First person adventure games are numerous, but not many of them are triple A titles. The best examples are normally independently developed by small teams. I think going for an idea in this genre is beneficial to us as difficult things like AI scripts for enemies won't hinder us.
It is difficult to create a sense of tension or atmosphere with the player not facing any immediate threats to their avatar's life, I think we can compensate for this by having an intriguing environment for our players to explore as well as puzzles that that make the player think about what to do next, as opposed to worrying about being attacked around every corner.
Examples of FP Adventure Games:
Amnesia
One of my favourites in this genre is Chinese Room's Amnesia, a first person horror adventure game. The game is played from a first person perspective and the lighting effects, tone and audio do a great job in creating a real sense of tension for the player. The fact that it has monster's that you have to hide in complete darkness makes it one of the more terrifying gaming experiences of recent years.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IF68RF8MXA
Amnesia makes great use of having small parts of the game's lore written in notes that the player finds through interacting with the environment, a bit like the books in Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series, I think this is a nice touch, as it allows the player to learn more about the game world if they choose to do so.
Amnesia also features a number of switch puzzles, I think when you have a game that doesn't have combat mechanics you need something like this to alleviate the player's boredom as I imagine that merely exploring an environment would become tedious after a time without some sort of other challenge on offer.
Dear Esther
Chinese Room specialise in environmental exploration games, and Dear Esther is every bit as compelling as Amnesia despite not having the element of enemies chasing you around. The game has received a great deal of critical praise for its approach to interactive storytelling, done by exploration of a mysterious environment. Dear Esther would be a fantastic influence on which to base some ideas for our final major project design.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JOXayur3QE
Myst
One of the first examples of nonviolent puzzle exploration games, Myst is still a great game that developers of these genre games could learn from. A series of screens from the players viewpoint as opposed to a fully animated and living landscape, Myst entranced it's audience upon it's release in 1993 with it's interesting world that felt fun to explore even if lacking in a bit of depth and detail. Myst was an evolution of the old point and click adventure, which was itself and evolution of the older text based adventure. Although it looks dated now, Myst was a unique experience in gaming in 1993, and introduced.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-8CFun3nEw
The Walking Dead
Telltale's The Walking Dead, is a great example of how the older text and point and click adventure games have evolved, while not a first person game, I think is worth a mention as I frequently cite it as a source of inspiration. Lauded for it's quality storytelling upon launch in 2012, it won over millions of fan's the world over with it's blend of exploration, tension, puzzles and character development. The game doesn't use a first person perspective, but the idea of using different objects on different objects harks back to the age of the point and click adventure. It's this kind of thinking that it encourages the player to do, normally in intense zombie filled circumstances is one of the highlights of playing through. It was launched in an episodic format, with players waiting a month at a time for the next episode, I liked this idea as it gave me and fellow fans something to talk about each and every month. The development of the main character Lee, and the young girl he protects as a father figure role is fantastic and heartbreaking at it's conclusion. It makes some great use of environmental storytelling in some sections, although the vast majority of the game is like a TV show with it's scripted nature. This said, for examples of great storytelling and character development in recent games, look no further than Telltale Games and their Walking Dead series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuxotWssdPY
No comments:
Post a Comment