Small unspoken details you love about a game?

It's all the small things that bring together the bigger package and I'd love to hear what small detail, gamers are loving. try to avoid big well known/spoken things. Also a small graphics detail can be listed also :)

I'll start first as an example: I like how in BOTW when your climbing a mountain, ur gear isn't simply stuck to ur back, but actually animates realistically as it bounces about on ur back.

Horizon, being able to mount while running is a convenient and awesome implementation. No waiting for your ride to slowly reach your location or be concerned that they are to far away. Just being able to do what you do and the game works with you seamlessly.

That actually sounds pretty awesome

Always appreciate proper reloading. TLoU, putting in the exact amount of bullets needed instead of a generic animation.

Zelda's dialogue.

Breath of the Wild does it better.

I appreciate the many bits of reactive dialog in The Last of Us. It makes combat encounters feel exciting and real such as reactions to no ammo, other AI being taken down or going into hiding.

I love the many little discoveries you can make in Breath of the Wild too. Feeding your horse, arrows as a constant, the way elements react logically to one another (bomb arrows not being lit because it's raining or all arrows becoming fire arrows in the hot climate of death mountain) the list goes on with that game really.

People running under shades or houses when raining in Witcher 1.

I love the sandy footprints in Assassin's Creed Black Flag. So much attention to detail in that game.

Never encountering the same enemy twice in SOMA.

I get that you recycle enemies for a game, but in a horror game it would take away from the dread recycling the same enemies.

SOMA has about three enemies throughout the course of the game. None of them is the same as one that came before. Which causes you to not really know how to deal with the threat, which adds to the theme of the game.

This too !

Red Orchestra 2 had about three different reload animations for one gun. That's some pretty insane attention to detail.

I love doing this. You can make certain scenarios feel very epic, such as mounting during mid combat (mind you, I haven't played Horizon, but I do a similar thing in BotW so I get what you mean).

It's the small feedback that you get that make it realistic yet not overly realistic that it no longer feels like a game?

Early Halos and the grunts chatterboxes. lol Good stuff. :P

@iandizion713: No.

Almost nobody talks about the unbelievable animations in Retro Studio's Donkey Kong games. The way DK moves is so fluid and mesmerizing. If you are dormant and hit hard right or left, he spins his feet on the spot for a moment before speeding off. If you make a hard turn while running, he spins on the spot and kicks up dust before moving in that direction. The amount of sensitivity in the analogue stick for movement is incredible as well. You have complete control over the speed of the ape. They even have nice touches like varying animations based on how hard you hit a wall or if you struggle to climb a steep slope.

I cannot give retro enough credit for the detail they put into these games. Don't even get me started on the amazing context and detail they put into all the background visuals.

Attention to detail, nice

Solid game the last of us. good old Naughty Dog. Hahaha took me a little while to figure out why my bomb arrows were not working ^ ^

The way enemy arrows get stuck to my shield, letting me retrieve them and use them later.

In BotW.

Retro truly is an amazing company. Imagine if every game developer took the care into there games as retro does. Animation is soo important in games, so it stands out when a company takes extra care in that area

Treading the line between realism and a simulation. Good point

Oh I never noticed that! Granted, I almost never play with a shield except for Gardians

I liked the gun jams in Far Cry 2. Many hated it. I loved it. Funny as hell. :D

The Far Cry 2 bad guys also avoided wasting bullets if you're inside a solid house. But, if you took cover inside a shanty, they'll pepper it with gunfire.

@jun_aka_pekto: Did not know about the saving bullets when in solid houses. Learn something new every day! I also didn't mind the jamming

The bad guys usually tried to get inside before shooting. I didn't notice them trying to shoot me through the walls. But, if you're inside a rickety shanty, they just let loose.

I was used to other FPS games (Crysis, Far Cry 3) letting me use shacks as effective cover. So, it was a shock to see bad guys shooting through the flimsy shanty walls.

If the player's movement in Far Cry 2 wasn't so clunky and limited, I'd put it at the top of the franchise.

Hahahaha I imagine it was a fair shock when they came charging in! FC2 came with my graphics card and so will always have a special place with me

If only Ubisoft kept the good parts of Far Cry 2 and applied them to Far Cry 3 and 4, at least in the higher difficulty levels, the latter wouldn't be too easy.

The story / lore telling of dark souls 2, i love the all the little detials that give you insight about what's happened on the land your on.

Some cases it's even warning you about what's to come.

For example at drangliec castle, if you look at the nilishandra painting you start to get cursed, this showing her true nature you may not have worked out yet.

In Paper Mario: TTYD when every time you completed a level you came back to that port town, don't remember the name, and you could talk to Luigi. He would go into great detail about his own side adventure he was going on to save Daisy I think. It was pretty awesome.

I recall back in the day... when I first thru on Super Mario Bros 3 I was perplexed by the fact that he actually grabbed his hat when he ducked.

Im not sure why... but I felt this was such a huge advancement over the previous games! Lol

i love when games either dont have loading screens or hide them in a clever way. a game where i can go from someones house to the big overworld and explore at my leisure with no loading screens always gets a nod of approval from me. developers have been able to do that for a long time now but its still nice.

a very interactive world. walk through a curtain: the curtain moves around the player (rather than the player just clipping through). rocket hits a shack? the shack falls apart. the player can then use the debris for doing things (throw it at an enemy, build a boat..whatever). it kinda feels like developers have backed off from this kind of stuff since crysis and HL2 to be honest (BOTW being the exception).

play: dont show. too many developers put a big emphasis on cutscenes and reams of voice acted dialogue. i always prefer when the game lets the player just form a story in their head while playing the game. HL2, metroid prime, the souls series and BOTW are solid examples. the levels, the enemy design, items and so on tell the story of the game. far more elegant than cutscenes and people chatting away.

It was so unnecessary, but the ice melting in MGS2 while on the boat blew me away.

When Counter Strike Source was first released, I was playing it at a friends house for the first time (7th grade for me) and I crouched down in de_dust and stared at the wall for about 10 mins because I couldnt believe how amazing the graphics were. (I was coming from PS2 and the last PC game I remember before was Red Alert 2)

I fell in love with the Desert eagles animation how it would twirl around the players finger (friend had a 6800ultra PCI-E) and it was so smooth and fluid and got me all excited! XD

@aki2017:

-Being able to change clothes, from outfit selection to piece by piece.

-Be able to play as a girl.

-Being able to sit down on chairs.

-Being able to jump twice.

A few that come to mind:

-The sound of heavy footsteps and the wind lines that appear on your side as you sprint in Halo 5... love that they put that in, gives me a rush when I go from one area to the next and fits with my style of play online(aggressive/offense usually).

-Gears 4(not new but something I always liked about this series): The Roadie run, how the camera focuses on your character as he runs, and most of the characters have distinct panting sounds as they are running.....adds to the immersion and pumps you up as you get to your destination.

-Look-behind-you-as-you-run mechanic: I first came across this wonderful mechanic in Silent Hill Downpour, but it was a lot more effective in Outlast. As a fan of horror games, I always wanted to be able to do this as I was running from whatever monster was chasing me. I think most horror games that involve running should definitely consider having it, it just adds to the thrill I find especially when you cannot see stuff in front of you briefly as you look behind, which is another opportunity to scare the player with something else.

-Campaign Co-op games that only allow the host to skip cut scenes. I don't like it when games allow any player in your match to skip cutscenes when you are playing campaign co-op. Often it is a welcome 2 min break to get a drink or go to the bathroom or whatever, but most times if I am playing a campaign I like to watch the cutscenes, especially on my first playthrough, and I think the privilege of skipping them should be reserved to the host of the game. The games that are well designed will usually inform you that one of the players is trying to skip the cutscene, and then you as the host can decide to do that or keep watching it.

-Good character animation is always a huge plus for me in 3rd person and 2D games. Little details like stuff that happens when you don't move for a min, etc. that kind of polish is always great, especially since you are regularly looking at your character in those games.

-A great, easy to use Save system.....it boggles my mind how there are still many games that do not do this aspect right. It's quite annoying in some games when you have to wonder "did I hit a checkpoint? where is my last auto save? etc. "

-Clever Loading screens as one of the above posters mentioned, always a plus

I was talking with a friend the other day about Sonic Mania, including its story, and we kept bringing up how in Sonic 3 & Knuckles, everything escalated and how it did it without a lick of dialogue. The plot, mystery, and tension is all conveyed to the player via zone transitions, foreshadowing (the mural in Hidden Palace Zone), gameplay interactions (the imbalance caused by getting one of the super emeralds) and Robotnik's end game relentlessness compared to his actions in the previous games. It's just really impressive how it's all so well put together, and it looks like Mania is doing something similar, so we were both getting excited over how this game is doing everything right on all levels.

In Far Cry 2, when a bad guy got wounded, he would crawl or one of his comradre would carry him to safety.

When you throw a molotov on grass, the fire spreads especially when it's windy. It's quite a sight to behold at night. Sadly, these nice small touches were gone in FC3 (and FC4 I think, not sure as I haven't pllayed it yet).

These are fairly well known I think, but still worth mentioning:

Witcher 3:

- When putting a sword away, Geralt's non sword hand goes behind his back to angle the scabbard correctly so the sword can slide in

- A certain NPC gets the death penalty thanks to Geralt's actions, and can later be found executed in the exact manner specified if you're just wandering around

- An NPC is given 15 lashes for giving rotten grain to the Nilfgaardians. If you stand there and count, he actually gets lashed 15 times.

Metal Gear Solid 5:

- If guards are about to discover you hiding in the toilet, you can play the cassette tape of the dude getting sick on the toilet, and you'll gross them out/scare them off

For me it's the interaction between party members outside of the action. For example, in ME:A, where characters will have short dialogue when roaming in the Nomad or on foot. It's such a small touch, but really helps draw you in.

I like that too, but the last game I played where party member interactions was actually memorable, was Baldur's gate 2. Minsc ftw!

GTA IV: When you get out of cars, if you hold the exit button down, you shut off the engine/radio (sadly, this feature was removed in GTA V)

GTA IV: I once caught a mailman emptying out a brown mail bin on the corner during morning hours.

GTA IV: If an enemy is rolling around on the ground on fire while holding a gun, every time the gun hits the ground it clanks.

GTA IV and V: rain doesn't fall underneath awnings and overhanging objects, making them safe areas to stay dry.

GTA IV: Garbage trucks only appear in the early morning hours.

GTA V: Trash is constantly flying out of the tops of garbage trucks as they drive.

GTA V: There's a layer of dew/mist that hovers above the ground in the countryside during late night/early morning hours. This is only in the ps4/bone/pc versions.

GTA's IV and V: If someone sees you jacking a car, they'll call the authorities. In V they may take a cellphone shot of you as well.

GTA IV: If you turn on a police siren after the lights have been shot up, they'll make a weird noise.

GTA IV: Gushing water from busted fire hydrants have physics and may even flip your car over.

GTA IV and V: Car engine's tick tick tick for a while when you turn them off.

GTA V: You can send different people in your phone pics of dead animals you've killed and get different reactions from each.

GTA V: The moon changes phases each night with slightly different lighting corresponding with each phase.

GTA V: You can melee and kick chairs out from under people.

GTA V: Pedestrians walk faster across the street as the light changes.

GTA IV: If an enemy is standing near a steam pipe, you can shoot it and the steam burns them.

GTA IV and V: If you're driving around in an open top car, your music echos in tunnels, alleyways, etc.

GTA V: MIchael doesn't have a smartphone in the prologue because it takes place 10 years earlier.

GTA V: Shooting a cars gas tank will leave a trail of gas which can be ignited.

GTA V: Shop owners, npc's, and other characters act a liiiiiiitle "racial" toward Franklin in terms of how they speak to him.

GTA's IV and V: Every-single-thing you walk over has an accurate corresponding sound, even broken glass.

Yeah, there have not been all that many in recent memory. TLoU I remember being pretty damn good between Joel and Ellie.

Spending TONS of time just searching for Koroks in Zelda. No youtube, no strategy guide, just I the KOROK HUNTER!! I play zelda 2 hours a day every day and it may never end.

The attention to small details in games like The Division and Ghost Recon: Wildlands is truly a joy to behold.

Lots of interesting small game facts I did not know about. Good community here, glad I made this thread :)