EA Discusses Mirror's Edge 2 Design Challenges
Mirror's Edge was a flawed but nevertheless interesting experiment that was viewed as a relative sales failure when it launched in 2008. Nevertheless, EA CEO John Riccitiello believes it merits a sequel, even as the publisher culls their development slate. They just need to figure out how to go about it.
In other words, how to ruin a game which was one of a kind. Of course, if games didn't cost billions to make, such silly pondering wouldn't even be happening.
So let me suggest a couple of things that could be added to the game, before going for the typical "murr gunz" and pace-breaking puzzles, right here:
- Change the art style
Look at Price Of Purcha... erm... sh--, Prince of Persia. Ubi did it right. They removed a lot of what made it look exotic and arabic (a culture of filthy people, goat-eaters and amateurs of cheap rocket launchers), and opted for a heavily Final Fantasy influenced charadesign. Oh, the chick is already an Asian? That ain't enough people. Her distant ancestors may come from that place on a map identified as "there be dragons" or something, but she looks like a punk pulled out of that mediocre "La Femme Nikita" flick.
It's just all wrong. Either take inspiration from your grimdark atomized environment and have your palette cover a short range of browns to grays, and plenty of sepia filters, or aim for some random kawai Japanese stuff. Do something, anything, please. Just drop the unique art style. This alone much likely hurt sales, as XBOX360 players couldn't familiarize with it.
- Add mirrors
Someone tell me. That game was called Mirror's Edge. We surely got plenty of edges, but what about the mirrors? You have to aim for the male demographic. What is the point of having a female character if boys cannot enjoy this reality? It was already hard to accept that within the frame of a game, genitals had been turned outside in -- even if we know many male players love to be females on MMO -- let's at least take some advantage of this. So place more mirrors. More polished windows. Let huge ten by ten reflecting surfaces show all of the girl's acrobatic... abilities. This probably means changing her wardrobe a little, finding some short skirt and... perhaps pumping up that bustier a little, and adding a natural amount of glamour in her moves.
Sidenote: add a free 3rd view camera and a snapshot function.
- Sidekick character
You need to have more fun in that game. And that calls for another protagonist.
Army of Two, Ico, Prince of Persia (again). Okay, the first game might not be such a good example, cause what I'm getting at is that you need another (attractive) female character.
Think of the possibilities! She's above you, and you can't leap onto the platform she's standing on without her help. So she leans forward, bends over the edge, as you try to reach for her hand. The ultimate goal being to find yourself starring right at this:
Or, let's say your team of two is stuck at the feet of a wall, and the only way to get on the other side is to climb said wall. If everything is properly designed and coded, then you should be able to give your teammate a hand:
Once your friend is up the wall, she'll obviously have to help you get up there as well. As you can see, this seamlessly connects with the gameplay event described just before!
- Time control
The game should have a time dilation effect, or even a reverse power. Like in Prince of Persia (...) or... Braid? I mean, they even got one in God of War II, so why not?
A game without time control these days isn't good. Bullet Time was must have some years ago, and the devs need to expand upon this cornerstone to increase the game's value.
- XP and rewards
Anything that was present in Mirror's Edge has proven to be of insufficient use to the success of the game. Therefore, more needs to be done. Aside from obvious collectibles and rewards, you need more obvious collectibles and rewards. But that's not all. You need to complete the whole picture, so why not rely on the much vaunted experience. Let's add a touch of RPG. Let Faith improve her skills.
Let her also loot objects, discover secret items and even craft some other rare ones. DICE should add many NPCs who would be all the more sources of side quests.
- Social... ism
You need a multiplayer mode. But that alone cannot be enough, so prepare the game so the transition to "Mirror's Edge, the MMO" appears to be long overdue. Of course, this could only be achieved by requiring the player to pay a monthly fee for the special servers and exceptional service.
- 2.5D
Wouldn't it incredible to be able to change your environment from a 3D scenery to a 2D one? There's already an amateur ME 2D platformer which supposedly brings the game experience to the 2D world, to please old timers. They are people in their 30s who must not be ignored. Eventually, this ability to turn the decor from 3D to 2D, and back to 3D, should be called "cash", or "rush".
- Quick Time Events
I cannot believe DICE left those out of ME. QTE are the most obvious cheap addition to a game in order to increase positive value. It adds variety to the "powers" of a character and breaks monotony. It allows for greater story telling. Think of QTEs, really.
- Huge bosses
Everybody loves big enemy bosses to defeat. They make for extraordinary and epic moments, when the world at large seems to throw at you the meanest stuff it has, to halt any pretense at moving forth. Those guardians are important. Why don't get some in Mirror's Edge 2? They wouldn't need to look like monsters, as long as they fit the role of the major challenge at the end of a given ensemble of playable sections.
No comments:
Post a Comment