I will now present thoughts on how to rectify some of the design problems in a game that I thought had a nearly perfect presentation: Dragon Age Origins.
“The visuals, while solid for the game type, are basically everything we’ve seen before in a number of fantasy games.”
Dragon Age Origins presented a well designed world with intricate detail that was, at first, exciting to look upon. However, as the game progressed, I realized that it had all been done before. The game borrows from work that has already been completed. The basis for way the characters look, and how most fantasy characters look, can be directly related to Tolkien’s different races from the Lord of the Rings. The Dwarves are short but muscular, the humans are tall and proud, and the elves are slight and pointy eared. There was a game that was released in 2001 called Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura that also contained a number of fantasy races, but the designers of Arcanum changed the character designs ever so slightly by adding a steam punk flare and outfitting the dwarves and trolls in tailored coats.
The characters aren’t the only elements of the design that were lacking in originality though. The equipment was, for the most part, standard RPG swords, shields, and armor. The armor became more bulky as it grew in power, and the shields became broader, but there was never an instance where I put on a piece of armor and said to myself “Wow; now that’s awesome.” There was a moment in Final Fantasy 7 where I equipped a sword called Organics, entered a battle, and never wanted to unequip the sword again. Here was a design for a sword that I had never seen before and it made me enjoy the visuals of the game even more.
So how do we make the visual presentation of Dragon Age Origins a little bit more original? When it comes to the characters and character races, there should be some detail that makes them belong to the Dragon Age universe. Perhaps the elves pointy ears are longer than normally expected or they are unusually tall and wiry. The dwarves can be short and stout, but maybe they have beards or hair that is made of crystal. There are a number of small changes that can be made to the characters in order for the Dragon Age universe to own its characters.
Equipment should be even easier to design for a gritty, down and bloody universe like Dragon Age. Buckles, spikes, a missing pauldron, gloves made from the claws of some dangerous creature, helmets that demand authority through the use of crowns, armor that shifts magically around the wearer’s body, swords that don’t look practical but are fashioned from diamond hard minerals, tower shields made from the scale of a dragon, and the list can go on forever. Taking your standard armor and removing or enlarging a piece of that armor can be the difference between ho hum steel armor and “Wow, that’s awesome.”
Some of the boss fights, particularly the final boss, are boring. There are regular enemy encounters that will tax a player harder than some of the set piece battles.
I fought a group of spiders in a cavern that killed me and my party an unknown number of times before I finally relented by lowering the difficulty and trying a brand new tactic. While frustrating, it was also interesting to me to see if my new character load out would finally be enough to withstand the eight-legged onslaught and move on to the next deadly challenge. Unfortunately, the final boss of the game, the gargantuan Archdemon, lord of the Darkspawn, killed me once, and only because I got stuck in a bit of the environment. A few ballistae and a door that spewed really low level Darkspawn fodder do not make an adequate challenge when the final boss is the size of a mansion and only stands in the middle of the fighting arena. The battle becomes even more relaxed when you realize that most of your men will survive the initial slaughter and kill off the Darkspawn that come out to help the Archdemon during the middle of the battle.
It is important to feel challenged during a boss battle after wading your way through everything else guarding the route you take to get there. In order to do this, some of the set piece battles in Dragon Age should have introduced a bit of randomness that would keep players on their toes and force them to switch between sets of tactics. Instead of an entire battle with the Archdemon in one arena, what if the hero was forced to follow the Archdemon to different places and figure out how best to use the environment against it? What if the Archdemon had the ability to shape shift into different forms, like a ten foot tall, Sauron-esque melee engine of pain that would force the player to go on the defensive for a time? Maybe the Archdemon should have been able to randomly possess the body of one of the important NPC characters that go into battle with you, forcing you to make a decision on whether to kill that character to get to the Archdemon faster, or fend them off until the character was able to shake its hold. Unpredictable behavior in a boss fight can make that fight much more epic, especially for the final battle in a fantastic game. Obviously, the battle has to be winnable, but, there should be surprises in store for the player as they approach the final climax.
The side stories for the non-romanceable characters, as in the cases of Oghren and Wynne, seem to be a bit shallow when compared to those characters that the hero can become romantically involved with.
Character development in BioWare games is one of the major selling points for story junkies like me and Dragon Age Origins definitely developed the playable and non-playable characters into individuals with goals and fears. However, I did find that when talking to Oghren and completing his side quests, that they were a lot less involved or engaging as characters like Morrigan. While Oghren comes off as a comic relief character for most of the game, there are instances where he seems to have a deeper, more thoughtful side. His loyalty quest belies all that by turning the hero into a dwarven matchmaker for the recently widowed Oghren.
Why should Oghren, or any of the non-romanceable characters for that matter, get less attention in the story. More exploration into each of the character’s back stories would have been preferable. Exploring Oghren’s character further would be a start, but other characters deserve a larger amount of story as well. Wynne’s loyalty quest involved finding an apprentice she had once estranged in the past who just happens to be hiding in the woods near the Dalish Elves. Having lived such a long life, the player gets to know very little about Wynne, even though she seems to have lived through some interesting experiences. To go even farther, I would dare to say that even the Mabari War Hound character should have some kind of back story, especially when you acquire him after Ostagar. Because of the connections that most people form with Dogs, or pets of any kind really, the potential to create a strong, poignant moment is lost as the dog always remains 100% loyal to the hero character.
The silent protagonist.
This design element has been argued back and forth on multiple fronts. The silent protagonist can be used to decentralize the focus of the player and draw attention to the supporting cast of characters. It is also espoused that this form of hero helps players pretend that they are the ones controlling the action. However, it also has a tendency to disconnect a player from the character that he or she controls for the entirety of the game because the lack of voice can dehumanize the character and make them seem like less of a person (dwarf, elf, ogre, what have you).
There is a risk in voicing the main character in an RPG. If the voice acting is bad, the player will become annoyed and likely stop playing the game. If the voice acting is good, but doesn’t fit the players perception of the character, that can cause a disconnect between the player and the character as well. In order to ensure that the voice acting goes along with the game, and that the player will identify the voice with the character, the player must be given options. Simply having two male voices and two female voices to choose from will give players more choice and make them feel as if the character is theirs. I realize that budgeting for four people to voice two lead roles may not always be financially sound, but if players are given a choice, they are more likely to enjoy the character they create in the end. Also, during a particularly frantic scene where a group of characters is being chased by a flesh eating cloud of nano-bots, do you want to hear the main character yell “Get the hell out of here!” or do you want to read it in a text box?
No comments:
Post a Comment