What makes a game appeal to you?

Yeah, the title says it all.

What makes a game appeal to you?

For me, I go for uniqueness, storyline and genre. Metro 2033 is a beautiful example; Very little or no games are FPS' played in the underground metro. I am a huge fan of FPS' and I know a lot of people are, but the setting of this game buys it for me. Not just that, it has a very creative and interesting storyline which I absolutely was stuck to as soon as I started to play the game.

So that's what makes a game appeal to me, now what about you?

Storyline and originality. Those are the two main reasons why you might see me play Metal gear Solid games instead of Call of Duty ones, which I despise.

I'm more into storyline, adventure, and action. If a game has a storyline alongside some elements, I'll end up playing it. Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid, and Skyrim are some examples of games I like that have those three elements that appeal to me.

Storyline, fun combat and amazing graphics. I'm talking storyline like Final Fantasy VII, combat like The Last Story and graphics like the recent Tomb Raider (which I'm planning to get this Christmas. :D).

So I simply adore RPGs. Square Enix has always amused me with their graphics and amazing storylines.

Storyline and great fighting.

Assassin's Creed features both prominently. Ninja Blade is another (albeit lesser known) great example.

Storyline, graphics, and, I'm not afraid to admit this, I look for cute anime girl playable characters (even better if they're the main protagonist) in the games I choose to pick up.

-Genre. If it's a platformer or a fighting game then there are more chances I'll play it than say, an FPS or RPG.
-Graphics. And I'm talking graphics generally, not just technically. So the artstyle and visuals are important to me, and if I dislike them I probably won't play it. I think an interesting game for this to mention would be Little King's Story. I love the childish cartoon artstyle in the Wii game, but the anime moe BS the vita remake has is something I awfully despise and made me stay away from it. Games like SMT: Nocturne and Okami, while both PS2 games, were amazing to look at, in contrast to say Skyrim and Call of Duty despite being technically superior, didn't have an appealing art style. It's also a big reason why I think Halo >>>>>>>>>>>>> CoD.
-Gameplay. If it looks and does play amazingly with great polish, then I will play it. Despite both being platformers and having great artstyles, I played Rayman Origins because of the many options you have playing the game over Super Meat Boy because it was more trial and error. (Not to say SMB's gameplay isn't polished, just not a fan of trial and error.)

Of course there are many ways a game can be appealing to me. I bought Punch-Out and Mario Super sluggers on the Wii because the former is about boxing and the latter is about baseball, my two favorite sports. (I also bought MLB 2K12 cuz of Baseball but it's awful. Getting MLB the show on Vita instead.) However, graphics are a big factor. Here are some games I played based on artstyle alone: (Alright, not really just on artstyle.)
-Rhythm Heaven (absolutely love this one.)
-Yoshi's Island (didn't like it as much as I hoped, however.)
-Wario Land: Shake It!
-Trauma Center
-Little King's Story
-Zack and Wiki
-Ultimate Spider-Man (it was a Spider-Man game with an actual comic-book artstyle.)
-Donkey Kong Country Returns
-Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
-Rayman Origins

Taro Tanaka said:

Storyline and originality. Those are the two main reasons why you might see me play Metal gear Solid games instead of Call of Duty ones, which I despise.

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Leaf Storm said:

I'm more into storyline, adventure, and action. If a game has a storyline alongside some elements, I'll end up playing it. Syphon Filter, Metal Gear Solid, and Skyrim are some examples of games I like that have those three elements that appeal to me.

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I love MGS so much, but come on now. :P MGS storyline is basically just...nanomachines.

can either depend on the storyline, graphics or gameplay. Usually I'd prefer watching someone else play that game before I would get interested.

Trailer and demos are probably the contributing factor for deciding in getting the game or not. But for Pokemon, I would probably get every game there is haha :D

Good story, cool and strategic battle system, the ability to customize your characters in some way, if the last one doesn't apply at least give me a good supply of characters to choose from, and last but not least side quests.

Well I guess we can check off storyline as the most appealing part of a game, haha.
I'd say I check for the genre of the game first and the type of storyline it has. I'm mostly into fantasy/sci-fi stuff.. ya know, knights and dragons, as well as high-tech weapons and post-apocalyptic settings. I couldn't play a game with a bland storyline, as it's the main purpose for playing it. It's just like reading a book.

On the visual side, I don't care much about graphics as long as they don't overdue do it just to try and match other games' standards. Some games also have really good graphics, but they just don't work with the type of gameplay... Retro is cool, and realism is cool.

Also as opposed to many others, I don't really care much for the 'originality' factor... some games have a certain format as for what goes on in the story and the combat systems for example, and honestly if I enjoy it, then it works and I don't mind if it's used over and over again (as long as it's not a direct copy). For example, any game that mimics aspects of Final Fantasy games, I'll play as long as the rest of the game isn't a cheap knock-off.

Choice. My preferred games are ones where I choose what happens, and I can create and customize a lot of different factors.

storyline, graphics, humor, and fun! :)

"Pokemon ____ Version"

If the title of the game has those words, chances are I'll like it. I don't play many other video games because I guess nothing really appeals to me all that much.

I'll admit that I am kind of shallow and that I look at a games visuals first. If they can impress me then I give it a try. Then I'll look at gameplay to make sure its solid. If a game offers a unique experience (ie Journey) then I am more inclined to research it.

I've had gaming experiences that have taught me to never downplay a game due to bad graphics. Because of this, graphics mean very little to me now; so does storyline, for that matter. It's a wonderful bonus if a game has a heart-wrenching, heroic tale or two, don't get me wrong. But to me, the main aspect of any game is the gameplay.

I love games that mercilessly challenge the player; I eat up games that require extremely high levels of technical consistency.

But the main thing I enjoy about games with inhuman skill caps is the fact that I know I'll never finish them. All the time invested into the games that you can finish is ultimately wasted, as you'll rarely pick up that game again
-- you beat it, congratulations.

...

Now what?

...

NEW GAME! $$$

=

The thing about highly technical (like, really stupidly hard), multiplayer games is that the time and effort you invested will always be worth something. You'll never master the game, so you'll always be able to apply the things you learned without it being boring, no matter how much you improve.

Finding games with these qualities is beyond difficult. But if you happen to find one, you'll end up saving yourself those endless hours spent on the commercial games we breeze through in today's gaming industry... and a lot of money, too. ;]

Gameplay, Storyline, Characters, Soundtrack, lack of realism, voice acting, etc.

I hate it when games are realistic. It's like blasphemy to me. Forget Call of Duty, REAL men play Pokemon!

I value challenge. A game doesn't have to be forbiddingly difficult for me to enjoy it, but some difficulty, when implemented in a creative way that doesn't just involve huge amounts of grinding or OP'd enemies and bosses, is very enticing. To that end, I also very much value originality.

I second Digimon Kaiser's vote against games being realistic. I mean, if you enjoy that, fine, but games like that scarcely seem like real games to me. I can't remember the last time I picked up a Madden or Call of Duty game out of actual enjoyment.

I also care about visual style, but not in that games have to have totally detailed graphics. Anything interesting, preferably colorful, will do.