(no subject)
May. 31st, 2021 01:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
There’s this thing that happens to a lot of game series, where the first game in the series has overcomplicated, kinda user-hostile mechanics. Sometimes it’s too much number-crunching, other times it’s an excessive focus on “realism.” It’s interesting and not like a lot of other games, but it’s also difficult and sometimes unfun.
Then the sequel comes around, and they throw most of that out the window to “appeal to a wider audience.” Stats and skill trees are drastically simplified, tactical options are reduced, points of failure are more forgiving, and you spend a lot more time killing people in ways that look stylish and awesome. And it’s fun to play, but I feel like it was a bit too much of a course-correction. Some of the original stuff made the game unique, and I think it could have been fixed rather than abandoned.
(You might think of Mass Effect, but what happened to Mass Effect was mild compared to Brothers in Arms. I’ve been told Splinter Cell got it even worse.)
Then the sequel comes around, and they throw most of that out the window to “appeal to a wider audience.” Stats and skill trees are drastically simplified, tactical options are reduced, points of failure are more forgiving, and you spend a lot more time killing people in ways that look stylish and awesome. And it’s fun to play, but I feel like it was a bit too much of a course-correction. Some of the original stuff made the game unique, and I think it could have been fixed rather than abandoned.
(You might think of Mass Effect, but what happened to Mass Effect was mild compared to Brothers in Arms. I’ve been told Splinter Cell got it even worse.)