Choosing a video game isn't easy. There is no official nomenclature that covers all video game genres. So it's easy to get lost if you don't have the vocabulary, especially since many games belong to multiple categories at once. Here's a little help to help you find your bearings.
With the diversification of gaming platforms as well as the variety of offerings, gaming has become a daily activity and now reaches a very diverse range of people.
A video game's belonging to a particular genre is primarily based on its gameplay: its rules, its controls, the universe in which it takes place, the player’s experience, etc…
In the second part of this article, we detailed action games, adventure games, action-adventure games and role-playing games as well as all their subgenres.
Now, this time let's go a little more in depth with :
This group includes maze games, hidden-object games, puzzle games… In short, games that require logic and thinking. It sometimes involves adaptation of traditional games, here in their digital form, such as Asmodée games but most are original games. Puzzles, mazes and brainteasers are heavily represented and encourage the player to think to free a passage, open a door or solve a problem.
Some are very funny like [Bridge Constructor] or [Human Fall Flat], others are more akin to platform games like [Koloro].
As with all other types of games, puzzle elements can also be found in other games, such as some adventure games (remember the arduous puzzles Lara Croft faced!)
There are also [Point-and-Click] games like [Monkey Island], which will often put you face to face with puzzles to solve that are often part of adventure games!
Some puzzle games are artistic (Escher-like such as The Bridge), others are pure logic puzzles rather streamlined like [Lines].
Again there are many subgenres here that have nothing to do with each other, in no particular order:
you’ll also find :
Fans of these games, often male, mainly seek near-real sensations without taking on the inherent risks of these practices (money loss in an economic simulation game or an accident in a motorcycle racing simulation, etc.).
There are also management games aimed at women (yes !!!) like the Fabulous series, others aimed at younger players such as My Farm.
Others are also hilariously chaotic party games like Overcooked.
Very prominent up to the mid-2000s, management games faded from the radar for almost 10 years. But they've made a strong comeback since 2010. With the rise of indie studios, which revived publishers’ interest in management.
Strategy games, grouped into subgenres :
The 4X games which are also management games but pushed to the extreme. Based on four principles: eXploration, eXpansion, eXploitation and eXtermination. This time you, as a gamer, will oversee the economic and technological development of a virtual empire. Playing a full game generally lasts months, as managing an extended empire requires a lot of micromanagement. Civilization or Age of Empires are among the best examples.
These games are primarily played on PC.
And all strategy games, real-time strategy, turn-based strategy. To the extent of their real-world versions, virtual strategy games rest on similar objectives. Expanding territory, destroying enemies or making an army prosper are typically the goals. Strategy games more commonly refer to traditional war games, played on boards and called wargames. They rely on the player's thinking and ability to make the right choices to progress.
Again, developers are increasingly mixing genres (wargame, RTS and 4X) to offer truly complete games with nearly infinite lifespans.