How Appropriate!

(click blog entry title to link to article)

Manveer Heir at Gamasutra wrote an interesting article about the topic that just so happens to be this week's poll question. Without giving too much away, he did not like "the twist" because it forced him to drastically change fighting styles.

This pleases me because it gives me an excuse to talk about my personal Uncharted experience, which was altogether a hilarious occasion, provided you weren't ME.

When I first encountered the Wham Level I was too scared out of my pants to really notice or care that the fighting style had changed. In fact, I immediately adjusted to it out of necessity. Dammit, something's charging me? SHOOT THE FUCK OUT OF IT HOLY CRAP AHHHH!!! My guy friends actually started screaming because I was screaming so much (in the girly, jumpy scared way) that it freaked them out just as much as it did me. And I was so scared of it that I HATED it (my friends found the whole thing quite entertaining though).

It wasn't until much later I read someone's analysis that basically pointed out the gameplay change, and how in the level leading up to the church shootout with Sully you are forced to switch between tactics as the two factions fight each other (a gameplay mechanic that Hennig and Wells mentioned in the interview, btw, will be returning in U2:AT). And then it hit me: what a great idea! Changing the tactics made the initial level scarier; you're being thrown out of your element, forced to adapt. After that point, when the supernatural shit has fully hit the fan so to speak, the gameplay reflects this by forcing you to switch and know what's what and how to deal. BRILLIANT!

Now when I play it, knowing what's coming, it's way more fun and tolerable. Still freaky, of course, even though it's lost that initial horror that you get when you're first watching a scary movie and you don't know what to expect. But far more doable now that I know what I'm doing and, more importantly, why.

So I'm sorry to have to disagree with Mr. Heir, but I'll be looking forward to a similar twist in the sequel, one that forces me-- after the initial rush of the story has subsided-- to step back and actually think about the game I'm playing, and evaluate what the game designers want me to experience and learn and why they chose to do what they did. It's called intelligent gaming, my friend. And I like it.