|
GT |
status:action-packed
thrill ride
|
A first person shooter like GoldenEye.
I recently replayed GoldenEye to see if it holds
up and is still fun and good, or if everyone
loving it is down to nostalgia. It's
unimaginably good - as long as the controls,
frame-rate, and graphics are modernized. And
there's no other game like it. And I've NEVER
played another game like it, and that's
obnoxious.
I spent a few days breaking down all
the mechanics I could from map layout to enemy
AI, trying to figure out why no other game FEELS
like GoldenEye does, and I plan to make a video
essay about this because I think I can back this
up with specifics.
I want to make my own
GoldenEye-style game that actually FEELS like
GoldenEye in terms of exploration, gunplay, and
progression. If you know of a GoldenEye-like
game that exists then I want to play it, but
I've never found it.
Timesplitters 2 is
the closest I've encountered, and even it
doesn't quite get it. There's a cool game being
developed called S.P.I.E.S., but who knows if it
will actually capture the essence of GoldenEye
or be yet another game that captures the
aesthetics while missing the gritty mechnical
detail of the original. There's another one in
development called Agent 64, and you can
download the free demo now on Steam. it's
fantastic but feels just a smidge more like
Perfect Dark than GoldenEye, which probably
comes down to its slick -- rather than gritty -
visuals. So anyway, I'm
developing my own.
The core ideas that
make GoldenEye special that no one seems to
understand, are:
1) a grid of levels viewable
from the beginning all at once, each with open
level design with objectives known from the
beginning that can be completed in any order,
with the player needing to escape the mission
area at the end.
2) the enemy AI very
unrealistic in a particular way, and this makes
it BETTER imo.
3) GoldenEye is the best
cover-shooter ever - all while having no bespoke
cover mechanics.
4) three difficulties with
more objectives on higher difficulties, and
target times that unlock SOMETHING, per level,
creating essentially 80 unique, masterable
experiences with only 20 level layouts, and also
a custom difficulty setting where many sliders
can be tweaked.
So far most of the work
has been previs. As in, breaking down the
mechanics and figuring out where I can add new
ideas. I also have a
basic level grid menu worked out, and I know
roughly what each level will contain. A game like GoldenEye is
only as good as the level design and
moment-to-moment gunplay and stealth. The game
levels come first, and then a cool story with
resonant themes, as icing, though for GoldenEye
it's mainly about the game mechnics and less
about the story itself. I'm excited to make a
really cool story, too, but for now it's brass
tacks.
|
|
