Go to a game review sight, grab yourself your favorite drink and take a sip whenever you hear the words "monotonous" or "repetitive".

The fact that you're taking sips and not whole drinks should tell you something.

Though I can't deny that yes, some of my favorites can get, or even are, repetitive, I don't think that makes any of them a game bad by default.

But what do you folks think make a game repetitive? And do you see that as an inherently bad thing?

Note: this is not a complaint thread, or at least, that's not it's intent.

Second Note: The argument of monotony can be made for any game of any genre. Lets not do any prickwaving here, gents, and lets keep this civil.

edited 14th Aug '11 2:14:48 PM by Schitzo

Well, there's your problem. They like to Accentuate the Negative, couldn't you tell?

edited 14th Aug '11 2:15:50 PM by thespacephantom

I think a game becomes repetitive when I want to continue the story but find myself stalled by gameplay that no longer entertains me.

Yup, that'll do it.

When it comes to my favorite genre, Beat Em Ups/ Hack and Slash games, I'll never find games like Final Fight or Streets Of Rage too repetitive, but when it comes to games like God Of War and such, I get bored rather easily.

I think it has something to do with how overanimated the attacks are + the amount of time you have to do so, which can vary from player to player, and game to game. Of course, in older Beat Em Ups, the same rule applies... except for overanimation. Attacks in older beat em ups are mostly 2-6 frames max, with 10 or more being huge haymaker-like moves. Yes, you'll see the same animations over and over, but they're fast and you'll get passed them. And when you get knocked down, it's not a real big thing.

In modern beat em ups and hack n slash games, everythings overly elaborate, and it'll get annoying when you're knocked off balance for the upteemph time.

Let's see why Oblivion is and Morrowind and Nehrim are not.

1. : Oblivion is so VERY by the numbers and has engine limits that refuse to let the player gain actual new abilities, just hit harder
2. : Everything is computer (terrain) or spreadsheet generated, giving no real reason to explore (Morrowind has unique, non-quest related, items everywhere if you look, Nehrim has set items as well, both have hand crafted overworlds and dungeons)
3. : Quest variety: Almost all of the non-Theif's Guild/DB quests in OB ammount to "go there, kill that, get leveled gold". Morrowind's quests generally gave pathetic rewards for effort, but were unique (The Drunken Bounty Hunter is some Twin Lamps rep and gold, but its detective work is unique)
4. : Morrowind gave good reasons for each town to exist (Seyda Neen is the main port, Balmora is both Hlaalu's political capital, working to hold their position in the territory, and supports the near-by egg mine.), and had distinct local flavor (Ald'ruhn is center around a giant crab's carcass that is hollowed out and used for housing, the Televanni towers require levitation to navigate) and Nehrim made all of them feel alive through the propaganda posters and non-killing centric quests. Oblivion by contrast is sterile, towns and dungeons exist "because", while all looking mostly similar.
5. : Power curve, Oblivion's is (as mentioned in 1) horribly linear (if not stand still, lol level scaling). Morrowind and Nehrim are very top heavy in leveling and it is generally for the better, once you gain the gold for training and find a decent weapon, you are quite skilled, but start out pathetic (while in Oblivion you start out OK, and never really get better).

from my pov, bad game design.

let's take the example of Final Fight (an excellent game which doesn't feel repetitive to me) compared to some sad bum game like, shit I don't know, Spyborg.

In Final Fight:

• The enemies have different AI patterns, moves and hit points. Futhermore, the different enemy groups require different tactics to beat them effectively. To play well, you need to be intellectually (lol) involved.

• Thanks to good visuals and great pacing, there's a feeling of progression. You never spend too much time in a single spot and the levels have varied backgrounds (for ex, in the 2nd, you start in the metro, then you go inside a train, then you drop outside, then you enter a wrestling ring for the boss ect.) so there's a smooth illusion that you're actually moving within the level instead of fighting in the same room for 10 minutes and only moving on after the game "allows" you to.

• Variables such as weapons and environmental hazards let or force you to change your strategy.

• There's a good enough variety of moves so you don't get bored. Play some shitty rip off like Riot City to see how dull a lack of moves can get.

In Spyborg:

• The enemies have somewhat different stats, but almost of them are aggressive damage sponges that don't really need vastly different tactics to deal with them.

• The environments are reasonably varied but they don't change within the levels.

• There's no items that change the way your characters fight or environmental hazards to keep you on your toes.

• It does this annoying thing where you enter a room and then a bunch of enemies spawn out of nowhere, and after you defeat them, another set of enemies spawn as to pad out the length of the game without actually having to design new rooms.

But there are some good or even excellent games that can feel repetitive due to some bad design. For ex, Wipeout Pure:

• You start out with only one speed class (out of five) and one league made of four tracks. To unlock more, you need to get gold on the first league.

• Doing that will unlock another league also made of four tracks. If you beat that one, you'll unlock a final league which'll make you play through all eight tracks of both leagues in a row.

• Beating that league will unlock a speed class and you'll need to do the same bullshit in every speed classes to unlock most of the content.

To "beat" that particular mode, you'll need to play through every tracks 15 times minimum. And though experimenting with different ships and the few other modes somewhat mitigate that, it still feels kind of dull even though the game is really good.

edited 14th Aug '11 3:28:24 PM by Glowsquid

Couldn't have said that better myself