User blog comment:Le Rottweiler/Me complaining about more bullshit/@comment-1496755-20151205002029

I suppose realism was sacrificed due to having a revolutionary new 3D engine, which did not allow for too much experimentation.

Even Quake 2's reloading animations (if any) are pretty simple, even though the engine (and the designers' skills with it) had advanced considerably since Q1. Reloading was easier to implement in Doom, since it was merely a matter of drawing some sprites. But when you work with 3D models, things become harder.

Half-Life has somewhat decent reloading animations, though they are still relatively simple.