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Barozi on 19 March 2013
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wolfofthepack said:
Barozi said:

You should replay older games now and you will realize that most of them are only longer because they backtrack a lot. That bad game design was pretty common a generation or two ago. Now developers are getting punished for it and it's the exception.
The next part is unclear objectives where you're running around a level and have no clue what to do or where to go.
And finally "new" areas that use exactly the same terrain, textures, buildings whatever. Pretty much a copy of a previous area/level. Also a bad way to extend campaigns.

Adding all those stuff, A game like Call of Duty would suddenly be 10 hours long instead of 5 or 6. But at the cost of quality.

It's okay if you don't like multiplayer, but it's a fact that it's adding more replay value than anything else you could do.

"And finally "new" areas that use exactly the same terrain, textures, buildings whatever. Pretty much a copy of a previous area/level. Also a bad way to extend campaigns" Nonsesne this was due to the level of graphics back then and wat developers could have done !

and as i can recall a shooters had no back tracking in it yet it is longer than the shooters  we get now! dead space has done this and is an excellent game (lets forget part3 for this convo) the only game that has change this is resident evil and u can c that with this how the game has bomb besides it is no longer survial horror but action besides these games and rpjs there is no "bad game design u speak of" cause  as i c it works!

and wat quality u speak of in cod games of this time before u blink its over no deep story nothing makes sense everything rushed and bam! go play multiplayer!

@bolded #1

Exactly ! That's the reason why no one is doing it nowadays. Filling the game with the same things over and over again, the reason barely matters. But the fact that developers don't do it anymore is proof enough that it was a cheap method of extending the time back in the days. Not doing this is a step forward, thus games being shorter because of that is an automatic increase in quality.


@bolded #2 You couldn't be more wrong.

Doom 1/2, Duke Nukem 3D, Wolfenstein 3D, Medal of Honor Allied Assault, Call of Duty 1.
All had backtracking, some even lots of it. CoD1 being the most recent example. A few levels where you go in, get something you need and then go all the way back and suddenly new enemies arrive until you reach the beginning of the level again.

In Doom/Wolfenstein/Duke Nukem (among others) you go through the levels, see locked doors, go through this aisle and that aisle to grab the key(card) and walk all the way back to the previous locked door. And that in pretty much every level.

While Dead Space is somewhat guilty of this too, the level design is smart enough to let you go to your desired place on more than one way. So if you backtrack you do it because you want to and only rarely bceause you're forced to.


@bolded #3

It's true the story has barely started and the game is over. But let me ask you, was it better before ?
All the shooters I mentioned before. Did they have "story" ? Most of them are just WW2 shooters that go from one place to another or games where you're here without reason and you just have to get out by killing those monsters/aliens.
add Marathon, Unreal, Quake 2 etc. to that list if you want.

Now if you play Modern Warfare 1-3 or Black Ops 1-2 you will notice that the story is split between them. They need to be played in a row to truly experience the story.