And again, I speak about Cyberpunk, a game where if you die with a single bullet, it's not RNG nor a "bad luck". It's mostly (even almost always) you simply made a mistake, like :
- You didn't see a sniper before the fight.
- You start a combat with many enemies with no cover around.
- Or during the fight, you didn't see the "shotgun dude" who turn around the building to shot you on the back from few meters.
- You take cover near explosive devices
These are all valid points, which I've raised as well, but they don't negate the fact that the AI can and will kill the player outright, from full health to zero, with no chance for the player to react. The focus of the complaint is not about the
potential or
possibility for
other outcomes -- it's about the
validity of
this outcome. (Or rather, fire prevention / no fires in
that area does not negate fire threat / definite fires in
this area.)
Let me first clarify what I mean about having no real issue with other game
designs allowing insta-kills against the player:
- Rainbow Six -- the player is primarily tasked with developing a plan to have up to 4 teams accomplish mission goals in a lethal environment. Everyone can be downed in one shot, no matter what. (Whether a soldier actually dies is up to their armor, but they're instantly on the ground if they're hit during a mission. Same with the enemies. So that's 100% level ground.) The main focus of the game is not to "tell a story" or "develop a narrative arc". It's a totally different type of gameplay -- it's this:
- SoulsBorne -- the player is responsible for overcoming nearly impossible odds by learning through failure. That's the core design of the games. How was I to know there was some crazy enemy that would drop from the ceiling in complete darkness!? You weren't. That was your clue. - YOU DIED - Instantly and out of nowhere! Now...you know. And it will be exactly the same the next time you respawn, and the next time, and the next, and the next...it will never change. You must now deal with that reality and find a way to avoid or defeat that enemy, and that approach will then work 100% of the time. It's a defined challenge with a 100% solution. Every time. Dying instantly is supposed to happen. The main focus of the game is not about "telling a story" or "developing a narrative arc". It's primarily about free-form exploration, learning through memorization and repetition, and developing a unique playstyle.
- Warhammer 40K Strategy/Tactical (tabletop, Battlesector, Armageddon, etc.) -- the player is responsible for commanding whole groups of units, and there are definitely attacks that can insta-kill even very powerful units. That's part of every battle scenario. It is partially based on RNG, but it's the same for the enemy. It boils down to tactics. Miss a trick -- leave a unit exposed -- and they might be instantly killed. But that's not the end of the battle. Wins can still be pulled off by clever maneuvers or by fulfilling command point objectives, etc. The main focus of the game is not to "tell a story" or "develop a narrative arc". It's about learning to utilize the strengths and weaknesses of your army to its maximum potential to win individual scenarios.
But then we have Role-Playing Games. While the games above may involve some level of story telling and narrative arcs -- that's a
backdrop -- not a main consideration for that
design of game. For an RPG, the narrative is front and center. The main focus is not purely combat-centric, like a SoulsBorne, or to just grab up crazy piles of loot, like Diablo or Borderlands -- it's to become a character in a much larger world, progressing through a series of adventures to achieve goals that will further that character's narrative in that universe. There's now a sense of
pacing and progression that needs to be balanced in order to deliver evocative gameplay. Anything that robs the player of that experience is going to wind up having a negative impact on the overall game.
I should also see the game recognize the role my character decided to play. If, in Cyberpunk 2077, I specifically design a solo character to be a one-man army, borged up with the best, most robust gear, and top-tier weapons -- nothing -- and I mean absolutely nothing -- should be able to one-shot my character. That completely invalidates the options provided to me for that character role.
_______________
Let's switch over to tabletop for a second, where RPGs began. Let's talk about the GM that simply drowns the characters in enemies that are way too hard for their level, or will toss a game session out the window because they happened to roll three natural 20s in a row, killing three of the player characters outright in rapid succession -- all in a single turn.
A terrible GM would sit there and go, "Ha -- I am the best GM ever! My game is legendarily hard, and no one will ever be able to beat this!"
A mediocre GM would go, "Okay...why don't we restart this combat encounter. That was unlucky, I guess. Next time will probably be better. Heh-heh..."
A good GM would go, "Despite that swing nearly taking your head off...something seems to be watching out for you. You trip and tumble over backwards, the blade of the axe nearly scalping you. Take 3 points of damage and you're knocked prone. But, the blade of the monster lodges in the wall. You glance quickly at the forms of your two companions lying motionless on the floor near you. Now is your chance." And this scenario will carry on. A good GM would recognize that a string of bad luck like that can utterly kill any sense of enjoyment or forward momentum for the campaign. They'll slip a resurrection potion into the loot. The players can now revive one, but not both, of their fallen companions, see to their dead comrade, and then decide if they're going to risk pushing on or regroup someplace and try to regather their strength. An emergent and memorable scenario that will carry forward into the developing story.
A computer can't do that.
What the computer can do is:
The player is shot with a sniper round from above and behind.
They're left with a finger of health. They dive for cover off to the side and pop a healing stim. An enemy follows them around the corner, and the player lights them up at point-blank range. Crack! Another sniper round hits the cover right over their head. They can hear the enemies starting to flank. Pulling a grenade out, they lob it at the catwalk the sniper is firing from, then dash for the far side of the room, sliding into cover. They use Kerenzikov to line up a headshot on the fleeing sniper, and -- bingo. Now for the rest. (<--- This is all impossible if the game goes: RNG = CRITICAL HIT! -Game Over- Main Menu? Reload Last Save?)
So, under the present RNG system, what we can be left with in a game like Cyberpunk...or Divinity Original Sin...or Pillars of Eternity...or Dragon Age / Mass Effect is:
Reload save. Shoot.
Reload save. Darn it.
Reload save. Oh, come on!
Reload save. Are you kidding?
Reload save. This is stupid.
Reload save. Oh -- I almost had them!
Reload save. Son of a...
Reload save. I don't even remember why I'm doing this mission.
Reload save. Gimme a break.
Reload save. I'm done with this.
_______________
And (I'm just going to keep saying this), I personally didn't have any trouble like this in the game. You didn't have any trouble like this in the game. Many others here didn't have any trouble like this in the game.
But that does not invalidate people that
did run into trouble like this. Regardless of arguments that go, "Well, I didn't play like that, so..." it still remains absolutely true that any player who decides to take things aggressively, despite specifically building for that approach, can and will be killed in one shot, invalidating the entire approach and all of the skills, perks, and gear that go along with it...all because of...RNG. We can surely do better.
(Also, I highly doubt anything will be done here by CDPR to completely revamp the combat system at this point. If anything, I found the combat to be far too easy after a certain point, but still fun! It's just a discussion on the core approach to designing combat systems in general for games of this type.)
