If you are in the early 30s like me, you have quite a bit of gaming history to draw from. I wasn’t kicking pong, but I did get my start on the good ole’ Atari 2600. From then to now I have covered the 2600, Commodore 64/128, Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Dreamcast, Super Nintendo & Nintendo 64, Sony Playstation 1, 2 & 3, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360, PC, Sega Game Gear, Nintendo Gameboy, Nintendo DS and Sony PSP. Since I began gaming I have owned a whopping 19 different game systems. That’s incredible if you think about it.
I truly love some of the current gen games. I was captivated by the Rainbow 6 series, loved Fallout 3, Lost Planet was great, Uncharted was awesome, you have recently read what I loved about F.E.A.R, but why is it that when I think back to the early days of gaming, I have such fond memories of older games. Not only did I love them, but I feel like the experience of those games is long since lost and not rightfully so.
If I had to think of an ad-hoc list of my top 10 favorite games of all time, I could probably quickly reel off 10 without listing a game made in the last 10 years. Let’s see:
- Final Fantasy 1 – NES
- Super Mario Brothers – NES
- Shadowgate – NES
- King’s Quest – PC
- Quest for Glory – PC
- Conquest of Camelot – PC
- Dragon Warrior – PC
- The Legend of Zelda II – NES
- Eye of the Beholder – PC
- The 7th Guest – PC
Of those 10 games, other than being lumped together on two systems, have three specific things that I think are missing from today’s games. First, simple game play. No insane button combinations, no ridiculously deep and complex menu systems, just simple control schemes that stay out of the way. Second, Puzzle solving. I don’t mean backtracking through a level to find a key to open some door, I mean pay attention to story, get clues, collect items and solve complex problems. Lastly, quality story.
I am not saying that no new games have these qualities these days. I am just saying that it seems these days the style of game play defines the game more than the game itself. Think about recent trends. Halo, F.E.A.R, Rainbow 6 Vegas 2, Killzone 2, Resistance: Fall of Man..besides some different scenery and story elements, they are all very similar. Not it’s too the point that the developers loosely wrap some story around it and don’t bother to make it complete and coherent. It’s become more common to create a fun multiplayer experience and create just enough story to claim you have a single player mode on the box.
So outside of a compelling story, what else do I find wrong with many games today? They are overly complex. Don’t get me wrong, when I was playing F.E.A.R. 2 last week, I loved the quick access to weapons, grenades, etc. On the other hand, playing Killzone 2 this weekend, the control scheme complexity kept me from getting in, feeling some success and enjoying the game. I love the strategy of making the controls get more complex over time. You start playing and the game adds difficulty as you learn more techniques, win.
I saved my biggest complaint for last. Why are there no good puzzle solving games anymore? The thing that made the Sierra “Quest” games so compelling is that you had to pay attention to the story. You had to gather as much information as possible, and you had an inventory of items you had to figure out how to assemble or use to solve your way through the game. These days puzzle solving is “find x and bring it to me.” I remember a puzzle in Eye of the Beholder where there was a matrix of 9 stone buttons on the floor. You had to collect stones throughout the dungeon and place them on the right buttons to hold them down to get the door to open. A real puzzle to solve!
I am not sure where they went, but I for one miss them. I don’t want them remade as FPS games or adapted to 3D environments, I want the enjoyment to survive into new games.
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While I understand your complaints, I do think it’s oversimplification. Thats why there are game genres. Your going to find the puzzle solving in action adventure games (Tomb raiders, Prince of Persias, Uncharted, Strategy in strategy games, and the only similarity in the list you define above (Halo, FEAR, RB6V, Killzone…) is the genre….FPS. There is a whole list of differences between Halo and RB6 – in fact they are entirely different styles of games both in tone and play, multiplayer option aside.
Understanding what kind of gamer you are helps direct you to the style of game you like play and enjoy the most. The games these days are every bit as fantastic (and I would argue even more so)then older games. Honestly, the development and technology is a million times more intricate and invovled and results in way more then just a story line. Look at game physics and suspension of belief alone! If you don’t like a game, it just means its not your style.
Ha ha… I find myself so similar to you this article could just as well have been written by me.
I have bookmarked, but not played, the following:
http://www.vampyrestory-game.com/
http://www.hotheadgames.com/deathspank.php
Might be of interest?
Martin
I think the reasons for gaming for some people are significantly different from yours. It seems you like playing games that guide you through a quest, finishing worthy objectives and so on (actually, you said so yourself). However, most of the time I play games to have fun with online friends, people that you’ve never met in person before but have formed a bond through teamwork in gaming. I am not sure if you are familiar with the Steam Friends list system but many of my friends on my steam list have more than 70 friends from just playing games with. That’s almost like a second list of your msn or aol list; that’s almost like having twice as many friends that you chat with regularly.
Many of these new games: tf2, l4d, halo, killzone2 etc, could possibly be just be a means to an end. While playing the games are fun, being with people to share your “holy crap, did you see that” gaming moments are probably the ones you’ll remember.