In a recent piece on the upcoming title Metro 2033, in PC Powerplay, the journalist raved at lengths about how 4A were striving to create an incredibly immersive experience, and this immediately grabbed my attention from a design perspective, and as a point of innovation. But how, I wondered, could a game create a feel that was so radically different as to garner the attention of an article? Some very fine attention to detail. Everything about the game has been designed in order to make you feel as if you’re in the shoes of the character, but what especially impressed me was the way in which this was done. Everything was so natural and believable, from having to check your oxygen levels on an old wrist mounted diving watch, to keeping track of your ammunition through a transparent magazine; everything about this game is striving in leaps and bounds towards creating a more visceral experience to really capture a grim and unforgiving vision of the apocalypse , something that STALKER has fractionally missed time and time again.
The fact that STALKER feels slightly inadequate in this area is an interesting issue because it is evident that GSC poured a lot of care, and talent into crafting a believable universe with surreal undercurrents. Irrespective of this, it appears as if they’re inadvertently undermining their own great efforts by interrupting all of this finely tuned atmosphere with incongruous heads up data displays that more often distanced the player from the universe they are occupying. It’s not a huge surprise that Metro 2033 sways this way with the knowledge that the company was founded by offshoots from GSC who may have had their own vision or stalker, and regardless of whether or not this vision is captured in a linear adventure or not, it’s very clear that they care dearly about the experience they are providing for the player.
Immersion is a funny thing in the sense that it cannot be physically measured by instruments in order to gauge it’s presence, this is an activity that’s best left up to the player. And this is a good thing in some respects because humans have emotions, and will react in an individual way in certain circumstances. The trouble with this is that there is no definitive way of designing a properly immersive experience without a great deal of experience in both designing games, and playing alike, so I’m going to summarise, from my understanding what makes a top immersive experience in order to clarify the nuts and bolts of what is a somewhat esoteric branch of this crazy industry.
The interface to a game is what essentially permits you to be involved in whatever’s going on, otherwise you might as well be stumbling around in the darkness without a flashlight. Being shot at. Being borne down up by Cthulhu. The trouble is, and interface should be relative to the type of game it’s trying to assist, and this is often sorely neglected.
For my first example, I take three games, no, wait four games and compared their attributes. Call of Duty 4 (BECAUSE MW2 IS NOT IN MY POSSESSION YET, OK) – the optional interface; Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction – the comfortable, non invasive interface; STALKER (potentially excluding Call of Pripyat) – the arbitrary interface with a vengeance; finally, Metroid Prime 3 Corruption -the clever, appropriate interface.
There a four things in common about these games, they all have interfaces, but what defines them is how they’ve been implemented. First up we have CoD 4; this game is interesting because it gives you the option to completely switch off your interface in favour of a more realistic approach. Now I liked this since it removed all the clutter, and telepathic stats counters from your screen, but the trouble here is there is no way in which your equipment (ammo, grenades etc) can be monitored. I’m sorry Infinity Ward but that was a bit of a faux pas. Had it used a system similar to Metro 2033, it would have prevailed, but in turn it would have rendered the heads up interface slightly redundant, or vice versa.
Ratchet and Clank has always been a great example of unobtrusive, yet informative interfaces, but my memory will only permit access to this particular game, so here goes. In RaCFToD, the interface is essentially divided into three parts, one that serves as an ammo counter, and one that monitors health, and one that informs you on pickups (bolts, raritanium). Each segment of this interface only pops up when it is needed, and starts off hidden. In my opinion, this is a very nice touch, not only because this type of game doesn’t necessarily need a clever interface, but because they did include one and the one they included is not only effective and informative, it looks rather nice as well.
STALKER, I apologise in advance for bringing you up on stage once more, you old curmudgeon, but you are the paradigm of both game design and humanity, however… My main gripe I have with STALKER, a game with nice touches on its nice touches, is that it’s all terribly dragged down by what isn’t an ugly interface, it’s just a lore murdering one. This game is supposed to paint a grim vision of a sort of apocalypse, were rough men walk the zone, some in search of riches, some because it’s the last place on earth that would accept them. The penny that dropped? It seems as if all stalkers walk around with monitors glued to their faces in order to inform them of their issues when they have perfectly (if not somewhat questionably) serviceable PDA’s that could have been jury rigged to display this information, but this probably would have been inaccessible. I’m at odds here because I’m really not sure how they would have displayed persistent damage and armour degradation without a HUD, so I’m going to finish this is a resounding “dunno”. All I can say is that the 2009 Complete Mod drastically improved it.
My final point of analysis is on Metroid Prime 3: Corruption, a game I’ve not played myself, but one Jack assures me had some finely crafted interfacery. First of all, all data displays are relevant to the Varia Suit’s display which is divided into designated areas for health, ammo, maps etc, and all of this was believable. Furthering these design triumphs, the panelling of the helmet reflects its exterior design, and also interacts with the environment to the extent where rain is visible on it, and Samus’s face is occasionally reflected within.
Interface design is really just one, of what I’ve found to be a list of at least 7 different points, but this seemed most relevant to me precedent of Metro 2033. Also, I’m reluctant to write any more because I don’t want this to become a thesis.
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