Non-linear games. Branching paths. Good stuff.

[Flojomojo]

Just started Vice City, largely because of the nine hours of 80s pop tunes on the soundtrack. The game has muddy graphics (thank god you can turn off the "trails"), and blocky environments, but otherwise, what a blast! The voice acting is great, but what I think is really making it fun is the freedom of the environment. In truth, it's probably a bit linear, but it seems open-ended, which is probably more important.

No more getting stuck not knowing where to go. I suppose it could still happen, but there's always something else to do while you think about it. This is what I really liked about Mario 64, the SCUMM adventures from LucasArts, and to a lesser extent, the old Wing Commander games, HALO, and Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

So many games are linearly scripted. Just a little bit of branching to flatten out the structure makes such a big difference.

[Marvelon]

I agree mostly with you. But I find that most developers don't strike a good balance between sandbox mentality and linear scripting. Morrowind for example gives you Soooo much to do I ended up doing none of it. (not even following the 'main' storyline)
A game like THPS is better in that respect because you can just use the level to express how your feeling (like crashing into walls when angry or gracious grinding when happy) or do the goals and finish the game.

[Vaipon]

Deus Ex was always pretty good for this I reckon. There is always more than one way to get through any section of the game.

[Flojomojo]

I agree mostly with you. But I find that most developers don't strike a good balance between sandbox mentality and linear scripting. Morrowind for example gives you Soooo much to do I ended up doing none of it. (not even following the 'main' storyline)

Oh yeah -- I had forgotten about Morrowind. That could have done with a little more direction, I agree. If something like Rogue Squadron is a straight up-and-down line, with no branching paths, and Vice City is a tree, with a linear direction but lots of branches to the sides, Morrowind is a big flat mushroom colony branching out to the sides in every direction, but not terribly deep.

Not that I got very far in Morrowind, mind you. The forever-loading on the XBOX and my impatience did me in. And Deus Ex? Let's just say I don't really like to play on the PC any more.

[replicant]

I dont have much time to post so Ill make it short, but sweet

I think there is a fine line of a successful branching game which offers choice of approaches to completion, and a game which is far to wandering and suffers from a lack of focus.

While Deus Ex isn't perfect, I think the approach is flexible and offers the game a good variety of choices. You can approach puzzles, and missles from different viewpoints, and resulting actions. Do I sneak through the back, or do I go in guns blazing through the front door? Coupled with the level of primary, and secondary info about the plot and game world is it an amazing experience.

Then we have Morrowind which personally i found to be seriously lacking in focus. Of course there is a challenge, and of course there is an ultimate goal. However it felt like you were wandering through the world with no sense of urgency, or priority. Compared to a game such as Deus Ex it feels all wrong. I think this approach is far more suited to a mmorpg where players can be lazy, talk to online friends, join a party and go wandering for a sub-quest. It brings the online experience more alive, and represents a living, breathing world. Without the online companions to enrich the experience, the lack of focus increases boredom and ruins the game.

[Molloy]

People tend to overrate Deus Ex's freeform nature. At the end of the day every level has the same options; gun blazing, stealthy or airvent. I played about half the missions in the game before I got bored and they all boiled down to the same thing.

I think a game needs to be very good to pull off the freeform exploration trick. There's also the problem that these games take alot of time and people are only going to want to play a certain amount of them before they start looking for more back to basics gameplay centric action.

[lordcookie]

Most of the games you have mentioned have strong linear paths with more open ended side quests. These for me are more successful. The more open ended a game is, the greater the chance of losing focus, and interest. In my opinion a game needs a strong central linear path to work (unless you are talking about a mmorpg or something like Animal Crossing). Without the progression of a story I dont think games work as well.

[Spatial]

While non-linear gameplay is great I have to say I've come to hate the whole multiple ending thing over the last few years

Its partly cos I don't have the time ( and often the inclination ) to play all the way through a game three or four times to see alternative endings. Instead I'd rather play through a game once, have it challenge me, and have a decent outcome at the end

The only game that really reversed this for me was DayofSex

It had three different endings but all were obtainable in the last few moments of the game, which meant you didn't have to sit through the whole thing all over again to view them

[MartyG]

With things like MMORPGs you get out as much as you put in. There is a need to roleplay and interact with people in the game, if you can't do that then such games won't work for you - i.e., you don't have a story line to tell you how you should behave and lead you.

Morrowind is similar I suppose, and I actually enjoyed that game very much, apart from the fact the Xbox version had so many bugs that I eventually had to get the PC version. For some it was too much freedom, I would have liked there to be more NPC interaction, even with the ability for you to setup up a business, for example a shop where you could have sold your warez, or even be broken into. Maybe in Morrowind 2.

Regards
Marty

[Squirtle]

Deus Ex was always pretty good for this I reckon. There is always more than one way to get through any section of the game.

Deus Ex shot itself in the foot at the ending when it suddenly materialised that what had gone before it had not bearing on which ending you wanted. I got all three ending in the space of an hour as the ending only depended on which option you made at the end, not the manifold choices you made through the game. That was a great shame to me.

Hopefully, DE:IW will rectify this problem and thus ensure lots of replayability.

[NiceButDim]

As I recall the old point-and-click game Blade Runner on the PC had 12 different endings. I think that was pretty dependent on how you played the game the whole way through (rather than just relying on a couple of choices near the end).

[Magnakai]

Silent Hill 2's endings depended on how you played the game.
And I think that some of you guys are unfairly knocking Morrowind. I think that the designers intended it to be fairly free in focus. You could happily spend 50 hours just doing side quests, or maybe just exploring and hunting, and not even touch upon the main quest. There are also an insane number of side quests to do. I don't think that it can be compared to Deus Ex at all. Deus Ex placed you in scenarios, and said "Ok, get through this any way you can," wheras Morrowind doesn't force you to be anywhere or to do anything. Do you see what I mean?
I personally loved Morrowind. I thought it was one of the most impressive gaming accomplishments I've ever experienced. But that's just my opinion.