Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth is the latest game in the Ace Attorney series; a very amusing series of adventure games in which you play an anime-style defense attorney in search of the truth, which consists of both searching for clues in crime scenes as well as defending your clients in court. In this game, however, there is no court aspect; despite the fact that they mixed things up by have you play as the prosecutor from the first 3 games, Miles Edgeworth, you do not actually do any prosecuting. Instead, you simply investigate crime scenes and confront the criminals. This is my first complaint about the game - if a prosecutor is the star, then he should be prosecuting, not doing detective work.
In another change from the standard Ace Attorney gameplay, the investigation parts of the game are conducted from a third-person view, rather than a first-person view. This, I believe, was a good choice - it makes the game feel a little more open, which is something that previous Ace Attorney games lacked. However, it also removed the ability to move freely between areas, which I think was a poor move - when you're investigating an area, that's really the only area you can go to, and you very rarely have to move between areas in the middle of an investigation, though you may after talking to someone to get new information.
The interrogation/rebuttal portions of the game, where you accuse potential criminals or are generally trying to get more information out of people are basically the exact same as they were in previous games - you go through a series of statements, have the option to get more information about each statement, and when you see a contradiction between your evidence and the statement, you present your evidence to point out that contradiction and to advance the game. It's not a bad system, but it's basically unchanged since the first Ace Attorney game, and still occasionally has moments of unintuitiveness.
This game also included a "Logic Mode," which I really enjoyed - Miles Edgeworth is a lot more methodical and less slapdash than the usual main character, Phoenix Wright, for whom a logic mode would not have been in character. However, one of my complaints is that what became a piece of evidence and what became a bit of logic felt quite arbitrary - some integration between logic mode and your evidence would have been nice.
But the real reason to play Ace Attorney games is for the characters, who are universally entertaining, and often hilarious; as well as for the plot. The characters in this game definitely didn't disappoint - Edgeworth was his usual stoic, straight-man self, detective gumshoe was as lovably unhelpful as ever, and all the other characters filled their roles quite well. The plot of the various cases (and overarching plot) was quite entertaining as well. There were, of course, a few hiccups - the final confrontation with the main villain at the end dragged on for ages, for example. But in general, it was very well done.
All in all a good game, but not without its flaws.
Things to learn:
-Don't change things for the sake of change if something works.
-That said, don't allow something to remain stagnant over the course of 5 games.
-Entertaining characters and an intriguing plot can compensate for "eh" gameplay; similarly, gameplay can be relatively simplistic and still end up with an entertaining game.
-Giving hints to solve puzzles, especially puzzles of the "look everywhere until you find something" variety, is a good idea, at least if a player appears stuck.
-Make sure any logic that you require the player to use is sound.
-If the main character has a profession, make sure that he actually uses, especially in a story-centric game.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Review: Elite Beat Agents
Elite Beat Agents is a very interesting game. It's a rhythm game in which you tap little circles that appear on the bottom screen of the DS in time with music. It sounds very simple - and to an extent, it really is a very simple game. The gameplay itself could almost be a minigame in another game. But Elite Beat Agents has several different things going for it that make it into a full-fledged - and very fun - game.
1. Humor. While you're busy tapping along with the song, the agents are dancing in the background of the bottom screen, and funny stuff is happening on the top screen depending on how well you're doing. Each level has its own plot - someone (or some animal) needs help, and the agents appear and inspire them with song and dance. The situations, what happens during the level, and what happens at the end of the level all definitely serve to inspire you to beat the level, just to see what hilarious thing happens next.
2. Difficulty. The difficulty curve in this game is very good. Levels range from quite easy to nigh-impossible, and there are rewards for high scores (which often require nigh-perfection) on top of that. The curve itself, like I said, is also very good - the levels start easy and ramp up, and as you learn the mechanics of the game and just generally get more skilled, you become able to handle the harder levels that you get access too. Moreover, the rewards for doing well are good enough to keep you coming back - two harder difficulty levels, 3 hidden levels, and assorted useless but cool features, such as viewing brief cinema scenes again or watching the credits.
3. The Songs. The songs themselves are usually pretty good, and they help to keep you interested. They are, above all, catchy (expect to have them stuck in your head for days to come, especially when you have to spend a fair bit of time to beat them on higher difficulties), and though I personally disagree with some of the choices (Skater Boy...), I think that they certainly serve their purpose, and none of them are especially painful to listen to. Plus, if you already know a song going in, you can expect to do a lot better on the song than you would otherwise - I personally always found Material Girl to be easier than other songs of supposedly equal difficulty, for instance. Seeing a song you know show up is a always a pleasant surprise, though be careful - you may think you know a song, only to realize you only know the chorus - this happened to me on ABC, Canned Heat, and others.
4. General Addictive qualities. The game just keeps you coming back for more - if you keep playing over and over, you can beat basically any level, and like I said above, the songs are catchy, the humor is fantastic, and when you finally do beat a level, the sense of accomplishment is great. So basically it comes back, once again, to pacing.
Things I can learn from Elite Beat Agents:
If you infuse the game with enough other positive qualities (music, humor), the basic gameplay of a game can be quite simple and the game itself will still be great.
A good difficulty curve is key in all games, but especially rhythm games, since the only major change in gameplay in rhythm games tends to be the difficulty.
1. Humor. While you're busy tapping along with the song, the agents are dancing in the background of the bottom screen, and funny stuff is happening on the top screen depending on how well you're doing. Each level has its own plot - someone (or some animal) needs help, and the agents appear and inspire them with song and dance. The situations, what happens during the level, and what happens at the end of the level all definitely serve to inspire you to beat the level, just to see what hilarious thing happens next.
2. Difficulty. The difficulty curve in this game is very good. Levels range from quite easy to nigh-impossible, and there are rewards for high scores (which often require nigh-perfection) on top of that. The curve itself, like I said, is also very good - the levels start easy and ramp up, and as you learn the mechanics of the game and just generally get more skilled, you become able to handle the harder levels that you get access too. Moreover, the rewards for doing well are good enough to keep you coming back - two harder difficulty levels, 3 hidden levels, and assorted useless but cool features, such as viewing brief cinema scenes again or watching the credits.
3. The Songs. The songs themselves are usually pretty good, and they help to keep you interested. They are, above all, catchy (expect to have them stuck in your head for days to come, especially when you have to spend a fair bit of time to beat them on higher difficulties), and though I personally disagree with some of the choices (Skater Boy...), I think that they certainly serve their purpose, and none of them are especially painful to listen to. Plus, if you already know a song going in, you can expect to do a lot better on the song than you would otherwise - I personally always found Material Girl to be easier than other songs of supposedly equal difficulty, for instance. Seeing a song you know show up is a always a pleasant surprise, though be careful - you may think you know a song, only to realize you only know the chorus - this happened to me on ABC, Canned Heat, and others.
4. General Addictive qualities. The game just keeps you coming back for more - if you keep playing over and over, you can beat basically any level, and like I said above, the songs are catchy, the humor is fantastic, and when you finally do beat a level, the sense of accomplishment is great. So basically it comes back, once again, to pacing.
Things I can learn from Elite Beat Agents:
If you infuse the game with enough other positive qualities (music, humor), the basic gameplay of a game can be quite simple and the game itself will still be great.
A good difficulty curve is key in all games, but especially rhythm games, since the only major change in gameplay in rhythm games tends to be the difficulty.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Review: Kingdom Hearts 2
And here, after a long break, is my review for Kingdom Hearts 2.
KH2 is, unsurprisingly, very similar to KH1. The main character is (usually) the same, the supporting characters are the same, the gameplay is quite similar. The story is fairly similar as well, as least in terms of traveling from one disney world to another in order to defeat the heartless (or nobodies now, occasionally).
However, KH2 is, by and large, much more polished than the first game. First, and most obviously, the Gummi Ship levels - transition levels between larger disney worlds - are leaps and bounds above the gummi ship levels in KH1. They are no longer all drug-trip themed, the enemies you face are diverse, the gummi ship builder is more helpful and intuitive, and the rewards for doing the levels are much more... rewarding. The levels themselves are all very pretty, and very fast-paced - as it should be with a space-shooter, at least usually. All in all, the whole gummi ship system was revamped, and it shows. It's very, very fun in ways that the original wasn't - it now feels like something that design and testing time went into, and they didn't just shove it onto the main game to have something different in the main game - it is now fun, and not just different.
There are many changes within the main game as well. The combat is still largely the same (mash attack until the bad guy dies), but it has several new and shiny features. First among them is probably the "reaction command" system. Basically, every now and then, a "reaction command" will pop up - the game gives you an interesting combat option if you press triangle. These vary greatly, as anything from 'dodge' to 'grab the axe he dropped and smack him with it.' They do add depth to the system, but they can be ignored most of the time - they do make life easier for you if you do use them, though. I'm not in love with the system, though - it feels kind of limited, like they could've done some of these commands without sticking them onto a whole seperate system.
Secondarily, the magic system has been revamped. All spells other than cure cost a fixed amount of mana, and cure immediately drains all of your mana. Once your mana bar is empty, it automatically refills over a period of time. The end result of this is the opposite of what is the case in KH1 - there, every spell you cast that wasn't cure was largely a waste of mana. Here, spamming other spells is encouraged, because cure, while still the most useful spell in your arsenal, does not have a fixed cost, but simply drains all your mana. Thus, it doesn't matter how much mana you have left when you do finally cast it. It's quite a good system, I think - far better than KH1's system, anyway. The best spell is no longer the only spell you should ever cast.
A few more improvements have been made to the gameplay - one major one is the idea of forms. You can combine Sora with one or both of your party members in order gain a temporary power boost. It's quite nifty, actually - the forms are very fun, and a good addition to a varying arsenal of means of killing your enemies. It's like Star Wars: Force Unleashed - having a vast number of ways to kill your enemies makes random encounters much more interesting.
Navigating the worlds themselves is also much easier - they're much more linear, and a useful minimap has been added. Additionally, whenever you go into a zone you've never been to yet, the name displays as ????, making it easy to tell when you're walking in circles.
Additionally, the villains of KH2 are much more interesting. Organization XIII is group of sentient nobodies, each with his or her own elemental theme, bent on universal domination and generally getting in Sora's way. They are far more interesting than Riku and Ansem were in KH1, and far more personally involved in the plot.
That said, it's not all good - while there is much less getting lost in KH2, there's really not much to explore, and I do think that the various worlds do lose something for their linearity. A compromise between the two systems would probably be ideal - though I do think that KH2's system is still overall an improvement.
The actual meta-story in KH2 is also less comprehensible than that of KH1. It's not completely opaque, but certain parts could certainly stand to be clarified. Another issue is the sheer volume of story that happens in the last world - at least to me, something like 50% of the meta-plot happens in the last 3 hours of the game. The sheer volume of plot that is thrown at you, combined with the general confusion in regards to the plot itself means that while the final fight (very epic and very fun) is entertaining, just what Xemnas's (the leader of Organization XIII, and the big bad) ultimate goals were (other than generally taking over the universe) was fairly unclear.
But overall, I think that KH2 is a big step up for KH1. A great game, and if you like games in the genre, I think you should try it out.
Things to learn specifically from KH2:
Put love into parts of sequels that need it. By learning from your mistakes, you can really put polish onto a sequel and make it fantastic. The problem is that sometimes people feel the need to change things simply for change's sake in sequels - and while it's true, a sequel that changes nothing isn't a great idea, changing things that didn't work in one game and adding things onto the things that did work is the way to do it. The way to do it is to examine the previous game (and other games in the same genre, for that matter), see what it did wrong and fix it, see what it did right and put some extra oomph into those areas. I know this sounds obvious, but too many game developers, when they make a sequel, either fail to change something that didn't work in a previous game (and it therefore continues to not work in this game), or change something that did work just fine in a previous game, taking one of the great strengths of the previous game and making it weaker. One example (though admittedly, not a modern one) of the latter is Actraiser to Actraiser 2. Actraiser was a game that had elements of both platforming and sim-city in it. Both were fairly fun, and they combined into an interesting game. Actraiser 2 cut out the sim-city aspect, and it hurt the game by changing something fundamental about it for no adequate reason.
Fun minigames can be great and welcome breaks from the main game. If done well, a recurring minigame should make you look forward to subsequent sections of it for its fun. A minigame should not overwhelm you with its depth, and it CERTAINLY shouldn't force you to dive deeply into it. A minigame has the benifit, compared to the main game, of not having to be very deep, and taking advantage of that to make a quick, fun, but ultimately shallow minigame is not a bad design idea. That said, minigame depth in general can be a tricky issue, and one that I'll look into on a later date. Lufia 2's Ancient Cave is an example of a very deep minigame done well, for example.
KH2 is, unsurprisingly, very similar to KH1. The main character is (usually) the same, the supporting characters are the same, the gameplay is quite similar. The story is fairly similar as well, as least in terms of traveling from one disney world to another in order to defeat the heartless (or nobodies now, occasionally).
However, KH2 is, by and large, much more polished than the first game. First, and most obviously, the Gummi Ship levels - transition levels between larger disney worlds - are leaps and bounds above the gummi ship levels in KH1. They are no longer all drug-trip themed, the enemies you face are diverse, the gummi ship builder is more helpful and intuitive, and the rewards for doing the levels are much more... rewarding. The levels themselves are all very pretty, and very fast-paced - as it should be with a space-shooter, at least usually. All in all, the whole gummi ship system was revamped, and it shows. It's very, very fun in ways that the original wasn't - it now feels like something that design and testing time went into, and they didn't just shove it onto the main game to have something different in the main game - it is now fun, and not just different.
There are many changes within the main game as well. The combat is still largely the same (mash attack until the bad guy dies), but it has several new and shiny features. First among them is probably the "reaction command" system. Basically, every now and then, a "reaction command" will pop up - the game gives you an interesting combat option if you press triangle. These vary greatly, as anything from 'dodge' to 'grab the axe he dropped and smack him with it.' They do add depth to the system, but they can be ignored most of the time - they do make life easier for you if you do use them, though. I'm not in love with the system, though - it feels kind of limited, like they could've done some of these commands without sticking them onto a whole seperate system.
Secondarily, the magic system has been revamped. All spells other than cure cost a fixed amount of mana, and cure immediately drains all of your mana. Once your mana bar is empty, it automatically refills over a period of time. The end result of this is the opposite of what is the case in KH1 - there, every spell you cast that wasn't cure was largely a waste of mana. Here, spamming other spells is encouraged, because cure, while still the most useful spell in your arsenal, does not have a fixed cost, but simply drains all your mana. Thus, it doesn't matter how much mana you have left when you do finally cast it. It's quite a good system, I think - far better than KH1's system, anyway. The best spell is no longer the only spell you should ever cast.
A few more improvements have been made to the gameplay - one major one is the idea of forms. You can combine Sora with one or both of your party members in order gain a temporary power boost. It's quite nifty, actually - the forms are very fun, and a good addition to a varying arsenal of means of killing your enemies. It's like Star Wars: Force Unleashed - having a vast number of ways to kill your enemies makes random encounters much more interesting.
Navigating the worlds themselves is also much easier - they're much more linear, and a useful minimap has been added. Additionally, whenever you go into a zone you've never been to yet, the name displays as ????, making it easy to tell when you're walking in circles.
Additionally, the villains of KH2 are much more interesting. Organization XIII is group of sentient nobodies, each with his or her own elemental theme, bent on universal domination and generally getting in Sora's way. They are far more interesting than Riku and Ansem were in KH1, and far more personally involved in the plot.
That said, it's not all good - while there is much less getting lost in KH2, there's really not much to explore, and I do think that the various worlds do lose something for their linearity. A compromise between the two systems would probably be ideal - though I do think that KH2's system is still overall an improvement.
The actual meta-story in KH2 is also less comprehensible than that of KH1. It's not completely opaque, but certain parts could certainly stand to be clarified. Another issue is the sheer volume of story that happens in the last world - at least to me, something like 50% of the meta-plot happens in the last 3 hours of the game. The sheer volume of plot that is thrown at you, combined with the general confusion in regards to the plot itself means that while the final fight (very epic and very fun) is entertaining, just what Xemnas's (the leader of Organization XIII, and the big bad) ultimate goals were (other than generally taking over the universe) was fairly unclear.
But overall, I think that KH2 is a big step up for KH1. A great game, and if you like games in the genre, I think you should try it out.
Things to learn specifically from KH2:
Put love into parts of sequels that need it. By learning from your mistakes, you can really put polish onto a sequel and make it fantastic. The problem is that sometimes people feel the need to change things simply for change's sake in sequels - and while it's true, a sequel that changes nothing isn't a great idea, changing things that didn't work in one game and adding things onto the things that did work is the way to do it. The way to do it is to examine the previous game (and other games in the same genre, for that matter), see what it did wrong and fix it, see what it did right and put some extra oomph into those areas. I know this sounds obvious, but too many game developers, when they make a sequel, either fail to change something that didn't work in a previous game (and it therefore continues to not work in this game), or change something that did work just fine in a previous game, taking one of the great strengths of the previous game and making it weaker. One example (though admittedly, not a modern one) of the latter is Actraiser to Actraiser 2. Actraiser was a game that had elements of both platforming and sim-city in it. Both were fairly fun, and they combined into an interesting game. Actraiser 2 cut out the sim-city aspect, and it hurt the game by changing something fundamental about it for no adequate reason.
Fun minigames can be great and welcome breaks from the main game. If done well, a recurring minigame should make you look forward to subsequent sections of it for its fun. A minigame should not overwhelm you with its depth, and it CERTAINLY shouldn't force you to dive deeply into it. A minigame has the benifit, compared to the main game, of not having to be very deep, and taking advantage of that to make a quick, fun, but ultimately shallow minigame is not a bad design idea. That said, minigame depth in general can be a tricky issue, and one that I'll look into on a later date. Lufia 2's Ancient Cave is an example of a very deep minigame done well, for example.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Review: Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts
Kingdom Hearts is a fun action-RPG made by Square and Disney. It has, at its, core, the rather bizarre pairing of a typical Square hero with various Disney characters in a meta-plot that is typical Square that abounds with subplots that are straight out of Disney movies.
To clarify, you (Sora, the main character) and your two partners (Donald Duck and Goofy) go from one disney world to another (for example, Wonderland, Halloween Town, and Neverland), meeting up with characters from those movies, and defeating the enemies in those worlds. Meanwhile, you've got the meta-plot of trying to find your friends and save the universe. It sounds silly, and odd, but works amazingly well.
As for the gameplay, it's a third-person action game, along the lines of the Destroy All Humans! franchise, or, say, God of War. You directly control Sora, and Donald and Goofy (or whoever happens to be your allies at the time) tag along with you, acting on their own - though you can give them basic instructions as to when to use items, how often to use special attacks, etc. It's pretty good, though fairly one-dimensional - mashing x to hit people with your keyblade is often all you need to do to beat enemies, even bosses. There is magic, and it is useful, but the limited nature of it usually means that the spell you're going to be casting far more than any other is Cure, since the other magic, while useful, can simply be replaced by hitting people with your Keyblade.
You also have abilities that you can assign to your party members - special keyblade attacks, for example, or simple status or spell boosts, or new abilities like high-jumping or gliding. The customization aspect here is nice, but didn't really feel like it was all that it could be. Your choices never felt like they made that much of a difference. Still, it's something.
The enviroments also are worth noting - they are very pretty, and quite true to the movies that they are based on. However, they are huge, and often labyrinthine - you spend lots and lots of time wandering around the worlds, looking for that next place to go. Some people applaud the world design of Kingdom Hearts (at least compared to Kingdom Hearts 2), saying that the exploration of the Disney worlds was fun and cool - however, I like having a more set path to follow in my games. Exploration is all well and good, but getting lost and wandering around until you find what you need to do should be a gaming trope that no longer exists.
There's also the Gummi ship levels - levels that happen between worlds that are reminiscent of Star Fox. They're all right, but not really all that fun, at least to me. All the gummi levels felt the same, and I never really felt any incentive to play them over again. There's also gummi ship customization, which is nice, but I never really saw the draw of it, as there were no real objectives to gummi-shipping other than to get from point A to point B. The levels themselves all were very similar graphics-wise (a technicolor background with occasional rocks, rings, or other obstacles) and didn't really vary gameplay-wise either.
There's not that much more to talk about - the story is good, and very true to its sources, and the gameplay is fun, if frustrating or one-dimensional at times. Overall, a solid, fun game with a few moderately-sized flaws.
Things to learn:
Mixing atmospheres (Square and Disney) can work surprisingly well! As with Paper Mario, the idea to take away from this is that anything can work if it's done well, no matter how crazy it might sound.
Making your gameplay fast-paced is often a good thing. Fast combat is fun, more often than not, in my opinion.
Providing multiple viable options in combat makes combat more fun. Kingdom Hearts doesn't offer enough options - compare this to, say, The Force Unleashed, where you have many different viable options to kill mooks. The latter really gets quite a bit of milage out of its gameplay, whereas Kingdom Hearts really does start to wear thin towards the end in its "press x until the bad guy dies" style of gameplay.
If you're going to make transitionary levels (such as gummi ship levels), make them interesting. Don't just slap something in there to make your gameplay more diverse. You want them to be fun, good breaks that don't necessesarily need to be as deep as the main gameplay. What I'm trying to say is that these sorts of levels (and mini-games in general) should be both fun and different, not just different. It sounds obvious, but too many mini-game type things try to make things just different and forget to make them fun.
Kingdom Hearts is a fun action-RPG made by Square and Disney. It has, at its, core, the rather bizarre pairing of a typical Square hero with various Disney characters in a meta-plot that is typical Square that abounds with subplots that are straight out of Disney movies.
To clarify, you (Sora, the main character) and your two partners (Donald Duck and Goofy) go from one disney world to another (for example, Wonderland, Halloween Town, and Neverland), meeting up with characters from those movies, and defeating the enemies in those worlds. Meanwhile, you've got the meta-plot of trying to find your friends and save the universe. It sounds silly, and odd, but works amazingly well.
As for the gameplay, it's a third-person action game, along the lines of the Destroy All Humans! franchise, or, say, God of War. You directly control Sora, and Donald and Goofy (or whoever happens to be your allies at the time) tag along with you, acting on their own - though you can give them basic instructions as to when to use items, how often to use special attacks, etc. It's pretty good, though fairly one-dimensional - mashing x to hit people with your keyblade is often all you need to do to beat enemies, even bosses. There is magic, and it is useful, but the limited nature of it usually means that the spell you're going to be casting far more than any other is Cure, since the other magic, while useful, can simply be replaced by hitting people with your Keyblade.
You also have abilities that you can assign to your party members - special keyblade attacks, for example, or simple status or spell boosts, or new abilities like high-jumping or gliding. The customization aspect here is nice, but didn't really feel like it was all that it could be. Your choices never felt like they made that much of a difference. Still, it's something.
The enviroments also are worth noting - they are very pretty, and quite true to the movies that they are based on. However, they are huge, and often labyrinthine - you spend lots and lots of time wandering around the worlds, looking for that next place to go. Some people applaud the world design of Kingdom Hearts (at least compared to Kingdom Hearts 2), saying that the exploration of the Disney worlds was fun and cool - however, I like having a more set path to follow in my games. Exploration is all well and good, but getting lost and wandering around until you find what you need to do should be a gaming trope that no longer exists.
There's also the Gummi ship levels - levels that happen between worlds that are reminiscent of Star Fox. They're all right, but not really all that fun, at least to me. All the gummi levels felt the same, and I never really felt any incentive to play them over again. There's also gummi ship customization, which is nice, but I never really saw the draw of it, as there were no real objectives to gummi-shipping other than to get from point A to point B. The levels themselves all were very similar graphics-wise (a technicolor background with occasional rocks, rings, or other obstacles) and didn't really vary gameplay-wise either.
There's not that much more to talk about - the story is good, and very true to its sources, and the gameplay is fun, if frustrating or one-dimensional at times. Overall, a solid, fun game with a few moderately-sized flaws.
Things to learn:
Mixing atmospheres (Square and Disney) can work surprisingly well! As with Paper Mario, the idea to take away from this is that anything can work if it's done well, no matter how crazy it might sound.
Making your gameplay fast-paced is often a good thing. Fast combat is fun, more often than not, in my opinion.
Providing multiple viable options in combat makes combat more fun. Kingdom Hearts doesn't offer enough options - compare this to, say, The Force Unleashed, where you have many different viable options to kill mooks. The latter really gets quite a bit of milage out of its gameplay, whereas Kingdom Hearts really does start to wear thin towards the end in its "press x until the bad guy dies" style of gameplay.
If you're going to make transitionary levels (such as gummi ship levels), make them interesting. Don't just slap something in there to make your gameplay more diverse. You want them to be fun, good breaks that don't necessesarily need to be as deep as the main gameplay. What I'm trying to say is that these sorts of levels (and mini-games in general) should be both fun and different, not just different. It sounds obvious, but too many mini-game type things try to make things just different and forget to make them fun.
Monday, March 16, 2009
Review: Paper Mario and the Thousand-Year Door
Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door
A great RPG, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has you playing as Mario, as well as guest-starring Peach and Bowser. Mario faces, by and large, the X-Nauts, a group of pretty generic evil people, and their leader Grodus, who has kidnapped Peach for reasons initially unknown. Your quest is to find the seven "crystal stars," as well as rescue Princess Peach - and solve other people's problems in the meantime, too.
The story is pretty generic, but the characters really make it spring to life. Mario himself is a silent protaganist, but the other characters are fantastic - from the sexy mouse ninja Ms. Mowz to the depressed Koopa Koops, they are quite entertaining. The subplots are also quite entertaining, and often fairly original, such as when Mario looses his identity (quite literally, his name and appearance are stolen) - it's certainly enjoyable.
I feel the need to mention pacing here - most of the time, it's quite good. Dungeons and cities are laid out well (in terms of how long you spend in each), and the subplots usually last just long enough. Also, the train level towards the end was one of my favorites, and it was just a mystery with only minimal fighting for the most part. Very well done. Occasionally, however, it does falter - for example, there's one part where you have to go back and forth between the a few different areas several times - quite annoying.
Badges are how you customize Mario - you have a set number of points (that goes up as you level) to spend on badges that can give you different attacks, more health/magic, upgrade Mario's abilities... whatever you feel like. The badge system is quite well done, and an entertaining exercise in customization.
As for the combat itself, it's very entertaining. You have Mario, and his partners, one of which can be assisting you at any given time. You can switch between them on the fly (assuming you use the right badge, which I think pretty much everyone does), giving you quite a few choices for attacks. Additionally, Mario has a decent variety of attacks to choose from, depending on which badges you give him. You also have a timing element with every attack - press A when Mario lands on someone, hold left to charge the hammer - whatever. They keep combat interesting. And combat is interesting - the wide variety of things you can do with your partners and Mario, as well as the timed effects for each ability keep combat fresh and fun.
Of course, I should mention the art style - everything looks like it's made of paper. And so it is - many of the puzzles of the game involve abusing the fact that Mario is, in fact made of paper - such as folding him into a paper airplane or turning sideways to fit through a crack. Honestly, once you get used to it, the paper art style is just another part of the world. Sure, it gets used in puzzles, but really, it's just a fanciful art style that compliments the mood of the game. It never feels like it gets in the way of the game. So really, I suppose that it's done very well - it compliments the gameplay and the tone of the game, and never feels like it should have been done some other way. And this doesn't just apply to the paper-ness of everything - twilight town (or whatever it's called) and the black and white forest are both fantastic, as well as all the other locations in the game.
All in all, this is just a solid game. There are a few things I'd change, but they are only very minor points. This game deserves the high praise it gets, as it's one of the best RPG's I've played in quite some time.
Things to learn:
Adding some sort of timing to otherwise turn-based combat is a good way to keep combat interesting.
Interesting and fun characters are key. A good story is great as well, but always looking forward to what the characters will do next makes a game interesting.
Sometimes, just doing something very well without being especially innovative is excellent.
Feel free to use a seemingly bizarre art style! If you do it well, and it compliments the game, it'll work, no matter how initially crazy it may sound.
Also, some housekeeping - I've basically run out of pre-made reviews and design from my archives, so I'm shifting to a once-per-week update schedule (at least - I may update more than that), and ditching having any select day to update on - though Tuesday and/or Thursday will still be likely. Also, this is really last weeks post, so expect another later in the week.
A great RPG, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door has you playing as Mario, as well as guest-starring Peach and Bowser. Mario faces, by and large, the X-Nauts, a group of pretty generic evil people, and their leader Grodus, who has kidnapped Peach for reasons initially unknown. Your quest is to find the seven "crystal stars," as well as rescue Princess Peach - and solve other people's problems in the meantime, too.
The story is pretty generic, but the characters really make it spring to life. Mario himself is a silent protaganist, but the other characters are fantastic - from the sexy mouse ninja Ms. Mowz to the depressed Koopa Koops, they are quite entertaining. The subplots are also quite entertaining, and often fairly original, such as when Mario looses his identity (quite literally, his name and appearance are stolen) - it's certainly enjoyable.
I feel the need to mention pacing here - most of the time, it's quite good. Dungeons and cities are laid out well (in terms of how long you spend in each), and the subplots usually last just long enough. Also, the train level towards the end was one of my favorites, and it was just a mystery with only minimal fighting for the most part. Very well done. Occasionally, however, it does falter - for example, there's one part where you have to go back and forth between the a few different areas several times - quite annoying.
Badges are how you customize Mario - you have a set number of points (that goes up as you level) to spend on badges that can give you different attacks, more health/magic, upgrade Mario's abilities... whatever you feel like. The badge system is quite well done, and an entertaining exercise in customization.
As for the combat itself, it's very entertaining. You have Mario, and his partners, one of which can be assisting you at any given time. You can switch between them on the fly (assuming you use the right badge, which I think pretty much everyone does), giving you quite a few choices for attacks. Additionally, Mario has a decent variety of attacks to choose from, depending on which badges you give him. You also have a timing element with every attack - press A when Mario lands on someone, hold left to charge the hammer - whatever. They keep combat interesting. And combat is interesting - the wide variety of things you can do with your partners and Mario, as well as the timed effects for each ability keep combat fresh and fun.
Of course, I should mention the art style - everything looks like it's made of paper. And so it is - many of the puzzles of the game involve abusing the fact that Mario is, in fact made of paper - such as folding him into a paper airplane or turning sideways to fit through a crack. Honestly, once you get used to it, the paper art style is just another part of the world. Sure, it gets used in puzzles, but really, it's just a fanciful art style that compliments the mood of the game. It never feels like it gets in the way of the game. So really, I suppose that it's done very well - it compliments the gameplay and the tone of the game, and never feels like it should have been done some other way. And this doesn't just apply to the paper-ness of everything - twilight town (or whatever it's called) and the black and white forest are both fantastic, as well as all the other locations in the game.
All in all, this is just a solid game. There are a few things I'd change, but they are only very minor points. This game deserves the high praise it gets, as it's one of the best RPG's I've played in quite some time.
Things to learn:
Adding some sort of timing to otherwise turn-based combat is a good way to keep combat interesting.
Interesting and fun characters are key. A good story is great as well, but always looking forward to what the characters will do next makes a game interesting.
Sometimes, just doing something very well without being especially innovative is excellent.
Feel free to use a seemingly bizarre art style! If you do it well, and it compliments the game, it'll work, no matter how initially crazy it may sound.
Also, some housekeeping - I've basically run out of pre-made reviews and design from my archives, so I'm shifting to a once-per-week update schedule (at least - I may update more than that), and ditching having any select day to update on - though Tuesday and/or Thursday will still be likely. Also, this is really last weeks post, so expect another later in the week.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Review: Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
In this third-person action game (think something like Kingdom Hearts for gameplay, or even Mario 64) You play as the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, set between episodes 3 and 4, a force-slinging badass whose job it is, at least initially, to track down and kill the survivors of the empire's massacre of the Jedi which took place in episode 3. As is only natural for a video game, your character is actually fairly likable, and the character himself develops over time to be more of a hero, though you do have an eventual choice at the very end of the game to be good or evil. (Sort of. It's moderately complicated.) The "good" ending is actually Star Wars canon, apparently, and it's a fairly interesting tale in general.
(As a note, my review of this game comes only from the Wii version. I've never played the other versions, so anything I say here may not apply in the other versions of the game.)
The story is all well and good, and paced fairly well. The characters, as well, are fairly interesting - and of course, it helps that you already know the personalities of The Emperor and Darth Vader. It's not exactly the pinnacle of originality - especially for a Star Wars story - but it certainly gets the job done, and is certainly entertaining. Apparently, some rather important details were left out of the Wii version of this game (the rebel alliance symbol is the main characters family crest? news to me), but it still works. That said, I have no idea why this would be the case - I highly doubt it was a disk space issue, though I suppose that's not impossible. Either way, such important details shouldn't simply be cut.
But why I really love this game isn't for the story, it's for the gameplay. And let me tell you, the gameplay is fantastic. Your various force powers are, by and large, easy enough to use, as well as fairly intuitive - for example, to use "Force Push," you push the nunchuck forward. You also use the main part of the remote as a lightsaber - swinging it back and forth actually makes the main character swing his saber back and forth, in a very similar way to the way you swung the wiimote. It's really cool.
The sheer power of the main character, and the many ways you have to devastate the enemy forces, are what makes the game great. You've got your saber, you've got a few varieties of force lightning, you've got a few varieties of force push, you can throw your lightsaber (among other lightsaber-themed force powers), and you've got telekinesis, to name a few. All of them rapidly dispatch the enemy mooks, and boy is it grand. Wave after wave of enemies are sent against you, and you can dispatch them without too much difficulty in any number of entertaining ways. It's really hard to describe just how the game goes and adequetly convey the sense of fun that playing the game gives. The sheer power of the main character, the way he devastates all in his path - it's just really, really fun.
And yet, you aren't invulnerable - while you do have an innate capacity to reflect blaster shots, plenty will get through if you're not careful, and the bosses can be a pain. The balance of the main character's phenomenal cosmic powers and the game's difficulty manages to work, which is just fantastic. Enough minions (especially spread-out ones) can still do you in, and the bosses can be a pain. Which brings me to my first qualm with this game - the bosses. They all feel (at least, the humanoid ones) fairly identical, and your tactics don't really need to vary from one to another. Swing your saber, shoot some lightning, maybe try some telekinesis, and they'll eventually go down. Maybe you'll need to block from time to time, and maybe you'll have to kill some minions here or there, but the humanoid bosses (which is the majority, by the way - non-humanoid bosses are typically actually minibosses, and fairly easy in their own right) all feel basically the same.
There is also no "hard mode" in this game. Given that if you decide to start the game using your old file's data, you'll probably start with one or two maxed-out force powers, it makes the game incredibly easy until late. Additionally, there's no level select mode, which is particularly annoying given what I just said about difficulty, as well as the fact that there are many collectibles to grab throughout the levels. Trying to get all of the collectibles is quite an annoying task without any sort of level select feature. The camera could use some work as well, but it's not as bad as some I've seen.
I haven't played the multiplayer mode for this game, but I hear it's alright - though there is no online, nor are there bots you can play against. Frustrating.
The penalty for death in this game is minimal - you just lose a small amount of force points (experience used to power up your force powers), and if you're facing a boss, the boss regains a bit of health. You respawn at basically the exact same point you died at. Frankly, I think this isn't severe enough - you should get kicked back to the last checkpoint, pure and simple, and you should have a limited amount of lives before you have to restart the level. Of course, there's something to be said for being able to truck through levels, but I think with checkpoints and a fairly decent amount of lives per level, it would be a better game, since there would actually be some sense that the main character was in serious danger. Like I said earlier, the balance is good - staying alive is fairly challenging, but if you actually die, it's not that bad at all. So I suppose game balance "feels" good, but in reality, with the lack of penalty for death, it makes it a really easy game. Whenever I died in this game, I honestly felt a bit of disappointment - my thoughts were basically "Huh. Well, uh, I guess I'll go kill the dudes that killed me and move on now. And now I've got full health." Not exactly the sentiments I feel should accompany death, in pretty much any game. At the very least, the game should keep track of how many times you died, in order to make you feel bad if you die too much, and give you a "0 death run" goal to shoot for.
But all in all, this is a really great game. The gameplay is some of the funnest I've ever played, and the story is pretty good as well. I wish it was longer (it was quite easy to rent it once and beat it), but with this sort of action game, a long game isn't the standard.
Things to be learned:
Giving the main character a really high level power and tossing wave after wave of mooks at him is really, really fun if done right. Indeed, making the main character have a TON of power in general, and yet still making the game balanced, can be great fun. It's always fun to have power, and it's even better if you have incredible power and the game is still balanced. I've never encountered a game that does it as well as this one. (PS: Dear Psi-Ops, please take a look at this game. It proves that you don't have to make everything immune to your psychic powers late game in order to still have a challenge. Please take this to heart if you ever get a sequel. Love, Adam.)
Differentiate bosses. Fighting one shouldn't be the exact same thing as fight every other one.
Difficulty levels - have them. I believe this is on my "list of things games should always have." Blasting through a game with no challenge is much less fun than blasting through a game while you are being challenged.
Level select - have it. For a game like this - a game that consists of very little but one level following another following another, it's a really good feature to have.
If you can, make your multiplayer have online and computer bot capabilities. It may be some extra work, but it makes multiplayer a heck of a lot more fun.
Death should have some sort of penalty, I think. Obviously, given current games like Bioshock (or so I hear) and Destroy All Humans! that don't have a severe penalty for death, some good game designers disagree with me, and I certainly can see the reasons they choose to have a minimal penalty for death. But my (current, anyway) opinion is that there should be a decent, though certainly not unreasonable, penalty for death. I feel that this game falls into the "too small penalty for death" category.
In this third-person action game (think something like Kingdom Hearts for gameplay, or even Mario 64) You play as the secret apprentice of Darth Vader, set between episodes 3 and 4, a force-slinging badass whose job it is, at least initially, to track down and kill the survivors of the empire's massacre of the Jedi which took place in episode 3. As is only natural for a video game, your character is actually fairly likable, and the character himself develops over time to be more of a hero, though you do have an eventual choice at the very end of the game to be good or evil. (Sort of. It's moderately complicated.) The "good" ending is actually Star Wars canon, apparently, and it's a fairly interesting tale in general.
(As a note, my review of this game comes only from the Wii version. I've never played the other versions, so anything I say here may not apply in the other versions of the game.)
The story is all well and good, and paced fairly well. The characters, as well, are fairly interesting - and of course, it helps that you already know the personalities of The Emperor and Darth Vader. It's not exactly the pinnacle of originality - especially for a Star Wars story - but it certainly gets the job done, and is certainly entertaining. Apparently, some rather important details were left out of the Wii version of this game (the rebel alliance symbol is the main characters family crest? news to me), but it still works. That said, I have no idea why this would be the case - I highly doubt it was a disk space issue, though I suppose that's not impossible. Either way, such important details shouldn't simply be cut.
But why I really love this game isn't for the story, it's for the gameplay. And let me tell you, the gameplay is fantastic. Your various force powers are, by and large, easy enough to use, as well as fairly intuitive - for example, to use "Force Push," you push the nunchuck forward. You also use the main part of the remote as a lightsaber - swinging it back and forth actually makes the main character swing his saber back and forth, in a very similar way to the way you swung the wiimote. It's really cool.
The sheer power of the main character, and the many ways you have to devastate the enemy forces, are what makes the game great. You've got your saber, you've got a few varieties of force lightning, you've got a few varieties of force push, you can throw your lightsaber (among other lightsaber-themed force powers), and you've got telekinesis, to name a few. All of them rapidly dispatch the enemy mooks, and boy is it grand. Wave after wave of enemies are sent against you, and you can dispatch them without too much difficulty in any number of entertaining ways. It's really hard to describe just how the game goes and adequetly convey the sense of fun that playing the game gives. The sheer power of the main character, the way he devastates all in his path - it's just really, really fun.
And yet, you aren't invulnerable - while you do have an innate capacity to reflect blaster shots, plenty will get through if you're not careful, and the bosses can be a pain. The balance of the main character's phenomenal cosmic powers and the game's difficulty manages to work, which is just fantastic. Enough minions (especially spread-out ones) can still do you in, and the bosses can be a pain. Which brings me to my first qualm with this game - the bosses. They all feel (at least, the humanoid ones) fairly identical, and your tactics don't really need to vary from one to another. Swing your saber, shoot some lightning, maybe try some telekinesis, and they'll eventually go down. Maybe you'll need to block from time to time, and maybe you'll have to kill some minions here or there, but the humanoid bosses (which is the majority, by the way - non-humanoid bosses are typically actually minibosses, and fairly easy in their own right) all feel basically the same.
There is also no "hard mode" in this game. Given that if you decide to start the game using your old file's data, you'll probably start with one or two maxed-out force powers, it makes the game incredibly easy until late. Additionally, there's no level select mode, which is particularly annoying given what I just said about difficulty, as well as the fact that there are many collectibles to grab throughout the levels. Trying to get all of the collectibles is quite an annoying task without any sort of level select feature. The camera could use some work as well, but it's not as bad as some I've seen.
I haven't played the multiplayer mode for this game, but I hear it's alright - though there is no online, nor are there bots you can play against. Frustrating.
The penalty for death in this game is minimal - you just lose a small amount of force points (experience used to power up your force powers), and if you're facing a boss, the boss regains a bit of health. You respawn at basically the exact same point you died at. Frankly, I think this isn't severe enough - you should get kicked back to the last checkpoint, pure and simple, and you should have a limited amount of lives before you have to restart the level. Of course, there's something to be said for being able to truck through levels, but I think with checkpoints and a fairly decent amount of lives per level, it would be a better game, since there would actually be some sense that the main character was in serious danger. Like I said earlier, the balance is good - staying alive is fairly challenging, but if you actually die, it's not that bad at all. So I suppose game balance "feels" good, but in reality, with the lack of penalty for death, it makes it a really easy game. Whenever I died in this game, I honestly felt a bit of disappointment - my thoughts were basically "Huh. Well, uh, I guess I'll go kill the dudes that killed me and move on now. And now I've got full health." Not exactly the sentiments I feel should accompany death, in pretty much any game. At the very least, the game should keep track of how many times you died, in order to make you feel bad if you die too much, and give you a "0 death run" goal to shoot for.
But all in all, this is a really great game. The gameplay is some of the funnest I've ever played, and the story is pretty good as well. I wish it was longer (it was quite easy to rent it once and beat it), but with this sort of action game, a long game isn't the standard.
Things to be learned:
Giving the main character a really high level power and tossing wave after wave of mooks at him is really, really fun if done right. Indeed, making the main character have a TON of power in general, and yet still making the game balanced, can be great fun. It's always fun to have power, and it's even better if you have incredible power and the game is still balanced. I've never encountered a game that does it as well as this one. (PS: Dear Psi-Ops, please take a look at this game. It proves that you don't have to make everything immune to your psychic powers late game in order to still have a challenge. Please take this to heart if you ever get a sequel. Love, Adam.)
Differentiate bosses. Fighting one shouldn't be the exact same thing as fight every other one.
Difficulty levels - have them. I believe this is on my "list of things games should always have." Blasting through a game with no challenge is much less fun than blasting through a game while you are being challenged.
Level select - have it. For a game like this - a game that consists of very little but one level following another following another, it's a really good feature to have.
If you can, make your multiplayer have online and computer bot capabilities. It may be some extra work, but it makes multiplayer a heck of a lot more fun.
Death should have some sort of penalty, I think. Obviously, given current games like Bioshock (or so I hear) and Destroy All Humans! that don't have a severe penalty for death, some good game designers disagree with me, and I certainly can see the reasons they choose to have a minimal penalty for death. But my (current, anyway) opinion is that there should be a decent, though certainly not unreasonable, penalty for death. I feel that this game falls into the "too small penalty for death" category.
Friday, February 27, 2009
Design: Awakenings (2)
Story thoughts:
-Before the game starts, you kill yourself for some reason, or die because of something you did. My current thought is that you get involved in a cult in life, but as you learn more about it, you disagree with their nihilist ideals. However, something happens to change your mind – perhaps your family gets killed, or something roughly as traumatic. Basically, enough to turn you initially to the dark side, but still have a believable possibility of light inside. You then decide to go through with an elaborate cult ritual which ends in your death.
-You are then, as expected, raised by your cosmic horror master, and your latent necromantic powers are awakened by him. You are told by him that you are now bound to his will, and will be his agent on earth. He needs you to free him from his bonds that keep him trapped beneath the earth, as he only has very limited influence on the events on earth from his current situation.
-Your form is that of a being made of magic. Your body and soul have been absorbed and merged by magic, rather than being any conventional sort of undead. Your appearance would be something like a multicolored (mostly dark colors), pseudocorporeal human.
-You are told by your cosmic horror master that you are simply one of many that have taken the ritual – however, this isn’t true. You are special. He only awakened your untapped necromancy potential – usually, he has to imbue the victim with some of his own power – and having done that, your power can grow greatly on its own.
-You make choose to make different moral choices as you progress, controlled by how you have your undead defeat people. Sure, at first you think that the world should be destroyed by your master, but how much pain do you need to inflict on people in the meantime? As the story progresses, you begin to question your feelings more and more as you see some goodness in humanity (at least if you are leaning towards good), and you begin to doubt your mission. Ultimately, you could choose to continue to do his will, because you like the power and like the mayhem. Or, you could choose to defy him, and make him your enemy, and ultimately redeem yourself.
-You master cannot directly see what you’re doing, but you report to him, and other, loyal cultists also report to him behind your back – thus, he can get some sense of whether you’re lying to him or not, but can’t know for sure.
-The gameplay is changed somewhat by how you choose to play morally. First, you can still have your undead fight with you, but you have to tell them to disable, not kill, your enemies – they deal slightly less damage this way, and you don’t get very many resources from the bodies, however, you also attract less attention from other enemies (For example, if this was GTA, your star rating would go up less) – and thus you have to fight less enemies. Certain undead might have certain moves that make this easier than others – creatures that can shock enemies into unconsciousness, for example. You also have undead that can be stealthy, and favoring them could make going “good” easier.
-As you progress in the story, in addition to changing the way that you play the game somewhat, the story also begins to change as you make your choices. You do missions in different ways, obviously, but you can also choose to do different missions – if you want to destroy your master, you can do a quest to get more information from a former cult site in some mountains, for example, which in turn leads to a hunt for an artifact to destroy him. If you want to simply release him, as he’d like, you have to collect a different artifact to complete the relic that could free him. If you want to destroy him and absorb his power, then you could do a mix of the two, but neither would require quite as much effort – the idea is for all four paths to be roughly the same difficulty. If you want to prevent his raising but not take the risk of trying to destroy him, then you hunt down what would be used to raise him and hide it better or try to destroy it.
-Obviously, you can harvest your resources from people, but you can also get corpses and souls from graveyards and the like (morgues?) The alternate resources, such as plants and magical stone, could also be harvested in other, murder-neutral ways.
-Using souls isn’t as evil as it initially sounds. Souls outside of bodies can’t be destroyed, and are by default unconscious in this world – they usually only remain in the world for a short time after their body’s death by default, though they can persist for some time, especially near graveyards and the like. Thus, while you do keep them from going on to the afterlife with your magic, they are not conscious for it, and if they “fall” in your service, the magic binding them releases, and they depart to the afterlife.
-You have to recover some mysterious artifact in order to free your master, the pieces to which are scattered around the world.
-A mysterious (and ultimately very powerful, though that part is hidden) counter/foil to the cosmic horror appears (perhaps a love-interestish female?), and tries to draw you back into the light, or at least, to deny your master. He or she probably appears at the end of certain missions, at least to start with, and just points out the goodness of humanity to you and the like. S/he is the agent of some other force, and in the end, you accept that person’s ideas, or you kill (or at least reject) him or her.
Possible endings:
- You summon forth your horror master to take over the world, as its servant. You become absorbed into its being, and it does its stuff. World ends, everyone dies – or something like that. Final Boss: Mysterious other character.
- You summon forth your master, in order to destroy it. You do so, and save the world. Possibly involving a heroic sacrifice. Final Boss: Cosmic Horror
- You re-seal (or don’t unseal, and perhaps make it harder for the next guy to try to unseal) the monster, so it remains, but so do you, at least in theory. Final Boss: Mysterious other character
- You summon forth your master in order to destroy it, and take its place. Final Boss: Cosmic Horror
-Before the game starts, you kill yourself for some reason, or die because of something you did. My current thought is that you get involved in a cult in life, but as you learn more about it, you disagree with their nihilist ideals. However, something happens to change your mind – perhaps your family gets killed, or something roughly as traumatic. Basically, enough to turn you initially to the dark side, but still have a believable possibility of light inside. You then decide to go through with an elaborate cult ritual which ends in your death.
-You are then, as expected, raised by your cosmic horror master, and your latent necromantic powers are awakened by him. You are told by him that you are now bound to his will, and will be his agent on earth. He needs you to free him from his bonds that keep him trapped beneath the earth, as he only has very limited influence on the events on earth from his current situation.
-Your form is that of a being made of magic. Your body and soul have been absorbed and merged by magic, rather than being any conventional sort of undead. Your appearance would be something like a multicolored (mostly dark colors), pseudocorporeal human.
-You are told by your cosmic horror master that you are simply one of many that have taken the ritual – however, this isn’t true. You are special. He only awakened your untapped necromancy potential – usually, he has to imbue the victim with some of his own power – and having done that, your power can grow greatly on its own.
-You make choose to make different moral choices as you progress, controlled by how you have your undead defeat people. Sure, at first you think that the world should be destroyed by your master, but how much pain do you need to inflict on people in the meantime? As the story progresses, you begin to question your feelings more and more as you see some goodness in humanity (at least if you are leaning towards good), and you begin to doubt your mission. Ultimately, you could choose to continue to do his will, because you like the power and like the mayhem. Or, you could choose to defy him, and make him your enemy, and ultimately redeem yourself.
-You master cannot directly see what you’re doing, but you report to him, and other, loyal cultists also report to him behind your back – thus, he can get some sense of whether you’re lying to him or not, but can’t know for sure.
-The gameplay is changed somewhat by how you choose to play morally. First, you can still have your undead fight with you, but you have to tell them to disable, not kill, your enemies – they deal slightly less damage this way, and you don’t get very many resources from the bodies, however, you also attract less attention from other enemies (For example, if this was GTA, your star rating would go up less) – and thus you have to fight less enemies. Certain undead might have certain moves that make this easier than others – creatures that can shock enemies into unconsciousness, for example. You also have undead that can be stealthy, and favoring them could make going “good” easier.
-As you progress in the story, in addition to changing the way that you play the game somewhat, the story also begins to change as you make your choices. You do missions in different ways, obviously, but you can also choose to do different missions – if you want to destroy your master, you can do a quest to get more information from a former cult site in some mountains, for example, which in turn leads to a hunt for an artifact to destroy him. If you want to simply release him, as he’d like, you have to collect a different artifact to complete the relic that could free him. If you want to destroy him and absorb his power, then you could do a mix of the two, but neither would require quite as much effort – the idea is for all four paths to be roughly the same difficulty. If you want to prevent his raising but not take the risk of trying to destroy him, then you hunt down what would be used to raise him and hide it better or try to destroy it.
-Obviously, you can harvest your resources from people, but you can also get corpses and souls from graveyards and the like (morgues?) The alternate resources, such as plants and magical stone, could also be harvested in other, murder-neutral ways.
-Using souls isn’t as evil as it initially sounds. Souls outside of bodies can’t be destroyed, and are by default unconscious in this world – they usually only remain in the world for a short time after their body’s death by default, though they can persist for some time, especially near graveyards and the like. Thus, while you do keep them from going on to the afterlife with your magic, they are not conscious for it, and if they “fall” in your service, the magic binding them releases, and they depart to the afterlife.
-You have to recover some mysterious artifact in order to free your master, the pieces to which are scattered around the world.
-A mysterious (and ultimately very powerful, though that part is hidden) counter/foil to the cosmic horror appears (perhaps a love-interestish female?), and tries to draw you back into the light, or at least, to deny your master. He or she probably appears at the end of certain missions, at least to start with, and just points out the goodness of humanity to you and the like. S/he is the agent of some other force, and in the end, you accept that person’s ideas, or you kill (or at least reject) him or her.
Possible endings:
- You summon forth your horror master to take over the world, as its servant. You become absorbed into its being, and it does its stuff. World ends, everyone dies – or something like that. Final Boss: Mysterious other character.
- You summon forth your master, in order to destroy it. You do so, and save the world. Possibly involving a heroic sacrifice. Final Boss: Cosmic Horror
- You re-seal (or don’t unseal, and perhaps make it harder for the next guy to try to unseal) the monster, so it remains, but so do you, at least in theory. Final Boss: Mysterious other character
- You summon forth your master in order to destroy it, and take its place. Final Boss: Cosmic Horror
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