wallrunning from titanfall 2, driving a mech like in titanfall 2, basically every mechanic from titanfall 2
wallrunning from titanfall 2, driving a mech like in titanfall 2, basically every mechanic from titanfall 2
I forgot to mention it, that was indeed a very good mechanic
Boss fights that are synchronized to the music. Not too many I can think of off the top of my head right now though. There's Violette in One Step From Eden, and I guess you can count the final stage of Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion sorta loosely did this with the final minute transition.
I don't know if it's actually a mechanic but I love it when a game has instant restarts and generous checkpoints. Takes away a lot of the frustration and allows me to play on a higher difficulty and still enjoy my time with it.
Creative allowance. Even if it makes the game "unbalanced".
Just Cause 2 with the grappling hook you could attach one end to a statue and one to a truck.
Grand Theft Auto 3 was the first game where I realized I could complete an assassination by stealing a police car, use the swarm of police cars following me as a "net" to trap my target's car so he couldn't drive away, and then blowing up the pile of cars with a grenade.
Rimworld where I can create a settlement of nudist vampires trading beautiful wooden sculptures for slaves to feed on.
The Sims 3 of course.
From the Depths, Minecraft, Space Engineers, Valheim also to a large degree.
Add Dwarf Fortress to that list.
A really well done survival-craft gameplay loop is sooo addicting. When they get the balance just right it's so satisfying, but when it's off a little bit it can be so frustrating. For example I thought Subnautica had a really great balance of resource gathering and building and exploring. On the other hand, something like Raft has the balance way off and it's really not fun for me at all.
Same. I really liked the early alphas of 7 days to die but then they went and tried to make it much harder and it just stopped being fun. I haven't played it recently so maybe they've backed off but early on I put in so many hours. Building was great and the zombies did just the right amount of damage to buildings.
Same. I suspect what happened is that they did the mistake of catering to their hardest core of players. People who make impenetrable minmaxed defenses that exploit every mechanic in the game engine, suddenly find that the game is "too easy", so they adjust the game to make it challenging for them.
Thus leaving the rest of us with a game where dogs chew through concrete.
Subnautica was the first survival-crafting game I played and I became obsessed in large party because of how finally tuned crafting and progression was. Now I keep trying a bunch of other similar games hoping they grip me like Subnautica, but they never come close. No Man's Sky was closest but it's too big and unfocused. I went from repairing my little broken ship to owning an entire freighter in like 2 hours.
Much like how I keep buying racing games hoping something will click like the old burnout games, I'm coming to realize I don't think I like the genre that much, I just liked that one special entry within it.
Have you tried Forza Horizon? I haven't been invested in a racing game as much as that one since NFS Underground 2. YMMV but I think it's pretty much the pinnacle of Arcade style racing games.
I actually have heard that before and have wanted to try! Unfortunately I've only had playstation consoles with the exception of the 360. I was actually planning on eventually getting a series x or s to play their exclusive stuff (particularly from Arkane), but if things keep turning out like Redfall I may reconsider.
Not sure if this is necessarily a mechanic, but I always like in rpgs especially jrpgs when you have times when you just hang out with your friends. I think it's great for pacing, world building and character development.
Honestly that's a big reason that Personas 3, 4, and 5 stand as some of my favorite games. Letting a player focus on the main character's relationships with the supporting cast around them just makes the main story hit that much harder when it involves all of these people you've ended up forming strong feelings about.
I like having a hangout spot. Like the Normandy in Mass Effect is a really good one.
CrossCode has an amazing “hanging out with friends” vibe from start to finish. The gameplay and plot are great but the lighthearted atmosphere is what stuck with me most.
YES I GET TO TALK ABOUT GOOP
In NakeyJakey’s The Last of Us 2 video he describes a condition he has called Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. Having GGGB essentially means that your motivation and interest in games is powered almost purely by moment-to-moment gameplay. Anything that gets in the way of gameplay, like:
is a threat to Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain.
I have Goopy Goblin Gamer Brain. A very bad case, if I’m being honest. It’s the reason why I can’t stand games like The Last of Us, Red Dead Redemption 2, and other “prestige-type” games. It's the reason why I am a big fan of a lot of Japanese games, which tend to focus very heavily on mechanical systems.
So when I say a game is "goopy," this is what I mean. Maybe the movement system is godlike (Gravity Rush, Infamous 2, Forspoken). Maybe it has really deep customization mechanics (Bravely Second, Final Fantasy Tactics, Etrian Odyssey). Maybe the pew pews feel good (Apex Legends). Maybe it's a Ys game (Ys).
Ooh, I'll have to give that video a look at some point. I feel like the term game "goop" is actually perfect to describe the main type of mechanic, where the player is meant to learn and experiment with things.
I must be playing different Japanese games, as if they aren't from Formsoft they tend to feel like cutscene simulators to me. Sometimes it can be fun if they have enjoyable writing (looking at a lot of the side content in the Yakuza games).
Nah I wrote a whole thing about it. Japanese games are in general significantly more interested in game feel in the moment to moment, even when they have tons of cutscenes (ex. MGS)
A game like RDR2 is extremely concerned with realism and physicality even if it costs the players agency. Morgan controls like a lumbering tank, and everything feels cumbersome. The game will make you watch him skin an animal for 20 seconds where you aren't even playing the game, really. Contrast that with something like strangers of paradise or devil may cry. Is it realistic for Jack "Skip Cutscene" Garland to cancel out of any animation to perform a finisher? Nope. Does it feel good as fuck? absolutely.
Right? I feel like a lot of stuff needs to have the golden question asked. That is, "Is this fun?".
Transitionless turn-based combat, like in Yakuza : Like a Dragon.
any game that feels good to move around in is instantly better than games with less developed movement systems. games like sm64, source bhop/surf, tf2 rocket jumping, etc. why not make it a joy to get from one place to another instead of just moving in a straight line or fast traveling?
One of the things I like best about AC games
This
Traversal in a game is the #1 factor for me enjoying it. Riding Torrent in ER is fun. Building mechs that can have a suspension system and turret system in TOTK is fun. Thwipping as spiderman and doing tricks is fun. Pogoing in HK is fun.
Traversal is what players spend 99% of their time doing, so make it fun
The Ori series is really good for this. Bash is one of the greatest movement mechanics I have ever used in a video game, and coupled with Ori's other moves you can fly across the map and it feels extremely natural.
I had a real weakspot for Tf2 surf maps and I don't fully understand why. I think it's partly the fact that this isn't how you're "supposed" to play the game, but is an added bonus that came about by accident.
I'm also not very good at them, I spent far too long on surf_utopia (v3, I think) and only ever got to the end of it once.
Any good movement mechanics. Shoutout to grappling hooks!
I just finished playing the campaign for the first time a few weeks ago. Very fun
Grappling hook for the win! From xontic, to overwatch to spider man games,just swinging around is a blast.
Killing someone with a crit rocket in Team Fortress 2: hahaha fuck yeah Getting killed by a crit rocket in TF2: what the FUCK dude
Elder Scrolls' take on Dungeons and Dragons gameplay. If you read Arena's manual, it'll explain that they wanted a game that steers you into one dirrection, but if you want to say "fuck it" and go the other way, the story should support that. Similar to a DnD session where players don't do what the Dungeon Master planned so he has to make up sonething else on the spot.
To this day, that's why the main storyline is relatively short. But a storyline for alternative ways of life than "the hero who saved the world" exist, no matter if you're a warrior, mage, thief, or assassin.
Tunic's writing system was the reason the game was recommended to me and i was not disappointed. Figured it out on my own during the second or third section of the game, after spending more time on it than actually progressing.
Also a big fan of literally climbing on bosses in shadow of the colossus.
This is going to sound insane, but Gears Tactics, the Gears Of War spin-off game might actually be a good fit for you. The game straight up copied the combat from the new XCOM games, but it did it really competently. The main difference are all the special abilities your squad members get, which when you are at a high level makes the game turn into figuring out how to min-max for the best chain damage combos.
Not a game you'll play forever, but worth at least a play through of the campaign, so if it's on sale I recommend it.
This is really niche, but I love drawing maps manually on first person dungeon crawlers. The Etrian Odyssey series is fhe quintessential example of this, and it in itself is a modern reinvention of the old days when you would use pen and paper to draw the map of a dungeon when games were so unforgiving that they did not give you any map at all.
Etrian Odyssey gives you an on screen map, but you get to mark where certain things are between your runs.
The whole thing gives me the same type of feel as manually keeping score of a baseball game. Kind of a lost art.
All time favorite was the feral druid transformations back in the WoW days (Burning Crusade ish I think).
I loved turning into a cat, putting bleeds on some boss, turning into a elf form and popping off a revive/heal, going back to cat to DPS, maybe going bear to pick up and add or two as back up tank. Super fun.
Also flying around in bird form, picking herbs to make potions and just chatting with the guild mates on the headset was very relaxing.
Past that the flying mechanics from City of Heros/Villains were great and I compare any flight mechanics now to those then.
I think one that really stands out for me was the unexpected time travel mechanics of Titan Fall 2 that you leveraged for puzzle solving.
It was so outta left field but so we'll executed it really left a lasting impression. Such a fantastic game overall really.
This one is a bit hard to describe, but I like a variety of mechanics that acknowledge HP loss as a possible thing that can happen (rather than, say, rewarding you for no-hit runs).
One example is when a game balances between giving you decent ammo, and decent healing items. Sometimes shooting every zombie is the better play because health is scarce. But when ammo is scarce and health is plentiful, it may make sense to run through 3 zombies taking only a few bites.
There's also HP feedback loop systems, where it's still bad to get hurt, and you're better off avoiding it, but when you DO get hurt, you build up some kind of meter that allows you to use that as a comeback. This might include things like a super-attack meter that builds when you're damaged, or faster attacks that only come from low health or broken armor.
optional, well hidden, especially cryptic content. this kind of thing is the BEST. it plays into my simple collectathon loving brain where just finding things for the sake of finding them is where all the fun is.
see: Environmental Station Alpha, Tunic, FEZ...
Shadow of the Colossus fits the bill on this one for me. Jacob Geller's video on the decade-long search for the game's last secret is a much watch IMO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQNeYbBiCKw
Mass Effect 1 is great for its time, good combats and good graphics. Also you could memorize the controls very fast, because it were intuitive and good distributed in the screen (also you had the help of the machine if you were too burned).
I love the Mass Effect series! (Only played the remaster) but I loved the way my choices had consequences throughout the trilogy. Like the dialogue trees were really fleshed out for their time, I'd even argue for modern day.
Achievement based cosmetics in multiplayer games. While I appreciate the "cosmetics only" approach of some multiplayer games microtransactions and battlepasses I also really miss the days of showing off the hayabusa armor in Halo 3. Or even in single player games, it was sometimes more engaging to have something to aim towards to unlock a new costume or get the "ultimate" version of an armor set.
There's definitely a lot of challenges in games that seem uninteresting from the outset, like "Oh; take pictures of all 30 dolls? That's boring." But, when there's some kind of cosmetic reward for it, it can push players into the challenge, and sometimes find out it's actually fun and satisfying to do.
Some people have been burned on thoughtless collectathon design, so it makes sense people often ignore them.
Mine is Warframe's travesal. Unmatched and unbeatable that all you need to know. But a close second in Titanfall 2's one.
I've always been a fan of destruction and general environment interactability in games. Imagine what Red Faction Guerilla could be on modern hardware.
Two things:
Anything that fleshes out "bard classes" (bonus points if you have grest freedom in how you play music). I don't want to be a mage who, instead of fireballs that deal damage, shoots music notes that deal damage. Shoutout to the Entertainer class in Star Wars Galaxies and the ukulele magic in Tchia for getting it right.
High degree of freedom spellcasting. Right now, only Magicka comes to my mind, who really excelled in this. Fictorum also has a pretty awesome spell shaping system, but it limits you to a specific spell loadout that is hard to switch in the heat of combat.
The hunting horn in monster hunter does this pretty well.
Its a little silly but I do enjoy those little things they add to a game that don't really add much in terms of gameplay, heck you're even able to play the game without making use of them, but are a nice way of sort of just "grounding" yourself in the world for a time, giving you some time to pause and reflect a little on whats been happening.
Stuff like pulling out a guitar with Into the Radius and trying to strum out a lil beat or stopping in at a diner in Shadows of Doubt and having a little coffee and watching the world go by while mulling over a case that you're on. I think that kind of stuff is pretty rad.
Oh yeah, Deep Rock is good for that, getting some beers, having a little dance, getting pissed off at tossing barrels into the ring, finding the little football and the goal posts and having a game of that, its great xD
Sea of Thieves has tons of that kind of thing. Nothing beats an impromptu shanty on your way to pirate shenanigans.
Haha yeah I remember that too! That game was a pretty chill one to play with friends, just sailing around with your instruments and getting into the occasional scrap with another ship, good times.
I've certainly enjoyed my time with it so far, and I've found it to really scratch that detective noir itch quite well. Its early access mind you so I've encountered a few bugs here and there, and it might feel a little repetitive after a while (an issue that I imagine will be ironed out more as the game gets fleshed out more) but what's there was still pretty fun and for the price I say it was worth it for me :)
I love when games utilize impossible spaces. I feel like so many games try to stay grounded in reality, so I appreciate when a game really takes advantage of being a game and plays with reality a bit. (ie: Antichamber, The Stanley Parable)
I love fighting groups and just bouncing between enemies where hits stun. It's especially good when enemies require different attack/dodge movements so everything feels like a choreographed production once I get into the flow.
I really liked Ys Origin for this, though there are plenty that do it well.
The "Choose your reply (or none)" mechanic of 'Oxenfree'.
There’s a few things that irk me about that game, but it’s one of very few I know to get conversational interruption working well.
The one problem it had is that so, SO many players want to “absorb every byte of audio in the lines the characters are giving” and so will avoid interrupting to the last minute. Generally, I think people “treasure” voice acting a bit too much, ironically degrading its value. Good acting in movies tends to involve tons of interruption and cut-offs.
I'm one of those that hate interrupting people, so in Oxenfree, I missed a lot of opportunities to choose a dialogue option because I was waiting for the right time to cut in. I eventually just made myself do it, but I really hated the feeling of cutting off other characters.
I loved how Telltale does it instead where you select a dialogue option and the game has you say it at the right time.
It's so weird to me that what works so well for others bothers me so much. In fact, it bothered me so much that I didn't bother replaying it, despite replaying being a big appeal of that game.
Such a polished version of a classic mechanic, really felt like I was having conversations. This was especially refreshing compared to the obvious "bad choice good choice" options whereas Oxenfree felt natural responses.
I've played mainly fighting games for years and my fav mechanic is the comeback mechanic ala XFactor in UMVC3, Instinct in the recent Killer Instinct, and the Critical Art in the new Street Fighter 6.
It ain't over till you see the K.O. screen.
In Everhood, an RPG with rhythm-based battles, you start out only being able to dodge enemy attacks. Much later into the game, your character regains their memories and a new sense of purpose as well as finally gaining the ability to attack.
Then you have to return to the battles you scraped by by dodging and look for opportunities to sneak attacks in. It adds a new level of challenge to an already challenging game.
God, that moment, where you realize where the game is going? Honestly fantastic. Everhood has such a sleek design, and I love that there is no "filler" encounter.
Actraiser. That game was my favorite when it came out. Part Sim part platformer. Blew me away as a kid. I still give it a play through every few years.
I'm bad at explaining but I love Kirby's boss battles, they're simple, challenging, and somehow extremely cinematic. Just can't get enough of them. If there's more games that are just the boss battles as a full game let me know.
Sleeping Dogs' combat system is really fun despite not having much depth
I was surprised how much I enjoyed the monster catching systems and subsequently the battle system in Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch. So much so, that I got the platinum trophy in both the PS3 and PS4 versions. I loved that the battles were technically in real time but with cooldowns for each character and their familiars, and I appreciated that the characters (3 of them) are on the battlefield WITH the familiars rather than either/or. This meant I could deal some damage to exploit enemy weakness using the main characters while some of the familiars tanked damage and all that. It wasn't perfect but it really resonated with me.
There are a few that I find really cool.
The "bullet time" in the max payne series was very enjoyable to me. Dodge-flying around enemies while bullets hit your last position and all looking like you are in the matrix movie? Yes please!
Then there was the flying in GTA5. The controls and "feel" of all the vehicles are very good, but flying is really implemented in a great way. Its by no means to difficult to learn (like a real simulator), but has a pretty high skill ceiling. To really "fly beautifully" you have to know your shit. And thats not even counting fighting air-to-air or air-to-land. It's beautiful.
Also I'm a sucker for all atmospheric games. Bonus for being dystopic. The System-/Bioshock series, Stalker, Fallout, Cyberpunk2077 and many many more. Disco Elysium. Some games really are art in its purest form. Still entertainment, but art at the same time. I remember the first time I entered Novigrad in Witcher 3, not even on a good graphics card. Such a vivid, "living" town, with logical alleyways, bridges, beautiful architecture, soundstage just amazing, ... I think to this day no other game has surpassed W3 when it comes to creating a believable city. It's just art!
I loved the mechanics in Company of Heroes 1 and wished it was more accessible and window-friendly.
Infantry: MG suppression, cover system, retreating and reinforcing squads, squad members spreading out and dodging shells, captureable weapons, occupiable/destructible buildings, destructible terrain, artillery leaving massive dirt clouds and craters (aka cover). It made me feel like I was fighting in a real war, but without the "unfair" TTK of real life MGs/tanks.
Macro (vs Starcraft 2): no workers (capture territory to generate resources), no 6 pool (base has starting bunkers) or proxy (can only build production in base), 1 of each building all game instead of 10+ Rax/Gate, 4-6 squads instead of 100+ Marines, cutoff harass (disconnect enemy territory from their base). I felt like I was fighting my opponent instead of the game.
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Double jumping. Something about double jumping just always feels really liberating. It's such a strange concept as well, with no analogue in the real world.
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