Highlighting Anything Interactive
GameSpot released a video about trends in gaming that need to go away. One of them was all the highlighting loot, item sonar, detective mode stuff. And I found myself completely agreeing with them.
Lately I've been playing Skyrim to scratch that fantasy itch until TW3 arrives. That GameSpot video made me realize that one of the things I very much enjoy about it, and in Fallout 3 as well, is that items aren't highlighted. This means that in every camp I came across along the road, every bandit fortress I assaulted and every cave I fought my way through, I took my sweet time to study every nook and cranny. And I mean that in the very best way.
Because the game didn't tell me what I can or cannot interact with. On the way, It made me notice details I otherwise would have missed. In contrast, whenever there's an item-highlight mode, I find myself on auto-pilot. I just go straight for the loot, and then it's off to the next objective. And if I stay in a room to study it, it's much less interesting, because I know that my exploration won't reveal something new to interact with. There can be no surprises. No hidden levers, no smartly placed swords. You highlight. You loot. You move on. And that's a damn shame. I believe that a game should encourage you to experiment and try out things. When it tells you clearly "this you can interact with, this you can't" then it kills the mystery, and doesn't promote inquisitiveness.
What Skyrim does well at the micro level it doesn't do well at the macro - at finding quests, navigating the map, etc. While in chambers I found myself happily inspecting every cabinet and every desk, and under the table and under the bed and outside the window, etc, while traveling the world I often found myself just going straight as an arrow to the next marker on my compass. I honestly regret that I didn't find out about this mod sooner. It's what I hope TW3's journal entries will look like.
(I'm bringing up Skyrim just because it's the most fresh example in my mind, having played it in the past two weeks, so don't get your panties in a bunch)
So far we don't know too much about how TW3 will be in this aspect so we're left to speculate and analyze what footage we already have. There's that "quest exclamation mark" on the mini-map that was mentioned a lot of times, but on the micro level of item looting, I find myself regretting that CDPR didn't go for a no-highlight route, too (maybe they'll surprise me). Witcher senses seem to highlight interactive things such as loot, like the medallion did in TW2, and after that recent introspection of mine I realize that it's something I would have preferred to be gone. The other aspect of witcher senses has the potential to be cool - the monster tracking. Thing is, going by the preview, it might turn out to be a very linear path. You're pretty much on rails with the witcher senses. Originally I thought it might be a deeper level of investigation, with branching paths that will make you have to study and understand this or that clue. At the moment it seems it doesn't do that.
I find it ironic. One of the main advantages of fantasy open world games, the way I see it anyway, is the exploration. But here we have more and more features that don't promote exploration, but instead hold your hand in leading you to the next objective, to the next piece of loot. A lot of the sense of exploration is diminished this way, and to me it feels like a sad miss for open world games in the aspect of navigating the world, and in RPGs in general in the aspect of finding loot and studying the details. I admit that TES being 1st person games and TW being 3rd makes a bit of a difference, in that TES allows you to pick up more details because you're "zoomed" in, so to speak. But I don't think that's a difference significant enough to mean 3rd person games need to highlight everything.
What do you guys think?
And just as a pre-preemptive comment - yes, I know the game is feature locked. Yes, I know we'll have to wait and see how it's done in the actual product. So just consider this a discussion about what would serve best in an open world RPG like TW3.
GameSpot released a video about trends in gaming that need to go away. One of them was all the highlighting loot, item sonar, detective mode stuff. And I found myself completely agreeing with them.
Lately I've been playing Skyrim to scratch that fantasy itch until TW3 arrives. That GameSpot video made me realize that one of the things I very much enjoy about it, and in Fallout 3 as well, is that items aren't highlighted. This means that in every camp I came across along the road, every bandit fortress I assaulted and every cave I fought my way through, I took my sweet time to study every nook and cranny. And I mean that in the very best way.
Because the game didn't tell me what I can or cannot interact with. On the way, It made me notice details I otherwise would have missed. In contrast, whenever there's an item-highlight mode, I find myself on auto-pilot. I just go straight for the loot, and then it's off to the next objective. And if I stay in a room to study it, it's much less interesting, because I know that my exploration won't reveal something new to interact with. There can be no surprises. No hidden levers, no smartly placed swords. You highlight. You loot. You move on. And that's a damn shame. I believe that a game should encourage you to experiment and try out things. When it tells you clearly "this you can interact with, this you can't" then it kills the mystery, and doesn't promote inquisitiveness.
What Skyrim does well at the micro level it doesn't do well at the macro - at finding quests, navigating the map, etc. While in chambers I found myself happily inspecting every cabinet and every desk, and under the table and under the bed and outside the window, etc, while traveling the world I often found myself just going straight as an arrow to the next marker on my compass. I honestly regret that I didn't find out about this mod sooner. It's what I hope TW3's journal entries will look like.
(I'm bringing up Skyrim just because it's the most fresh example in my mind, having played it in the past two weeks, so don't get your panties in a bunch)
So far we don't know too much about how TW3 will be in this aspect so we're left to speculate and analyze what footage we already have. There's that "quest exclamation mark" on the mini-map that was mentioned a lot of times, but on the micro level of item looting, I find myself regretting that CDPR didn't go for a no-highlight route, too (maybe they'll surprise me). Witcher senses seem to highlight interactive things such as loot, like the medallion did in TW2, and after that recent introspection of mine I realize that it's something I would have preferred to be gone. The other aspect of witcher senses has the potential to be cool - the monster tracking. Thing is, going by the preview, it might turn out to be a very linear path. You're pretty much on rails with the witcher senses. Originally I thought it might be a deeper level of investigation, with branching paths that will make you have to study and understand this or that clue. At the moment it seems it doesn't do that.
I find it ironic. One of the main advantages of fantasy open world games, the way I see it anyway, is the exploration. But here we have more and more features that don't promote exploration, but instead hold your hand in leading you to the next objective, to the next piece of loot. A lot of the sense of exploration is diminished this way, and to me it feels like a sad miss for open world games in the aspect of navigating the world, and in RPGs in general in the aspect of finding loot and studying the details. I admit that TES being 1st person games and TW being 3rd makes a bit of a difference, in that TES allows you to pick up more details because you're "zoomed" in, so to speak. But I don't think that's a difference significant enough to mean 3rd person games need to highlight everything.
What do you guys think?
And just as a pre-preemptive comment - yes, I know the game is feature locked. Yes, I know we'll have to wait and see how it's done in the actual product. So just consider this a discussion about what would serve best in an open world RPG like TW3.