I've been playing fps games since Wolfenstein 3d.. and I've noticed one thing about them - it's what makes me get bored of them quickly.. They are wayy too linear today.
Half Life 2 was a great game - but it's not like you could ever complete things in a different order.. or snipe when you're supposed to rambo.. Half Life 1 allowed you to do a few things out of order (at least how I remember it)..
Far Cry was the recent exception.. you have vast areas that can be conquered in any order.. with any method you like. I played each level more than once.. sometimes rambo-style and sometimes stealth..
But even Doom was less linear than Doom 3.. Quake less linear than Quake 2.. A big one is Deus Ex.. Deus Ex 2 was horrible compared to Deus Ex. (I blame most of that fact on Deus Ex 2 being primarily built for consoles instead of the PC.) Unreal was vast and open - an exploratory and 'scare the living crap out of you' experience. Unreal 2 was a like a movie.. totally linear.
It seems to me that games are giving less freedom and trying to be more like movies.. But I don't wanna play a damn movie! A good example of these is the Max Payne series..
IMO, part of what made the GTA 3+ games so fun to play is that they're non-linear.. You can do whatever the hell you want. That's the kind of freedom I want in a game.
It's not like it's hard to make an open FPS game as opposed to an 'all the wrong doors locked' game. Just make vast maps and put objects at random all over them. Make people backtrack.. make AI see other dead AI and respond to it. Geez.. come on game developers.
CLIFF NOTES:
- beer is good
Half Life 2 was a great game - but it's not like you could ever complete things in a different order.. or snipe when you're supposed to rambo.. Half Life 1 allowed you to do a few things out of order (at least how I remember it)..
Far Cry was the recent exception.. you have vast areas that can be conquered in any order.. with any method you like. I played each level more than once.. sometimes rambo-style and sometimes stealth..
But even Doom was less linear than Doom 3.. Quake less linear than Quake 2.. A big one is Deus Ex.. Deus Ex 2 was horrible compared to Deus Ex. (I blame most of that fact on Deus Ex 2 being primarily built for consoles instead of the PC.) Unreal was vast and open - an exploratory and 'scare the living crap out of you' experience. Unreal 2 was a like a movie.. totally linear.
It seems to me that games are giving less freedom and trying to be more like movies.. But I don't wanna play a damn movie! A good example of these is the Max Payne series..
IMO, part of what made the GTA 3+ games so fun to play is that they're non-linear.. You can do whatever the hell you want. That's the kind of freedom I want in a game.
It's not like it's hard to make an open FPS game as opposed to an 'all the wrong doors locked' game. Just make vast maps and put objects at random all over them. Make people backtrack.. make AI see other dead AI and respond to it. Geez.. come on game developers.
CLIFF NOTES:
- beer is good
