The RPG mechanics were always a crutch, a holdover from the Ultima Underworld days – a necessary evil during an era where more naturalistic ways to express action and reaction in virtual spaces wasn’t yet technically feasible. What was your favourite part of Deus Ex? Was it looking at a screen of digits and putting points into the Environmental Training skill? No it wasn’t. To be honest, I’ve always found such cold, visible mechanisms of numbers and dice rolls kind of goes against the “immersive” part of immersive sim. It had skill points and upgrades, like a proper RPG. While System Shock 2 inarguably has the stronger environmental storytelling and atmosphere, it also had far more videogame going on. Playing the excellent System Shock remake helped me finally realise why I always preferred the original to the game’s widely more lauded sequel. The genre is one with a disparate history and many competing definitions, and the excellent System Shock remake strips everything back to basics – providing a perfect chance to experience the core appeal, as well as to provide a solid groundwork for the future.Ītmosphere, functionality, old tech, and not a floating number in sight. Not only are there more indie games about crawling through air vents and reading emails than ever before, the design sensibilities and focus on emergent gameplay is starting to appear in triple-A titles to an extent we haven’t seen for a long time. This is the most exciting, vibrant moment for immersive sims since the golden age of Looking Glass and Ion Storm.
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