I probably should have left out "engines" from that sentence for it to be the most literally accurate. One could argue that Quake's tone set the tone for half-

I probably should have left out "engines" from that sentence for it to be the most literally accurate. One could argue that Quake's tone set the tone for half-life, which was a big advance for narrative storytelling in the medium, which means half-life in turn heavily influence the tone of the medium in future generations. There is a bit of a void in this thread that things run into after ~2010 where things like tone and storytelling are washed away in most games. Romero's influences were games of the time, but also HP Lovecraft. A lot of what is in Quake and Doom feels pretty original and influential. I'd be happy to be corrected though.