Nonlinearity does not make a game enjoyable. It’s a mistake to ask developers to focus on that.
Well nothing makes a game enjoyable if it’s done badly. But it can definitely increase immersion and excitement if a game doesn’t hand-hold you all the way and you are allowed to find your own ways to solve problems, rather than be shepherded past event-triggers and waypoints and such. So it’s not a “mistake” for developers to focus on that if they’re going to do it well, any more than it’s a mistake to focus on any other design feature.
There’s little I hate more in games than having no freakin’ clue what I’m supposed to do next.
This is not the hallmark of a nonlinear game… it’s the hallmark of a badly designed nonlinear game. Otherwise you might as well say the skirmish mode in an RTS is bad because you don’t know exactly what your next objective is. The point is, you know the overall objective, you know the basic parameters of the gameworld, and you go to it.
Incidentally, how would you rank Thief (penultimate stealth game in some people’s HOs) in terms of “linearity”? I’d say it was pretty nonlinear, in the sense that you have the objective, you have multiple ways to get at it (in most levels), and you aren’t shepherded down a single path a la Half-Life (not to knock Half-Life incidentally, it is almost totally linear and is one of the best games ever made). On the other hand, there aren’t an infinite number of possible pathways (obviously Lord Bafford’s Manor is only going to have a finite number of entrances), so you could also call it a case of “path A, B, and C” linearity-illusion if you really want… But I recall from playing Thief that it felt pretty “nonlinear” within a given mission, i.e. I wasn’t herded along, yet I also never felt so adrift that I didn’t know what to do next. So I’d call that an example of nonlinearity, or at least partial nonlinearity, done right… Maybe you’d call it “the illusion of nonlinearity;” you say potato, etc.
not to knock Half-Life incidentally, it is almost totally linear and is one of the best games ever made
You beat me to it-- I was going to bring this up, since you are constantly referencing HL as an example of perfect game design. It’s 99.9% linear. Anyway, the whole “too linear” criticism is a red herring. Either the game has mechanics that are fundamentally enjoyable (eg, Splinter Cell’s stealth) or it doesn’t (eg, IGI2’s stealth, and to a lesser extent NOLF and NOLF2*). Everything else is irrelevant until that problem has been solved.
Where you are forced to shoot sleeping guards in the head so they won’t wake up later. Perhaps the only shooter that made me feel like Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer.
Either the game has mechanics that are fundamentally enjoyable (eg, Splinter Cell’s stealth) or it doesn’t (eg, IGI2’s stealth, and to a lesser extent NOLF and NOLF2*). Everything else is irrelevant until that problem has been solved.
Yes, of course it must be fun* first and foremost. But there are many roads to Rome…
Now I have to soldier through the required “oops, you lost all your weapons and you’re deep in enemy territory” mission. Which is all well and good-- except for the BMPs and helicopters which can unerringly see and hit you when you are anything but crouched or prone. What’s even weirder is that the BMPs cannot physically hit you when you’re prone, no matter how close they are to you. And then there are the roaming soldiers doing their best Mr. Magoo impersonation. As long as you’re prone, you don’t exist. Until one of 'em is practically on top of you. Then all the other AI guys pile on and they have Ghost Recon-esque preturnatural aim. With fully automatic weapons. From a distance.
Ah, screw it. I will try the multiplayer, which I’ve heard is pretty good.
Just tried the multiplayer-- it is indeed very good. A bit floaty and lithtech-y, but they sure nailed the counter-strike vibe. You generally have multiple team objectives on those massive maps, and the spawn points move forward or backward ala RTCW to reflect the ebb and flow of battle. Lots and lots of guns to choose from, depending on how much cash you generate while you’re alive. The sentry cameras and guns appear to be working in base defense, but I wasn’t clear about that.
Mostly, it’s just fun to fight in such large maps. I was worried that having such a large space would lead to a lot of cheap sniping, but that didn’t happen. You get a much better sense of “place” with all the buildings and areas to fight in and around… very BF1942-like, but with many more structures.
Anyway, the IGI2 multiplayer is definitely worth a try; it’s not your vanilla checkbox-style implementation.
After a few more hours of play online, I’m upgrading IGI2 from “worth a try” to “must buy for fans of FPS multiplayer”. IGI2 multiplayer feels like the bastard child of Battlefield 1942 (minus vehicles) and Counter-Strike. Hint: that’s good.
Looks like the developers are serious about MP, too, as they just released a dedicated Win32 server update and announced a Linux server.
Ah I like this game… its like Ghost Recon but with the gameplay of solo OFP. BTW, I am near the end of the swindled mission where you start out only with a knife. I sniped everybody. But then I can’t get to the friggin copter! How the helll do I get around the fence and mines!!! DId you get past this mission wumpus? Damn, wish I was on faster net access… IGI 2 sounds cool multi. I took a look at some of the online maps…look cool.
also wanted to add the only complaint with the game (sp game) is that the friggin glock is so damn accurate I dont even want to fire my mp5 or m-16 because the glock is silenced! its ridiculous… i even snipe with the damn handgun… somehow I think the put too much recoil in the mp5/m16m, the ak47 seems fine.
I played IGI when it came out. Revolutionary for the time. A shooter built with a flight-sim engine, so I dare wonder if it was the first truly “open-world” shooter?
