List of "Features" that actually will sell a game to you

[mardocOz]

This is a really good topic. I think it's really interesting and thought provoking. Kudos.

That being said, I don't think that I put much stock in a feature list. By itself, it means very little and is often nothing more than twisted marketing buzzwords. Back in the day I would read game magazines that I trusted for reviews, but I find actually being able to see the game in action much more useful for my eventual purchasing decisions. The advent of Let's Play has changed the landscape of video game marketing, and to me it's much more useful than PR spin claiming "multiple branching stories" or "Over 100 hours of gameplay"

The only thing that really stands out to me at this time are when we're told we're getting "more" of something, or something that's "improved". For example, I'm a sucker for the Football Manager games. Have been for years. Each year we're told that we're getting "More interactions with the media" or an "improved match-day engine". I guess this grabs me because I already know that I like these things, and having more of things that I like is always a good thing.

It's kinda like the new Star Wars movie. Sure, The Force Awakens a lot like A New Hope, but I liked A New Hope, and having "more" of it is alright by me!

 

[aozgolo]

I often milk reviews to find the features of a game I like, paying little heed to the reviewer's own preference for the game, I find that they often list features at face value, and even in a negative review of a game, if I hear it has something I will like, I will often try it. Likewise I can often have a game I really want to play exposed for it's PR lies. Every so often I was eager and excited to play Fable III, I'd tell myself I didn't care what the poor review score was like, but in reading he reviews I'd remind myself that the features I am most excited to play in it are the most broken and poorly implemented.

 

[Phasmal]

-Character customisation.
-You can be a girl.
-There's a dragon in it somewhere.
-No titty armour.
-Cool graphics.
-Nice story.

Any of those, preferably more than one, and I'm generally pretty sold.
There's probably more but that's all I can think of as of right now.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Let see-
Character customisaton
Rogue like element but not all the time
Graphic (I do not mean it as ultra realistic since I was sold to Hyper Light Drifter with its graphic)
Soundtrack
Gameplay
Setting (I'm a sucker for most fantasy setting than I am for futuristic sci fi)
Uniqueness (a nice bonus since not all games got it like eg Star Mazzer is both side scrolling shoot them up AND a point and click adventure!)

Yes I know a couple I had mention are common stuff but hey, they do help sell the game!

 

[Bilious Green_v1legacy]

I will generally be positively disposed towards a game that has some or all of the following features:

- single player focus (multiplayer only will generally rule a game out immediately)
- good narrative delivery (story/plot/writing/voice acting)
- stealth gameplay
- turn based combat
- well optimised PC version
- mod support

 

[FalloutJack]

Well, it has to be fun. Is that too much to ask for?

 

[Smooth Operator]

It's never one size fits all, I look for new games to make improvements on existing ones and I deduct a whole lot of point for shit that goes missing along the way.
SP campaigns are the ones that have me read further, otherwise I compare to existing stuff, if it comes up short it stays on the shelf.

 

[Strazdas]

Unlocked framerate
Mod support
Compelling gameplay
Good optimization

But i can forget all that if you give me great destructible physics.

 

[aozgolo]

Just out of curiosity, is it a specific game you are refering to? Because I have NEVER seen or heard cyberpunk description like this.

Oh, there's no such game, I have specifically made this description ridiculous.
But I took Faith and her sister from Mirror's Edge, Hope from Republique and inner somethings from Transistor and an indie VN called "Invisible Apartment". And Some Evil Corporation from Remember Me. So it isn't entirely baseless.
I feel that there's a trend to make things about young women fighting some relatively clear evil or undergoing some self-discovery and brand them "cyberpunk". Or to make games like Volume, devoid of any dirt in the corners that cyberpunk is built upon. Which are not exactly my jazz. The cyberpunk that I'm used to is about rather dipassionate people surviving in a shitty world of gray and grey morality.

So basically it has to have the actual cyberpunk themes, not simply the setting.

 

[Recusant]

I don't have such a list; I think it's dangerous to do so. Why? To pick just one example, I like heavy, story-driven games with real characterization and lots of narrative depth. That's a big part of what prompted me to grab Planescape: Torment, which boasted that dialogue was more dangerous than combat (and rightly so). But if I stuck to that, I'd've missed Freespace, which had only the simplest of plots and featured no characters, unless you count the ships themselves (yes, it did in fact have a few named and voiced commanding officers; I challenge you to name even a single one without looking it up or firing up the game)- and even if you did, the only difference was minor menu changes; any character you imparted was entirely due to your own personal experiences and perceptions (this, incidentally, it why playing Freespace is dangerous; you will never again be able to take the idea that "a silent protagonist allows you to insert yourself into the role of the character" seriously). I'd also have missed DOOM, which featured no real plot and no characters at all. Wonderful games, all three, that I'd've been sorry to miss.

It's not about simply being open to new experiences, though; it's about realizing that different games give you different things, and seeking them accordingly. That said, there are certain things I see as positive signs:
-A high, but not too high, level of mod support. The Mandalorian mod for Jedi Knight gave you both a jetpack and a grappling hook (among other things), letting you (if you were clever and fast) go up against a team of lightsaber-equipped force users and win; a wonderful bonus that added greatly to the combative multiplayer, but one that it's entirely reasonable the dev team didn't add. The [insert one of a few dozen Oblivion mods here] put in basic functionality the game never should've shipped without; pointing the needle very strongly at the dev team saying "we don't need to do our jobs, we have fans for that".
-Control customizing. Thanks to Xpadder, this isn't a hard necessity for me anymore, but it's just shy of that. See, unlike most of my country, I acknowledge that the Civil War is over. I know that Sholes' original design is hideously out of date (as did Sholes, I'll have you note), and have adapted accordingly. It's a shame that you, mister or miss high-tech game development company, are not hip with the 1890's, but the rest of us shouldn't have to suffer for that. This leads directly into:
-Display customization. Confession time: I am a human being. I am not an extraterrestrial lizardman, nor a fungal pod person; I'm an actual, honest-to-goodness savannah chimp. Accordingly, I have the eyes of a savannah chimp; though they're assisted with with glasses, they are not replaced with cybernetic versions nor genetically modified with engineering enhancements. As a result, they still see with the standard ape 4:3.3 aspect ratio, and I choose monitors that most frequently accommodate that. Yes, monitors follow televisions, which followed movie theater screens, which desperately sought any advantage they could find or (as it turned out) manufacture to gain an edge over the emerging television market in the 50's and 60's. Some of us, however, realize that a publicity stunt is a publicity stunt, and it makes a lot more sense to develop for the market that you have, rather than their alien overlords.
-A lack of in-game aesthetic customization. This may seem in conflict with the last one, but it's about the game itself, not how it displays. By and large, I play games to challenge myself, or to escape the confines and limitations of my real life. I have no need to play a game centered around, say, sorting outgoing mail in a package processing facility, I can get a job that does that and get paid for it instead of paying to do it. Likewise, if I want to play Pretty Barbie dress-up, I can borrow dolls and do that in real life. A game element that adds nothing to gameplay is not, in and of itself, a point against the game, but a game that dares to release in this day and age without a stupefying degree of meaningless aesthetic options is one that says "we have enough faith in the quality of our work that we're not going to inundate it with mindless dress-up minigames".

 

[sageoftruth]

I like games that look fast-paced but not too repetitive.

Stylish visuals or a unique art style do it for me as well.

If it has neither of those, than I'll also be impressed if it does something really interesting that makes it stand out from other games.

Give it all three and I'll be really impressed, provided that reviews don't suggest that the game is broken or a disappointing waste of innovation.

Also, as others have already mentioned, splurging on cut-scenes and other stuff that's not actually in the gameplay will only make me more skeptical.

 

[theevilgenius60]

Stealth gameplay
The word Atlus on the cover(usually, Bioware used to give me this feeling)
Job class system
I'm a simple man

 

[BarryMcCociner]

Let's get some more games with that Nemesis System from Shadow of Mordor, maybe?

A substantive single-player campaign is the only thing I can actually see myself really demanding from a game. I have a pretty wide taste, games don't need to bring me the moon to make me want to buy them.

Something unique is always pleasing though. Something I haven't really seen before always gets me at least interested.

 

[happyninja42]

Depending on the game:

Stealth
No Kill Capable endings
Fun
Humor
Good story
Good music
Flexibility in how I accomplish my goal.
Making me feel like a badass (if it's a high action/fighty game)
Having my choices actually have weight to the plot, not just window dressing "choice". I'm looking at you DA 2.
Good cast of characters who are actually fleshed out as 3 dimensional.

 

[FPLOON]

It has an actual quote from Roger Ebert's ghost retaining to the game in question... It doesn't matter what the quote says because it will still bring people to play said game regardless...

Other than that, "ponies"... and/or "contrasting assumptions"... Then again, "offline single player" does ring a bell...

 

[DoPo]

The cyberpunk that I'm used to is about rather dipassionate people surviving in a shitty world of gray and grey morality.

You may be used to it but it doesn't make it The One True Cyberpunk. At its heart, cyberpunk is about technology destroying society. That's about it - sure, there are a bunch of stories that rip off follow Neuromancer but that's not all there is to the genre.

I feel that there's a trend to make things about young women fighting some relatively clear evil or undergoing some self-discovery and brand them "cyberpunk".

Besides, as far as I know, Mirror's Edge, Remember Me and Republique were never even marketed as cyberpunk in the first place. The settings effectively are cyberpunk but it's not like the promise of the game is. Hence probably why they don't pursue the more "usual" themes that cyberpunk does.