Yep but you know what can make the difference? Story and writing.
It's why Fallout New Vegas, Dark Souls and The Witcher 3 was so loved and no one gives a fuck about Starfield anymore.
Even GTAV kinda knows this which is why they make sure to include some new or returning npc to give a reason behind your actions. A lot of the open world games now focus so much on scale that they forget to populate it and just use the time to get from A to B to pad out game time.
Definitely a factor - for games that need one. Doom Eternal, in my opinion, is an example of where an expanded universe, lore and story actually detracted from the game. Some would argue that the increased mechanical complexity did as well, with many favouring the simpler Doom 2016.
I think, as a designer, you're ultimately crafting an experience. It needs to be cohesive and it needs to be compelling. Anything that doesn't add to that need not apply.
I'd argue the opposite for Doom Eternal in that I loved the fact they made the 'Doom Slayer' the original Doomguy and he's been fucking hell up with no lube for centuries that all the Demons screaming at you is them having PTSD seeing you!
The mechanics were hit and miss as some traversal puzzles were annoying while the combat was improved with the 'slaughtering enemies provides EVERYTHING you need' mechanic.
Trying to think of a bad example, I'd say probably Last of Us 2 as from appearance it played the same as the original that everyone enjoyed but the story threw everyone out of it that it ruined the experience. The 'no one wants to play as Abby' comes to mind.
Each to their own. I also liked the characterisation of the Doom Guy, but that's where my appreciation of the lore/story ended. The need to expand the universe and add gravity/grandiosity is ultimately what moved the game away from being what it was good at. As a result, it went from being a short and sharp corridor shooter to including a hub, replete with upgrades and other bullshit, and a bunch of uninspired and oversized "modern" levels to sell the premise.
Definitely agree on TLoU though. Tranny killed the beloved protagonist, and with it the franchise. Didn't help turning the second most liked character into a bulldyke who wouldn't tolerate bigot sandwiches in a world of starvation, either.
Yep but you know what can make the difference? Story and writing.
It's why Fallout New Vegas, Dark Souls and The Witcher 3 was so loved and no one gives a fuck about Starfield anymore.
Even GTAV kinda knows this which is why they make sure to include some new or returning npc to give a reason behind your actions. A lot of the open world games now focus so much on scale that they forget to populate it and just use the time to get from A to B to pad out game time.
Definitely a factor - for games that need one. Doom Eternal, in my opinion, is an example of where an expanded universe, lore and story actually detracted from the game. Some would argue that the increased mechanical complexity did as well, with many favouring the simpler Doom 2016.
I think, as a designer, you're ultimately crafting an experience. It needs to be cohesive and it needs to be compelling. Anything that doesn't add to that need not apply.
I'd argue the opposite for Doom Eternal in that I loved the fact they made the 'Doom Slayer' the original Doomguy and he's been fucking hell up with no lube for centuries that all the Demons screaming at you is them having PTSD seeing you!
The mechanics were hit and miss as some traversal puzzles were annoying while the combat was improved with the 'slaughtering enemies provides EVERYTHING you need' mechanic.
Trying to think of a bad example, I'd say probably Last of Us 2 as from appearance it played the same as the original that everyone enjoyed but the story threw everyone out of it that it ruined the experience. The 'no one wants to play as Abby' comes to mind.
Each to their own. I also liked the characterisation of the Doom Guy, but that's where my appreciation of the lore/story ended. The need to expand the universe and add gravity/grandiosity is ultimately what moved the game away from being what it was good at. As a result, it went from being a short and sharp corridor shooter to including a hub, replete with upgrades and other bullshit, and a bunch of uninspired and oversized "modern" levels to sell the premise.
Definitely agree on TLoU though. Tranny killed the beloved protagonist, and with it the franchise. Didn't help turning the second most liked character into a bulldyke who wouldn't tolerate bigot sandwiches in a world of starvation, either.