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Lugaru gun12/23/2023 ![]() While Mirror’s Edge rivaled Uncharted in terms of its artistic splendor, it eschewed the latter’s largely experiential platforming for dynamics that resembled skill-based games like N. As Eurogamer discovered, “Previews promised something you hadn’t seen before, but on closer inspection, DICE has brought huge chunks of the tired and familiar along too”. The player could pull off amazing runs, but only after learning the courses and honing their reflexes. Mirror’s Edge provided a much more realistic, if painstaking prospect. Assassin’s Creed’s auto-traversal system minimized player input but allowed people to act out parkour scenes worthy of YouTube highlight compilations. The game looked very modern but felt more like an old Mario game stages and enemy encounters were designed to be learned and explored rather than simply traversed.Īs Eurogamer’s review noted, though Mirror’s Edge and Assassin’s Creed came out around the same time, nevertheless, “each game’s take on gameplay (and on parkour) couldn’t be more different” (Christian Donlan, “ Mirror’s Edge – Review”, Eurogamer, 11 September 2008). In a post- Modern Warfare world, a first-person game whose gameplay was more challenging than experiential clashed with what people had come to expect from games. As many reviews noted, it was an extremely difficult game that forced players to achieve an unusual amount of skill before being able to traverse the levels without failing. It was a game that confounded what people had come to expect from first-person games specifically and from video game design more broadly.Īside from its impressively photorealistic art style, Mirror’s Edge was a game from another time. While critically lauded for boldly diverging from the path of other shooters, it failed to gain the broad support required to secure its future. Since its release, Mirror’s Edge has been a divisive game, due in large part to the discordance between what people expected from it and what it gave them. Unfortunately, some games are unable to overcome this sin. The Tragedy of Expectations: Mirror’s Edge Its biggest sin was giving people something unexpected. Its vibrant, stylized world has held up over the years and will maintain its beauty as technology marches on. While some initially mocked its cel-shaded art style as “Cel-da,” the years have been kind to Wind Waker. After Ocarina of Time, many folks expected a smooth path towards photorealism. Perhaps the most notable episode of mass mis-direction was The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker’s art style. While Zelda is generally considered a conservative series, it has caused its fair share of whiplash. ![]() The experience was an abrupt shift in how I conceptualized video games and was made more difficult because my six-year-old mind was stubbornly set in its ways. Imagine my surprise when I was thrust into a world in which I could not jump, was forced to manage an inventory, and tasked with charting my own course through an open world. ![]() Until playing Zelda for the first time, my experience with games was limited to arcade style challenges and Mario-esque platformers. When I was a kid, gaming whiplash almost ruined the The Legend of Zelda for me. Seeking something other experience will only result in a jarring sensation that ultimately obscures the game’s strengths.įor me, this is a familiar danger. Mass Effect is a space drama in the tradition of Star Trek, in which words can be the most powerful weapons. As anyone who has played both games can tell you, going from Vanquish to Mass Effect 2 is like swapping a Ferrari for a lawnmower.īut, as most people would rightly argue, Mass Effect‘s goal differs greatly from that of Vanquish. Having never played a Mass Effect game, my expectations were formed by advertisements, previews, and friends’ descriptions, all of which suggested Mass Effect 2 was a more action-oriented, fast-paced shooter than its predecessor. Most recently, this cropped up after I finished Vanquish and decided to test out Mass Effect 2. I tend to play a variety of games and as such have experienced what I call “gaming whiplash.” After acclimating to a particular game’s rules or tone, jumping into a new game can be a jarring experience, even if the second game well-made. Realistically, no one can be expected to keep themselves hermetically sealed off from a game, but hasty comparisons and preconceived notions can easily hurt both players and developers. All of it leads me to conclude that while the hype cycle keeps the medium’s business side running, it is usually bad for the artistic side. After writing about how my lack of preconceived opinions impacted my response to Lugaru HD, I’ve spent some more time thinking about expectations and how they impact players’ experiences and games’ receptions.
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