[unconed]

Peak "lifelessness era" was arguably the early 2010s. At the time there were leaps in graphical fidelity every year, and celebrity mocap and voice acting was a thing. Mechanisms like regenerating health were very popular to create very breezy theme park rides in video game form, like Mass Effect 2/3. You basically spend half the game wandering space malls, and the other running cover to cover. Very fun at the time, but there is nothing to do in the game that wasn't an anticipated interaction or choreographed shooting gallery.

Since then Souls-likes brought back the idea of difficult challenge, roguelikes have brought back the idea of compounding game systems with a vengeance. Some of the most beloved titles in recent years were indie (e.g. Subnautica or Outer Wilds). It's not quite as bad as it used to be.

The critique about Unreal/Unity though is just that the basic tropes of the FPS/TPS open sandbox are now very stale. If developers use off-the-shelf game systems wholesale, they will end up with no-name brand gameplay. Largely games still move like Oblivion did, modulo some platforming / ledge grabbing.

Valheim is an interesting mention here, because I would basically describe that game as "Oblivion/Morrowind except the level designer is you". It's not that it's full of life, it just provides a good backdrop for your own imagination.