What games are a masterclass of certain aspects of design or other features?
What I mean by Masterclass is that it's the best example of this feature and should be referenced or studied moving forward for games that want similar mechanics. Not just they're really good at it. Not just that they were the first to do it. They set the bar.
Examples:
Titanfall 2 is a masterclass in movement (particularly with the grapple). It's spawned dozens of games who claim they took inspiration from our try to imitate it. It's fast, multidirectional, and challenging. https://youtu.be/9lUoA9q0jnM?feature=shared
DOOM has always been a masterclass in enemy design variation, where each enemy is different, requires different strategies, prioritization and even weapons in the later games. The same strategy does not work for everyone. https://youtu.be/yuOObGjCA7Q?feature=shared
Do you have any others? (please don't just give the name, give some details)
44 Comments
I know lots of people might disagree, and many don’t like the style, but I think No Man’s Sky is a masterclass in ongoing development. There have been so many changes and improvements from launch.
Titanfall ruined FPS games for me.
I feel like a cripple in anything else.
And to answer your question: Hollow Knight.
It didn’t do anything new, but the pixel perfect movements just feel right.
Fallout 3 on gray morals and open world map design and atmosphere.
Enter the Gungeon on gun variety and replayability.
The Sims has been the masterclass in life simulation, it sets the bar and I don’t think there’s any other game even try to come *close* to it. The latest InZOI game try to replicate The Sims only to fall flat and hasn’t reached the bar just yet.
FromSoftware games are great at many things, but one aspect I barely see talked about is how they frame their vistas. There are a lot of amazing views in their game and the level design does a lot to ensure that the player sees them. There are a ton of moments where you open a door/go around a corner/go through a tunnel and immediately see an absolutely breathtaking view.
The storytelling of Dark Souls 1,
It doesn’t shove anything down your throat. if you are patient, smart enough to pay attention and can understand basic storytelling/ world building/ character development, you can really understand how much agency and freedom the devs give the user, how much respect they actually show the user.
It’s a breath of fresh air for sure.
And once you’ve gone through the game several times, you’ll really see the world come to life with every inch of it screaming out to you with details!
\[T]/
Bioshock infinite is a masterclass in NPC companions, Elizabeth is still unmatched.
GhostRunner is a masterclass in.. whatever it is that it does when you’re dashing and wall climbing and then slashing a dude clean off his lower half, it’s like Katana Zero but in 3D
RE games are masterckass in cool action, Mario 3D main games are master class in level design and also in the jump mechanic
The Last of Us on Hard Mode or higher. Stealth Action. No waiting for alarms to reset. Sweet Lady Brick if you’re in a pinch.
Most recently, I’d parrot that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 is a masterclass in many aspects. The name is also a big part of the games art styles, both in what’s presented as well as thematically. The music has become unironically one of the best OST that people love, even outside of the game. The story is extremely well liked by a lot of people, and no matter the choices you make, it evokes emotion from the majority of players. Enough to create a rift in the fan base even.
Mark of the Ninja is masterclass in stealth
Baldur’s Gate 3 is masterclass in adapting Dnd
Resident Evil 2 remake is masterclass in survival horror
Devil May Cry 5 is a masterclass in character action
The Stanley Parable is a masterclass in subversive narrative in games.
Outerwilds is a masterclass in storytelling (and so much more)
Celeste is a masterclass in movement
Animal Well is a masterclass in emergent puzzle design
Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory – Masterclass in stealth infiltration/combat. The movement, aesthetics, level design (having many viable strategies and attack vectors) and weapon and gadget options are all perfectly balanced to make you feel like both a) an absolute high tech ninja badass, and b) extremely vulnerable and one mistake away from death. Inspired by many games before it, and many great games have come after, but this has always been my 10/10 stealth/assasin game.
Condemned Criminal Origins is a masterclass in horror theming and sound design.
The department store level in particular, the game has a great way of calling your attention to things in particular to scare you or make your hair stand on end
Not really what you were asking, but i think Expedition 33 is a masterclass in game development. Seems like the director found a way to let his people be creative and use their entire potential whilst also sticking to his main vision, which is a hard thing to do.
Factorio and logistical problem solving. Yes, other factory games have more modern graphics. Yes, some assembly games are more complicated. But factorio has been the most polished, varied, and absolutely bug free factory game since its inception. It allows you to make it as complicated as you want it to be. You can spaghetti your way to victory, use drones to simplify a lot, or make massive sprawling logistical networks. With its latest DLC it has become even more intricate, probably too intricate for new players. But the base game is perfect.
Thief is a masterclass in stealth gameplay.
DoDonPachi DaiOuJou is a masterclass in bullet hell design.
XCOM is a masterclass in turn based tactics.
Prey is a masterclass in immersive sim design.
Awaria is simple but I feel its really well designed and knows where the fun and difficulty of the game is and didn’t fall into some pitfalls you might see otherwise. Primarily with the machines not actually decreasing in the time it takes before they explode even as you get to higher levels or change difficulty. Its a great example of a game thats hard, but not frustrating and just about every death feels like MY fault because of it.
Thems Fighting Herds is the only Fighting game I’ve seen where the single-player story mode actually teaches the player *GOOD* habits for playing fighters. Shame that game got screwed over by its publisher cause the story mode in general was turning out to be really good.
I’ll also say Skullgirl’s Arcade/story mode. I think most fighting games just have bad story modes (some dont even try to have fights), but Skullgirls doesn’t really have a ‘protagonist’ like most fighting games, so everyone’s story makes them feel like the lead character instead of just getting a random side story for a side character
Shin Megami Tensei 4’s setting and tone is so immaculate the entire way through the game, the overworld map theme is practically representative of the tones and themes
Spider-Man 2 on PS2 for super hero movement mechanics. Not every super hero game needs to have grapple/webswinging, but every super hero game needs to spend as much time and effort developing the movement mechanics that Spider-Man 2 did. I would go so far as to say nothing matters **more** about a super hero game than the locomotion mechanics of said super hero. Combat can be pretty standard, but if you don’t move like the hero, you don’t *feel* like the hero.
This is why I think everyone who wants to work on a Superman game needs to play the “tech demo proof of concept” game Undefeated on Steam. That short super hero simulator is a great foundation for making a game about an invincible, flying super hero.
Witcher 3 is a masterclass of meaningful quests. Some of the side quests have better storylines than full AA games.
Batman Arkham spawned an entire subgenre of action brawlers.
Last of us is a masterclass in visceral combat. Shooting an enemy feels like injuring an actual person rather than a programmed bot. ND absolutely nailed it
Killzone 2 was a masterclass in enemy AI. The flanking, the sudden movement away from frags, the way they pressured when you were injured; I still have yet to experience better AI in aFPS and that was 17 years ago. Absolutely brilliant
StarCraft 2 has an insane systems usage of attack_damage – armor, a famously difficult and awful formula in most cases, but incredibly hand-balanced to great effect in SC2.
With just a unit type classification and a +damage to unit types, they’re able to balance counters in across the board. (When they’re smart enough to set those up properly…)
KCD2, Immersion
**Control** as a masterclass for use of in-game lore and environment to expand the story in ways cutscenes just cannot.
Noita for trial and error, knowledge of the game, strategy, careful planningand gameplay
The game is brutal to you. There isnt just no training wheels. Your balancing the bike on a rope and even a small mistake can rapidly and sometimes instantly cause you to die.
You have no time constraints. (Other than speedrun achievements) You can prepare as much as you want with almost no limit to how powerful you can make your character and play as carefully as you want.
Dying light for first person melee and parkour
Dusk is a great example of how level design can elevate a very simple roster of enemies and arsenal of weapons. Not that either are BAD, but they’re mechanically uncomplicated. A lesser designer would not have been able to make as engaging an experience. Dusk’s level design, however, is immaculate at engineering combat encounters.
Dying Light 2 has the best movement system among all games at the moment. Titanfall 2 and Dishonored (more honestly TKoD and TBW) are good contenders in overall movement freedom, but they are nowhere near as deep in terms of specific control.
One important thing in Fromsoftware games, that many non-FromS soulslikes sadly lacking completely, is very good feeling of weight, power and impact.
Like, even if you turn off hud completely, in DS or Sekiro you can clearly see, if your strike hit the target. Even if enemy blocked or deflected it. You clearly see weight and knockdown effect of attack exist, even if it’s minimal on lighter weapons.
That was really instantly noticeable difference in nioh and lies of p. Like, seriously, turn off healthbar in this games – and you see attacks doing absolutely zero effect on enemies until their stamina or hp are broken.
Not a game but a company: Nintendo and their open world design philosophy.
They are the best at giving you some cool toys, tossing you in a big world and then lean back and be like “well kids, have fun”.
Their games are filled with little Easter eggs here and there that you find whenever you are being cheeky and are pushing the mobility to the limit to get to obscure places, just to run into a pile of gold for example in Mario Odyssey.
Slay the Spire is a masterclass in balance. There’s so many different ways to win and you always feel like you have a chance in every run (up to point when you get to the very high ascensions).
Despite its many faults, I’d say that Destiny 2 is an absolute masterclass in gunplay. To this day, I think it has the best feeling shooting in any game I’ve played.
Metroid fusion is a master class in atmosphere and gives the perfect level of Eeriness and suspense on an abandoned research ship
Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice did sound engineering in a unique, powerful and mind-bending way. There is no other game where the audio is the star as explicitly as that game. The game itself is fine, the gameplay fine, the story, fine.
The audio and sound engineering are the most amazing I’ve ever experienced.
Genshin Impact: Managed to streamline the Gacha industry into the west market.
I’d say Blue Prince is a masterclass in either interaction-less storytelling, or internal logic in puzzle games.
Trying to keep it spoiler free, with regards to the story-telling, you never “meet” any other character or communicate with them in any way; but learn so much about them and the world you inhabit. You are definitely a character connected to the rest of the world, but never talk to anyone
And in terms of “puzzle logic” I think Blue prince’s greatest strength is simply how much the internal logic of the game’s world is learnable, and makes sense. There are so many elements to the game, but it never feels like you have to make illogical decisions. Everything feels like it’s dictated by an unchanging set of in-universe rules and laws that you can learn, understand and apply
Celeste is a masterclass in character control and movement.
It’s insane how much they worked on this. Everything matters and it’s crazy that it’s just this pixel lady moving around with NASA precision.
Horizon forbidden west, facial animation and dialogue. Things will happen in the background and they’ll acknowledge it mid conversation. And the motion capture is so good. Best in class.
Anthem – they nailed the “fly around like Ironman” traversal. Loved the game, it’s a shame it was rushed, riddled with bugs, and lacked endgame. That didn’t stop me from dumping hundreds of hours into it, sad that it’s getting shutdown.
I wanna be the boshy is a masterclass is a difficult precision platformer.
Should go without saying really, but
Mario is consistently a masterclass in platforming
Supreme Commander is a masterclass of RTS camera control.