Endless Ocean
January 24th, 2008I’m somewhat intrigued by Endless Ocean, but I share some of the same concerns as Jason Cipriano here. Is there any point to playing a game that doesn’t end? I think Cipriano’s conclusion is correct, but his diagnosis is somewhat flawed.
The problem with EO isn’t that it lacks conflict - games don’t need conflict per se to be fun, stories do (and we all know my feelings on the story front). What games do need is an objective. This is because a game, almost definitionally, requires motivation, a reason to play. To the extent that you can artificially create objectives (see the penguin, see the eel, etc.), you can create a game out of the context of Endless Ocean… but without a meaningful amount of substance behind it, I can’t imagine it would hold people’s interest very long.
Oddly, I also don’t know that this is particularly well targeted for casual gamers, either. Casual gamers don’t need complexity - but even more than hardcore gamers, they often revel in the objective. In fact, games like Uno or Solitaire are in reality stripped of almost everything except it: “get rid of all your cards” is pretty thin gruel to someone playing GTA, but makes casual players quite happy. So I’m unclear on who EO will really appeal to.
Are you planning on getting the game? Has anyone played it?
Posted in Geoff, Wii |
January 24th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
I have exactly the same concerns, which is why I haven’t bought it. I’m awaiting a consensus.
January 24th, 2008 at 8:24 pm
“Endless Ocean” doles out objectives, but they’re not the standard gaming objectives. You’ll get an “e-mail” from a rich guy to go on a dive in a certain spot. Or be told where you might see a school of sharks or a cave that needs exploring. I’ve been playing it in linear fashion, handling one e-mail objective at a time. And almost each time I’m sent to a new spot on the map and see something new.
The key thing, though, is that you’re “seeing” things. There isn’t much activity in this game — not in the three or fours I’ve played it — other thank gawking at sealife.
I think it’s fantastic — relaxing and pretty in a nature doc kind of way — in short bursts. But to each his own.
January 24th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
No offense, but i think this shows the ‘traditional’ and ‘gamey’ mindset of most gamers, including yourself, jeff. Is something not a ‘good game’ if it does not have clear-cut, traditional objectives? [i.e. kill that enemy/ collect that thingie/ clear this place of X/ and most of all, dominate the AI in some way].
Ever heard of atmospheric gaming? EO is just that. Let me give you a partially relevant example: I played Knytt and Knytt Stories and the Aquaria demo. While I found the music, art style, and voice acting of Acquaria to be way too thick and imitating of ‘high budget’ effort [or at least, way too 'slick and polished'], I found Knytt and ESPECIALLY Knytt stories to be minimalistic and superbly atmospheric.
Sure, Knytt stories has a clearer objective than EO, in that there is an end, and you collect stuff to reach that end. But that objective is so unimportant to the real purpose of the game: atmospheric, minimalistic platforming at its best. Whereas that Acquaria demo [and the Youtube clips i've seen] represented a very un-minimalistic and overbearing and also un-atmospheric gameplay [not to mention the controls are so unweidly :(], EO and Knytt Stories are the opposite.
PS: I thank Gamasutra, perhaps the gaming website most qualified to be called professionally journalistic, for letting me discover acquaria and knytt.
January 24th, 2008 at 9:00 pm
paz,
I didn’t jump to the conclusion that a game may not be fun if it doesn’t have set objectives. It’s just been my experience that sandbox games just don’t do it for me. But that’s based on empirical trials rather than unsubstantiated guesswork.
January 27th, 2008 at 9:35 am
All right, so I picked up EO on a whim last night out of sheer boredom, and I actually like it a lot. It’s going to be like, say, Etrian Odyssey or Izuna — not in difficulty (you can’t lose), but in that it’s great fun if and only if you know what you’re getting into. It’s fantastic for just kicking back and unwinding. But if you go into it expecting a traditional game, you’re going to be disappointed.
At any rate, it’s far worthier than many of the other Wii games, even some of the ones on my shelf.
January 27th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I’m really excited about EO simply because it’s bold enough to say, “fuck tradition, we want to try something here”. Most games I’ve played lately have felt so tiresome simply because I feel like I know exactly what the game is within 2 minutes up playing it. Games like this may not suit traditional tastes, but when you’ve been gaming as long as I have, you really start to want to shake up the paradigm a bit. To say that space marines are played out doesn’t even begin to describe our current gaming landscape. If I have to look at one more dark and gritty shooter, I may explode.
Games like EO, Zak & Wiki, NMH, and Opoona have me more interested in gaming than I’ve been in years.
Nothing interests me more than looking at a game and wondering, what the hell would you do in that thing?