Locations

[Sly]

Do you prefer having games set in certain settings and locations over others? Are there places you’d prefer to never go in a video game? Talk about it here.

Personally, I enjoy games more if they’re set in everyday locations…but at the same time, something is very wrong. For example, Silent Hill’s reality shifting, the zombie outbreak in Raccoon City in the Resident Evil games, New York City destroyed by an earthquake in Alone in the Dark, the demon army invasion of Paris in Onimusha 3, that kind of thing. For one thing, you feel a personal attachment to the location since it feels ordinary, like it could exist (or does exist) in real life. But at the same time everything has been turned upside down, and it’s interesting to look and see how the game’s disaster has transformed the place into something much more extraordinary.

I also enjoy seeing games set in historical periods. For example...1880 in the Wild West in GUN. Pre-Christian Rome in Shadow of Rome. Medieval Japan in the Onimusha series. And to a lesser extent, Eternal Darkness. It’s really fun to explore a place as it existed in the past…and it’s much more immersive than just reading about a certain era of history in a book. The developers take artistic liberties of course, but it’s still overall a fun experience.

At the other end of the spectrum…I can’t stand outer space. Being in outer space usually entails floating around in blackness, or being stuck in lots of metal corridors in spaceships. And it gets really boring to look at after many hours. This is why I’m not sure if I’d enjoy Dead Space, even though I like survival horror games. I’ve already had one of those with Dino Crisis 3, and that’s a game I don’t want to play again.

[Viper]

The location generally always an important factor in most realistic games. They have to make a location that feels like it could exist. I mean generally speaking some of the levels in Sonic... well no one would desire a road like that... (Let alone make a truck that can take all the lanes).

I love fantasy so I guess, I'm generally not limiting when it comes to locations. I prefer being able to visit different places... and I don't mean visiting different places in New York like in Alone in the Dark. I mean more like going out into the middle of no-man's land then back to city. I find horror games generally get a bit abusive of specific things. The lack of light or limit of light in most horror games is a simple example. I've never seen a horror game happen in board daylight... which truthfully should be completely plausible... I highly feel its unlikely that the zombies are not going to move in the dark or that after playing and shooting them forever and forever that somehow morning never came. I mean really most games track how long have you been playing... most games clock far over the amount of hours they have in a night.

Anyway back to location, generally I find they always pick a location that is generally for 'plot' or 'pretty'. They are off to show the graphics, so they pick some place where designs and high-end graphics can show some massive detail. The other is plot, obviously if you are making a war game, you need destroyed cities and totaled locations, and the only way they are going to get a player reaction is if they pick something we know or the player and identify.

I don't mind going down a space corridor of metal in the silence of space cause thats the truth of it. I prefer games where something happens in a location and then they simply have to work with it. I liked Dead Space cause they made an event happen in a limited location and made it work, I'll admit I wasn't that scared but that might be cause I've played Resident Evil one to many times.

Generally overall I can't find any locations I really 'hated', because most games I notice that location is always one of the lowest consideration points for story, plot, and graphics. You can easily 'make' new locations and if you are planning to use a real world location then you likely already have some crazy idea on how that is going to work out, so you might as well call it part of the plot.

I mean really Sonic levels... why is there a loop in the middle of the road? Or in Dead Space... was is their a 'large' vent door here? <_< We got high vaulted ceilings with glass... wonder if someone will break them? Hey everyone is staring at the cool looking Empire State Building... nothing blow up here right?

Its not the location but how its used, some games do not pay proper respect to the location they are supposedly part of. Ok enough of my rant.

[Nail Strafer]

Quote:I love fantasy so I guess, I'm generally not limiting when it comes to locations. I prefer being able to visit different places... and I don't mean visiting different places in New York like in Alone in the Dark. I mean more like going out into the middle of no-man's land then back to city.

When we discuss locations, this too is one of my favorite things for a game developer to do. Go to different places...but also, there needs to be a sense that everything is connected together. For example, as much as I dislike Need For Speed Underground 2...one of my favorite things about it is being able to race out of downtown...head up into the neighborhing mountains...and then at the edge of many cliffs you can see the downtown area below, where you came from. It gives an impressive sense of the scale of the game world.

Quote:The lack of light or limit of light in most horror games is a simple example. I've never seen a horror game happen in board daylight... which truthfully should be completely plausible... I highly feel its unlikely that the zombies are not going to move in the dark or that after playing and shooting them forever and forever that somehow morning never came.

You might be interested in Resident Evil 5. It takes place in broad daylight. But to balance the bright sunlight Capcom also will be throwing in dark areas, when you have to go through buildings. I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.

In any case I'm pretty okay with most horror games are set at night and end at dawn. It's good for the same reason that making most horror movies have the same time frame makes sense. Many things are just scarier in darkness...especially being alone in Central Park. Yeesh...if I felt unsafe walking alone through Hyde Park in London after dark, I just can't image what it's like doing that in Central in real life.

Quote:I mean really most games track how long have you been playing... most games clock far over the amount of hours they have in a night.

Well, if they did that, the horror games could possible not end at morning's first light, just like the developer wanted it to XD In a Resident Evil game it would also require them to probably create multiple FMVs of the same characters escaping the same location at different times of day...just as the self destruct, nuke, etc. blows the place to hell. Oh yeah, and multiple backgrounds and lighting setups and whatnot.

Although if you haven't tried it yet, you may be interested in Dead Rising. That's a horror-type game that progresses over three days, with every day lasting two hours in real time. The sun rises and lowers just like it should...and the shopping mall the game takes place in will light up when the sun goes down, with the lights turning off automatically when the shoppers ordinarily would be going home. Even the clocks you see around the place will move to keep up with the time, and PA announcements will declare the time.

Quote:I don't mind going down a space corridor of metal in the silence of space cause thats the truth of it. I prefer games where something happens in a location and then they simply have to work with it.

It makes sense, I agree. However, that doesn't mean I have to like it. It's why I'm generally averse to games with a lot of action inside spaceships and whatnot. Dead Space being in outer space is a big turnoff for me, because of that. The interior of a spaceship just doesn't give you many options to really get creative. Dino Crisis 3 had some cool ideas (like the ship changing shape), but staring at all those shiny metal corridors just gets really boring over time. I would have really liked for them to write in some parts where you're somewhere else.

Quote:Its not the location but how its used, some games do not pay proper respect to the location they are supposedly part of.

Sorry, but honestly, location does play a role in how much I enjoy the game...and I doubt I'm alone. Staying true to the location is one thing. But do you enjoy being there? Much like real life, there are certain locations I'd prefer to be in more than others.

For example...there's a ton of games out there that all have at least one sewer level. RPG, Adventure, Shooting, Light Gun, Survival Horror...it's amazing how many genres I see it in, over and over. A sewer's just not a fun place to be, because there's just nothing you can do to make a sewer look cool and make sense at the same time. I want to get out of the sewer level as fast as I can whenever I meet one.

Meanwhile, a busy city-type environment is far more interesting...because it can beckon you to stop and look around. You may meet a lot of different characters to talk to...or there's hidden backalleys to explore. And naturally a good city environment will have a variety of different buildings to go into as well. Ryo's town in Shenmue is an excellent example. There were times when I stopped just to check out something that caught my eye.