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

[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...