Three-dimensional graphics, usually constructed of polygons. Not two-dimensional.
Dark Side is the 1988 sequel to Driller is a very early example of a first-person, full 3D, explorable world, that can be viewed from almost any angle.
The game engine – Freescape – has gone on to become famous as one of the earliest examples of its type, and one that was hugely influential on every 3D exploration game that followed.
I’m going to use the Japanese and North American name for this game – Star Fox – rather than the European name (Star Wing, which was chosen because the name “Star Fox” was apparently too similar to a German company called “StarVox”!).
First released in 2015, CD Projekt Red‘s The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is a third-person, open world Role-Playing Game that is based on a series of novels by the Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski.
Obviously it is the third instalment in the series (and last, according to the developers), and in it you play a monster-hunting detective badass called Geralt – a Witcher; a carrier of two swords (one steel, for killing humans, and one silver, for killing monsters); and a superhuman solver of problems with acute senses and no emotions.
The fifth game in Nintendo‘s famous “Metroid” series, and the first to use 3D graphics, Metroid Prime follows the well-worn gameplay path of the earlier Metroid games (that is: have all your equipment; lose all your equipment; have to find all your equipment again) and again sees you playing as Samus Aran, a female ex-soldier with a powered exoskeleton.
No Second Prize is a 3D motorbike racing game from German developer and publisher Thalion, with mouse controls and an emphasis on fun, rather than realism.
Which suits me, because realism in these games can really become a problem when all you want to do is complete one lap of the course without crashing, but can’t seem to be able to do that.
Infogrames‘ Alone In The Dark is one of the earliest survival horror games to use 3D graphics (mixed with 2D graphics), and it really broke new ground when it was first released back in 1992.
Resident Evil Zero is a prequel to the first Resident Evil game and originally came out on the Nintendo GameCube in 2002.
It is the fifth major instalment in the Resident Evil series. The game uses the older ‘pre-rendered’ style of backgrounds, but is much darker and more serious than the first Resident Evil.
Resident Evil – Code: Veronica was released exclusively on the Sega Dreamcast by Capcom in 2000.
Resident Evil 6 continues Capcom‘s infamous survival horror series in such a high-octane fashion, that its fifteen minute pre-title action sequence would shame even a James Bond film.
The first in the Resident Evil series to feature simultaneous cooperative play, Resident Evil 5 (2009) is a somewhat strange (but interesting) instalment that takes place in Africa.
This time you’re up against a virus, a corrupt corporation, local ‘zombie’ thugs, and black magic and superstition as well. All in broad daylight too, as the first part of the game seems to take every opportunity to kick you outdoors into the blazing sunshine (as though the developers were insisting that this episode would all be set outdoors, because we’d all been sat indoors playing games for too long in the dark).
The King of Grabs 