I agree with all the above and I love the talking part but I want to make a difference in what response I give, so it will bring another dimension to the game and outcome. One thing not mentioned that really irks me the worst is a bad ending. I hate games that make you feel like you wasted all those hours because the ending is uncompleted. I loved Culpa Innata and Still life, but I felt like the ending did not answer many questions. After all I play adventure games because I am a frustrated wanna be detective and the ending of the game I want to know I solved. I also love games like Runaway both 1 and 2 because the sense of humor and graphics were great and voices. I loved playing the characters. Plus the ease of click and point for movement, It never made me nauseous like some movement in games. That is my 2 cents worth. OH before I forget, I do not want to be forced to buy a new computer just to buy a new game like for instance newest CSI I cannot even play it after my husband bought it for me for a gift.

Hi Jenny100..

Good topic...

I will make this short..For me its the graphics, and how Spooky the game is...

I agree with Sherryah. I love the 'reality' of shadows and blowing grass, but get irked with such things as the signs that 'squeaked' in the wind (Evil Under the Sun), but never moved. And don't like a good story line that ends (Black Mirror), or a game that teases (Scratches), but only has I also don't care for long, drawn out, (boooring) dialogue, that sounds like the speakers are all tone deaf (Anicapri). What I do like is: plots with twists and turns and good strong characters (Evil, Dead Reefs, all the Gab Knights, all the Sherlocks and the Broken Swords, etc) with a touch of humor.

Story driven, character interaction, visual, interesting scenes, the ability to travel from my chair, those are my keeper games.
Timed scenes in which only the very dexterious have a chance, or games that won't at last resort take a save, or games you can't finished because of an impossible situation. Like ND Secret of the old Clock, get thrown out with the trash.

Story lines that take you on an interactive journey, puzzles that are woven into the plot, solutions that are logical, however difficult. I live in hope of finding one

Bkrytr -- I've added spoiler tags so that people who haven't played Black Mirror or Scratches yet won't find out info about the endings.

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I like a game that's good at what it sets out to be good at.

If a game is meant to be story driven, then it better have a good story -- and not just a good story. The characters are at least as important as the story. This is where bad voice acting hurts the most. Bad voice acting makes the characters annoying and/or not realistic, and that affects how much I'm drawn into the story. I can get used to reading text instead of hearing voices, but I can't get used to a voice that doesn't match the character's appearance, or that sets my teeth on edge. And I don't like playing as a whiner.

If a game is meant to be a puzzler, the puzzles have to be good. They have to be logical. And the controls for operating them have to be convenient to manipulate, whether they are inventory puzzles or purely mechanical puzzles. Story and characters are not as important with puzzlers. The bad voice acting in Aura didn't detract significantly from my enjoyment of it because my attention was drawn to exploring the very pretty gameworld and figuring out the puzzles -- and not to the rather generic story about the evil bad guy wanting to take over the world.

It would be nice if a game could be great at everything, but I don't think it's possible -- at least not with the low budgets that adventure game designers have to work with. And there are certain types of puzzles that fit in OK in a puzzler, but would be out of place in a story driven game.

A game that: installs and plays without glitches
has a good story
logical puzzles that are woven in with the story
interesting, unique or funny characters
fantastic locations and eye candy
no impossible timed sequences

Good story, and lot's of humor. Thats whats what makes a game good for me. A game with humor is the best kind in my opinion. I just loved the Monkey Island series.
And of course it has to have a good voice acting to execute these jokes well. Worst voice acting in a game I can recall was in Next Life. Just horrible voice acting that nearly made me pass on this game.

I'm a visual person, so the less I have to read or listen to dialog the better for me. So, it goes without saying that the graphics are what draws me into the game, then the puzzles, untimed, let me wander and think. If it's too hard I get bored with it. If it's too easy, it goes too fast. So, the 'perfect' game for me doesn't need a walkthrough or require that I ask someone for a saved game and allows me to learn something interesting. So far, I haven't found the 'perfect' game, but that doesn't mean that I don't enjoy trying all of them out. I just don't finish some of them.

What makes a game enjoyable is very subjective - even whether the puzzles are good or the ending bad is something personal.

A big factor in me enjoying a game is not the game itself, but my expectation of it. Too much hype and a game is likely to fall short. But if I can play a game on its own terms, feel like I'm the first person through those caverns, then it can worm its way into my affections.

Hi

For me to truly enjoy a game the two things it must have are a good story and an easily manageable interface

I can cope with non-state-of-the-art graphics, less than perfect voice-overs, below par music and even some arcade stuff .... but I absolutely HATE long and involved timed action sequences that end in death

Cheers.

Mad

Jenny100, your post is pretty much exactly how I feel too. What's most important for my enjoyment of a game varies depending on what type of game it's trying to be.

And I can put up with quite a bit of bad aspects to a game as long as there's some good and/or great to make up for it.

The only thing that can truly kill a game for me is too many obscure inventory puzzles. I can't stand puzzles that involve clicking all your inventory on a hotspot until you find the inventory item that works, because the solution is the weirdest inventory item you never thought of using. Or puzzles that involve weird combinations of inventory items to create a new item. If a game has too much of these types of puzzles, I'll usually still finish them but will resort to a walkthru, b/c it's not fun for me to keep randomly clicking. And even though I'll finish them it kind of kills my enjoyment.


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