This week I was watching X-Play as that had an in studio demonstration of the new Golden Axe title. While watching it I had an epiphany about the genre and that my action game idea is going to sell like hot cakes. Now I’m not going to discuss about the gore or T&A but about watching the game play footage, and what is wrong with it and with most action titles.
Watching the combat, it looked to be set around button mashing (with magic on the side), with one or two different attack buttons. Even with the beasts that you can ride, the system stays the same. The part that raised the warning flag was how combat was handled. Every time you enter a new area the entrances and exits are closed off, and enemies start beaming in. This to me raises the key problem with most beat em up games.
Combat is so banal and repetitive that they force the player to fight enemies and cannot move on until they’re defeated. In a good title the player should be jumping at the chance to fight through the evil forces. In beat em ups the combat should be the reason that your playing, not the story or graphics, while important are not the focus. I don’t want to mash the X and O buttons for 10 straight hours, that’s not game play. In my action title, the game play is complex enough that every fight will be different, and the player should be thrilled that there are enemies coming up. When I first started thinking about my action game, I drew inspiration from one of my favorites.
A few years back Mark of Kri was released, and I loved it. It combined Disney styled animation, with a combat system designed for fighting multiple opponents at once. The devs not only managed to create an effective combat system but delivered one of my favorite stealth systems. Stealth was possible to take out your opponents but if you were discovered you had more then enough skill to be able to fight your way out of it. This to me shows what needs to happen to the genre, I should want to fight every fight not be forced to. I’m excited about the SplatterHouse remake coming up as it is from the designers of Mark of Kri. Combat should be developed enough that I can handle almost anything. God of War while a cinematic game, had a horrible combat system, especially when you put it next to Ninja Gaiden Black.
That is why I think my action game idea (24 pages long and counting) would be amazing. The combat system is interesting enough to make players want to fight, and adequate rewards for fighting well will keep them playing. If your playing an action title for a great story, or amazing visuals, then your playing the wrong game. The main draw of the genre should be the game play and the combat, which I think a lot of designers have forgotten about. The point of an action game is the action, in other words “The time for talk is over, now is the time for action !”
Josh
