It's the little things... Your favorite small details in games.

[scorptatious]

As much as I enjoy epic fights or grand set pieces in games, a lot of the time, it's the little things that make me fall in love with them.

I'll give an example: Shadow of the Colossus.

This game is loaded with tiny little details. Ironic considering what you're up against. Anyway, throughout my several playthroughs of the game, I've noticed some pretty cool and easily overlooked things.

For example: whenever you're near a body of water, Agro will sometimes walk over and drink from it. First time I discovered this, I couldn't help but smile.

Also, when I was watching my nephews play the game, I noticed that when you shoot arrows at a colossi, they actually fall off as time passes. In my experience, most games would just have the arrows disappear out of thin air. So when I saw that I was like "OMG!! The arrows actually fall of them! ThatsocoolIlovethisgame!!111".

So anyway, what are some small details that you found in games that you really liked?

 

[tippy2k2]

Naughty Dog is one of my favorite developers because of this.

If Nathan Drake is running against a wall, he will put his hand out to steady himself on it.

If Joel and Ellie are hiding behind the same piece of cover, Joel will put his hand over Ellie in a "protective" kind of a thing (like if you were a kid in the front seat and your parents slam on the break, they do that "put their hand over you" to keep you from flying forward).

Lots of little things like that. Little animations that you don't notice in the middle of a firefight but really build the immersion. It feels like a real world since Drake can't slam face first into a wall like so many other games.

 

[BobblyDrink]

In Sleeping Dogs when you enter into the clubs Wei starts to nod his head and have a little dance to the music. Never played a lot of that game, so don't know if there's anything else like that during it, but I thought it was a nice touch, gave the environment a bit more life. Before I started slamming everyone against the fish tank walls at least.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Spoiler: The Last of Us spoiler

Looking in Ellie's backpack, and hearing her thoughts on all the items. It's easy to overlook this ability, since first time playing it you're too preoccupied with whether or not Joel is dead. And it being a "secondary character" section you expect the less crucial game mechanics to take a backseat.

Also her picking up the robot in the toy store, but only when you break sight with her.

Spoiler: Journey spoiler

If you play the climb up the snowy mountain in co-op, you're (to my knowledge) always the last one to collapse from exhaustion.

Spoiler: Rayman Legends

The luchador thumbs-up as he sinks in the hot sauce. Priceless!

 

[Able Seacat]

In FF13, if you make the character jot about a bit they'll stop and shake their head in frustration. I imagine if my dark souls character could be frustrated she would just sit on the floor and refuse to move.

 

[pilouuuu]

How Elizabeth throws you coins in Bioshock Infinite.
Seriously though all the details in AC 4 Black Flag are beautiful. The sea looks like a painting! And pirates singing! Yeah!

 

[Evonisia]

Some of the bosses from WoW Mists of Pandaria are quite cute. Some of them will have NPCs fighting a boss but they slowly die throughout the fight as your group fights Mr. Boss.

The best example is a boss which absolutely terrifies me (no, seriously) called Thok the Bloodthirsty. He's a giant dinosaur that kills his guards and fights your raid. Occasionally you can release prisoners to help you, which grants him an ability depending on the prisoner. I didn't realise until the third time I fought him but he actually eats the prisoner (all three of whom had been encountered previously in the expansion). He gets their power by eating them.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

In The Darkness, there's a section early on where you have the option of cuddling on the couch with your girlfriend. This is something that I've never really seen anywhere else and while it isn't exactly minor or a small detail, it's the only time in a game where I believed that the protagonist truly cared about his significant other (outside of games like Max Payne where revenge is the reason the game exists to begin with)

---

In Link Between Worlds, grass turns brown when you set fire to it or, blow it up. That greatly entertained me!

 

[The Madman]

Boo taking up an inventory slot for Minsc in Baldur's Gate is probably my favourite little detail. Squeak Squeak!

 

[Sarge034]

The little things that make a game for me... I guess it depends on the game. Most of the time it comes down to the accuracy of firearms and firearm handling in modern shooters (and movies). BF4 has you loose the rounds left in a mag when you reload instead of magically consolidating all that ammo. Any game that gives me the ability to have 31 rounds with a 30 round mag gets a huge nod. By having one round in the chamber and a fresh mag, for those of you who don't know. Yeah, I'm "that guy". The guy who notices when a fire selector switch is in the wrong position or when a gun is behaving differently than it should. I'm looking at you CoD full auto accuracy. >.>

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

The Elder Scrolls games and... everything? Seriously, I can't think of many other games where you can determine a characters taste in literature, see their collections of odds and ends or notice the fact that they keep Porn in their closet (oh Daggerfall).

 

[EyeReaper]

I do so love small details in games. Here are some of my personal favorites
In the Quest for Glory series, when you want to break into someone's house you have to type "pick lock." to use your lockpick.
Guess what happens when you type "pick nose"?
If your skill is high enough "Congratulations! your nose is now open!" Otherwise, you kill yourself because you just shoved a lockpick up your nose
Also from quest for Glory, you're holding a lamp. you need to set the lamp down, so you type in "put down lamp"
Your character then proceeds to insult the lamp.

From the game, Kingdom of Loathing, you can be a zombie. When you defeat monsters, you get their brains. you wanna know what monster never drops brains? Mummies, because their brains were removed from the mummification process!

And Finally, Everything about Psychonauts. The amount of details put into that game are frankly astonishing.

 

[Squilookle]

There are heaps of these, but all seem to escape me right now.

Two that come to mind are the way in The Saboteur when you go through the gun menu, whenever you select one a tiny glint comes off it, and the way in Goldeneye, on the controller setup screen, you can actually rotate the controller display itself. I went years without knowing that.

Also, in GTA3 and beyond, the game keeps track of how you enter and exit a car. if you're putting any imput in whatsoever, whether it be a button press or joystick movement, the player will forget about closing the car door as he clearly has more important things on his mind. Let go of all the controls and he will reach out and slam it shut. No other sandbox has EVER got this right.

Oh and the Hubcaps in Driver 1 and 2. Seeing them careen off your car during a chase was just the friggin coolest thing back in 2000.

 

[Weaver]

This is really more of an easter egg: but there's a note from Sam to Lonnie (from Gone Home) in The Stanley Parable.
It's just on the floor under some stairs.

 

[dystopiaINC]

Mass effect. Seriously Every time K replay it I find some other little detail, reference or cut scene. Legion doing the robot in ME2 if you chill with him for a bit might just take the cake though.

Fable and the demon doors and other stuff. lots of little humor and fridge horror details.

 

[Hero of Lime]

There is one certain thing in the Zelda series that many people may miss that always puts a smile on my face. In the 3D games Link's stationary poses are usually pretty interesting, he'll shiver and sneeze in cold places, wipe his brow in hot places, yawn, adjust his belt, examine his sword or shield, stretch, etc.

Wind Waker Link's emotions are pretty cute and silly, plus you can emulate them anytime in Wind Waker HD when taking selfies with the camera. XD

 

[GiantRaven]

Also, in GTA3 and beyond, the game keeps track of how you enter and exit a car. if you're putting any imput in whatsoever, whether it be a button press or joystick movement, the player will forget about closing the car door as he clearly has more important things on his mind. Let go of all the controls and he will reach out and slam it shut. No other sandbox has EVER got this right.

Even better is making a sharp turn and having the door slam shut. I can't think of many things in videogames that feel as therapeutic as that.

Conversely, when the door breaks and won't close properly. That is the worst thing.

 

[Zeraki]

One of my favorite little details is from the Mega Man X games on SNES. When X gets too low on health, he has an idle animation showing that he's tired. But sometimes you get the cool little added touch of his buster arm smoking from overheating.

Another was in Mega Man X 4 on the PSX. When you go through Frost Walrus' stage you can see previous ice bosses from the series frozen in ice. Those bosses being Chill Penguin(X) and Blizzard Buffalo(X3).

That whole series has so many little easter eggs hidden in it, but those are two of the ones that stand out the most for me.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

This could be considered egocentric.

But! I found that it really made a difference in a game where the main character had my first name. It was first person and people spoke directly to screen, so it really did have that extra step of immersion for me, because it felt more like people were talking to me - although this can not be directly credited to the game, as it was just chance that my name was the same, but it felt really strange to experience!

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Halo is just PACKED with these small details. Especially Halo 3. Did you know that the energy barrier equipment can be shot through with ballistic weapons on one side? Did you know that when you're out of ammo and switch to your second weapon with Y, the icon for your first weapon above the one you currently have out will flash a little until you replace it or get ammo for it? Did you know there's a specific spot on the back of a Wraith where if you melee it, it will do a whole lotta damage?

I could go on and on but seriously, it's just mind-blowing thinking about all the billions of small details in past Halo games that add up to make it so good.