I struggle with the notion of “flawed” and “great/perfect” games in general.
The way I see it, every game is the perfect example of… whatever specific thing it ended up being. And whatever combination of features it’s made of, hypothetically there is someone out there for whom that mix describes the perfect game.
Take Ultima VI for example. It’s often criticised for having a tedious system for interacting with objects and your inventory. But it’s precisely that “busywork” that I feel provides me with a lot of the immersion – sifting through each item, selecting it individually, moving it from here to there etc. forces me to delve into the world on an up close, granular level that makes it feel all the more real and alive.
I get a similar experience from lots of things that are generally considered objective “flaws”. Things like forced backtracking, cheap traps you have to memorise, slow character movement, unconventional control schemes, the list goes on. For each of those, I can name you a game I absolutely love precisely because of that feature.
And of course there are plenty of games I can’t get invested in for exactly the reason most people love them. (Practically every online game for example)
Everybody’s yuck is someone else’s yum, and to my mind there is no such thing as an objectively “great” game.
Apart from Portal. That game is perfect.
