The evolution of FPS games

[andrewducker]

From The Internet According To Adrian, via broin.

The level, in case you care, is Episode 1, Mission 6 of the original Doom.

Comments

[call-waiting.livejournal.com]

The level, in case you care, is Episode 1, Mission 6 of the original Doom.

I keep saying that I don't play video games, but yet I recognised the map instantly.

Huh.

Admittedly, I haven't really played much since then...

[momentsmusicaux.livejournal.com]

It's the one where you start right in the room with the pink demons, right?

And yes. All too true. When I played Splinter Cell I found it awful because practically my every single *movement* was prescribed. And even Halflife 2 suffers from this too in the way you only ever have one way forward, though it somehow makes you manage to not notice this with enough pretty graphics and interactive stuff.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

I'm guessing he hasn't played any of the games released in 2010.

[andrewducker]

Well, I played COD:MW a couple of weeks back, and it was very much like the picture on the right. Awesome fun, right enough, but there was absolutely minimal exploration.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

There wasn't much exploration in Doom either, if you cast it as repetition. It's not a difference between exploration and not, it's a difference between lack of resources and not. In Doom's day, maps were smaller and more compact and involved more backtracking and the like, because they needed to do that for level design. Went out the window as quickly as it could. In a game like COD, there's a much more linear path that doesn't require as much backtracking. And this in an era when going back over the same level geometry is seen as a cheap copy/pasta trick.

Also, need I point out that it'd be much fairer for him to show an actual modern level map? Anything makes a persuasive argument when you use a straw man.

The ideal for my gaming needs is a level map that plays out like a sephiroth. One start, one end, and a few distinct paths that can cross over with one another. But a big sprawling map isn't a bad thing either, nor is a fairly linear corridor map.

[andrewducker]

The Doom maps were pretty big and sprawling, (the example above is pretty sprawling, and is by no means the largest of them). Saying they were more compact baffles me, when that _is_ a Doom map, and isn't compact at all.

MW didn't have any backtracking at all, and that's fine for what it was - I loved MW. But I'd have liked to have some exploration.

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Compact as in 'nowhere near the total size of modern maps'. Not compact as in squeezed together.

[andrewducker]

Aaaaah. Got any good examples of modern map layouts?

[kurosau.livejournal.com]

Also, another comment:

http://www.bungie.net/News/content.aspx?type=topnews&cid=29601

[andrewducker]

Looks interesting. Have to go to work in a mo, but I'll read it properly when I have the chance to read something reasonably long.

[chuma.livejournal.com]

COD:MW is much more of an on the rails level design where the goals are ongoing with a plot driven by moving forwards in single player. For Multiplayer, the same levels are tweaked slightly to avoid there being lots of cubby holes to camp in, but are essentially the same places and yet will feel a lot more like the left hand level design. Really this is less about the design of the maps and more about the style of FPS. Bioshock is one where it will feel free roaming with exploration, Halo 3 will feel more like you being led from point to point, etc...

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

bring back the days of Descent, where it was almost impossible to figure out where the hell you were after a mere 20 seconds of play!!!

or indeed, hexen. That game was warped in every good way

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

I loved Descent!

[channelpenguin.livejournal.com]

that was the last time I tried to get into games. Given I have an embarassingly 'girly' lack of mapping-in-my-head ability, I suppose i was doomed to fail... (ahem)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Descent was awesome because "down" kept remapping itself without you noticing if you weren't careful.

I loved Descent. I was very, very good at it.

[andrewducker]

I was never that good at Descent. The first game was great fun, but I got lost a lot.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

Descent arrived during the extended period - roughly 10 years - in which I didn't have a computer. It's a game I would have spent far too many hours exploring if I'd had a chance. As it was, I got into it at a friends house a few times and, navigation issues aside, thought it completely brilliant.

Hexen, likewise.