What Makes a Good Video Game Great?

What am I thinking about?

What makes a video game better than the rest.

I was literally awake almost all night debating with myself about it.  It's a simple question with a complex answer.  In this day and age, there's so much that goes into a title.  Developers take years to produce a game that requires a large team of writers and designers to come up with titles that play out like feature films.  To me, it boils down to this:  Balancing gameplay with storyline and presentation.

Thinking back to the early days of gaming, the story didn't matter as much as it did today (in my opinion).  From Super Mario Brothers to Metroid, the story was ancillary to the side-scrolling, platform gameplay that kept a gamer's interest.  A basic plot was tossed in that, typically, was wrapped up in the long-awaited finish of the game.  To me, the longer, extended "beat the game" scene gave rise to the expansion of present-day cut scenes throughout video games.  While there was certainly pressure to produce fantastic game titles back in the day, I doubt there was much intensity or scrutiny placed on the story surrounding characters.  Why?  Because we were more fascinated with the gameplay itself...not the story.

Since those days during the '80's and '90's, a lot has changed.  Advances in graphics brought gaming to new heights. Action-adventure, first person shooters, massively multiplayer online (MMO) ushered in a new age of broad chronicling of characters and places.   It became more essential to have top-notch writing, scripts, actors and dialogue to go hand-in-hand with your gaming experience.
 
Back to the main question:  What makes a good video game great?  I believe striking the right balance between gameplay, presentation and story is key to a good game...and it's a delicate dance.

Take, for example, some of the games released so far this year.

Remember Me, an action-adventure cyberpunk title from Capcom certainly nailed down the presentation, especially its music, but was relatively weak on story.  Gameplay was also laborious.  It was a game with potential and a strong main character/personality, Nilin, that ended up suffering from its confusing, tedious moves, as players tried to figure out how to precisely carry out combinations.

Deadpool is another game that missed the mark.  While the story and writing was stupendous with humorous Marvel Comic book lines thrown in, the gameplay was shoddy and formulaic.  The presentation wasn't bad, but the hilarious jokes stole the show from the simplistic gameplay that only improved at the very end.  However, by that time, you've beaten it!

The only title I've seen so far that's achieved this balance is The Last of Us.  From the smooth gameplay to the above-average cut-scenes, the story written up by Naughty Dog is the best I've seen so far.  It's a game that's not only fun to play, but fun to even watch, say, if you have someone in the room who isn't exactly a gamer but enjoys watching a good show.

It's not an easy subject to tackle, nor is there an easy answer to what makes a game great.  I guess that's why I was up all night.

The B Gamer is a video game reviewer at 77 WABC in New York City
Twitter:  @thebgamerreview
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