Intrinsic on 16 November 2014
I love the setting and the potential lore of The Order. Unfortunately, there is nothing I have seen of the game "so far" that makes me feel it will be anything more than a Resi4 clone. Not that thats a bad thing if done right (dead space was also a resi4 clone), its just that its a completely missed opportunity if done like how they seem to be doing it right now. It could have been sooooo much more.
These are basically my thoughts on how I would have made and shown The Order.
- Linearity isn't a bad thing. Technically, ever game you ever played that had you go from stage 1 through to stage whatever is a linear game. Problem is that while the most linear games ever made had simple straightforward gameplay mechanics, they ultimately required and immense amount of skill to finish. So you pretty much ended up playing the same level over and over again till you got it right. The reward wasn't in how many different ways you could do something, but rather in just being able to even do it at all.
- Hard is Good. This is what the order needs. If I made the game, I would have the main character we equipped with his standard arsenal of weapons, but in addition to this I would add a special warping blade (think of a sword that looks like the roman Gladius). Warping in the sense that the blade will be segmented and allow it to be used as a whip or grappling thingy). You would have access to every single attack you can do from the start of the game. It would be impossible to kill the hybrids with projectile based weapons, you can only kill them with the blade (not cause its special, but just cause they heal to fast and can only be killed by cutting off their heads. Hybrids will be very fast and can kill you in 2/3 direct hits. You would be able to move around faster, especially when using a special boost that only lasts for 2 seconds at a time if used to augment motion. But this can be used to rapidly roll or evade otherwise fatal attacks or wall run.
And I would base the entire game off the mechanics listed above. - The Challenge. The whole point will be to make you simply dread having to ever face a hybrid. Not about you getting more powerful weapons that will make them easier to dispatch. In truth, the only thing easy about them will be tied to just how much better at he game you get. At actually controling your character and using all his abilities to your advantage.
The game demo will actually be nothing more than a simple challenge where you have to face just one hybrid. Nothing more. But this will be to show just how hard it is to beat them cause it would require you using ranged attacks to slow them down or stun them, effectively parrying cause you won't be able to block them more then once. Striking with you blade and manuavering away to stay alive, and constanly keeping them damaged to prevent them from ust healing again until they are weak enough for you to cut off their heads.
In the actual game, one of the most challenging parts would putting you in a small cathedral with a locked door and ou trapped inside with four hybrids. Survive for 4 mins until your frieds can undo the lock from the other side and you get a trophy , can escape the trap that was set for you and continue with the game. You will probably die 100 times trying to complete this as simply surviving will take a near mastery of everything you have learned in the game so far. However, after that lock is opened you can choose not to escape and actually kill off the 4 hybrids and get a special hidden trophy. Doing this would require god like skill. Little touches like these are what makes people fall in love with games.
I will literally build the core of the games gameplay around all that. And shootouts with human beings will just be filler to help you catch your breath. In the entire game you may not even encounter more than 20 hybrids, but everytime you do.. you definately will remmeber it.
And this is what saddens me about this game. Its so easy to make a much better game than what they seem to be making (though we don't really know what they ae making). I miss the days where what was really great about games were just how challenging they were. There is too much handholding going on these days. And I feel a justifiably harder game (not a game thats heard cause its broken or cheats) will always win a dedicated and loyal following.
