Comments on: The economical adventure

By: Korey

Korey — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 01:36:29 +0000

Nice insight. I remember when I played beyond BGandE thinking how small everything is. While true, there’s a ton of stuff to do within that space, revisiting areas more than once in interesting ways. It is very refreshing from a Zelda or Final Fantasy where the world is huge with little to do it beyond show exactly how expansive they could make the world.

By: Justin Keverne

Justin Keverne — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 23:13:58 +0000

As The Unknown picks up on. I think his main complain is with regards to “…invisible boundaries where players do not expect them.”

The world of Hillys is largely devoid of permanently locked doors, or other elements you can’t interact in some way with. There are a much smaller number of doors or location than a similar game might include but everything that exists is there to serve a purpose.

You can notice a similar thing with System Shock 2 and BioShock, though somewhat counter intuitively they feel less compact because they are representing an enclosed environment. It’s possible (I believe) to find a way through ever door in the game, because of that even though there’s generally a very linear progression it doesn’t feel so obvious.

By: The Unknown

The Unknown — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 05:46:48 +0000

I hadn’t really looked at it in that light before (the notion that Hillys is “compacted” with adventure), but I think you’ve nailed it. I think this helps to explain why Hillys always felt like a true world to me: it may be small, but it’s definitely not lacking.

And in terms of the Wikipedia quote, I imagine it was meant in terms of running into actual invisible walls. Even so, it is a bit of a false claim for the reasons you mentioned.

And the animal photography was always a big plus in the game for me too. It taps into the same part of my brain that hunted down every scannable thing in the Metroid Prime games. The curious/collecter part of the brain, I guess. But besides that, it really does help the world feel more real. These things you photograph/scan aren’t just creatures, but animals with names. It may not be a lot, but it is much better than nothing.