GVMERS

After breaking ground with first-person shooters like Descent and redefining video game destruction with Red Faction, developer Volition, Inc. dipped its toes in a then-up-and-coming genre, the open-world adventure. Saints Row, formerly codenamed Bling Bling, served as the studio’s entry into the space, whose foundations were settled years prior by Rockstar Games’s Grand Theft Auto 3. This is the Rise and Fall of Saints Row.

Sandwiched between the 1998 and 2002 releases of Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, respectively, was the oft-forgotten Syphon Filter that hit the original PlayStation in 1999. Each title contributed building blocks to the stealth-action genre. Metal Gear Solid with its innovative storytelling and mechanics set a perfect cadence. This is the rise and fall of Syphon Filter.

Developed by Arkane’s Austin, Texas branch, the team behind Dishonored and Prey, Redfall promised an open-world, co-op adventure with “capitalistic vampires” as the antagonists. The game tasked players with beating back the supernatural threat by using specialized weapons, stakes, and abilities. But at launch, greedy bloodsuckers hardly seemed the primary cause for concern. This is the tragedy of Redfall.

Launched to much anticipation in May 2016, the original Overwatch took the world by storm. Its rollout as a premium title surprised even the most insightful of analysts, but Blizzard’s aggressive approach with in-game purchases quickly cleared up any confusion. To the dismay of fans, divisive monetization practices marked only the start of Overwatch’s various controversies. This is the tragedy of Overwatch.

Often likened to the carnage of Burnout, MotorStorm set a new bar for off-roading by throwing away the rulebook that many racing games had long followed. The pursuit of these ends resulted in a racer that pit vehicles of disparate types against each other, with dirt bikes fighting for control of the road versus big rigs. Evolution made sure every vehicle controlled differently and every lap around a track offered new challenges, a feat it accomplished across multiple games. This is the rise and fall of MotorStorm.

Since debuting 2003, the Infinity Ward-created Call of Duty series has immersed players in dozens of military conflicts spread across historically accurate settings and futuristic time periods. 2007’s Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare proved especially pivotal, steering the brand away from its preceding World War 2 engagements while also redefining first-person action and online multiplayer. This is the history of canceled Call of Duty games.

In recent years, Unreal has exclusively been associated with the game engine of the same name. As such, its roots are either forgotten or wholly unknown to younger generations of gamers. But long before Epic began showcasing demos of its graphics engines on console hardware, the studio’s original group of staffers dreamt of creating the premier PC gaming engine and FPS experience. The crew achieved this and more upon unleashing Unreal and the Unreal Engine in 1998. This is the rise and fall of Unreal.