What makes a great video game?

If you're reading this then the likelihood is you have probably played a computer/video game at some point in your life. It’s no secret – games are fun, and can be highly addictive; some of them at least. You and I will no doubt have different ideas and opinions on what the appeals are to a 'great' title. Some are more challenging, some more adventurous, others have far superior graphics than most and perhaps a distinctly interesting narrative to follow. Perhaps some of them were just so bad they were just too good to put down.

With so many aspects involved in the creation of a video game, so much thought, time and code; it's often difficult to quantify how 'great' a game is. After all, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, especially with art; which is entirely what games are right? Developers spend countless hours, weeks and even years to finish some of the more complex open-world AAA titles; obsessing over the smallest details, tweaking minor features into a game map, fiddling with lighting on graphics programs among many other things. It's a job that requires dedication for sure. 

However if one (as a player) can observe and recognise a few key points that define a great game from a bad one, then it's often worth shouting about. These nuggets of admiration and wonder at the breakthroughs being achieved year on year when it comes to groundbreaking graphics or a genre-defining concept are what it's all about.

Graphics then, more often than not, tend to play an imperative role in how you define the greatness of a game. The visual aspects are what catches our immediate attention before anything else, whether for better or worse. A pleasing visual aspect can be a highly decisive factor that attracts most to go out and buy it (or not); spawning the need for many of today's movie-like cinematic teaser trailers we often get in advance. To have impressive graphics doesn't always require being super realistic and stylised however. Monument Valley's slick aesthetic of pastel colours and smooth Escher-inspired abstract architecture are what make it so appealing visually, similar to Tarsier Studios' Little Nightmares; it's not cinematic and 'realism' in a AAA sense, but it's beautiful animation nonetheless. It's surreal and seductive.

The storyline or narrative in a game is, for those with the time and patience for it, often the secret ingredient as to why a title can be so special. This is down to character casting, concept design and great storytelling. You can have the best stylised graphics in the world, but if your game idea or plot is weak and uninteresting then you will quickly lose players for something more engaging. Gamers (mostly the hardcore ones) like to be tested, and are likely to be so hyped when buying a new game they've been waiting almost three years for, that they should be left salivating for more when they eventually complete it, if completing it is even an option any more; think GTA online. Granted this may not apply to the less advanced and mind-numbingly simple Candy Crush series, yet we do live in a highly consumerist society so perhaps I'm wrong in saying that, but we're talking about 'great games' here, not just great success from a fairly average game concept.

One may argue that rewards and competitive reward systems are major reasons why we play. These are not things that we can touch or really even see, other than a score in most cases - they are virtual pats on the back. But they are incredibly important. Gamers spending hours of graft, pad-in-hand, furiously tapping and smashing away in order to climb the levels, defeat big bosses or score enough points to unlock that new Bugatti Veyro in Gran Turismo, or get access to an RPG on GTA so you can blow up a fleet of cars in a traffic jam for no other reason than pure sadistic pleasure and the thrill of being chased by 70% of the Vice City PD.

So what do those rewards mean to us as human players? Apart from the inevitable dopamine release, it really depends on the game and the reward, and of course the player. The highly addictive, consumerist personalities are likely to crave the short term simple stimulant of passing as many levels of angry birds as possible on the commute to work, probably on autopilot whilst subconsciously planning their day ahead without much thought. Whereas the more patient, strategists among us are more likely to enjoy the detail and challenging open worlds of GTA, The Witcher 3, Metal Gear Solid or Farcry where far more thought, planning and time goes into achieving the end result. Not forgetting all the mini-rewards to collect along the way of course. Ultimately it boils down to a competition with oneself. A test of your resolve and dedication to achieving a mini-battle with a machine and AI, that will provide nothing more for your life other than entertainment, in many cases.

Or is a 'great' game defined by the sense of achievement in inventing a completely new, blockbuster concept? This can rely heavily on the storytelling of course. A great plot will always engage current fans, intrigue new ones and win over the industry in ways that others won't. However creating something entirely new in terms of style, artistic merit and idea behind the world, characters, sound and gameplay could well be most hard to define yet the most infinitely exciting way to find that holy grail of making a great game. Comparing ambitious sci-fi titles like No Man's Sky to indie wonders such as Limbo is difficult to dissect side by side as they're hugely different games, but as fresh ideas they capture the minds of people who want something different, something uneasy or simply something that's one of a kind. The possibilities are endless when it comes to Concepts for games. It's the virtual world where we can re-create the world we currently live in under the various day to day scenarios we're used to, or to the contrary create something completely unfathomable and of our wildest imaginations that it opens our minds to the unreal and endless possibilities when you combine creative ideas, art and technology. To conclude on that note, there is probably no one single catalyst that can answer the question; it requires more than a healthy dose of all the above, and then some.