Opinion: A Gamer's Perspective of What Makes A Game Great

  All video games have a few things in common. Graphics, controls, story, sound and content. Content for me is what the game offers such as rewards, secrets and items/weapons that are used in the game. When all these things come together it makes a game, when done amazingly it creates an experience.


Halo Reach Armory

All these things are paramount to the gaming experience, but after the beautiful graphics, the awesome sound, the satisfying story and great game play what is left? An ending screen with congratulations? That's not enough for me. Not by a long shot.

What I think is important is the duration of the game and whether or not I will play through again. Will I keep picking up the controller to shoot my friends in the face? Will I truck through that story or campaign again? Will it be worth it to do over and over? Sometimes yes and most times no, for me at least.

Giving me a harder difficulty is not enough for me to go again, nor is the achievement that is attached to said difficulty. I want rewards, I want new loot, new levels, new skins. I want more. Some games give us this. Borderlands 2, Bayonetta and Halo Reach/4 are all good examples. These I will use, I don't have the time to include them all. If you think of another, comment and share your story, tell me what was awesome. Maybe it will be the next game I play and truly enjoy beyond the regular experience.

In Borderlands 2 once you beat the game you unlock True Vault Hunter Mode. This mode sports new enemy variants as well as stronger versions of weapons. Then after that you get Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. Which boasts not only tougher enemies and better loot, but new loot for the missions you finish. This gives me reason to keep searching the Borderlands. Always unlocking new weapons and skins, finding something new, tackling a new enemy variant, this all makes it fun to come back.

Bayonetta was another one that astounded me. Every difficulty finished (From normal on up) rewarded you with a new weapon. There was always a new costume to unlock or move to purchase. The staggering amount of weapons alone was enough for me. But it didn't end there. You can unlock two other playable characters who have weapon variations, different mods for the default costume, mini games and secret boss fights. It's like the game never really ended after the story concluded. Not only did you have the weapons that you kept in your inventory but there was a good amount of limited use weapons that you pick up from dead enemies. All this made me come back for more. I have maxed the timer out on the game, it reads 99:99 And I bet it would have done that twice by now.

Halo Reach and 4 also gave me more reason to come back. The character building in that, all the helmets, chest pieces and shoulder pads you can unlock. I would kill fellow Spartans by the genocide load to get that Emile helmet.

All these things I have discussed should be the precedent for video games. There should be more to replay value than just the multiplayer or difficulty levels. Bayonetta did all this with no DLC so a developer should keep this in mind with the core game or later DLC expansions and updates. I hope this will help someone look at games differently, maybe some one getting ready to build their own. And hopefully we will have more titles that go above and beyond the reward of playing.

Happy gaming my friends