Licensed Games: What Matters Most?

I think this sort of segmented critique is a big part of what's problematic in game reviews and design. To me, something isn't good if it is just fun to play, it just sounds good, it just looks good, or it just tells an interesting story. These are all components of what makes a complete product. Gameplay, audio, art, and narrative come together to create a single piece. Why should we judge them separately other than to say what part the designer may have failed on? All of them are important, equally.

Assuming the gameplay is fun and it doesn't make my eyes bleed to look at, the narrative is most important to me. I can't divorce characters from plot though, so I can't make that distinction.

On a related note, it really bums me out the Saw games ended up the way they did. They could have done something great with that world and those characters. Oh well, at least they have some of the worst combat I've ever experienced in a game.

@hatking: I respect this view but my question is predicated on the assumption that people have a bias, or favorite I guess, which they really want to see done well versus other things which may matter less to them.

If you truly don't have a favorite than more power to you, but in my case, it's bad character writing and development which rolls my eyes and takes me out of the licensed games I've played lately.

I do think it's fair for people to have certain aspects of a game which they value over others, though

Liecensed games tend to be bad in all of these aspects, so I couldn't really pick one. Althought I am talking about the kind of heavily product focused movie tie-in games. Games based on a broader franchise, like the Witcher series or the Star Wars Knights of The Old Republic games are great in their own right.

It depends on the property it's based on and what the goals of the specific game are. Some properties have more iconic sound and visuals while others are all about the characters.

@giantstalker: Fair enough. I guess I'll say that I feel like narrative is often neglected in effort of a game being more fun, and gameplay often doesn't reflect logical motivations of characters. It's something between the two of those that I think needs the most work in games (generally speaking). I want to see fun gameplay that makes sense in a narrative and a narrative that reflects what characters are doing in a game. We've been getting closer to this, but it's still rare to see games in genres outside of action work cohesively. I refuse to accept killing is the only way to make a game fun, and games like BioShock Infinite could have benefited greatly from some ingenuity in that direction. A way to make exploration and puzzles as engaging as the shooting (preferably better than, in the case of Infinite) would go a long, long way. We're a smarter audience than we're often given credit for, and I want to see more games reflect that.