9 Video Game Innovations That Happened Earlier Than You Think

2. Every Third-Person Cover System - NOT Gears Of War

Actually: Kill.Switch

To this day I think the debut of Gears of War was masterful. The Gary Joules Madworld teaser trailer, actually seeing the game in motion, and most of all, experiencing a "stop n' pop" cover system that would influence every single third-person shooter going forward.

And yet, while Gears is certainly accomplished, Namco's KillSwitch could've arguably had some of that glory, if their marketing had been on point.

KillSwitch was the first game to feature blind-firing, waist-high cover peppering environments for you to hide behind, and the general idea of a cover system BEING the gameplay. It's a totally tight, enjoyable shooter, but lacked the marketing power of new mechanics being twinned with a brand new console.

Once we saw that Gears of War trailer or the game in action, the entire industry would refer to this set of mechanics as the "Gears cover system". Even Omega Force's cult classic Operation Winback deserves a mention though, as another overlooked title that was experimenting with cover systems and trading fire with enemies.