They Bill Themselves as Being the Next “Insert Great Game”
Games will always be compared to other games, and that’s perfectly fine. The best way to sell your friend on a game is to compare it to something that they like. For instance, you may want them to pick up Saints Row, so you’ll use GTA as part of your description. There’s absolutely nothing wrong when fans of a game do that after trying a game and drawing those connections on their own.
However, when devs are doing it before anyone even gets a chance to try the game, problems will arise. You’ll often see this when developers are comparing their games to either GTA, the Souls series, or Call of Duty. Everyone wants to be the next big thing, and you don’t get much bigger than those. It’s easy to garner excitement by saying this is “just like Grand Theft Auto,” only you can fly and create whatever you want, or to tout your shooter as being just like the biggest shooting franchise out right now, but with more features. People love those games, and with good reason, so other games will try to use that well established hype to bolster themselves.
You shouldn’t be excited for a game because the creators tell you it’s like another. You’ll be left expecting a cool GTA, but only receiving a game that’s just moderately similar. It’s sad, because some great games are shot in the leg before the race even starts this way. If you’re expecting one thing to be a game you already have, you’re setting yourself up for disappointment. Just let the game be its own thing.
