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Realism
Posted By: JLrepDate: 5/7/05 11:25 a.m.

In Response To: The Technical Superiority of the Halo series (Mothergoat)

The real clinching point in any game, I think, is realism. Not realism in the traditional sense of being able to get headshots or whatever. Each game contains its own universe, with its own guns or aliens or vehicles, and that universe must be realistic within itself.

Examples:
In Splinter Cell, a game hailed for its real-world realism, you can shoot someone in the chest, hide for a minute, and come back and they won't remember a thing. This is obviously ridiculously fake, but it's required to make the game work, otherwise you'd make one wrong move and lose the entire level, which would suck. One of the facets of SC's realism is its dumb guards.

Medal of Honor I always hated, because its realism is so limited it hardly exists. You NEVER have any choice as to where to go, most of the time your allies are utterly invincible, and often you'll even meet invincible enemies. I remember the second level of Frontline; there was a part where you meet a tank blocking your way. You can't get around the tank, because that's the only path and there's no jump button. The tank's not going to move unless you move it with scripted events. You can't shoot it to death, or use grenades, because that's not how the level is scripted. The only way to defeat it, I recall, was to go up into a tower and shoot down onto the tank. The point is that not being able to kill the enemy in ways that SHOULD WORK is utterly ridiculous. Why should bullets work from up high, but not from down low?

The thing with realism is it *guarentees* fun and lasting entertainment for even simple games. There are extremely realistic games like Marathon, Myth, or Lugaru that simply BEG to be experimented with. You pile explosive objects on top of each other, you see how high you can jump, you try to lure the enemies into very small holes to see what they'll do. If we see a civilian, we want to be able to kill that civilian. If we see a box, we want to be able to stand on it. If we see a chair, we want to be able to push it over. When you shoot lightbulbs without breaking them, or jump high enough to get on top of a platform without actually going on top of it, we feel cheated.

Halo is based around realism. Almost anything that shoots you can be killed (with the exception of dropships, which are so large that it's ok). If you shoot an enemy, punch him, run him over, push a box onto him, cause him to fall off a cliff, all of them work, even though the game never went through and said "Press B to punch this enemy. Notice how he gets knocked back a bit..." blah blah blah. You are given a jump literally dozens of times more effective than other games (have you ever tested your air-control in TimeSplitters?). Invisible walls are almost totally limited to the bounds of the level itself, so you NEVER encounter them unless you're actually trying. And the fact that you can try, as well, is one of the largest factors. The fact that Bungie didn't design the levels so that it was utterly impossible to escape them, but instead made bizarre alien geometry, filled in every gap, and let you do what you would with it.

And... therein also lies the hidden reason almost anyone will take Halo over Halo 2, because there's just "something about it." The "something" is lost realism. Why are there guns on the Wraith that the enemy can use, but we can't? Why can't Sarge be killed? Why are there places where we fall for a foot or two before dying in mid-air? Why doesn't the PP overcharge hurt enemies? Why does meleeing an enemy make you lunge slightly in their direction?

And it even goes deeper than that. On the one hand, OBVIOUSLY it's more realistic if a vehicle blows up than if it simply flies around a lot when being blasted with rockets. Obviously it's more realistic that if two 'Hogs run directly into each other that there's a loud crash and they both grind to a halt, instead of one sending the other flying into the air. But on the other hand, maybe that's the wrong realism. Maybe that's real-worldism instead of Halo realism.

On that same note, why do designers place invisible walls at the edges of levels - say, Coagulation? Obviously it's because if you got up there, you'd see the bizarre edge of the level, which looks quite obviously fake, and they don't want you to see that. To protect the realism they put up the walls, or so they think. When I play a level with invisible walls (e.g. Coag), it strikes me that the designers are saying "Hey, look, this is where you don't get to go because we just KNOW you'd hate us if you saw what's up here." And if I play a level without (e.g. Blood Gulch), it's like they're saying "This is a game, and we're going to let you play it. Have fun." I find it more fun to walk to the edge of the level and see the textureless floor than to walk to the side of the level and be unable to walk any further.


Message Index




Replies:

The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesMothergoat 5/6/05 4:15 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesGryphonOsiris 5/6/05 4:57 p.m.
           Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesDaggart 5/9/05 6:43 p.m.
     True dat.Saint [lpn] 5/6/05 5:19 p.m.
           Re: True dat.Spec ops Grunt 5/6/05 7:25 p.m.
                 Ah...Saint [lpn] 5/6/05 9:42 p.m.
                       Goldeneye! *nm* *NM*Tar 5/7/05 11:04 a.m.
                             Re: !!!GOLDENEYE!!! *very large grin* *NM* *NM*AB10784 5/9/05 3:23 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriestrigger119 5/6/05 6:16 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesSlimby 5/6/05 8:47 p.m.
           Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriestsuranuku 5/7/05 8:57 a.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesPhobix 5/7/05 7:59 a.m.
           Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesMothergoat 5/7/05 8:41 a.m.
                 Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesEl Sjaako 5/7/05 9:11 a.m.
                       Exactly (re: invisible walls)Interactive Civilian 5/7/05 9:43 a.m.
                             Re: Exactly (re: invisible walls)zugy 5/7/05 8:38 p.m.
                 Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesSA 5/7/05 9:47 a.m.
                       Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo serieszugy 5/7/05 8:40 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesCoriakin 5/7/05 8:44 a.m.
     The genius is in the recharging shields *NM*Remo-Williams 5/7/05 8:59 a.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesCuda II 5/7/05 9:46 a.m.
     RealismJLrep 5/7/05 11:25 a.m.
           My TakeJinno 5/7/05 3:12 p.m.
                 Re: My TakeDevil Mingy 5/7/05 3:31 p.m.
                       Re: My TakeJLrep 5/7/05 6:53 p.m.
     i thought mothergoat quit halo *NM*synide 5/7/05 4:34 p.m.
           Re: i thought mothergoat quit halodjpaddock20 5/7/05 4:56 p.m.
           Re: i thought mothergoat quit haloMasterGrief 5/7/05 6:54 p.m.
           Re: i thought mothergoat quit haloMothergoat 5/7/05 11:01 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesDj Suppai Saru 5/7/05 7:58 p.m.
     Hey MotherGoat, could you please explain...Dj Suppai Saru 5/7/05 8:02 p.m.
           Re: Hey MotherGoat, could you please explain...zugy 5/7/05 8:34 p.m.
           Re: Hey MotherGoat, could you please explain...JLrep 5/7/05 9:02 p.m.
           Re: Hey MotherGoat, could you please explain...Mothergoat 5/7/05 11:07 p.m.
                 Re: Hey MotherGoat, could you please explain...Dr@Home 5/8/05 1:52 p.m.
                       Re: Hey MotherGoat, could you please explain...AB10784 5/9/05 3:41 p.m.
     What makes Halo good?zugy 5/7/05 8:53 p.m.
     bravo. and now for my 2 centsk_wizard 5/7/05 11:51 p.m.
           Re: bravo. and now for my 2 centsBlazorax 5/8/05 3:02 a.m.
                 Re: bravo. and now for my 2 centsRC Master 5/8/05 9:17 a.m.
                 Re: bravo. and now for my 2 centsJLrep 5/8/05 1:02 p.m.
                 Re: bravo. and now for my 2 centsAB10784 5/9/05 3:48 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesE.T. the Extremely Tired 5/8/05 1:10 p.m.
     Well said.FuzzyWhisper 5/9/05 2:44 p.m.
     Re: The Technical Superiority of the Halo seriesJoe Mama 5/10/05 4:55 a.m.



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