Ben-DutkaOne of the common modern-day trends is multiple endings for games.
However, while players will be able to make various choices in Ready at Dawn's upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive, The Order: 1886 , there will be only one ending.
This is what Ready at Dawn's Marc Turndorf told GamingBolt : Multiple choices don't necessarily translate to multiple endings.
It’s a story driven linear experience. There are some branches here and there and different ways to do things, but we’re trying to tell one story with one compelling ending."
Turndorf added that they think the game will "blow players away with the seamless integration of filmic and gameplay in one awesome package." This sounds a lot like the amazing Uncharted franchise, all of which were fantastic cinematic experiences and linear adventures with only one possible ending. Contrary to popular belief, linear doesn't automatically equate to "inferior" when comparing to open-world games. It really doesn't.
Even so, there are many who would call The Order: 1886 generic, and the linearity isn't really helping its cause.
Related Game(s): The Order: 1886
Wait wait wait… So because this is linear its generic? So…what does that make The Last of Us?
I think most here agree, but out in crazy land people really hate linear.
That's not what he's saying (I believe). He's saying that some people think the gameplay looks very generic, and the linearity on top of that will not help the game.
I think it's linearity and story driven design is a big reason why we can't look at clips taken from the whole and make firm judgements about it. a person can't really position themselves to feel the weight and drama behind the actions by just seeing snippets from the game. i think this is a big weakness in most open world and multiplayer based design. story driven design creates an underlining emotion that sets the context for your actions.
it's easy to look at Far Cry, Titanfall or Sunset Overdrive and see fast and FUN gameplay but it's unlikely any of these provide the sort of weight and meaning behind your actions like games like TLoU or Order likely can. It's basically mixing drama with game play. It can work really well when implemented right.
Last edited by Temjin001 on 6/30/2014 10:56:55 PM
^ This this this. Tell Beamboom this is why open world will never compete with linear adventure in the story department.
Indeed!
Nonsense. Why can there be very intriguing trailers of movies then?
And the TLoU trailers and gameplay snippets looked *awesome*!
Any promotional material should (and usually are) promoting the reasons why you should enjoy that piece of entertainment. If you are to make a cinematic game, then make the trailers reflect that. To publish half an hour of what that looks plain old generic rinse-and-repeat gameplay is a major – and completely meaningless – mistake if your game is a fantastic cinematic experience.
It's like publishing ten minutes of Uncharted gameplay while you multiple times try to jump at the right spots to get over a pass. Why would you do that?
Last edited by Beamboom on 7/1/2014 3:30:06 AM
beam, why are changing context here? you're talking the "shoulds" about promo trailers I'm talking the differences between narrative driven design and open/multiplayer design.
are you really always a meddler in everything you post?
I'm just replying to your statement; "a person can't really position themselves to feel the weight and drama behind the actions by just seeing snippets from the game"
This is where I draw a comparison with movies (who is the ultimate linear experience) just to point out that you indeed *can* feel the weight and drama from seeing just snippets.
Furthermore this is proven by the snippets we saw of TLoU prior to release.
I am sorry if I came across as more aggressive than intended. Sorry, I hope you know I love you Temmy.
Beam I just don't see it that way. How could one tell while watching brief clips from game play the emotion that is to be carried with it? That's pretty much all we've seen from Order. Discrete sections of play with little story context. It's easy to look at Sunset Overdrive and see snippets of the game and know that it looks like a lot of fun shooting. It's purpose to entertain is clearly seen in the playing mechanics themselves. You can't tell me if I saw a snippet from Heavy Rain where you see Ethan walking around in a playground would have the same meaning if you didn't know that his son had been missing. All the drama wouldn't be there. It's as simple as that. I suppose if it helps I can word it as this "you can't ALWAYS tell the quality of a game just from snippets of game play from a game that relies a lot on it's narrative weight." It's much easier to do that on games that are less reliant on that sort of stuff. Hence why we can see fast action stuff from Titanfall and such and be like. "oh wow, that looks like a lot of fun!"
Last edited by Temjin001 on 7/1/2014 5:06:18 PM
That i agree with – unfortunately there's very little emotion (or storyline content in general) to be found in actual gameplay in games today. And yes, Sunset Overdrive & co does look insanely fun, probably because they *are* fun.
But again I'd like to use TLoU as an example: In those gameplay snippets you could almost feel the tension when the main protagonist waited behind a table for the mob to pass by, or any of those other gameplay clips. I think the storyline vibe came through in those clips!
In The Order on the other hand, well I'm sorry but those clips just looks like the very standard, generic 3rd person action game where you seek cover and shoot using the traditional logic (rocket launcher for area effect behind cover etc) that we pretty much find in every darn shooter we ever played, with enemy movement all scripted to the max.
So when some of us don't get excited from those clips then I don't necessarily think that's because it's a linear game, but rather because the gameplay – unfortunately – seem to be pretty weak.
Are people starting to call linear, story-driven games a bad thing? That's just crazy talk.
It's one of the most common trends.
Ahem, can anybody (like Ben) help me change my avatar? Damn 500 error.
Back on track: Thank God. I hate when a game has different endings unless it's like Dragon Age or Heavy Rain where they just run down a list of your accomplishments. I don't have time to either get 100% for the best ending nor do I have time to play it more than once. One fantastic ending is all you need most of the time.
More endings is like more work instead of more content.
Yes! Agree 100%
I don't mind when the endings change based on your last few decisions in the game, but when it is based on your ENTIRE playthrough, it annoys me, because I will never play the game X amount of times to see all of them.
The Order looks to have strong production values and hopefully the gameplay is just as solid. However, I really believe that this game will live and die by the strength of it's characters and story.
And you can't really get a feel of those things from a short gameplay trailer.
I will continue to reserve judgement, but I remain optimistic.
I'm expecting it to feel different I think. Like when you first picked up Uncharted 2 you knew that things had changed a great deal just by having it in your hands and seeing the response on screen. Hard to explain, but you know that very polished feeling to the controls. I'm hoping they'll take it even further with the physics in the game, but you can't get physics from watching a youtube vid.
I'm really glad that The Order is on the horizon as a strongly story-driven, linear game. Not saying that open-world games with branching storylines are bad (I may not enjoy them as much as some people do, but I still rate them), but there's just far too many of them being announced for my liking, and not enough AAA games of The Order's ilk. :/
turn the game back to the normal 16:9 aspect ratio, then will talk.
This is great news!
A lot of people just don't have time to play games multiple times.
I have time, I just don't want to.
I like this, I'm not a big fan of when developers try to please everybody with multiple endings.
No issues or surprise with this, expected it to be story focussed. As many else have said, games like TLoU and Uncharted 1/2/3 only had one ending, and they got by ;).