Summary
A great strength of just about any video game is offering variety. Being able to play through a diverse range of gameplay mechanics, levels, or genres keeps things fresh and interesting for players. In most cases, repetition is a huge weakness. After all, no one wants to play the entirety of a game that goes stale after the first few hours.
However, in certain unique cases, repetition lies at the core of a game’s overall charm. Every so often, that sense of routine and familiarity is all part of the process and in the end, works in favor of a game’s experience instead of against it. Here are some games that do the seemingly impossible and turn boring repetition into a genuinely engaging experience withtons of replay value.
The hard life of a farmer inStardew Valleymay sound like a bore at first since most days are the same “rinse and repeat” formula of planting crops, picking crops, tending to animals, and grabbing some materials from the mines. As the game goes on, most players begin toease into a familiar routine, building a strict cycle of tasks that fall into place after getting used to each changing season.
Despite how boring this sounds,Stardew Valleystill manages to make the mundane-sounding life of a farmer entertaining!Stardew Valleydoes a fantastic job of making routine feel genuinely fulfilling and offering varying tasks and events that can make a simple day feel just a little livelier, whether it be crafting a new tree tapper, upgrading a barn, or attending a festive luau.
As bizarre as it sounds, the tiring (yet stressful) life of an Arstotzkan border checkpoint inspector is easy to get lost in.Papers, Pleasesounds rather drab on paper (no pun intended), but after an in-game day or two, players are guaranteed to get hooked.
Day in and day out, thePapers, Pleaseprotagonist is confined to their work booth, bound to the same routine: check papers, stamp, and call the next citizen. The way the game manages to keep this repetitive procedure fresh is by slowly introducing new licenses, permits, rules, and regulations to the player’s ever-growing checklist. Just when the player feels as if they’ve gotten the hang of things by the end of their shift, higher-ups change the rules, creating awhole new challenge for the day.
5Taiko No Tatsujin
Almost any music/rhythm-based game can boil down to hitting the same few buttons/directions over and over again. However, it doesn’t stop them from being a great time (especially with friends).Taiko No Tatsujinis a drum-based rhythm game that only really utilizes two to four buttons. In theory, pressing four buttons in varying order at varying times doesn’t seem much like a game and instead sounds like tedious work.
However,Taiko No Tatsujin(along with many other rhythm games) is far from tedious! The simple premise of making the player feel the rhythm, get into the groove, and get every button press on beat makes a world of a difference. Being able to listen tofavorite anime openings, J-Pop, and J-Rock tunes already makes for a great game but being able to play along with each passing note putsTaiko No Tatsujinin a league of its own.
Spelunkyis a platforming roguelike game that challenges players to always assess their surroundings before taking a step forward as one wrong move can cost one’s life. The underground world ofSpelunkyisn’t a forgiving one and likelyforces newbie playersto retry their first few playthroughs before reaching the end of the game.
The game doesn’t allow for mistakes, at least not too many in one single run.Spelunkyis about learning from mistakes, slowly improving, and planning from rigorous trial and error. In other words, repetition is at the game’s core. However, it’s not all frustration and “Game Overs.“Spelunkymakes improvement feel satisfying and fulfilling.
Imagine building a tower but as the tower grows a layer diminishes every time it is filled. That is the crux of allTetrisgames.Tetrisat its core is a puzzle game, giving players a set of unique puzzle pieces in the shape of blocks and allowing them to figure out the best/most strategic way to lay each block down to get as many points as possible.
The game in its essence is very repetitive; lay blocks down, build, and clear some layers to start all over again. Of course, the speed of the blocks falling increases over time, giving players a slowly increasing difficulty so the game doesn’t become too easy, but on paper it simply sounds like a tiring, never-ending task.
Any goodroguelike/roguelite dungeon crawleris built on the foundation of repetition, andHadesis no exception. Taking poor Zagreus all the way up to the surface from the Underworld is quite the task, and it’s not uncommon for players to fail the first few times around. Although the levels and enemies will vary, the core of the game doesn’t really change in substantial ways.
However, this doesn’t stop the grind from being incredibly entertaining!Hades' charm is in its difficulty, routine, and finding what works best for each player, challenging gamers to push themselves, and up the heat/difficulty to start the fight all over again.
There is a good amount of variation in theCall Of DutyZombies mode, especially since a ton of different versions of the popular mode have been created after the mode’s initial debut back in 2008 inCall Of Duty: World At War.
However, even with all the different versions of the Zombies mode, the core idea of the game mode stays the same: survive as long as possible. With each passing wave of zombies, the difficulty is upped a tiny bit, making each wave more deadly and resource-draining than the last. Eventually, players will succumb to the hordes and will be forced to say goodbye to all their hard-earned progress and start from the beginning. While that may sound discouraging, many players find themselves hyped and eager to get back in thegame alongside their friendsand fight the good fight all over again.
