If there was ever a question that has plagued the minds of gamers more than any other, it would be this one. Over the decades, both dumpster fires and masterpieces have come and gone, and there are many opinions as to why these games failed or succeeded. Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the Nintendo 64 has been praised for its captivating story and intuitive puzzle design, while Bubsy 3D for the PlayStation has been hated for virtually everything about itself. What is it that these good games have, but the bad ones do not? Some think it’s good graphics, others think it’s a quality story, and while those are important, I think there is a more lucrative option that few have mentioned.
The one necessity for a good game is solid, well designed gameplay. This might sound like common sense, but believe me when I say it is more important than you may realize.
While well written stories, beautiful music, and striking visuals definitely help make a game good, those things are meaningless without engaging gameplay. For instance, Paper Mario: Sticker Star has a gorgeous paper esthetique with an upbeat, jazzy soundtrack, but is one of the worst games ever made. I dread playing it when doing my yearly playthrough of the Paper Mario series because the gameplay is not only meaningless in context with the rest of the game, but is just not fun. While I love these other things about the game, the fact that combat, the most integral part of gameplay in any RPG, is better avoided than engaged with ruins the entire experience.
Jaime Griesemer, Game Design Lead for Halo: Combat Evolved, put this perfectly in the Making of Halo 2 documentary: if a developer doesn’t nail the most basic parts of their game’s gameplay, or the “thirty seconds of fun” as he puts it, it will not be good. Not only does the original Halo have this thirty seconds nailed down, but it also has a stellar soundtrack composed by the legendary Marty O’Donnell and a captivating narrative to go along with it. The graphics may not be great by today’s standards, but the game remains a classic to this day because of its innovative first person combat.
Another great example of great gameplay making an experience is the Xbox 360 cult classic Crackdown. For those who aren’t familiar, Crackdown is an open world sandbox game where you play as a cop with super strength taking down the three biggest gangs of the city. It isn’t perfect, as the graphics were outdated even for the time and the story was hardly Shakespeare, but its strengths lie in its gameplay. Your character in-game can jump incredible heights, pick up (and throw) cars, and use thousands of combinations of guns. Despite Crackdown’s problems, the gameplay makes it shine.
There are an infinite number of examples I could choose, but my point still stands: there are many things that make a game better, but well made gameplay makes a game good. Without a captivating control set or minute to minute gameplay loop, playing the game won’t be fun, no matter what else, good or bad, is there.
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