You ever play a game and it’s all competently made and such but somehow it just feels 20% off for what it’s supposed to be? And then you play something else of similar genre and it just feels SO much better to play.
What’s the esoteric part about gamefeel? Why’s 2013 Tomb Raiders and it’s sequels feel like 20% off? Why is Black Ops - rated on Gameplay - so much better than Singularity which came out the same year despite both being made by Raven?
For me, it’s when a game has difficulty balance. On normal, you can’t button mash and win, you have to know what you’re doing. But once you do realise what you’re meant to do, putting forth a decent effort to do it lets you pass. On hard, you have to not only know how to do it, but do it very well. On expert/whatever funky term they wanna use for the fourth difficulty, mastery is necessary. And on easy, button mashing is all you need since you’re just playing for the story.
A good story can make a difference, too. There’s a lot of jank in Mass Effect, but I’m forgiving because it’s not straight up broken and the series is awesome. I’m also playing Legendary, so they should have fixed more of this shit. Mass Effect 1 had the nausea inducing Mako rides. There was no reason for them to make those planets that bumpy. You should never have to go up a mountain or across bumpy terrain. Mass Effect 2 didn’t have the Mako (you do find it crashed though, which was nice) but it did have the hovercraft, which was fun until you got to the platforming parts and it felt like late 90s/early 00s N64/PS1/2 3D platforming. Who signed off on this shit? And why TF wasn’t it fixed (more) for Legendary? Not whining, I got it for six bucks (and I think it’s still on sale for that for Black Friday), but damn, this was their chance to fix shit like that. But I’m gonna keep coming back for the story.