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No, this isn't a misplaced Communards thread, but a rant about scripted deaths in games. It used to be there were to basic shoot-em-up scenarios. You'd either start the game completely on your own, as in Doom, Perfect Zero etc, or you'd spend the entire game with a squad of fellow shoot-em-ups, a la Ghost Recon. Fair enough. But now, there's a third and bloody annoying alternative. Specifically, that you start the game alongside a squad and they all get killed off at certain points in the game, leaving you completely alone.
I'm not complaining about Halo or Halo 2 - in these games, while your fellow soldiers may die, they die of their own injuries and it's possible to keep them with you longer by protecting them. No, I'm talking about games like Area 51, Quake 4 or many others where your teammates are killed off or taken away from you at some pre-set point. Take Area 51 - because your team-mates have to participate in the storyline, they're completely invincible and can't be killed at all. Until a particular moment when a big door slams down and, surprise surprise, they're dead. Well thanks Area 51, for pretending you're a squad shooter when you're clearly not.
The Thing is a worse offender still. The premise of the game is that the team members who accompany may or may not be infected and turn into a thing and attack you. The way to test if they're infected or not is to use a testing kit which will have no reaction if they're clean, or cause them to burst out and attack if they're not. Except the infection is in no way dynamic and is in fact entirely scripted. You can have one team member with you and if you test them they'll test negative for the infection. Walk two metres down the hall to the pre-set 'Oh no, you can't have anyone to help you defeat this boss' point and that person will burst out no matter what.
The point is that if games designers insist on putting AI controlled teammates in games, at least let them die with dignity. And by 'dignity' I mean 'a hail of bullets that you failed to intercept'. At least then it's your fault that they're dead. Just taking them away in some scripted sequence when you've spent the last half hour trying to keep them alive is a major source of frustration. Or better still, if you're making a squad-based game, keep it squad-based. If it's a single player you-against-the-world game, leave it at that. Don't try and mix and match - you're fooling nobody.
I'm not complaining about Halo or Halo 2 - in these games, while your fellow soldiers may die, they die of their own injuries and it's possible to keep them with you longer by protecting them. No, I'm talking about games like Area 51, Quake 4 or many others where your teammates are killed off or taken away from you at some pre-set point. Take Area 51 - because your team-mates have to participate in the storyline, they're completely invincible and can't be killed at all. Until a particular moment when a big door slams down and, surprise surprise, they're dead. Well thanks Area 51, for pretending you're a squad shooter when you're clearly not.
The Thing is a worse offender still. The premise of the game is that the team members who accompany may or may not be infected and turn into a thing and attack you. The way to test if they're infected or not is to use a testing kit which will have no reaction if they're clean, or cause them to burst out and attack if they're not. Except the infection is in no way dynamic and is in fact entirely scripted. You can have one team member with you and if you test them they'll test negative for the infection. Walk two metres down the hall to the pre-set 'Oh no, you can't have anyone to help you defeat this boss' point and that person will burst out no matter what.
The point is that if games designers insist on putting AI controlled teammates in games, at least let them die with dignity. And by 'dignity' I mean 'a hail of bullets that you failed to intercept'. At least then it's your fault that they're dead. Just taking them away in some scripted sequence when you've spent the last half hour trying to keep them alive is a major source of frustration. Or better still, if you're making a squad-based game, keep it squad-based. If it's a single player you-against-the-world game, leave it at that. Don't try and mix and match - you're fooling nobody.
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No, this isn't a misplaced Communards thread, but a rant about scripted deaths in games. It used to be there were to basic shoot-em-up scenarios. You'd either start the game completely on your own, as in Doom, Perfect Zero etc, or you'd spend the entire game with a squad of fellow shoot-em-ups, a la Ghost Recon. Fair enough. But now, there's a third and bloody annoying alternative. Specifically, that you start the game alongside a squad and they all get killed off at certain points in the game, leaving you completely alone.
I'm not complaining about Halo or Halo 2 - in these games, while your fellow soldiers may die, they die of their own injuries and it's possible to keep them with you longer by protecting them. No, I'm talking about games like Area 51, Quake 4 or many others where your teammates are killed off or taken away from you at some pre-set point. Take Area 51 - because your team-mates have to participate in the storyline, they're completely invincible and can't be killed at all. Until a particular moment when a big door slams down and, surprise surprise, they're dead. Well thanks Area 51, for pretending you're a squad shooter when you're clearly not.
The Thing is a worse offender still. The premise of the game is that the team members who accompany may or may not be infected and turn into a thing and attack you. The way to test if they're infected or not is to use a testing kit which will have no reaction if they're clean, or cause them to burst out and attack if they're not. Except the infection is in no way dynamic and is in fact entirely scripted. You can have one team member with you and if you test them they'll test negative for the infection. Walk two metres down the hall to the pre-set 'Oh no, you can't have anyone to help you defeat this boss' point and that person will burst out no matter what.
The point is that if games designers insist on putting AI controlled teammates in games, at least let them die with dignity. And by 'dignity' I mean 'a hail of bullets that you failed to intercept'. At least then it's your fault that they're dead. Just taking them away in some scripted sequence when you've spent the last half hour trying to keep them alive is a major source of frustration. Or better still, if you're making a squad-based game, keep it squad-based. If it's a single player you-against-the-world game, leave it at that. Don't try and mix and match - you're fooling nobody.
I'm not complaining about Halo or Halo 2 - in these games, while your fellow soldiers may die, they die of their own injuries and it's possible to keep them with you longer by protecting them. No, I'm talking about games like Area 51, Quake 4 or many others where your teammates are killed off or taken away from you at some pre-set point. Take Area 51 - because your team-mates have to participate in the storyline, they're completely invincible and can't be killed at all. Until a particular moment when a big door slams down and, surprise surprise, they're dead. Well thanks Area 51, for pretending you're a squad shooter when you're clearly not.
The Thing is a worse offender still. The premise of the game is that the team members who accompany may or may not be infected and turn into a thing and attack you. The way to test if they're infected or not is to use a testing kit which will have no reaction if they're clean, or cause them to burst out and attack if they're not. Except the infection is in no way dynamic and is in fact entirely scripted. You can have one team member with you and if you test them they'll test negative for the infection. Walk two metres down the hall to the pre-set 'Oh no, you can't have anyone to help you defeat this boss' point and that person will burst out no matter what.
The point is that if games designers insist on putting AI controlled teammates in games, at least let them die with dignity. And by 'dignity' I mean 'a hail of bullets that you failed to intercept'. At least then it's your fault that they're dead. Just taking them away in some scripted sequence when you've spent the last half hour trying to keep them alive is a major source of frustration. Or better still, if you're making a squad-based game, keep it squad-based. If it's a single player you-against-the-world game, leave it at that. Don't try and mix and match - you're fooling nobody.