How RPGs Were A 30-Year Detour

[Roguey]

Whoa, deja vu. This is like that thing DW Bradley was talkingabout before he dropped his Dungeon Lords dreck.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

WELL WELL WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE

http://beefjack.com/features/hunted-the ... 60-ps3-pc/

You’ll have heard it already: “Gears of Warcraft.” It’s a gag that’s done the rounds plenty since Hunted was revealed earlier this year, and you have to say it’s apt. This is a co-operative, third-person, cover-based shooter, built in Unreal Engine 3; one which eschews the grainy, gritty greys of Gears and replaces them with a lush fantasy land.

“We’ve been dreaming of re-imagining the fantasy genre for quite a long time,” reveals Matt Findley, president of developer InXile. It’s the game they’ve wanted to make since long before the technology was available, he says – but the Gears of War feel is inescapable, and it’s the elephant in the room. I can’t help but ask about it.

Findley smiles. “Yeah, the press have been calling it ‘Gears of Warcraft’,” he nods. “Gears of War is a great game. The comparison is fine. But we hope there’s more to it than that.” It’s not just about combat, is the line: it’s also about puzzles, and about exploring a world.

In practice, that exploration feels limited. In a speck of influence from classic dungeon-crawlers, there’ll be sections of Hunted in which you can deviate from the main path and pick up some added extras, benefiting in some light way. But the really noticeable difference between Hunted and its cover-based companions is a newly instated focus on melee combat, which in theory sits neatly alongside its ranged equivalent.

However, it’s a little less smooth. Ranged fighting – with either magic or with bows and arrows – packs a comparable punch to Gears of War, and the cover system is utilised well, by which I mean ‘identically’. A press of the A button (assuming you’re playing on 360, as I have been) snaps you behind a chest-high wall, and the left trigger pops up up and takes aim. Melee is a more standard button-bashing affair, though, and while it still feels as brutal as it should, the simplicity of it is perhaps a tiny bit disappointing.

For the best chance of success you’ll need to take advantage of both, and also play up to the strengths and weaknesses of the two co-op characters: big, burly, sword-wielding Caddoc, and scantily-clad archer Elara. Each foe has its own set of characteristics, which will often mean players need to work together to bring them down with their own unique abilities.

You’ll also be able to switch around. “Playing as Caddoc and Elara is a very different experience,” says Matt, “so we figured players would want to experience playing as each character in the game.” To that end, InXile have allowed for character-swapping at each checkpoint, meaning players can flip back and forth at regular intervals throughout Hunted.

It’s a nice idea, and one that should help to keep things fresh. Both characters are equally adept at magic, but their combat differences and subtle character traits are more diverse. It’s a nice touch – but I hope we’ll see a little more variety to the world itself. “Theres a fair amount of dungeon crawling, as you’d expect, but we didn’t want to limit to dungeons,” says Matt. “We wanted to push our primary concept of these amazing vistas and great views.” But it’s still all very traditional, albeit certainly very pretty, fantasy tropes.

And if there’s one thing I really have a problem with – moreso than the generic fiction, and the worrying instability of the build on show (though it is pre-alpha) – it’s the dialogue. In my pad, I have written “Not quite sure what these accents are supposed to be.” I think it’s sort of generic fantasy British that these guys are supposed to be speaking in. But the writing is terrible, the acting often just plain bizarre. I don’t remember many times that immersion has been so completely shattered by some unfortunate videogame dialogue, and it’s something I really hope is sorted out before the game’s release at some unspecified point of next year.

Because really, there’s a lot of potential here. Gears of Warcraft it may be, but there’s a reason both those titles worked. Traditional fantasy has a lot of fans, and cover-based shooters – when done well – feel gloriously tight and punchy. And even though Hunted is undoubtedly derivative, it’s already rather a blast to play. Issues smoothed out, InXile and Bethesda could have a wildcard hit on their hands.

 

[Daemongar]

Thanks sgc_meltdown

All I got from that was that Rpg'ers are a target market with absolutely no standards.

 

[Metro]

How ironic that using the 'technology now available' always ends up in a regression of game mechanics and RPG elements. But that's just par for the course in today's society -- the more technologically progressed humanity gets the more culturally and intellectually bankrupt it becomes...

 

[Melcar]

Age of Decline.

 

[IronicNeurotic]

Even a console gamer like Yahtzee knows how shitty Gears of War is:

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/ ... ulletstorm

This sounds worse than Arcania.

 

[Ruprekt]

feel gloriously tight and punchy

wut?

 

[The_Pope]

There needs to be a FAGcodex for fans of fantasy action games.

 

[Serious_Business]

I drink all your delicious tears

 

[Melcar]

I don't want more of this motherfucking crying game.

 

[sgc_meltdown]

I drink all your delicious tears

 

[Micmu]

Massive trainwreck detected.

 

[commie]

feel gloriously tight and punchy

wut?

Like his ass.

 

[CrimsonAngel]

You know what.

He is to afraid to admit that he is making a standard 3rd person hack and slash and is trying to be all hipster and edgy by proclaim him some kind of savior of us RPG plebes.

IF only there where a form of games out there that where real time and full of action. Like some kind of Action game.

 

[MetalCraze]

The InXile guy is a retard.

But Codex is still full of hypocritical assholes who buy Mass Effect & Co (and even their DLCs) - and yet bitch about the article.

It's like that because of you too.

Bros.

 

[commie]

Do you ever look at things in context? No-one is bitching at him making an action game. People are bitching at his completely fucked reasoning. Bioware at least with ME didn't suddenly come out and proclaim that TB RPG's were actually trying to achieve what its dating simulator had done, but couldn't because it wasn't possible.

 

[MetalCraze]

ME series are no different from what this guy promotes.

So I guess it's OK if they sell you a cutscene-action crap if they don't tell you that it's a cutscene-action crap?



...Ah I think I understand the problem. The problem is when this kind of marketing happens (even though the game is going to be a medieval Mass Effect regardless) - between the lines it just points out to the Codex that they are in the same wagon as "dumb consoletards".

And it hurts.

 

[Darkforge]

FUUUUUUUUU

I have been a lurker of this site for a couple of years now, and this pissed me off so much I had to register just to post this ....

 

[mondblut]

Newsflash from inXile: Pong was a turn-based game.

 

[deus101]

Baldur's Gate:Dark Alliance 1 & 2
Champions of Norrath 1 & 2
Hunted: The Demon's Forge

We need more games like these. My favorite sub-genre by far. Unfortunately, with the emphasis on Co-Op it has limited its audience even further. Fortunately, I'm still within that audience... but I wish they focused more on the decision to create a game that would be, at best, a AAA niche cult-classic.

That sounds insulting, but it's not. Our industry is treading into mass appeal which I think is ruining the overall quality of games. You see all major (and even mid-grade) manufacturers running one way, and here's inXile running in the complete opposite direction. They want to take their target audience and blow them out of the water as opposed to giving a lukewarm experience for all.

I'm really interested in the financial aspect of this decision. They have my respect for taking such a risky approach. I wish more people would consider it. I hope it pays out for them.

Ok...this...is salt in the wound.

 

[Gondolin]

feel gloriously tight and punchy

wut?

Like his ass.

Yeah, those words kinda jumped at me from the webpage. What the fuck is "tight and punchy" supposed to mean?

 

[commie]

ME series are no different from what this guy promotes.

So I guess it's OK if they sell you a cutscene-action crap if they don't tell you that it's a cutscene-action crap?



...Ah I think I understand the problem. The problem is when this kind of marketing happens (even though the game is going to be a medieval Mass Effect regardless) - between the lines it just points out to the Codex that they are in the same wagon as "dumb consoletards".

And it hurts.

Bullshit. It has nothing to do with that and you fucking know it. Yet again you ignore reality so you can fit your own bullshit world view.

I reiterate: people are not whining at them making a console action game. They are complaining about the fucker trying to suggest that no-one really wanted TB games but instead wanted this type of thing, only it wasn't possible to have a game like this back then. We TB fans were instead FORCED by technology to play substandard TB crap until inXile showed up to liberate us from the swamps of drudgery and shitty mechanics.

 

[G.O.D]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLwAjOGQcHo

 

[Shannow]

Well, you know, we analyzed the long history of video games. I think these games always wanted to be action games at their heart. I think all those old turn-based games, it's just that's all the technology would allow.

Thinking of Dungeon Master right now... But hey, that was 1987. Perhaps he was talking about games before that. Thinking of Pong...
I'd like to rage, but I've been hearing the same nonsense for almost a decade now. Fact is: people are fucking stupid and will believe anything if it fits their worldview, no matter how many facts contradict it.

 

[janjetina]

That's what's wrong with RPG genre and gaming in general. A tendency towards convergence of genres. In other words, reduction to the lowest common denominator. Breadth instead of depth. Many features from different types of games and not a single one of them done right. Games without gameplay. It has been a few years since they passed the point where most of the games (especially alleged RPGs like Mass Effect and similar titles) are not only bad according to standards set by older, better titles, but just not fun to play.