Mastering a Difficult Game

Game Inspiration: Batman: Arkham Asylum

There is nothing like the feeling of mastering a challenging game.  My greatest gaming moment was when I finally beat Ninja Gaiden Black on the Xbox on master ninja difficulty.   In Master any enemy could kill you quickly.  I had to memorize the timing of every enemy’s movesets.  I had to learn every strategy to defeat the virtually impossible bosses.  And, of course, I had to die a lot.  But I don’t do this with every game.  Most recently, I tried to get 100% completion in Batman Arkham Asylum.  I had beat the main game on its hardest difficulty level and I had found every riddle, but I could not master the challenge levels and I quit.  So why are some games worth mastering and why do I fail to master others?

First, a game cannot be cheap.  This was the main difference between Ninja Gaiden Black and Ninja Gaiden 2.  You need to feel like there is a clear way to deal with any challenge.  It isn’t fun to fail because of bad luck or something out of your control.  Ninja Gaiden 2 often had you get riddled with bullets by unseen enemies.  Arkham Asylum does not suffer from this.  It was always crystal clear how to handle each enemy’s attacks.  So if it wasn’t that, what was it?

If a game is hard, it needs to have responsive controls.  Games like Runner 2 do an excellent job with this.  When you screw-up in a game that has responsive controls you know it’s because you made a mistake, not a problem with the game.  Arkham Asylum is almost perfect in this regard, though I feel like I should be able interrupt my a ground takedowns if someone comes to attack me.  Also, sometimes it isn’t clear why my attacks will or won’t chain together.  Though I think Arkham Asylum isn’t as tight as Ninja Gaiden Black, this wasn’t really the reason I failed.

Next, a game needs to be very careful in how it chooses to scale difficulty.  Ninja Gaiden Black got appreciably harder with each difficulty level, but it the difficulty shifts never felt out of reach.  One problem I had with Arkham Asylum is that compared to the story mode, the challenge mode seemed unforgivingly harder.  Sure, I could defeat all the enemies on challenge mode; I could even learn to do it with some style.  But what you had to do to get the points you needed seemed like it was asking too much all at once.  To get 3 stars on the first challenge map you basically had to either never take damage or never interrupt your combo, both of which were very challenging, though not impossible.  To get 3 stars on the predator missions you had to meet specific, but unclear criteria which leads to my next point.

What I think prevents me from mastering Arkham Asylum as compared to Ninja Gaiden Black is that it did not give me a clear path to improve my gaming.  With Ninja Gaiden Black, it all made sense: try not to get hit, work on memorizing timings, figure out which kinds of weapons or attacks work best on each boss.  But with Arkham Asylum, I felt like I was doing a fantastic job, but I still couldn’t rack up the points I needed to feel like I mastered the game.  What was I doing wrong? The game didn’t seem to tell me.

This is where the help of the gaming community often becomes essential.  I will admit, I didn’t master Ninja Gaiden Black on my own.  I read articles and watched videos, especially when it came to boss fights.  But I didn’t do that with Arkham City.  Why not? Laziness, I guess.  So in the end, is Arkham Asylum a game worth mastering? Probably.  Whose fault is it that I didn’t? My own.  But I wonder if a few little things had been different, if I could interrupt my takedowns, if there was a clearer objectives in predator mode, I smight have been willing to put in more work to master this game.

The Law of Diminishing Returns in Puzzle Games

Game Inspiration: Portal 2

The adventure puzzle genre (as distinct from plotless puzzlers like Candy Crush) has an appeal distinct from most other genres. Most other genres emphasize skill in manual dexterity to some degree.  You get into the zone in these games.  When you are on a roll in Runner 2 or Ninja Gaiden Black, the controller becomes an extension of your mind and body.  You know what to do, it’s just a question of whether or not you have the skill to do it.  But with puzzle games the joy comes from regularly not knowing exactly what to do, and yet seeing the components you need in front of you.  You are taken out of the moment.  Your hand-eye coordination often has little to do with with whether you succeed.  The game wants to know if you can assemble the answer from the puzzle pieces in front of you.

The problem with puzzle games is that you can never experience this joy of discovery twice.  I have experienced this so many times.  I still remember the answer to every puzzle in games like Planetfall, Full Throttle, and Portal.  Even if I wait a year or more in between, my brain still has a pretty good idea of what I should be doing.  I don’t have that “just stand in a spot racking my brain for an hour before finally rage quitting and then returning the next day” before I finally get it.  I move through these games at a pretty fast pace, only forgetting minor details that delay me a few minutes at the most.

So are puzzle games only good for one playthrough?  If it is a great game to begin with, I think the answer is a resounding “no.”  I have a few strategies to help get the most out of a replay of any great puzzle game.

1. Take some time off.  It’s true, it won’t make you forget the answers to all the puzzles, but it will help.  I recommend a year off at least.  Taking time off will also make help with the next strategy.

2. Appreciate the charm of the game.  While I did not forget the answers to all the puzzles in Portal 2, I forgot just how funny it was.  The jokes felt fresh again, but also familiar.  All my favorite puzzle games have charm that will carry them long after they have stopped taxing my brain.  Take time to really appreciate what makes the game great beyond it’s puzzles.  In fact…

3. Take time to stop and smell the roses.  Portal and Portal 2 have all sorts of hidden rooms covered in the mad scrawlings of an Aperture scientist.  With the burden of figuring out the puzzles lessened, finding all of these hidden rooms became a fun way to spend my time, Or, I could listen to Wheatley ramble on, and on, and on.  Or I could look at all those little design details I was too busy to look at when I was figuring out puzzles.  And since you have extra time on your hands…

4. Try doing any available challenge modes you might have skipped during your first playthrough.  Portal 1 had you redo test chambers but put parameters on them like how many steps you could take, how many portals you could fire, or even changed what surfaces could have a portal on them.  These challenges can add a fun new challenge.

5. If there is any user-generated content for the game, after waiting a year there is probably a lot of quality puzzles to choose from.  Never underestimate a fan’s ability to take a developer’s concept and make it better (also worse, but that’s what user ratings are for).  I wish all puzzle games had user-generated content, but those that do are basically offering you free new gameplay for life.  (By the way, while we’re on the subject.  I don’t care if it’s too difficult to give me a level editor for Portal 2 on consoles, but they could at least let me download user-generated maps that were made on the PC.)

But what about you? Do you replay puzzle games or are they one-time rentals?  How do you enjoy them once the initial discovery has worn off.  What new things could developers do to add replayability to their games? Let me know in the comments.

Character Creation in an Open-World RPG

Game Inspiration: Skyrim

How many times have you patiently waited for the interminably long introduction to Skyrim to end and finally hand over the reigns so you can create your character and get your adventure underway? I’ve lost count, but not because I’ve beaten the game so many times; I’m only on my third playthrough. So why then? It is because I sometimes find that after about ten hours my character has stalled and I feel a strong impulse to start over.  So why does this happen and what can be done to avoid it? Having gone through this trial and error so many times in Skyrim (and Fallout, Knights of the Old Republic, Jade Empire, etc.), I have some advice for everyone who has ever found themselves in the same situation.

One of the joys of these games is that they are so freeing, and my first two playthroughs always go smoothly.  In my first playthrough, I play as Mr. Fix-It, taking care of everyone’s problems, no matter how big or small, in the most honorable way possible.  My second playthrough, I make every opposite choice, causing as much pain in the game world as possible.  These mirrored opposite playthroughs don’t require much thought into how my character is motivated to interact with the game world.  They are fables, one wholly good, the other evil.  It usually isn’t until my third playthrough, when I already know not only the game mechanics, but most of the consequences of the choices I can make, that I start to create interesting, three-dimensional characters.

Skyrim’s greatest asset is the incredible amount of freedom it offers the player in both it’s gameplay and your interaction with the game world (for more on these two concepts please read my previous post on freedom in gameplay vs. freedom in a game world).  However, this freedom can also be one of the greatest stumbling blocks to character creation.  Let me preface by saying that in my third and subsequent playthroughs, I not longer enjoy playing simple character tropes.  If I did, I probably wouldn’t run into any of the problems I will mention.  I feel compelled to create a fleshed out character, one with a backstory, motivations, skill set, etc.

So why does this level of freedom sometimes cause me to stall and eventually restart a playthrough? I sometimes forget to consider how a playthrough I am crafting will work regarding not only the gameplay but the game world as well. Though you could spend all your time in Skyrim mining ore and hunting animals, smithing items with these ingredients so you can earn enough money to build and decorate a house, my guess is that most if not all players want to explore a Draugr barrow, solve a Dwemer puzzle, or kill a few dragons.  All games have expectations of the player and I tend to enjoy games the most when I understand and work within those expectations rather than fight against them.  In the case of Skyrim, it wants you to explore the environment and interact with characters and tasks. So the main question I have to ask is, “How will who I am planning to be affect what the game is expecting me to do?”

When I don’t take enough time to consider this, I run into problems.  Usually I create a character who is too niche.  My most recent flop was playing as a Thalmor secret agent mage in Skyrim.  These Elven supremacists desire to end the empire, outlaw the worship of Talos, and see all other races as beneath them. Being a mage was no problem of course, but being a Thalmor quickly became impossible.  I refused to help anyone, the game didn’t give me the dialogue options I needed to show my disdain for people, and my obsession with secretly killing anyone who worshipped Talos or disrespected me/elven kind quickly became laborious.  Also, the game does not allow you to join the Thalmor as a faction (an odd choice considering you can be a werewolf, vampire, Imperial, Stormcloak, Forsworn, etc.) and so the Thalmor will always treat you with disdain.  I abandoned the character after about 10 hours.

The answer I have found is to paint with broad strokes first that work within the game’s expectations and then supply interesting additional details later.  These are the questions I ask myself when creating a new character (in this order)

1. What kind of gameplay will I choose (weapon type, use of stealth, use of diplomacy, etc.)?

2. What is my reason to explore the game world (joy of battle, make money, collect things, etc.)?

3. What kinds of “quests” will I take or ignore (require a show of physical prowess, or help/hurt a particular gender/race/faction/class, or could involve stealing/stealth, etc.)?

4. How does my character feel towards violence (abhors it, find its necessary sometimes, cold-blooded murderer)?

5. How does my character’s race, gender, personality affect how they interact with other races/genders/personalities (racist, sexist, problem with authority, etc.)?

6. What other specific details/backstory could affect how my character interacts with the game world (fear of insects, hatred of “abominations,” aversion to water, etc.)?

This system has helped me feel like each playthrough of these great games is unique and memorable.  It certainly isn’t prescriptive and for every area where I’ve encountered frustration I’m sure others have made it work.  That discrepancy is it’s own testament to just how much freedom these games offer and that is what makes them great. What works for you when you create a new character? Let me know in the comments if you have any good ideas.

Gameplay vs. Game World

Game Inspiration: Skyrim

As I traveled through Skyrim again, I was reminded just how much freedom it offers the player, both in gameplay and how you interact with its game world.  Though many games claim an emphasis on freedom, each game offers a differing degree of freedom in both gameplay and the game world.  So what do I mean by gameplay, game world, what freedom looks like in each of these areas?

Gameplay is the mechanics of the game.  It answers the question, “What can I do?”  Though Arkham City and Sleeping Dogs present different settings, they share a similar combat mechanic.  The Prince of Persia, Assassin’s Creed, and Darksiders series share a similar parkour mechanic. When a popular new mechanic is introduced (like counter-attacks in Batman) it almost always reiterated, sometimes improving it, sometimes presenting just a skeleton of the idea. Because video games are an interactive medium, fantastic gameplay can often stand on it's own even when other elements like plot, voice acting, or art direction are mediocre (like Vanquish, which is as fun as it is flawed).

Distinct from gameplay, the game world is where the gameplay takes place and who you are as a character within that place.  It is answers the questions, “Where am I” and “Who am I?” Each video game franchise presents its own world. Sometimes a game world has been given minimal thought. Left 4 Dead, Vanquish, and Xcom: Enemy Unknown are all great games, but their worlds are barely fleshed out. Others, like Elder Scrolls, Bioshock, and Mass Effect include their own histories, languages, art, etc. Unlike gameplay, a great game world cannot carry mediocre gameplay (looking at you Dragon Age 2).

In both the gameplay and the game world freedom is on a continuum.  A game like Portal gives you no choice in either gameplay or the game world.  You use the Portal gun in the manner prescribed to solve puzzles and progress with a predetermined character in an unchangeable world.   Though it does not change the fact that this is a challenging, funny, well-designed game. It does not concern itself with how to progress through it, but rather if you can solve its brilliant puzzles.

Borderlands 2 gives you limited choice in gameplay and game world.  Choose an enigmatic Sniper, an insane Shotgun surgeon, a cocky soldier who heavily relies on turrets for support, and others, but in the end you HAVE to kill these enemies with one of six pre-determined characters and the rare times you are presented with a choice it does little to affect the game (though that Mohawk does make Claptrap look pretty cool).

Games such as the Grand Theft Auto series include a lot of freedom in the game world pertaining to when or if you choose to do missions, but the character you play is already determined for you.  I often don’t like the way my character is forced to behave and some of choices he makes.  I find myself enjoying the gameplay, but whether it is CJ, John Marston, or Wei Shen, I find myself sometimes frustrated at the things I am forced to say and do.

A game like Dishonored lets you approach your objective from a number of different ways, and the way you play one mission does has some effect on subsequent missions, in the end you are the predefined character Corvo going on a predefined tale of revenge with a predefined outcome.

Games like The Walking Dead on the other hand give you a great deal of flexibility in what kind of a person you want to be and your decisions have permanent life and death consequences, but there is virtually no choice in where you go and what you do.

But Skyrim and games like it try to give the player the greatest amount of freedom in both gameplay and game world. Their success comes from three areas: varied ways to approach playing the game, a myriad of dialogue options, and evidence in the game world that the decisions you make matter.  Skyrim’s use of varied weapons, spells, and skillsets allows you approach mission objectives in virtually any way imaginable. New Vegas’ use of skill or stat specific dialogue options makes you feel like your character is able to uniquely interact with the game world.  The Mass Effect trilogy, controversial ending aside, makes you feel like your decisions have permanent consequences some highly personal, others galactic in scope.

The great thing is that the quality of a game does depend upon how much freedom it has.  Portal and Skyrim couldn’t be more different from each other, yet both received many game of the year nods.  But for games like Skyrim one of my delights is the time I spend thinking about how I will play and who I will be. Which games do you feel like give you the most freedom in gameplay, the game world, or both? Let me know in the comments if you have any good ideas.