You know a game is great when...

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

What are some things that make you go "Wow! This is awesome!" when you see them implemented on a game you are trying out for the first time.

I have always loved it when games cut you some slack after having you do the same thing many times, either automating the process after a bit or skipping it altogether.

I'm also a big fan of games that present you with multiple solutions to every puzzle, so no two gameplays are alike.

What about you?

 

[Zerohour2k12]

I agree! It's nice when games respects your time and has the right balance when it comes to the grind within the gameplay.

I love ones that have good replayability.

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

I really like modular equipment, being able to customize my units or even design them from the ground up in an RTS is very fun, and adds a lot to the decision making.

When games have different difficulties for different mechanics, like being able to set puzzle difficulty and combat difficulty at different levels. Or when sandbox games let you customize everything.

The ego trip is fun too, being able to read/hear about your exploits and hear NPCs comment on it.

Letting me ship the party members amongst themselves.

 

[TruxtonTatsujin TruxtonTatsujin]

when the characters have a different sprite for facing left and right. It's a little thing, but it often shows the level of detail that the devs are aiming for, especially when equipment further alters their appearance.

 

[DjQuick2008]

Tekken with eddy gordo still leaves me like what the f some times the move range is unreal.

 

[Viyon]

I love videogames that improve on things that have been standard practice in the media by aiming for quality of life/ease of use (e.g.: skippable/faster animations in Disgaea games as an option and/or at the press of a button, better interactions/looting in Monster Hunter, PC available anywhere in Pokémon/latest Digimon entry), anything that respects the player's time (an actual pause menu, looking at you edgy games; but also the prior examples) and intelligence, and fun puzzles that don't have only one solution but allow for more/different ways to tackle them (to which Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are a great example).

I really like modular equipment, being able to customize my units or even design them from the ground up in an RTS is very fun, and adds a lot to the decision making.

When games have different difficulties for different mechanics, like being able to set puzzle difficulty and combat difficulty at different levels. Or when sandbox games let you customize everything.

The ego trip is fun too, being able to read/hear about your exploits and hear NPCs comment on it.

Letting me ship the party members amongst themselves.

^Aaaaaaall of this too, any agency for customization/romance given to the player is well appreciated, Age of Wonders and Baldur's Gate 3 are great on that, and when a game acknowledges my actions it makes the experience 5x as immersive and fun.

 

[moonbits]

I like it when it smoothly transitions between cutscenes/dialogue to gameplay and vice versa.

Takes a lot of smart engineering to make that happen. Been Playing FF13 lately and that has stood out quite a bit.

 

[Clippy]

You know a game is great when you decide to try it out for a few minutes and all of a sudden you see the sun rise.

 

[DjQuick2008]

You know a game is great when you decide to try it out for a few minutes and all of a sudden you see the sun rise.

my house parties were like that PES 6 with a load of lads and its 6am before you know it.

 

[Stingy Perry Stingy Perry]

A game is great when played again after decades since you last did and you feel the same enjoyment, excitement, tension etc like the way you did on that very first time you played it. It’s not nostalgia but rather something so familiar that every turn of the analog stick or the tap of the buttons hits harder inside of you than the last time.

 

[Super Funky Piece]

i like when a game gives you some means to go unreasonably fast. it's like a trust excercise