Decline 2019: Which genre has the most integrity left?

[luj1]

I think fighting games are intact - gameplay-wise I mean because they happended to be perfect territory for shady practices like microtransactions, selling popular characters as DLC etc.

Not sure but I think there's plenty of that stuff in the new MK games

 

[Martyr]

I voted for adventure games. not necessarily because of point & click adventures, I can sort of see the decline there.

I had an itch to play Observer. Have you played it? Is it a walking sim or are there actually things to figure out?

sorry, I have not played it yet.
although the discount is pretty high right now (60% on gog summer sale), I'm waiting for an even bigger discount. I somewhat liked Layers of Fear, but it wasn't nearly as scary as I hoped it would be. so mildly pessimistic about this developer and the price for Observer is still to high for my lowered expectations.

 

[DalekFlay]

I keep almost buying Observer because I love cyberpunk, but everything I have read says it's mostly a walking sim with only rare and very easy puzzles, and also that it relies mostly on jump scares which I'm not a fan of.

 

[Wyatt_Derp]

TBS/Grand Strat/4X.

Strategy games are the last genre we're even pretending AREN'T made and marketed to middle aged women or knuckle draggers.

I'd give flight sims a second vote, but they're pretty much KIA.

 

[Vulpes]

How the hell is TBS in the lead?

 

[luj1]

How the hell is TBS in the lead?

Yeah, I'm wondering that too. 4X Space games are aplenty and getting mediocre.

 

[Swigen]

How the hell is TBS in the lead?

Everyone is excited about Phoenix Point.

 

[sser]

How the hell is TBS in the lead?

Because with turn-based the decline is taking its time.

 

[DalekFlay]

How the hell is TBS in the lead?

Because there's a lot of good TBS games coming out? I don't know about 4x at all really, but stuff like the Xcom reboots, Mutant Year Zero, Blackguards, Shadowruns, Banner Saga... these are well reviewed and popular with old and new fans alike, in my experience.

 

[forumvisitor#451]

Sim/Manager - Constrained to a small niche so not really relevant

Simulators - why are they disqualified because of being niche? You could actually say they are only ones getting better all the time because of their nature being tied to the tech which is improving all the time. And they also do not really rely on game design. You can do pretty advanced shit in Wolfpack, Kerbal Space Program or hugely modded ARMA 3 (that you could not do in 2 because they improved engine). Even something like Spintires, while not strictly sim, had lot of things simulated pretty acurately and directly tied to gameplay - can you imagine playing game like that 20 or 30 years ago?

I do not see any decline in sim genre. I guess it depends on what exactly you mean by integrity.

 

[HoboForEternity]

metroidvania is also a good contender. always have something small, or medium sized. castlevania series itself declined after the NDS games, but smaller stuff like shantae, and other stuff and recently hollow knight. the amount of games aren't that much, but it seems like any developer who are willing to make such games is passionate about the genre and usually put out at least decent games

 

[Silentstorm]

Platformers seem to be doing pretty well all things considered, sure they aren't always as big as Super Mario World, but they can have a lot of different themes, settings and styles of their own with no one complaining, and every now and then, one game in that genre gets suprisingly popular.

Shumps are pretty much the same, though there are a lot of recent ones with art styles i dislike(not talking about anime styles, just really damn lousy art design), they are still being made, they are still fast paced and hard, and the general idea of a ship or character going forwards while dodging and blowing up shit has been the same as always.

But since you can't pick that option, i am going to say adventure games, a lot of them are still being made and you have your classic point'n click games next to Myst-like games, they aren't mainstream, but they still exist, though very few seem to actually base themselves on old Sierra games.

 

[rohand]

I'd say that Grand Strategies are flourishing somewhat because there's no way to make them less complex without changing the genre - I believe that'd be TBS?

 

[Üstad]

2019: Which genre has the most integrity left?

Waifu simulators. They have some really dedicated devs.

 

[Nifft Batuff]

No walking simulators?

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[I'm Big Into Anal]

racing games

 

[Ivan]

+1 Metroidvania, what a decade!

 

[Alpan]

I was expecting RTS to be placed far higher. There are too few of them, sure, but what's the problem with their integrity?