I used to be a hardcore FPS player in the days of Quake III and Unreal Tournament 1999, sadly I've been so spoiled by the UT99 movement system and weapons that nothing has come close since to the adrenaline rush I'd experienced during ladder matches.
Such a bout of nostalgia didn't come without warning. A game that had looked promising, Payday 2, took a nosedive in my interest level once I found out a little bit more about the mechanics the developers had chosen to implement.
It has a leveling system which unlocks perks/talents, a reputation system for unlocking weapons, a random map/mission/difficulty system, and a random loot drop system for weapon mods.
The reason the above system for me thinking, and quite angry, is my very real concern that the unlock/leveling mechanic is there to prolong an otherwise shallow game. That is, if everyone were max level, all weapon and mods to choose from, any map and difficulty to select, would anyone still be playing?
Take the Call of Duty experience: I found that the prestige system prevented me from seriously trying to master a weapon beyond what would get me to the next prestige, and once I hit max prestige and everything was unlocked I found the game rather uninteresting.
The experience and unlock mechanic functioning as a Skinner Box to keep me playing rather than being genuinely interesting in its own right.
Nevermind the fact that I paid $X for a game and now I needed to play a considerable amount to simply have full access to all the options? I thought I unlocked it when I paid for it?
Compared to the UT series or Quake where everyone was on (relatively) equal footing with regard to weapons/items from the get go and player skill expressed through said weapons without an artificial "reset" made for a competitive environment without leveling imposed restrains.
/end rant
No comments:
Post a Comment