Gameplay style: What do you like? What don't you like?

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Clockwise from top left: Hitman Contracts; Beyond Good & Evil; Silent Hill 3;

Deus Ex.

To start, I have a propensity for story driven action. The story (not score nor bonuses) is really what motivates me through the gameplay. That said, I do like a few types of gameplay. Pure stealth is one of my favourites (Hitman series, Thief series), love the idea of using wit and cunning and planning my maneuvers after gauging the situation and weighing the possible pros and cons from a mutltiple of choices within a mission. I also like a light level of customization and resource management, tailoring myself to specialty and to a style of accomplishing my goals (Deus Ex).

And then there's the style of playing based more on the given atmosphere and theme, like being low on resources and having to depend on things like evasion, when I'm on the edge of my seat, and a bit of exploration, finding bits and pieces of the story, and puzzle solving (Silent Hill series). Finally, I love it when a game combines all the above skillfully and effortlessly, to where it all balances out and avoids confusion, where I can manage different things and meet different challenges without having to concentrate too much on one thing (Beyond Good & Evil).

What I don't like is being forced to pay too much attention to managing resources and levelling up, too much platforming, beating levels just for a high score, and repititious crap (nothing but killing, etc.).

Sooooo, what do you guys like in your gameplay?

[RLacey]

I like gameplay where you can choose the amount of depth you go into. And I like games like Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Deus Ex: Invisible War as a result - especially as these games also allow me to play how I want to, and to change that style on a whim.

I always feel that games are about telling a story - if a game hasn't got one (eg. Sim City) then I will get bored within a couple of hours. This is probably one of the main reasons why I enjoy adventure games. But then, sometimes I want a shallow, no-brainer game to just mess around with, so I load up Serious Sam.

I like platforming, but only in specialist platform games. Unless the mechanics behind the game are specifically designed for platforming, the style doesn't work. I also prefer free-roaming platform games (Mario 64, I salute you!), as opposed to rubbish like Crash Bandicoot. I will basically try any type of game, though as a general rule I stay away from strategy games, sport games and statistic-heavy RPGs. And games like Rainbow Six, which are far too complicated for their own good.

The biggest thing for me, though, is being able to actually complete the game! Games such as Thief: The Dark Project got it right by not calling the easiest game mode 'Easy'. Because it wasn't easy. If there's one thing I'd like to see an end of, it's difficult 'Easy' modes. If I want to be particularly challenged, I'm perfectly capable of selecting 'Normal', 'Hard' or some-such other option. If I play a game on 'Easy' I don't expect to die much. Because I expect to find it EASY. In other words, I should NEVER have to attempt a level more than twice once I've worked out what I want to do. Examples of games that make the 'Easy' mode hard, and thus incur my wrath, include Hitman, Star Trek: Bridge Commander, Aliens vs Predator, and a whole load of other games. They're not BAD games. But I'm sick of paying for games when I can't even complete the second level on 'Easy' mode...

[Ryam BaCo]

games in bioware-style, that tell a story and own living individual characters. soooo for example...baldur's gate 2 almost killed me. i wanted to see everything of the game. do everything. and this game is BIG. it stole a lot of my sleep.

i hate pure action games with almost no story, where you run around and kill people because of - huh? - nothing. all this gta-stuff is quite boring. but mafia and no one lives forever where great.

but non-story-driven multiplayer games (woooorrrmmmmmssss!!!, fifa soccer) are also great, because...hmmm....they're fun. that's all.

[Erwin_Br]

I like quite a variety of games and what I'm playing depends on the mood.

I bet I'll play some kind of soccer game soon, since the European Championship started in Portugal.

--Erwin