I’m a little embarrassed because this week’s poll is very, very similar to the one currently on ModDB.com! In my defense the actual poll was decided on a while ago. Anyway, onto this week’s question.
What the most important aspect in a great Single Player Game?
- The Graphics
Considered by many to be the most important aspect of a new game, although the standard keeps changing! - The Story
It’s hard to have a good single player game with an interesting story, and as game story techniques get better so the stories get deeper. - The Weapons
Nowadays a lot of people judge a game by its weapons. Gotta be something special or they will soon be forgotten! - The Enemies
It’s definitely no fun palying against slow blocks of pixels, is it? - The Environments
As with the weapons, players are always looking for something new and different. Space stations and mines are sooo last generation! - The Vehicles
Too young or old to drive for real? Then this has to be your escape. Too many mad max clones for my liking. - The Gameplay
Is this the most important aspect? can you forgive bad gameplay? - Other
Have I missed one? Just tell me about it
So, there you have them. We can all probably think of games that had one aspect that was really good but was it good enough to make the game great?
Of course, there’s never only one aspect that makes a game great but sometimes having one thing done really well is enough to compensate for lower quality in the other areas.
Which one do you choose and why?
This week’s poll was inspired by Quakis. Got an idea for a poll? Just Contact me and give me some details. I can’t guarantee to post it or stay exactly true to your idea but I’ll definitely think about it.
What the most important aspect in a great Single Player Game?
- The Graphics: 14%
- The Story 14%
- The Weapons 5%
- The Enemies 1%
- The Environments 1%
- The Vehicles 3%
- The Gameplay 60%
- Other 1%
- Total votes: 78
I think overall it’s a combination of all of them, but then also other aspects like sound (the music in Halo is some of the best I’ve heard). Also save systems, linearity, marketing etc can all help towards making a game great.
You missed a quick save feature! I was put off buying Far Cry because I struggled to complete the demo, and if there’s one thing I hate is having to battle over the same terrain time and again because you can’t save your progress.
But gameplay… isn’t that a combination of all the other things listed?
Gameplay is so general that it pretty much includes all of them. Without game play you just have maps with lots of eye-candy, sounds, and bots standing around. Not much to do. But if the gameplay includes interesting puzzles and challenging AI then you will have a play-able game. Even if the graphics are dated, the music is repetative, and the levels are generic… you can still play the game. Now granted it won’t have much re-playability because of the boring levels and graphics but it can still be playable. An example is Quake 3 arenas: They are just simple repetative arenas with bots running around killing eachother. No music and basic sound efx. And for some reason I can keep playing it over and over. Its the excitement of the gameplay and the weapons. The fighting is so intense that I never really had time to explore and enjoy the graphics. No puzzles either. Just plain old deathmatch.
I think that all of these things have to be required to make a good game, but I feel that the story is most important. I might not have bought Half-Life 2: Episode One if I hadn’t wanted to know what happened after Half-Life 2. Even for games that include multiplayer mode as well as singleplayer, I usually buy for the singleplayer story.
“What the most important aspect in a great Single Player Game?”
There is no most important aspect in a great SP-Game. In fact a successful interaction between all aspects makes a good SP-Game. I guess thats the reason why it is so hard to make.
Yes, I know that but this is a poll and therefore you need to view things differently from other types of questions.
Like many polls, you can always say “It depends” but then you miss the point of a poll.
Sorry,i just gave a honest answer to the question. Its just impossible for me to lie for the sake of a poll.
I’m not asking anybody to lie. Remember these polls are not complusory, so if you are not comfortable with any of the options, don’t vote.
These polls are just for fun and if sometimes the questions manages to explore something deeper and allow for some intelligent, thoughtful discussion there even better.
Sometimes it’s interesting to have to make a decision even if the options are not exactly as you would like them. Just look at politics!
BTW Please stop putting line returns in your comments, the system automatically does that.
This might fall under some category or another, but I like a game to have logical progression and not require a complete suspension of belief. A little suspension is OK as that is part of what game play is all about.
I thought Half-Life 2 was successful at telling a coherent story in a believable fashion. At the other end of the spectrum there’s Painkiller, which despite some excellent graphics sound, physics, weapons etc. it completely fouled up by having illogical place settings. For example, a level in a mediaeval village was followed by a level on a snow-swept suspension bridge. It completely destroyed the illusion of “being there’. It was buggy as hell too, but that’s another story. But yeah, I never really considered story important until I played Painkiller and HL2 and compared the two.
I’m gonna go with the Enemies. If you have smart targets who take cover, call for backup and respond to you as you’d expect another person to, then everything else kinda takes second place.
Gameplay is also fairly important, but it’s pretty hard to define that, isn’t it?
The answer is quite simple: GAMEPLAY
PP: Is that a Chaser screenshot I do spy? Any excuse, eh?
Yes, I have a draft about “What is gameplay” due for publication later this week. Hopefully we can start a more detailed discussion about then.
Yes. I always felt that Chaser had great great gameplay. The enemies were forgettable,same for the weapons, voice acting, script, environments etc. But somehow the gameplay was great. I’m not saying the things I listed were bad, just I can’t remember too much. I do remember a couple of maps that I had trouble with and those are always the most enjoyable, for me anyway.
gameplay is horribly generic, but being so it is the winner imo.
weapons are hugely important, because they are what you’ll be seeing and dealing with every moment of the game…at least in FPSs. I love the quake series (every last one of them), but if it had weapons right out of counter-strike, they would be horrible games.
fun factor obviously is what were trying to determine. the factors that go into how fun a game is depend on the genre. RPGs need to have a complex item/stat/magic/etc system and a gripping story. FPS need to have a fine balance of everything just to keep you fromgetting bored after 5 minuted of gameplay.
ps, yall should donate some cash to the PlanetPhillip fund over there on the right of this page.
The weapons are an interesting one because some games have way too many and some games only give you three or four (like WW2 games) and they can both be equally fun.
There’s times where I even play through a game only using one weapon. And if you think about it, you will allways have a preferred weapon you will use. I get tired of the games that give you 10 weapons at the same time and I mostly use 2 or three depending on my ammo supply.
In FarCry the guns are similar enough to use equally even though the strength of the ammo is different. And it is quicker to just switch weapons instead of re-loading when you are in a tight spot.
In Half-Life 2 I almost allways use the Overwatch Rifle when I have ammo. The shotgun is great up-close but too slow on re-loading.
In Doom 3 is allways stick to the plasma gun. It does the greatest damage in the shortest time. The only time I resort to the chain-gun is to kill the Cacodemons.
Two words
Similar meaning
Start with I
Involvement
Immersion
There is no need to be sarcastic. Clearly the poll was not the best formed question but sometimes you have to make compromises.
The question of gameplay will be discussed in a coming 3-part series.
Sorry, I’m not trying to be sarcastic. Just short and sweet. If it doesn’t suck you in, you won’t play it, even if it had graphics and sound fit for an I-Max theatre. Similarly, you wouldn’t care if it looked and sounded like a rusty tractor, if it took you away and wouldn’t let you off till sun up.
The most important aspect to me is pretty well balanced between Gameplay and Story. Gameplay is what LETS me enjoy a game, but Storytelling is what HOLDS my interest in that game. I can have good gameplay, but with no story, I’ll eventually get bored with it. I can have a good story, but if I can’t get into the gameplay, I won’t feel it’s worth playing to find out more about the story.
It’s all relevant.. Well made games and mods or maps should involve all aspects of the art.. and this is an art form.