Poor Game Design

As I have mentioned a couple of times, Far Cry is a great game. I always play a new game on the most difficult setting until

• It kicks my butt so bad I surrender and drop the difficulty
• I get bored and just want to finish.

The first reason is a good one so long as the second isn't creeping into the real reason for dropping the difficulty. So far I am still playing Far Cry on the highest difficulty level.

But most games don't let you drop the difficulty setting on the fly. You are stuck with the difficulty setting you selected at the start of the game. One notable exception is Blizzard's Warcraft 3. If the game defeats you on a mission it actually asks you if you want to set the difficulty lower. There have been times in Far Cry where I have felt the odds have been so stacked against the player that it would be impossible to get through the level. One level I actually just ran as fast as my player would take me to avoid a horde of nasty enemies until I got to a spot where I could hide and wait for the enemy to loose interest.

Another design issue I have is the ability to save your progression in a game. Many games allow you to save at anytime in the game. This allows the player to micro-manage his progress so that you never need loose much ground when the game beats you. Many first person shooters use this method. Another method is to allow the player to save whenever they are not in a mission. This method is used in games like Grand Theft Auto. The only drawback of these methods, that I see, is the frustration that may be caused when a player forgets to save. I have often been well into a game and suddenly my virtual life ends. Then I realize I have to start at the very beginning of the mission or from the last time I saved (as in Grand Theft). Totally frustrating. I want a game that makes me feel immersed in the action so I don't want to have to remember I need to save.

Far Cry uses an automatic game saving scheme or "checkpoint" system. The game automatically saves your progress at predetermined checkpoints on each level. A little message is displayed telling me my progress has been saved. If I die, I get to start from the last checkpoint. But now the gamer is at the mercy of the level designers. You must start from where the designers want you to. That, on its own, isn't too bad so long as the designers are generous in their save points. For the most part the designers of Far Cry picked natural checkpoints and you were able to restart just before you got into the next fire fight.

But there have been a couple of spots where the checkpoint was at a stupid spot. The most infuriating so far has been a level where the start of the checkpoint has you turn a valve to flood the area you are in so that you can swim up to a vent which leads the player to the next action area. My frustration came in having to restart and swim and then crawl through a vent (which is slow) over and over and over, before I get to the next enemy. Couldn't the designer have put the checkpoint at the end of the vent? There was no other exit point. It would have saved nearly two minutes on every restart. I really didn't need all that extra swimming and crawling.

The other spot that was infuriating was a spot where you had two choices. Either grab a hang glider or grab a boat and travel to the next area. The checkpoint occurred as soon as I launched the glider. Wouldn't it have made more sense to have the checkpoint either before I launch my transportation choice (but then I would have the useless voyage every time) or better still, have the checkpoint once I arrive at the next area? This level was particularly difficult the further into the area you got and it was absolutely maddening to get to about the half way point to the next checkpoint only to be overwhelmed and have to start again gliding to my destination.

I guess my preferred game save option would be one where the player is allowed to save progress between automatically saved checkpoints. I know there are games like that out there. I just can't think of them off the top of my head. I don't mind a game frustrating me due to its game play but I don't like a game frustrating me because of something I should be able to control but some designer decided to take away.