I wish more games were fully dedicated to what they are
I only recently got back into gaming and for once I entered gaming already having had experience in different genres. Upon spectating recent discussions about cinematics in games, tired of AAA games discussions etc, which come back every two years or so I've asked myself what makes a good game and why people seem to lean more and more towards a double standard.
On a fundamental level, games are limited by their medium, and every game out there is a combination of otherwise simple mechanics. And yet, it's about how you combine them - you cannot only discuss combat in a game on its own for example, because the way you experience it is directly tied to level design, camera and other aspects of the game. And yet, most "gamer voices" out there don't seem to acknowledge it. So, I ask, why are people fetishizing souls like games for their combat, when the unique experience the games are associated with is based on the environmental design instead? Why are cinematic games being criticizes for not having gameplay when arguably a quick time event is not significantly more of a gameplay than dodge and button mash - something ignored in games like the Arkham series, where combat is praised for fluidity *animation* whereas god of war is being criticised for too much animation during combat, souls games etc.
Why did people criticise Detroit but praise Shadow of the Collosus despite both games being stripped of much gameplay and mechanica or analytical complexity within them for example?
To me all of the above are just decent enough experiences because they often don't push themselves into the mechanics they are based on - Detroit for example didn't require the players to pay enough attention to the dialogue, environment or character body language especially beyond Connor's section. And Shadow of the Collosus didn't invest much into it's gameplay sections (climbing, running, etc) either.
Games have always been simple and bare bones, they have always been repetitive and unless multiplayer, by themselves, they are rarely hard and challenging. Good games are ones who understand their limits and try to Integrate that knowledge into something complete and centered around its identity. I'd say good examples are Resident Evil 4, Subnautica and This war of mine.
There are games like Days gone and the Witcher 3, which try to compensate by shifting the focus towards immersion via friction with the bike maintainance and bistriary.
Then there are games like Ghost of Tsushima and the last of us part 2. The latter is very much a story focused game, with a lot of cutscenes and gameplay limited to good sandbox level design with serviceable combat/stealth, however the fact that most of the time it is more interactive and easier to go through it by killing people which kind of contradicts the story that presents it as if Ellie struggles with killing people is a weird choice for a game in which the story is a focal point.
And Ghost of Tsushima tries to sell you a lot on the samurai concept, tying everything in the world to it with only two, arguably one mechanic to show for it (the combat and effectiveness of stealth which is appropriately tied to the story) but ignores its limitations and insists on a big, completely empty world just so you can grind upgrades.
And now we have Crimson desert, which seems like a mess and is the cheapest product I've seen since maybe Spiderman or ghost of Yotei.
Okay, so... This is my all over the place first train of thought since I got back into gaming. I am just now starting to develop an interest in critical analysis of game design itself.