Why Do People Make Bad FPS Campaigns (Bebpo plays an FPS)

[Bebpo]

Ok, so I've only played like 2 levels of Killzone Shadow Fall but, sure I'm not a game designer and don't get me wrong I know there are some truly talented people at Guerrila Games, how dumb of a game designer do you have to be to fuck up an FPS campaign so bad?


Look, you know that you're going to be the PREMIER LAUNCH TITLE FOR A NEW GENERATION SYSTEM.  The first game that most people pop in.  The game the press will look at to see what next-gen is about in console land. 

Question 1:  So how do you start your FPS?

A) You start it by throwing the player into an explosive awesomeness of action where within a few mins they are running around having their mind blown and their eyes pop out and their blood pumping.

or

B) You start it by 30-40 mins of interactive non-combat movie where you walk forward and stand still a lot while people talk.  Oh and you do this as a 5 year old kid who is apparently 3 feet tall.


Ok, next question:  How do you continue your FPS after the intro?

A)  You want to cool down the excitement a bit so you can build it back up again.  So you have a short segment about how you're about to do some mission in an interesting location and then you go do it and the game kind of teaches you the ropes as you go through it, not scripted but pretty easy and gradually getting harder and more open until some big impressive set piece later on in the mission.

or

B)  You have a bunch of cutscenes that make no sense to the player and then you drop them in a big forest with no idea how to play and then kill them many, many times and taunt their face after they are dead.


I wanted to do a 3rd question but I need to play more and get more annoyed at bad game design.  But yeah, the first one is just mind mindbogglingly stupid.  This is your show piece launch title, you do not open an FPS with 30 mins of walking and talking.  How hard is that to understand?  You want to have your big artsy movie?  Do it in another game.  This is LAUNCH SHOWPIECE FOR A GAME SYSTEM.  You want the person playing to actually be PLAYING THE GAME AND BEING IMPRESSED WITH NEXT-GEN by 5 mins in or preferably much much less.

 

[Sho Nuff]

Maybe this is more your style

[Bebpo]

Hey, it probably has a better opening than Killzone SF!

[Smooth Groove]

Bad campaigns 'cuz dumb kids only play MP and they buy the most FPS

[Bebpo]

3rd stage was Dead Space except not as a good and no action for 20 mins while you use a robot as a flashlight.  I was sort of ok with that.  Although it really just made me want to play a next-gen Dead Space game.

[mjemirzian]

Bebpo on a thread rampage.

[Eel O'Brian]

I think it's pretty decent, and I disliked all the other ones 

[thisismyusername]

Opening with a cutscene instead of level is how Killzone always opened, babe.

That said, Killzone still sucks.

[Great Rumbler]

People need to stop trying to ripoff the opening scene from Half-Life 2, because they're never going to do it better than it did it.

[Phoenix Dark]

Not enough amnesiac village boys and princesses in hiding?

[benjipwns]

much meaning

such deep

wow

[G The Resurrected]

3rd stage was Dead Space except not as a good and no action for 20 mins while you use a robot as a flashlight.  I was sort of ok with that.  Although it really just made me want to play a next-gen Dead Space game.

You'll be getting your wish, just not next year or even 2015.

I really have liked what I've played thus far of Killzone SF, but I'm seeing way too many other games in there that have influenced it and taken away some of that Killzonish pacing/style. I do think one thing is for sure if I'm supposed to be a Shadow Marshal shouldn't I have the ability to cloak and teleport? or at least give me a damn silencer? something? So far the set pieces of this game haven't really done anything for me, couple that with the "loading" in the in game cutscenes and it's not that great of a game. I can see where this was rushed and what the intent would have been had they been given more time to flesh it out. Maybe the next one will do that, there will be one after all since this is the only game most people are buying for PS4.

[Diunx]

It's a launch game, it had to be ready for launch , we usually get a couple of gems at the start of each gem but most launch games are rushed crap.

[bork]

KZ Mercenary is the only other KZ game I've spent some real time with, so I have no idea what's going on in this story.  It looks like the good guys won, brought the Hellghast to their planet, and then just let the Hellghast take over and start killing people in their territory and forcing them out?  HUH?   

Anyway, the opening sucked and the story is dumb, but the game itself is pretty good for a launch title to me.  I have no interest in CoD campaigns but I am playing this single player.

And man, when

spoiler (click to show/hide)

your father dies, the way it is presented is just cringe-worthy.  No emotion from the voice actors and no crying from the kid...just "OK LET'S GO!"   

[close]

I think it's pretty decent, and I disliked all the other ones 

I like the way the Vita version does things the best- you get some story in video, playing as the stage loads, then just get right into things and start shooting shit up.  Guerrilla Cambridge made the Vita version and I think they did better with this series entry than Guerrilla Games did.  Let them take it over.

[headwalk]

I like the way the Vita version does things the best- you get some story in video, playing as the stage loads, then just get right into things and start shooting shit up.  Guerrilla Cambridge made the Vita version and I think they did better with this series entry than Guerrilla Games did.  Let them take it over.

or just find it a place next to crysis on the big pile of FPS IPs which tech jockey developers need to let go of.

but i guess that's when things like ryse happen.

[Purple Filth]

KZ Mercenary is the only other KZ game I've spent some real time with, so I have no idea what's going on in this story.  It looks like the good guys won, brought the Hellghast to their planet, and then just let the Hellghast take over and start killing people in their territory and forcing them out?  HUH?   

IIRC the ISA is less of a big deal than we thought and are basically a guerilla/almost ragtag group that listens to the boys on Earth.

After they fucked up the Helghan planet its likely Earth forced them to keep the survivors  on their planet and eventually lines are drawn in the room (Helgast pissed being on a planet with the people who destroyed theirs, Vektans weary of the Helgans and paranoid that they can strike at anytime, people caught up in the middle)

 

[Steve Contra]

Not enough amnesiac village boys and princesses in hiding?
(Image removed from quote.)