For YOU, what makes a game "Great"?

[TheBrick]

What makes a game great? I think it would be how fun to play said game is. Because that's the reason most people play video games; to have fun.

[Sano]

I love RPGs, especially the 16-bit era. JRPGs with great story elements. I am not at all an Xbox fan, but the first Halo was a great game as well. Too much time is spent on graphics these days and story suffers on a lot of games.

[Retronomy]

To me a game is "great" when each department of the game is competent. Level/world design nice? Soundtrack or lack thereof fitting? Controls/Camera/Gimmicks in check?

I really don't care much about the graphical fidelity of the game so long as the art direction is solid.

A game is "good" when a majority of the departments are competent.
A game is "okay" if it has some obvious flaws but has redeeming qualities.
A games is "bad" when there's nothing of value.

Of course, in the end I'm really judging it by over-all 'feel'.

Side note: I will never give a game a "perfect" because there is always SOMETHING wrong, or even just SOMETHING not as perfect about that game. The way publications tend to throw around 'perfect' scores kind of invalidates all judgement.

[Pislit]

A game is great if it is not fundamentally broken. Everything else is subjective.

[pankakes123]

It needs to have magic. I can't explain it, I don't think anyone can. But look at Chrono Trigger, widely considered one of the best games in history, but why? Sure the gameplay is great, the story is deep, and the characters are memorable, but what sets it over the bar? Some games developers just really put their heart into, and gamers can tell when they play those games.

[graffix_13]

Side note: I will never give a game a "perfect" because there is always SOMETHING wrong, or even just SOMETHING not as perfect about that game. The way publications tend to throw around 'perfect' scores kind of invalidates all judgement.

Yeah, same here. I mean, I may give a specific area of the game a '10' but overall giving a game a '10' probably will never happen. For example, I could say the story was a 10, but the gameplay was only a 7.

[muhanad]

Side note: I will never give a game a "perfect" because there is always SOMETHING wrong, or even just SOMETHING not as perfect about that game. The way publications tend to throw around 'perfect' scores kind of invalidates all judgement.

Yeah, same here. I mean, I may give a specific area of the game a '10' but overall giving a game a '10' probably will never happen. For example, I could say the story was a 10, but the gameplay was only a 7.

YES!!! I hate how IGN just throws around 10s to so many games. They may be great, but a 10 is a completely perfect game, that can never be beat, and a game like that is impossible.

[SNKnicotine]

A great game (IMO) has to have a great story and solid character development, And of course good controls.

[3DSStrider]

It has to have fun and balanced gameplay, without major flaws such as annoying camera, unbalanced characters, or not having enough content. After that, good art design and soundtrack is a nice bonus, then story, as long as it doesn't get in the way of gameplay.

[graffix_13]

Two words:

Game Design

That's where the real craftsmanship of a game is.

I think this is a really good point. Ultimately, every video game can be judged by its game design.

Sometimes it's hard to apply metrics to a game. Take a game like Heavy Rain. Love it or hate it you have to admit it was a new way to 'play' a video game. So you really couldn't rate it's gameplay, since it was basically a QTE game. Storywise is where it was great (or horrible, whatever your opinion).

Other genres pretty much live or die based on what defines it. Fighting games and shmups for instance are based on their gameplay and are lacking storywise (generally). RTS' are known for their strategy and not so much for its protagonist, etc.

In the end, it's all subjective of course. It's all game design and how much fun you had with it.