Reading a recent post on Nation Of Gamers about games pretty much removing the challenge of working things out yourself, and I felt like addressing the topic too. They use Half Life 2 as an example, mentioning how rather than leaving the player to work out how to complete tasks, they lay everything out and guide the player, ruining the challenge.
This makes me think about what they did with the original Half Life, where it was the complete opposite. They gave you some of the things required to destroy a tank, get past that giant plant thing, or something to that level, but they never told you or helped you really in any way. As such, I was stuck for ages in some areas, unaware of how to get past it. It frustrated me to no end. I mean, half the time I fluked my progress; accidently stumbling across the solution. Quite often I’d rage and come back days later, if I did at all. I can see why game developers don’t want this. They want people to be able to finish the game and still have fun, so they’ll tell people how awesome the game was. In the case of Half Life 2, there’s a lot of focus on the story, and less on the actual gameplay.
Handholding has always featured in games. Weapons are conveniently placed right in front of players, ammo and health is luckily placed right before a big fight (think Left4Dead), and obvious weaknesses in bosses are highlighted.
But I’m just rambling. What do you think? Feel free to share comments, or go remark on the original post I totally ripped off for content; either is good.
