As for your ideas on how game reviewing should be done, I totally agree. I actually avoid games with really good graphics because they slow down my devices, I almost never play my games with sound (because it gets really annoying the 14,000th time an RTS soldier says, "Reporting for duty general.", as well as because I like to listen to music while I play my games), and while I do enjoy a good story, I believe gameplay is more important.
Controls can make or break a game the way I see it. In fact, there have been times when malfunctioning/awkward controls are the sole reason I stopped playing something.
As for levels, that's kind of a vague term, but I think you mean level design. I like levels that are designed with options in mind, but I enjoy linear levels if they're a good set piece. In fact, you can check out my review for the LEGO Star Wars game, in which I totally geek out over one of the levels.
AI is another big one. With poor AI, knife-wielding teammates will charge gigantic battle tanks and enemies will do the same to you. With good AI, you can rely on your teammates to get you through it all, and the enemies will feel like a real force and not zerg rushing idiots.
My brother's playing this game now. It has a few bright spots but it's also severely flawed. I really think it deserves to be known as a disaster.
Leave a Comment:
So Bad It's Memorable
Some people say this game could have been average. Be honest, did you want another average game? No, you want great games.
Graphics are not important (as long as you can see where you're going). Sound is not important. Story is not important. You can squint through all of that. Judge those things LATER, and if they're good, they are the icing on the cake.
Ultimately there are three things that matter in a game. Controls, levels and AI.
And Sonic 2006 failed on them. The mach speed sections, the thing that Sonic fans called for the most and would have drooled over the best, failed, when they should have been considered the most important part of the game to get right. The controls for it are so horribly twitchy. Instead, it looks like Sonic Team put all their effort into the Hub world, when Sonic isn't a hub-based game. And the graphics are great on the whole - but they didn't think about the graphics style. Never mind Elise and Sonic; Eggman just looks weird. And the sound is great but I already told you that was icing.
And the story - crazy, yes, but somebody put a lot of thought into that.
So the game's all icing, but the cake is poison. Icing is delicious, but it's not really satisfying.