Basically what’s a game that you’ve played that seemed so mind blowingly unique at the time but for one reason or another the game never took off and other developers didn’t pick up and run with it either.
Mount and blade
The entirety of Death Stranding. The whole thing works perfectly but nobody has dared to copy it
This, I want to see inventory weight distribution and physicality + terrain angle taken far more seriously in certain kinds of open world games the way Death Stranding does it, they lead to interesting things that actually feel like an adventure you’re going on, with stories to tell not of your destination, but the journey.
I feel like Death Stranding’s movement is like, a first-ish (do car-based delivery sims like MudRunner count? Feels like something that would be up for debate.) baseline for something other games can elaborate on.
I’ve never played it, but I can tell it’s not my thing from looking at it. That’s not really a mark against it.
I think with something like Death Stranding, it’s less a collection of cool mechanics and more the entire package. And I mean the whole thing, which takes a monster level of dedication on the development side. Mechanics, story, characters, atmosphere. Even down to HUD elements.
Like I said, I know I wouldn’t love the game, but even being an outsider looking in, I can tell it’s truly unique in every way.
Kojima reminds me of Queen. Every Queen song sounds different from the vast majority of other Queen songs, but they’re all distinctly Queen. Same way I feel about Kojimas’ game franchises
SuperHot!
There used to be a couple of games that mixed RTS with Team Shooter Gameplay. One player on each team would be the Commander that managed the base in a 2D RTS style and gave commands to the other players. Those other players played the match FPS style.
The Nemesis system from Shadow of Mordor/War games. Granted WB patented it so no one else could use it but it would’ve been really cool to see other games utilize it.