Post
by Sparky » Sat Mar 10, 2012 7:47 am
After playing a number of FPS games, I quickly found the experience to be mostly influenced by the controls.
If you have a console controller, it's often harder than the use of a joystick in a flight simulator. If a controller is simple like with the SNES and not bulky like the Sega Genesis controller was, but not as awkward as the N64 and Xbox controllers have been, then you have a console controller that is perhaps not detrimental to the experience.
If player movement is as stifled as it is in Raven Shield or as overly-dynamic (an extreme concept case which is fundamental to the game) as it is in Tribes Ascend (by Hi-Rez Studios), then I say stop the presses and forget about it. The main charm of Halo is actually its player dynamics and physics and how these two relate to each other. You have forceful explosions which can blow players back, but it's not too extreme as to blow you across the environments; these are proportional to the environments while still understandable to the Halo universe theme and its characters.
This relates to the experience Moxus mentioned because we don't want a movie experience and we don't want a 2D scroller experience where you are forced ahead in one direction. For the environment exploration enthusiast, there are not enough rewarding opportunities in typical Halo maps... and so maybe 343 should really spend time considering what varieties of map design they want to include; when the storyline says there is a countdown timer and the player has to jump onto that Longsword... you probably shouldn't tempt them to go exploring a very detailed environment on their way through. I think d40 messed up a little bit on that point; it worked for the hectic feel, but it didn't really allocated their environmental design resources in the best possible way. What were all those nook-and-cranny areas meant for, and why was the traversed path so ridiculous?
Those are my two points: first, rethink player movement and dynamics and I suggest keeping them as fluid as they are in Halo 1 (but you can still add features like lying prone to that); second, rethink your environmental design resource allocation strategy and involve a variety of game dynamics and don't stick the chase scenes in cinematics where the player can't actually FAIL to run away in time.
Either you are groping for answers, or you are asking God and listening to Jesus.