Let's be honest, many games do not age like a fine wine. In fact, most age like milk. Console architecture, programming, coding - it just wasn't quite up to the task of handling many of the grand ideas game designers had years ago. So you were left with one of two options: limit the game's capabilities, or push the technology to its potential. The latter often resulted in an unoptimized final product. While the core design concepts of these games may have had merit, by today's standards they're just relics of a time gone by.
Many of the games we fondly remember from the self-imposed "golden age" of gaming fall victim to this reality. Some of our favorites 15 or 20 years ago just seem like broken, dysfunctional lessons in frustration. If any of these, in their existing state, were released today, they would likely be critically panned and commercially ignored. But alas, they are classics, and our memories sometimes tend to cloud our judgments. We call it nostalgia. Whatever the case may be, these games will remain pillars of their respective genres, but certainly not for their brilliant game design. This list will include games from the 16-bit era and upward, because quite frankly most things released before that have aged rather poorly.
Deus Ex
One of the most critically acclaimed games of all time from legendary game designer Warren Spector. Often hailed as the greatest PC game of all time, Deus Ex was a revolutionary shooter that combined weighty role-playing elements into a seamless and complex narrative, groundbreaking visual and gameplay design, and top-shelf voice acting. At least those were the remarks surrounding the hype of this game when it came out in 2000. Now? Archaic controls, washed-out visuals, third-rate voice acting and a completely unintuitive interface leave a lot to be desired. Deus Ex will still be remembered as one of the most important games ever made, but I'll be damned if isn't a chore to play through.
Kingdom Hearts
I recently sat down to replay this game, largely because of the E3 reveal that SquareEnix was finally working on Kingdom Hearts 3. About two hours into it, I quit my efforts entirely. Tedious fetch quests, inane story objectives, bizarre and convoluted dialogue, and extremely poor controls made it a painful struggle. Seriously, though: this game should be taught as an educational piece in how NOT to do tutorials. In fact, the only parts of the introduction that didn't bother me were the Disney-related cut scenes. Kingdom Hearts and its endless ocean of spin-offs will still always have its target audience, I just hope they fix a lot of these basic problems for the third game.
I recently sat down to replay this game, largely because of the E3 reveal that SquareEnix was finally working on Kingdom Hearts 3. About two hours into it, I quit my efforts entirely. Tedious fetch quests, inane story objectives, bizarre and convoluted dialogue, and extremely poor controls made it a painful struggle. Seriously, though: this game should be taught as an educational piece in how NOT to do tutorials. In fact, the only parts of the introduction that didn't bother me were the Disney-related cut scenes. Kingdom Hearts and its endless ocean of spin-offs will still always have its target audience, I just hope they fix a lot of these basic problems for the third game.
Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain
The Legacy of Kain series is one of the greatest storied-franchises in the industry, tackling themes of destiny, free will, redemption, revenge, and the hero's journey. The conflict between its titular character and Raziel, first introduced in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, is amongst gaming's greatest rivalries. But the first game in the series is a godawful nightmare. Combat can be far too overwhelming at times, due to the stiff controls and limited resources at the time. It was often incredibly ambivalent to story progress as well, as many puzzles were solved in baffling and incomprehensible ways.
The Legacy of Kain series is one of the greatest storied-franchises in the industry, tackling themes of destiny, free will, redemption, revenge, and the hero's journey. The conflict between its titular character and Raziel, first introduced in Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver, is amongst gaming's greatest rivalries. But the first game in the series is a godawful nightmare. Combat can be far too overwhelming at times, due to the stiff controls and limited resources at the time. It was often incredibly ambivalent to story progress as well, as many puzzles were solved in baffling and incomprehensible ways.
GoldenEye 007
Remember this next one fondly, folks, because it's a completely different experience now. In fact this entry should just include any first-person shooter on the N64 in general, but to narrow it down to one specific game that embodied the experience, it has to be GoldenEye. Its legacy lives on only because of its ingenuity for the times: its incredibly engrossing and addictive multiplayer modes created some of the most enjoyable gaming moments in so many people's lives. But alas, we didn't know better back then. Our memories of those experiences should be just that - memories. I strongly urge anyone who holds those memories near and dear to them to never go back and try to replay the original. If you're itching for a GoldenEye experience, just play the remakes. It's not going to be what you remember, but neither is the original.
Resident Evil
Remember this next one fondly, folks, because it's a completely different experience now. In fact this entry should just include any first-person shooter on the N64 in general, but to narrow it down to one specific game that embodied the experience, it has to be GoldenEye. Its legacy lives on only because of its ingenuity for the times: its incredibly engrossing and addictive multiplayer modes created some of the most enjoyable gaming moments in so many people's lives. But alas, we didn't know better back then. Our memories of those experiences should be just that - memories. I strongly urge anyone who holds those memories near and dear to them to never go back and try to replay the original. If you're itching for a GoldenEye experience, just play the remakes. It's not going to be what you remember, but neither is the original.
Resident Evil
The grandfather of horror, Resident Evil ushered in a wave of games that continued to terrify its audience for decades. But if you go back and play it now, the only things that will terrify you are the abysmal controls and the intensely over-acted live-action cutscenes. Resident Evil is many things, but a pioneer of great camera controls and movement are not any of them. It took until Capcom's Resident Evil 4 release (nearly 10 years) to even come close to bridging the gap between a good horror game and a good game, and since then Capcom has squandered all attempts to make their horror series live up to either aspect.
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