Designing a Transformers Game
ahsan.sa...@gmail.com
to not suck. I've heard that the Armada game had been good, but that
means nothing to me, because I don't have a console (and I really
don't like consoles, just because).
Anyway the last two Transformer games were... not good. They weren't
bad, exactly, it's just that the controls were floaty, the missions
were a drag, and they were just not really interesting, not no
definite reason I can name. I think the fact that you can only melee
bosses (and the melee animations were kinda strange and difficult to
aim) added to how difficult I found to enjoy playing it. I know that
I've installed the Transformers game every two months since I've had
it, hoping I could get through it without getting frustrated with it.
And RoTF I felt just used the same basic engine, with a few slight
improvements in graphics and such.
It had good ideas, with the transforming and climbing buildings, and
throwing items around, but the gameplay was just so frustrating. And
the fact that you could raze entire city blocks with your ranged
weapons but wouldn't hurt enemies was just terrible. Well, with
Decepticons was okay, but since Autobots had that entire "sanctity of
life" nonsense, you'd get penalized for causing damage, which you
really couldn't help doing.
But enough bitching, and yes, I know I'm bitching, because I'm pretty
sure in a week or so, I'll be re-installing it so I can try playing it
again, hoping that the brain-damage I get from seeing Rob Cypher's
post-subjects will render it an enjoyable experience.
The point of this thread is to toss a few ideas around for what would
make a good Transformers game. See, the trouble with Transformers is
their entire "transforming" shtick, which I don't see fitting any game
genre comfortably, or even acting as a game mechanic that is easy to
use, or feels like anything but "tacked on". It works with 3rd person
games because they'll always have a retarded mechanic stuck in there
somewhere, but not with most other genres.
So, two ideas right off the top of my head:
- MMORPG. Everyone loves MMORPG games, right? Well, except me. I hate
them. But that's only because I hate people, and I really hate having
to interact with them when I should be having fun. And I can't justify
spending money every month for playing a game. But that's just me. Oh,
but my idea...
Right, so you start out as a generic-build robot (Autobot or
Decepticon), who conforms to one of several basic vehicle types (car,
plane, tank, beast, bird and uh, fish), and in the beginning, the most
you can modify is maybe the head, the colours, stuff like that. And
then, as you go through it, instead of armour, you get mods, which
will allow you to modify your appearance (robot and alt-mode), turning
you more and more into a unique machine. And transformations can be
like "mounts", and getting multiple alt-modes could be the equivalent
of epic-level mounts, but you can only get those by, I don't know,
surrendering a ton of XP? 'cause otherwise we'd have Sixshots running
around everywhere...
I didn't say it was a good idea, but it'd work. And Hasbro would be
happy, because they'd get lots of money and coverage. I'd be as
heartbroken as I was when I'd heard "KotOR" would be an MMORPG, but
hey, a good Transformers game would be good.
- RTS. I didn't see this happening myself, 'cause you can't have
people getting named characters killed off in games, but then I
realized that we've had "hero" units in games since "Warcraft II" and
"Starcraft", and now with "Dawn of War" and "Mark of Chaos", so why
not with Transformers? They can have the drone 'bots acting as troops,
with named characters like Prime and Ironhide as hero units or
commander units. And the transforming thing can be used when you give
them a "run" command, as opposed to a "move" command. The cannon
Transformers turn into gun emplacements (like the Broadside
battlesuits in "Dawn of War"), the tank Transformers are less
manoeuvrable but more powerful in vehicle mode, the road vehicles move
faster but can't fire accurately, the jets can use jumpjets in robot
mode but don't "fly" like they can in vehicle mode... so on and so
forth, you get the idea.
Or you can just make it like "Dawn of War 2", where you control a
fixed number of units, each of them with unique abilities in both
modes.
Personally, I like this idea better, because I like RTS games (even
though I'm utterly naff at strategies and stuff).
ahsan.sa...@gmail.com
SteveD
>See, the trouble with Transformers is
>their entire "transforming" shtick, which I don't see fitting any game
>genre comfortably, or even acting as a game mechanic that is easy to
>use, or feels like anything but "tacked on".
It allows the use of additional abilities (speed, firepower) while
supressing others (climbing, close combat), much like switching to a
different armor/weapon/spell set in WoW.
The problem is not so much the gimmick itself, but that the challenges and
game levels often aren't matched well to the gimmick. There's got to be
the impression that the gimmick is a really cool ability-enhancing thing,
rather than just something boring and optional.
-SteveD
ahsan.sa...@gmail.com
> On Thu, 31 Dec 2009 21:39:06 -0800 (PST), "ahsan.salahud...@gmail.com"
> <ahsan.salahud...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >See, the trouble with Transformers is
> >their entire "transforming" shtick, which I don't see fitting any game
> >genre comfortably, or even acting as a game mechanic that is easy to
> >use, or feels like anything but "tacked on".
>
> It allows the use of additional abilities (speed, firepower) while
> supressing others (climbing, close combat), much like switching to a
> different armor/weapon/spell set in WoW.
>
> The problem is not so much the gimmick itself, but that the challenges and
> game levels often aren't matched well to the gimmick. There's got to be
> the impression that the gimmick is a really cool ability-enhancing thing,
> rather than just something boring and optional.
It always seems to come down to 3rd person Action games, doesn't it?
Transformers wouldn't be as cool as an FPS, 'cause otherwise how would
you know that you were a cool-looking Transformer dude?