Computer Game Genres

Game Genres

 

Genre name	Genre description	Genre example
First Person Shooter	Going around shooting things or people from the perspective someone's eyes, can usually be singleplayer and multiplayer however some are just one or the other.	http://store.steampowered.com/app/70/ A good example of this type of genre is Half-Life as it has a lengthy singleplayer campaign and also has multiplayer as well. It is about a man in a scientific research facility who is in the thick of a disaster that causes aliens to teleport to earth and it is up to you to kill them all with guns and snarks and other weird weapons.
Third Person Shooter	This is like first person shooter however you are looking at the main character over his shoulder instead which is a whole different experience and can also have multiplayer and singleplayer.	http://store.steampowered.com/app/271590/ Grand Theft Auto V might be the best example here as it has a good long singleplayer campaign and also has open world multiplayer which you can do many different things in. It is a game about 3 guys who want to get money and they have to kill lots of people to do it.
Real Time Strategy	This is usually a top down viewing game in which you have to build things and destroy the enemy team or sometimes it can be turn based and you have to use the right tactics to take out enemies.	https://us.battle.net/shop/en/product/game/starcraft StarCraft 2 is a good example as it is an online strategy game in which you have to build up your army and take out the opponents army, it is a highly competitive game and mostly played in Asian countries.
Role Playing game	This is usually third person viewing but in some sort of magical world where you fight monsters with magic and swords.	http://store.steampowered.com/app/225640/ A fitting example would be Sacred 2 as it is a very lengthy role playing game in which you must complete quests doing various things in a very big area.
Massively Multiplayer Online	This can be first or third person but it is in a giant open world filled with other people playing online from across the world, you can work	http://store.steampowered.com/app/218230/ A good example would be Planetside 2 as it is a first person shooter however it is open world with loads of other people and there are 3 different clans that are trying to take over the land and you all have to fight and kill each other to take over the entire map.
Racing	This can also be played in either third or first person, it revolves around racing cars around different environments either against the AI or against other players online.	http://store.steampowered.com/app/201700/  DiRT Showdown is a racing game and is really fun, it has many different cars and can be played both singleplayer and online against lots of different players in lots of different races.
Sports	Sports games are played in the third person and can involve any type of sport from wrestling to darts to all the different sports in the Olympic games, it's just like the real thing but it takes hardly any effort unlike the real thing.	http://www.amazon.co.uk/London-2012-Official-Video-Olympic/dp/B0073PP6DG London 2012 Olympic Games was turned into a videogame and you can play all of the different sports in the actual Olympics, only problem is that the gameplay is very bad and it's difficult to figure out how the controls work.
Simulation	Simulation games are made to simulate things that can be done in real life such as flying an airplane or driving a train, they can be very realistic but some simulators aren't very good.	http://store.steampowered.com/app/24010/ Train Simulator is a good one as you can drive many different types of trains with realistic controls however there are lots of trains as DLC which cost a very high amount of money and people do not like the game as it has no tutorials and is very buggy.
Visual Novels	Visual Novels are usually a story about certain events, just like a book but with pictures and every now and then you get to pick choices, each choice you pick determines what path in the game you take as they usually have multiple endings.	http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/ Katawa Shoujo is an example of a visual novel. You can turn on sexually explicit scenes in the options menu if you like but otherwise it is just a dating simulator where you can pick choices every now and then but most of the time you're just reading.
Platformer	Platforming games are most of the time side scrolling but sometimes third person and it involves the character jumping across platforms dodging enemies and picking up items to give them points and get to the end.	http://mario.nintendo.com/ Mario is probably the most well known Platforming game and involves killing monsters and jumping over things to get to the end of the level, getting further to saving the girl from the big monster Bowser.
Puzzle	There are many puzzle games out there with various difficulties and different challenges that makes you use your brain to solve them.	http://store.steampowered.com/app/620/ Portal is a game that most people know it is a game where you use a gun to shoot portals to complete different test chambers however it requires a lot of brain power to figure some puzzles out.