You know what I miss? The Ultimate Alliance games from the PS2 era. Isometric view. Build a four-person team of Marvel characters. Some team combinations grant group buffs, like having all four members of the Fantastic Four will increase your XP gain. Equip your characters. Pick from an array of comic canon costumes, each with their own abilities. Some combinations of equipment or costumes will also grant bonuses like having everyone wear their Age of Apocalypse costume.

The whole thing is an action RPG where you play through some big comic book crisis. Lots of opportunity for villain and hero interaction. Cool cinematics.

It’s a rock-solid platform, but I don’t feel like I see it used nearly enough. I remember playing an Ultimate Alliance on 360 and it just wasn’t as good; smaller roster, fewer costumes, less interesting in general, despite the better graphics.

I vaguely recall hearing something about one on the Switch and that Midnight Sons was a bit similar… but then again I don’t recall hearing much else about those games except for their existence, so they can’t have done very well.

Broadly speaking, I enjoy stealth in games as long as it’s implemented correctly and doesn’t break the game or function poorly and leave you at a disadvantage. Despite the many qualms I have with tlou2, the added mechanic of going prone and all the upgrades associated with stealth was quite fun—and, of course, the functionality of the bow and arrow, and how you can conserve ammo. Parsing an area with dogs and navigating their heightened scent through long grass and deciding when to pick off certain enemies or ninja though is tremendously fun for me.

Desperados III and Shadow Tactics are two other stealth games that I love that use a design similar to The Commandos series. You can navigate through their detailed environments deciphering a path through on your own, using whichever abilities your party has to your advantage. I think the ninja/feudal Japan game world fits better with Shadow Tactics (I also prefer the characters) but Desperados III has just as good, if not better level design.

To add a somewhat weird one, I’ll say a good save feature. Saving with an ink ribbon in RE was so freaking awesome—especially in regards to how it adds a level of complexity to item management. Another cool example that doesn’t add anything to gameplay but was neat: ICO and how you save your game with Yorda on the couch. So wholesome; I can hear the music in my head, even.

E: Also, Demon’s Souls’ character and world tendency mechanics were so incredibly imaginative. The fact that you can unknowingly die too many times in human form, turn an area into black world tendency, and get eviscerated by black phantoms for seemingly no reason is wildly brutal and awesome.

I do enjoy game mechanics that interact in emergent ways that weren’t fully planned out by the developer in games like Dwarf Fortress.

Inventory Tetris

Roguelikes and roguelites tend to be my favorite. Ones where each run is new and you can toy with different builds and usually get pretty OP toward the end (or get cut down early because luck wasn’t in your favor or you made a mistake).

Parry and riposte mechanics make me happy. Idk why exactly, but something about timing a parry and making the enemy entirely helpless for the followup is just great.

I love anything with a tech tree or a skill tree or items that improve based on usage. The ratchet and clank games have such a great mix of all of those things, I end up spending a bunch of time just leveling up the guns!

Among plenty of the other things mentioned, I enjoy “diagetic interfaces”. Ways of interacting with a game’s systems that stay grounded in the reality of the setting of the world. Dead Space is a prime example, but I’ve been enjoying a lot of the crafting in Vintage Story for this reason. The smithing in particular has had me hooked for a while. Hammering out my armor and weapons voxel by voxel made finally suiting up and feeling ready to take on a boss that much more satisfying.

Puzzles, traditional or unique, as well as physics and spatial-heavy thinking.

More floaty, less realistic platforming. Thugs like double jump, or somehow your character has less gravity when they jump, stuff like that. Stuff like that. As a general platformer lover, I really enjoy more fictional cannot be done IRL physics in games.

I like most game mechanics to some extent. Creativity in combining game mechanics is key to making an outstanding game imo.

However, I don’t like things that force a time limit. I play games as an escape. I don’t like feeling stressed by a clock while I’m off the clock. These can be literal timed missions or things like a food/water meter. Escort missions also suck for similar reasons.

I think difficulty in a game should come from overcoming a foe, traversing harsh terrain, or solving a puzzle. If the game is hard because I have to stop what I’m doing to feed myself, or I have to rush to complete an objective on a timer, it just becomes work.

Intricate character building with multi-class synergies. Is. My. Shiiiiiit!

Small wonder I love BG3 and Owlcat’s Pathfinder games.

Peaceful exploration

Save anywhere

I like systems that allow for outrageous combos, whether unintentionally or by design. Roguelikes and roguelites usually have them, but it’s almost entirely luck based. Dynasty Warriors 8 allows for plenty of OP combos if you manage the right weapon attributes. Skyrim and its broken as fuck perfectly balanced enchanting + alchemy (or Morrowind’s even more perfectly balanced permanent fortify attribute magic)