Genre

A genre that blends real-time action combat (where the player directly controls attacks, dodges, and abilities in real time) with RPG progression systems such as character levelling, skill trees, loot-driven equipment upgrades, and stat allocation. The player's mechanical skill matters alongside their character build, distinguishing ARPGs from traditional turn-based RPGs where strategy matters more than reflex. The genre divides broadly into two visual styles: the isometric hack-and-slash ARPG (Diablo, Path of Exile, Torchlight, Last Epoch), which emphasises loot density and build optimization; and the third-person narrative ARPG (The Witcher 3, Elden Ring, Baldur's Gate 3's combat mode), which emphasises world-building and story alongside combat depth. Diablo (1996) and its sequels established the loot loop that became the isometric ARPG standard, while FromSoftware's games created the soulslike ARPG branch. The genre dominates modern mainstream gaming: in any year, the biggest titles are almost always ARPGs or genres directly adjacent to them. A common criticism of ARPGs is 'gear treadmill' design: content exists primarily to deliver better numbers rather than meaningfully different gameplay.

A multiplayer game genre in which a large number of players, typically 60 to 150, are dropped onto a large map with no equipment, scavenge for weapons and armour, and fight to be the last player or squad standing. A defining mechanical feature is the shrinking play zone: an ever-tightening safe area (often represented as a circle or storm) forces players who would otherwise hide to continuously move toward each other, guaranteeing escalating confrontation as the match progresses. The genre takes its name from the 2000 Japanese film Battle Royale (and indirectly the 1999 novel by Koushun Takami). PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG, 2017) established the modern template and sold 75 million copies; Fortnite (Epic Games, 2017) made the genre a global cultural phenomenon by adding building mechanics and free-to-play. Today's major battle royales include Apex Legends (hero-based abilities), Warzone (military realism), and the mobile-dominant BGMI and Free Fire. The genre demands a combination of looting efficiency, combat aim, and positioning strategy; players who understand the final safe zones and manage their rotations consistently outperform purely aim-focused players. Squad-based modes (duos, trios, quads) have become dominant because they reduce the pressure of solo play.

First-Person Shooter, a genre of action game where the player experiences gameplay from the protagonist's first-person perspective, seeing through the character's eyes, and where shooting mechanics are the primary mode of interaction. The genre began with Wolfenstein 3D (1992) and was codified by Doom (1993) and Quake (1996), both id Software titles that established the template for 3D movement, weapons, and level design. The genre divides into several distinct sub-categories: arena shooters (Quake, Unreal Tournament) emphasise mechanical skill and fast movement; military realistic shooters (Call of Duty, Battlefield) prioritise tactical positioning and gunplay feel; hero shooters (Valorant, Overwatch 2) add distinctive character abilities to the formula; and immersive sims (Bioshock, Dishonored) blend FPS combat with RPG systems and environmental storytelling. The FPS genre is the most popular in competitive gaming and esports: Counter-Strike 2, Valorant, and Overwatch 2 command massive tournament ecosystems and professional leagues. Key skills in FPS games include aim precision, crosshair placement, map awareness, and game sense (understanding where enemies are likely to be before you see them). Modern FPS titles extensively use aim-assist on controllers to help console players compete with mouse-and-keyboard accuracy.

An action game subgenre focused on fast-paced, stylish combat against large groups of enemies, emphasising satisfying combos, aerial juggles, and increasingly complex attack strings that reward mastery. Unlike soulslikes where methodical patience is rewarded, hack-and-slash games reward aggression and style; standing still is punished, and the player is incentivised to maintain continuous offensive pressure across waves of enemies. The genre traces its lineage to arcade brawlers like Final Fight (1989) and Golden Axe, but crystallised as a distinct form with Devil May Cry (2001), which introduced the stylistic ranking system (SSS to D) that scores how creatively varied the player's attacks are. Devil May Cry 5, Bayonetta 1 & 2, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and Stellar Blade are considered the genre's modern benchmarks. Dynasty Warriors represents a separate 'musou' branch of hack-and-slash where the appeal is clearing hundreds of enemies simultaneously for power fantasy fulfilment. God of War blends hack-and-slash combat with narrative depth and soulslike weight, creating a hybrid that expanded the genre's audience. A common criticism is that hack-and-slash games have high skill ceilings but thin narrative. They are pure systems games designed to be practiced and mastered rather than experienced once.

Japanese Role-Playing Game, a subgenre of RPGs developed primarily in Japan, typically characterised by menu-driven or semi-real-time combat, anime-influenced art direction, linear or semi-linear story progression, party-based gameplay with multiple controllable characters, and elaborate musical scores. JRPGs became a global phenomenon through console releases on the NES and Super Famicom: the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series defined the template from the late 1980s onward, with Final Fantasy VII (1997) becoming the breakthrough title in Western markets. Key characteristics include heavy narrative investment (JRPGs routinely run 40-100 hours) and character development arcs that blend personal and world-saving storylines. Sub-genres within JRPGs include: Persona-style social sim RPGs, tactical JRPGs (Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy Tactics), action JRPGs (Tales of, Xenoblade Chronicles), and the emerging 'HD-2D' style (Octopath Traveler). Modern defining examples are Persona 5 Royal, Final Fantasy XVI, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. The genre's primary criticism is pacing: mandatory random encounters, cutscene density, and filler dungeons can pad run-times. Remasters and 'remaster-adjacent' releases have given classic JRPGs new life on current hardware.

A genre of 2D action-adventure games built around interconnected maps where progression is gated by abilities your character has not yet acquired. You explore freely until you hit a barrier (a high ledge, a locked door, a water section) that requires a specific power-up or ability to pass. Once gained, that ability unlocks not just the new area but also rewards hidden earlier in the game, encouraging backtracking across a richly layered world. The name is a portmanteau of Metroid (Nintendo, 1986) and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Konami, 1997), the two series that codified the formula. The genre's structure creates a satisfying sense of mounting mastery: the same world that was intimidating at the start feels familiar and navigable once you're fully powered up. Modern genre-defining examples include Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, Blasphemous, Axiom Verge, and Dread Templar. Many Metroidvanias are indie titles because the interconnected map design suits smaller development teams. A common misconception is that any 2D game with exploration qualifies. True Metroidvanias require hard ability gating and intentional backtracking design, not just open levels.

Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, a genre in which thousands of players simultaneously inhabit a shared persistent online world, developing characters through quests and combat, forming social guilds, and engaging in both cooperative (PvE) and competitive (PvP) content. The persistent world continues to exist and change whether any given player is logged in or not. The genre traces its origins to text-based MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) in the late 1970s, with EverQuest (1999) establishing the modern 3D template and World of Warcraft (2004) achieving mainstream adoption with 12 million subscribers at its peak. WoW's design (quest-driven levelling, instanced dungeons, public raid bosses, auction houses, and gear-score progression) became the template almost every subsequent MMORPG followed. Final Fantasy XIV, rebuilt after a disastrous 2010 launch into one of the genre's most critically acclaimed examples, and Guild Wars 2, which removed monthly subscriptions, represent the genre's modern creative successes. MMORPGs are distinguished by their social depth: raiding guilds, player economies, and server communities create relationships that persist for years. The genre's primary challenge is content saturation: maintaining a 'live world' requires enormous ongoing development resources, and most players exhaust available content faster than studios can produce it.

A game design philosophy where players can explore a large, persistent environment with minimal scripted funnelling between areas, visiting locations, pursuing objectives, and interacting with systems in any order they choose. Open-world games typically feature a main questline that can be deferred in favour of side quests, dynamic events, collectibles, crafting, exploration challenges, and emergent player-created scenarios. Grand Theft Auto III (2001) demonstrated that open-world design could work at commercial scale, sparking an industry-wide shift; Bethesda's Elder Scrolls and Fallout series refined the formula for RPG audiences. The genre reached a design peak with The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017), which redesigned all open-world conventions around player physics-based experimentation. Red Dead Redemption 2, Elden Ring, and Ghost of Tsushima are widely regarded as technical and artistic benchmarks of the form. A recurring tension in open-world design is content density vs. meaningful exploration: open worlds stuffed with icons and collectibles (Ubisoft formula) feel like checklists rather than living environments. The best open worlds reward players who wander off the marked path and discover content through curiosity rather than map icons.

A subgenre of role-playing games defined by three core pillars: procedurally generated levels that create a unique map layout every run, permadeath meaning your character's death ends the run permanently with no save reloading, and turn-based or real-time tactical gameplay that rewards careful decision-making. The genre takes its name from Rogue, a 1980 dungeon-crawling game by Michael Toy and Glenn Wichman developed on UNIX systems. What makes roguelikes so replayable is that no two runs are identical: the dungeon layouts, item placements, enemy types, and random events all change every time you start fresh, ensuring hundreds of hours of distinct play. Pure roguelikes adhere strictly to all original conventions (permadeath, turn-based, grid movement, high complexity); examples include NetHack, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, and Caves of Qud. The more casual 'roguelite' branch borrows the aesthetic while softening the rules with persistent unlocks. A common misconception is that Hades is a roguelike. Technically, it is a roguelite because retained currency and hub upgrades survive each death. The best roguelikes reward mastery: a skilled player learns item synergies and threat hierarchies well enough to achieve consistent victories despite the procedural randomness.

Hades is one of the best roguelites ever made. It adds meta-progression on top of the roguelike formula, making each death feel like progress.

A genre that borrows the core pillars of roguelikes (procedurally generated levels and permadeath) but layers in persistent meta-progression that carries over between runs, softening the harshness of starting from scratch. When you die in a roguelite, you retain currency, unlocks, or passive upgrades that make future attempts slightly more powerful or give you more starting options. This persistent layer fundamentally changes the player psychology: every failed run contributes something, turning frustration into motivation. Hades, Dead Cells, Risk of Rain 2, Slay the Spire, and Vampire Survivors are defining roguelites. The term emerged in the early 2010s as game designers adapted the roguelike formula for wider audiences who found pure permadeath discouraging. The distinction matters because roguelites can be 'beaten' by accumulating enough meta-progress, while pure roguelikes demand raw skill from run one. Roguelites often also use real-time action combat rather than the turn-based movement found in traditional roguelikes, making them feel faster and more action-oriented. The genre is now one of the most popular in indie gaming, with new roguelites releasing every month across all platforms.

A game genre that prioritises player freedom and emergent creativity over predefined objectives, providing tools, materials, and a malleable world for players to interact with according to their own goals. In a sandbox game, the designer's role is to build interesting systems and give players the means to engage with them; what the player actually does with those systems is left entirely open. Minecraft (2011) is the definitive sandbox game. Its block-based world can be shaped into anything from functional computers to faithful recreations of real-world architecture, with no in-game reward for doing so beyond the intrinsic satisfaction of creation and exploration. Other genre staples include Terraria (2D sandbox with Metroidvania-style progression), Valheim (survival-craft sandbox in Norse mythology), and Garry's Mod (physics sandbox built on Source Engine). The term 'sandbox' is also used loosely for open-world games with high player agency (Grand Theft Auto V), though these typically have structured missions and objectives that pure sandbox games lack. Sandbox games generate exceptional long-term engagement because player-created content continuously refreshes the experience; a Minecraft world at 1000 hours is entirely different from the same world at 10 hours.

A subgenre of action RPGs defined by FromSoftware's Dark Souls trilogy and its design philosophy: challenging, methodical melee combat built on stamina management and pattern recognition; death as a teaching tool rather than a punishment (you lose carried currency but respawn at a checkpoint); minimal hand-holding with lore delivered through item descriptions and environmental detail rather than exposition; and interconnected world design that reveals surprising shortcuts as you explore. FromSoftware director Hidetaka Miyazaki established the template with Demon's Souls (2009) and refined it through Dark Souls (2011), Bloodborne (2015), and Elden Ring (2022). The genre's appeal lies in the satisfaction of conquering bosses that seemed impossible after dozens of attempts; every death contains information. Soulslikes beyond FromSoftware include Lies of P, Nioh 2, The Surge 2, and Lords of the Fallen (2023). A key distinction: soulslikes are hard but fair. Deaths result from the player failing to read patterns, not from random unfairness. Elden Ring broadened the template by adding open-world exploration, allowing players to tackle the game's challenges in flexible order and making it the most accessible entry point for newcomers to the genre.