Poll: Escapist, what qualities of a game are most important to you.

[Insideout Ink Demon]

Hello Escapist, not often I create a new thread, hope it meets every ones standards.

Long story short; I'd imported Lost Odyssey before its release, a friend on XBL messaged me asking what the game was like as the trailer looked good.
I said it played a lot like Final Fantasy X, turn based etc. XBL friend said they hated turn based games, but would get it anyway because the graphics were so good.

this left me dumb struck

So Escapist, what order do you place Gameplay, Graphics & Story?
Personally I place them
1 Gameplay
2 Story
3 Graphics

 

[C117]

Same here. Graphics can go f*ck themselves, as long as the game itself is good.

 

[weker]

Dont care about graphics, as presentation is where its at eg Alice and No more heroes.
For me photo realism I couldn't care for but for things like Deadly Premonition overall story with ease and some cases gameplay.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I agree with you, a game can survive on good gameplay and an excecrable story but rarely if ever vice versa. Graphics are pretty much a non issue with me, Dragon Age: Origins looks like shit especially for the time it was made, but it had varied environments and a certain aesthetic charm. Meanwhile the graphically prettiest game I have ever seen is FF13 and the developers have actually admitted that they sacrificed the free-roaming elements to make such high quality visuals.

 

[4RM3D]

The order of things is kinda irrelevant. It depends on the individual game how each of the aspects are weighted. Even if I would find gameplay to be the most important. If a game has mediocre gameplay but a truly awesome story then the story can compensate the gameplay, making the story more important. The only universal rule for me is that all those aspects must have a minimum amount of quality, otherwise I will simply not play the game.

 

[MellowFellow]

I think story and gameplay are the most important, but graphics are important also, but in a different way. I think graphics should be done a way in that enhances the experience of the game, so they don't necessarily need to look like real life, just in a way that benefits the style of game it is.

 

[DJDarque]

I'm with OP. Gameplay, story, then graphics. A game can have the best story ever, but if the gameplay is broken I'm not going to enjoy it.

 

[kjempff]

None of the above. Haha I wish someone would create a vote like this:

"When presented with a vote, do you often feel the option for your answer is not represented?"
a. No
b. Choice of options always suit me
c. Nah I like simple choices

 

[NinjaDeathSlap]

Gameplay always first, but between the second two it is relative as not every game needs a good story. Hell, not every game needs a story period, and sometimes graphics do help a lot with enhancing the other two points.

A perfect example of this is Assassin's Creed. In the first game the gameplay was fairly poor when compared to a lot of other sandboxes. Not enough variety in side quests, too much side questing period, annoying AI, and a protagonist (both of them) with no personality. However, I could enjoy the game and forgive it it's niggling little flaws becuse what it did do well it did very well indeed, and a big part of that was just because the world around me was just so effing pretty just climbing up a tall building and looking around was enough to completely zap any negative thought about the game I was having.

 

[Insideout Ink Demon]

None of the above. Haha I wish someone would create a vote like this:

"When presented with a vote, do you often feel the option for your answer is not represented?"
a. No
b. Choice of options always suit me
c. Nah I like simple choices

Ha ha, you should so go create it.

Glad the majority who've looked so far have had similar tastes to myself

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Replayabilit-

Oh. I don't care which order, but gameplay has to be first, story or graphics can be whichever order.

 

[AlternatePFG]

Gameplay first, if the game isn't fun the story better be damn good. I could care less about graphics as long as they aren't broken.

 

[DustyDrB]

Gameplay, then story, then graphics.
Awesome graphics can impress me, no doubt. But I play a lot of old games and newer games with lower graphical capabilities (but usually good art styles). It doesn't take long for me to get used to lower quality visuals.

A bad story isn't a game killer, but a good story can infinitely improve my opinion of a game.

And gameplay is the determining factor of whether or not I like a game. It can shine in every other area, but I'll hate the game if I hate the gameplay.

 

[Biosophilogical]

Same here. Graphics can go f*ck themselves, as long as the game itself is good.

I think the graphics should support the game. I mean, if you were playing Mass Effect and each character was a floating square ... that'd be weird, and it wouldn't really support a shooter well.

On the other hand, you don't expect tetris/pong to have detailed facial animations and amazingly realistic fireballs.

I'd say that as long as the graphics can support the gameplay and story well enough, then anything above that is just icing on the cake. So graphics have a context-minimum, so gameplay, story, then graphics.

 

[Dalek Caan]

I will use Halo CE to show my preference. First time I played it I thought it was the greatest thing ever. I loved shooting the Grunts, fighting the Elites, driving the Puma and running from the Hunters. Then I bought the game and got really stuck into the story. Cyber man that can blow up aliens and giant ring worlds? I was hooked. Never took notice of the graphics until later on. I still think there pretty good in there own way.

 

[badgersprite]

Depends on what type of game it is. If it's an FPS or a retro platformer, I don't usually go in expecting much story. I'm there for the gameplay. However, in games like L.A. Noire or KOTOR I'm able to overlook problems with gameplay because the story and writing is excellent.

Basically, story and gameplay are interchangeable for me, but a good story or delivery of the story helps a lot. If the story is shit on a shit sandwich, I'll probably be too annoyed to care about the good gameplay.

 

[NuclearOsprey]

if the story sucks the game sucks