Stephen Totilo has an interview with the head of EA, John Riccitiello, who sounds some good notes on innovation and who is supporting another Mirror’s Edge. Key quotes:
I think Mirror's Edge was a fascinatingly original world.Fascinatingly original art direction. Music and sound design was great. I think the gameplay mechanic was a blast, but was intermittent and the levels didn't work. You found yourself scratching at walls at times, looking for what to do. Sometimes you had a roll going, downhill, slide, jump, slide, jump and then you just got stopped. It sort of got in the way of the fun.
It was like we couldn't quite decide if we were building Portal or a runner. And I don't think the consumer was ready to switch it up quite that way…
You could say: This thing needs to be more traditional. It's first-person game. There's a lot of successful FPS products out there that do really well. We could move in that direction.
Or [you could say]: This was never about guns. It was about its stark originality. Maybe we can back away from some of those [older] things… and emphasize the smooth play and puzzles and move it toward, if you will, a Portal.
Neither really makes sense to me. Going in the FPS direction is obviously a terrible idea, FPS’s with more acrobatic movement may be worthwhile, but that entirely defeats the point of the original. Perhaps tighten up the gun mechanics a bit, I never used them, or better yet de-emphasize combat some. Slow stealth doesn’t make sense, but taking crazier routes to avoid people works. Going for Portal is nominally more laudable, but Mirro'r’s Edge really isn’t a mechanic based puzzler either. That gets to the wall scratching phenomenon.
I think Iroquis Pliskin, of VersusCluCluLand gets it right, the key is momentum (I found that blog through Brainy Gamer podcasts, for the record. I was more of a fan of the game although based on some quick googling I just seemed to have reviewed the demo, but I think the execs should listen to Pliskin, encourage the player to go fast, be more forgiving, and avoid other things that slow down the gameplay. The commenters over at Kotaku seem to have it by and large right as well.
I was also glad to hear the mentions of open world gaming by other people. I think sticking with linear could be okay, but I’d much prefer more runs through some of the same areas with escalating threat levels and less of some of the inside levels. I actually rather liked the subway, mall, and much of the last level, and other beautiful interiors. I did not like navigating sewers, crawlspaces, and the such as they’re overdone and not really well suited to free running. I got bored of some of the roofs after a while for the same reason. If going for either linear or open world level reputation maybe look at racing games, from what I’ve heard of Burnout: Paradise it has a fair number of potentially relevant ideas.
I also wonder if Jet Grind Radio, which I haven’t played but rather enjoyed watching a friend play, would have any helpful ideas. That game was similar in its feeling about authority, but since it was graffiti oriented it allowed for a wider range of mission objectives. That said, that game may have to wait until Beyond Good and Evil 2 comes out.
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