Can anything redeem bad gameplay in your eyes?

[Shadowstar38]

Story most likely. But thats only if the gameplay isnt broken beyond playability. Both ninja theory games were like that. Yes I will drag through these shitty fights if only to see whats happening with Monkey and Trip. Except for the new game they're making. Really dropped the ball on that one.

 

[kasperbbs]

Story, characters. Fahrenheit was basically a bunch of quicktime events ,a few puzzles and some dialog, but i was interested in the story and wanted to know what happens next, i was disappointed at the end, but i still played it a second time to see what happens if i do things differently.

 

[krazykidd]

Yes . I point you to LOST ODESSEY.

Gameplay wize it was pretty meh . The story however was incredible . The added short stories were beautifully written and very emotional . The characters were very well done and believable and well rounded ( except for the two children). I really enjoyed the game even though the gameplay was raher dull .

If I had had more time to play it, I would have felt the same. But it was soooooooooooo sloooooooooooow and booooooooooooooring.

And Brutal Legend... as much as I like heavy metal and the artstyle, that game was so awful and terrible to play that I had to stop.

So I guess no, I don't have enough time and there are so many good games out there.

I can't argue with you there , it is really slow . Actually thats the reason most people haven't finished it . That and actually reading through all the short stories take a lot of time, 5-10 minutes each, and kinda breaks the flow ( if you can say a game like this has a flow). Your arument is legitamate. I actually had to force myself through it at the begining then i learned to enjoy it ,it really was was redeemed it for me.


Edit: i just thought of another game . Prince of persia 2008. The gameplay was horrid , the visual were nothing short of amazing , best cell shaded visuals in a game if you ask me . It didn't really salvage the game for me because it sucked imo but i did manage to finish it.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Not really to be honest. I mean yes they can make great characters, story, music and etc but at the end of the day it's the gameplay that determine if I enjoyed the game. E.g. Solatorobo had great animation and setting but the gameplay was still to dull and easy.

 

[Something Amyss]

Depends on how bad the gameplay actually is.

Are we talking complete crap, or flawed? I've never played Eat Lead. I don't know which category it's in. If it's the former, no. Most games can be compelling enough if the controls are kinda bad.

Yes . I point you to LOST ODESSEY.

Gameplay wize it was pretty meh . The story however was incredible . The added short stories were beautifully written and very emotional . The characters were very well done and believable and well rounded ( except for the two children). I really enjoyed the game even though the gameplay was raher dull .

For example, this. I wasn't blown over by the gameplay either, but liked the presentation enough I stuck it out. At least until I lost a disc and couldn't continue. Now I've found it, I should probably finish the sucker.

 

[Vampire cat]

Mass Effect continues to recieve praise for being one of the deepest and most awesome story-driven games, but I can't finish it... I've tried 3 times, I can't finish it... The combat is just SO boring!

 

[spartan231490]

Absolutely not. A game with sub-par gameplay can still be a great game if everything else is great, but a game with bad gameplay can never be even an ok game in my eyes. No matter how awesome everything else is.

Portal comes to mind. To me, the gameplay was very meh, I'm not much of a platform/puzzle gamer, but the jokes, the shenanigans, the game was so funny that I still loved it, even though the gameplay was phenomenally unimpressive for me.

but I'll use brutal legends as the counter example. I liked the story, and the world was interesting. But after 5 minutes of play I never touched it again. I actually liked watching a friend play, but playing it myself made me want to rip my fingernails off with rusty tongs.

 

[WanderingFool]

You play a game first and foremost because of the GAMEplay. Everything else is secondary. Whether or not I'll continue playing a game depends on how good the gameplay is. There are a lot of games (way too many) with mediocre gameplay, but at least decent enough to continue playing if there is something else to compensate for the lack of gameplay. That 'something else' is usually the story. If there is nothing to compensate for the lack of gameplay or if the gameplay is that abysmal, then I'll just stop playing the game, no matter what.

There are two different ways gameplay can fail:
1) The basics - this usually is the final nail on the coffin
2) The balancing - this breaks the gameplay but the game could still work

About 99% of the games nowadays have balancing issues, but I can still enjoy the game if the basics are okay and the game has something else it does very well.

Examples of games with balancing issues, but with an interesting story:
The Witcher 2, Mass Effect 2, Dragon Age: Origin, Deus Ex: Human Revolution

God... this and only this...

This post has basically summed up everything I would and could (and probably was going to) say about the topic.

 

[zombieshark6666]

I can't argue with you there , it is really slow . Actually thats the reason most people haven't finished it . That and actually reading through all the short stories take a lot of time, 5-10 minutes each, and kinda breaks the flow ( if you can say a game like this has a flow). Your arument is legitamate. I actually had to force myself through it at the begining then i learned to enjoy it ,it really was was redeemed it for me.

I actually liked the short stories quite a lot. My problem was with the gameplay, the battles, the city, the chatting, it felt pointless and tedious. The game made me realize I was no longer into JRPGs and that made me sad. I really liked the first boss battle, though. I really had to figure out a winning strategy after a few defeats, I felt challenged there.

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Depends on how bad the gameplay actually is.

Are we talking complete crap, or flawed? I've never played Eat Lead. I don't know which category it's in. If it's the former, no. Most games can be compelling enough if the controls are kinda bad.

Yes . I point you to LOST ODESSEY.

Gameplay wize it was pretty meh . The story however was incredible . The added short stories were beautifully written and very emotional . The characters were very well done and believable and well rounded ( except for the two children). I really enjoyed the game even though the gameplay was raher dull .

For example, this. I wasn't blown over by the gameplay either, but liked the presentation enough I stuck it out. At least until I lost a disc and couldn't continue. Now I've found it, I should probably finish the sucker.

Well in Eat Lead its essentially a a cover based shooter that utilizes quick time events (Quite badly if i might add). Imagine Gears of War or Mass Effect 2 but it feels like you're playing as a block of wood. Its functional, but its just incredibly dull and boring

 

[chaosyoshimage]

I found the gameplay in the first two Fallout games atrocious, but I kept going out of interest in the story. So, I guess you can throw me into the good characters/story boat.

 

[Joccaren]

Only, and ONLY if EVERY other aspect is good.

Soundtrack, story, characters, dialogue, graphics, EVERYTHING. If all that is good, then I can get past bad gameplay. Otherwise, nope.

Yeah; Mass Effect.

Hate me all you like for saying it, but the clumsy movement, floaty aiming, inconsistent and awkward cover-taking, dreadful enemy & squad AI, tedious inventory management, horrendous vehicle sections, indiscernible improvements upon level-up*, and having to pause the game every 3 seconds in a fight to make use of powers made for a game that was just bad.

But by god if it didn't also have a killer soundtrack, great story, some awesome characters & themes, and a universe so deep and well crafted that, terrible gameplay be damned, I lost myself in it anyway. I bought ME2 on launch day and I've pre-ordered ME3's collector's edition, so I can say with certainty that games with tremendous gameplay flaws can certainly overcome them with other virtues.



*This one's more of a personal preference. The difference between being level 10 and level 11 is unnoticeable, and the difference between being level 10 and level 15 is only noticeable if you dumped all of your points in one category. I prefer the less deep but instantly rewarding Borderlands style level-up system, where you can immediately notice and feel the improvement after you jump a level. I realize not everyone shares my preference here.

Man, I was about to say this.

Mass Effect (1) has such mediocre gameplay. Theres nothing downright terrible about it, but the repetitive environments, lackluster shooting, needlessly long and complicated missions... Im only 10 hours in (finally got around to picking it up a few days ago) but the only thing that has drawn me in until now is the dialog, which is outstanding. Im not close to completing the game, and yet I feel like if I see the inside of one more narrow space station, im going to be sick.

Still, the story is good enough to keep me going.

Tis a shame they made it worse in ME2. Whilst the controls were arguably improved, the entire game is one linear cover shooter, not too different from others. The 'Caster' Classes (Engineer and Adept) are rendered far less valuable due to shared cooldowns, you have no health to be able to do anything but sit behind cover, waves of enemy attacks are used, you only have a couple of abilities that you are able to use, and only 1 of which you will use often, instead of improving vehicle sections they are replaced by Scanning (Then added in in an even worse form in DLC). The levels were far too short. Whilst they thankfully varied in terrain more, each mission felt like nothing. A side quest would take me five minutes and a main mission about 20. Most of my time was spent buying upgrades and mining planets, or flying to find resources. The best part of the game was the LotSB DLC as it had good atmosphere and Flashbangs were utilized alongside more Environmental obstacles for slightly more interesting combat.
Lets hope ME3 can get it right. 1 was clunky and slow (Though with a PC you didn't have to pause for abilities so... ), 2 was linear and boring. Three looks to be a bit better, but I haven't heard a ton of good about it. Eh, we'll see. At the very least I'll finish off Shepard's story. Even though reasonably cliché, Bioware stories are just done that well that it will pull me through. I can only wonder what would happen if they came up with something more original.

 

[spartandude]

story and atmosphere

 

[Shoggoth2588]

When it comes to bad games, humor definitely helps. If humor doesn't come from the game itself then it's fun to call some people from around (or even if not) and MST3K the game as I'm playing it. Other than that, there are some games I just want to experience because of their horrible reputation (as some of you may recall, I tried in vein to get a copy of Shaq-Fu just to indulge in that shit).

 

[NathLines]

Absolutely. Dragon Age: Origins is one of the best games I've ever played. I absolutely hated the combat though.

And though I haven't played it, I can see myself enjoying TOR a lot too.

 

[Naeras]

Bad gameplay? Not really. But other parts of the game can make a game good, even with otherwise mediocre gameplay.

Examples? Mass Effect 2. I couldn't manage to play more than a few hours of it as anything but a Vanguard(which upgraded the shooting from "tactical, but repetetive and boring" to "dumb suicide bombing fun"), but the characters, the universe and the potentially great endings were interesting enough for me to say that it's a really good game today, even though only one of the classes in the game were remotely interesting, and that class revolved around suicide bombing people off platforms. On the other hand, while I love the atmosphere, story and freedom I got in the Baldur's Gate-games, the combat is so boring and frustrating(hello diceroll combat) that I never managed to play through any of the games. FFffffff-

 

[Ben Saville]

The biggest thing that will make it up for me is immersion. A good narrative and characters with arcs will definitely help, but I got so immersed in Fallout: New Vegas that I was able to look past the graphics and the bugs (despite the fact that you have no character in the game and the story is pretty simple) and just have fun. It doesn't always work and it doesn't work with all things, but it sometimes does.

 

[BiscuitWheels]

Depends on just how bad the gameplay is. I can forgive a clunky interface if the rest of the story and characters make up for it. My all time favorite game is Vagrant Story and that game has loads of clumsy bits. The inventory is weird and the weapon system is baffling for new players. Combat is so-so, as well. But I love it just the same.

 

[WindKnight]

It depends. I've had plenty of games where the gameplay was so-so, but the other aspects (charming characters, entertaining story and so-on) kept me entranced and could even make me love a game, much like Brutal Legend.

And then there's titles I can't love, but I will still recommend people try the demo at least because some aspect tickled my sensibilities. (I CAN'T recommend buying lucidity or bloodrayne betrayal, but I DO recommend trying the demo's just to sample their very stylish art styles)