8th May 2003, 2:30 PM
YES! Fear sounds like a great premise.
You know, for years I've been thinking about the inherent problems of 3D platformers. And while the added complexity of 3D movement may be impossible to cure, I always felt that something could be done to solve the problem that, in 3D, no direction is "forward." Mario 64 attacked this problem by making progress symbolized by your number of items (stars, jiggies, shines, etc.). And while that was a great idea at the time, the genre has overused this method of tracking progress, to the point where hardcore gamers have backlashed against "collectathons." Fear looks like it is taking a much more developed glance at this problem. Because once you realize that these items were simply a technique to keep track of progress, the idea floodgate opens and yells, "There are so many better ways of tracking the progress of the player! Think of a new one!" Fear takes that challenge and answers with something that I find brilliant: through the game, the character tackles his fears. The feat itself is progress. You don't need a token to tell you that. Given the right amount of emotion of the character, this game will be brilliant.
You know, for years I've been thinking about the inherent problems of 3D platformers. And while the added complexity of 3D movement may be impossible to cure, I always felt that something could be done to solve the problem that, in 3D, no direction is "forward." Mario 64 attacked this problem by making progress symbolized by your number of items (stars, jiggies, shines, etc.). And while that was a great idea at the time, the genre has overused this method of tracking progress, to the point where hardcore gamers have backlashed against "collectathons." Fear looks like it is taking a much more developed glance at this problem. Because once you realize that these items were simply a technique to keep track of progress, the idea floodgate opens and yells, "There are so many better ways of tracking the progress of the player! Think of a new one!" Fear takes that challenge and answers with something that I find brilliant: through the game, the character tackles his fears. The feat itself is progress. You don't need a token to tell you that. Given the right amount of emotion of the character, this game will be brilliant.