Games that had a cool or unique concept/mechanic you really haven't seen elsewhere

[EvilRoy]

Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers was the first game I played with scenery that was generally fully destructible and you had to cut stuff with your laser gun to make paths to progress forward. The game... was fine. It was a perfectly OK game. But the concept was neat and I haven't seen many other games aside from maybe Noita go to that level of destructible/interactive scenery that makes up a primary part of the overall gameplay. Plenty of games involve breaking shit, but in my experience relatively few ask you to break shit in a pretty specific way so a column topples in a certain direction to allow you to platform up it.

Return of the Obra Dinn also has a really cool mechanic in that the game is primarily played by watching the last minute or so of somebodies life in order to identify the corpse. You walk around a whole boat doing this and piecing together who is who. I've seen flashback style time mechanics in a lot of games but I've never been asked to use it as a detective.

Prey threw a twist into the "alien pops up and kills you" standard space FPS situation by making the aliens able to pretend to be mundane items in a room to get the jump on you. If you leave and come back sometimes they would even trade places. It was kind of underutilized though - I expected to be questioning every coffee mug or slapping every stapler, but really it was just like a now and then thing and the majority of significant danger was the regular ass walky-aroundy aliens.

 

[wings012]

Tiny and Big: Grandpa's Leftovers was the first game I played with scenery that was generally fully destructible and you had to cut stuff with your laser gun to make paths to progress forward. The game... was fine. It was a perfectly OK game. But the concept was neat and I haven't seen many other games aside from maybe Noita go to that level of destructible/interactive scenery that makes up a primary part of the overall gameplay. Plenty of games involve breaking shit, but in my experience relatively few ask you to break shit in a pretty specific way so a column topples in a certain direction to allow you to platform up it.

I'm reminded of the first Red Faction which had pretty destructible levels. The game gave you plenty of explosives and you were expected to use them to dig under locked doors and stuff. But what interested me the most is how it was applied in the multiplayer. There would be areas cordoned off with various weapons and power ups and would eventually reveal themselves, either from collateral damage or deliberate explosive use to access them. But essentially the map at the start and towards the end of the match would end up very different due to the increased amount of areas and pathways that became accessible.

 

[Dalisclock]

I'm reminded of the first Red Faction which had pretty destructible levels. The game gave you plenty of explosives and you were expected to use them to dig under locked doors and stuff. But what interested me the most is how it was applied in the multiplayer. There would be areas cordoned off with various weapons and power ups and would eventually reveal themselves, either from collateral damage or deliberate explosive use to access them. But essentially the map at the start and towards the end of the match would end up very different due to the increased amount of areas and pathways that became accessible.

That was the best part of that game by far. Sadly, they found ways to sabotage you from using it as the game went on by putting indestructible materials everywhere.

 

[BrawlMan]

Titanfall 2 and Singularity's time shifting mechanics.Titanfall 2 only has it for one level, while Singularity has it happen for most of the game. Singularity has levels where you would switch between the ruined present/future, to going back to the 1950s on an island The Russians were performing heinous experiments. TF2 may have only used it for one level, but it does not go to waste. You have flip back in forth between now and the last couple of weeks at some lab where shit got crazy. You don't nearly see this enough in fps that involve time travel. Not even Time Shift. My God, what waste of an original idea for some generic, let's look like Gears and Halo, and be grim dark.

​

 

[Meximagician]

I'm reminded of the first Red Faction which had pretty destructible levels. The game gave you plenty of explosives and you were expected to use them to dig under locked doors and stuff. But what interested me the most is how it was applied in the multiplayer. There would be areas cordoned off with various weapons and power ups and would eventually reveal themselves, either from collateral damage or deliberate explosive use to access them. But essentially the map at the start and towards the end of the match would end up very different due to the increased amount of areas and pathways that became accessible.

Did Geo-Mod™ get better after RF2? I remember the big geo-mod set piece in RF1 was a convoy (it's even on the box: "Don't fight the convoy...just destroy the bridge.") but to drop the bridge in a satisfying way you had to use more rockets than to just destroy the convoy. Meanwhile geo-mod barely existed at all in RF2, relegated to only VERY particular structures in each level.

 

[wings012]

That was the best part of that game by far. Sadly, they found ways to sabotage you from using it as the game went on by putting indestructible materials everywhere.

The wallhacking railgun did keep things a little fresh, but yeah.

Did Geo-Mod™ get better after RF2? I remember the big geo-mod set piece in RF1 was a convoy (it's even on the box: "Don't fight the convoy...just destroy the bridge.") but to drop the bridge in a satisfying way you had to use more rockets than to just destroy the convoy. Meanwhile geo-mod barely existed at all in RF2, relegated to only VERY particular structures in each level.

I haven't played any of the newer Red Factions, but I did hear about people disappointed that things were a lot less destructible. I kinda understand things though, higher graphical fidelity and full dynamic destruction are things that don't really go hand in hand. I have a friend who was playing through one of the newer RFs(Guerilla I think?) and he mentioned stuff like collapsing buildings but nothing about digging new tunnels through the terrain.

Titanfall 2 and Singularity's time shifting mechanics.Titanfall 2 only has it for one level, while Singularity has it happen for most of the game. Singularity has levels where you would switch between the ruined present/future, to going back to the 1950s on an island The Russians were performing heinous experiments. TF2 may have only used it for one level, but it does not go to waste. You have flip back in forth between now and the last couple of weeks at some lab where shit got crazy. You don't nearly see this enough in fps that involve time travel. Not even Time Shift. My God, what waste of an original idea for some generic, let's look like Gears and Halo, and be grim dark.

I thought the timepiece in Dishonoured 2 was pretty cool. I wonder if you could make a whole game out of it without the mechanic getting old.

 

[EvilRoy]

I'm reminded of the first Red Faction which had pretty destructible levels. The game gave you plenty of explosives and you were expected to use them to dig under locked doors and stuff. But what interested me the most is how it was applied in the multiplayer. There would be areas cordoned off with various weapons and power ups and would eventually reveal themselves, either from collateral damage or deliberate explosive use to access them. But essentially the map at the start and towards the end of the match would end up very different due to the increased amount of areas and pathways that became accessible.

I remember seeing a review for that a long time ago but I never had the chance to play it. Looked it up and that was apparently 20 friggin years ago. Damn. So the multiplayer servers are probably dead. Still, that sounds pretty cool - I always like the idea of multiplayer arena maps that go through changes during the match to keep things interesting.

 

[BrawlMan]

I thought the timepiece in Dishonoured 2 was pretty cool. I wonder if you could make a whole game out of it without the mechanic getting old.

Don't know how that functions, but feel free to add it to the list.

 

[Meximagician]

Titanfall 2 and Singularity's time shifting mechanics.Titanfall 2 only has it for one level, while Singularity has it happen for most of the game. Singularity has levels where you would switch between the ruined present/future, to going back to the 1950s on an island The Russians were performing heinous experiments. TF2 may have only used it for one level, but it does not go to waste. You have flip back in forth between now and the last couple of weeks at some lab where shit got crazy. You don't nearly see this enough in fps that involve time travel. Not even Time Shift. My God, what waste of an original idea for some generic, let's look like Gears and Halo, and be grim dark.

​

There's also a short puzzle game called Void made by students at DigiPen that relied heavily on time shifting. Real shame it didn't get the same student-prototype-to-commercial-product treatment like Portal, as it has similar polish.

 

[wings012]

Don't know how that functions, but feel free to add it to the list.

You just swap between two time periods in an area to get past obstacles and stuff. You can also do some things in the past that could affect the future by messing with keys/locks/NPCs which are the key to proceeding forward. I did play TF2 but I honestly do not remember the timeshift level(or much of the game actually) or I'd make a direct comparison. But it sounds similar to what DH2 did.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Xenogears had one of the most interesting battle mechanics i have ever seen in a turn based rpg. A mechanic that i have never ever seen used ever again in any form.

The way it works was each turn your characters had a set number of points to spend on attacks. Light attacks cost 1 point. Medium attack 2. And heavy attacks 3 points. The cool thing though was that you could combine these attacks in different ways which could end up giving you a special attack if you entered the correct sequence.

For example 1 light attack followed by 1 heavy, would result in a power punch attack.

As the characters leveled up you got more points to spend on your turn thus allow for bigger more powerful combinations of attacks. I think this capped at 9 points.

This system was also used when you got into your mechs, but instead of generic points each attack would pull from a pool of fuel your mech had available. You could upgrade this by buying better engines and other parts for the mech throughout the game.

It was such an awesome system im sad nobody ever used it again.

 

[wings012]

Xenogears had one of the most interesting battle mechanics i have ever seen in a turn based rpg. A mechanic that i have never ever seen used ever again in any form.

The way it works was each turn your characters had a set number of points to spend on attacks. Light attacks cost 1 point. Medium attack 2. And heavy attacks 3 points. The cool thing though was that you could combine these attacks in different ways which could end up giving you a special attack if you entered the correct sequence.

For example 1 light attack followed by 1 heavy, would result in a power punch attack.

As the characters leveled up you got more points to spend on your turn thus allow for bigger more powerful combinations of attacks. I think this capped at 9 points.

This system was also used when you got into your mechs, but instead of generic points each attack would pull from a pool of fuel your mech had available. You could upgrade this by buying better engines and other parts for the mech throughout the game.

It was such an awesome system im sad nobody ever used it again.

It was cool the first time I played Xenogears when I was younger, but when I tried replaying it when I was older... it kinda felt like a lot of unnecessary button pesses that gave the illusion of a meaningful combo system but you might as well have selected from a range of attacks? Most of the time I kinda just smack things with the same string of attacks anyway. I remember being able to store AP for longer combos in later turns but not really needing to do so?


Anyway there's a similar-ish combo based battle system in Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier/Exceed. Though it's more about juggling enemies to keep them airborne to extend your combos to deal more damage, and you can swap characters in/out with support attacks to extend the combo. It has a similar 'feel' though what it accomplishes is somewhat different. If you fail to keep enemies airborne, they can guard to reduce further oncoming damage or even straight up cancel your combo. Fairly old DS games though, and Exceed never received an official translation though a fan translation actually finished not too long ago. You couldn't switch up the combos on the fly, like once you started attacking you were committed to a specific combo sequence but you could preset a number of combat sets and select different ones before you begin attacking. It sorta works off an action point ish system except its called command, and it comes in percentages and certain items/skills also consumed command(though there were skills that could restore command).

 

[CriticalGaming]

It was cool the first time I played Xenogears when I was younger, but when I tried replaying it when I was older... it kinda felt like a lot of unnecessary button pesses that gave the illusion of a meaningful combo system but you might as well have selected from a range of attacks? Most of the time I kinda just smack things with the same string of attacks anyway. I remember being able to store AP for longer combos in later turns but not really needing to do so?


Anyway there's a similar-ish combo based battle system in Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier/Exceed. Though it's more about juggling enemies to keep them airborne to extend your combos to deal more damage, and you can swap characters in/out with support attacks to extend the combo. It has a similar 'feel' though what it accomplishes is somewhat different. If you fail to keep enemies airborne, they can guard to reduce further oncoming damage or even straight up cancel your combo. Fairly old DS games though, and Exceed never received an official translation though a fan translation actually finished not too long ago. You couldn't switch up the combos on the fly, like once you started attacking you were committed to a specific combo sequence but you could preset a number of combat sets and select different ones before you begin attacking. It sorta works off an action point ish system except its called command, and it comes in percentages and certain items/skills also consumed command(though there were skills that could restore command).

I loves Super Robot Teisen on the DS, and that same system got moves to Project X Zone on 3ds of which I have both games still. Also a very cool system that is underused with room for evolution and adaptation. Oh well. We all know the industry is allergic to good ideas.

 

[Worgen]

Anyway there's a similar-ish combo based battle system in Super Robot Wars OG Saga Endless Frontier/Exceed. Though it's more about juggling enemies to keep them airborne to extend your combos to deal more damage, and you can swap characters in/out with support attacks to extend the combo. It has a similar 'feel' though what it accomplishes is somewhat different. If you fail to keep enemies airborne, they can guard to reduce further oncoming damage or even straight up cancel your combo. Fairly old DS games though, and Exceed never received an official translation though a fan translation actually finished not too long ago. You couldn't switch up the combos on the fly, like once you started attacking you were committed to a specific combo sequence but you could preset a number of combat sets and select different ones before you begin attacking. It sorta works off an action point ish system except its called command, and it comes in percentages and certain items/skills also consumed command(though there were skills that could restore command).

Oh cool, I never knew that game got a sequel. Good to hear it got a fan translation since the Endless Frontier was awesome, I'll have to look into it at some point.

 

[meiam]

Xenogears had one of the most interesting battle mechanics i have ever seen in a turn based rpg. A mechanic that i have never ever seen used ever again in any form.

The way it works was each turn your characters had a set number of points to spend on attacks. Light attacks cost 1 point. Medium attack 2. And heavy attacks 3 points. The cool thing though was that you could combine these attacks in different ways which could end up giving you a special attack if you entered the correct sequence.

For example 1 light attack followed by 1 heavy, would result in a power punch attack.

As the characters leveled up you got more points to spend on your turn thus allow for bigger more powerful combinations of attacks. I think this capped at 9 points.

This system was also used when you got into your mechs, but instead of generic points each attack would pull from a pool of fuel your mech had available. You could upgrade this by buying better engines and other parts for the mech throughout the game.

It was such an awesome system im sad nobody ever used it again.

It never really did anything special with those, it's not like there was any reason to use specific attack over any of the others, and once you got the combo you'd just use those.

Tale of grace has better version, you have a bunch of attack mapped to different directional button and that varies based on which order they are in an attack sequence of 4 attack (so 10-14 different attack in total). Attack take stamina, which regenerate quickly when not attacking. Every attacks is more effective versus certain attribute (one might be good against beast/fire/flight, another against earth/lizard and so on) every enemy has between 3 and 8 (or more, cant remember the max) attribute. There's also special attack that can be triggered at any time and have their own attribute. If you manage to hit all of an enemy weakness, it'll restore your character stamina so you can go try for another combo. Every character has different moveset, so some might be able to do a full combo on an enemy but not others. So every enemy need it's own combo that you have to make up based on which character you're currently controlling, which really help keep combat varied as the game progress, you don't always just use the same combo every fight.

 

[Dalisclock]

Xenogears had one of the most interesting battle mechanics i have ever seen in a turn based rpg. A mechanic that i have never ever seen used ever again in any form.

The way it works was each turn your characters had a set number of points to spend on attacks. Light attacks cost 1 point. Medium attack 2. And heavy attacks 3 points. The cool thing though was that you could combine these attacks in different ways which could end up giving you a special attack if you entered the correct sequence.

For example 1 light attack followed by 1 heavy, would result in a power punch attack.

As the characters leveled up you got more points to spend on your turn thus allow for bigger more powerful combinations of attacks. I think this capped at 9 points.

This system was also used when you got into your mechs, but instead of generic points each attack would pull from a pool of fuel your mech had available. You could upgrade this by buying better engines and other parts for the mech throughout the game.

It was such an awesome system im sad nobody ever used it again.

Xenogears was a fascinating game. Both in good ways and in some less good ways.

And of course, the fact they faced the choice of not finishing the game or cramming the rest of the story on disc 2 at the expense of the gameplay(so it's now cutscenes, boss battles and one proper dungeon) and we see what happened. Then again, in another timeline we'd be lamenting XG never got to finish it's story because there was never a sequel made.

 

[CriticalGaming]

Xenogears was a fascinating game. Both in good ways and in some less good ways.

And of course, the fact they faced the choice of not finishing the game or cramming the rest of the story on disc 2 at the expense of the gameplay(so it's now cutscenes, boss battles and one proper dungeon) and we see what happened. Then again, in another timeline we'd be lamenting XG never got to finish it's story because there was never a sequel made.

The game was a heavy metaphor on catholism i believe for sure. So that image doesn't surprise me.

IIRC they ran either out of budget or out of time to truly finish the game they way they wanted which is why many of the cutscenes in disc 2 were just pages of text and why the ending felt rushed.

I wonder why they never adapted XenoGears systems into future Xeno-games like Saga and Chronicles. Chronicles especially has one of the worst RPG battle systems I've ever fucking played. I HATE Xenoblade with a passion, simply because the gameplay is a fucking disaster. What is even more upsetting is that the Xenoblade stories are actually pretty great.

 

[Dalisclock]

The game was a heavy metaphor on catholism i believe for sure. So that image doesn't surprise me.

IIRC they ran either out of budget or out of time to truly finish the game they way they wanted which is why many of the cutscenes in disc 2 were just pages of text and why the ending felt rushed.

It feels like they were falling into the same trap NGE did when they tried the same thing. It's like "Oh, we're gonna use all this cool, exotic religious symbolism/metaphor to make this seem deep" and then use it in a way that makes no sense. Crucifixion, yep, that's a clear reference to Christianity. Crucifying a bunch of mechs and a giant stuffed animal, none of which can actually feel pain.....doesn't really have any actual meaning to it. Especially since it's pretty done for "LOOK! RELIGIOUS REFERENCE YOU RECOGNIZE!" value.

And don't get me wrong, I really dug NGE and Xenogears but watching them just pull references out of their ass was....something. Especially since both had Illuminati-like shadowy groups that mostly spouted religious gibberish to make them sound like they were really deep or something. Using symbolism/metaphor doesn't really help you when you don't use it consistently or in a way that makes thematic sense.

Yeah, there were definitely budget/time issues and apparently at the time nothing that wasn't Final Fantasy was going to get a sequel greenlit by SE, so they went with what they had.

 

[Bedinsis]

I thought the splitscreen coop gameplay of the Lego games was pretty unique. Although admittedly, the older I got the less I played the kind of games that would have couch coop, so it might not be unique at all.

I thought it was a really cool way of having two players on screen at once without sacrificing the scale of levels. And in earlier games, you could establish dominance as the older sibling by being Player 1 and pulling Player 2 along with you since the camera prioritized you.

Now that my sisters actually play videogames, it would be nice if there were more couch coop games that weren't totally aimed at children. It used to be one of the biggest draws of console gaming, but it seems largely absent these days.

Have you tried A Way Out?

I don't think I've experienced enough different titles to add anything, other than saying that I haven't seen Baba is You's basic gameplay being used in other titles. Though I suspect that if anyone were to incorporate parts of Baba is You's gameplay into a new title it would by necessity be a watered down version since Baba is You had one very strong central idea around which it constructed all its puzzles. And the puzzles themselves achieved variety by having certain words be central to different worlds, exploring these words and corresponding mechanics to the fullest ability, so if any title were to focus on only some of the mechanics it would also be a watered down version.

 

[Jarrito3002]

I just to say thank you to Warner Bros for patenting the nemesis system used in Shadow of War. Because of that no other developers can take this concept and add to it and do different spins on it and who knows maybe would of became its own sub genre in the way of soulslike.

But no patent it and probably leave it to rot because you forgot about the LoTR license and even if you brought it back you will probably forget this gameplay mechanic even existed.

God bless United States patent laws they really look out for us.