Thursday 21 February, 2008

GAMEPLAY

When I resumed playing, this time with a sword in hand, things became much more fluid and flowing. What made this game interesting is that most of the challenge comes from solving the puzzles, even the enemies can be seen as a type of puzzle, as once you discover their weak spot, they are fairly easy to defeat.
The storyline and characters are simple, yet still enjoyable; it is accessible to younger children who can love the hero saves the princess and the kingdom deal, and the older gamer can also enjoy the thought provoking puzzles that come up rather frequently throughout even just the first part of the game.


DESIGN

Ocarina of Time came out in 1998, and as such, the game is a bit simpler than those today, however this is not always a bad thing, it simplifies a lot of the game and allows the player to get into the bulk of it without having to learn complex commands and controls. There is more or less one button that encompasses every action in the game, from attacking to talking to people. The target lock on system also will disengage in convenient times, usually resulting in a lost heart. However, these snags can be attributed to the games age, and thus do not count against it too much.ß
The dungeons, for their complex puzzles and challenges, are all quite linear, and follow the same template: get the map, then the compass, then a new tool which is key to figuring out a lot of the puzzles and beating the boss, then dispatch the boss. To balance this out, focus is made to make the puzzles intuitive and subtle, creating an overall complexity to them.
Another interesting mechanic is that there is a running clock of day and night that we begin to see, which divides the world up accordingly, with different monsters and different areas accessible in day and night. Additionally, you are given the ability to say “yes” or “no” to most things, although you have to answer yes in most cases to advance the plot, you can break off from a conversation by disagreeing, this gives you more control over the conversation than many of Ocarina of Time’s contemporaries allow.

you should start getting into the idea of why these things make the game better. You are looking at what you can do and the result, controlling the conversation for example, but you should start looking at how it enhances the game. Why is it there? Good entry otherwise.