Saturday 9 February, 2008

Two

Gameplay
For my second attempt at the game I started on the fourth level which culminated with a very difficult boss fight. The boss would go through various patterns, but would switch things up when I got comfortable with his current pattern. Beating him took several tries, but finally I over game his evil ways and vanquished the mighty foe. This game was meant to be played through multiple times, but with the difficulty I have, and my inability to play the game for hours on end I will probably beat it only once or twice before never playing it again.

One feature that I'd like to delve into is the revving the sword. It is similar to Squall's gunblade where a carefully timed trigger press and your attaxks will do more damage. The biggest difference is DMC moves much faster, making it worthwhile for me to simply spam the left trigger and hope for the best. That method more often then not yields better returns then me thinking about the trigger and when to squeeze it.

Design
This iteration of DMC was made to show off the power of the current gen systems. The game runs beautifully through fast moving scenes with many entities on screen with no notable framerate chops. The game can do this by providing usually smaller, static spaces, with minimal camera control. The art direction and the quality assurance people must have worked very hard to create a game that is so visually pleasing and virtually no bugs.

One major design decision that has been prevelent in all of the games (except maybe 2) is the scarcity of health. Upon levels changing you get a recharge and before bosses you usually pick up a fuull health orb, but for the meat of the game you are running with what you have. Enemies rarely drop health, so it mostly comes from breaking pots or other inanimate objects. Because of this the player does not want to get hurt, and when fighting multiple enemies of different types this can be very difficult.

The game was made to be difficult, and Capcom did exactly that, they give an easier difficulty for the feint of heart, and let the rest trudge through usually with difficulty.

A decent gamelog. Your language is a bit casual. Also, in the design section we're looking for exploration of the "why" behind design decisisons, not just the "what".

- Ian Rickard (your TA/Grader this week)