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Saturday 9 February, 2008
Gamelog Entry # 2 for 2/8/08:
Gameplay:
At first I was getting really frustrated because I was having some difficulties with the game. And it wasn't that I couldn't pass a level with my gaming skills, it was that it didn't let me. The game kept doing weird things. My character Niobe would be in the air frozen in jump motion and I was not able to get her to go back to the ground. The only thing I was able to move was the camera, and that was where I actually saw her just floating there. My friend who was with me was laughing, because she had thought that it was an actual part of the game she thought she was doing as she called it "that matrix motion thingy." However this was not the only time I became frustrated with the game.
Another time I had to restart the console was when as I was shooting my enemies in the game-world, getting really pumped up, then the screens upper portion turned black and on it was some kind of code. At first I thought was part of the matrix game, because it had zeroes and ones, but then a high-pitched sound followed that woke up my housemates. And I wasn't able to move my character. With these disruptions however I found out that I wasn't paying attention to the people around me because I was into the game, immersed in the game-world actions. Even these two disruptions made me think I was still playing the game, until I realized I didn't have control and therefore disrupting my game flow.
The story got more interesting, and overall I was entertained but I just felt that there were too many clips from the movie that were supposed to help set up the story and further the narrative, but a lot of the times I caught myself just wanting to continue playing. When I did play I was fairly entertained; the character herself (Niobe) was what kept me most involved in the game.
Design:
I thought the levels gave me a good amount of space to wander if I wanted, and at times an arrow appeared on screen to tell you which direction you needed to go. That was very helpful at times but wasn’t necessary all the time so I liked that aspect that the arrow wasn’t around all the time, so that you as the player were free to decide where you wanted to go first.
At first I liked that after you passed a certain section of the narrative it allowed you save, but sometimes I felt that the save points were happening too frequently and it became that it would disrupt the game flow as it saved too often.
The main thing that attracted my attention to this game was the ability to slow down time, which did entertain me at the beginning, but then I found out you could also speed up time, and learn new moves as you progress through the game. These forms of rewards kept me wanting to play because I looked forward to learning a new move or finding a new weapon.
For me there wasn’t much social interaction in this game with other people around me, or with other players because it is a one player, and I guess because in the beginning of the game you can choose which level (easy, medium, hard) that you would like to play at. But it left me no room to interact with others because I chose “hard” and more and more enemies would re-appear. But I liked that aspect of the game design because there was always someone for me to fight, but at the same time, I would forget what was the actual task at hand, so I guess it could both ways.
The levels of this game were varied so you weren’t just shooting and fighting, but there were also times where you drove the car if you were Niobe or rode shotgun and shot outside the window if you choose to be Ghost. I played with both characters, but I think personally I like the character of Niobe better, because I felt her story was much more interesting and she was just plain awesome.
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