Ben-DutkaIt's often part of a journalist's or critic's job to compare a new game to other familiar titles, just so the public has a reference point.
But some game makers aren't too thrilled with these comparisons, even when those comparisons are quite flattering. Take Vigil Games lead designer for Darksiders II Haydn Dalton, for instance. In a recent Videogamer interview , he says he isn't a big fan of constant comparisons, even if Zelda is included. Said Dalton:
"If anyone says it's like the games that you talked about, of course, anything like that we see as a compliment. But it's a curse as well because they see it as, like, you haven't really done anything to earn that. Everyone has seen [Zelda]. Why isn't everyone else doing it? People have tried to do things like that but they've completely failed at it.
We seem like we've done it right but we still get a little bit whipped for it. We're trying to do something that we think is fun in a genre that I think is dying now. It's hard to do and it costs a lot of money and we're still trying to keep the idea of that action-adventure genre going. It feels a little hurtful sometimes when people are hurting us for doing that."
He went on to say that critics should use comparisons as a reference point, but they definitely start to feel like "derogatory remarks" when they go, "Well, it's just this." For example, it drives him nuts when Darksiders II is said to be a "carbon copy" of God of War …it isn't, and he wants us to know it. For our part, we're pretty excited about this new sequel; it seems to have oodles of potential.
It does remind us of…..oh, just kidding. We won't do it.
Related Game(s): Darksiders II