Video games have always stayed popular in the field of entertainment as they offer a diverse range of game play mechanics. These games are defined by the way a player interacts with the game rather than their story or setting. If you examine carefully, most of the video games differ from each other either by their playing rules or by their player’s interaction.
Considering this fact, there are various genres and sub-genres in video games where each of them has specific functionality or characteristic that differs from others. In this article, we have overviewed the different types of video games and explained their game play mechanics along with their classifications, which will help you to determine them correctly.
- Action Games
Action games consist of physical challenges that the player must overcome by co-ordinating efficiently between hand and eye. These games are focused on the player who controls most of the action occurring around him in the game. Action games are most popular among other types of video games, as they are easy to play. There are various sub-types of action games such as Platform games, Shooter games, Stealth games, Survival games, Rhythm games, Beat’em up games, Fighting games, and Battle Royal games.
- Action-Adventure Games
Action-adventure games are a combination of two game mechanics where the players have to deal with long-term obstacles or quests by using items that are collected at earlier stages. These obstacles occur throughout the game with varying difficulty levels where the players have to overcome them and reach the destination. The basic aims of action-adventure games are puzzle-solving, exploration for item collection, and combat.
There are two sub-types of action-adventure games, namely, survival horror and Metroidvania. The survival horror games attempt to scare the players throughout the games, and Metroidvania requires them to explore the locations by providing maps of interconnected regions.
- Adventure Games
Adventure games consist of interactive stories where the player takes the role of a protagonist and progresses the games by exploring and puzzle-solving. The players get clues at specific stages, which help them to find solutions to the puzzles. These types of games aren’t defined by the story or content, but through the manner of game play occurring without reflex challenges or action.
Apart from occasional mini-games, adventure games don’t involve traditional video elements as much as other games. Hence, these types of games aren’t popular among mainstream gamers but popular among those who don’t normally play video games. That’s because they don’t put much pressure on the players in the form of action or time-based challenges. The sub-types of adventure games you will come across are text adventures, graphic adventures, visual novels, interactive movies, and real-time 3D adventures.
- Role-Playing Games
The role-playing games feature mostly medieval or fantasy settings and are known to be the second-most popular games types. The games in this category are drawn from the game play mechanics of traditional tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons. In the role-playing games, the characters are cast with a weak character that progresses with strength and experience by overcoming the difficult challenges throughout the game. The obstacles or challenges consist of defeating the monsters and gaining experience points that represent the character’s progress over time.
Most of the role-playing games contain an open world that is populated with all the monsters. This open world allows the players to access other important game locations, such as dungeons, towns, and castles. The gaming elements used in role-playing games such as character development by gaining experience points are widely adapted to other types of gaming genres, such as action-adventure games.
Many gamers categorize role-playing games with cultural differences such as WRPGs (Western-influenced) or JRPGs (Japanese-influenced). As most of the role-playing games have different endings, the gamers are given choices that influence the final outcome of the game.
- Simulation Games
The simulation games are ones that allow you to experience real or fictional reality through their designs. They closely simulate real-world activities for various purposes, such as prediction, training, or analysis. The players in these types of games are allowed to control the character and environment without any limits or rules.
The simulation games are also used for providing professional training to pilots and drivers. The best part about simulation games is that the player or handler gets to experience the real-world activity through virtual reality. Some of the examples of simulation games include war games, role-play simulation, and business games.
- Strategy Games
As the name implies, strategy games require the players to use carefully developed strategies to overcome the challenges and advance the levels. Nowadays, the strategy games have transitioned from turn-based to real-time systems as per the player’s feedback. These games also require the players to think skilfully and plan well in advance to achieve success. You can find such strategic games at the online casino Malaysia.
- Sports Games
Sports games are designed to simulate different types of sports, like basketball, baseball, cricket, golf, football, and soccer. Some of them even include diverse categories such as skiing, darts, and pool. The players can play their choice of sports through these games. They can choose their favourite teams and challenge the opposing team, which could either be players from across the globe or computer-controlled opponents.
- Puzzle Games
Puzzle games are popular among all age groups as they are designed logically and require you to play on a single screen. The various types of puzzles focus on problem-solving skills that include logic, sequence solving, spatial recognition, pattern recognition, and word completion. There are different stages suitable for beginners and experienced players, which makes it easy to choose them, among other games.
Conclusion:
The constant evolution in gaming techniques has made it possible for the gamers to experience different genres at the comfort of their fingertips. These different types of video games also offer various benefits to players as they develop decision-making and strategic thinking skills in the form of entertainment.
