N'Gai Croal
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Jan 14, 2008 12:15 AM
Matt Bertz, Content Manager for Game Informer magazine
When we launched our "Make or Break"
series last November, we promised to ask "prominent developers,
reviewers and expert gamers to share with us via email the five key
features, details, techniques or flaws that they look for in games in
the same genre." We've done fairly well thus far on the developer
front, scoring responses from the folks behind Ratchet & Clank
Future: Tools of Destruction (creative director Brian Allgeier), Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (lead multiplayer designer Todd Alderman), Uncharted: Drake's Fortune (game director Amy Hennig), and the colon-free Crysis (company president Cevat Yerli). But we haven't yet offered up any opinions by reviewers. Until today, that is.
The
first videogame reviewer to enter the "Make or Break" hot seat is Game
Informer content manager Matt Bertz. With six years of covering games
and technology in New York City under his belt prior to joining GI
Bertz was the editor-in-chief of Surge, a short-lived gaming magazine
that won the 2004 Silver Eddie Award in the Consumer Entertainment
Under 250,000 category. His writing has appeared in many outlets,
including Next Generation, AOL, Laptop, Mean, Men¹s Fitness, GameSpy,
and XLR8R. Because Bertz recently reviewed Crysis for GI, we asked him to tell us what he looks for when he's evaluating a first-person shooter. Here's what he had to say.
Crysis, developed by Crytek and published by Electronic Arts
1. Non-linearity (or the illusion thereof)
Why it matters: Gamers have spent the greater part of two
decades navigating claustrophobic corridors and taking cover behind
boxes. The last thing you want is for the player to feel like Bill
Murray in Groundhog Day, reliving the same basic experience throughout
the entire game. Non-linear level designs allow the players to engage
the enemies in a manner of their own choosing, rather than having
opposing forces repeatedly spring from behind closed doors and cover
after the player crosses a trigger line.
Who got it right: The paramount example of a developer that understands the advantage of non-linear gameplay is Crytek. The German wunderkinds have created two stellar titles, Far Cry and Crysis,
each of which offers a sandbox world for gamers to engage with tactics
of their own choosing. In these open worlds, players can determine
their own play styles; they can move stealthily through the jungle to
avoid unnecessary combat, ambush soldier patrols and disappear back
into the heavy brush, or walk up the roads guns blazing in classic
Rambo fashion. These titles also sprinkle carefully scripted events in
certain segments without sacrificing the freedom of movement and
decision making an open world affords. Despite its overall unpolished
nature, GSC Game World's S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl also offers enjoyable experience because of the sense of exploration its open environments offer.
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