Different aspects of a game appeal to different people. Some people enjoy multiplayer party games with luck-based mechanics like Mario Kart and Mario Party. Others prefer competitive FPS games with tight mechanics which reward the most skilled players. I like more challenging single player experiences.
I do hope to make my own game someday but at the time of posting I'm not a game developer. To me personally these are what make a game good:
- Core gameplay, graphics and audio are the most important aspects. Graphics includes technical performance. Everything mentioned below are extras which will improve an already good game but won't make a bad game good.
- Target an audience not to small or too large. If the target audience is too small not many people will enjoy the game, leaving most players seeing middling reviews and skipping the game entirely. If the target audience is too large then the game will be trying to please everybody and end up pleasing nobody.
Regarding Monster Hunter Wilds [bolding by me] IGN's Tom Marks described the game as "light on any real challenge", and stated that he'd only "fainted two times total across dozens of hours", comparing the experience to far more challenging encounters in the base game of Monster Hunter World. Marks, however, did note that
"the easier turning will probably get more people through the door." Harte referred to the game's campaign as "easy, but not boring." Eurogamer's Matt Wales also noted that, whilst noting he was a series veteran, he had "still haven't failed a quest forty hours in", pondering if the games
"aggressive streamlining" was "robbing the series of some of its distinctive personality."
Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monster_Hunter_Wilds#Reception
- Have multiple difficulty options and reward players for playing on higher difficulties. Difficulty options increase the target audience without making it too broad. You should get a reward like a medal, stars next to your save file or an alternate title screen for completing the game on a higher difficulty. One common complaint Fire Emblem fans have about the newer games is the game fails to reward players who refuse to use the turn rewind mechanic.
- Have secrets. Secrets make the game more interesting to explore and talk about. Pokemon exploded in popularity because of the secret 151st Pokemon.
- Make a good first impression. Players will decide whether they like the game or not based on the first half hour of gameplay. You don't want to bore the player with excess storytelling or tutorials.
- Refine and revise everything. The first draft of everything is shit and the more time you spend testing and fine tuning everything the more fun the game will become. The best strategy in Valkyria Chronicles is to buff Alica to the point where she makes a wild charge to the finish line.
- Remove less enjoyable content. There are countless games to choose from and nobody has the time to play every good game in their lifetime. A game should be laser focused on delivering the most enjoyable content and cut sections which are less fun like Wind Waker's Triforce quest. A game should not suffer from open-world bloat and should only be an open world game if it will actually benefit from having an open world.
- Microtransactions should add meaningful content to an already complete game. Nobody wants to directly spend money on extra gear or costumes that should have already been in the base game. Selling the player an enjoyable quest with some side story content which rewards the player said gear or costumes after they finish it is ok. Nintendo fucked this up most egregiously by locking a QOL feature in Skyward Sword HD behind a fucking amiibo.
- Respect the player's time. Tying in with my previous point, don't waste the player's time on pointless repetitive tasks and unskipable cutscenes.
- Care and teamwork. A team that cares about the game and works together will produce a better quality game.
I'm not going to say AAA games bad indie games good. While we have seen many AAA flops and indie successes in more recent years, and it is true they often flop because corporate people who only care about money force their will on the developers. Warcraft III and World of Warcraft were revolutionary. Warcraft III Reforged flopped and World of Warcraft is a forgotten game not many people play anymore. Different people run Blizzard these days. On the other hand, AAA games will always have the greatest potential because they have larger budgets. We do have take into consideration games like Ori and the Blind Forest, Elden Ring and Metroid Dread. Small indie developers just don't have the budget for games like these.
