Influential Games

The quintessential platformer.

The birth of metroidvania.

The birth of JRPGs.

Birth of JRPG job systems, here referred as classes.

Birth of SRPGs as we know 'em.

The birth of 2D fighting games as we know 'em.

Realistic traversal principles are birthed.

Every action RPG uses a form of its battle system now.

Introduction of chain combos i.e. cancellable normals. It came out before SFAlpha, but perhaps SFAlpha was the influential one. FIghter's History Dynamite sort of like had this before Darkstalkers though.

Grandfather of first-person shooters.

The birth of 3D fighting games.

The quintessential 3D platformer and birth of collect-a-thons.

The birth of traversal in a 3D environment principles that basically every game uses nowadays.

Birth of the survival horror genre.

The birth of stealth action games.

Open world sandboxes rise astronomically in popularity.

Rise of cinematic event shooter. Although Half-Life itself isn't that cinematic event-driven.

The rise in popularity of over-the-shoulder shooting.

The beginning of Ubisoft's game formula that they've used in every single one of their games since then and was immitated by most games too. Open world + RPG leveling up + action combat + stealth sections + climbing + minimap with a thousand markers + hint mode (eagle vision).

So. many. QTEs!!!

Although Kill.Switch had it before, GoW popularized cover shooters.

So many games immitated it.

The downfall of platforming, when all platforming in games became automatic magnetic ledges and lack of challenge in it. At least here the traps add some challenge.