shadow of the Colossus is one of the most basic game-formulas ever, go and kill X monsters, turned into a breathtaking masterpiece. Resident Evil? Romero. Mega Man? Astro Boy, Asimov, or even further back, Pinocchio. Silent Hill? Uhh... I'll get back to you on that one.

 

[Shemming]

Silent Bomber on psone it had a odd mechanic which ive never seen repeated, and i never got to finish it. But it was still a origional game, well most psone one's where origional really.

 

[Avarith]

Every now and then I ask myself if originality is a vital part of constructing masterpieces. Look at my favorite game, Chrono Trigger, for example. It's a group of teenagers trying to save the world from Eldricht Horrors from space, a plot used in everything from Animorphs to Evangelion. There's time travel, with the adventure starting with one of the main characters accidentally stopping her own birth (hellooo Back to the Future) and seeing a ruined future which they decide to stop with time travel (hellooo Terminator). The medieval times is straight out of a wizards and knights fantasy flick. The prehistoric era is the same. The magic city is from a dozen RPGs. You've got a Dragon Quest-like Silent protagonist, a genius inventor, a princess, a medieval knight, a cavewoman, and a robot as your main cast. Speaking of Dragon Quest, the art is Akira Toriyama, so Crono looks like Goku, Magus looks like Vegeta, Lucca looks like Dr. Slump, and Marle looks like every female except Dr. Slump. The battle system is a refined ATB system starting in Final Fantasy IV.

Originality isn't so important as bringing everything together in a very well done way and adding depth to the cliches. Frog and Lucca may be cliches, but they're cliches with DEPTH and meaning behind them. If Final Fantasy VI (or VII, for that matter) is the Evangelion-esque deconstruction of JRPG tropes, Chrono Trigger is the Gurren Lagaan of the genre, the celebration of tropes rather than their destructor. So you've seen it before, but never done so well. Cliches don't have to be stock.

Super Metroid is just a refined Metroid, which is basically just Aliens the movie with a power suit. Few argue that Zelda: Ocarina is anything short of a masterpiece, but it's nearly identical to Link to the Past in terms of gameplay structure. Shadow of the Colossus is one of the most basic game-formulas ever, go and kill X monsters, turned into a breathtaking masterpiece. Resident Evil? Romero. Mega Man? Astro Boy, Asimov, or even further back, Pinocchio. Silent Hill? Uhh... I'll get back to you on that one.

You are correct in alot of aspects and it seems to me your right when it comes to originality not being needed. I am just wondering what games out that are still original and what peoples take on the ones that are, I did not expect to many new games to be mentioned so I was wrong about imagination and originality being taken out of the games industry. All in all this in my opinion was a good idea just to ask and find out what's out there.

 

[General Ken8]

I'm gonna say Katamari Damacy, there's really NOTHING like it in the gaming world.
Even so, it's an awesome game, and I still play the original every once in a while.

 

[JasonKaotic]

All the middle-generation Final Fantasy games.
Seriously, man.

 

[Crono Maniac]

You are correct in alot of aspects and it seems to me your right when it comes to originality not being needed. I am just wondering what games out that are still original and what peoples take on the ones that are, I did not expect to many new games to be mentioned so I was wrong about imagination and originality being taken out of the games industry. All in all this in my opinion was a good idea just to ask and find out what's out there.

Ah. I see. In that case, I'd probably go with Silent Hill. It might just be that the horror is uniquely Japanese mindscrew, and I haven't seen anything like it (there might be something in anime though). It's certainly unlike anything in the American horror movie industry, and definitely unlike any other video game I can think of. And Katamari Damacy, though I imagine that's just because of the copious amounts of drugs.

 

[shotgunbob]

Portal
Pixel Junk shooter
Track Mania Forever (Some of the tracks people build are insane.)

 

[Konaerix]

Portal?

I knew someone was going to say that. Yet at the same time I would have to agree with you.

 

[Rayansaki]

Anything by team Ico Really.

On a different topic, Darksiders and Halo I MEAN STARCRAFT, HALO CAME FIRST.

 

[maninahat]

Neverhood. Every single thing you see in the game was made in real life, using clay.

 

[Nwabudike Morgan]

Sim City was a pretty radical idea for a game. A hugely freeform game where the objective was to build, not to destroy.

 

[Breadzombie]

Neverhood. Every single thing you see in the game was made in real life, using clay.

Ye, it's full of awesome randomness too

 

[Ganthrinor]

Back in the day, Thief was cutting edge on the "new ideas" envelope.

These days... hell I don't even know. Spore was fairly radical when it was announced but turned into "The Sims" in space pretty quick.

AudioSurf is pretty sweet and more or less unique.

Katamari is just wierd, so I suppose that counts too.

 

[Valkyrie101]

Probably Portal, and Assassin's Creed is pretty novel as well.

 

[AnAngryMoose]

Portal is really original, shadow of the colossus.

I think that Shadow of the Colossus looks great, but doesn't live up to all the hype and (my) nostalgia around it. It gets repetetive as it's really climb this monster, stab it's had, crawl to it's arse, stab that, you win. Rinse and repeat. The story isn't exactly engaging either.

 

[Tharwen]

Toss up between Portal and Mirror's Edge.

I think when talking about Originality, its important for the game to be stable and well good, Mirrors Edge was not this, but very original in gameplay respects and definetly a step in the right direction.

What exactly do you mean by "stable and well good?"

Well when you play the game I often found the AI a bit silly and the lack of any interesting story annoying. In a game based on innovation I believe personally that you would need a good story to get people to buy into the new gameplay style. oh and the gunplay was like facerape from a head crab

I can have an original idea right now. Sure, the graphics are awful and no-one's heard of it, but it's still original.