What would make the game great for you?

This is really a question that has been stuck with me over the past few months (since I joined the forums basically) and I really can't answer that. You can ask this question at the beginning when we first heard news about it and you can ask it now and the answers would be vastly different.

Like I mentioned before I liked to envision what the final product could be when I first heard of Dishonored and some really amazing things came to mind. Now that I have read and seen a ton about the game however things have changed. I have a more directed view of what is to come in the next two months. I have more solid expectations and fears on what Dishonored will be. So let me contribute to this thread:

I want Dishonored to tell a great story with twists and great characters and how they develop. The plot is already good and most probably well paced and structured. I want to see the characters, I want to have moments of introspection when I play a game. Let's hope Dishonored is one of them.

I want the game to handle a lot of tough themes. Losing a loved one and being helpless to stop him/her from being taken away from you. And not just those, the plague, the corruption, the dystopian world. Those are things that can give birth to a great story with great meaning.

I want balance, challenge and a solid gameplay. The game probably has those already but there is always room for failure and let's hope it doesn't fail.

The endings. Now this one is kinda pointless because I never judge something by its end but rather by the journey and experience it gave me. I really really want them to make endings that show what all this, all your struggles amounted to. What your anger or compassion drove you to do.

I want the game to have a great impact. This would basically amount everything I've said but I actually did have a dream that a week after its release, Dishonored was considered the biggest title in gaming history. Imagine if that is the case. Imagine the people like me who think Deus Ex is the best game ever start saying Dishonored is the best game ever made. That would be beyond amazing. That is probably not going to happen but I can still dream, they are still free after all.

So guys what do you think? What would make the game great?

lol at the pizza tag. hmmm...I have to think on this. considering I had great expectations of all my games only to have them greatly differ from them. I still found immense enjoyment out of all of them. I am a positive gamer and just enjoy the games. Although a compelling story sometimes will anchor me into the fandom for a while.

Pizza tag will take over the world in a few years. I recently discovered that I play games for their story mostly. Well games like "Super Meat Boy" and "Binding of Isaac" are for the gameplay only of course. But mostly I focus on the story and characters being a wannabe writer and all.

One aspect that I hope doesn't get neglected to make the gameplay better or something is the story and characters. I doubt it will be neglected, but I will be upset if it is. The story (stories) and characters are what made Bastion and the Mass Effect series so great for me.

I don't know why, but I feel that I should point out here that I have just started playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and I really like the stealth and gameplay choices in it. I probably sound crazy saying this, because it definitely will, but I hope that Dishonored makes me feel the same way with choices in how to approach a mission.

To strife: I got the Deus Ex collection right before the Steam Summer Sale. I tried out the first Deus Ex a little while ago, and played the Liberty Island and Battery Park level. I couldn't play any more. Don't kill be, but I just couldn't. This is probably my spoiled current-gen gaming side talking, but it felt extremely boring and frustrating, the graphics are horrible, and I can't get into the story at all. I understand that it is 10+ years old, and I'm sure it was revolutionary at the time, but I really didn't like it. Since everyone says Invisible War was very bad, I just skipped to DX:HR (after playing about half of Psychonauts). I understand that Deus Ex has a huge following and is considered one of the best games of all time, but I did not enjoy it. I have so much evidence that Dishonored will be great, but after my disappointment with Dark Messiah, and now my overwhelming disappointment with Deus Ex, I can't help but be a little wary.

you nailed it strifecross

Yeah it's gonna be pretty much like HR. And I will kill you...later. For now, we wait. I've heard what you said about HR and the original before and the reason why that is because Deus Ex is much more subtle in it's approach to level design. HR is way to confined and a lot of people didn't like that but it's still a good game nonetheless and I am glad you like it. You're most probably going to like Dishonored as well.

You've touched on so many of the things that I'm hoping for really. Grounding it in things specific to Dishonored, I hope the Chaos system is a step in the direction to remodel how morality is handled in games, and that happens if it's successful at having both overt and covert consequences that don't have a clear model attached to it like the red/blue conversation tree. There's already indications of how to be more good than bad, but the benefits/detriments to decisions sound like they're being handled in a subtler fashion. I hope it'll be as highly replayable as I believe it will. This won't just depend on the mechanics, but the ability to run through all of the story being told without losing core impact. What I mean by that is when the surprises have passed and you've supposedly plumbed every variation of the ending you still find pleasure in revisiting all the beats. Because of the mission tab, it's possible to replay your favorite moments whenever you wish, and that's a big plus in its favor. I hope a large variety of playstyles really will be viable---a no power, no increased mobility, non-lethal, all stealth and no trace and anything in-between. They've described bizarre playthrough styles already that seem to work out except for the only going through doors/windows that are open playthrough---the non-interaction playthrough.

Honestly your own stated aspirations and hopes are so concise and broad that I'm having difficulty adding to your list. I think I could provide a counterlist of where it sounds like your (I'll say ours in parentheticals to cut down on presumptions) list is being met, but it'll probably be better to leave the values as abstractions so there will be more added. I'll think harder about this in the meantime. I'm sure four or five people have already posted by now heh.

Edit: I want to be a writer too, but was too lazy to paragraph for this post. Not a good start.

Lack of training and laziness are two very different things and I do hope you don't get the former. I did intentionally make them broad and more abstract because talking about each individual element will take too much time and I really don't know how to make it great. I am not really all that creative so I can't bother to go all that in-depth. And I really want to hear people's responses on this one.