It is interesting going back to older games (specifically ps2 at the moment). Remembering when these games first came out, I remember how immersive and unbelievable they are. While they are still amazing and fun, I have noticed a greater varying in immersiveness in comparison to how it used to feel.
I'll give an example: I have been playing both the original God of War and ICO. Arguably God of War specifically does a lot more to create a cinematic experience and has stellar production value. This does a lot for game feel, but I feel like looking back on it these elements reminds me more and more that it is a game vs. when I first played it years ago and just felt grounded in its reality.
It is hard to explain why it causes that sort of sensation beyond the aspect that some of these tools are out of practice now, where ICO doesn't necessarily have a lot going on. Don't get me wrong, it still tries to be cinematic and immersive on purpose but the lack of moving parts means that less aspects are bound to be deprecated over time.
Are there things in ICO that do feel dated? Yeah, kinda. However, the game in itself feels so uniquely itself that it kind of just exists. There have been continued iterations of God of War that carried the mechanics and the production value further, thus the limitations of the system becomes more visible.
I think this speaks to several ideas as a thesis to this observation. You will never know what tomorrow will bring in terms of technology and practices. It is impossible to predict how something will age. Sometimes the biggest and most expensive is not always the most full proof choice. I still love both games. This isn't a commentary on quality. It is just interesting how things of the past change as you move into the future.
