What makes a good video game

So I was discussing video games today with Greg and he mentioned Jade Empire. For those who don't know, Jade Empire is a new game from Bioware, the folks who made the excellent Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (and it's very good, but not quite as excellent sequel). Before its release it was hailed as being one of the big games for the season, with emphasis on the real-time martial arts style combat inside of an engrossing, story-driven RPG. Initial reviews were good as well, and they only got better as time went by. Excellent sign! So I bought it. Not really because of the hype (though hype does help bring games to peoples' attention) but because I liked this developer's previous works and because the reviews sounded interesting.

Sadly, I was wrong. I should have picked up on details in the reviews I read about 'simplified' RPG elements -- simplified inventory, few new skills (in a flat list; no tree like, say, Diablo II). A few reviews may have mentioned something about the combat being somewhat of a let down, too. Shoulda picked up on that, too. Ultimately I was disappointed by Jade Empire, as I was by Fable before it (another hyped game, but then again, Peter Molyneux would hype ice to Eskimos... well, he would if it were his ice).

To me, what it came down to was more or less one-dimensional gameplay. By that I mean as the game progressed, there was little that changed in how you played it. Talk to characters, explore dialog tree, kill opponents. Which really is the essence of most games, but the ones that are enjoyable make it change over time. They let you gain new abilities or weapons that you need in order to progress. Jade Empire, though, is never really difficult, and although you can gain other fighting styles and use weapons, you only need to specialize in one since they are all largely the same. Zero depth. Likewise, combat itself is sadly lacking. You can block, but basically you never want to because it is better to dodge. So a large chunk of the already limited combat mechanic is gone, poof. Never there, really.

Some people won't mind that, but I find it surprising how many positive reviews the game really received. Go check metacritic or gamerankings to see just how positively it was received. I think this is sadly a result of the hype; most reviewers don't seem to be willing to diverge from the trends of other reviewers or to pan a highly hyped game. They do seem to tell you the truth about a game, but usually in the text, not in the final number. Another oddity in this department are sites like gamespot (which I actually like in general) -- they rate a game on five axes, for gameplay, graphics, sound, value, and tilt. Except, if you look, you almost never see any divergence here! I've yet to see a game get a 10 for graphics but a 4 for gameplay. There's something fishy there.

Well, that was a rat hole. Back to the topic. I personally think what makes a good video game is gameplay. It all comes back to gameplay. I find a game engaging if, while playing it, I want to see what is coming next, what the publishers will throw at me and what they will give me to overcome it. For instance, I loved the old Megaman games because of the utterly brilliant mechanic where every time you beat a boss you got their powers to use in the rest of the game. How awesome is that! I found the recent God of War to be likewise a thoroughly wonderful game. Not only did it give you a lot of variety in the gameplay, but you gained abilities as the game went on that changed how you played the game. More combos, different weapons, new powers -- all added up to new ways to interact with the game.

In terms of other metrics, I view them as less important, save one -- plot. Plot matters, too. I'm not a huge fan of the immersive 'oh wow I am totally in the game, and I customized this avatar to really represent my angst-ridden inner soul' games. I don't necessarily mind them, but I'm not really playing the game to change who I consider my identity to be. Oh, on this note -- game publishers! I don't really care if I can change my character's name! But I do care that spoken dialog ends up being stilted and peculiar in the games that DO let you pick your name because they can't have prerecorded all possible names... so you're always 'you' or 'hero' or 'that guy' or whatever. Pet peeve. Plot does matter, though, because it can help pull you to the next part of the game. It ties together the gameplay and helps establish an interest with the material.

Graphics are either bad, acceptable, or great. That's about it. And the scale changes over time, obviously. I was very disappointed in Doom 3. Sure, the graphics were great. Top notch. Awesome. Amazing. But the gameplay was absolutely nothing new, the story was terrible, and the "ambiance" of a creepy, shadow-ridden base on Mars really was just annoying because there was rarely enough light to see the cool graphics. And yet look at how many great reviews it received. Reviewers were afraid to grade it poorly.

Sound is either annoying, tolerable, or good. Bad voice acting really can ruin things, and theme-specific sound effects can help with immersing yourself in the game (the Star Wars properties come to mind in this; I remember as far back as the original X-Wing how much like the movies absolutely every sound effect, er, sounded).

Longevity, eh. The market is such these days that there is almost always something new and pretty good out there. I very rarely go back and replay old games. But I am busier than the average high schooler (but, hmm, the average gamer is in his 20s... odd). If I get about 20-25 hours of gameplay from a game, I'm happy. If it takes 40 to finish, chances are, I won't do it, because I'll see something else new and shiny and go play it instead.

So anyway, that's my long-winded critique of the game industry today. Give us gameplay. The rest will follow. Show us your designers and engineers can be creative and give us experiences no other game has ever before, don't just recycle the same gameplay into your own packaging. Give us more Lumines, more Psi-Ops, more X-Men Legends, more Viewtiful Joes, more Ninja Gaidens, and more Gods of War.