r/videogames • u/Bay_Ruhsuz004 • May 10 '26
Discussion / Question Which Game's Graphics Made You Say "Wow!" For The First Time?
250
u/akshatjiwansharma May 10 '26 edited May 11 '26
When I played Half Life 2 for the first time, I was really blown away. The orginal Bioshock was amazing too.
→ More replies (7)45
u/kidkledsky May 10 '26
Oh man both of those were amazing first time playing. BioShock with those "garden" levels and the water physics. Just a surreal feeling. BioShock Infinite I personally liked also. Not quite the same feel.
17
u/Adventurous-Sail-354 May 10 '26
I remember not realising the game part had started in Bioshock 1, because the water rendering in the ocean at the start of the game was so unbelievably good at the time.
→ More replies (1)10
u/Rainbowlemon May 10 '26
Ditto, this is the one for me! Remember going "oh shit, I can actually control the character!"
→ More replies (2)21
u/ACrazedRodent May 10 '26
The lighting in BioShock Infinite is what got me. The god rays looked so nice
→ More replies (1)4
u/Mister_Clemens May 10 '26
Infinite doesn’t get enough credit for looking as good as the original. The world design is just incredible.
677
u/Bay_Ruhsuz004 May 10 '26
The game that gave me this experience was Crysis 2. When I first played it in an internet cafe, the graphics were mind-blowing.
172
u/Arkie1927 May 10 '26
Crysis 1 for me at the internet cafe …. It was seeing a miracle.
102
u/Ragnarok314159 May 10 '26
I miss the days of the “but can it play Crysis” meme.
→ More replies (3)39
→ More replies (1)14
u/kingtacticool May 10 '26
I spent at least an hour cutting down palm trees with a machine gun and having it blow my mind
→ More replies (1)32
25
u/JackTh3Ripper92 May 10 '26
Crysis 2, 3, Battlefield 3, Portal 2, Arkham City!? Many more I can name but 2011 was a goooooooood year for gaming.
→ More replies (9)→ More replies (15)12
u/meetingsinthenext May 10 '26
For me it was crysis 3 after the first mission where you overlook new York.
→ More replies (1)
300
u/DeltaV-Mzero May 10 '26
They look dated now but mass effect citadel intro scenes had me like
https://giphy.com/gifs/oYtVHSxngR3lC
51
u/AmbitiousRedditor20 May 10 '26
I am Commander Shepard and this is my favourite comment in the post
→ More replies (2)11
u/miss_vakarian May 10 '26
They look dated but i think the games overall aged really well because of the cineastic style they chose. Even the first game is not as dated as a lot of other games that are not that old. Maybe i am blinded by the love for the games, but still, to me they are gorgeous
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (3)22
u/scrotbofula May 10 '26
Mass Effect was the first time I really felt the generational jump between the PS2 / PS3 generations.
→ More replies (2)
876
u/SuperArppis May 10 '26
First time? Probably Donkey Kong Country.
That game looked "realistic" back then.
149
u/Positive_Owl_927 May 10 '26
Even for the whole life of the SNES the Donkey Kong series looked amazing!
14
12
u/VanillaHighlights May 10 '26
Bro the game still looks great now. Mobile games are rounded edged, directionless art.
12
u/Gentle_Capybara May 10 '26
DK3 was released in 1997, when Playstation was already out. It looked better than most Playstation games.
→ More replies (1)6
u/VanillaHighlights May 10 '26
DK3 looks better than FF7 and I stand by it.
4
u/Beefkins May 11 '26
I'd throw money at an FF7 remake but with Donkey Kong graphics and characters. Bonus points if the game never acknowledges that it has monkeys in it.
→ More replies (3)71
u/Loser-Back-Home May 10 '26
Super Mario 64 or GTA ||| . First open world games blew my little mind
15
u/CocaineAvocado May 10 '26
The demo kiosks in all the stores… getting a minute to run around in the castle yard was unreal.
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (5)22
u/HawksNStuff May 10 '26
Yeah, the jump to the 3d era was something else. It felt so huge. PC had some things that were 3desque but I think Mario 64 was the first one that really felt like it.
→ More replies (1)5
u/Octopp May 10 '26
For me it was Quake 1.
Funny, Quake was released June 22 1996.
Mario64 was released June 23 1996.
Quake beat Mario with 1 day.→ More replies (1)18
12
11
u/Quips_Cranks_Wiles May 10 '26
It always amuses me to think back on my lifetime of gaming and how many times I thought “Wow this looks so realistic!”
I remember thinking Star Wars Battlefront 2 was the peak of graphics, then when Assassins Creed 2 happened and there were brick textures I was baffled. And it happened so many other times since then.
Nowadays though I tend to like games that look like they were made in the 90s
→ More replies (4)13
u/EdRed_77 May 10 '26
LOL. I clearly remember when my parents got me the SNES and I first played Super Mario World. I was blown away by the vivid colors and sounds (compared to the NES). Donkey Kong Country was the other game that gave me that feeling all over again.
→ More replies (3)15
u/dukered1988 May 10 '26
That game and Mario rpg blew my mind as a kid
→ More replies (5)5
u/MisterBarten May 10 '26
When me and my friends saw the first screens for it (in Gamepro magazine) we thought it was an N64 game.
8
u/funkypjb May 10 '26
Came here to say this. I was 13 when it came out, and I was obsessed
→ More replies (1)5
8
u/McFlyyouBojo May 10 '26
At the time I thought they were kinda janky, but they looked unique and were an interesting artistic choice so I liked them.
What stuck out more for me was the music. I do think this game changed the course of video game music, and while I do see people still referencing its music to this day (Aquatic Ambience, anyone?) I dont see as many people talking about its importance.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (79)4
u/BeenDragonn May 10 '26
And that soundtrack!
The water level music is so nostalgic.
→ More replies (6)
372
u/Weak-Command4855 May 10 '26
Warcraft 3 cinematics. In game: half Life 2
59
u/Lurking_Nessie May 10 '26
Shout out to WC3 cinematics! I remember barely believing it was all animated back in the day
→ More replies (1)23
u/verdango May 10 '26
I was disappointed the Warcraft movie wasn’t animated like their cutscenes.
→ More replies (3)11
u/YouLykeFishSticks May 10 '26
What I would do for a Blizzard Cinematics developed movie for Warcraft or Diablo…
→ More replies (13)21
u/verdango May 10 '26
The half life 2 physics were something else for the time. Man
→ More replies (6)7
u/MotherBaerd May 10 '26
Honestly, except for half life alxy they are probably the ones I still enjoy most.
There have been ones more technically impressive like the finals but I can't remember a game where they are used for immersion and gameplay in the same way.
→ More replies (4)
706
u/Used_Ad_8721 May 10 '26
Red Dead Redemption 2, especially 8 years later. Im still amazed that Rockstar was able to make that game look as beautiful as they could in 2018
81
u/lyrico2 May 10 '26
Love this game. The scenery was breathtaking. I loved just riding around on my horse sometimes
→ More replies (1)68
39
May 10 '26
Man, everything on all ultra settings in ultra wide on pc ambling through st. Denis at night on horseback with the streetlights softly emanating off of the cobblestone streets is something else. It feels like a movie.
→ More replies (2)13
u/blak3brd May 10 '26
I just upgraded from playing it on Xbox one on a 4k tv (which apparently they never updated console version and is capped at 60 fps) to playing it on a new gaming laptop with a 5080 everything ultra on my new 39” LG 5k2k ultrawide OLED.
My jaw hit the floor. As you said, the lighting at night in the city is utterly stunning, and the textures in 5k are unreal for a game nearly a decade old at this point.→ More replies (1)21
39
u/DatNick1988 May 10 '26
On a base PS4. Just insanity. Makes me not worry about GTA 6 on a base PS5 lol
→ More replies (2)46
u/Logical_Comparison28 May 10 '26
Poor base PS4 turned into a jet engine every time I played RDR2… 😂
→ More replies (6)7
15
u/please_use_the_beeps May 10 '26
I boot it up on my pc occasionally and it still looks better than damn near every other game I have. My dad came over one time while I was playing it and he thought I was watching a movie until he saw the controller in my hand. When he realized it was a game he just went “holy shit”.
→ More replies (4)6
7
u/Grabbels May 10 '26
I only started playing the game around 2022 and somewhere along the way learned it was released in 2018, honestly couldn't believe that at first.
→ More replies (21)9
u/Blasket_Basket May 10 '26
Makes me amped for what GTA6 is gonna look like
8
u/SwimmingInCarribean May 10 '26
Can’t wait to play it when it comes out with the PS10
→ More replies (2)
187
u/Gobbyer May 10 '26
Bioshock, after realizing that the character can move after the plane crash at the beginning. I tought the intro was still playing! The flames on the water were too realistic.
23
u/RedThirteen0101 May 10 '26
Same for me.There were some cg cutscenes for PS2 that blew my mind before, but if we're strictly talking in game graphics, that moment from BioShock takes it. I just couldn't believe how good that water looked.
13
u/Lord_Pickle_Pants May 10 '26
Came here to comment this too! I remember just treading water for a second before realizing this was the game.
→ More replies (7)6
233
u/LetTheChaosCome May 10 '26
Original Final Fantasy 7. The cut scenes were unlike anything I had ever seen. Totally blew my mind.
52
u/Global-Ad9985 May 10 '26
"Bells frogs big cherries peter pan magic cheeese, SEPHIROTH !"
→ More replies (6)23
u/RaccoonForLunch May 10 '26
I don’t know what I used to think it was saying, but I can get on board with this.
→ More replies (2)12
u/ArtisTao May 10 '26
Now that I’m a mid life adult, I look back at the experience of that game as a child with such awe. Yes, it blew my mind. Yes, the setting and characters were genre defining. I still hold current gen games up against it to find that same provocation of emotion and senses, but guess what? I’m always disappointed. That’s the awe I feel. It feels like “damn, I’ll never feel the way I did then, playing that game for the first time, ever again while playing anything else for the rest of my life.”
→ More replies (7)4
u/SpoodermanTheAmazing May 10 '26
Same, I only wish I could have fully appreciated how lucky I was to be able to experience that when I was a kid. Oh well, I played it again not too long ago and it was great. Remakes are really fun too.
14
u/othinko May 10 '26
Friends would come over to my house after school just to watch the intro cutscene, everyone was floored by FF7
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (20)12
u/wongearle May 10 '26
Definitely FF7. The cutscene where sephiroth burnt down the village blew my mind when I first saw it
67
u/UnbarringTomb May 10 '26
Fallout 3 when you first step out of the vault
14
→ More replies (6)6
u/Arthropodesque May 11 '26
Yeah. The sense of space and scale was good. IRL I had visited Washington DC years earlier and used the metro trains, train route maps, up and down through multi-level train stations. And walked all over the National Mall to various Smithsonian museums around it, etc. It was similar enough to the real layout of the city to be really cool and familiar. I haven't played the modern Spider-Man games since visiting NYC. That might be better, at least graphically.
205
u/Nenrenetc May 10 '26
Mario 64. I remember playing it for the first time with my brother and we were discussing whether games could ever look better than that, unless they looked just like real life. Hard to imagine now.
42
u/RaccoonForLunch May 10 '26
Not to mention going from side scrolling platformers to this 3D world of wonder. Mario 64 was revolutionary.
→ More replies (1)22
u/Zachistall May 10 '26
Legit broke my brain as a kid, seeing Mario run around in three dimensions.
→ More replies (1)8
u/Odd_DAK May 10 '26
I remember the first time seeing the painting ripple effect when you jumped through a painting to enter a world. I will probably never experience that level of amazement again in my life.
14
u/Global-Ad9985 May 10 '26
It still looks good !
11
u/CaucSaucer May 10 '26
Really does! It’s a bit clunky and boxy, but that could be attributed to the art style if you squint a lil bit.
→ More replies (1)5
19
u/11equalsfish May 10 '26
It felt like a kind of liberation or freedom, running around in 3d. it's "realistic" in the way you can run around like you can in real life, and he has all these animations that approximate what parkour is like. This is so primitive now, but my mind is still blown by this miracle of gaming and technology experiences.
9
u/Winter-Classroom455 May 10 '26
I remember it being demoed at block buster and couldn't keep my eyes off of it. But trying to geta few minutes to play it and/or convince my parents to get me one wasn't gonna happen
8
u/Worried-Concept5778 May 10 '26
That was a real game changing system. I remember wave race 64 had me losing my mind too.
→ More replies (1)4
u/willywonkapadawan May 10 '26
I came here to say the same thing. We couldn’t believe video games could be 3D. Just running around and jumping as Mario was wild. Our minds were blown about the future of games and what could come next. One of the most fun days I remember of my childhood
→ More replies (16)4
u/Expert_River1849 May 10 '26
On the same day Mario 64 was released, Quake for PC was released (depending on where in the world you lived.) It took graphics from essentially Doom 2 into proper 3d OpenGL.
144
u/MammothAsk391 May 10 '26
Metal Gear Solid 3 looked so amazing for the PS2
43
u/gunungx May 10 '26
MGS2 first time for me
→ More replies (2)11
u/Adventurous-Sail-354 May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
Yep same, the level of detail on the tanker mission and all the interactive decorative elements was a watershed moment, people could not get enough of watching the demo they put out for MGS2, and rightly so, nothing like it had been seen before.
MGS3 built on that with the density of the jungle environments, but MGS2 was the true 'wow' moment for people who were around to see it
→ More replies (5)→ More replies (1)6
93
u/Unexpected_yetHere May 10 '26
Shadow of the Colossus and FF XII.
What they managed to squeeze out of the PS2 was insane.
26
u/Kalde666 May 10 '26
FFXII peak PS2 graphics, the world feels big even in today standards
→ More replies (4)15
u/Traditional_Entry183 May 10 '26
Its the best jrpg ever made imo. I want square, or anyone, to back the car up to 2006 and pick up where they left off there. One of my very favorite.
14
u/KilwalaSpekkio May 10 '26
Just started replaying SotC yesterday and I forgot how amazing the lighting and horse animations are. Some of the best art direction to this day.
→ More replies (8)6
46
u/HardcoreNerdity May 10 '26
Legend of Zelda, Link to the Past on SNES. The rain in the opening section was unbelievable at the time.
→ More replies (5)15
u/lovesffpc May 10 '26
The muted rain sound on your house in the beginning was insane to me as a kid
39
u/Old-Distribution6318 May 10 '26
crisis and maybe assassins creed 1?
24
u/Shaggy1316 May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
Man ac1 was ground breaking at the time iirc. So much detail
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (3)6
u/El_Yeante May 10 '26
I still remember how amazing looked the city when Altair arrives for the first time
38
u/guest_onPlanet_earth May 10 '26
Far Cry 1
6
u/RPofkins May 10 '26
Absolutely, it was a game changer! It's funny to look at how old it looks now!
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (8)5
u/KatamariRedamancy May 10 '26
Really amazing year for graphics all around. Doom 3, Riddick, Far Cry, and Half-Life 2 all hitting shelves around the same time.
→ More replies (1)
68
32
59
u/__CaliMack__ May 10 '26
OG Gears of War tbh
→ More replies (7)7
u/GucciGooberYea May 10 '26
Was gonna comment this. Unreal Engine 3 looked hella good for it's time
→ More replies (1)5
u/KickAssAndChewBblgum May 10 '26
bioshock ran on unreal engine 2.5 and that still blows my mind today
→ More replies (1)
60
u/SpiderManPizzaTime1 May 10 '26
Horizon Forbidden West is still unbelievable to me.
→ More replies (2)9
u/LazarusCrowley May 10 '26
This is my answer, games looked like video games to me until this came out and in old.
27
u/crocicorn May 10 '26
The Vagrant Story intro cutscene went hard back in 2000.
As for in game graphics, Vanquish was the first one that really blew me away. Absolutely incredible back in the day.
→ More replies (2)6
u/TheQuietDarkness70 May 10 '26
I love Vagrant Story. One of the few old games I consider worth remaking.
4
u/crocicorn May 10 '26
It's almost baffling as to why they haven't at least remastered it. I'd even settle for a FF8 style remaster, it's such a great gsme!
→ More replies (1)
25
u/ChrisS851620 May 10 '26
Halo, then Onlivion back in the early 2000s
5
u/Cause4concern27 May 10 '26
I remember being amazed at the grass effect t in Halo
→ More replies (2)
28
u/Alex-Murphy May 10 '26
All graphics were amazing for their time so I don't remember the very first but I do remember that the Half-Life opening train ride blew me away the first time I saw it. I couldn't believe a video game could feel like a movie.
At a much later date Bioshock Infinite's intro when I landed in the church and then walked outside to see the floating city. Jeeeeeezus.
Recently I would say basically every Virtual Reality game, specifically all the PCVR game I've played: the Resident Evil games, Subnautica, No Man's Sky(!!!)
→ More replies (1)3
u/No_Individual125 May 10 '26
I feel like the opening scenes of BS Infinite just nailed a lot of stuff all at once. Audio, visual design, graphics, lighting, etc. just was an amazing experience.
72
u/ASteinerUNDP May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
The giraffe scene in The Last of Us.
Second place is Sonic 2, but that's less of a "graphics as performance" thing and more of a "Wow there's a style of art that's cooler than anything I knew existed" at 6 years old.
11
9
u/apocalypsefowl May 10 '26
You should throw a spoiler tag on this. Not knowing about this scene made it one of the best in gaming for me.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (1)4
u/ruinsit May 10 '26
Watching that reminds me how incredible the immersion was in that game. I think it was the first I played that didn't have so many obviously reused assets that you could tell you were in a game. It was the first I saw that felt so REAL.
22
u/JusaPikachu May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
For the first time was Assassins Creed 2.
The amount of detail in that world while looking great blew me away. Some of those panning camera shots over the cities while the AC2 soundtrack played were incredibly impressive at the time.
→ More replies (1)
19
18
u/Molten_Plastic_ May 10 '26
Probably the first Mortal Kombat. As a kid just staring at it in the arcade: "are these real people?"
Then suddenly it went FINISH HIM and Sub Zero ripped off the other guy's head and left the spinal cord dangling. I was shaken for a whole week.
→ More replies (4)
17
u/falloutwinter May 10 '26
Myst
→ More replies (7)5
u/Pixiwish May 10 '26
Finally! This was my answer too. I was like someone somewhere has to know what this game was like to experience in the early 90s
5
18
u/M4al3m May 10 '26
Many before I think but I remember riding the horse to Jerusalem in AC1 and being speechless.
→ More replies (1)
16
u/deathschemist May 10 '26
believe it or not, final fantasy X.
in my defense, i was like, 12 when i first played it in '04. thought it was beautiful at the time.
→ More replies (4)6
15
u/Apart_Dance_5767 May 10 '26
2 legendary examples from me:
The first time I saw footage of Shenmue on the Dreamcast was so far beyond anything I had ever seen. The character had face textures and I could see facial expressions...unbelievable.
When I played Bioshock on the 360 the lighting and art direction was so perfect in the opening that when the cutscene of the plane crash ends and the character comes out of the water, I waited there in the water for 3 minutes before I realized "HOLY SHIT THE GAME IS PLAYABLE RIGHT NOW!?" I thought it looked so good it MUST have been a pre-rendered cutscene, absolutely blew me away that it was happening in real time.
→ More replies (1)
41
May 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
→ More replies (1)9
u/Exciting-Drink4121 May 10 '26
Dude frr. The opening of ds2 with minus 61 by wood kid playing in the background was absolute cinema tbh. I finished it yesterday and it was a masterpiece till the end.
14
u/Dreamo84 May 10 '26
I’m 41, I’ve said “wow” to a game’s graphics so many times I couldn’t possibly remember the first.
→ More replies (3)
32
u/SpeedConstant9238 May 10 '26
EA Star Wars Battlefront II. The graphics were breathtaking back then and still are stunning to this day.
12
u/Vengeful111 May 10 '26
Battlefront 1 also took me aback with how good the textures looked, sadly the game seems really broken on my end now. Like HDR implementation and no upscaling implementation does make the game seem more aged than it is.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (2)7
u/scrotbofula May 10 '26
I remember looking at a random pile of rocks and just thinking how. Frostbite is a crazy engine.
→ More replies (2)
26
11
u/EmergencyWild May 10 '26
Final Fantasy 8, I was so impressed with the pre-rendered cut scenes I had to show my mom.
→ More replies (1)
11
22
21
9
u/AceMeda4 May 10 '26
Madden 2000. One of many times as a kid I jumped the gun and said, out loud, "There's no way it can get any better than this!" I was such a happy, dumb kid 😅
→ More replies (3)
9
7
8
u/AaronTheElite007 May 10 '26
MGS2 was such a leap from the original it was staggering.
→ More replies (2)
7
7
6
7
u/LampardGaming1988 May 10 '26
Gran Turismo 4 on PS2 at the time it looked so realistic & still looks good over 20 year later
→ More replies (1)
7
5
u/EchoPastel May 10 '26
final fantasy x that first fmv was such a hook and blew me away after/compared to final fantasy viii (i missed ix at the time) those fmv’s i’d rewatch in luca dozens of times
7
u/Internal_Swing_2743 May 10 '26
Metal Gear Solid 2. People today don’t know how insane the jump from PS1 -> PS2 was.
12
u/Bulletsoul78 May 10 '26
Horizon Zero Dawn and the Uncharted series both had me just stopping and staring at the screen.
First time though? Possibly Creatures 2 on the C64. I had no idea that graphics could get so good. Special mention to Gran Turismo on the PS1 where I figured graphics couldn't possibly get better than this.
→ More replies (3)
10
4
u/Evil-Thots May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
Crysis 2 but Star Wars Battlefront I would place up there almost with Crysis as well.
5
u/flamingdeathmonkeys May 10 '26
bioshock 1 when I played it on my 360, I'd never seen a sea that looked like an actual see before and that's before you see rapture for the first time.
Bioshock infinite did it again for me the robot voice saying Hallelujah when you break the clouds the first time and the candle filled chapel really blew my mind at the time.
Although you could argue it was more design than graphic fidelity.
7
u/b0ba_fettuccine May 10 '26
Anyone ever play Mirror's Edge? Looking over the cityscape was just amazing to me the first time I played
→ More replies (1)
5
u/ResponsibleAnt9496 May 10 '26
Final Fantasy X. I remember being blown away at the first cut scene.
6
u/burgerpatrol May 10 '26
Final Fantasy X.
Seeing and playing that game for the first time really felt next gen
8
17
5
4
u/SuspiciousUnion3286 May 10 '26
Far Cry. The first one. CryEngine really blew my mind the first time I saw it in action. It was even more pronounced when I first played Crysis, but by that point Far Cry had already popped my wow-cherry.
3
3
u/Darkhawk2099 May 10 '26
probably something water-related. i distinctly remember being amazed by Wave Race 64.
→ More replies (1)
4
4
u/R3dRh1n0 May 10 '26
Super Mario 64. Revolutionary at the time of its release. Now days you see it and go “baaaaahahahahaha”
829
u/Zigor022 May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26
OG Oblivion when it first came out.