One of the unique things about games is that they have the ability to keep you engaged like nothing else. They draw you in and get you immersed in the virtual world you are exploring and have you playing for hours and hours without you even thinking about the time of day. But, what is it about a game that draws so much of our attention and gets us so invested into playing, even if we’ve beaten the game 10 times over or poured hundreds of hours into one title?
Maybe it’s the story, the gameplay, the soundtrack, the fictional world, the relatable characters, or even a well balanced combination of all these things and more. It’s hard to say because each game resonates differently with each person playing them. But, if one thing’s for certain, all great games have one thing in common and that’s depth.
Defining Depth
Depth in games is an interesting concept. Just like the term “toxic gamers”, Depth is a word that has been used a lot in the gamer culture and doesn’t have an exact definition. But, I believe depth is achieved in videogames when the game takes seemingly simple mechanics and allow players to find new, countless, and most importantly, meaningful ways to implement them in certain situations to give a unique and replayable experience.
I know that’s a bit of a lengthy definition, but let me break it down for you. Games with a great amount of depth are those who take simple mechanics that are easy to learn but hard to master. Games that seem simple at first glance, but give you power push the boundaries and constraints to see how deep the rabbit hole really goes.
Take chess, for example. The moves of each piece in the game is relatively simple to learn. Bishops can move diagonally, rooks can move horizontally and vertically, and the queen can do it all. Pretty simple right? But, what happens when you’re faced with a person or a computer who also knows the moves and is trying to work at your weak points?
You have to develop a strategy, adapt to sudden changes in the game, and anticipate your opponent's move and jump at the opportunity to take their pieces or sacrifice your own to get the upper hand. Depth is now in play and it makes chess one of the most difficult boardgames to master. Unlike checkers, or tic tac toe, chess doesn’t have a finite number of ways to win. It’s a battle against wits and strategy and everyone is finding new ways to play.
Depth Provides Engagement and Challenge
One of the most recent games I’ve played that has an immense amount of depth, is Monster Hunter World. Before I played this game, I never realized how deep and expansive monster hunting can go! In the game you can use 14 different weapons that all play differently to hunt monsters that all have unique attack and AI patterns.
One of the coolest aspects of this game is that the game rewards you for making meaningful choices in how to best approach each of these unique monsters out in the wild. From your weapon builds, to the crafting and strategic use of items and traps, to identifying and exploiting monster weak points, to using the environment to your advantage, and even to calling upon other online players to help you out in a pinch. You get the different rewards depending on how you tackle each monster.
A lot of these monster encounters, aren’t quick either. Some hunts take about 20 minutes to complete, 30 if you’re fighting several monsters, and 40 is you’re fighting a dragon. You would think this would turn people off, because most people aren’t going to want to spend 20 minutes fighting a monster, nevermind the 10-20 minutes it takes to prep yourself before you go out hunting and of course you have to track the monster too, so that’s a few extra minutes as well. Most people would want to put the game down and pick up something more immediate and the the point.
However, this game has so much depth in the character building, monster hunting, and overarching storyline, it’s no wonder me and other fans pour hours upon hours into this game. There’s so much that relies on the player to make the game as fun as it can possibly be.
You have to think on how to use the materials, weapons, and abilities available to you to find the best way to kill each monster and reap the most rewards and that’s requires you to carefully consider every option available to you. You could just go straight in all gung ho and probably still kill that dinosaur, but I find it’s much more rewarding and invigorating to plan it all out.
It’s not too simple to where it gets too easy or boring, but it’s not too complex that the player has to memorize a million things to pull everything off perfectly. Depth in games hits that sweet spot where the game isn’t too simple or too complex, but still gives the player many opportunities for them to explore the constraints of the game which leads them to have a personalized and, of course, a fun experience.
The Deeper a Game, the More Immersive it Becomes
Depth can play an integral role in providing immersion into the world as well. One of the games that I know a lot of us enjoy are the Telltale series because of it’s intricate and strong storytelling mechanics. Many of us would consider any Telltale game “deep”, but why? Well it’s the power of choice the player has in telling their own story, of course.
If you look at a Telltale game like the Walking Dead, for example, you’ll realize that the gameplay is not very intricate at all. Your pressing buttons on a controller to make your character talk or perform an action. That’s it. No crazy mario jumping, no 360 no scoping in Call Duty, no intricate character creation, you’re just pressing a button. But, this simple action of pressing a button opens up so many doors for you as the player.
You decide what you say or do in certain situations to shape your own story, but your actions have consequences. You can either save a person or kill them. You can choose to be a leader or a follower. You can decide what’s right and what’s wrong. The game gives you the power to make you storytelling choices which can lead you down any of the many intricate and branching roads that the developers created to give you all the control.
This game has an incredible amount of depth because of the freedom of choice player’s have in shaping their own stories and their own experiences in the game. When you feel like you have such a pull on the experience, the character, or the story, it’s hard not to get immersed!
Misconceptions on Depth
Some people have the misconception that depth = freedom. If the game offers you a ton of different choices, such as powers, races, gear, skills, abilities, access points, etc then the game has depth. However, that’s not necessarily true. If you’re given a bunch of weapons in Call of Duty, for example, that more or less play the same then you just have a wide variety of the same thing. You don’t really have to think about which weapon you want to use, you just go in.
Another misconception of depth in games is that the more complex a game is the deeper it is, but that’s also not true. A game like Risk or Mortal Kombat may require you to memorize a lot of complicated movesets or strategies to pull of certain actions, but if those actions only go one way than the game is just complex not deep. Now a game can be both complex and deep, but a game’s complexity doesn’t automatically contribute to its depth.
In fact, I find that the games with the most depth are those that presents the player with what might seem like simple choices/abilities at face value, but it gives the player the option to expand on the constraints given to them to do something spectacular.
There’s a difference between having a lot of straight forward choices to having a few choices with boundless potential. When a player is able to make a ton of meaningful choices with a limited amount of options that is where depth really comes into play in videogames.
Take Super Mario Odyssey, for example. This game is amazing on so many levels, but one of the coolest parts about this game is the jumping and the ability to take over different enemies and objects. Jumping has always been a deep mechanic in Mario, especially in 3D games like Mario 64 because you are able to pull off some incredible moves all by just jumping around. It’s a simple mechanic that offers a lot of choice.
If you know how to chain jumps and use the environment to your advantage, the different possibilities of moving around a map open up. You’re no longer just jumping over blocks, but your bouncing off of enemies, jumping across walls, finding openings in the environment to where you are essentially flying across the level in seconds!
If that wasn’t enough, Odyssey allows you to control enemies with the toss of your hat which all have different abilities and jumping patterns. The possibilities of exploration and traversal just explode in this game. And it all revolves around the idea of simple jumping and pushing players to go to the extreme!
I could go all day on this topic because there’s so many great games out there with so much depth in them, but I think you guys gets the point by now. I would challenge you, though, to look back on some of your favorite games and ask yourself “Why do I like this game so much? Why do I constantly come back to this one game when there are thousands of other games to choose from?”
Find out where your game’s depth originates from. Because when you do, you’ll find all these new doors open to you that you’ve never realized before. That’s where your gaming experience truly begins!
What’s your favorite game that has depth in it? Comment below and I’ll see you next week!
Dean Willms
~Gamer. Designer. Friend
