It is now halfway through December and here I am once again in front of my laptop, hoping to share some of my insight with those whose wish to read — although there are undoubtedly very few of the aforementioned.
What I would like to share today is another thought on game design. More specifically, how the absence of the most minute features can drastically alter gameplay. To illustrate my point, I’m going to stick to Halo 4 an example that is fresh in my mind, having just acquired the game less than a week ago. The only reason I’m not playing right now is because I have a dental appointment in half an hour.
Those who have followed me in the past, are aware of the fact that I have been a long term Halo fan and that talking about the series is sort of a sore spot of mine. It’s for this reason that I have told myself that I will never do a review of it; I simply feel I won’t be able to judge it fairly. However, despite my lack of willingness to report my overall thoughts of the game, my prior experience with Halo online multiplayer helps me to realize a few things about game design.
In Halo 4 competitive multiplayer, 343 industries — intentionally or unintentionally — failed to include a death indicator for teammates. At first this seems like a very insignificant feature; however, in reality, not being able to tell where your teammate just got a shotgun to the face really changes the gameplay quite a bit. I’ve noticed that in Halo 4 multiplayer, this leads to matches placing an increasing amount of emphasis on individual skill and/or hugging your team as much as possible.
For any Halo veteran picking up Halo 4 competitive team-based multiplayer for the first time the change is almost immediately observable, especially when you realize that the classic “…one shot on my ‘x’..” makes absolutely no sense anymore.
The point I wish to make is that these tiny elements of design can have a big impact on how the game feels. Thanks for reading and I hope I made sense. Until next time!
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