Best Mechanics

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

No, not the people that fix your car. I'm talking about gameplay mechanics*. It could be something unique, or a standard one done particularly well. Whatever the case, it makes your favourite game what it is.

To get things revving: a car mechanic. Not that kind! I'm talking about Burnout's boost building, baby!

Plenty of racing games feature some sort of speed boost but, in most of them, you get it by driving over a special section of the track, or as a randomly assigned power up. Fun enough, but something earned is better than something given. Burnout switches things up by having you gain boost by driving like an utter maniac. The more recklessly you drive, the more your boost increases, but so too does your chance of losing it all in a catastrophic collision. It's classic risk/reward gameplay and it's executed perfectly.

What else?

*<sup>I would have hoped that wouldn't need explaining. I mean, it should have been obvious from the context, shouldn't it? And yet, here we are.

Sigh.</sup>

[Pink Gregory]

Bayonetta's Witch Time.

You can avoid damage by dodging  but get it *exactly* right, and here's a lovely little reward.

A good parry is nice, but only really works in a slower game e.g. Dark Souls. 

[BeardFaceMan]

The movement in Titanfall 2 is amazing, so fluid, so satisfying to play.

[The Crumb]

Dead or Alive 2 letting you chuck people off or through bits of the stages was amazing at the time.

The gas mask mechanics in Metro add a great layer of tactile feeling and immersion.

Similar to burnout, the risk/reward of boosting with your health in F Zero.

The core combo mechanics of grind, jump, revert, manual in THPS3 feel great to this day.

[bgmnts]

Max Payne BulletTime (TM?)

Gravity Gun.

Burnout 3 was ace though. Did Burnout Paradise do away with the focus on the crash mechanics? I remember it mostly about driving out an empty city listening to Paradise City until you wanted to run over every member of Guns and Roses.

[Mister Six]

I know David Cage is a bellend, and his games are pretentious wank for the most part, but there's a really great bit in Fahrenheit where the player controls a cop with claustrophobia who has to navigate a basement. The player has to walk around using the WASD/arrow keys while simultaneously rhythmically clicking the left and right mouse buttons to breathe in and out. Click too slow and your character holds her breath; too fast and she hyperventilates. Either way, she panics and flees the basement and you have to start again.

I also liked the depression meter, which acted as a health (or, rather, sanity) bar, and could be topped up by doing things well or depleted by buggering things up. Added tension to the most mundane acts.

And the idea in the opening of alternating between the suspect and the investigators is neat because you're torn between helping one character in his mission to escape and helping the other in her mission to find him - although IIRC the game doesn't really follow through on that as it goes along.

[The Crumb]

Burnout 3 was ace though. Did Burnout Paradise do away with the focus on the crash mechanics? I remember it mostly about driving out an empty city listening to Paradise City until you wanted to run over every member of Guns and Roses.

Kind of, crash mode got removed and replaced with some shit where you bounced your car around. Crashes in general were very detailed but smaller in scope than older games.

The real crime was the open world. Losing a white knuckle split second race because you missed a turning or made a navigation mistake was really annoying, especially with the clunky restarting.

[ImmaculateClump]

Mic mechanic from "turmoil"



Oohoohoo! The arabs? I always thought they were knights.

I really like that mechanic in games like quazatron and droid assault where you can hijack the bad guys and just keep becoming different things with different movement speed and health and weapons and stuff, that's always fun.

I like the hyper in "hurricane of the varstray" where you turn into a vengeful pinball. You become invincible and your movement speed doubles for about five seconds and you just have to crank your stick about, smashing into all the alien tossers who seconds ago had you cowering in the corner of the screen with their barrage of deadly bullets.

I like how in nuclear throne, I think it's the robot how you can eat the weapons you don't need before going through the teleporter and it translates to health or ammo. That's really good.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

Spider-Man 2 (The Movie - The Game) was mostly a load of tripe, but the webslinging was sublime. The crap way to do it would have been to automate things, so that you just point yourself in the direction you want to go and the game handles the rest. Spider-Man 2's masterstroke is that you are never quite in total control, but rather in a constant tug of war with gravity and momentum. One false move can bring you to a sudden and undignified stop, which makes it all the more exhilarating to master the controls and slingshot gracefully around the city.

The 2018 game mostly recaptures the experience, but with a touch of oversimplification.

Burnout Paradise... I remember it mostly about driving out an empty city listening to Paradise City until you wanted to run over every member of Guns and Roses.

While being run over is an amusingly ironic end for someone named Axel, did you not realise that you could just change the song?

Kind of, crash mode got removed and replaced with some shit where you bounced your car around. Crashes in general were very detailed but smaller in scope than older games.

The real crime was the open world. Losing a white knuckle split second race because you missed a turning or made a navigation mistake was really annoying, especially with the clunky restarting.

I love Burnout Paradise, but agree on both these points. The removal of Crash Mode is baffling, since the design of the city would easily allow for its inclusion. The replacement bouncing thing is moderately amusing at first, but not remotely as engaging Crash Mode's destructo puzzles.

Instead of giving you complete (and completely pointless) freedom, I think the races should have used randomly generated routes, with barriers to stop you going the wrong way, just like the older games. Not only would it have been less annoying, it would have made better use of the setting - there are bits of Paradise City that you never race around (including an actual racecourse!) because they're so far off course that you'd have already lost the race if you find yourself there.

[The Crumb]

Instead of giving you complete (and completely pointless) freedom, I think the races should have used randomly generated routes, with barriers to stop you going the wrong way, just like the older games. Not only would it have been less annoying, it would have made better use of the setting - there are bits of Paradise City that you never race around (including an actual racecourse!) because they're so far off course that you'd have already lost the race if you find yourself there.

NFS hot pursuit (Criterion one) did that and it worked well. I would have been happy to see the free form element stay for road rages and and the getaway things.

IIRC correctly, weren't there only a handful of race end points in Paradise, so there were some stretches of road you saw a lot? A fascinating, ambitious game despite its flaws and it's a shame it never got a true sequel.

[bgmnts]

Spider-Man 2 (The Movie - The Game) was mostly a load of tripe, but the webslinging was sublime. The crap way to do it would have been to automate things, so that you just point yourself in the direction you want to go and the game handles the rest. Spider-Man 2's masterstroke is that you are never quite in total control, but rather in a constant tug of war with gravity and momentum. One false move can bring you to a sudden and undignified stop, which makes it all the more exhilarating to master the controls and slingshot gracefully around the city.

The 2018 game mostly recaptures the experience, but with a touch of oversimplification.
While being run over is an amusingly ironic end for someone named Axel, did you not realise that you could just change the song?I love Burnout Paradise, but agree on both these points. The removal of Crash Mode is baffling, since the design of the city would easily allow for its inclusion. The replacement bouncing thing is moderately amusing at first, but not remotely as engaging Crash Mode's destructo puzzles.

Instead of giving you complete (and completely pointless) freedom, I think the races should have used randomly generated routes, with barriers to stop you going the wrong way, just like the older games. Not only would it have been less annoying, it would have made better use of the setting - there are bits of Paradise City that you never race around (including an actual racecourse!) because they're so far off course that you'd have already lost the race if you find yourself there.

You could but most of the songs were shit.

[peanutbutter]

The fish factory sequence in What Remains of Edith Finch

Florence's jigsaw puzzle dialogue

It's kinda ridiculous how much Super Mario Kart got right on first try, not a game I return to much at all but when I have done it's surprised me how solid it still feels.

[Rizla]

The vetting-up systems for the different factions in Company of Heroes was pretty wicked - yanks have to earn veterancy through combat, whilst the bosch can simply order it in, and brits do it via their commanding officers - exactly how it worked in real life. Nothing more satisfying than seeing your 3-star sniper or ranger squad rack up them kills, and nothing as heartbreaking as the death in combat of a noble, war-weary yet battle-tested lieutenant.

"...one, in Leipzig, I saw zeese funny little dancing puppets..."

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

You could but most of the songs were shit.

True. I skip through to the classical music. It's the classy way to commit vehicular manslaughter.

[beanheadmcginty]

The Persuadertron in the original Syndicate on the Amiga. Used to love running around town amassing my own private army of civilians. If I was feeling particularly ctuel I'd then run them all over en masse.

[The Guppy]

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons requires the player to control both characters at once, and it works really well. The left stick/buttons control one character, and the right stick/buttons control the other. And it's elevated by what they do with it in the endgame.

Spoiler alert

The elder brother dies at the end of the quest (making his half of the controller useless), and the younger brother has to get home by himself. He's terrified of water and can't swim without his brother's help. He ends up in the water and is drowning, when the dead half of the controller becomes active and the memory of his elder brother gives him the strength to swim by himself.

[close]

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I was just about to mention that myself. I get the feeling that they thought of the endgame bit first and worked backwards from there.

It's a cracking little game. I might have to give it a replay now.

[bgmnts]

Oh yeah Brothers in Arms series had a brilliant mechanic where you could give orders to different squads to provide covering or suppressing fire on enemy troops.

I dont think it's ever been bettered in any game.

[Crenners]

Hop/slide/reverse hop in Super Mario Kart has endless depth and satisfaction.

[Pink Gregory]

Oh yeah Brothers in Arms series had a brilliant mechanic where you could give orders to different squads to provide covering or suppressing fire on enemy troops.

I dont think it's ever been bettered in any game.

It's a real shame how that series petered out with little fanfare.  Especially since if you go back to the console ports they run like absolute arse, so they haven't really been preserved.

[C_Larence]

Rewinding time in the Prince of Persia games.

[druss]

The portal gun in Portal (2007 portal game).

[seepage]

Pushing enemies past party members in Dungeon of Naheulbeuk so they all get in an attack of opportunity. Using overwatcb so that half the enemy are mown down on turn 1.

[Crenners]

The perennial 'jump' in Nintendo's "Super Mario Bros".

[Jerzy Bondov]

Picking up prostitutes in GTA, shagging them then killing them and taking back your money.

[oggyraiding]

The parry in Metal Gear Rising Revengeance. Requires more skill than the Batman Arkham parries, but not as much precision as a Dark Souls parry. Incredibly satisfying to pull off, especially when you're up against loads of baddies and effortlessly counter every attack.

Warioland 2's lack of death, making you use status effects given by enemies to your advantage. So if a chef enemy throws a cake at you, you become fat, making you slow but able to break blocks below you. Or being stung by a bee so your head puffs up and you float upwards.

[peanutbutter]

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons requires the player to control both characters at once, and it works really well. The left stick/buttons control one character, and the right stick/buttons control the other. And it's elevated by what they do with it in the endgame.

Spoiler alert

The elder brother dies at the end of the quest (making his half of the controller useless), and the younger brother has to get home by himself. He's terrified of water and can't swim without his brother's help. He ends up in the water and is drowning, when the dead half of the controller becomes active and the memory of his elder brother gives him the strength to swim by himself.

[close]

That moment doesn't work nearly as well if you play it co-op on a Switch like I did

[Crenners]

Because the Joycons are already totally fucked.

[Norton Canes]

Top down. Platforms can GTF.

[madhair60]

Skid jump in Jumper 2