October 23, 2009

What makes a great game?
By Michael Lafferty

There might be criteria for what makes a top-tier game, but the final verdict is in the hands of the gamer

We are nearing the end of October, meaning there are only two more months left in 2009. Where has the year gone? Sure, in many ways it’s been rather tumultuous, with the ups and downs associated with any year. The gaming industry has also had its fair share of ups and downs, good and bad. But even as the year draws to a close, and 2010 promises to be a huge year in gaming, there are still some top quality, triple-A games yet to come.

Think Dragon Age: Origins … or Modern Warfare 2 … both launch in early November and both have blockbuster stamped on them. Why? These are not titles that have not been seen, and what has been seen has been very impressive.

Which brings to mind a thought about what makes for a game that aspires to benchmark status or to be considered among the best of show for a year, or several years ... Is it the graphical quality? The controls? The game modes or length of game? Is it the storyline?

Well, simply put, it is all of those things, and more. A great game is one that ingrains itself into the conscious and subconscious of the player. You think about it, you wrestle with the twists and turns, trying to outguess the game and generally yourself. You may pull an all-nighter, or get up extra early to get in an hour or so before having to venture off to real-world concerns.

A great game is part of your conversation, your reference points (whether you know it or not) and you may find yourself quoting lines of dialogue. The graphics are compelling enough to create a believable world in your mind, the characters are people (or things) you genuinely care about, or in lieu thereof, the battle is worth the fighting of it. The storyline is the glue that pulls it all together and has you driving forward to see what lays beyond the next horizon, or has you stepping back into the darkness in a stairwell to consider what information has just been handed to you and leaves you with the thought of ‘oh crap! What do I do now?’

A great game plays with your mind or your emotions even as you play it and you are relishing the experience of what it doing to you, how it is making you feel.

A friend said that a great game has to be consistent. Matt stated that it’s “something that has its own rules and follows them. When you run into a boss or challenge that is a gimmick – the token stealth level – it breaks its own metaphor, and at that point the game has introduced ‘frustration’ to try and combat ‘speed.’ “

Controls and interface have to be inviting enough so the focus is on the game, not only finagling with the control elements to the point where the game itself is secondary. The game is balanced and stands on its own without the need for numerous patches ready almost before the game leaves the starting gate.

But more than anything else, a great game is a totally subjective thing – some people may not have the dexterity or the reflexes to play a Modern Warfare 2 and so the game leaves them cold. Some may not get the depth and role-playing of a Dragon Age: Origins, and so the experience passes them by. We are all products of our upbringing, of our social connections, and of our personal environments.

What is a great game to one person might not be such to another. Look at critically acclaimed games such as ICO. Critics raved, but it didn’t exactly fly off shelves in the numbers the developers had hoped for given the media raves.

There are, of course, other examples.

Rarely are there games that come out that capture our focus with a totality that vindicates the purchase of the system we are playing that game on. We may have a PS3, a 360, a Wii, or even a gaming PC, all with a wide range of titles available and many are indeed fun. But when you find that one game that wraps you up in its mythos, you find new depth, new admiration for the platform and the purchase of it.

In the final analysis, there are a lot of really good games on the market, and a lot that have come out this year. At GameZone we type in a lot of words to give you our opinions of those games, to serve as a guide when you are considering purchases. However, only one person can truly tell you if the game is worth the price of admission, and if that game elevates itself to favorite status or even the status of being a truly great game – and that person are you.

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