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When did the whole "get knocked over" thing start in games?

tokie

tokie

Golden Member
As in, your character gets knocked to the ground. For example, this happens in Unreal Tournament 3, Dead Space, etc. It seems now to be accompanied by "spam _x_ button to free yourself from monster or get up quicker".

It really annoys me since it adds nothing to the game but I suppose the developers feel it is more "genuine" than a player that doesn't fall over. What's next, tripping over logs in games? Why can't developers just focus on actual good gameplay mechanics and level design instead of worrying about stupid stuff like this?
 
When I get shot with a shotgun I'd like to think the impact had some kind of effect, otherwise you're just a walking tank.
 
I hate those boss battles where you have to recognize a button that appears, mentally process the action, then push the corresponding button in a FRACTION OF A SECOND or you will lose the boss battle or take a hit that drains 90% of your health or something absurd.

...and then wait 5 minutes during a great looking cutscene only to realize that you just missed the SECOND fractional second button press and now have to start all over. ARG!

Button mashing is not fun!
 
These features were implemented when game developers ran out of ideas that were actually fun.
 
BD231 said:
When I get shot with a shotgun I'd like to think the impact had some kind of effect, otherwise you're just a walking tank.
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In order for someone to get blown backwards the shooter would have to get blown back just the same.
 
Nik said:
I hate those boss battles where you have to recognize a button that appears, mentally process the action, then push the corresponding button in a FRACTION OF A SECOND or you will lose the boss battle or take a hit that drains 90% of your health or something absurd.

...and then wait 5 minutes during a great looking cutscene only to realize that you just missed the SECOND fractional second button press and now have to start all over. ARG!

Button mashing is not fun!
Click to expand...

I abhor QTEs as well, but they are kind of the opposite of button mashing.
 
I think MechWarrior 3 introduced a knockdown system rather effectively.

Overload a mechs' gyro stabiliser systems with a lovely blast of AC/20 and watch it reel and fall over. Pew Pew some more for a tasty reactor explosion.
 
Entity23 said:
In order for someone to get blown backwards the shooter would have to get blown back just the same.
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Until people in Holloywood decide shot gun blasts don't send people flying through the air, or every day joes can no longer turn into a prince of Persia and ride 2 ton boulders like surf boards over a sand avalanche, or people can slow time enough to dodge bullets I doubt we'll see any changes.

Being that gaming is largely fantasy driven in all, thanks for the wake up call 😕
 
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Entity23 said:
In order for someone to get blown backwards the shooter would have to get blown back just the same.
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All projectile(s) shot by real manly men explode on impact, and that's where the force acting on the target comes from. 😛
 
Nik said:
I hate those boss battles where you have to recognize a button that appears, mentally process the action, then push the corresponding button in a FRACTION OF A SECOND or you will lose the boss battle or take a hit that drains 90% of your health or something absurd.

...and then wait 5 minutes during a great looking cutscene only to realize that you just missed the SECOND fractional second button press and now have to start all over. ARG!

Button mashing is not fun!
Click to expand...

Something like God of War series right? If so, then I agree.

I think having to watch out for a string of buttons to hit at the right time detracts you from enjoying the epic fight scene and the surroundings. You become to focused on the next button to press in the sequence b/c if you miss it, you lose a ton of health or die, etc.

I remember playing God of War on PSP and every time there was a big boss fight, I would start focusing on Kratos doing his moves and the cool choreographed scene , but then I'd get knocked off b/c I missed the next button to hit.
 
I'm not sure when this was first implemented in the manner you describe. I recall something similar in Blood. When you were killed there was a chance you'd drop into limbo/half death. I recall the character was on his knees with a literal through and through hole is his torso at that point. Your view went into drunk mode. You then tapped your spacebar rapidly to revive to a living low health state, during which time other players could finish you off. It was a rather silly mechanic, although it sort of made since in that game since Caleb was basically undead.
 
God I remember that happening on the Commodore C-64! You'd get knocked down, fall off your skis, etc and would have to spam the joystick to get back up.
 
I remember playing a baseball game (on NES I think) where if you ran a player into a wall they would fall down along with their pants.

Or their pants might have just fell down, I don't remember this was over 12 years ago.
 
It's been around forever. Remember the classic NES era side scrollers. You'd get hit and knocked backwards, usually into a bottomless pit.
 
On a somewhat related note - I liked how the pygmies in Borderlands would get knocked down from their own shotgun recoil. 🙂
 
DangerAardvark said:
So some time in 2005?
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While my comment was more in jest, I'll agree, why not. 😉

I have to say, I'm much more concerned about health regen and whack a mole cover based combat. The aforementioned feature seems to plays into that era of game design however, so it still annoys me.
 
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