Dark Messiah of Might and Magic

Having tried single player demo, and the multiplayer beta, I was anticipating this game for quite a while, especially the single player part.

Let me say it is a fantastic piece of work. Yes, it is buggy and the loading times are long. However, the idea of comparative freedom in achieving objectives is so addictive that I am ready to forgive everything else.

Why I love this game:

• Many ways of achieving objectives (I play a stealth-type character and it is perfectly viable so far)
• Medieval/fantasy theme 
• Fast, but varied action (you can slash, parry, stun, disarm, snipe, set off existing environmental traps, sneak, backstab, create ice to make enemies slip, ignite arrows and oil spills, etc)
• Feeling creative and clever (when you find out the fun of kicking guards off ledges for the first time)
• Great graphics
• Great ambient sound
• Character progression based on objective achievement (not just combat)

There are many things to be improved, which I might update once I’ve played more. Besides the various system compatibility bugs and some unpolished levels, I have a specific requirement for the user interface.

I was really surprised at the fact that I need to press a key AND HOLD IT to maintain walking speed. If I remember correctly, the original Doom had an “always run” button, which makes it possible to free one finger from labor (a great achievement). I think that a “state changing” button would be more user friendly than a press-and-hold type button when handling sprinting, crouching and walking (or at least, a possibility to configure a state-changing button). Right now on the keyboard I need spider hands to play without gimping myself (as a stealth character I need to hold down “Walk”, which means one busy finger which could be on “Sprint”, “Kick” or “Crouch”).

Quality assurance now requires games related degree

Surely it is a well known fact to you that I am seeking employment in games development. I mean how could you not know that.

My plan is to get an entry level job in QA, be an excellent trainee and get really good in the field. After gaining experience and getting more practice in level design I can hopefully proceed to level design and finally game design. This path would provide me with a good understanding basis instead of just trying to jump into design all at once.

Besides sending letters as a response to various job ads, I decided to try and work with an agency. I will not name it, but I got some interesting answers from them, which could prove interesting for aspiring game developers.

First of all, due to my previous experience I am in quite a good position to be hired in the sales and marketing side of games industry. Unfortunately, the reason I want to change jobs is exactly that I want to do games development.

Entry level positions are limited for me since I do not have a games related or even an IT related degree (both degrees are in business). So I am shooting for QA and maybe design.

So this agency tells me that nowadays employers require games related degrees to consider applicants for entry level design positions. That I kind of expected.

However, they also told me that companies require games related degrees (or equivalent) for entry level QA, too. That schocked me, since I have never ever seen a job ad for entry level QA (usually called QA tester)  that would require a games degree. Never.

I am thinking that clients of the given recruitment agency have this extra screen set up for candidates who come through the recruitment agency. This way if they are really desperate they may hire somebody to QA who does not have the degree, but can do the job. However the agency would probably be too expensive for screening “who can do the job”, therefore it is done inhouse.

Just my guess here:) I mean, why wouldn’t they write that they require the degree if they really required it?

Conflict – Desert Storm II: first impressions

The game is a mission–based shooter with squad command, stealth some vehicle combat elements. It is set in Kuwait during the operation Desert Storm.  

Glossary:LBM: loathing building moments 

Learning curve: steep. There are a lot of actions one can perform in appropriate circumstances. I found the tutorial necessary to make any progress in the game. 

Bugs? There were two quirks in the tutorial, one connected with stealth (wrong instruction) and one about vehicle handling. The stealth one is mentioned in the stealth section. The vehicle quirk: when driving to the final destination (which is not marked in any way, and there are two dead ends), the driver is supposed to get out of the vehicle. It is only possible to get out when the vehicle is touching the bars at the final destination. However, this (and also, which dead end to use) is not known to the player, so moments of frustration are possible until by trial and error one can enter the spot where getting out becomes an option. I think these were definitely not considered game stopping bugs, but they help to build loathing (LBM) towards this game in general. 

Stealth in this game: it is hard to track your visibility (I cannot keep track of the enemies when moving in stealth; if I move one way, I cannot look the other way, so I am blind as to what the enemy is doing and I cannot react appropriately (this is not realistic either, as in reality I can turn my head while moving in another direction). This requires me to study enemy movements for some time in advance to be able to complete the stealth objectives. However, as situations become more complex, I find the lack of any kind of stealth-warning interface realy limiting my adaptability. For example, a stealth meter, although not realistic, is a way to simulate me looking around and checking on soldiers (when moving from cover to cover). Also, the tutorial states „do not run while in stealth“, while running is the only way to beat the stealth tutorial (you need a second in the end which you can only gain by running). „Getting stuck to the wall“ is a major feature both in walking upright and in crouching (LBM).  

Command in this game: most of the commands are not hard to execute and trying to use them in a meaningful way in time is part of the rather steep learning curve for a person new to squd based combat (but you either like this or not; without these commands the game would be quite shallow). One command is pretty hard to execute: the „move there“ (indicate movement direction) command requires aiming, and the vertically prolonged cursor perplexes as to which part of it indicates the real movement direction (the top or the bottom of the cursor?) (LBM). I would find an arrow to be a more appropriate, intuitive cursor. 

Specialization: one can make squad units specialize in certain weapons and utilities use (for example, first aid kit use), which is cool. Still the soldiers are very similar to me (look almost the same with the exception of the arab-headpiece guy of the English special forces. Not an LBM, more like a feature that I am indifferent to at the moment. There is not enough distinction between party members, they are all „bots“ or „grunts“ to me. Maybe a cv or a backstory of some kind would be nice to make them more memorable. 

Incentives for good play: the medal you get for good performance feels like a small incentive, that I start to think – maybe I don‘t like this genre so much in general… I would prefer getting equipment/armor/extra utility for performance (that is visible and immediately useful). Of course this would be far away from the army realityJ. Anyway, indifference here, the medal gives exactly 0 to my enjoyment of this game.

Heroes of Annihilated Empires demo

The Heroes of Annihilted Empires demo was put on Gamespot right before the game’s release this year, and I was really interested to try it out (as I am with all high fantasy RTS/TBS/RPG/action games). The game boasts two modes of gameplay – RTS and RPG. You can choose to manage workers and buildings and churn out armies to defeat your opponent, or you can choose to adventure as a lone hero, sometimes recruiting neutral villages, to become essentially a one-man army. The world lore is based loosely on the Heroes of Might and Magic franchise. As the developers state, they wanted to see how Heroes of Might and Magic would look in RTS mode:) So here are my views on the demo.

 

BOTH modes. Visually it looks like another RTS game from the 1990s, Kohan-Immortal Sovereigns. I personally don’t care about such looks, but I can close my eyes to that if there’s good gameplay.

 

RPG mode. I liked the RPG gameplay challenge. It is fun to try and play the guerilla way and beat the AI. On hard level, I couldn’t make it playing in RPG mode as an undead warrior, the enemy just rushed all the time and won. Well maybe I am too slow with levelling and I need more tries:)

 

RPG mode. For an RPG, I would like a closer look at my avatar, more customization and less cards. Cards detract from immersion, really. At least name them “scrolls” to keep my faith that I am in some annihilated empire, not sitting with a friend and playing Magic – the Gathering:)

 

RTS mode. Resource gathering. I like how you can have workers sitting in mines, and upgrades to mines.

 

RTS mode. Unit selection and control. I cannot understand why the literally thousands of units are built one-by-one. It doesn’t add positive stuff to the gameplay. In Heroes of Might and Magic (HOMM), which is the spiritual forefather (and a TBS mind you) the units were recruited in stacks, and controlled as stacks. Here you have to click around each unit.

 

RTS mode. View (zoom level). This brings me to the fact that the birds-eye view (at maximum zoom in) doesn’t help selecting the tiny units at all. Buildings cover units, so these can get lost. You have to constantly rotate view to find all the lost guys. Games like Rise of Nations have unit outline indicators that show a unit behind a building (Age of Mythology has similar as well).

 

RTS mode. Peon (worker) management. How do I find out if there are lazy peons that are not working? I know I am spoiled by Age of Empires/Kings/Mythology and Warcraft interface where they have a helpful button “lazy worker”. Lacking such indication here, I need to search each and every peon individually, which is again a huge pain with even the maximum zoom level (they are just too small).

 

RTS mode. Starting minutes. The RTS game (skirmish) buildup is slow (with normal game speed). Nothing to do during that, since your hero is a statue for 30 minutes. From a design standpoint, I find this a huge restriction. You have to spend 30 minutes for buildup if you also want to play with your hero.

Why not allow the hero to level during that time? This would be much more of a HOMM spirit than choosing RTS or RPG. HOMM is both TBS and RPG at the same time. Of course then this would be almost the same as Warcraft III, but I think that by avoiding to become Warcraft III this can become a way less fun game in the end;)

 

I always thought how a game of HOMM would look if it was an RTS. I am not sure I like this incarnation due to some points mentioned above.

 

If I made a HOMM RTS, I would probably outsource the Age of Mythology engine, have less units on the map, more upgrades (also to looks, not just stats), closer zoom level, more streamlined unit management interface. That would probably allow graphics to be 3D (not sprite-based), and have more expressed animations needed for closer view on units.

 

Do I sound like a fanboy of Ensemble/Blizzard? Rightfully so:)

World of Warcraft quests and questgivers

World of Warcraft, my favorite time sink recently, is not without its flaws. Today I want to talk about quests and questgivers.  

The quests in this game mostly require:

• good spatial and map reading skills to reach a place indicated by the questgiver,
• meeting level requirements for the quest,
• being at least an average fighter
• social skills of getting a group together (especially for dungeons)
• time (spent mostly on travelling and getting a group together; way too small part of time spent on action)

 

Questgiving 

As in 99% of all MMORPGs out there, quests are given by NPCs via text scrolls.

 

The strong points about this method:

 

• They indicate a general direction of the quest location
• They provide a context/reason for killing those 3-100 poor beasts (humanoids etc)
• They can be viewed again at will via a journal
• With the latest patches, onscreen indications of progress for the quests you are on is provided

The points I find weak:

 

• Once you triggered a quest description from an NPC, you cannot accept it before the game has slowly typed it out in the bubble. This makes you read it (most often).
• I don’t feel like reading this much text if in the end all I have to do is “kill 10 furbolgs to the northwest”. That is what I need: direction, whom to kill and where to hand in the quest. All the rest I would like to experience via the game’s looks and action, not via the scrolling text. It is not interactive!
• While “northwest” is a good enough indication for a quest, the point of reference is not always where you are – this means time lost in searching, as well as straying off the objective. I appreciate that we have to think in this game, sure, but why not give a direction arrow for me when I have selected a quest in a journal?

 

Quests

 

Strong points:

 

• Some quests are pretty exciting to get into due to their presentation. For example, if I find an NPC in the wilds, I am really interested of what he is doing there. I even tend to read through their text scrolls! Good examples are the wounded NPCs that you have to cure/escort.
• Quite a good amount of quests are soloable.
• There are some infiltration-based quests that do not require killing anyone. These are interesting and fun to fulfil with some classes.
• A good amount of quests require groupwork.

The points I find weak:

 

• Presentation of quests, received from NPCs in town, tends to be pretty bland.
• Quest-related experience and item bonuses are pretty low compared to what I can achieve in a normal grinding (killing monsters and looting in one region) session. Why not make quests and grinding viable alternatives, especially in experience terms?
• Time spent travelling is not the best time I have in this game. I play this game for using combat/utility skills in context, finding great locales and treasure, and socializing. With limited time for playing, I would like a better use of it. Autorun is good, flying is good, teleporting is good – but there is too much of it still!
• Travel should be instantaneous if using flying beasts and machines. The first few times I like watching the surrounding areas from the bird’s view, but it gets really old later, when all I need to do is get to the action – fast!
• Making much more flying locations would be a good idea. They are incorporating more (the Ratchet one is new if I am not mistaken), and that is a good sign. There has to be a good network of these, to minimize the running time.

 

When I started writing this I had a lot on my mind, but I decided to cut something that clearly belongs in another topic, and stop writing here. There are other issues with this game to be explored later.

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