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

 

[Evaccaneer Doom]

When the game is functional, it becomes a numbers game if I find it great. I have no real preferences. I don’t hate grinding, I love Wizardry. I don’t hate random encounters, I love SMT. I don’t hate speed, I love Sonic. I don’t hate difficulty, I love Ultrakill. I’m not even entirely sure if I hate life sims because I love Atelier and do want to give Harvest Moon games a fair shake.

 

[Jeff]

A game is amazing when the controls are responsive, gameplay that has amazing replay value, and it gives you adventures & imaginative ideas.

 

[redux007]

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?

When it's good. And, I mean really good. As in it has no right to be that good. If you were to ask me what the highest quality, most competently created indie 2D platformer on the market it is. I'd say Freedom Planet 2. Always surprises me when I think about it. So, I suppose "surprise" is the chief thing that impresses me. The art of not sucking when it looks like it should.

 

[BrawlMan]

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.

A game is amazing when the controls are responsive, gameplay that has amazing replay value, and it gives you adventures & imaginative ideas.

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.

All of this.

I love Atelier and do want to give Harvest Moon games a fair shake.

Go for it.

When the sequel improves even further than the last game, and as the right incentives to keep the player(s). Be it a shift in art style, gameplay, and extra/additional modes which all coincide with each other.

 

[NOTthatHARD]

When the game doesn't put me to sleep in the first 30 minutes.

 

[here4outbreak]

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

this but its better if its unintentional, its a fun kind of broken that also has certain rules it follows like in spark the electric jester 2/3 (if you cancel your homing attack with a dash before making contact, you keep the burst of speed from the attack)

example of thing in questiom

 

[NeonKnights]

It has options for switching the language to Japanese without requiring deleting my save file and resetting my progress.

 

[Dr.Kisaragi Dr.Kisaragi]

Well if hooks me for three days then I play this game I really don't care if is outdated clunky and repetitive as long is fun for me.

 

[Waffles's iconWaffles]

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.

The "so good, it wrecks your schedule" category of gaming should be talked about a lot more.

I'm completely serious.

 

[Sheepy765]

I know a game is great when the soundtrack turns out to be stellar. Games like Majora's Mask with the Astral Observatory theme causing it to rain specifically on my face, Drakengard 3 with the clever transition between an intoner's song and the boss theme, Final Fantasy XIII's opening theme being... just so beautiful, Florence and The Machine's cover of Stand by Me for Final Fantasy XV, or even something as seemingly mundane as Shin Megami Tensei's goofy little overworld themes.