Favorite Gaming Design Moment

[ooknabah]

In arguing my issues with Rockstar games, it occurred to me that sometimes designers manage to do things perfectly right, and those moments should be celebrated.

The one that comes immediately to mind for me is the opening of Assassin's Creed 2- Not the being born part, although that is somewhat clever and original, but the tutorial start of the game: Where you learn all your basic game play while also seeing the live of Ezio before becoming an assassin- There's a real playfulness and joy in this segment of the game, racing to the top of towers, fighting with your rivals, blowing out the candle in your lover's bedroom: While teaching you how the play the game, you're also shown the world that is ripped away from Ezio and when it is taken away, you miss it as well. As he laments it's passing, so do you. It also serves perfectly to make him a relateable, likable, protagonist whose goals you instantly sympathize with and share.

As I played through that section of the game, I did so with a smile on my face, both enjoying the lightness and marveling at the way the designers has brought me so high in order to take me so low, right along with the hero.

Any others spring immediately to mind?

 

[putowtin]

I

The one that comes immediately to mind for me is the opening of Assassin's Creed 2

As I played through that section of the game, I did so with a smile on my face, both enjoying the lightness and marveling at the way the designers has brought me so high in order to take me so low, right along with the hero.

Ninja'd by the OP, damn!

On other that springs to mind is the opening of inFamous, it's a small thing but when you start a new game you see Empire City, all bright and shinny, with those two magical words on screen, press start. When you do you trigger the massive explosion that rocks the city, you are responsible for the Empire City Blast!

 

[AD-Stu]

The intro to Mass Effect 2 did a lot for me - here's the Normandy, the ship you know and love from the first game, with the crew you know and love from the first game, getting blown to pieces right before your eyes, everything's chaos, there's the beautiful moment right in the middle when you hit the cabin that's exposed to space and everything goes silent and peaceful until you make it to the cockpit. Then it's back to shouting and chaos, and you save Joker's life just in time to lose your own. The whole sequence was perfectly executed IMO.

 

[skywolfblue]

The one that comes immediately to mind for me is the opening of Assassin's Creed 2- Not the being born part, although that is somewhat clever and original, but the tutorial start of the game: Where you learn all your basic game play while also seeing the live of Ezio before becoming an assassin- There's a real playfulness and joy in this segment of the game, racing to the top of towers, fighting with your rivals, blowing out the candle in your lover's bedroom: While teaching you how the play the game, you're also shown the world that is ripped away from Ezio and when it is taken away, you miss it as well. As he laments it's passing, so do you. It also serves perfectly to make him a relateable, likable, protagonist whose goals you instantly sympathize with and share.

One small touch that kind of sealed the whole deal was that lopsided smile of Ezio's. That little smile just drove everything home and pretty much instantly made me like the character and the game.

Forget hyper-detailed models and advanced blurry lighting effects, give me a believable smile and I will find it realistic and be immersed.