What makes a good game?

[DarkWarrior45]

This is a question that I've been wanting to ask for a while. But first, let me set this up.

 

I apparently have a different taste in games. I grew playing games such as Zelda, Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger, the original Myst, Super Mario, and I will also count Orcarina of Time. Basically the good old games from the age of the Super Nintendo and then some from the nintendo 64 generation. More recent titles that I've liked have been Morrowind and Final Fantasy 7 and 10. As we all know, everyone I've listed are great games in their own right.

 

Then I come to generation 7, the current generation of games, and I find it difficult to find a good solid game that is par with the standards that I grew up with. Sure, there's been titles such as Halo, but that title and it's sequel haven't stole my life. It just seems like the current generation isn't up to par with previous generations (there are exceptions of course).

 

Which leads to a question, one that as a mod and an amateur game development I'm curious to know, what makes a great, memorable game? Is it storyline, gameplay, music? What is everyone's two cents worth on this?

[Keanumoreira]

Its all of that. A game has to be fun to at least be somewhat remembered, I mean thats the entire point. But for it to truly be a memorable game it must have a solid storyline for sure. It has to grasp the player, surprise the player no matter what they were expecting, there has to be some twists and scenes of ooh and awe, and of course the story must make sense. But of course the gameplay has to be good. The graphics during actual gameplay has to at least bring joy to the player in some form. But gameplay itself must be fun to carry out, and bring times of excitement that forces the one playing to refuse to stop for many hours. But lets not forget music. Its scientific proof that music can enhance the mood of a human if applied enough and if its to their liking. A good game would obviously include music that fits with its style and carries you along and gives you inspiration and vigor to fight or whatever you may be doing as well as make you very, very happy. And of course no crashing, and no bugs.

[CommanderCrazy]

"it must have a solid storyline for sure. It has to grasp the player, surprise the player no matter what they were expecting & there has to be some twists and scenes of ooh and awe"

Metro 2033 springs to mind here....

 

IMO, Gameplay & Storyline make the game. Sure, graphics has a part, but for me that part comes below the amount I care for the termites in my neighbours house. :thumbsup:

 

If it has the 2 main contributing factors, theres a chance it will take from the real world for hours at a time.

[Burbinator]

I think immersion in the game is most important. Like the others said, a solid storyline is most important. Honestly I think the mainstream is too obsessed with graphics. Graphics are good, but that's because they increase immersion (feel like you're really there or whatever). They are a means to an end, not an end unto themselves. A good story is much more important if you want to move the player and give him a lasting experience. When aerith dies, it's a very pixelated picture of a cartoonish girl. But it's a famous event in video game history because of her character.

 

Anyway, immersion is the ultimate goal imo. Gameplay only needs to be good enough to the point where the player isn't pissed off or bored (and therefore breaking immersion) for example. It's always better to improve it, but it's not pivotal. It's just that nowadays it's hard to have good gameplay that is also unique to the genre (and therefore not boring).

[DarkWarrior45]

I think immersion in the game is most important. Like the others said, a solid storyline is most important. Honestly I think the mainstream is too obsessed with graphics. Graphics are good, but that's because they increase immersion (feel like you're really there or whatever). They are a means to an end, not an end unto themselves. A good story is much more important if you want to move the player and give him a lasting experience. When aerith dies, it's a very pixelated picture of a cartoonish girl. But it's a famous event in video game history because of her character.

 

Anyway, immersion is the ultimate goal imo. Gameplay only needs to be good enough to the point where the player isn't pissed off or bored (and therefore breaking immersion) for example. It's always better to improve it, but it's not pivotal. It's just that nowadays it's hard to have good gameplay that is also unique to the genre (and therefore not boring).

 

I'm glad to see that storyline popped up in every single reply, as it's always what I've valued most in games. And I wholly agree in regards to the graphics. I like purty graphics, but on the same token it's not a deal breaker for me.

 

As for unique gameplay, I will say this: I'm tired of FPS's. So then comes another question, does gameplay such as what is in FPS's get old after a while? Or does the fad continue provided that the other elements, such as a storyline, are present?

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Good games are a dime a dozen- only a few really great games show up every generation.

 

IMHO, the importance of a game's story is related to the nature of the gameplay- if the game in question is a multiplayer-only game, then story is not going to be quite so important. Nobody has ever accused Counter-Strike or Super Smash Bros. of having fantastic stories, but both games were impressive accomplishments- the former being a mod that was so well-polished and successful that a major game studio acquired it and still supports it, the latter being one of the most entertaining party games ever made. Starsiege:Tribes was set in a universe with lots of history which barely reached into the gameplay at all, and yet stands as one of the most innovative online shooters of all time. Half a dozen MMOs across several generations of games have claimed to have the most players online at any single time of any other game on the market, and none of them are too heavy on the epic, deeply immersive story elements that we look for in singleplayer games.

 

I'm an absolute story freak, a heavily addicted page-turner of the worst sort, but not every game was meant to have a great story and there have been many great games over the years that had no story at all. I'd refuse to buy an RPG or even a shooter that billed itself as a singleplayer game but had a weak or nonexistent story, but in a purely multiplayer title the story is just something to set the mood, and isn't even as important a part of the total package as the art style. When you play a singleplayer game, you are playing the story- in multiplayer, it's almost always in the background unless you're playing a co-op campaign.

 

In order to stand apart from the rest, a game has to be unique in some significant way- either by doing something wildly different (successfully) and introducing something to gaming that has never been done before, or to take an existing concept and refine it to such a degree as to make that game a must-have in its genre. A great singleplayer game must have a solid, well-written story to make players want to see it through to the end; a great multiplayer game must be near-perfectly balanced so that the experience never grows stale or frustrating. There has to be a level of polish absent in most games- in attention to detail (take for example the miscellaneous clutter in Bethesda RPGs, or in the System Shock series), in gameplay (i.e. few or no controller-chucker moments), in performance if possible... a game can be great and still have a ton of bugs in it, but for the experience to really shine and endure well past its own generation, the entire package must be of bar-raising quality. I've played plenty of games that had great writing, but fell apart in other areas to the point where I just couldn't finish them- and I'm sure we can all agree that there are plenty of games out there which could have been improved if they were written by a five-year-old instead of the chimp who obviously had the pen.

 

Bottom line, every relevant aspect of the game should be held to the same standard of quality.

 

 

*edit*- there's also a difference between recognizing a game as the best of its breed and just plain loving it for one reason or another. I have a serious soft spot for Starsiege, but the Mechwarrior games had much higher production values... doesn't change the fact that I've been going back and 'Sieging for about a decade now, whereas I dig out all of the MW titles once in a while, play through the campaigns, and put them back in storage. Just because one is by far the "better" game doesn't automatically mean that everyone who plays it will like it better than the underdog competitor that never got the last patch or three that it desperately needed. ;)

[Fonger]

what makes a great, memorable game? Is it storyline, gameplay, music?

Let us assume its:

 

1 ) storyline - we would all be playing books or movies, games wouldn't stand a chance.

 

3 ) music - if its only music - we would be glued to our mp3 players instead of being glued to "the" game.

 

2 ) by default. the other items may or may not add to the gameplay, but without the game, the game is toast.

 

Seems rather obvious.

[evilneko]

Good games are a dime a dozen- only a few really great games show up every generation.

 

This.

 

Fun is what makes a good game, nothing more or less than that. It doesn't have to be pretty, it doesn't have to have music, hell it doesn't even have to have sound if that stupid flash game Simple RTS is anything to go by. It doesn't need a story, it doesn't even really need to be all that immersive--although if you're having fun, you'll find yourself immersed regardless.

 

The problem is that fun, and by extension, greatness, is highly subjective.

 

You mention Halo in your first post. My first experience with Halo was on a console (I forget which. Original XBox maybe?) playing against my cousin. I hated it. Recently my friend obtained all the PC versions of the Halo games and I watched him play a bit. I wasn't impressed. Similarly I hate Diablo 2 and don't see in it what others who might call it "great" do. I hate Diablo 2 for taking my creeping, spine-tingling, dare I say scary Diablo and turning it into a frikkin' kids cartoon.

 

@ the other guy: I agree mostly, but....

A great singleplayer game must have a solid, well-written story to make players want to see it through to the end;

 

One word for ya: DOOM.

[brokenergy]

There is only one thing that makes a good game, it has to be simulating from the start. I don't care that it has excellent graphics or audio, it has to be engaging from the very beginning or I will lose interest and that is the winning formula for all games should have that in many years from now it will be called a classic.

[AlexxEG]

After playing Oblivion and Fallout 3, I realy fell in love with being able to grab stuff. And free roam. Other than that, the quests should contain more than: Go there and kil that guy, go there and blow up that thing.