You know what I hate about many FPS: There''s the door, where''s the key? grab the key, open the door. There''s the door, where''s the button? press the button, open the door. I see so often in FPS games, where there is only one way to complete a section, and that is to go to some location to open a door in another. I admit that designers are getting more creative, and have left the old doom days where this was the entire idea. They have hidden it, but it is still there. This is why Thief was cool, but, even so, it still had this. I would like to know why FPS are designed like this and not more like the real world, where there are multipul ways of doing things? Why designers make levels, and not locations? Why can''t we have levels that are more like reality? ANDREW RUSSELL STUDIOS
Visit Tiberia: it''s bigger, it''s badder, it''s pouyer...

In reality, when you are luggin around a rocket launcher, you can blast through any single door. Wouldn''t be much fun to just blast your way through each level in about 9 seconds, err?

The short answer is that it''s more work, and they''re economizing. Since games already cost too much anyway, a level is easier to create, test, and debug if it has a fewer number of possible permutations as far as gameplay goes. Keycard, we can do. But you want to drag a knocked out guard over to a control console, wedge your gun in the door, then drop in the explosives? Hmmm...


I was thinking about this as I saw the GeForce 3 Doom demo, which looked like prerendered graphics done in real time. Yes, the environment is going to LOOK real (and be visually awesome and creepy as hell!!! ). But I''ll be you that the gameplay is "Find the Red Keycard" with stunning graphics.





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Just waiting for the mothership...

quote: Original post by Wavinator

Yes, the environment is going to LOOK real (and be visually awesome and creepy as hell!!! ). But I''ll be you that the gameplay is "Find the Red Keycard" with stunning graphics.

I''m actually a bit worried about this myself. I saw the demo too, and thought, at that level of realism in the visuals, it''s going to be REALLY hard to keep the suspension of disbelief when the world does not in any way respond at the same level of detail.
I might be wrong, and Id Software has done amazing things in the past, but I think they are really, REALLY overshooting the mark with those graphics, and it''ll end up being more of an interactive demo of the GeForce3 capabilities than an actual game.




People might not remember what you said, or what you did, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
Mad Keith the V.

But DOOM is a classic..

If you weren''t finding the red key.. it wouldn''t be DOOM would it?

RedFaction by Volition (Freespace 1&2 & Descent 1&2) is a forthcoming FPS which is going to have fully blow-up-able terrain. No more searching for keys and buttons to open doors, at least that''s what I thought at first. I read however that they will indeed create indestructable walls in order to control the player''s path, which, to me, defeats the entire purpose of being able to blow walls and doors up in the first place. Its the weak, easiest path for the designers to take in order to keep the game linear for the sake of story. Get the key to open the door is the FPS version of fetch-me quests in RPGs. Its a tired mechanism carried down from the low-tech gaming past; from a time when there could only really be linear/unary solutions due to limited resources. As technological ability increases, though, hopefully designers in the FPS industry will get a clue and start designing games rather than flashy interactive graphics demos.


Nothing is difficult, only the mind makes it so.