We all love those set-piece moments in gaming. The moments where Hollywood-style action meets our controller and we are in for a roller coaster ride. Those moments where we just have to shout out loud. Those moments where adrenaline surges and our pulse quickens. I'm talking about those epic moments of epic epicness! There will be SPOILERS here, as I have to describe scenes, so read on if you'd like!
The Cruise Ship (Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception): OK, so we know from my reviews that Naughty Dog does some crazy stuff that makes you sit up and say, "Wow!" I think none can compare to the cruise ship in Uncharted 3. It starts with amazing tech. The team built a procedural ocean. Let that sink in. The ocean on which an entire level filled with debris and enemies is created on the fly. No two run throughs will be the same. This is instead of using set animations to give the illusion of a rolling sea. No, this is a real rolling sea with enemies that have to adapt just like the player. The life-boat is, according to the lead designer, the most complex object in the game. This thing is hanging off a pulley and has to be climbed. So, it's got Drake's weight causing it to shift, the pulley/arm swaying, the ocean interacting and the changes the ocean has on Drake's momentum. It's incredible. But, that's just the start! Throughout the level are some of the most intense and hair-raising fights (the ballroom is especially tough) before you get to the hold. There, Nate detonates a grenade and starts to sink the ship. Now you're fighting for your life as the hold fills with water. By this point, most normal games would have cut to a cinema of the hero escaping by the skin of his teeth. Not here. Instead, you have to rush down hallways ahead of crashing flood waters, platform up tables and windows as the the ship is now tilted 90* and then, in the gorgeous ballroom, look out the skylight at the ocean rolling (still being dynamically created on the fly) as the water level rises. All this ends with another run from the crushing water and a leap to safety, finally ending one of the most amazing scenes I've ever experienced. This was the first one in my adult memory where I stood up after finishing and shouted, "F*ck, yeah! Woooooo!"
The extended demo from E3 for the cruise ship level (changed for in-game)
Fighting Sin (Final Fantasy X): Every time Sin shows up in Final Fantasy X, terrible things happen. Every single fight with this monstrous whale-like fiend is great. I love how each fight is broken up into parts. Sin is so big, that you fight fins then Sin Spawns then part of the bad boy himself. I love how each section of the fight causes you to switch up tactics. This showcases the amazing battle system that FFX offered. Being able to swap any character on the fly for another meant that as the battle shifted, so to did your team. From using Lulu and Wakka at range to Auron and Tidus when Sin gets up close, every second of these battles is pulse-poundingly awesome!
Sin shows up for the first of many boss battles
Leaving the Vault (Fallout 3): The first thing you do in Fallout 3, after learning to walk/shoot/talk/steal/live is to take those first steps out into the Capitol Wasteland. There is something so amazing about this moment. The door opens, you're blinded by the sun (something your character has never seen before) and then, as the bloom fades, the wastes stretch out before you. They seemingly go on forever! As you hike up the ruined highway toward Megaton, you can look out from the progressively higher vantage points and see further. The vast emptiness is sobering and exhilarating! You can go ANYWHERE and explore! See that ruined overpass? Stuff is under it and on it. See that tower in the distance? Go there to meet rich jerks! See the National Mall? Fight Super Mutants with Lyon's Pride and the Brotherhood of Steel there! It's overwhelming and intoxicating. This is what Bethesda does well. They give you a world, populate it with all sorts of things to do and then turn you loose. This is also why I cannot play very far into Fallout 3. I panic with too much to see and nothing but my own sense of adventure to spur me onward. I want to see it all, and I cannot. And so, by having the option to do EVERYTHING I tend to do NOTHING. This is something I'm slowly breaking myself of by playing Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and (hopefully after the holidays) Skyrim.
It ain't pretty, but it's fun to explore!
I completely agree with the open world thing. I can't play them because there is just too much to do. It doesn't bother me so much in games like Assassins Creed, where it's open but with very clearly marked things to do, but if it's up to me to just explore, I'd rather not. That's also the reason I generally play RPGs with a strategy guide/walkthrough, as I don't want to miss anything, and don't really want to devote my time to a second or even third complete playthrough.
ReplyDeleteDang, you said I'd be able to play Uncharted successfully without problem before! Now it sounds really foreboding all over again!
ReplyDeleteThe battles with Sin are good ones.. I like the instant switch-out's because if one of my characters is about to die, I don't have to waste my White mage's turn healing them. I'll just swap someone else in and leave the healing up until after the boss. Love that system!