Can’t You Just Be Fun For Once!
March 1st, 2009
Sitting just above the top brim of my laptop’s monitor is a list of unfinished games blutacked to the wall with little dashes put next to the games that I’ve played but haven’t completed to my personal 100% satisfaction. What I’ve discovered recently is how resistant some of these buggers are to complete. Having done some backlogging in the past 2 years, I have quite a bounty of games now, so it’s easy to switch over to a different game every time another one throws up a roadblock. The problem is getting back to the previous game, getting unstuck or just brushing aside the last few challenges holding me from a 100% completion rate. I love playing games, but some of these games have become intolerably frustrating at forfeiting progression, whether it be compulsory or not. Here’s a few examples of some negative criticism, something that you don’t hear too often from me:
Zelda: Twilight Princess
I haven’t even reached the water dungeon* yet and I’ve already encountered more moments of dumbfounded frustration and cluelessness than I have in any previous Zelda game. This is a Zelda game, I am an N-fan and as those things would have it; I hold my chops when it comes to Zelda adventuring. Furthermore – just like any game – I want to enjoy Twilight Princess, I want to be caught in its charms and whimsy but despite these things I’m still stalling my adventure.
Some examples, please?
I’d been semi-stuck in Twilight Princess a few times near the start of the game, particularly with some of the more menial tasks like fishing (which wasn’t really explained) but I guess you can chalk those up to a long leave of absence from elfish adventuring.
Unfreezing Zora’s Domain had me stumped, big time. Wolf Link and his annoying-but-supposively-I-will-fall-in-love-with-this-sidekick Midna reached the frozen thrown room and mouth of Lake Hylia in Zora’s Domain. Being the hero you must snuff out some way to unfreeze the area, allowing the water to flow again. After randomly fussing about in that area for a few hours, I consulted a FAQ which told me that I had to warp to some previously visited area, on arrival Midna would see a giant molten stone which it would then warp back to the thrown room. Excuse me, but how is one meant to guess that for themselves? Did Nintendo just assume that people would automatically warp to this place for some unforeseen reason?
The same applies shortly after when killing all of the bugs in the Twilight Realm to free the area of twilight**. The game does little to inform you of where to go to meet the area’s overseer who will grant you the item which you can use to kill the bugs and hence restore the area. I wandered around a bit, found a few bugs, sang a song on some context sensitive area which yielded another wolf to appear on the map in a completely different place, on a mounting too high for me to reach. I eventually stumbled upon where I was suppose to go and began tearing through the various nasties as outlined on the game’s map. My container was filled with the exception of two light sources that I needed from the bugs. This time the map didn’t display where they were located, which seemed rather cruel at the time. So I again spent hours hopelessly running around the area, before consulted my FAQ to discover that one of the eight or so bugs was located away from Lake Hylia, residing in an interior area of Hyrule Castle Town. No wonder I couldn’t find him, he was in a completely different area! And so I killed him, the final one magically appeared back in the lake – Midna’s psychic abilities somehow sensed it.
I honestly cannot understand how a player’s meant to draw these long winded connections.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror
You’ll know that recently I’ve been playing Syphon Filter Dark Mirror. I’m a big fan of this series and therefore put a lot of effort into the way I played the game. When I play I try to take advantage of everything provided in my toolset. Now despite having thoroughly played the game in both normal and hard difficulties, collecting all of the secret evidence and simply playing in a pretty effective manner, I’m still a long way from unlocking all of the additional missions. The badge system the game employs is great, but the requirements of killing every possible agent in every possible way to the highest degree possible is a downright strenuous way of holding content from a player. You’d have to play through each level at least half a dozen times to get close to filling in the series of micro-stats. You’ve already given so much to me, why do you have to hold me at ransom for the final push?
Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams
Like the others, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams did this to me recently which is why I switched over to Yakuza 2. I’ve reached a point, relatively early on, where the game simply won’t provide me with enough information to progress. I’ve spent ages walking around this underground cavern, through 3-4 rooms and the game still refuses to throw me a hint. I mean, there are less than four rooms, how difficult can it be?
*I haven’t reached it, so I don’t know what it’s called yet!**How ridiculous is it that a bunch of bugs have such authority over the respective landmarks of Hyrule?
Syphon Filter:Dark Mirror Design Notes
February 18th, 2009
This is the third and likely final post that I wanted to make regarding Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror. Unlike the other two, this time I want to just jot down a few responses to some of the game’s more prominent design choices.
Syphon Filter: Dark Socom
The biggest difference between the PSP and PSone Syphon Filter titles is the reimagining of the control scheme and supportive mechanics built around it. The featured new addition is the ability to cling to walls for cover fire. You’ll need to constantly rely on sturdy cover to shoot your way out of most firefights. With movement fixed on the analog nub, aiming is mapped to the face buttons and can certainly become a slow process when co-ordinating between both axes to line up a shot. It’s an unavoidable hassle that comes with the lack of dual sticks, but minimized to great effect.
These new mechanics cullminate in a much slower, methodical game that rewards smart decision making teamed with solid shooting skills. It feels a bit like a hybrid of Syphon Filter meets the Socom games. The PSone games featured a generous lock on system which turned our secret agent into a highly effective one man army. The system is still present from the originals, but it’s effectiveness is toned down in favour of the duck-and-cover approach. Gabe also seems less able to absorb bullets which supports this grounding. There are rarely ever any situations where you can freely run into an area and win by pure bullet spaming. It’s all slow and methodical. On the flipside to this new upclose combat moves have been included and feel satisfying to kick people in the ass.
Neat Effects
Sony Bend must pride themselves greatly on their use of special effects on the PSP because Dark Mirror will take any excuse to exercise them. This includes explosions, fog, weather affects, smoke, water and so forth. The game constantly turns every moment into a display of technical muscle for the system. It looks great, sometimes feels superfluous but actually becomes a dynamic catalyst for mixing up the gameplay scenarios.
Goggles
The effects aren’t just the only way in which Sony Bend seem keen on showcasing graphical eye candy. Dark Mirror also places a heavy weight on using the 3 goggles and torch functions. EDSU goggles are used to clue you in on where to go next (alerting you of sensative spots) or can be used just to check for trip wire explosives and other nasties. Nightvision explains itself and is used ocassionally, sometimes in vents. Infrared goggles are used to see heat sources through walls and can become a good safe guard when trying to spot out hard to see targets. There is a torch which is also handy sometimes.
All four of these items are well integrated into standard play – particularly problem solving.. They are mapped to the left button on the directional pad and hide/cycle nicely just like the weapons.
Super Agent Man
You may remember that it wasn’t too long ago (I guess in the N64/PSone era) when many players started questioning the copious amounts of weapons and ammunition attainable in a typical action game. The argument was that it is physically wasn’t possible for protagonists to carry an armory of weapons, often including larger artilary (eg. Roket launchers). This defied the laws of realism and eventually designers looked at this and discovered a work around; limit the player to two weapons – thanks Halo.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror manages to work around this fangled trick while at the same time pouncing on a neat graphical opportunity. All of the items that protagonist Gabe Logan carries are attached to his suit. Small items like a taser and knife as well as ammunition are kept in pockets. Larger items like rifles are mounted at either the upper or lower half of the back of Gabe’s body suit. As you cycle through weapons Gabe will slot them back and forth between the various positions on his suit. When he collects ammo, an animation plays of him storing it in his pockets and so forth.
Since Gabe is never really (once, for a few minutes) given large artilery weapons like rocket launchers he doesn’t have to worry about those weighing him down. The effect of this design decision not only conqueres the realism barrier but it also makes Gabe more visually variant.
The New People
Just as a fan of the series, I figured it was worth mentioning some of the changes in voice acting casts between the PSone and PSP titles. I won’t go into specifics/don’t know the specifics, but the cast is basically completely new. Gabe sounds more or less the same with some slight tonal differences. Lian Xing sounds less American-Chinese and much younger and adolescent. Teressa Lepan and Lawrence Mujari are similar approximations to their original self. Infact the former two don’t feature too frequently in Dark Mirror.
Canisters, Keys and More Rewards
In my last article about Dark Mirror I talked about the rewards system but I actually forgot a few integral examples to back up what I was saying. I’m nearing the end now of my second play through so a few of these have sprung back to mind when I’ve run into them. The first one being in one of the later episodes (group of missions) where weapons can be unlocked by destroying a series of canisters located in the levels. The hint area under the pause menu identifies what can be unlocked and the mechanic overlays ontop of the hidden evidence scavage.
In addition to this, some levels contain hidden objectives which open up more hidden objectives to new areas and weapons which string off the main mission. Think of it like Perfect Dark where more objectives are added with each difficulty setting, except in this case those objectives aren’t compulsory. Lastly is the use of night visioned secret messages to hide the codes to doors which contain additional bonuses.
Small Details etc.
Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror is seemingly packed with cool little touches that you probably wouldn’t notice hadn’t it come to you. I just wanted to briefly mention two of them. The first is that you can use your own medkits to heal partners who accompany you in the game. The second is that when you kick a door down (Dark Mirror employs the Resident Evil 4 open door mechanic) with a man on the other side, they will be stunned on the kick back.
Conclusion (yes, I’m done!)
I think I’m fresh out of ideas on Dark Mirror, which is probably a good thing. ^_^ I reckon that I’m slowly moving into deeper territory with every key game that I’m playing. I mean, I managed to draw three solid posts on this game alone and have a similar slew in the pipeline for the next game want to look at. I think I’ve exhausted almost everything worth mentioning about this game without formalizing it in a review manner. And it goes without saying that I’d recommend this title.
The Trophies Dilemma + In-Game Rewards
February 14th, 2009
As I’ve mentioned a few times since I got back, I got myself a Playstation Network ID and have been putting it to good use. I’m not too fond of online play fullstop and to be honest the Playstation 3 online space seems a little scattered anyways. So instead of owning n00bs online I’ve been savouring the downloadable delights on the Playstation Store which has in turn brought up a new dilemma; Trophies, or rather how to approach them.
Several of the PSN games I bought have trophy support and pretty much anything I’ll continue to buy either online or off will have the feature. It should be known that I am a perfectionist with games. Pretty much most of the games I own I finish to near as 100% completion as possible, playing both normal and hard difficulties respectively. Trophies in this case represent a significant burden to my perfectionist reputation, one that I’m not too sure on how to shoulder.
I tried to ignore the whole idea for a few days but after the idea popped back into my head when reading an article about it over at the You Are Lose! blog, I decided that I needed to figure it out. Korey’s commentaries put everything into much clearer view so I eventually settled on only gunning for trophies that work within my means. That is, fun without sacrificing enjoyment or copious amounts of time.
At the same that all of this was going on I was thinking about the rewards system featured in Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror and how I like it so much in contrast to trophies ^_^ . Dark Mirror’s reward system works in a similar way to many in-game reward systems but it’s much more fleshed out.
Hidden Evidence
Within each level several pieces of hidden evidence are tucked away. Finding all of the evidence in a given episode (series of levels) unlocks your typical fare of bonus content accessible from the main menu. On obtaining some pieces of evidence you are rewarded with a brief cut scene that ponders various plot points stringing from the main story. These cut scenes work to reinforce what is happening behind the scenes of the main plot and develop the further you progress in the game. This mechanic does an effective job at re-plugging the narrative back into the core gameplay while at the same time being dynamic and completely optional to the player.
The majority of the evidence is hidden in typical easter egg fashion, but some of the more significant pieces require a little more effort. Key documents are hidden behind doors which require first finding a card key, locker key or other to open. Once you’ve found that key it can be continuously re-used in later levels to access additional weaponary, routes and so forth. Basically your curiosity is rewarded in multiple ways and acts as a positive reinforcer to encourage continual investigation.
Career Rating
To reward actual skill the game has a badge system which draws upon your playing statistics. The more you excel in X field, the more your badge percentage in that field increases. Once you reach 100% you can move onto the next badge rank in that field. Completing each badge unlocks new weaponary which can be used again in the Mission Mode (play individual levels seperately) and multiplayer. Both story mode and mission mode statistics add to the badge’s percentages. Assuming that the average player completes the story mode first, the work they have already done is rewarded with extra weaponary which comes in handy for when they later move onto the mission mode.
There are five fields of badges split into three categories, so it acomodates varying play styles well. Gabe also gives you a speech for each badge you are awarded which is a nice personal touch. Getting the protagonist to complement the player directly is quite an effective way to thank the player for the investment they have put into the game.
Rewards
The rewards themselves are quite generous including additional missions, videos, narrative pieces and weaponary. Unlike some games where some of the best content is locked away form the start, Dark Mirror is quite gracious with how it doses out it’s bounty of extras. The game is already significantly fleshed out, so the rewards feel like actual rewards instead of content constrained from the beginning. The extra missions particularly are quite generous.
In contrast to some trophies (as pointed out in Korey’s article) the requirements are also within reason. As suggested a few times already the rewards plug back into the game’s narrative and gameplay which is a nice touch too.
On editing this I can’t help but point out the lack of analysis (few sentences) between the bulk of feature listing. >_<
Welcome to Daniel Primed, my self-titled games analysis blog and the online supplement to Adventures in Games Analysis.
Reader Emails | RSS / Email Feed
Game Design Companion: A Critical Analysis of Wario Land 4 - $7.99
Level Design: Processes and Experiences
Speed Boost: The Hidden Secrets Behind Arcade Racing Design - $5.99
Adventures in Games Analysis: Volume I - $5.99
