I'm resurrecting a column I used to write for a site called The Second Dimension. The site was run by a friend and I but we've both since moved on to bigger and better things. The column was used primarily to review games with more of a journalistic slant and the name Subluminal Link was apt as I was notoriously irregular with updates to the site (note: it's subluminal rather than subliminal). I'll be using the column this time around to examine 5 design decisions within the game I'm writing about and what I thought the consequences of those decisions were along with alternate methods of implementing or improving them. As a side note I'd like to make these columns oriented around a bullet-point structure rather than lengthy essays, simply because it's easier to digest.
So, introductions over let's take a look at Ninja Theory's Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. It's a third-person action adventure with emphasis on environment traversal, platform mechanics and combat. The game's story is an adaptation of the classic Chinese text Journey to the West, written by screen-writer and novelist Alex Garland. Taking place in a post-apocalyptic near-future New York, the player takes the role of Monkey; a grizzled anti-hero with exceptional acrobatic abilities. The early moments of the game see Monkey team up with a young girl named Trip, whose great skill in manipulating gadgets and machinery can be used in tandem with Monkey's combat prowess to overcome puzzles and combat scenarios. Much of the core experience is in the player navigating environments while making use of Trip's special abilities remotely (the narrative explains this by allowing Monkey to communicate with Trip through his headband and vice-versa). Without further ado here are the 5 design decisions I've opted to discuss:
1.Objects the player can climb are highlighted, providing a breadcrumb trail to aid traversing environments.
Highlighting which objects can be climbed on helps stop players getting lost and generally gives them a nudge in the right direction while they navigate the game's vertical spaces. What strikes me in particular are the actual objects themselves and how they've been worked into the environment. It seems that each object Monkey can interact with has been designed to blend naturally with the surrounding environment, with some of the interactive objects more obvious than others (for example a horizontal pole offers more directional guidance than a loose brick in a wall). It seems that by applying more realism in the environment the developers found it necessary to artificially point out climbable objects with a shimmering graphical effect. I found this system gave the traversal mechanic a pedestrian feel after experiencing it for an hour or so; all the tension and fear I should feel by leaping over chasms and scaling vertical surfaces evaporated.
One alternative to this would be to create a more cohesive visual language for objects that the player can climb. An excellent example of this is in the Uncharted games, where interactive traversal objects have a distinct visual style but are also modelled into the environment. Another alternative would be to only show the shimmering visual for the 'tutorial' levels.
2. Tech orbs
Enslaved encourages exploration by placing Tech orbs off the beaten track, the orbs function as in-game currency and allow players to purchase upgrades from a shop. I found the orb's visual style and the way they sit in the environment abrasive to say the least; there's something about floating balls of energy that doesn't gel in a world otherwise preoccupied with realism. They really end up representing a video game trope.
The designers obviously wanted players to be able to see the orbs from some distance, maybe in hard to reach areas, to draw the player toward them. I think a better solution would have been to build the orbs into the world rather than them being disembodied glowing things. The narrative explains the orbs as sources of energy, so perhaps modelling a few different items capable of storing 'energy' (e.g. fuel tanks, cannisters, engines etc), placing them around the environment and getting players to smash them open to receive the orbs would have been less incongruous. Again, to return to Uncharted, its own collectables are part of the game's world: artifacts, statues, antiques etc, all of which adds to the sense of a believable world and not just a transparent mechanic laid out by a designer. Similarly the God of War series stores orbs in detritus; pots, barrels etc – all objects that fit in with the environment the player's exploring.
3. Enemy attacks are difficult to distinguish from each other.
Each enemy in the game has a set of combat moves, but I found learning which move the enemy was about to use on me difficult, leaving me unsure of how to react. This seems in part due to the animations for each attack being quite similar (not to mention most of the enemies bear a huge resemblance to one another, making distinguishing even harder).
When creating a combat system it's vital that players are able to learn enemy attack patterns, for example in the Halo series players are made aware that a grenade is about to be thrown at them through distinctive visual and audible cues: i) when an enemy is about the throw a grenade we briefly see it glow bright blue in their hands, ii) there's about a 1 second animation for the enemy actually throwing the grenade, which we can clearly see from a distance because of the grenade's colour intensity, iii) the grenade is thrown toward the player at a constant speed each time, so the player learns how to avoid it. iv) the grenade has a very clear and distinct sound, so even if players can't actually see the grenade they can still hear it.
4. Twitchy controls on the 'cloud' vehicle don't mix with instant-death and long gaps between checkpoints.
Monkey's 'cloud' vehicle (basically a hover-board) is primarily used for traversing large open spaces, however some of these sections require players to navigate tight spaces between bombs that instantly kill the player if they touch one. This feels like the cloud 's functionality is being extended beyond its original purpose. The issue here is that in order to navigate the tight spaces often requires the player move the cloud from a standing start. The acceleration from a standing start is quite high and the smallest movement of the analogue stick causes the cloud to move, leading to imprecision. This in itself could be forgiveable but coupled with the fact the player is killed for taking a wrong step and the lengthy spaces between checkpoints can be frustrating.
If the designers felt it necessary to include sections that require the vehicle to be used for different purposes then it's important the vehicle be able to handle them. In this instance there are several possible solutions: i) make the cloud less sensitive when moving from a standing start, ii) make the spaces between the bombs larger, iii) bombs cause less damage, iv) make gaps between checkpoints much shorter.
5. The Trip Shop doesn't expand Monkey's abilities, rather just incrementally improves his existing abilities.
The 'Trip Shop' gives a way for players to spend the resources they've collected, i.e. energy orbs, on upgrading their abilities. One thing I found surprising about the shop was how little the variety it offered in terms of providing opportunities for players to change the way play. The shop essentially allows players to incrementally improve their existing moves by perhaps increasing melee or ranged damage or shield duration. This is a very cost effective way for the designers to create an incentive for players to vest an interest in the game's economy; it's easy to implement and simple to balance. I find it to be a false economy though, as the lack of real variety or depth to combat scenarios is apparent after a few hours of play, especially in the later levels where combat provides a lot of the gameplay.
By creating more unique skills for the player to buy, the game's economy immediately becomes more relevant and more rewarding to invest in. For example in the Devil May Cry series the player collects red orbs by slaying enemies and exploring environments, the player is able to spend the orbs on different combat techniques that may appeal to the player's style. It's all about giving the player the choice of whether to save up for an upgrade they think sounds cool or perhaps investing in something a little more mundane but recognisably useful like more health, and although Enslaved has this system, the lack of new skills that the player can purchase limits the shop's appeal.
No comments:
Post a Comment