Games with completely unique mechanics
Posted: March 28th, 2024, 9:53 am
I was listening to The Computer Game Show podcast yesterday and Sean talking about Dragons Dogma 2, and I played a good chunk of the first game (but never got round to finishing it) and it occurred to me that the pawn system is something completely unique in gaming.
Being able to hire other players NPC characters who can even help you with quests if they have already done that quest with their 'owner' and everything else associated with the pawn system - I can't think of any other game where anything like this has been implemented.
It also got me thinking about other mechanics in games, and specifically about games that do something no other games do. I couldn't think of many. Even Link's powers in the pair of most recent Zelda games are iterations on systems we've seen a thousand times before. Telekenisis, building vehicles from component parts, freezing enemies etc. They're a lot of fun to use, but they're not completely original.
I thought of Bulletstorm, with it's leash mechanic where you can pull enemies, drag them around etc. but is this just an evolution of force like powers from Star Wars? Maybe. Bullet time is so ubiquitous these days that it's not seemed original for a long time, and then there are Corvo's powers in the Dishonored games - all fun to use but teleporting, stopping time and everything else he can do - is it totally original? I'm not sure.
The only other games I could really think of are the Shadow of Mordor/War games with their nemesis system, NPCs remembering battles you've had and getting more powerful as they climb the ranks of their armies etc. I've not played those games so don't know fully how that system works, but can anyone think of any games that do something no other game has tried before?
Being able to hire other players NPC characters who can even help you with quests if they have already done that quest with their 'owner' and everything else associated with the pawn system - I can't think of any other game where anything like this has been implemented.
It also got me thinking about other mechanics in games, and specifically about games that do something no other games do. I couldn't think of many. Even Link's powers in the pair of most recent Zelda games are iterations on systems we've seen a thousand times before. Telekenisis, building vehicles from component parts, freezing enemies etc. They're a lot of fun to use, but they're not completely original.
I thought of Bulletstorm, with it's leash mechanic where you can pull enemies, drag them around etc. but is this just an evolution of force like powers from Star Wars? Maybe. Bullet time is so ubiquitous these days that it's not seemed original for a long time, and then there are Corvo's powers in the Dishonored games - all fun to use but teleporting, stopping time and everything else he can do - is it totally original? I'm not sure.
The only other games I could really think of are the Shadow of Mordor/War games with their nemesis system, NPCs remembering battles you've had and getting more powerful as they climb the ranks of their armies etc. I've not played those games so don't know fully how that system works, but can anyone think of any games that do something no other game has tried before?