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Friday 25 January, 2008
Part 2:
Gameplay:
I've explored a little bit more into the world, and noticed the difficulty does increase over time. In order to make progress through the game, you have to find the items that allow you to open doors to find new items. This starts out easy, as items are “hidden” in rooms with doors in them. You open the door, collect the item, and move on. Later on in the game, they hide the doors, so that you have to shoot some flooring to reveal a passage to a door. Sometimes, these secret passages are marked; there will be a cracked stone or a scorched tile. Other times, they won't be marked at all, and you'll have to infer the location of a secret passage by the fact that you're trapped in a deadend. Sometimes, you get stuck, and you'll have to do a brute force search, blasting every stone on every wall, ceiling and floor in your immediate area.
This is a bad thing, I think. Sure, it sells more issues of “Nintendo Power” when you need to look up walkthroughs to find that one stray tile that is holding your progress back. But to me this is pure frustration, and takes me out of the game. I can imagine a person who disagrees with me, and doesn't want to be hand-fed the game. I feel the ability to progress should not be treated as a reward, or if it is, the goal should be made clear.
Design:
The game fools the player into believing it's freeform, when actually there's a very linear sequence of events that the player needs to accomplish before advancing to the next area. The game doesn't really have levels, but instead has areas, each of which has its own art style and set of dumb minions to challenge the player. These areas are backtracked through a lot, and this is provides the main illusion of non-linearity. Sometimes, the path will feature different enemies on the way back than on the way in, and these scripted events emulate the feeling that Samus is having an effect on the world, and that the world is reacting to her.
Point A to Point B is the main challenge of the game, finding secret passages and avoiding pesky minions while doing so. The player isn't told what Point B is, but often you'll pass by an inaccessible door on your way to an item, and it's likely that the item you get will be of immediate use in opening said door, so it isn't necessary to keep notes. The game does provide you with some information on your progress by keeping a map of rooms that marks areas you've been.
Every once and a while you'll meet a boss, which distinguishes itself from minions by having a slightly more complex behavior, with one obvious weak point that will allow the player to defeat it. Bosses are also special in that the player will only face them once, so the player will need to learn a new trick for each one.
Bosses often reward players for beating them with a new item, which also reinforces in the player the idea that they've accomplished something. New items are the primary reward to players. They offer you new access to the world, and maybe an easier time vanquishing the minions in the world. Some items are more interesting than others... the morph ball changes the way you view the world, with every cranny a possible location of a secret. The spazer makes it easier to dispatch minions. This contrasts to the Varia Suit, which changes Samus' color scheme and lets her explore hot rooms without dying. The Spazer and the morph ball change the way the player looks at the game, while the purpose of the Varia suit is effectively to unlock doors. (Though, I do prefer its color scheme)
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