2014-08-02, 09:22 PM
I think where people have a lot of their issues with DS2 is the fact the project director specifically split his team up into several smaller developer groups. Each was asked to build 1/4 of the starting points of the game (the 4 basic paths to the 4 primal fires) and none of the groups discussed the areas with each other until it was time to sew them together into the game's opening areas. Its well documented that this was indeed the case and the game's director even admits it in his interviews.
The trouble it causes is extreme disconnection between the 4 major paths at the start of the game, it just blows cohesion and sense out of the water when you play through the game expecting each area to have some sort of relation to the next.
Imagine taking a classroom of students at an art academy and having them draw their rendition of a horror movie, throw them all in a box and expect them to go together well. It just won't and didn't happen.
I think that is where most of the let down occurs, when you lose that feeling of submersion in a game's atmosphere. I think the worst case is leaving majula and going to heide's tower...I mean you go from a chill beach town, through one small sewer and bang, you're in the middle of the land of the armored giants, a hop skip and a jump away from mighty bosses etc. From's direction of throwing sub bosses in every area made them feel short and more linear.
That of course doesnt excuse the graphics, but I still persist having to make every model and environment from scratch is far more time consuming and difficult than flooding a landscape with gorgeous prefab jungle plants and hefty lighting. The next time you play through the game take the time to realize that every thing you see is custom made, down to every detail on the floor's shape etc (From did not use a terrain maker like most games, terrain makers allow you to make gigantic areas of land populated with trees/grasses etc in mere mins, they make for awesome looking lands but they are far from unique and are difficult to use for games with linear paths).
I only defend the game because I try to realize that there is more to a great game than the best graphics. I myself would much prefer a team do their diligence on perfecting an environments uniqueness, mood and playability than spend tons of time and money making it super pretty with no content and no inspiration. I can honestly say it would be no big problem for me to recreate the entirety of Skyrim's continent in probably under a month's worth of effort in Unity (meaning the overworld, not going into every house) but I can't imagine how difficult it would be to recreate a Souls game because there is so much custom modelling going on.
The trouble it causes is extreme disconnection between the 4 major paths at the start of the game, it just blows cohesion and sense out of the water when you play through the game expecting each area to have some sort of relation to the next.
Imagine taking a classroom of students at an art academy and having them draw their rendition of a horror movie, throw them all in a box and expect them to go together well. It just won't and didn't happen.
I think that is where most of the let down occurs, when you lose that feeling of submersion in a game's atmosphere. I think the worst case is leaving majula and going to heide's tower...I mean you go from a chill beach town, through one small sewer and bang, you're in the middle of the land of the armored giants, a hop skip and a jump away from mighty bosses etc. From's direction of throwing sub bosses in every area made them feel short and more linear.
That of course doesnt excuse the graphics, but I still persist having to make every model and environment from scratch is far more time consuming and difficult than flooding a landscape with gorgeous prefab jungle plants and hefty lighting. The next time you play through the game take the time to realize that every thing you see is custom made, down to every detail on the floor's shape etc (From did not use a terrain maker like most games, terrain makers allow you to make gigantic areas of land populated with trees/grasses etc in mere mins, they make for awesome looking lands but they are far from unique and are difficult to use for games with linear paths).
I only defend the game because I try to realize that there is more to a great game than the best graphics. I myself would much prefer a team do their diligence on perfecting an environments uniqueness, mood and playability than spend tons of time and money making it super pretty with no content and no inspiration. I can honestly say it would be no big problem for me to recreate the entirety of Skyrim's continent in probably under a month's worth of effort in Unity (meaning the overworld, not going into every house) but I can't imagine how difficult it would be to recreate a Souls game because there is so much custom modelling going on.
- Todd DuFore (DMPDesign)
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