I''m working on a singleplayer FPS game design project right now and I''m caught in a bit of a dillema. We''ve created a fictional city that we''d like the game to take place in. Now we have to ask ourselves how we want the player to experience travel and progression through the city. Here''s the system we''re currently using: UNIFORM PROGRESSION The player will progress through the game via uniform areas of the city. For instance, let''s say our player arrives in a residential area -- he''d have to complete X number of missions or objectives in one residential area in order to be able to move to the NEXT residential area. Essentially, these two areas would follow the same architectural patterns, the same lighting systems, but they could still be distinguishable from one another. These differences would be based on what objectives the player must complete and the layouts of the maps themselves. Quake 2 and Half-Life used uniform progression and considering their successes, it worked pretty well for both. After recently playing and beating Deus Ex I''ve decided to consider another philosophy. LANDMARK BASED PROGRESSION Instead of moving through several large areas that are made up of small sections of that physical area, every area is a landmark that''s important to the story. This means that the area might be revisited later in the game by the character to explore an area that wasn''t accessible at first, or perhaps to participate in a sequence that wasn''t triggered previously. This might add more depth to the game, but being confined to one area per objective might make dull the experience because the map only serves one ultimate purpose -- to achieve the goal you came there to accomplish. This was the system that Deus Ex used and I think Deus Ex was a great game. But I personally think the story and beleivability of Deus Ex was what made it good. The maps weren''t too spectacular but the game kept you motivated to want to see the rewards of completing a mission. Of course the landmark based philosophy does have certain aspects of uniform progression, and the vice versa for uniform progression. I haven''t really seen a good mix of the two in any game yet, though there may be a game out there I have forgotten or don''t know about that did have both. Please, post your ideas and opinions regarding these two schools. It''d be interesting to see what you all think of these two schools.

I''d say it depends on the game. Your Uniform Progression worked for Half-Life because that game was based in a single facility for most of the game. It made more sense to progress like that. DeusEx on the other hand has locations like, New York, Hong Kong, that desert MJ12 base. It makes more sense to jump to those locations because you want to play the game, and not watch an in-flight movie with Jock.