Adventure Gamers - Forums

Tad - 04 April 2013 07:14 PM

Because Cage comes out with all this nonsense about being able to show real emotion when others have done it much better and with much less. If the writings good, the emotion will come through. All of Cage’s games so far have just fizzled out due to poor writing that leaves you feel anything but emotion for whats happening. Games before TWD did a better job then him too.

Can’t say I agree with you about Levine’s games. If they were just another shooter, it would be considered a poor one. As the combat isn’t the highlight in any of those games.

My Cat and Dog dont talk and dont have super language skills to show emotions, thats the
non verbal thing i am talking about, which Ueda nailed too with ICO and Sotc, felt
more for Lady and Horse in those games, real partners with minimal to no words, in real adventure.
I dont believe TWD would have same impact without typical settings and excessive
violence, gore, cutting etc. to make correct recipe of HIT and getting attention.
Same for levine, he himself said he needed something to progress the story to have some
mechanic to fill the gameplay, and its always shooting and violence, a guy will kill
indiscriminately like drake, lara and Booker and story will be set to rationalize it.
Against a person who is challenging norms for his own vision and not bound to conventions of shooter, gun, violence, or other generalities.

nomadsoul - 04 April 2013 07:00 PM

I can go on, but avoiding to turn the thread into another debate. But i wonder
why Cage brings so much negative attention, i mean comparing him with Molyneux
is too much, his pedo sim failed, and his promises are never met, his latest
abomination Curiosity and so on. Beyond has got huge potential, it will move
people and challenge the industry as an adventure game, and dont forget TWD took
alot from HeavyRain, but since it wasnt PS3 exclusive and estabilished Brand,
people found less reasons to bash it and rationalized it under good writing.

You’re right, Peter Molyneux is not the right comparison.

M. Knight Shyamalan might be more appropriate.

Tad - 04 April 2013 06:32 PM

I’m quite surprised to see so many people getting hyped over a David Cage game still. His track record isn’t brilliant… He’s in the same circle as Peter Molyneux for erm…well, lets call it; “bending the truth” shall we?

I don’t agree David Cage is over-hyping his games. It’s not like he talks about features that is missing from the final games, like Molyneux. And he doesn’t talk his own games up that much. Sometimes he bashes the industry in general, but that’s a bit different.

Personally I liked Heavy Rain - it had noticeable flaws, but was very interesting, and had (mostly) nice production values and very well-made locations, so it was fun to explore the environment. There’s more to adventure games than super high quality writing and gameplay

But even in that light HR hold up quite well. As in, the story and gameplay is good, but not great, IMO. And the game felt fresh, and that’s important to me. And Beyond sounds at least as interesting and fresh, and the gameplay seems like a step up.

As a side note, Cage has talked about, in at least one interview, that he knows he has his limits as a writer, and that they want to hire additional writers. He didn’t elaborate if the new writers is meant for Beyond or their future project, though.

Sorry for the late reply…

tomimt - 05 April 2013 02:47 AM

Personally I’m not a huge fan of Cages games. Beyond graphics the gameplay is just glorified reaction test. QTE after QTE is not my idea of a good time no matter what the story is.

I agree the gameplay could use some improvement, but I don’t think it’s a QTE hell.

Firstly, only about half of the gameplay can be categorized as QTE, the other half is actually just interaction with hotspots similar to traditional adventure games. The difference is, HR only has one og two puzzles, the rest of the time, when you interact with hotspots, it’s either tied to a choice, investigation, or both. The fact that the player has to do a motion gesture doesn’t make it QTE, at least far from a traditional QTE - most of the time the motion gesture could easily be replaced with a simple button press/mouse click, Cage just wanted the player to feel like he or she physically did the action, unlike in traditional adventure games.

Secondly, not even the actual QTEs are classic QTE, in the sense that you can sometimes fail without that resulting in ‘game over’, and sometimes you have a choice between two (maybe more) QTEs (like going left or right when driving). The main reason Cage chose to implement these QTE-like sequences was to have a way to do action-like situations - action in this case should be seen very broadly as “movement” (besides fighting, the game also uses “QTE” for stuff like dancing, and the mentioned driving).

It all supports his “theory of non-mechanics” quite well. And the alternative would be complex mechanics that would maybe only resonate with “core gamers”, or to put the “action” sequences in a cutscene. Not that all aspects of the gameplay worked well, but I think sometimes the gameplay in HR is seen in the wrong light. Not that I blame it on the gamers (most of the time ) - QD should probably have communicated it better in the game as well as in interviews.

Tad - 05 April 2013 03:46 AM

In these sort of games, the writing has to be good. The Walking Dead for example, wouldn’t of been anywhere near as successful if it hadn’t…

Well, Heavy Rain was at least as well-received as TWD, so that’s just one example that sometimes less than solid writing can be adequate, to many if not most people, if the game compensates in other areas

But yes, the writing is hopefully better in Beyond.

Don’t forget The Journey of Iesir!

http://www.adventuregamers.com/games/view_screenshots/23823

Bt

There are also Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect, Broken Age and many, many more….

Dag - 25 August 2013 04:57 PM

Blackthorne - 25 August 2013 03:57 PM

Don’t forget The Journey of Iesir!

http://www.adventuregamers.com/games/view_screenshots/23823

Bt

Yeah, that’s a prime example of a game that had me convinced with a mere screenshot. Looks absolutely amazing!

Yeah, the game’s author, Daniel Thomas, did some backgrounds on QFI, and he’s a very talented guy and I’m very much looking forward to his game!

Bt