Poll: Multi-Genred games - do you enjoy them?

[Kenny Doyle]

I'm collecting research for a college assignment, I decided to find out what people think about multi-genre games, such as Spore, Little Big Planet 2, Brutal Legend, all have different aspects of different genres, such as Brutal Legend; being a Hack n' Slash and an RTS, Spore; being an RTS and simulator and Little Big Planet 2 being a bunch of different genres in one.

If you can think of any others that'll be much appreciated.

For now this is just a "yes" or "no" kinda poll, but if you want you can say another multi-genre game and say what you liked/disliked about it.

Cheers.

 

[gigastar]

Well the X series covers nearly all points on the Escapists genre wheel and I do enjoy setting up trade empires and having my fleets of carriers and destroyers level places I dont like.

So I suppose thats a yes.

I also enjoy the added difficulty because its something I can devote time to trying to figure out.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

It depends on the game, and how well the different elements of it mesh together. Both Fallout 3 and Mass Effect are RTS/Shooters, and both games are fantastic.

It really depends on how the game is made and not just the basic idea of meshing the two genres together.

 

[timeadept]

Theres nothing inherently good about spanning multiple genera in a single game, although some of my favorites have done that (Borderlands, Tales of Symphonia(that was kinda an action RPG but the action was a bit clunky). Then theres Civ IV which is very firmly in the TBS genera along with Advance Wars and Fire Emblem. I really wouldn't say i'd buy a game (or not) based on ANY of the reasons you've listed though. I can't even be neutral cause i do notice them but i don't normally fault of praise a game for mixing it up.

Out of the games you've mentioned I've only played spore. I have to say that it was a letdown and honestly the part that i found most fun was the cell stage. The creature stage was very much a letdown (all-though that may be because i'm studying Marine Biology and so know a lot about ecology and evolution). But I think the biggest fault spore had was that it did not allow you to stay at one stage or another. It was very clear that your goal was to evolve and become intelligent enough to destroy the universe(i mean that's why we all played, right? right?). And yet i just wanted to stay at the creature stage and make freaky things with unique ways of living and see how good they were at living. The game i got wasn't at all what i expected, the creature stage was like an RPG, with clear advantages to using this over this, there was very rarely any disadvantage, only upgrades.

I don't know, maybe you could argue that spore was simply not done well, maybe you could argue that it was fundamentally flawed for using (or trying to use) many different genera in a single game. I would argue the former.

There are other problems though, you'll need to define exactly what each genera means if you want to do this thing right. I noticed that Portal 2 is listed as "Action, Adventure" (in the steam store) when the pre-order opened up yesterday, my first reaction was "not Puzzle?". Then you have games like Hitman listed as only "Action". I don't think that i need to point out how VERY different these two "Action" games are (but i will). But i would call Portal a Puzzle game and Hitman is a sort of mix between Puzzle, FPS, and Stealth gameplay. Both games are excellent (talking about the original Portal now) but they require VERY different play styles and so appeal to two different types of players that may or may not overlap.

*EDIT* I just noticed that the steam store makes no distinction between the kind of gameplay you can expect when it categorizes it in a genera. As they are listed, the genera, according to the steam store are Action, Adventure, Strategy, RPG, Indie, Massively Multilayer, Casual, Family Games, Simulation, Racing, and Sports.

So yeah theres a mix of terms that describe the gameplay you can expect (Action, Racing...) and some that describe the theme you can expect it in (Massively Multilayer, Family Games). But as i mentioned before, there are a lot more genera than the steam store (as a credible source (i mean valve has made some great games, surely they have some clout when saying what genera they think a game falls into) mentions, and lots of significantly different games within the ones given that will appeal to significantly different groups of people.

Now that i think about it though, i guess i'm ultimately indifferent to weather or not a game mixes it up genera wise, i care much more what the end result looks like.

 

[veloper]

What's a genre, but an arbitrary way to categorize games?
Shift the criteria a little and the hybrids fall neatly into the new genres, while the old typical games cross genres.

Not all hybrids necesarilly do more than one thing.
Games like HoMM and King's Bounty, don't have the empire management of civilization or MOO2 and they don't have the detailed character statistics of a licensed D&D game either, but the parts that make up those games fit together perfectly. Not two halves of a game, but one deep game.

You also have the opposite kind. A game like Medieval TW does have two parts that can be played seperately when prefered: turn-based strategy on a worldmap and a realtime tactics on the field.
For this game, that also works. Both parts are pretty solid.

A poorly designed minigame tacked on to a traditional game can turn out much worse, because it's usually not what the player bought the game for.
The stealth mission in a run-and-gun shooter is one example, or an action sequence in a puzzle adventure game (Broken sword 3 did that AND a stealth mission).
Fable 2 and 3 basicly are two collections of shallow mini-games. Spore is another example of that.

Short version: it works if the parts are either fully fit together or can stand on their own.

 

[TerranReaper]

It depends, because it can have the best ideas in world for its mixing of genres but execute them poorly. No matter how good of an idea you have, if you can't properly deliver it, it's next to useless. Now, if they do get executed properly, it can be really great depending on what the genres are being blended. I've seen some FPS/RTS hybrids be made from certain indie or semi-indie developers and executed fairly well for what they have to work with.

 

[random_bars]

I think it mainly depends on how the different genres are merged. If it's something like Spore, where it's one genre, then another, then another - in totally separate levels - it usually comes off as being a collection of shallow minigames rather than one cohesive experience. If, however, the elements are actually merged in a way that they create a new gameplay style - like in the case of Brutal Legend - it can be great.

 

[NeedAUserName]

Obviously it depends on the game.

This pretty much sums up any argument (either for or against multi-genre games) in this debate. Clearly some games do it very well, but others are complete drivel.