Thursday 21 February, 2008

Gamelog Entry 2

GAMEPLAY:

Overall Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is a pretty fun game. First of all there is the fact that there is so much that the character can do. Since the character can pretty much ignore the missions in the game, the player is free to explore the game world (or the city at least). Interesting enough the player can affect the character’s appearance through in game decisions, such as going to a barber shop and getting a new hair cut or getting some new clothes.

The game still keeps to its roots however. The player can still go on a rampage across the city with an assortment of weapons, jack cars, and have a fun chase with the police. I have to say that the real fun of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas comes out when the player is chased by the police. It’s interesting to see how high the player can get their wanted rating and how long they can survive in such an environment.


DESIGN:

The game designers really planned the entire game out well. First of all you have three cities to play in, and each city then has its own network of streets, shops, special locations, and npcs. This makes the game world feel much wider/freer than the previous GTA games. Each city also had it’s own distinctive style and feel. For example the city of Los Santos features many of the landmarks found in real life Los Angles. In addition the designers also made it so that the player actually had to travel between the cities through the country side as opposed to simply make it so that the player automatically appears in the other city. This further reinforces the sense of being in a wide game world.

I also found the way the designers tried to motivate the players interesting. In order to motivate players into actually following the storyline and completing the main missions, the designers made it so that after most missions the player is able to unlock something or get a new item. For example the player at the start of the game cannot leave Los Santos and head off to any of the other cities. In order to unlock those cities the player has to finish at least the main missions. This solves the problem of players ignoring the storyline and goofing off. Sure, the player can still go off and do whatever he/she wants to do, but sooner or later they will get tired to running around the same city and will want to head to another city. That’s when the reward system kicks in, forcing the player to do the missions in order to unlock the other cities.

A decent gamelog, but I'm not feeling the play-reflect-play-analyze cycle we're looking for. Also, your design section doesn't have that deep of analysis.

- Ian Rickard, your TA who's a few days behind on grading