9. Descent (PC)
Descent was a game that came inches from totally changing the gaming world. At its heart, Descent was an FPS. But, it was unlike any other FPS of the time, because it wasn't a two axis game. Players piloted a space ship through an asteroid mining station. Because the game took place in space, and therefore had no gravity, the action took place in an environment with no established up or down. It was confusing, disorienting, sometimes annoying or nauseating, and innovative. It gave the gaming community a whole new look on what the FPS was capable of. In a time where games like Duke Nukem 3d and Shadow Man (both good shooters, but nonetheless totally uncreative) dominated the market, Descent offered something totally unlike what had come before. Descent received excellent reviews from pretty much all sources. Critics and gamers praised it for all these reasons and more. However, sales couldn't keep up with more popular (and ultimately more approachable) competing titles. Descent's makers through a few sequels together, but none got the attention that the original received, and the IP eventually faded into memory. It was years before the FPS genre made any real changes to the formula with the introduction of Halo's new approach to shooters. Had Descent's inventive system of play been more popularized, it could have influenced the way FPS games were made for a whole generation of systems.