作者：Russ Morris

几周前我获得了一台全新的Xbox360，了解我的人也许会知道，这可能是我拥有的第9台或第10台Xbox360。并不是因为我深受RROD（游戏邦注：Xbox 360故障的三红）的困扰，而是因为我通常都只会玩自己真正想要玩的内容，并因为将其闲置在一旁而深感愧疚，所以最终会选择在eBay上进行出售。

在我购买了Xbox360以及《光晕：致远星传奇》问世（我便是为了这款游戏购买了主机）一周多后，我获得了一份廉价的《心灵杀手》副本。我认为这是一笔很好的交易，因为这款游戏的开发期就像是《毁灭公爵：永远》的压缩版本，并且是微软发行的一款年度大游戏。它必须是很棒的，对吧？

作为一名自诩的游戏设计师/开发者，你是否会过度分析开发者所做出的一些设计决策，或思考该如何做才能让它变得“更好”。“优秀的”游戏（如《半条命2》，《传送门》）便是基于很好的设计，即你永远不用思考游戏完善，这让你能够很好地享受游戏乐趣。然而，“糟糕的”游戏却会破坏你的体验，比起乐趣让你觉得自己更像是在游戏中做研究。而《心灵杀手》正是介于这两者之间，可能更倾向于后者。

不管何时设计游戏，我总是认为需要考虑的最重要的事便是如何奖励那些在游戏中花时间的玩家。不管整体体验有多长，这点都很重要，但如果是在需要好几个小时游戏时间的游戏中，这点就更加重要了。

我对于游戏的主要关注点以及本文的侧重点是，从战斗系统和游戏机制来看是否明显缺少玩家进程，即从第一分钟到最后一分钟并未出现太大变化。

alan wake（from tumblr）

战斗机制

主要的战斗机制是围绕着一个呈现一些逐渐靠近你的虚无人物的过场动画展开，你用灯去照亮他们，他们便会放下盾牌，然后你可以朝他们射击3次。当你杀死最后一个敌人“设置”时，他将缓慢地倒下。这整个过程是发生在5分钟内，然后每45秒出现一次，直到游戏结束，即大约是8小时之后—-节奏，能力或奖励不会出现任何改变。

如果我们将游戏与《生化奇兵》进行比较，观察它的战斗机制是如何运行，我们便会发现它的运作与《心灵杀手》非常相似。它们都带有一个双挥武器系统，即基于相互配合的设计。《生化奇兵》的质体主要是用于分散敌人AI攻击玩家的目的，让玩家有机会使用他们的武器（主要是枪之类）发动攻击。比起质体，《心灵杀手》让你使用手电筒去减少敌人的防护物，并阻止他们靠近玩家，然后玩家可以使用枪去杀死他们。这很简单，只需要记住朝着敌人照亮灯光，向后退，射击，然后瞄准下一个目标便可。这等于有人说“你是否考虑升级你的住房保险计划”的“挑战”，他们能够轻松地做到这点，而现在让他们持续8小时这么做着。

《生化奇兵》将通过让玩家使用各种能够彻底改变战斗进程的质体而奖励他们。例如，玩家可以选择冻结一个敌人，让他们动弹不得并能够轻易被杀死，同时点燃敌人让他们不得不到处乱串去寻找水灭火，从而让玩家可以更快地移向目标。当玩家前进时，更有趣的质体也会出现，就像《星球大战》的力量推动，或大群的蜜蜂。其目标是保持战斗的新鲜，刺激与有趣，同时玩家将从故事点A移向故事点B。

玩家在《心灵杀手》的一开始就会获得一个手电筒，之后还会获得更强大的手电筒，从而帮助他们更快地移除敌人的防护物，但其威力只大了5%，所以并不是那么有效或必要。在每个章节的开始时，游戏将剥夺玩家之前的武器设置和手电筒，即意味着他们将再次从零基础开始。如果玩家在游戏中小心翼翼地收集了许多弹药，但却必须面临着全被清零的结果，那该多沮丧啊。这是像《星球大战：原力释放》以及《战神2》等游戏使用的廉价把戏，在游戏产业中，这种做法被叫做“在游戏一开始提供给玩家所有超级特别的行动，然后删除它们，并再次将强大的能量作为动机去激励他们继续游戏”，或者其它类似的行为。

游戏玩法进程

《心灵杀手》未能给人留下深刻印象的另外一个方面便是在游戏玩法进程上。尽管与战斗机制进程联系在一起，游戏玩法进程却是与玩家相关联的固定形式。再次，成功的游戏玩法进程的主要目标是提供给玩家最有趣的情节，让他们能够在此使用全新获取的技能与武器，同时还提供给他们全新的挑战与场所。

如果我们着眼于《半条命2》会发现，这里有很多领域会提供给玩家不同的体验和游戏环境，让玩家可以再次使用全新武器。武器的出现也是与当前的领域相联系。例如《半条命2》的石弓便是基于范围的一种远程武器，当你朝着更广阔的海岸驶去时，这一武器将更轻松地呈现在游戏中，并让你能够找到最完美的时机去使用这一新玩意。同样地，在Ravenholm（游戏邦注：《半条命2》中的虚拟的东欧城镇）中也出现了散弹枪，在这座城镇中玩家主要是穿越狭窄的街道，小巷和建筑移动，所以近距离的散弹枪更适合。

而《心灵杀手》却不能在战斗场景中有效地提供给玩家不同的武器，它只是在A，B任务间循环着，将其设置在一个稍有不同的位置中，直到最后。有时候游戏会让你驱车从一个地方开到其它地方，但是在这些部分中却不存在任何真正的内容，总的来说就是碾过一些敌人，找到一个隐蔽的加油站，获得一个更大的火把，开往一个被倒下的树挡住去路的路上，然后走出汽车。

当提到游戏中的敌人时我们也会发现这里缺少明显的变量。有些敌人带着铲子，有些带着尖刀，也有些敌人高于其他敌人。较高的敌人通常会出现在一些特殊领域，并说出一些无用且荒谬的警句。不管你所面对的是怎样的敌人，你都能够以同样的过程击败他们，并且他们都与《黑衣人》中的坏人很像，即袖子中会跑出蟑螂的那种人。

所以，也许将《心灵杀手》与过去10年里最受好评的2款游戏相比较太过苛刻了，但《生化奇兵》和《半条命2》之所以如此成功是因为它们都具有基本的成功游戏设计，让玩家能够持续享受游戏的乐趣。

从整体上看来，《心灵杀手》并不是一款糟糕的游戏，只是当你想到游戏开发阶段所投入的宣传，时间和金钱数量时会感到非常沮丧。人们会好奇进一步开发这款游戏需要多少补偿，微软会花多少钱去完成它。但从这款游戏“开发中”的时间看来，它们有足够的时间致力于设计核心内容，但最终还是让人觉得太过匆忙了，并伴随着许多复制/粘帖内容。

虽然这么说，但是这款游戏还是有许多值得鼓掌的地方，我认为通过电视去呈现片段描述便是一种很有趣的方法，即采取《鬼屋魅影》在传达章节内容所用到的方法，但却是将其用于更整洁的程序包中。从某些部分来看这是一款非常华丽的游戏，带有出色的灯光系统，但很可惜的是它却并未更好地完善游戏体验，否则它本来可以做得更好。

如果你并未拥有一台Xbox360，或者未购买《心灵杀手》，那就借来《Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace》并在观看电影的同时玩最初的《生化危机》，如此你将能感受同样的游戏体验。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Dissecting Alan Wake : The importance of gameplay progression.

By Russ Morris

A few weeks back I picked up one of the new slim Xbox 360s, and for those of you that know me, then you’ll know it’s probably my 9th or 10th Xbox360 that I’ve owned. It’s not because I’ve been plagued by RRODs, but because I usually play everything I want to play, feel guilty about not doing any work, and sell it on eBay.

In the week and a half between buying the Xbox360 and Halo : Reach coming out (the game I bought the console for), I had a cheap bundle copy of Alan Wake to tide me over. I thought it was a pretty good deal, considering the development period resembled a more condensed version of Duke Nukem : Forever’s, and was one of Microsoft’s flagship releases for the year. It had to be good, right?

One of the issues about being a self-proclaimed game designer/developer, is that you tend to over-analyse some of the design decisions developers made, or think about how it could have been ‘better’. ‘Good’ games (Half-Life 2, Portal) are designed so well that you never have to think about improvements, which allows you to enjoy the game. However, ‘bad’ games remove you from the experience and seem more like research rather than enjoyment. Alan Wake fell somewhere between the two categories, but mostly on the latter side.

Whenever designing a game, I always think that one of the most important things to consider is how you are rewarding the player for putting in the time to play your game. This is important regardless of the length of the overall experience, but very important with a game that goes beyond a couple of hours.

My main concern with the game, and the focus of this post is the distinct lack of player progression in terms of combat system and gameplay mechanics, it seriously doesn’t go anywhere from the first minute to the last.

Combat Mechanics

The main combat mechanics revolves around a short cutscene showing some shadowy figures that amble towards you, you shine a light on them, their shield goes down, then you shoot them 3 times. When you kill the last of the ‘set’ of enemies, he falls in slow motion. This happens within the first 5 minutes, and then every 45 seconds until the end of the game, about 8 hours later, with no change to pace, abilities or reward.

If we look at Bioshock as an example and compare how the fighting mechanics work, they operate quite similar to Alan Wakes. Each has a dual wielding system that are designed to work in tandem with each other. Bioshock’s plasmids are primarily used to distract the enemy AI from their purpose of attacking the player, giving the player the opportunity to attack with their weapon, mostly with a gun of some sort. Instead of plasmids, Alan Wake has you use a flashlight to reduce the shield and stop them from approaching the player, the player then uses a gun weapon to kill the enemy. It’s fairly simple, just remember to shine the light on the enemy, walk backwards, shoot, move onto next target. It’s the equivalent of ‘challenging’ someone to say “would you consider upgrading your house insurance plan”…they’d do it pretty easily, now ask them to do it for 8 hours.

Bioshock rewards the player by giving them the use of a variety of plasmids that can completely change the proceedings of a batttle. For example, the player can choose to freeze an enemy, making them motionless and vulnerable to a one hit kill by shattering them with the wrench, whilst setting the enemy on fire has them running to find a source of water to put out the flames, giving the player a faster moving target, but one which isn’t able to deal damage whilst on fire. As the player progresses, more interesting plasmids are introduced, such as a Star Wars like force push, or a swarm of bees. The aim is to keep the combat fresh, exciting and fun whilst the player moves from story point A to story point B.

Alan Wake gains a flashlight at the beginning of the game, and later a more powerful flashlight, which makes it slightly quicker to remove the shields of the enemies, but only by about 5%, which isn’t very effective or entirely necessary. At the start of every chapter the previous set of weapons and flashlights are stripped away from the player, meaning they start with the bare basics once again. It’s incredibly frustrating to carefully conserve ammo and batteries throughout a chapter, only to have it all removed again. It’s the cheap tricks that games like Star Wars : The Force Unleashed and God of War 2 use to draw the player into the game, in the industry it’s called ”give the player all the super badass special moves at the start of the game and then remove them and use the prospect of using the awesome powers again as incentive to play the game”, or something like that.
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Gameplay Progression.

The other area in which Alan Wake fails to impress is in the progression of the game play. Whilst being linked to the combat mechanic progression, game play progression is mostly the set pieces in which the player is involved with. Again, the main aim for successful gameplay progression is to give the player more interesting scenarios in which to use their newly acquired skills and weapons, whilst the same time providing new challenges and locations.

If we look at Half-Life 2, there are many areas that offer the player different experiences and gameplay environments in which to use new weapons. Weapons are also introduced in context with the current area. For example the crossbow in Half-Life 2 is a ranged weapon with a scope, and rather handily it is introduced into the game whilst you’re driving along the expansive coast sections, giving you the perfect opportunity to use your new toy. Similarly, the shotgun is introduced in Ravenholm, which has the player mostly moving through confined streets, alley ways and buildings, perfect for close-quarters shotgun blasts to the headcrab covered face.

Alan Wake fails in providing the player with any variety in it’s combat scenarios, it just recycles the A to B missions, but sets it in a slightly different location to the last. Occasionally the game has you drive from one location to another, but there is never any real content to these sections, and it basically boils down to running over some enemies, finding a secluded petrol station, getting a bigger torch, driving up to a fallen tree blocking the road and getting out of the car.

There is also a distinct lack of variety when it comes to the enemies in the game. Some have shovels, some have sharp knives their throw and some are taller than others. The taller enemies are normally ‘themed’ for the particular area that you are in, spouting out useless and frankly ridiculous catchphrases. Regardless of which enemy you fight, they are all defeated with exactly the same process, and they all resemble the bad guy from Men In Black with the cockroaches coming out of his sleeve.

So maybe comparing Alan Wake to 2 of the most critically acclaimed games of the last 10 years is a bit harsh, but what Bioshock and Half-Life 2 did so well is get the fundamentals of successful game design nailed, allowing the player to continually enjoy the experience throughout.

Overall it’s not a bad game, it’s just very frustrating when you think about the amount of hype, time and money that was spent during the development of this game. Questions could be raised over how much Remedy actually wanted to develop this game further, and how much Microsoft pushed/paid them to finish it. The time in which this game was ‘in development’ suggests that there was ample time to dedicate to designing the core content, but in the end it feels rushed, with a lot of copy/paste going on….

However, there are areas which should be applauded, I particularly think that the TV show presentation of the episodes is an interesting approach, taking what Alone in the Dark did with their ‘episodic’ content but wrapping it in a neater package. It’s also a very beautiful game in parts, with a great lighting system, it’s just a shame more time wasn’t dedicated to improving the gameplay experience, because it could have been a lot better.

If you don’t have an Xbox360, or don’t fancy purchasing Alan Wake, then just grab the DVD box set of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace and play the original Resident Evil game whilst you watch it, it’s basically the same thing.(source:therussmorris)