Similar to the "Impossible Ports" thread, but this time for non-ports.

What games, though outdated now, wowed you with their technical achievements for their time/hardware?

Morrowind.
FarCry.
Crysis.
Metro 2033.
Perfect Dark.
Final Fantasy 8.
Donkey Kong Country.

I know how the visuals were achieved in said games... But they were still impressive to me at those points in time.

I was going to say the original Doom on either the SNES or the GBA because that port is amazing given the hardware that it's running on... but you say they have to be outdated now, and I can happily go back and pick up either of those versions of the original Doom and blast my way through the whole campaign without a bother to them being "outdated" they still look and sound great.

Zero Tolerance on the megadrive was a tech marvel... but if you look at it in 2018 you'll see how they managed to pull off a FPS on the megadrives hardware, the majority of the screen is a giant window around a tiny play area, heck the characters ID card is pretty much the size of the play area.


Spinderella in Dynamite headdy was pretty awesome back on the megadrive as well... loads of that games sprites were gigantic and Spinderellas use of rotation and scaling was (for the time) very impressive to me.

I remember my first night playing Sonic the Hedgehog. I was amazed that the player could move the camera slightly, and that Sonic would start tapping his foot if you didn't touch the controls for a few seconds.

I also remember Altered Beast for Genesis. It started with a very low quality voice saying "Rise from your grave." I was amazed that they were able to make the game talk.

Star Fox, of course.
Conker's Bad Fur Day on the N64.

Flashback
MGS (PS1)
FF8
PoP

Fear Effect

Vagrant Story
GT2 & GT3
RE2
Ocarina of Time
Ninja Gaiden
ZOE2
Tekken 3

I think every game on that list represented a wow moment for me. I would have put in FF7.... but I think FF8 showed a mastery of what they were trying to do with FF7. Though FF7 was the better game.

Both Luigi's Mansions (mainly their lighting engines), Kid Icarus: Uprising (the sheer amount of crap on screen at any given moment) and 3DS Resident Evil Revelations (everything). Hell playing a game with the scale of Xenoblade Chronicles on the damn thing impressed me. Granted, it's because it terms of sheer graphical fidelity, not art style or level design, but stuff like polygons and textures, the game looks like shit, but still.

Off the top of my head:

Crysis (still holds up today)
Metroid Prime
Half Life 2
Rogue Squadron 2
Halo
God of War
Resident Evil 4
REmake
Super Mario 64
Zelda OOT
Shenmue

Well someone already said it but have to go with Shenmue also. Plus Soul Calibur was another very impressive Dreamcast title.