Roguelikes with the potential for broken builds.
Sometimes you find the perfect combo on your run and become an unstoppable force, but it doesn’t ruin the game because you finish your god-like run and next run you try to find another overpowered build.
I do enjoy game mechanics that interact in emergent ways that weren’t fully planned out by the developer in games like Dwarf Fortress.
I’m not that excited by deep skill trees or crafting or inventory management, lately i enjoy good movement, music, exploration, and story.
The movement in destiny 2 felt really good, similar games have it where you get momentum, dives, floating with warlock, etc. I think Titanfall 2 and borderlands 3 zane had similar really good feeling movement.
The exploration in pre planes EverQuest was great, fast travel limited to certain classes and levels, risky but faster travel routes in kunark, groups in overworld and dungeon areas, dangerous places to get to with high reward for the risk. Elder scrolls, dark souls/elden ring, and Zelda breath of the wild had similar feelings for me.
I like most game mechanics to some extent. Creativity in combining game mechanics is key to making an outstanding game imo.
However, I don’t like things that force a time limit. I play games as an escape. I don’t like feeling stressed by a clock while I’m off the clock. These can be literal timed missions or things like a food/water meter. Escort missions also suck for similar reasons.
I think difficulty in a game should come from overcoming a foe, traversing harsh terrain, or solving a puzzle. If the game is hard because I have to stop what I’m doing to feed myself, or I have to rush to complete an objective on a timer, it just becomes work.
Same deal with making shit absurdly difficult and relying on trying over and over until you manage to do the correct timing/sequence/whatever 28934928x in a row. Games like Dark Souls or Cuphead intrigue me, but I will never ever play them again because I have shit to do in real life. Also, fuck any single player game that doesn’t have cheat codes.
I’m not sure if this counts as gameplay mechanics or rather narrative structure, but games like Outer Wilds, Fez, Tunic, where the exploration and discovery of the game is the end goal of playing the game, not just getting to the game’s end state.
I’m not sure if there’s an accepted term for these games, but I’ve always thought of them as “archaeology” games. There’s a bunch of stuff, both plot and gameplay, that is hidden (sometimes in plain sight), until you discover it and find out what meaning it carries.
