Wash, rinse, repeat...

[ajbell]

"...All you need to do is follow this map, dig up the treasure, and it's yours!"

Because that's always how it works, right? You NEVER get jumped by a group of thugs just after digging up the treasure. Well, maybe that once. Or twice. Or every frickin' time you even go near a shovel shop. Games need new mechanics (and not in the "escort missions suck" sense, but in the "surprise! He's not really dead!" sense). Is anyone really surprised these days when a "capture this bloke" mission involves some sort of "unplanned" chase? Or when a boss appears to have run out of health, only to mutate into an even more deadly version of themselves?

So here's my question, what's been overused in your book, and what do we replace them with? (And yes, I know that's technically two questions.) Or, are there times when you have been genuinely surprised by a plot/level twist? (Psychonauts excepted!)

 

[Kermi]

Eh, the fact is there isn't a better way to balance pacing, story and challenge without falling back on certain stalwarts that have served us for the past 20 years or so.

My only annoyance (which has resurfaced with Devil May Cry 4) is when you fight against a boss, nail him for the entire fight, take him down to nil health while you're still rocking a full bar (not to mention pockets full of magical health stars and orbs that resurrect you instantly upon death) only to have him make a completely inappropriate comeback and pin you instantly in one shot, thereby making his escape in order to progress the story. This sums up every fight Nero has with a named character (i.e.: Not the totally awesome yet still generic fire boss, the doggy-as-hell ice boss, and the laughably easy back-up summoning boss).

 

[PurpleRain]

RAGEING BIG MASS EFFECT SPOILER DON'T LOOK

While fighting Seren was absolutly cool in Mass Effect, who didn't think that after killing him he will mutate into a cyborg when he said that he had 'upgrades' done on him. I think it ruined the game a little bit. I would have liked it better when your team mate shot him in the head and it was all over. The glass sticking out of his chest was a good effect to. He should have just stayed dead. Also, I hear that every boss in Resident Evil is pretty much a mutant or a person that turns into a mutant. C'mon Capcom. Mix it up for once.

 

[ajbell]

Eh, the fact is there isn't a better way to balance pacing, story and challenge without falling back on certain stalwarts that have served us for the past 20 years or so.

There must be. Surely. We're still getting novel ideas and twists in books, and they've been around a lot longer than games. I can't believe we've had our lot in games already. (That said, I can't actualy think of one, but if I could, I'd be writing games, not forum entries I suppose.)

And yeah, Mass Effect is a classic "surprise" moment. I'd forgoten about that.

 

[Niccolo]

*Holds up hand* Detours. "Just go to this roo-Oh shoot, look at that. The first, second and third most direct routes are blocked! I guess you'll just have to take the forty-kilometre detour!"

GRAGH. That one bugs me. I agree, sometimes it's good. But when it happens so often that you can predict it, it's kinda sad. Actually... Ever played Golden Sun: The Lost Age ? The detour thing was so common there is became funny. Every time you wanted to get to the right in a maze, always go left.

 

[Niccolo]

Why is it that game developers seem to make a perfectly fun part of a game, Then add some complex elements to cock the whole thing up. It's like baking a cake, putting it on a window sill to admire it, then suddenly bashing it with a hammer and throwing it at some poor passer by.

And I couldn't have put it better myself.

 

[Irrok the Wide]

The thing I can't stand the most is when you beat a game and your character is YOLKED to the max. Then you buy the sequal and have to start over as a scrawny twit. How can you be the savior one day and devoid of an immune system the next?

I say the answer is reasonable. Sell the sequal at a higher price (~$10-$20) and pack-in the original game. So if you're a new player you can start from scratch. If you've beaten the 1st game your save file lets you build on what you already have.

I'm talking about you Metroid (***** Goddess that giveth and taketh away)

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

Samus: *trips on a rock*

Power Ups: *fall into a grating*

Samus: Noooo! My power-ups!


Anyone who gets the reference wins.

 

[windfish]

Samus: *trips on a rock*

Power Ups: *fall into a grating*

Samus: Noooo! My power-ups!


Anyone who gets the reference wins.

The Decline of Video Gaming, good sir

EDIT: (I shall be expecting my reward)

 

[windfish]

Or, are there times when you have been genuinely surprised by a plot/level twist? (Psychonauts excepted!)

Hokay, Golden Sun vs. Golden Sun: The Lost Age.
**SPOILERS***
BOINGO
BOINGO
WHOOPSIE
KNICKERS
In the first game, you play as a group of folk, fighting fiercely (Or as fiercely as you can in the Turn-Based RPG combat system) to prevent the elemental lighthouses from being lit, and mercilessly destroy two antagonists. In the next game, you play the remnants of the antagonist group, which includes friends of the first group, still trying to light the lighthouses. It's only after half the game has gone by that you realize that for the entirety of the first game, you were on completely the wrong side.

**SPOILERS END***

Also, anybody who hasn't played Zelda: Link's Awakening, go find it at GameStop or something, (The DX version is preferable so you don't feel like it's the 50s), pop it in your GBA, and don't look up anything on the internet. It's seriously the very best Zelda plot line to leave Hyrule, and contains some interesting intellectual quandaries.

 

[laikenf]

Samus: *trips on a rock*

Power Ups: *fall into a grating*

Samus: Noooo! My power-ups!


Anyone who gets the reference wins.

that doesn't happen in Metroid Prime 3 though.

 

[Copter400]

How about no more stealth sequences? Leave them to the stealth games. And stealth games shouldn't give you so many guns.

I didn't like Splinter Cell, and not just because I hate stealth. It gave you all this powerful weaponry, "but be very, very quiet. We're hunting for a terrorist!"

 

[windfish]

Dear Game Developers:

Mysterious Hero with Amnesia no longer does it for me. In fact, it never did.

 

[The Q]

I'm sorry, but I'm really getting tired of the abstract and seeming ethereal sensibilities that we seem to find so often in Japanese video games. I know...I know the followers of the Atlus Cult, the worshipers of Square Soft (throwback), and the minions of Nis, are going to flame me and wait outside my house so they can beat me about the head and shoulders with bats that have the words "Disgea" emblazed along the side, but seriously, give me story. I'm tired of my heroes having amnesia, I'm tired of an unspeakable darkness roiling on the horizon, and if I have to toss up one more tent to get all my people health...I may just run myself through with a gunblade.

For all my complaining I'll still go back, I'll still sit down and play Lost Odyssey and I'll still probably buy anything that the big RPG houses push out of their birthing canals, but I long for something different in the RPG arena, I long for a story that I haven't played through on some level, I long for originality. Maybe I'm a fool to want such things...but a fool can still dream.

 

[ChrisP.Lettuce]

Ok in case there is someone who hasn't played Starcraft........
Spoiler:



When Arcturas left Kerrigan on the planet to be consumed by the zerg totally threw me off.

Oh yeah, and when for the entire Terran Campaign you think Zerg was created by the humans, only to find out we're all just little playtoys of the Protoss. Yummy stuff.

SPOILER OVER.

As for mechanics I think that can have some lemon juice squeezed in their non-exsistant eyes. Uneccessary timers. My most ready example is in PoP : The Two Thrones. When you are "dark prince" Your life is constantly being drained unless you are killing things with slow clunky lame combat. I got about 12 seconds into the first dark section and never touched the game again. You'd think they would have just understood in the first game that people played it for the adventure and platforming, since the combat sucked a big fat cocksicle.

 

[monodiabloloco]

I'm sorry, but I'm really getting tired of the abstract and seeming ethereal sensibilities that we seem to find so often in Japanese video games. I know...I know the followers of the Atlus Cult, the worshipers of Square Soft (throwback), and the minions of Nis, are going to flame me and wait outside my house so they can beat me about the head and shoulders with bats that have the words "Disgea" emblazed along the side, but seriously, give me story. I'm tired of my heroes having amnesia, I'm tired of an unspeakable darkness roiling on the horizon, and if I have to toss up one more tent to get all my people health...I may just run myself through with a gunblade.

For all my complaining I'll still go back, I'll still sit down and play Lost Odyssey and I'll still probably buy anything that the big RPG houses push out of their birthing canals, but I long for something different in the RPG arena, I long for a story that I haven't played through on some level, I long for originality. Maybe I'm a fool to want such things...but a fool can still dream.

I know this may be a stupid question, but have you played fallout 1,2?

 

[Haliwali]

RAGEING BIG MASS EFFECT SPOILER DON'T LOOK

While fighting Seren was absolutly cool in Mass Effect, who didn't think that after killing him he will mutate into a cyborg when he said that he had 'upgrades' done on him. I think it ruined the game a little bit. I would have liked it better when your team mate shot him in the head and it was all over. The glass sticking out of his chest was a good effect to. He should have just stayed dead. Also, I hear that every boss in Resident Evil is pretty much a mutant or a person that turns into a mutant. C'mon Capcom. Mix it up for once.

Thank you. Everyone take his example on how to make it known you're spoiling. I was able to do this without ruining any of the game for me.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

MILD SPOILERISH ALERT FOR SKIES OF ARCADIA, KNIGHTS O' THE OL' REPUBLIC, MEGAMAN X6, AND RESIDENT EVIL: CODE VERONICA


.
.

- A character is about to die at the hands of a villain, only to be saved at the last possible second. What I'd like to see is a character you have to go and save, only you arrive a few minutes too late (or early)

- A villain character starts off as the protagonist's archnemesis, but then joins forces with him in a sequel to fight against a greater threat (see: Super Paper Mario, Warcraft 3, X-Men Legends 2)

- The antagonist makes a surprise appearance before the inevitable final showdown and you have no choice but to lose to/run away from them in order to progress through the story (see: Galcian-Skies of Arcadia, Darth Malak-KOTOR)

- A character "dies" without giving ANY hint that they might still be alive, only to inexplicably pull a Zero (See: Megaman X6, Resident Evil: Code Veronica)

 

[The Irrelevant Gamer]

The thing I can't stand the most is when you beat a game and your character is YOLKED to the max. Then you buy the sequal and have to start over as a scrawny twit. How can you be the savior one day and devoid of an immune system the next?

I say the answer is reasonable. Sell the sequal at a higher price (~$10-$20) and pack-in the original game. So if you're a new player you can start from scratch. If you've beaten the 1st game your save file lets you build on what you already have.

I'm talking about you Metroid (***** Goddess that giveth and taketh away)

There's really no need for the higher price, or packing in the first game. The second game should just access your save file from the first. Baldur's Gate II did this eight years ago, and with consoles having memory cards, and hard drives now there is no reason they can't do the same.

For me the lamest plot device in games is the villain who escapes despite the fact you just spent ten minutes murdering the bastard. If the villain is going to escape at the end of the fight at least orchestrate the battle to reflect that. This "you just beat my ass, but I'm still out of your league because I wasn't using my full powers so I'll leave now" shit has got to go.