mehhh (Destiny)

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Thursday, March 27, 2014, 02:41 (3903 days ago) @ electricpirate

It's a cool moment in Infinite and all, but I'm not really sure how it fits in destiny? Destiny is being designed as this highly co-operative game, and that kind of mechanic is worst fit in a co-op situation where one player may know the answers, or just wants to run through.

In general, I'd prefer to see a focus on players comeing to grips with hidden levers of the game systems. I'd want more of the learning that you see in games like Spelunky, or Dark Souls, or Phantasy star than what's basically a watered down adventure game moment.

Your co-op point is interesting, which I will get to in a second.

I'm not saying literally make puzzles like the example I gave. I gave the example because instead of hints, directions, waypoints, and highlights, it flowed naturally from the mechanics and your curiosity.

See, Bioshock Infinite failed overall because the world it created suggested a level of depth and interaction that the mechanics didn't provide. So the wonderful world that was created ends up feeling fake and restrictive, instead of deep and freeing. This ends up pushing you OUT of the game instead of immersing you.

A game like Deus Ex is extremely immersive, despite being mediocre aesthetically, precisely because the world allows for more exploration and interaction than the aesthetics initially suggest. This in turn immerses you more, as you realize the world is deeper than you first thought. Likewise something like Marathon or Doom is immersive, because the aesthetics don't suggest or call for a high degree of interactivity or freedom anyway, so the fact you can only run, shoot, and hit switches is fine.

If Destiny is going to make you want to stay in the world and be immersed in its so called 'shared world', then the mechanics need to match the level of complexity the aesthetics of the world suggest, otherwise the world will feel fake like in Bioshock Infinite. From what we have seen, the world appears very detailed aesthetically, which means it needs to provide us with a lot of mechanical freedom. Freedom in the sense that we are free from the rigid mechanics of highlighted objects, waypoints, step by step goals, and telegraphed travel. If you can only go where you are told in a world, it feels fake and restrictive. In other words, let the players learn the layers of the game system, as you say, then have them apply that do do cool shit WITHOUT TELLING THEM HOW TO DO THAT. So, the trick is to allow the player to go a lot of places and do a lot of things, yet tell them very little. Have him figure it out for himself.

Otherwise, you're going to get a wonderful environment that's just a bore to be in.

NONE OF THIS NECESSARILY NEEDS TO BE OPTIONAL, although hidden optional stuff is always a plus.

As for co-op, you could go even farther with the layered implications of the game system, because players will be playing with other humans who can impart their wisdom. I don't want adventure game puzzles in Destiny; I simply want missions and quests that make me feel like I got to the end by deciding on my own actions, rather than getting to the end by following directions.