Tag Archive for 'FPS'

FPS Combat Most Exciting When Frequently Close-Quarters

Published
on December 2, 2008
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The most engaging first person shooters of the last few years force players into intense bouts of melee combat, Gamasutra reported today.

Game Developer magazine published the study last year. It used current generation FPS games — Battlefield 2142, Call of Duty 3, F.E.A.R., Gears of War, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2, and Resistance: Fall of Man — plus two 2004 titles Halo 2 and Half-Life 2.

The surveyors recorded “300 hours of physiological and gameplay data” and tested how players reacted to gameplay by monitoring brainwaves, heart rate, breathing, blinking, temperature and motion. They found, among other things, that melee combat is more fun and exhilarating than any other approach.

Close combat was the most reliable method of creating engagement, adrenaline, reward, and all the emotions that make shooters so much fun. Certainly, this is nothing new to the genre, but the next-gen games that excelled in this area were exceptionally strong at creating high-paced close combat frequently.

This graph shows how players responded to different weapons in Halo 2, with melee combat and especially the one-hit-kill energy sword reigning as most satisfying.

The chainsaw in Gears of War generated a similar response. Both these titles didn’t just allow for melee combat. They forced it through tight level design and surprise encounters.

Close quarters combat in these games is exciting because it put players in situations where they either score a one hit kill or be killed in one hit, where they can do a lot of damage or die immediately.

This frenetic FPS melee has largely been replaced with cover and distanced enemies and regenerative health, and not unfairly because it can be very frustrating or very rewarding. Halo 2 and Gears of War both did a good job of padding these close, personal encounters with standard fare, which makes the most sense and keeps the gameplay interesting.

REVIEW: ‘Far Cry 2′ Falls in the Uncanny Valley

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on November 26, 2008
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Far Cry 2 features a number of inventions and improvements on first person shooters and attempts to bring more realism to the genre. By doing so, it slides down into the uncanny valley where any artificiality stands out as fantastic.

The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, the same studio behind Assassin’s Creed, Rainbow Six: Vegas, and Far Cry: Instincts, but shares nothing with its predecessors. No Jack Carver, mutagens or feral powers.

Gameplay in Far Cry 2 is more like Assassin’s Creed than anything. Chose from nine different mercenaries and make your way through an wide open African nation fired up in civil war, doing story missions for different factions or finding side quests and blood diamonds.

The world feels natural and realistic, especially from the player’s perspective. You never leave the first person view, even during cinematics or when driving a vehicle, and you always have a visual representations of your actions.

The mercenary’s hands pick up uncovered diamonds and knock on doors. Lose to much health and you have to pry bullets out of your leg or snap bones back into place. There’s no on-screen radar, just a map and GPS that function as part of the mercenary’s inventory.

This style of gameplay eschews a detailed HUD in favor of immersive elements. Its very detail oriented but it works and brings a high degree of realism to the African world of Far Cry 2.

But however realistic, Far Cry 2 is a flawed picture of reality and enters a sort of uncanny valley where every deviation from expected realism is a glaring error. When the normally inventive enemy AI stops and stands there looking dumb it breaks the illusion even more than in an average video game.

Even devices that make gameplay more convenient — like universal ammo for all assault rifles, fixing a shot up jeep with a few twists of a socket wrench, or the helpful moving icons on the your map — seem out of place.

The writing for Far Cry 2 isn’t bad, but the voice acting is horrible. Most characters sound like robots and their sentences are clipped together. It sounds unnatural and kills the otherwise realistic mood.

This expectation of perfect realism is a problem for games that strive for immersive verisimilitude, and something that future titles which attempt to put fit gameplay elements into the game world will have to overcome. Still Far Cry 2 is a big step in a good direction for FPS games and a worthwhile experience.

Can the ‘Mirror’s Edge’ Experiment Go Mainstream?

Published
on November 8, 2008
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Mirror’s Edge is proof that publisher Electronic Arts can still innovate, but will the unique take on FPS gameplay pay off?

“Executing an unbroken flow from A to B is what Mirror’s Edge is all about,” says Edge Magazine in a staff preview of the new game. “Stringing together a few moves increases your speed, and there’s a purity and zing to bouncing between surfaces and popping over a low handrail in one smooth motion.”

The gameplay, especially the focus on weapon-less combat, that has drawn so much critical praise could turn away casual FPS gamers used to running and gunning tactics that won’t work in Mirror’s Edge. Instead the game asks players to sprint past enemies and over obstacles and to leap without looking.

This style immerses you in the world and the adrenaline-rush of its main character, but it runs contrary to a generation of FPS instinct. “Overcoming inclinations toward caution and inertia in first-person should perhaps have been one of the tutorial’s priorities,” the Edge article comments.

It’s a self-perpetuating cycle — gameplay conventions become instincts among gamers and hard to break. A steep learning curve accompanies any deviation from the old ways, and experimental games often seem unpolished by comparison to the tried-and-true.

This makes Mirror’s Edge confusing initially. “Your first steps are bewildering, but they soon become bewitching and even oddly familiar,” says the Edge preview. “It isn’t an FPS, not as we think of them. It’s a Full-on Platformer, Stupid.”

Mirror’s Edge comes out next Tuesday on Windows, Playstation 3, and Xbox 360.

REVIEW: Don’t Forget ‘Dark Messiah’

Published
on October 28, 2008
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Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was released last October to mediocre reviews and slow sales, not surprising for a game based on an outdated strategy series with a small cult following. I picked up the year-old FPS/RPG hybrid while waiting for this season’s storm of new games and had a lot of fun with it.

Dark Messiah is an enjoyable ride reminiscent of Thief and Half-Life with rousing visuals and exhilerating gameplay.

The protagonist is an orphan named Sareth, raised and trained by an ominous-voiced wizard who sends him out to find magical artifacts. Eventually he learns more about his past and makes that eternal choice between good and evil.

The story is told through dialog, cinematics and old books you find lying around. Like Half-Life, the cut scenes are viewed through the main character’s eyes, but unlike Gordon Freeman, Sareth speaks, both to other characters and the succubus that lives in his head.

The voice acting is kind of bad for all the main characters, and the writing is not much better. Where Dark Messiah really shines is the fast, intuitive gameplay, which combines spells and sword-swinging combos.

Combat is a blast, and plays more like a Deus Ex shooter than a Morrowind RPG. Weapon combat is quick and satisfying, with fun animations and brutal fatalities and criticals. Stats matter — you can put points into combat, magic or stealth abilities depending on how you want to play.

Sareth can use the environment to his advantage by kicking unwary soldiers, orcs and necromancers off cliffs or into fires or spikes. Shovels, chairs and jars of oil offer makeshift weapons that can be picked up and thrown, or just cut ropes and drop chandeliers or debris on enemies.

These scripted traps are the only way to defeat larger monsters. They’re fun to find but can seem contrived, especially when every goblin camp has a platform covered in barrels with one shaky support.

Nevertheless the environments in Dark Messiah are nice to look at thanks to brilliant art design and a lot of fun to mess with. Each cluster of enemies can be approached in many different ways, depending Sareth’s abilities and what items are around.

The areas between combat play like Half-Life and force you to work your way through the level using keys and shooting ropes tied to arrows Batman style. They can get a little repetitive and confusing but are generally very fun.

Dark Messiah showcases some entertaining gameplay ideas, albeit with a cliched plot and characters, and makes me wish that Bethesda had used such innovative combat with Oblivion. The game is well worth a quick playthrough, especially when it currently costs $10 on Steam.

REVIEW: ‘Crysis’ Pushes Graphics, Lacks Depth

Published
on August 13, 2008
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Crysis made its name as a graphical powerhouse, with visuals beyond what current generation consoles and most supercomputers can generate. But there’s almost no depth behind this unarguably impressive presentation.

Story in Crysis is little more than an excuse for the big-budget action. The main character is a faceless soldier named Nomad, an elite commando with a futuristic nano-suit that allows superhuman abilities.

Nomad is part of a US special forces team investigating a tropical island where North Koreans have taken over an archaeological investigation of ancient ruins that turn out to be a buried alien spaceship. It follows a strict formula of War of the Worlds, Half-Life, and Halo, but lacks the depth and creativity of those three.

Scripted events and minimalistic dialog shoves the story forward, viewed in the first person Half-Life-style. The characters are all extreme testosterone to the max, the situations all cliche. It’s ridiculously generic and takes itself too seriously to be fun.

I almost lost it when the gruff general refused to listen to the pleas of the scientists pretty daughter not to nuke everything. “But we don’t know what will happen! It could make the aliens stronger!” “I’ve got my orders!”

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REVIEW: ‘Call of Duty 4′ and the Zenith of Scripted Events

Published
on April 8, 2008
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Ten years ago, “Half-Life” changed the way video games told stories.

Rather than introducing the player to Gordon Freeman and Black Mesa with an opening cinematic or text, the game let you play through a heavily scripted opening sequence on an unforgettable tram ride past toxic waste and robots, the intercom buzzing very revealing announcements in the background.

Scripted events worked wonderfully for “Half-Life,” turning the game into a cinematic, immersive experience, but games today have found new methods to do that. Scripted sequences still exist, but they are amorphous and hidden or written spontaneously and influenced by player action.

Infinity Ward, makers of “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” didn’t get the memo. What they created is a game which tells its story through incredibly complex scripted sequences that pan out with a movie-like choreography. (For this review, I’d like to look at the game’s narrative merits, rather than its very impressive graphical or multiplayer ones.)

Each level includes uncountable preprogrammed events. Helicopters and jet fighters fly overhead on cue. Tanks roll past your position. An enemy will crash into the tower you occupy. They’re very cinematic, but they repeat each and every time you play through “Call of Duty 4″ with a monotonous, robot-like precision that actually detracts from the game’s life.

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“BioShock 2″ in 2009, Announces Take-Two

Published
on March 11, 2008
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Take-Two announced today that “BioShock 2″ will rise from the depths late next year. What remains unclear is who will be developing the game and how it will fit into the “BioShock” plot.

It’s been rumored that the game will be a prequel to “BioShock,” as the ending of that game left little room for a follow-up. The game began after the downfall of objectivist-dystopia Rapture, and seeing how this downfall came about would be a good direction to go.

Another possibility (baseless outside of my own opinion) is a “BioShock” sequel reminiscent of those Half-Life games “Opposing Force” and “Blue Shift.” Both those were set in the same place and time as the original “Half-Life” but followed different characters around Black Mesa. A similarly approached “BioShock” game might follow a survivor as he fights his way through another part of Rapture.

“BioShock 2″ will be developed by the newly formed 2k Marin, a studio that includes members from the original “BioShock” team. Most notably absent is Ken Levine, who led the 2k Boston/2k Australia team that developed the original. The development team, headed by Ken Levine, was formed from Irrational Games, makers of the “System Shock” series.

My greatest fear on hearing these rumors was that another team would take up the reigns for the sequel, leaving us with something akin to “Knights of the Old Republic 2,” also developed by a different studio than the original release. With the talent behind the original “BioShock” split, it will be interesting to see how 2k Marin does and what Ken Levine comes up with next.

EDIT: Added information on 2k Marin, composed of members from the “BioShock” team, thank God.

EDIT2: Ken Levine will also be involved in “BioShock 2,” although his level of involvement is unknown. Will it just end up being the same team under a different name?

Deus Ex 3 Trailer Slip-Up Suggests Prequel

Published
on December 5, 2007
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I’m normally not a rumor-mongerer, but what the hey: CVG revealed that the trailer for the recently announced Deus Ex 3 reveals a date that would set the game before the first two in the series. The date, 2027, was since removed from the trailer.

If 2027 were the date that Deus Ex 3 is meant to occur, it would take place over twenty years before the original Deus Ex and forty years before the sequel. The game is still early in development and the evidence is tenuous, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

In other Deus Ex 3 news, a 1up interview with Stephane D’Astous, the manager of developing studio Eidos Montreal, confirmed that none of the staff from Ion Storm, the developer of the first two Deus Ex games, will be working on the new game.  GOOD.

D’Astous also commented on his goals in production.

“We’re going to be working hard to have a solid and in-depth storyline that will give players the chance to replay. The replayability is also very important,” said D’Astous. “At Eidos we’d like to think that our games are very character-driven. We need strong characters and strong stories. So one of the factors that’s very important to us is the game’s stamina, its replayability.”

D’Astous added that the studio would not be releasing any plot details until next year.

Eidos’ New Montreal Studio to Develop ‘Deus Ex 3′

Published
on November 27, 2007
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Eidos announced the third game in the Deus Ex series, which began with a stunning story-driven game and was followed up with a not-so-good one, will be developed in their newly inaugurated Montreal studio, Gamasutra reports.

It’s not clear how much experience the team working on the new Deus Ex game has, but Eidos Montreal’s general manager, Stéphane D’Astous, says the team will do well.

“We will want to limit our dev teams to a human-sized team of 80 people at the very highest of the peak in the production cycle,” said D’Astous. “We don’t want to become a huge studio where there’s over 100 people on a title. We want a smaller, multi-discipline group that are tightly knit together. But by doing so, we will give them at least 18 to 24 months for the production cycle.”

With a small, talented group and a lengthy production, here’s hoping Deus Ex 3 will turn out better than the sophomore effort.

REVIEW: ‘Halo 3′ Ending Melds Gameplay and Story

Published
on September 30, 2007
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I spoke about using plot pressure rather than actual pressure to create compelling gameplay in a previous post, and Halo 3 provides a perfect example of such a device.

[Spoiler Warning: Details on the end of Halo 3 follow.]

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