I've played some Dragon Age during the past days. Even though I'm not sure if I'd qualify the game as something as amazing as the critics say it is, I've found some really nice stuff throughout the game, and hell, it's being quite fun. And some times frustrating, in a lovely way. Probably many of you have lived the following situation:
The last head falls to the ground. Enemy corpses lay around your badly injuried (but still alive) party members, as they rest for a couple of seconds cathing their breath. They need to ration the provisions, as the final confrontation against the $evilmotherfucker feels closer and closer.
The group continues its journey through the dark dungeon, following a perfect formation. The full-plated warrior walks first, followed by the rogue and the archer. Behind them, the mage. There's a big room at the end of the tunnel they're walking across right now, roughly at 15 metres in front of them. The warrior draws his sword and holds his shield, anxious. The party moves forward and... "click". Silence. Trap.
Fire everywhere.
The warrior tries to get back to verticality, only to see how the party is ambushed from both sides. First one to fall? The mage. The group tightens their positions, trying to overcome their enemies, and the battle rages. The archer is bleeding a lot, and won't be able to hold much longer. Her wounded look reaches the warrior, who suddenly pauses the game and, getting pallid by moments, exclaims:
I haven't saved the game for... 40 minutes!!
And suddenly you begin to consider your items in a totally different way. Is that expensive Greater Healing Potion more valuable than your time? Should you just use more resources than you'd usually do? Suddenly death becomes meaningful. It means wasted time and effort. It also means frustration. Developers nowadays know that very well.
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The last head falls to the ground. Enemy corpses lay around your badly injuried (but still alive) party members, as they rest for a couple of seconds cathing their breath. They need to ration the provisions, as the final confrontation against the $evilmotherfucker feels closer and closer.
The group continues its journey through the dark dungeon, following a perfect formation. The full-plated warrior walks first, followed by the rogue and the archer. Behind them, the mage. There's a big room at the end of the tunnel they're walking across right now, roughly at 15 metres in front of them. The warrior draws his sword and holds his shield, anxious. The party moves forward and... "click". Silence. Trap.
Fire everywhere.
The warrior tries to get back to verticality, only to see how the party is ambushed from both sides. First one to fall? The mage. The group tightens their positions, trying to overcome their enemies, and the battle rages. The archer is bleeding a lot, and won't be able to hold much longer. Her wounded look reaches the warrior, who suddenly pauses the game and, getting pallid by moments, exclaims:
I haven't saved the game for... 40 minutes!!
And suddenly you begin to consider your items in a totally different way. Is that expensive Greater Healing Potion more valuable than your time? Should you just use more resources than you'd usually do? Suddenly death becomes meaningful. It means wasted time and effort. It also means frustration. Developers nowadays know that very well.
It's strange to find a new game that doesn't autosave your progress every few steps, especially when there's a difficult part about to happen. If the game involves combat, you'll have lots of ammo/healthpacks right before the difficult confrontation. You die? Just try again, until you win. Games are now infinitely more approachable by non-gamers than ever. It has, of course, lots of benefits for the game industry. It has also brought stuff like this.
I won't say Arkham Asylum was a worse game because you had checkpoints everywhere, but it certainly failed to bring out my inner rage as Dragon Age did. And that feeling, well, maybe I'm a bit of a masochist, but I found it just awesome.
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