Offer a new twist on an overused concept.

[King Billi]

Lack of originality is a common complaint leveled at damn near every form of creative media out there and games are certainly no exception with nearly every successful game idea immediately being followed up by a dozen lesser knockoffs or stretched through so many sequels that whatever unique appeal it once held inevitably becomes tiresome.

Now while compeletely new and original ideas are certainly preferred and should be celebrated when attempted(they won't always be good after all) theres no reason that a game taking inspiration from or expanding on the idea of another can't be great in their own right. Often originality comes simply from finding a new angle on an already well established concept..?

And thus finally we get to the point. Can you name any game which you feel created something new and unique from a tired or overused idea? Or better yet can you think of an interesting twist of your own?

The only thing I can offer is merely a small change to a rather popular trend currently... Assassins!

Simply put there are a ton of games in which you can be an Assassin(Dishonoured, Hitman and obviously Assassins Creed) a simple reversal of roles would completely change the dynamics of this kind of conflict. Just imagine playing a person who has an Assassin out trying to kill you, what do you do to stop someone like that? Imagine being the Templar Grand High Master in Assassins Creed and having just ONE bloody whiterobed bastard out to kill you who you have no idea how to find..? I can imagine the tension would be pretty high but whatever it's just an idea.

Please share what you can come up with, I'd like to hear other peoples ideas.

P.S. If what I said already exists then please tell me about that!

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

I think that most new twists would be reversing the roles; we've hit peak 'superhuman person doing amazing things'.

My idea: You play as a minion for a supervillian plotting to take over a city and crush his superhero nemesis. You spend most of your time in dialogue in the evil lair, trying to shift blame for any problems, avoid being sent out as cannon fodder, and get away from any angry lieutenant looking to make an example of someone. There's no way the villian can actually win, of course; you're rented from a Minion agency,and will be reassigned when your boss inevitably does himself in/goes to jail. The game ends when you've finally worked enough to receive a pension, at which point you retire to Florida.

 

[Mikejames]

The only thing I can offer is merely a small change to a rather popular trend currently... Assassins!

I like that. Let us expand on it.
How about... playing an assassin who only assassinates other assassins, while they're trying to assassinate?

You save the target without them ever knowing that their life was in danger.
Mid-Plot-Twist, you and your loved ones become the new target.

 

[fezgod]

There was a level in Hitman: Blood Money where you had to find a trio of assassins and dispatch them before they kill their intended target. Granted, the assassins were easy to find since they were wearing bird costumes but it was an interesting concept.

Personally I want a game that starts you off as a rebel fighting a totalitarian regime. You do missions that involve sabotage and what not, only to find out that you're actually a member of a terrorist organization. The regime may have been somewhat restrictive but they're nowhere near as bad as the 'rebel' organization has been telling you. Essentially, this plot is Yahtzee's vision of Mirror's Edge.

 

[The_Scrivener]

A stealth game where you're a woman accused of being a witch during the Salem Witch Trials.

An RPG where you're a Holocaust victim/eventual survivor.

An MMORPG. About pirates.

 

[Vern5]

"A game where you play as the squishy healer for a bunch of AI-controlled D&D-esque party members.

A game where spend the entire plot being called a Terrorist. Not that your character is one, but the media is completely against you. By the end of the game, you are still labeled as a Terrorist.

A game where you play as a normal person who must destroy the internet.

A game where you play as an adventurer with a terminal illness. You will die in 7 days and you have a choice of going through hell and back to find a cure or just enjoying the time you have left. Its the kind of game where you can measure you success both in monsters killed and wenches conquered."

Honestly, the list goes on and on. I can tell you why many of these ideas will never see development. They are not standard enough. These are very risky ideas because they try to defy, subvert or otherwise change what your average players are already used to.

 

[Luca72]

A game where you play as a normal person who must destroy the internet.

I can detach myself from violence in games and murder innocents without any qualms. But THAT game, sir, would make me stop and think. I don't know if I could do it.

Anyway. I find myself empathizing with bad guys in games more and more, because they seem to at least have some plan or motive other than "kill everything in front of the door". It seems like a lot of bad guys are mutants or superhumans or whatever, and want to inflict possibly violent change on the world by giving those powers to people in the hopes that it will ultimately be better than the system we have right now (off the top of my head there's X-men and Command and Conquer, and in a sense Breene from Half Life 2).

So I think a cool way to twist this is to have the main character be the superhuman, told that he needs to take down this superhuman baddie. When you confront the baddie, you realize he's just a normal guy trying to eliminate superhumans like yourself due to the damage they may cause. But you're so power-drunk at this point that you feed into what your organization is telling you, and are all too quick to dispatch the guy so you can keep your powers.

 

[Tom_green_day]

A game where you start really rich and must squander all your money in stupid ways on things that give no obvious benefit.
Bonus points if you do it in a poor area or around poor people.

 

[Karoshi]

Chest-high walls are made of rubber and each time you try to take cover you bounce off them. Bonus points if you bounce right into the enemy hordes.

The main bad guy is actually alright and after one-third of the game you team up with him to take down your original employers.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

Generic military shooter, but in space! Oh wait, that has already been done, damn.

Uhh...

I'd like to see an MMORPG that didn't have that colorful/cartoony look to it and involved guns.

Any game really, end of first mission, your character dies. Rest of the game you plan the funeral.

 

[Floppertje]

Pokémon in 3d with realtime battles where you control the pokémon directly instead of through a menu. bonus points for destructible terrain. does that count as an original twist?
or maybe you could just spend the game as a pokemon trying not to get captured because you have claustrophobia.

 

[Tiamattt]

A zombie game where instead of the usual zombie apocalypse they're raised up in controlled environments like farms by necromancers(the player) and your goal is to make zombie armies and have them fight aliens or giant robots or vampires or something.

 

[krazykidd]

A jrpg where you lose at the end . Kinda like FF7 but instead of Sephiroth being killed by Ominislash , Sephiroth kills Cloud and destroys the world ( or whatever his goal was ).

The main hero falls in love with a princess , and she's like NO i'm into girls and falls in love withthe hero's childhood female friend .

I'd pay a buck to play that.

 

[SuperSamio64]

A sandbox game of sorts, where instead of being able to do what you please, you're simply a ghost kind of. So you just travel the land/city/whatever observing stuff. It could also be done to a lesser extent where you can affect the environment but it doesn't affect you, essentially behaving like a poltergeist.

 

[thesilentman]

I want Dark Souls combat in a game that's like Shadow of the Colossus in an execution similar to Journey. Helps that this is going to be a project of mine.

 

[Arqus_Zed]

A jrpg where you lose at the end . Kinda like FF7 but instead of Sephiroth being killed by Ominislash , Sephiroth kills Cloud and destroys the world ( or whatever his goal was ).

The main hero falls in love with a princess , and she's like NO i'm into girls and falls in love withthe hero's childhood female friend .

I'd pay a buck to play that.

JRPGs with bad endings? Looks like you need to play some more Shin Megami Tensei titles.

It's also funny that you talk about the whole "female princess in love with girls" right after mentioning Final Fantasy VII.
Instantly made me think of this:

As for my personal choice for a twist... How about a game in which you play a spirit/esper/aeon/eidolon/you know what I mean. The huge, powerful creatures that can be summoned in various games, be it Final Fantasy, Chaos Legion, Persona or whatever. In the game, you would be able to experience what is going on when you are not being summoned. Maybe you have a family? Maybe you've got a job? Maybe you're a member on the council of extraordinarity and spirituality? Maybe you are chosen by a summoner or maybe you can pick your own. Maybe you can test him or maybe he will test you.

You could go all out with this one, taking it seriously or just going balls out crazy.

 

[redmoretrout]

An RPG where you act like a real knight, start off as a squire doing menial tasks, and learning the ins and outs of combat. Later on As a full fledged knight you work for some count, helping him scheme for more power and land, Extorting lesser barons, etc. ( The game would play similar to those Yakuza games.)


Knights were not chivalrous adventurers, I hate how they are portrayed in games, especially since in reality they were so much more interesting.