Number 64: Gears of War, Epic 2006
Intro:
Right from the start, the "decayed" visual motif is present, even in the developer stamps. Each time I played it, it went straight to the menu, though there is a short, flashy intro movie that explains the history the game relies on if a player waits. This intro is full of the brilliant graphics and effects players are waiting to enjoy.
Getting Going:
The game relies on certain control conventions, but still reminds the player what they are. It allows players to choose whether or not to go through the whole tutorial "room," which is highly appreciated on subsequent play-throughs. Once the combat begins, however, players are put under a lot of stress to overcome a lot of relatively complicated control demands (taking cover, aiming from cover, confusion from pop-up messages concerning from-cover A button commands).
Fun:
The action is nothing but tense. For single player (and co-op) fighting, it's all about taking cover, fending off hordes, and figuring out where the level designers intended for the player to go to flank each distinct "gang," whose eradication will cue the "all clear" signal that behaves a bit like the beat-em-up GO arrow. Multiplayer differs in that it starts as a race to key vantage points and weapons, then dissolves into leveraging the gained weapons against the opposing team or "hide and seek" where the team with fewer players must use suprise to overcome the other team's superior numbers and fire-power. At the core of both experiences is a feeling that skill is only 80% of the game: a large amount of the game's fun comes from unpredictability, be it in enemy behavior, where the opposing team of players has run, or right down to which side of the blast zone the shotgun has favored with each shot. The cover system, with all of it's dodge rolls, roadie running, blind firing, and SWAT-transfers informs everything about how the player has to move and interact with the surroundings, making the map more than just the backdrop. This makes the environment just as much a weapon as the Torque Bow or the Shotgun: there is no counting how many times I've seen creative use of the map outwit players who depend too highly on the Sniper Rifle they fought so hard for.
Visuals:
This was the first game, in my opinion, to really define the graphical "bar" for the X360/PS3 generation. Complicated models, smooth texture stretching, detailed bump maps, grit and kipple everywhere, dynamic lighting, motion blur, mind-bending shaders, more convincing animation, live light distortion, rain, lightning, wind... there was no end to the detail and craft in everything. This game was intended to set the graphics bar ever since the first E3 it was shown, and it delivered.
Intelligence:
Enemies did a great job hiding and using cover, though they were driven by fairness to expose their heads just enough to have them removed and allow progress. Left unchallenged, they did a good job flanking unprepared players in unscripted ways, though that was an expection to the primarily scripted appearance of "grub holes" on the team's blind side. Allies tended to get in trouble more often than they helped, especially the partner Dom, who did a stellar job getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and demanding resusitation. Any time the game demanded more than a fire fight, allies seemed pretty clueless.
Immersion:
The persistent decay of the environment, the omnipresent threat of (unfortunately scripted) grub holes, the constant background noise, the fight music, the demand for attention created by the pressure of the fight, all is ruined only occasionally by the "radio talk" sequences where the player's movement is momentarily gimped while a scripted conversation takes place and the tell-tale guitar strum that means the room is clear. The movies are visually engaging, through watching Fenix do nothing while Kim is stabbed when any player would have tried to prevent it is torturous, as is the "so we did all that for nothing? and that useless junk from before is the key" moment. The Red Ring health system brings the recharging health Halo popularized into a much less HUD-centric place, though the game's exquisite attention to detail seems lost when a foe riddled with bullets looks utterly unscathed until they are ripped in two by a shotgun or blasted to gibs by a grenade.
Cameras:
The third-person camera does is great for the constant need for cover, as a first person perspective would demand jarring switches in perspective (a la Rainbow Six Vegas). The camera rides hard surfaces that would otherwise come between the camera and the player's character.
Control:
Much of the control is borrowed. Movement and aiming is predictable, left-trigger to "aim" is a staple in Call of Duty on the X360, weapon switching with the d-pad harkens back to Metroid Prime, Rainbow Six Vegas, or Ratchet and Clank. The cover system is easy to use, but difficult to escape: there is no prefered way to exit cover, which is a huge problem in multiplayer where the cover isn't exactly straight-forward. Holding Y to point out the party leader or key/downed ally seems like a really awkward choice since demands the player use the thumb that can alter facing as well as dodging. In a sense, it demands the player be a sitting duck for a few seconds. This means it doesn't get used very much. This is balanced by the Active Reload feature, something I hope to see more of in the future. By making reloading not only more interactive but potentially beneficial to a player, it takes what used to be a chore intended to increase realism and fills it with tactical and practical use to get that little extra edge in fight that can tip the 20% luck in the formula in a more prudent player's favor.
Ideas:
Gears of War is very much about that context-sensitive A button. It's about cover. The execution was, in my opinion, great: even in multiplayer, using and exploiting cover is key no matter what the player's skill level may be. Taking cover is easy and predictable. Trouble comes in getting out of cover, which seems like a step they hadn't really thought through.
Memory:
This is a shooter with as much brain as adreneline. Every player feels both powerful and vulnerable at every moment, both online and off. It's georgeous graphically, aurally, and viscerally. Every time there is what seems to be a sloppy design choice, something or other proves that choice was intentional (except in the lack of cover exit strategies).
Right from the start, the "decayed" visual motif is present, even in the developer stamps. Each time I played it, it went straight to the menu, though there is a short, flashy intro movie that explains the history the game relies on if a player waits. This intro is full of the brilliant graphics and effects players are waiting to enjoy.
Getting Going:
The game relies on certain control conventions, but still reminds the player what they are. It allows players to choose whether or not to go through the whole tutorial "room," which is highly appreciated on subsequent play-throughs. Once the combat begins, however, players are put under a lot of stress to overcome a lot of relatively complicated control demands (taking cover, aiming from cover, confusion from pop-up messages concerning from-cover A button commands).
Fun:
The action is nothing but tense. For single player (and co-op) fighting, it's all about taking cover, fending off hordes, and figuring out where the level designers intended for the player to go to flank each distinct "gang," whose eradication will cue the "all clear" signal that behaves a bit like the beat-em-up GO arrow. Multiplayer differs in that it starts as a race to key vantage points and weapons, then dissolves into leveraging the gained weapons against the opposing team or "hide and seek" where the team with fewer players must use suprise to overcome the other team's superior numbers and fire-power. At the core of both experiences is a feeling that skill is only 80% of the game: a large amount of the game's fun comes from unpredictability, be it in enemy behavior, where the opposing team of players has run, or right down to which side of the blast zone the shotgun has favored with each shot. The cover system, with all of it's dodge rolls, roadie running, blind firing, and SWAT-transfers informs everything about how the player has to move and interact with the surroundings, making the map more than just the backdrop. This makes the environment just as much a weapon as the Torque Bow or the Shotgun: there is no counting how many times I've seen creative use of the map outwit players who depend too highly on the Sniper Rifle they fought so hard for.
Visuals:
This was the first game, in my opinion, to really define the graphical "bar" for the X360/PS3 generation. Complicated models, smooth texture stretching, detailed bump maps, grit and kipple everywhere, dynamic lighting, motion blur, mind-bending shaders, more convincing animation, live light distortion, rain, lightning, wind... there was no end to the detail and craft in everything. This game was intended to set the graphics bar ever since the first E3 it was shown, and it delivered.
Intelligence:
Enemies did a great job hiding and using cover, though they were driven by fairness to expose their heads just enough to have them removed and allow progress. Left unchallenged, they did a good job flanking unprepared players in unscripted ways, though that was an expection to the primarily scripted appearance of "grub holes" on the team's blind side. Allies tended to get in trouble more often than they helped, especially the partner Dom, who did a stellar job getting caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and demanding resusitation. Any time the game demanded more than a fire fight, allies seemed pretty clueless.
Immersion:
The persistent decay of the environment, the omnipresent threat of (unfortunately scripted) grub holes, the constant background noise, the fight music, the demand for attention created by the pressure of the fight, all is ruined only occasionally by the "radio talk" sequences where the player's movement is momentarily gimped while a scripted conversation takes place and the tell-tale guitar strum that means the room is clear. The movies are visually engaging, through watching Fenix do nothing while Kim is stabbed when any player would have tried to prevent it is torturous, as is the "so we did all that for nothing? and that useless junk from before is the key" moment. The Red Ring health system brings the recharging health Halo popularized into a much less HUD-centric place, though the game's exquisite attention to detail seems lost when a foe riddled with bullets looks utterly unscathed until they are ripped in two by a shotgun or blasted to gibs by a grenade.
Cameras:
The third-person camera does is great for the constant need for cover, as a first person perspective would demand jarring switches in perspective (a la Rainbow Six Vegas). The camera rides hard surfaces that would otherwise come between the camera and the player's character.
Control:
Much of the control is borrowed. Movement and aiming is predictable, left-trigger to "aim" is a staple in Call of Duty on the X360, weapon switching with the d-pad harkens back to Metroid Prime, Rainbow Six Vegas, or Ratchet and Clank. The cover system is easy to use, but difficult to escape: there is no prefered way to exit cover, which is a huge problem in multiplayer where the cover isn't exactly straight-forward. Holding Y to point out the party leader or key/downed ally seems like a really awkward choice since demands the player use the thumb that can alter facing as well as dodging. In a sense, it demands the player be a sitting duck for a few seconds. This means it doesn't get used very much. This is balanced by the Active Reload feature, something I hope to see more of in the future. By making reloading not only more interactive but potentially beneficial to a player, it takes what used to be a chore intended to increase realism and fills it with tactical and practical use to get that little extra edge in fight that can tip the 20% luck in the formula in a more prudent player's favor.
Ideas:
Gears of War is very much about that context-sensitive A button. It's about cover. The execution was, in my opinion, great: even in multiplayer, using and exploiting cover is key no matter what the player's skill level may be. Taking cover is easy and predictable. Trouble comes in getting out of cover, which seems like a step they hadn't really thought through.
Memory:
This is a shooter with as much brain as adreneline. Every player feels both powerful and vulnerable at every moment, both online and off. It's georgeous graphically, aurally, and viscerally. Every time there is what seems to be a sloppy design choice, something or other proves that choice was intentional (except in the lack of cover exit strategies).