Non-obvious cool shit from games you like

[Vlajdermen]

Just list off any cool aspect of some game you like that doesn't get its due attention in regular discourse.

I've gained appreciation for the level names in Red Alert 3. They're titles of old movies, or Zagor episodes. For example, a level in which you invade a Russian village on new year's is named ''The Death of Father Frost''. You stop the soviet premier from escaping to space, and it's called ''The Moon Shall Never Have Them''. You wield a giant samurai mech, and it's called ''Behold the Mighty Saint of Swords''. RA3 conveys its corny tone in many other ways, but I like this touch of extra commitment.

 

[Cat Headed Eagle]

The different character interactions in Dragon's Dogma. People who don't notice these things think it's a normal action rpg. But then you realize female characters attract certain enemies because of their scent (and pawns comment on this in fact, if they have the knowledge), size and weight having repercussions in combat (like when enemies pick you up, especially if they fly)... Character generation matters in DD, it's not just aesthetic. But people have to play the game for longer than 5 hours to realize this.

 

[Grampy_Bone]

I appreciate when games have immersive A/V elements. For some reason this is mostly limited to AAA games, but I think indie/retro games could really benefit from better soundscapes.

-Waterfalls-- They should be loud! Very few games do this. I saw a waterfall at Yellowstone as a kid and it was like standing next to a jet. Horizon had loud-ish waterfalls but still not quite enough.

-Snow-- Should be crunchy! Only Lost Planet did this right.

-Rain-- Being in a house during a storm makes a very distinct pitter-patter noise. I somewhat recall Morrowind doing this.

 

[Machocruz]

Probably obvious for the kind of people who post on this forum, but thematic fonts, UI styled to fit the setting and time period of the game. But I'll take anything that isn't white sans- serif text at this point.

Maluses/disadvantages in character creation. It's interesting to work around these things, enables more distinct builds. Only seen in non mainstream games these days, devs don't do anything that would "punish" normies.

Persistent stashing. You can drop your items anywhere in the game world and they'll stay there no matter where else you go or how many times you load the game

 

[Vlajdermen]

Every single unit un Supreme Commander having a cool nickname is a touch of creativity I really appreciate. As well as the consistency of the themes of each faction, the UEF being squarejawed jocks, Cybrans being edgy teens, the Aeon being hare krishna hippies. Look at this.

>Cybran T3 Armoured Assault Bot: The Brick
>Cybran T1 Light Gunship: Jester
>Cybran T2 Gunship: Renegade
>Cybran T3 Heavy Artillery Installation: Distruptor (might as well be called "middle finger")
>Cybran T3 Strategic Missile Submarine: Plan B
>Cybran T3 Battleship: Galaxy Class
>Cybran T2 Point Defense: Cerberus
>UEF T3 Battleship: Summit Class
>UEF T2 Shield Boat: Bulwark
>UEF T3 Heavy Gunship: Broadsword
>UEF T2 Missile Launcher: Flapjack
>UEF T3 Strategic Missile Launcher: Stonager (points deducted because it's not a real word, but it sounds just right)
>Aeon T3 Strategic Bomber: Shocker
>Aeon T2 Air Transport: Alumnar
>Aeon T3 Omni Sensor Array: Oculus
>Soul Ripper
>Fatboy
>Galactic Colossus
>Monkeylord

 

[Abhay]

The most difficult thing is to recall the small details about the classics once so much time has passed.

Some things I still remember

GTA SA - Jetpack. Coolest feature ever! No RPG has to offer the fun this simple addition brings to the game. Even the experience of flying planes still stands out.

Mafia 1 - So much to list here. Details! In everything

Commandos 2 and Freedom Fighters - both offered a spectacular team based gameplay experience with its own unique features. The latter was a simpler version of the former. Too bad game was shorter than the campaign of C2.

Far cry 2 - realism and atmosphere

Hidden and dangerous 1, 2 - another excellent strategy shooter. I particularly liked the way stats were handled (experience with practice), movements using mouse and keyboards were so simple, be it lying prone or switching back and forth players view. Such ease. So was the team management

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Ecco the Dolphin for Sega CD has 10 minutes of encyclopedic videos about dolphins right near the very end of the game. That space had to be filled with something other than the beautiful soundtrack I guess.

Operation Flashpoint and the expansions had branching storylines with something like 6 different missable missions in the main game. In one mission an assault could go badly after your squad gets strafed by a Hind, which means you get a different story path where you escape into the woods and have to avoid Soviet patrols to reconnect with friendly forces.

Ace Combat 3 for PSX had a highly intricate 2 CD long story with like a dozen different endings and anime FMV cutscenes and full voice acting... and all of that got cut from the western releases leading to a highly disappointing game if you don't play a fan translation of the Japanese version.

Mafia 1

Mafia 2 had neat details also, like tire deformation if you're cornering. Incredible they bothered to implement something so small that nobody would notice.

 

[Grunker]

Just list off any cool aspect of some game you like that doesn't get its due attention in regular discourse.

I've gained appreciation for the level names in Red Alert 3. They're titles of old movies, or Zagor episodes. For example, a level in which you invade a Russian village on new year's is named ''The Death of Father Frost''. You stop the soviet premier from escaping to space, and it's called ''The Moon Shall Never Have Them''. You wield a giant samurai mech, and it's called ''Behold the Mighty Saint of Swords''. RA3 conveys its corny tone in many other ways, but I like this touch of extra commitment.

Totally off topic, but I feel like RA3 is one of the more underrated games of its era. People were probably over RTS SP campaigns at that point, but I enjoyed it a lot for something that has almost no place in collective memory

 

[Vlajdermen]

Just list off any cool aspect of some game you like that doesn't get its due attention in regular discourse.

I've gained appreciation for the level names in Red Alert 3. They're titles of old movies, or Zagor episodes. For example, a level in which you invade a Russian village on new year's is named ''The Death of Father Frost''. You stop the soviet premier from escaping to space, and it's called ''The Moon Shall Never Have Them''. You wield a giant samurai mech, and it's called ''Behold the Mighty Saint of Swords''. RA3 conveys its corny tone in many other ways, but I like this touch of extra commitment.

Totally off topic, but I feel like RA3 is one of the more underrated games of its era. People were probably over RTS SP campaigns at that point, but I enjoyed it a lot for something that has almost no place in collective memory

It's just okay, not a great rts by any means, but has many cool things about it. Its reputation was sunk by its shitty mission design, feature bloat, and forsakement of single player in favour of co-op with bots, plus all those things having to be compared to its exceptionally well-designed predecessor. But it was still basically fun to play, and had fantastic thematic flair and voice acting, and there are people that appreciate that, myself included. I picked the RA3 dreadnought's script to showcase my voice acting skills to the Rise of the Reds devs, and was accepted. A game that inspires you like that definitely has its worth.

 

[Grunker]

Just list off any cool aspect of some game you like that doesn't get its due attention in regular discourse.

I've gained appreciation for the level names in Red Alert 3. They're titles of old movies, or Zagor episodes. For example, a level in which you invade a Russian village on new year's is named ''The Death of Father Frost''. You stop the soviet premier from escaping to space, and it's called ''The Moon Shall Never Have Them''. You wield a giant samurai mech, and it's called ''Behold the Mighty Saint of Swords''. RA3 conveys its corny tone in many other ways, but I like this touch of extra commitment.

Totally off topic, but I feel like RA3 is one of the more underrated games of its era. People were probably over RTS SP campaigns at that point, but I enjoyed it a lot for something that has almost no place in collective memory

It's just okay, not a great rts by any means, but has many cool things about it. Its reputation was sunk by its shitty mission design, feature bloat, and forsakement of single player in favour of co-op with bots, plus all those things having to be compared to its exceptionally well-designed predecessor. But it was still basically fun to play, and had fantastic thematic flair and voice acting, and there are people that appreciate that, myself included. I picked the RA3 dreadnought's script to showcase my voice acting skills to the Rise of the Reds devs, and was accepted. A game that inspires you like that definitely has its worth.

I really enjoyed how campy the campaign was

 

[Vlajdermen]

Just list off any cool aspect of some game you like that doesn't get its due attention in regular discourse.

I've gained appreciation for the level names in Red Alert 3. They're titles of old movies, or Zagor episodes. For example, a level in which you invade a Russian village on new year's is named ''The Death of Father Frost''. You stop the soviet premier from escaping to space, and it's called ''The Moon Shall Never Have Them''. You wield a giant samurai mech, and it's called ''Behold the Mighty Saint of Swords''. RA3 conveys its corny tone in many other ways, but I like this touch of extra commitment.

Totally off topic, but I feel like RA3 is one of the more underrated games of its era. People were probably over RTS SP campaigns at that point, but I enjoyed it a lot for something that has almost no place in collective memory

It's just okay, not a great rts by any means, but has many cool things about it. Its reputation was sunk by its shitty mission design, feature bloat, and forsakement of single player in favour of co-op with bots, plus all those things having to be compared to its exceptionally well-designed predecessor. But it was still basically fun to play, and had fantastic thematic flair and voice acting, and there are people that appreciate that, myself included. I picked the RA3 dreadnought's script to showcase my voice acting skills to the Rise of the Reds devs, and was accepted. A game that inspires you like that definitely has its worth.

I really enjoyed how campy the campaign was

As did I. It's my favourite example of a campy game, better than ra2 or resi 4, in no small part due to the unit voice lines. They help sell the tone better, and serve as good cooldown between the actors camping it up in the cutscenes without letting the tone dissipate. It makes a good case that RTS is better equipped to handle camp than any other genre.

 

[soutaiseiriron]

Oh yeah, another detail I remembered with Opflash (and later Arma games), they actually accurately map the night sky in those games. As in, if you know your stars IRL, you can use that to navigate accurately in game. It was used as a mechanic where the game guides you to find the north star to make your way back to friendly forces after getting captured and escaping in one mission.

 

[Icewater]

When a game has movement features more advanced than the standard move, jump, crouch.

i.e.,
crouching while sprinting drops you into a slide, and you can slide down hills
trying to move into an space smaller than you while crouched automatically drops you down further so you can fit into it, allowing you to hide under tables
can climb up short walls, also mantling

 

[Shadowfang]

Thief 1&2 - Leaning forward so you can peak at an edge to see what is below.

 

[Tweed]

I like games that have dialogue for various unexpected states and exceptions like when someone tries to send you off on a quest you've already done. Think Deus Ex.

 

[KDcross]

I love how Spelunky doesn't have shit tons of unlockables or permanent upgrades to make the game easier over time, unlike most other roguelites. Feels more like a 'true roguelike' since you start from square one every time. Technically possible to beat the game on your first run, but the difficulty curve is well designed so that beginners die a lot, and mastering each level is a rewarding trial and error experience.

 

[Ash]

Far too many great games out there packed full of too much cool shit to list. Fuck I love vidja.

 

[NecroLord]

In Thief 1&2, if you are leaning near a locked door you can hear what is going on over there. Very useful if you don't want to stumble on to a guard who is just standing or patrolling there.

 

[Iucounu]

When a game has movement features more advanced than the standard move, jump, crouch.

i.e.,
crouching while sprinting drops you into a slide, and you can slide down hills

I think Crysis 2 uses that. Alas it didn't seem too useful there, maybe it would work better where running obstacle courses is a major gameplay feature?

trying to move into an space smaller than you while crouched automatically drops you down further so you can fit into it, allowing you to hide under tables

Why not use a manual low-crouch instead? The Stalker games have that, as well as crouch-jump, which lets you jump higher than normal.

can climb up short walls, also mantling

Unfortunately that's often combined with unsuitable interaction keys, such as the Sprint key; meaning that as your character sprints to cover you often accidentally make the character jump over the cover into enemy fire instead.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

BotW/TotK has dialogue variants depending on stuff like the weather or what you are wearing: NPC points to something but acknowledges that it might hard too see right now because of the sun glare, a merchant comments that he doesn't like selling to the yiga clan when wearing their outfit etc.
Neat stuff.

 

[Modron]

BotW/TotK has dialogue variants depending on stuff like the weather or what you are wearing: NPC points to something but acknowledges that it might hard too see right now because of the sun glare, a merchant comments that he doesn't like selling to the yiga clan when wearing their outfit etc.
Neat stuff.

Nintendo probably copyrighted that system so you'll never see it in any other game.

 

[Borelli]

In Silent Hill 1, if you turn your flashlight and radio off and walk instead of run and if it is dark enemies won't see you (there might be some more fine details about this i played it a long time ago).
I am always impressed how a game that is not a stealth game threw some stealth mechanics just for the sake of it and it just works.
In later SH games i am not sure if this still works the same way, SH3 stealth was broken for me, SH2 i can't remember.

 

[Icewater]

I think Crysis 2 uses that. Alas it didn't seem too useful there, maybe it would work better where running obstacle courses is a major gameplay feature?

In Apex Legends it's useful for a few things, like making yourself hard to hit while moving. Also while using items you walk slowly, but you can slide at max speed and use items at the same time.

Why not use a manual low-crouch instead? The Stalker games have that, as well as crouch-jump, which lets you jump higher than normal.

Something like that would work too, but it's a little awkward. STALKER has it like that because you need to be able to low-crouch on command for cover purposes. I was just thinking of using it to hide.

Unfortunately that's often combined with unsuitable interaction keys, such as the Sprint key; meaning that as your character sprints to cover you often accidentally make the character jump over the cover into enemy fire instead.

Once again consoles ruin everything. Shit like this happens all the time in Assassin's Creed and it's infuriating.

 

[Louis_Cypher]

Games that faithfully reproduced a sci-fi franchise, say Star Trek, Star Wars, Alien, Predator, Terminator, or whatever.

Lovingly capturing the feeling, atmosphere, setting, procedural logic, philosophical attitude, sounds, architecture, graphical interfaces, starship designs, technological level, scientific detail, history, lore, political situation, way of speech, etc, etc. Games once did this exceptionally well, for example the Interplay and Microprose Star Trek games, such as Judgment Rites, Klingon Academy and Birth of the Federation, or the Lucasarts Star Wars games such as Dark Forces and Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight.

I could list thousands of little things from 1990s games that utterly captured the atmosphere. Damn impressive fidelity.

Now the only place you will find it is indie studios like Tindalos and Teyon.

 

[Gilius Thunderhead]

I liked how how you were able to explore the topography of the map in the Gothic games to access areas you weren't supposed to. Despite messing up the sequence of events, it didn't break the game. The same thing with the older 3D GTA games that, with enough persistence, allowed you to visit forbidden parts of the map from the get go. Best of all was the "unflyable" Dodo in 3 which let you see everything in the map, even the missing tops of buildings and cutscene areas. Even where such elements were unintentional, I loved that such "exploits" were available and the games were made even greater because of it.

As far as intentional elements:

• Car manufacturer music in the original Gran Turismo.
• Many subtle visual design elements in Elex, particularly interiors, house architecture, prop placement, etc.
• Traversable map in Arcanum (probably felt like a disappointment at the time, but I love that it's there).
• Possessing creatures in Dungeon Keeper (why even put such a thing in your strategy game?)
• Instant replay in Carmageddon
• Not getting a "mission failed" prompt in Mafia even when you e.g. completely lost the guy you were supposed to follow (I was trolled the hardest of any game I've played when I kept following the wrong car for an hour only to eventually realize how much of a dumbfuck gangster I was. Completely against modern design principles, I loved it!).
• While we're at it, the racing mission in Mafia (iykyk).