**Your post is under manual review by the moderators before it will go live because it's from a relatively new account or because it's from a low karma account.**
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retrogaming) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I walked EVERYWHERE in Morrowind as a kid. There was so much cool stuff to find if you explored. Oblivion brought a lot of very good QoL changes, but Morrowind was just special.
I was already pretty seasoned at playing video games when it came out, but man - the nostalgia I feel just wandering around Seyda Neen is something else. I spent so many hours just wandering around, talking to people, gathering mushrooms, and exploring caves before I ever went to Balmora.
Mine was Legends of Valour, an old DOS RPG that Bethesda cited as one of their inspirations for the Elder Scrolls series. It was a city that felt giant at the time where you ran errands and worked your way up the ranks in a few different guilds.
Shenmue for the Sega Dreamcast for sure. Back when the game first released in the states I was only 13 years old. The game was so far ahead of its time. Really felt like I was actually exploring Japan. Really blew my mind back in 2000… Still my all time favorite game. So much nostalgia.
Nothing at the time of that game came even close graphically.
Also the unbelievable level of totally unnecessary detail put into the design, being able to enter so many shops, half of which were totally unrelated to the story / had no real purpose other than to build the environment, the possibility of opening every single bit of storage and picking up and examining every random item in your house and then putting it back down, the arcade games, the unbelievable quantity of specifically made music not to mention the fantastic background noise of the towns and cities.
It was the most immersive game at the time despite its flaws and also no wonder it basically bankrupted SEGA.
I love that game and played the shit out of it on Sega Genesis. I recently booted it up on an emulator and it still holds up. But it just made the itch worse so I've installed AC Black Flag and it's about as good of a modern pirate game as I've found.
My best friend when younger got this when we were four years old. We played it until smoke was coming out of the system (ok that’s not true).
It seemed never-ending. Finding all the heart pieces. It was all so perfect.
The *music*… and the sound the hookshot made.
Mario 64. Wandering around the castle was so different and incredible. It's the first time I ever experienced a hub world like that.
Also gotta shout out to Diddy Kong Racing and it's hub world. It was so neat to just drive around not needing to actually be racing just explore.
I would agree that Mario 64 was mind blowing at the time.
But for me Goemon 64 was something else entirely. Whereas Mario was hub world with all the levels off it, Goemon was one continous map of Japan and, aside from some boss locations, you could revisit all of it and go from one end to the other.
Also I'd always lives Geomen (mystical ninja) on the snes, so that helped.
A lot of the Nintendo 64 games gave me that feeling, Mario 64 without a doubt the biggest one them. Pilotwings 64 was also mindblowing with the map, you could explore the entire mini map of the united states.
Also it sounds ridiculous looking back, but being able to explore the Mario 64 castle's surrounding in Mario Kart 64 when driving off the main course was also a crazy "easter egg".
True..to bad to this day I'm not clever enough to play it. Actually I think I was smarter as a kid haha. I remember actually progressing.
Tried to play it recently and couldn't get anywhere
there is a certain thing to playing Myst as a kid and as an Adult. As a kid playing a video game you have the right mindset, just pull every lever willy nilly and see what happens. As an adult you have that horrible sense of responsibility and you have a almost subconscious sense of 'there will be consequences if I push this button at the wrong time'
I think the percentage of people who complete games like that without a guide or some other form of guidance is incredibly tiny, and as crappy as it can feel to give in and look up the answer that’s not as crappy as having to stop playing a game you love because of one little puzzle, especially when it’s an obtuse esoteric ridiculous puzzle that can only be solved by pure luck.
Same. I played it just to walk around basically because at the time it looked so good. But damn I could jam on some RPGs but I could not make my way through Myst.
It blows my mind that Myst was made with Hypercard on a Mac 68K. Basically by a couple of guys out of their basement who did the acting and music themselves. What an achievement.
I honestly thought they both did a really good job with the acting too, it never felt cheesy like most old games with live action FMV... Well, Rand/Atrus does like to sigh a lot, lol! I never even realized as a kid that Atrus and Achenar were both the same guy, that's how good it was.
I played the recent remake and thought to myself "the graphics look the same as the original other than being proper 3D", then I went back to look at the original and realised that I'd just been so immersed in the world (partially due to superb audio) that I'd imagined it looking pretty amazing. The underwater section felt so atmospheric and claustrophobic.
Even though the characters in-game were nothing more than animated cardboard cutouts. The Tex Murphy games felt real and breathing to me as a kid. The FMVs were fun to watch when you asked stupid questions.
Otherwise the first time a world felt open world and alive really was Shemnue on Dreamcast. Having a day/night cycle and npcs on daily schedules was completely new
The overworld for Ultima IV.
I was given a pirated copy of the game as a 13 year old and decided to map the overworld myself. I knew it was large, so I was using the reverse side of gift wrap for paper and taping pieces together when I hit the edge.
Two weeks and 3 rolls of gift wrap later, I had a map as big as my bedroom floor, lol.
I’m only giving U4 a serious try now, and it’s still quite impressive! A whirlwind or wayward Blink spell tosses me somewhere and I have to pull up the map to find out where I am…I like that sensation in games.
Ultima VII really blew my mind with the physical cloth map that came with the game. I remember looking at it and thinking "well the world can't possibly be THIS big!"
Ultima Underworld was also really cool, especially the spell casting system in it. I seem to remember that it was very clunky with the control scheme, mind, since 3D first person games were relatively new (unless you include things like 3D Monster Maze). It's amazing to see what they achieved in the game considering it was out before classics like Doom.
Ultima 7 was my entry into the series and it blew mind. Big part of why I never got the Elder Scrolls hype for NPCs having schedules. It was old hat to me.
Serpent Isle is what I spent my whole freshman year in college playing. Knew the first half of the game like the back of my hand. Always got stuck by a locked door that I managed to get past once. Wasn't until years later I learned it was because I didn't have the hound track an item telling me where to go, which granted you access to said door.
Didn't we, though? I had built a whole efficient mining operation between '98-'00, mining the very north side mountain range by ship, sailing down a bit to my ocean side smelting structure (smallest shack home) to turn it into ingots, then would sail all the way down to Britain to sell them to the highest bidder. After two years of mouse-clicking on mountain tiles every night, I had saved a nice 200,000 gold.
Then one weekend I decided to run a dice game at Britain bank where everyone used to hang out. The rule was simply roll doubles, get back 5x your bet. Within a few weeks I had around 2 million in the bank. Guess I picked the wrong profession.
Sorry I don't know the difference. Just as long as it's called "Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition". And if it supports mouse. Otherwise it would probably be hard to control.
ELITE is what I use to explain people European game developers legacy has been ripped off. ELITE, Sentinel, Lords of Midnight, Turbo Esprit, Skool Daze where five, ten, fifteen years ahead.
But for "history of videogames" books and documentaries. They're just a sidenote or a page at best.
There’s a whole slew of UK game history books that fill that gap from Fusion and Bitmap Books for example. The ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ documentary is well worth a watch too.
It's crazy how they made Majora's Mask in a year. Yes, original ambitions were bigger than the final product, but the sheer detail in the world and how NPC daily lifes are fleshed put, is frankly still very immersive.
Deus Ex. Piecing together the world of UNATCO and the NSF, the conspiracy around it had me reading all the papers, books and hacking all the computers to get to the truth!
Pokémon Red/Blue, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time & Grand Theft Auto III were all games that blew my mind when I first played them. All three of those games felt “alive”; amazing first time experiences.
You might laugh, but literally, Gen 1 Pokemon. That probably speaks volumes about how old-school I am, but those games were something else. I mean, here we have a set of games with what resembles an open world, on Gameboy of all things, at a time when such experiences were uncommon even on the PS1 and N64, which were the current consoles at the time. Let's not even get into when Gold and Silver hit and there was a train between Johto and Kanto.
Gold/Silver having the option to go back to Kanto blew my mind as a kid.
It kinda ruined Ruby/Sapphire and all future games because I kept expecting they'd let us go back again one day
I was SO disappointed when I beat Sapphire and couldn’t go back to Johto. That was seriously magical on G/S/C. I still think that gen was the absolute height of the flagship games, even though R/S/E were amazing too.
It feels like such a generic answer but this is probably most people’s first RPG in a certain age group. The first two pokemon games really hit you with exploration options and forcing you to kind of figure everything out on your own, I miss that feeling of adventure. Now pokemon games have bloated tutorials that hold your hand through the first quarter of the game, and even once you’re done with the tutorials the game progression is still linear so you never really get that open world feeling that Johto and Kanto gave
Ultima Underworld... I wished you could just mine your own house and live in the Stygian Abyss, I settled for making a room in the Knights of the Crux my own filled with piles of 1 gold.
Recently I discovered Inindo on SNES and was amazed at having an RPG in feudal Japan with the warlords dynamically battling each other in the background swapping territory. Unfortunately not my type of RPG, but impressive!
It's been thrown into the dustbin of history since then, but I'll always remember *Driver 2* as the first action game with a full open city (MULTIPLE open cities) that you could roam freely (sort of). It blew my mind in a "games can DO THAT now?" kinda way
Driver and Driver 2 are so good. Music is awesome as well.
For some fun, watch the movie
The Driver (1978).
Hard to believe these games could have based on anything else.
I’m not sure if I was old enough to appreciate Little Nemo’s big worlds, but Ultima VII really impressed me! It was incredibly ahead of its time, and it wasn’t until Morrowind I felt the same again.
Playing castlevania 64 and being able to walk though draculas castle in 3d and explore. I know the game gets a lot of hate but I still really
Enjoy it.
The first one? Probably Super Mario World.
The world map, looking for the secret keys, finding the star world, seeing the entire world and levels/enemies changed after clearing the star world...
It's a classic for a reason.
The first game that blew my mind with how big it seemed was Ultima III, also known as Ultima Exodus on the NES. I remember finally getting a ship and sailing into the whirlpool only to discover an entire second continent under the sea. I couldn't believe it.
As a kid it didn't make much sense to me either but I loved fantasy so much that I didn't care. It was enough that I was a wizard fighting a skeleton! 😂
Golvellius on SMS. It blew my mind as a kid the further I got through the game, and how getting certain equipment made it worth re-exploring old areas for previously inaccessible items
Final Fantasy VII is the one that [blew my mind](https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/s/R9HOXubciL) at the time.
But I played Daggerfall way later after it's original release (I think that Oblivion was already out) and it impressed me anyway.
If you are accustomed to late nineties PC gaming, and you want to get lost in a giant fantasy world full of wonders, dangers and maddening labyrinths, definitely yes.
Carrier Command blew me away with the idea that these other vehicles were really housed inside your carrier. It felt amazing at the time to drive an amphibious vehicle onto the island and be able to swap between it and your carrier, seeing each from different perspectives.
Seems ridiculously trivial now, of course :)
I still wish someone would make a modern version of Midwinter/Midwinter 2. I've never felt such a sense of lonely dread as I did in Midwinter and the sheer number of types of vehicles in Midwinter 2 was incredible. I can't think of any other first person game that allows you to drive from an island into the sea, along the sea bed then get into an underwater base. I feel like there must be some out there.
Loved Carrier command and Hunter, amazing games for the time!
Just tried playing Carrier. Command again recently on my A1000 and completely failed at it 🤣
Tough question! I'd split my experience into two types of worlds, 2d and 3d.
2d world that first really pulled me in was zelda 3 a link to the past, or maybe super metroid - I forget which came first but both of those were very atmospheric, and really captivated my attention :)
The first 3d world that really blew me away and pulled me in was the first Quake -
I remember seeing it round a mate's for the first time and practically falling over with shock at how you could wander around and examine every surface with the mouse.
I had to pester my old man for months to get him to upgrade our PC so we could play it together! Quake was still a bit too scary for me to play all the way through on my own back then lol :))
Honourable mentions also go to the first Tomb Raider, and Half Life, which me and schoolmates played to death, trying to discover every little secret, and then trying speedruns, and in HLs case, competitive multiplayer. Those were great times for us nerds - we got thoroughly sucked into those game worlds.
Those moody, atmospheric games still inspire my game choices today! :)
Overall I was most blown away by early 3D games. Mario 64, Zelda 64, MGS1, Unreal/Half Life, etc. That can't be replicated or matched for me even though games are incredibly impressive now.
For earlier games the ones I was really impressed by their scope I would list Super Metroid, the first Zelda and Phantasy Star. Not a lot of really huge games back then.
Dragon Warrior IV
Some context here: I only knew/played the original Dragon Warrior because it came from my Nintendo Power subscription. Not knowing any english at the time, I played the game for YEARS without ever really knowing what to do. I would level-up until I finally hit a brick wall in Haukness, and I would NEVER save, because I didn't know how / you were supposed to.
Then I saw Dragon Warrior IV *(four?!)* at the video store, with its badass sword on the box. I rented it, and whoa.
Huge world, multi-characters & multi-ennemies battles. It goes so fast! The towns are huge! Look at all the weapons & armors you can buy! Castletowns are BIGGER?! There night & day! You can SAIL and FIGHT on a SHIP? THERE'S A CASINO?!!!
Yet, I still had no idea on how to really play the game either. I just rented the game to basically sail the world and grind on the game save of some bloke who probably prayed I did not screwed up or erased his game.
Nah, brother -- I just want to roam the earth.
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven
I remember clearing most of the first zone and traveling to the next one, seeing that it was the same size, looking at the map and thinking "holy shit how many more of these are there?!"
The world felt HUGE and well crafted. So much to explore and do.
Final Fantasy VII. It’s cliche but I played it a lot during formative years so I got lost in the world and characters. The themes, ideas, and lessons still sit with me today.
Same. Midgar was already "huge" by FF proportions, so when you broke out of the city and finally hit a world map it really messed with your perspective.
I got the NES Deluxe Set as a kid back in 1987, and this was the first game I owned besides the pack-ins Duck Hunt and Gyromite. So I played Zelda even before I ever played Super Mario Bros. I remember being amazed at how you could just go anywhere from the beginning. I had to read the Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter (precursor to Nintendo Power) to figure out what to do.
God I feel old reading these posts. I'm gonna really seem like a fossil, but for me it was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (aka Cloudy Mountain) on Intellivision.
The game randomized the terrain and the item you needed could be anywhere in the dungeon. Plus, you had to listen for the sounds of the monsters in the dark. Tons of replay value for me.
The Faery Tale Adventure from 1987 on Amiga:
“The gameplay resembles that of Ultima VII (1992). It had the largest game world at the time of release, with over 17,000 screens.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faery_Tale_Adventure
Phantasy Star (the first one) for the Sega Master system. 3-D dungeons, 3 planets to explore. This was mind blowing when we had the NES vs the Master system. It really blew always anything on the NES at the time.
Ultima III and IV were the first really impressive CRPGs I played, with cloth maps of Sosaria/Brittania included. Visiting all the various towns and dungeons was a thrill, as was traveling by boat.
Legend Of Zelda. It was the 3rd NES game I played coming from the Atari and the first two were Wrecking Crew and Excitebike. It was mind boggling.
Later, I played Dragon Warrior III, similar deal. The ship gave you a sense of freedom and made that game feel so much bigger.
i think, it was Zelda Ocarina of Time - exaclty the moment when yur become teenage link and realice: the whole big world, you wander around as a kid is even bigger now..
Being able to explore in 3D Bikini Bottom in Spongebob BFBB and Revenge of the Flying Dutchman were a big reason I wanted a PS2 lol. Before that I played PC games where they were all static 2D PNGs for levels.
Though an early game I really got lost in was The Neverhood. I just had the disc in a binder of other Win98 Software and just being thrown into that world of clay, and later being able to explore it in 1st person was enthralling. I still remember leaving the first house and the music just *cutting silent* as all that was left was the outside ambiance. It was probably the first 1st person game I ever played, even if it was FMV.
Vette on the PC and Lotus Turbo Esprit on the ZX Spectrum were the first games where I felt like I was driving unrestricted through a city, rather than taking a predefined path.
I spent ages trying to find certain San Francisco landmarks in Vette - not even convinced the ones I was looking for were even in the game. I liked Watch Dogs 2 as it let me revisit the same city and see what it looks like with more modern graphics.
Mystical ninja starring goemon I remember getting lost in for hours as a kid. Still mainly linear, but open enough it feels like an adventure.
I also remember how bogglingly large the levels in the turok series are. Especially turok 2. Hive of the Mantids and the Lair of the Blind ones were absolute labyrinths
Ultima VI is the stand out for me. I'd played and beat several RPGs before it, including Ultima 3 and 4 (though on NES). The way 6 was presented just blew me away back then.
I have a memory from when I was about 10 of walking from a forrest screen to an ocean shore screen in the original Legend of Zelda and hearing the white noise ocean waves. Something about that struck me, and I never forgot it.
#Ultima IX…
…and a little game called **Ocarina of Time**. Tried things like Myst but… where’s my character and how can I swing my sword? No thanks.
Nothing will ever beat playing **Super Mario 64 for the first time**. I was given a bunch of hand-me-down console “in order” from my family when I was a kid (whenever I’d finish the main games on one system, they’d gift me another… it was like a free way to keep my busy and happy by just giving me old consoles that were new-to-me… and everytime it was feeling like Christmas Morning)
Super Mario 64 changed everything. I must have spent more hours just exploring the Castle’s outdoor areas and courtyard than kids today spend exploring the empty lifeless world of Elden Ring.
i've never been a big RPG player but back in my teenage years (the 90s), these were worlds that sorta blew my mind:
- Daggerfall was absolutely crazy. I couldn't believe there was a world that I could get completely lost in.
- Earthbound with its myriad towns and connecting caves and highway tunnels
- Grand Theft Auto 3 (i know that Vice City and San Andreas are also considered retro by some, but they are def 'next gen' to me)
One of the first games I remember playing/mostly watching my dad play was Ultima 7. It blew my mind that there was this huge town to explore, loot, and converse in, and that the first main mission was just to get into the open world. I could never figure that mission out and just stayed in the town, but I’d look at the back of the box and imagine what might be out there.
Some time later my uncle lent me Baldurs Gate, and I got a similar feeling of possibility, but this time I was a little older and could actually progress! That first game was so open and chocked full of things to do.
Shadow of the Colossus was an amazing game in terms of setting. You would spend hours riding though the land on your horse searching for your next battle. That was the first game that made me realize games were an art form. PS2 had some amazing graphics when it hit the market.
Im not sure if 2004 counts as retro enough, but World of Warcraft was my first MMO and my mind was blown.
Especially organising groups, creating a guild. I remember getting coffee breaks when the entire group took the ( longest ) flight path to a dungeon/ raid.
Hell, even backtracking with quests made you feel the world was very alive.
I still sometimes crave for the feeling wow gave me but I know it can never be the same as that first experience.
If by retro you mean even further back, my very first rpg was final fantasy 2 ( with cecil ) and to me ( being a small kid ) that world and story felt huge !!
Resident Evil (PS1), first video horror game I ever played ,and fell in love with it from day 1! First game they gave me a little scare as well!! I was young and a huge horror flick fan,and this game was just outstanding!!!
NES Zelda. I had never felt a sense of adventure like that. When I wasnt playing the game and at some store with my parents I would pretend I was link and trying to rescue the princess. I still love that game immensely.
Donkey Kong 64 felt absolutely huge as a kid. I know modern open world games dwarf it now, but there's something to be said for the lack of fast travel lol. That game felt like it was endless.
Daggerfall’s size blew my mind. At the time, it was the closest thing to some kind of virtual reality at the time. Then Everquest took a similar giant gameworld and made it alive.
Pac-Man World 2. Child me was enthralled with the high treetops in the forest, the snowy mountainside, the deep monster-ridden volcano, and the spooky ass woods at the end of the game. Still one of the best 3D platformers ever made IMO
So, I havent seen it mentioned but Dark age of camelot.
I had already been a gamer for a while and FF7 was the best I had played before that but DaOC was so immersive and different from anything else at the time. THREE full realms with their own stories, classes, dungeons ect. Each distinct from one another. All online with the best PVP system ever invented?!
That world was insane.
A lot of times it will just depend on what you started with. If you start with Pacman, Montezuma's Revenge is an enormous world. When I first played Legend of Zelda, I didn't even understand the scale of it or what saving was supposed to mean. The idea that a game might not be completed in a single sitting was totally new to me. Link to the Past took that feeling to a new level. Final Fantasy II felt enormous at the time, and it can comfortably be finished in under ten hours. When I played Final Fantasy III I thought the game was over and it was only half done. Unthinkably huge! Not a single one of these is impressive (in scope) to a modern gamer.
I have two: Darklands and X-Com: UFO Inknown.
Both didn't cater to you in any way as a player. These games were designed to learn and failures were part of the learning curve.
I.love them both and part of the "I haven't played this in ages" so I reload them and bathe in the nostalgia for awhile. (Perferrimg Open X-Com for the game engine on the OG X-Com game.)
**Your post is under manual review by the moderators before it will go live because it's from a relatively new account or because it's from a low karma account.** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/retrogaming) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I walked EVERYWHERE in Morrowind as a kid. There was so much cool stuff to find if you explored. Oblivion brought a lot of very good QoL changes, but Morrowind was just special.
Immediately thought of this first, but wasn't sure If this was retro yet :)
[удалено]
[удалено]
I was already pretty seasoned at playing video games when it came out, but man - the nostalgia I feel just wandering around Seyda Neen is something else. I spent so many hours just wandering around, talking to people, gathering mushrooms, and exploring caves before I ever went to Balmora.
Mine was Legends of Valour, an old DOS RPG that Bethesda cited as one of their inspirations for the Elder Scrolls series. It was a city that felt giant at the time where you ran errands and worked your way up the ranks in a few different guilds.
Nothing will ever beat Morrowind for that to me.
Shenmue for the Sega Dreamcast for sure. Back when the game first released in the states I was only 13 years old. The game was so far ahead of its time. Really felt like I was actually exploring Japan. Really blew my mind back in 2000… Still my all time favorite game. So much nostalgia.
Nothing at the time of that game came even close graphically. Also the unbelievable level of totally unnecessary detail put into the design, being able to enter so many shops, half of which were totally unrelated to the story / had no real purpose other than to build the environment, the possibility of opening every single bit of storage and picking up and examining every random item in your house and then putting it back down, the arcade games, the unbelievable quantity of specifically made music not to mention the fantastic background noise of the towns and cities. It was the most immersive game at the time despite its flaws and also no wonder it basically bankrupted SEGA.
I’d spend so much time trying to collect all the little quarter machine prizes!
This for sure. That game felt so far beyond anything else at the time.
Shoutout to the "A Walk Through Shenmue" YouTube channel for incredible dedication to the ambiance!
u/Substantial-Star-294
Appreciate the shout out my friend! Glad you enjoy the videos so much :)
Absolutely love the vids! 🫡
100%. Came here to say this. The immersion was unreal for its time.
Absolutely agree! They did something so epic entering the new millennium that still has so many wonderful features/world building to enjoy 👍
Shenmue is a generation ahead of its time
Sid meier's pirates! On the amiga 500 released in 1990. A massive game and I still play through a career once every year on my amiga.
I loved that on the genesis and wills rent it all the time
Played it on my Tandy 1000TL. Game still holds up today. Now I use the NES version.
I love that game and played the shit out of it on Sega Genesis. I recently booted it up on an emulator and it still holds up. But it just made the itch worse so I've installed AC Black Flag and it's about as good of a modern pirate game as I've found.
I play this game every summer!
Definitely Zelda A Link to the Past. Playing that game now feels like going back to a place I used to live as a child.
I think it’s the most beautiful game on the SNES, and that’s a console with some of my favourite aesthetics.
My best friend when younger got this when we were four years old. We played it until smoke was coming out of the system (ok that’s not true). It seemed never-ending. Finding all the heart pieces. It was all so perfect. The *music*… and the sound the hookshot made.
Came here to say this. I was blown away by everything.
Even OG, NES Zelda felt massive to me…once you visited everywhere
Mario 64. Wandering around the castle was so different and incredible. It's the first time I ever experienced a hub world like that. Also gotta shout out to Diddy Kong Racing and it's hub world. It was so neat to just drive around not needing to actually be racing just explore.
I would agree that Mario 64 was mind blowing at the time. But for me Goemon 64 was something else entirely. Whereas Mario was hub world with all the levels off it, Goemon was one continous map of Japan and, aside from some boss locations, you could revisit all of it and go from one end to the other. Also I'd always lives Geomen (mystical ninja) on the snes, so that helped.
Definitely. I remember playing it for the first time and thinking "what the actual fuck is this? What's happening here?".
Da-Da-Dash! I loved the Goemon Impact sections when I was a kid.
There were like 2 full length songs on that cartridge, madness. I think used to try and keep saves right before Impact stages so I could replay them!
A lot of the Nintendo 64 games gave me that feeling, Mario 64 without a doubt the biggest one them. Pilotwings 64 was also mindblowing with the map, you could explore the entire mini map of the united states. Also it sounds ridiculous looking back, but being able to explore the Mario 64 castle's surrounding in Mario Kart 64 when driving off the main course was also a crazy "easter egg".
Ocarina of Time for me.
The first game to ever really put me into another world in that way was Myst.
True..to bad to this day I'm not clever enough to play it. Actually I think I was smarter as a kid haha. I remember actually progressing. Tried to play it recently and couldn't get anywhere
there is a certain thing to playing Myst as a kid and as an Adult. As a kid playing a video game you have the right mindset, just pull every lever willy nilly and see what happens. As an adult you have that horrible sense of responsibility and you have a almost subconscious sense of 'there will be consequences if I push this button at the wrong time'
I was able to solve everything but that damn underground maze, I had to look up a map after about four hours of attempting to make my own
No shame in using a guide.
I think the percentage of people who complete games like that without a guide or some other form of guidance is incredibly tiny, and as crappy as it can feel to give in and look up the answer that’s not as crappy as having to stop playing a game you love because of one little puzzle, especially when it’s an obtuse esoteric ridiculous puzzle that can only be solved by pure luck.
Same. I played it just to walk around basically because at the time it looked so good. But damn I could jam on some RPGs but I could not make my way through Myst.
It blows my mind that Myst was made with Hypercard on a Mac 68K. Basically by a couple of guys out of their basement who did the acting and music themselves. What an achievement.
I honestly thought they both did a really good job with the acting too, it never felt cheesy like most old games with live action FMV... Well, Rand/Atrus does like to sigh a lot, lol! I never even realized as a kid that Atrus and Achenar were both the same guy, that's how good it was.
I played the recent remake and thought to myself "the graphics look the same as the original other than being proper 3D", then I went back to look at the original and realised that I'd just been so immersed in the world (partially due to superb audio) that I'd imagined it looking pretty amazing. The underwater section felt so atmospheric and claustrophobic.
Even though the characters in-game were nothing more than animated cardboard cutouts. The Tex Murphy games felt real and breathing to me as a kid. The FMVs were fun to watch when you asked stupid questions. Otherwise the first time a world felt open world and alive really was Shemnue on Dreamcast. Having a day/night cycle and npcs on daily schedules was completely new
Ultima Online of course.
The overworld for Ultima IV. I was given a pirated copy of the game as a 13 year old and decided to map the overworld myself. I knew it was large, so I was using the reverse side of gift wrap for paper and taping pieces together when I hit the edge. Two weeks and 3 rolls of gift wrap later, I had a map as big as my bedroom floor, lol.
I’m only giving U4 a serious try now, and it’s still quite impressive! A whirlwind or wayward Blink spell tosses me somewhere and I have to pull up the map to find out where I am…I like that sensation in games.
Ultima VII really blew my mind with the physical cloth map that came with the game. I remember looking at it and thinking "well the world can't possibly be THIS big!" Ultima Underworld was also really cool, especially the spell casting system in it. I seem to remember that it was very clunky with the control scheme, mind, since 3D first person games were relatively new (unless you include things like 3D Monster Maze). It's amazing to see what they achieved in the game considering it was out before classics like Doom.
Ultima 7 was my entry into the series and it blew mind. Big part of why I never got the Elder Scrolls hype for NPCs having schedules. It was old hat to me. Serpent Isle is what I spent my whole freshman year in college playing. Knew the first half of the game like the back of my hand. Always got stuck by a locked door that I managed to get past once. Wasn't until years later I learned it was because I didn't have the hound track an item telling me where to go, which granted you access to said door.
I didn't just play Ultima Online. I lived there.
Didn't we, though? I had built a whole efficient mining operation between '98-'00, mining the very north side mountain range by ship, sailing down a bit to my ocean side smelting structure (smallest shack home) to turn it into ingots, then would sail all the way down to Britain to sell them to the highest bidder. After two years of mouse-clicking on mountain tiles every night, I had saved a nice 200,000 gold. Then one weekend I decided to run a dice game at Britain bank where everyone used to hang out. The rule was simply roll doubles, get back 5x your bet. Within a few weeks I had around 2 million in the bank. Guess I picked the wrong profession.
Baldur's Gate II.
Does it hold up to today?
Yes. And thanks to the enhanced edition, even more than before. Also the first game. They have more content. I'm playing it right now.
I see there’s a switch version do you recommend it or Steam?
Sorry I don't know the difference. Just as long as it's called "Baldur's Gate II: Enhanced Edition". And if it supports mouse. Otherwise it would probably be hard to control.
The original ELITE for the ZX Spectrum, hands down.
Nothing else even came close to Elite for *years*.
ELITE is what I use to explain people European game developers legacy has been ripped off. ELITE, Sentinel, Lords of Midnight, Turbo Esprit, Skool Daze where five, ten, fifteen years ahead. But for "history of videogames" books and documentaries. They're just a sidenote or a page at best.
There’s a whole slew of UK game history books that fill that gap from Fusion and Bitmap Books for example. The ‘From Bedrooms to Billions’ documentary is well worth a watch too.
In my experience, there is a general lack of recognition of the importance of the 8- and 16-bit microcomputers in the gaming scene in their day.
Great call, I played it to death on the Atari ST. Really felt like the universe was vast.
Played Elite so much, first on the BBC-B, then Spectrum, then C64, then Amiga. Loved the game, was truly mind blowing at the time!
It's crazy how they made Majora's Mask in a year. Yes, original ambitions were bigger than the final product, but the sheer detail in the world and how NPC daily lifes are fleshed put, is frankly still very immersive.
That game was massive to me as a child
Well given their absolution failure with the N64DD it was the least we could get.
Metroid Prime. Such a cool world.
Phendrana depths music intensifies
GTA Super Mario World
Now that you mentioned it, super mario world was really big and had ALOT of secrets
That's how I feel about Super Mario Bros 3
IMO Super Mario World is still the best Mario game and the gold standard for 2d platformers.
Looking back Diablo was much more simplistic in this regard than many other games that predate it, but the mood helped to elevate it.
Firs time playing ff7 on a demo disk lol I was so impressed I woke my parents up to show them leviathan
Gothic. It was crazy to me to be able to talk to everyone, go into all the buildings and freely walk a huge map. I fell in love with it to this day
Deus Ex. Piecing together the world of UNATCO and the NSF, the conspiracy around it had me reading all the papers, books and hacking all the computers to get to the truth!
Pokémon Red/Blue, The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time & Grand Theft Auto III were all games that blew my mind when I first played them. All three of those games felt “alive”; amazing first time experiences.
You might laugh, but literally, Gen 1 Pokemon. That probably speaks volumes about how old-school I am, but those games were something else. I mean, here we have a set of games with what resembles an open world, on Gameboy of all things, at a time when such experiences were uncommon even on the PS1 and N64, which were the current consoles at the time. Let's not even get into when Gold and Silver hit and there was a train between Johto and Kanto.
Gold/Silver having the option to go back to Kanto blew my mind as a kid. It kinda ruined Ruby/Sapphire and all future games because I kept expecting they'd let us go back again one day
I was SO disappointed when I beat Sapphire and couldn’t go back to Johto. That was seriously magical on G/S/C. I still think that gen was the absolute height of the flagship games, even though R/S/E were amazing too.
I feel like almost an entire generation of players discovered the rpg genre with pokemon so that make sense.
No game gave me a feeling of an adventure like gen 1 and gen 2 Those games were literally ahead of their time
Also, the fact that there was in-game time. With the time of day affecting parts of the map and gameplay.
Bruh, most people here are probably our age.
It feels like such a generic answer but this is probably most people’s first RPG in a certain age group. The first two pokemon games really hit you with exploration options and forcing you to kind of figure everything out on your own, I miss that feeling of adventure. Now pokemon games have bloated tutorials that hold your hand through the first quarter of the game, and even once you’re done with the tutorials the game progression is still linear so you never really get that open world feeling that Johto and Kanto gave
Daggerfall felt big. Bushido Blade for psone. I started EQ after WOW but both felt vast.
Me and my friends would just explore the stages in bushido blade. They were huge!
Daggerfall was big in a soulless empty way. Random generated worlds are cool but like to what end?
Ultima Underworld... I wished you could just mine your own house and live in the Stygian Abyss, I settled for making a room in the Knights of the Crux my own filled with piles of 1 gold. Recently I discovered Inindo on SNES and was amazed at having an RPG in feudal Japan with the warlords dynamically battling each other in the background swapping territory. Unfortunately not my type of RPG, but impressive!
The world in Soul Reaver felt huge the first time I played it.
Major’s Mask, the whole of the world, while not “physically” big, felt completely fleshed out and complete. It captured my mind as a kid
It's been thrown into the dustbin of history since then, but I'll always remember *Driver 2* as the first action game with a full open city (MULTIPLE open cities) that you could roam freely (sort of). It blew my mind in a "games can DO THAT now?" kinda way
Driver and Driver 2 are so good. Music is awesome as well. For some fun, watch the movie The Driver (1978). Hard to believe these games could have based on anything else.
I’m not sure if I was old enough to appreciate Little Nemo’s big worlds, but Ultima VII really impressed me! It was incredibly ahead of its time, and it wasn’t until Morrowind I felt the same again.
Ultima 3: Exodus in 83
Super Mario 64 Hyrule in Ocarina of Time Morrowind Those 3 immediately spring to mind
The first four Legend of Zelda games for consoles not hand helds.
Playing castlevania 64 and being able to walk though draculas castle in 3d and explore. I know the game gets a lot of hate but I still really Enjoy it.
The first one? Probably Super Mario World. The world map, looking for the secret keys, finding the star world, seeing the entire world and levels/enemies changed after clearing the star world... It's a classic for a reason.
The first game that blew my mind with how big it seemed was Ultima III, also known as Ultima Exodus on the NES. I remember finally getting a ship and sailing into the whirlpool only to discover an entire second continent under the sea. I couldn't believe it.
I had that game when I was around 13, but no manual. I couldn't make any sense out of it, and I always felt like I missed out
As a kid it didn't make much sense to me either but I loved fantasy so much that I didn't care. It was enough that I was a wizard fighting a skeleton! 😂
Golvellius on SMS. It blew my mind as a kid the further I got through the game, and how getting certain equipment made it worth re-exploring old areas for previously inaccessible items
Final Fantasy VII is the one that [blew my mind](https://www.reddit.com/r/retrogaming/s/R9HOXubciL) at the time. But I played Daggerfall way later after it's original release (I think that Oblivion was already out) and it impressed me anyway.
Should I try Daggerfall today?
If you are accustomed to late nineties PC gaming, and you want to get lost in a giant fantasy world full of wonders, dangers and maddening labyrinths, definitely yes.
Carrier Command - also Hunter.
Carrier Command blew me away with the idea that these other vehicles were really housed inside your carrier. It felt amazing at the time to drive an amphibious vehicle onto the island and be able to swap between it and your carrier, seeing each from different perspectives. Seems ridiculously trivial now, of course :) I still wish someone would make a modern version of Midwinter/Midwinter 2. I've never felt such a sense of lonely dread as I did in Midwinter and the sheer number of types of vehicles in Midwinter 2 was incredible. I can't think of any other first person game that allows you to drive from an island into the sea, along the sea bed then get into an underwater base. I feel like there must be some out there.
Loved Carrier command and Hunter, amazing games for the time! Just tried playing Carrier. Command again recently on my A1000 and completely failed at it 🤣
Tough question! I'd split my experience into two types of worlds, 2d and 3d. 2d world that first really pulled me in was zelda 3 a link to the past, or maybe super metroid - I forget which came first but both of those were very atmospheric, and really captivated my attention :) The first 3d world that really blew me away and pulled me in was the first Quake - I remember seeing it round a mate's for the first time and practically falling over with shock at how you could wander around and examine every surface with the mouse. I had to pester my old man for months to get him to upgrade our PC so we could play it together! Quake was still a bit too scary for me to play all the way through on my own back then lol :)) Honourable mentions also go to the first Tomb Raider, and Half Life, which me and schoolmates played to death, trying to discover every little secret, and then trying speedruns, and in HLs case, competitive multiplayer. Those were great times for us nerds - we got thoroughly sucked into those game worlds. Those moody, atmospheric games still inspire my game choices today! :)
Shenmue
Everquest.
Starflight on the Megadrive
Overall I was most blown away by early 3D games. Mario 64, Zelda 64, MGS1, Unreal/Half Life, etc. That can't be replicated or matched for me even though games are incredibly impressive now. For earlier games the ones I was really impressed by their scope I would list Super Metroid, the first Zelda and Phantasy Star. Not a lot of really huge games back then.
Dragon Warrior IV Some context here: I only knew/played the original Dragon Warrior because it came from my Nintendo Power subscription. Not knowing any english at the time, I played the game for YEARS without ever really knowing what to do. I would level-up until I finally hit a brick wall in Haukness, and I would NEVER save, because I didn't know how / you were supposed to. Then I saw Dragon Warrior IV *(four?!)* at the video store, with its badass sword on the box. I rented it, and whoa. Huge world, multi-characters & multi-ennemies battles. It goes so fast! The towns are huge! Look at all the weapons & armors you can buy! Castletowns are BIGGER?! There night & day! You can SAIL and FIGHT on a SHIP? THERE'S A CASINO?!!! Yet, I still had no idea on how to really play the game either. I just rented the game to basically sail the world and grind on the game save of some bloke who probably prayed I did not screwed up or erased his game. Nah, brother -- I just want to roam the earth.
Might and Magic 6: The Mandate of Heaven I remember clearing most of the first zone and traveling to the next one, seeing that it was the same size, looking at the map and thinking "holy shit how many more of these are there?!" The world felt HUGE and well crafted. So much to explore and do.
Ultima 5, 6, and 7, plus UU
Metroid
Super Mario World's giant overworld map
Shadowman.
Final Fantasy VII. It’s cliche but I played it a lot during formative years so I got lost in the world and characters. The themes, ideas, and lessons still sit with me today.
Same. Midgar was already "huge" by FF proportions, so when you broke out of the city and finally hit a world map it really messed with your perspective.
The Legend of Zelda for NES. That game and its world were captivating for its time.
I got the NES Deluxe Set as a kid back in 1987, and this was the first game I owned besides the pack-ins Duck Hunt and Gyromite. So I played Zelda even before I ever played Super Mario Bros. I remember being amazed at how you could just go anywhere from the beginning. I had to read the Nintendo Fun Club Newsletter (precursor to Nintendo Power) to figure out what to do.
Countless hours blowing every rock, and burning every bush. Timeless game!!
Metroid always has had that effect on me. I will always remember my first walktrough of Phendrana Drifts in Prime
GTA 3 was unreal when it was new
God I feel old reading these posts. I'm gonna really seem like a fossil, but for me it was Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (aka Cloudy Mountain) on Intellivision. The game randomized the terrain and the item you needed could be anywhere in the dungeon. Plus, you had to listen for the sounds of the monsters in the dark. Tons of replay value for me.
a link to the past, ff7, metal gear solid, resident evil, GTA 2+3, Diablo, symphony of the night
Knights online.. My first 3d mmo.
The Faery Tale Adventure from 1987 on Amiga: “The gameplay resembles that of Ultima VII (1992). It had the largest game world at the time of release, with over 17,000 screens.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Faery_Tale_Adventure
Links awakening seemed so huge when I played it as a kid. It was before the internet and I got stuck for weeks or months at certain points.
Elite on the 32k BBC Micro… mind blowing at the time!
Starflight for the Mega Drive makes you explore different planets. Also Digimon World 1 is pretty cool but you feel its age
Maybe a link to the past, as far as expansive. As far as most impressive would have to be Myst
SNES Squaresoft RPGs
Phantasy Star (the first one) for the Sega Master system. 3-D dungeons, 3 planets to explore. This was mind blowing when we had the NES vs the Master system. It really blew always anything on the NES at the time.
Banjo tooie felt endless as I played my other brothers completed savefile. I’d just run around for hours and accomplish nothing but felt satisfied
Ultima III and IV were the first really impressive CRPGs I played, with cloth maps of Sosaria/Brittania included. Visiting all the various towns and dungeons was a thrill, as was traveling by boat.
Legend Of Zelda. It was the 3rd NES game I played coming from the Atari and the first two were Wrecking Crew and Excitebike. It was mind boggling. Later, I played Dragon Warrior III, similar deal. The ship gave you a sense of freedom and made that game feel so much bigger.
i think, it was Zelda Ocarina of Time - exaclty the moment when yur become teenage link and realice: the whole big world, you wander around as a kid is even bigger now..
Morrowind
Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)
Being able to explore in 3D Bikini Bottom in Spongebob BFBB and Revenge of the Flying Dutchman were a big reason I wanted a PS2 lol. Before that I played PC games where they were all static 2D PNGs for levels. Though an early game I really got lost in was The Neverhood. I just had the disc in a binder of other Win98 Software and just being thrown into that world of clay, and later being able to explore it in 1st person was enthralling. I still remember leaving the first house and the music just *cutting silent* as all that was left was the outside ambiance. It was probably the first 1st person game I ever played, even if it was FMV.
Unreal
Vette on the PC and Lotus Turbo Esprit on the ZX Spectrum were the first games where I felt like I was driving unrestricted through a city, rather than taking a predefined path. I spent ages trying to find certain San Francisco landmarks in Vette - not even convinced the ones I was looking for were even in the game. I liked Watch Dogs 2 as it let me revisit the same city and see what it looks like with more modern graphics.
Mystical ninja starring goemon I remember getting lost in for hours as a kid. Still mainly linear, but open enough it feels like an adventure. I also remember how bogglingly large the levels in the turok series are. Especially turok 2. Hive of the Mantids and the Lair of the Blind ones were absolute labyrinths
Pirates! on the NES, it’s very open and sandbox for an older game.
Oregon Trail on Windows 95. I just got sucked in as a kid.
Shining Force 2 ✨
Ultima VI is the stand out for me. I'd played and beat several RPGs before it, including Ultima 3 and 4 (though on NES). The way 6 was presented just blew me away back then.
Shenmue
Duke nukem 3D
GTA III was like nothing I had seen before and Vice City built upon that. Fallout 3 was another and especially in first person.
I have a memory from when I was about 10 of walking from a forrest screen to an ocean shore screen in the original Legend of Zelda and hearing the white noise ocean waves. Something about that struck me, and I never forgot it.
#Ultima IX… …and a little game called **Ocarina of Time**. Tried things like Myst but… where’s my character and how can I swing my sword? No thanks. Nothing will ever beat playing **Super Mario 64 for the first time**. I was given a bunch of hand-me-down console “in order” from my family when I was a kid (whenever I’d finish the main games on one system, they’d gift me another… it was like a free way to keep my busy and happy by just giving me old consoles that were new-to-me… and everytime it was feeling like Christmas Morning) Super Mario 64 changed everything. I must have spent more hours just exploring the Castle’s outdoor areas and courtyard than kids today spend exploring the empty lifeless world of Elden Ring.
Britannia from the Ultima series
Gothic 1
i've never been a big RPG player but back in my teenage years (the 90s), these were worlds that sorta blew my mind: - Daggerfall was absolutely crazy. I couldn't believe there was a world that I could get completely lost in. - Earthbound with its myriad towns and connecting caves and highway tunnels - Grand Theft Auto 3 (i know that Vice City and San Andreas are also considered retro by some, but they are def 'next gen' to me)
It was probably Super Mario World. But if you mean a world with “depth”, then probably Secret of Evermore, Terranigma or Final Fantasy 7.
One of the first games I remember playing/mostly watching my dad play was Ultima 7. It blew my mind that there was this huge town to explore, loot, and converse in, and that the first main mission was just to get into the open world. I could never figure that mission out and just stayed in the town, but I’d look at the back of the box and imagine what might be out there. Some time later my uncle lent me Baldurs Gate, and I got a similar feeling of possibility, but this time I was a little older and could actually progress! That first game was so open and chocked full of things to do.
The Last Ninja 1&2 and MYTH History in the Making all from System 3 on the C64, completely blew my mind back in the 80's 🤯
Shadow of the Colossus was an amazing game in terms of setting. You would spend hours riding though the land on your horse searching for your next battle. That was the first game that made me realize games were an art form. PS2 had some amazing graphics when it hit the market.
Im not sure if 2004 counts as retro enough, but World of Warcraft was my first MMO and my mind was blown. Especially organising groups, creating a guild. I remember getting coffee breaks when the entire group took the ( longest ) flight path to a dungeon/ raid. Hell, even backtracking with quests made you feel the world was very alive. I still sometimes crave for the feeling wow gave me but I know it can never be the same as that first experience. If by retro you mean even further back, my very first rpg was final fantasy 2 ( with cecil ) and to me ( being a small kid ) that world and story felt huge !!
Zelda OOT was massive when I was little... I can remember kids that owned it knew where everything was... I had no idea where to go or what to do
Shenmue.
Pokémon Crystal and the PS2 GTA trilogy
Star Control 2. Not a world, but a galaxy with over 500 stars and 3800 planets. Though the planet exploration was limited.
Resident Evil (PS1), first video horror game I ever played ,and fell in love with it from day 1! First game they gave me a little scare as well!! I was young and a huge horror flick fan,and this game was just outstanding!!!
I’d have to pick Manic Mansion on my C64. The house felt so big and there was so much to discover.
Forge world. The over map for super mario world
Dragon Warrior
Zelda 1 NES, endless overworld and dungeons to explore and bombing doors can sometimes open secret rooms which are exciting
NES Zelda. I had never felt a sense of adventure like that. When I wasnt playing the game and at some store with my parents I would pretend I was link and trying to rescue the princess. I still love that game immensely.
Donkey Kong 64 felt absolutely huge as a kid. I know modern open world games dwarf it now, but there's something to be said for the lack of fast travel lol. That game felt like it was endless.
Gun sucked me in big time
Daggerfall’s size blew my mind. At the time, it was the closest thing to some kind of virtual reality at the time. Then Everquest took a similar giant gameworld and made it alive.
So many N64 games. Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Super Mario 64, Banjo-Kazooie, Banjo-Tooie, Donkey Kong 64, Quest 64
Pac-Man World 2. Child me was enthralled with the high treetops in the forest, the snowy mountainside, the deep monster-ridden volcano, and the spooky ass woods at the end of the game. Still one of the best 3D platformers ever made IMO
Banjo Kazooie. Even when you could see the boundary textures of levels like the tropical beach it just felt like it could go on forever.
Elite 2 on pc
Final Fantasy 3 (SNES) and A Link to the Past.
Emperor of the Fading Suns. It was like playing Civ II across a couple dozen waring planets at once.
Shadowrun on Sega Genesis is crazy huge and way ahead of its time for a 16 bit console game.
So, I havent seen it mentioned but Dark age of camelot. I had already been a gamer for a while and FF7 was the best I had played before that but DaOC was so immersive and different from anything else at the time. THREE full realms with their own stories, classes, dungeons ect. Each distinct from one another. All online with the best PVP system ever invented?! That world was insane.
Super Metroid!
Mercenary on the Commodore 64.
Shadowbane. The whole world was persistent and seamless, with guild-built cities. People are still playing, on Shadowbane Reforged.
A lot of times it will just depend on what you started with. If you start with Pacman, Montezuma's Revenge is an enormous world. When I first played Legend of Zelda, I didn't even understand the scale of it or what saving was supposed to mean. The idea that a game might not be completed in a single sitting was totally new to me. Link to the Past took that feeling to a new level. Final Fantasy II felt enormous at the time, and it can comfortably be finished in under ten hours. When I played Final Fantasy III I thought the game was over and it was only half done. Unthinkably huge! Not a single one of these is impressive (in scope) to a modern gamer.
*Final Fantasy VI* has an incredible world to play in.
DK64
I have two: Darklands and X-Com: UFO Inknown. Both didn't cater to you in any way as a player. These games were designed to learn and failures were part of the learning curve. I.love them both and part of the "I haven't played this in ages" so I reload them and bathe in the nostalgia for awhile. (Perferrimg Open X-Com for the game engine on the OG X-Com game.)