Completely interactive environments, yay or nay?

[Damian79]

Remember that gap that you SHOULD have been able jump past? Or that slope you SHOULD have been able to traverse? Or that area which you never could get in but wondered what was there? Well, you can these days.


Should this be standard in games today or should the effort be put elsewhere? Personally when I find a game that allows me do some of what I said above, it added a great deal of interest with the game world for me and as a result I enjoyed the game a lot more.

[Rocca]

Big yay. Alot of games we're great just because of that, breaking and shooting down walls, being able to go just about anywhere really, really rocks. DoA 3 kicked ass, and while I dont think the environments were all that interactive, they we're really awesome in Metroid Prime as well.

[Jeremy]

Big yay, for most genres, it can add a lot of fun and realism to the game.

[Opaque]

How would destroying an enviroment allow you to jump a gap?

[Josh]

Magic.

[Schlep]

I've never been a fan of non-linear gameplay, so I'd have to say they should put the effort elsewhere.

[MarkRyan]

Big nay for me.

linearity = design

realism = boring

[Clash!]

It all really depends. But if done well its adds a lot to the enjoyment, especially if you like just goofing around in a game. Lots of times however games say completly interactive, but that usally ends up meaning you can break tables and windows. The upcoming game "Mercenaries" looks pretty sweet and is promising "Completly interactive environments" as well as being able to use any vehicle seen. From the screens I have seen it showed a few walls being blown out, but I hope they really go the distance and let you go all over, even if its useless to go there.

[Sl1p]

I never really thought about this subject until I saw the greatest game of- err, I mean Half-Life 2. While listening to a scientist, the player looks around his desk and finds a computer monitor, bumps into it and pushes it over. Mid-Sentence the AI reacts.

"Please do try to be more careful!"

BIG yay for interactive environments. You can still be linear but still have the illusion of total freedom. Half-Life 2 makes this possible.

[AaronChance]

Every game doesn't have to be Morrowind, but it would be nice to have more than one way of doing something. So still a sense of direction, but with options so you don't feel as if the game might as well be playing yourself. Ninja Gaiden was nice in the way it used enviroments over while keeping them new (and keeping the story linear), though I thought it could have been a little more interactive.