Quote:
Originally Posted by cbman
Surely, it's third person games that are static? For any given location there is just a single screen that the character walks across, whereas in first person there is much more of a sense of movement and progression across a landscape as the player move across in in stages.
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I must disagree. In a well-programed and designed game, the NPCs (to borrow an RPG term) can add a lot to the environment. I'll give an example. Grim Fandango, a title many in this forum will agree is a rather good game, has many populated scenes. In the casino, for example, there are a lot of gamblers conversing with others or playing games at the tables or whatnot. You can get a feel for how they are enjoying the room while yopu walk around, do your sleuthing, talking, whatever you need to do in the scene. Then, Manuel does something (spoiler withheld) to cause some of the people to leave and the environment change. You can feel from the screen the different attitude, the response to what you have done.
In many 1st person games, you learn the results of your actions from watching short cutscenes, and then the world goes back to the same, boring static world. In Faust, for example, each time you find one of the items that are significant to the character at hand, you get a 5-20 second flashback scene... and then it's like nothing changed. I've played other 1st person games where the only animations or scenes you see are 1 second shots when you open a door or turn on a machine. To me, these games aren't vibrant, it's more like I'm exploring a museum than doing anything else.
Also, the viewpoint has its limitations. Could you imagine anyone's top 10 favorite games in 1st person? Leisure Suit Larry without the action? (pun intended). Or Monkey Island without being able to follow the shopkeeper or see all the pirates milling around the island or even seeing Guybrush make funny faces as he talks?
That was one of my biggest complaints about 3rd person Syberia -- you felt like you were walking around a ghost town -- yet I still felt more like I was part of the environment, because I could see Kate Walker and I could occasionally see the environment react to her.
Part of the fun for me is in fact the "urgent story" you also mention. I feel compelled to finish the game. I feel compelled to want to know what happens next. Is Sonny Bonds going to get shot in a second unless I do something else? Is April Ryan going to sneak around that police station without any cops finding her? There's movement going on around her, and I have to take that into consideration every step I take.
