Metallicube said:
leatherhat said:
http://www.gamesradar.com/3ds/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d/review/the-legend-of-zelda-ocarina-of-time-3d-review/a-20110616202423556029/g-2010061610502183083
Ocarina is particularly bad about dropping excessively vague hints (or no hints at all) as to what to do next. There are a handful of extremely important items (say, the Fire Arrows, Lens of Truth or even Epona) that are buried under a layer of riddles that don’t quite add up. Back in the day, we expected games to be mysterious and obtuse; today, we’re all accustomed to mechanics that lead us from one place to the next, even if it’s on an almost subconscious level. This isn’t about hand-holding or over-tutorializing, which is a whole other problem with games today – it’s about fundamental design, and Ocarina has always had this issue, especially compared to Wind Waker or Twilight Princess.
This is the problem with modern games. No mystery. No Adventure. No discovery. Its pathetic, every game now a days has waypoints and other nonsense to drag you through the game. It pisses me off. There's never any easter eggs or sidequests or things to find. Its just mission/cutscene/ waypoint to the next mission etc. All but a few games follow this formula- and those exceptions are far and away the best games of the gen.
And here is a mainstream reviewer complaining about a game that has these elements (with plenty of hand holding via Saria and Navi). Casual to the max, and everything wrong with modern game design.
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These are the issues I have with many modern games as well. They are far too linear, giving you little freedom to alter outcomes or make discoveries, and you just don't get that sense of accomplishment that many older games provided. You're sort of guided along strict boundaries and no matter what you do doesn't really affect the outcome, because usually you get the same story, cutscenes, items, etc anyway.
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Designers today are falling in love with the concept they could make things that are like movie-like experiences, and due to the sheer amount of resources they have, they can handcraft the path players go in, bombard them with controlled experiences, and make people feel they are part of some adventure. The more you control the narrative, the more freedom you lose. There are two established ways to set up a gameworld: either you go with everything being scripted or you have a procedurally generated world that is living where your actions change the landscape of the world. The later is a smart sandbox, and not merely a tabletop with toys and doodads on it, which is a placeholder for scripted missions.
