Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
need to collaborate with the rest of the team throughout the development
process, instead of following a Hollywood-like model where the writer
hands of a script and expects the rest of the team to simply execute on
what's been written.
An example of narrative needs frustratingly trumping established game-
play mechanics can be found in several story missions in
Far Cry 3
, most
notably in the one entitled “Doppelganger.” By this point in the game—it's
the thirtieth story quest—the player is well versed in the game mechanics
and using stealth to pre-plan solo attacks on base camps occupied by
multiple hostile soldiers. In the main, open-world game, the player can use
as much or as little stealth as he wishes in these systemic scenarios, and if
he breaks stealth the soldiers will begin actively hunting him down and
calling for reinforcements. Gameplay continues. The player can still win
the battle, but it certainly gets a lot harder!
The unpredictable nature of how these scenarios unfold, the freedom of
the player to act however he sees fit, and the world's believable, ongoing
reactions to those choices are major factors that make the open-world
sections of
Far Cry 3
so compelling.
However, in this story mission, the player is suddenly
forced
to use
stealth to get past a number of guards, and there is no other option. If a
guard sees the player character, the mission instantly fails. This is a viola-
tion of everything the player has been taught about stealth in
Far Cry 3
up
to this point.
One can only assume the reason for this approach was so that stealth
could definitely be maintained up to the next story beat, keeping the nar-
rative on its intended track. If the enemies were aware of the player char-
acter's presence from that point on, the later parts of the mission's story
would have broken. So the solution was apparently to just prevent the
player from proceeding if stealth failed. But the sudden, temporary change
to the gameplay mechanics is jarring—especially since it is a setup so
much more restrictive than what the player has by now grown accus-
tomed to.
The game story should never force a major change to established game
mechanics unless it's absolutely unavoidable, or if the end result somehow
justifies the dichotomy.
