10 Video Games So Good They Ruined Genres

10. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

The very first Uncharted may have been a solid PS3 launch title, but it was actually a relatively modest and unrefined start for what is now Naughty Dog's flagship AAA franchise.

Everything changed with the release of 2009's Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, then, which tightened up the movement and combat, ditched the painfully bad jet-ski sequences and basically gave the action-adventure blockbuster video game its defining "Jaws" moment.

Right from its perilous, unforgettable opening sequence, where Nathan Drake is hanging desperately from a train carriage, Uncharted 2 served up unprecedented cinematic thrills and never let up over the course of the entire game.

It murdered its genre brethren and left them for dead, such that the Tomb Raider franchise was left with no choice but to shamelessly imitate it (with relatively good results, in fairness).

Even as the budgets ramped up in later Uncharted entries, the franchise was always at its purest the second time around, as both the third and fourth games over-indulged a little in flashbacks and, er, all that damn crate platforming.

Uncharted 2 is a game so brilliantly genre-defining that most other devs aiming for the flighty, Indiana Jones-inspired tentpole thrills haven't even tried to match it. Even a decade later, it's still the presiding king.