May 10th, 2021, 09:46 PM
All games generally have a way to restrict players to keep them within the confines of the game world or maintain a sense of structure, and also a way to punish players who might stray from these restrictions or just do anything they're not supposed to do (other than say, dying). Invisible walls, fail states, timers, limited movement, fixed cameras, there are many different ways to restrict and/or punish a player and they can be good or bad. Rockstar are a notable developer of games that feature restrictions and punishments, as you can see if you watch this video:
I bring this subject up since last night I was thinking of games that I find fun to just mess about in even after completing them, and lamented that Dead Rising 2 would be a game I'd love to mess about in but I don't because of how restrictive and punishing it is to the player because of the inclusion of a timer. Timers were nothing new to Dead Rising at this point, but I didn't know before going in just how much of a hindrance they actually are. If I spend my time just screwing around, I will miss out on bosses, NPC encounters, and various other things that are all very time sensitive. You practically have to make haste to the first available thing in the game, complete it as quick as possible, and instantly get going to the next available thing before it times out or something after it times out because you didn't leave enough time to get to that thing. In between all of this, you also have to search for medicine for your daughter and return it to her; failing to do so means she dies and when that happens, missions that are used later in the game to extend the timer further are locked off, essentially halving your game time. Dead Rising 2 also didn't feature any other mode at launch that removes the timers, instead being added in a later version of the game called Dead Rising 2: Off The Record. So for everyone like me who bought the original game at launch, you're forced to play with these timers in place and get punished for having fun and ignoring objectives, or punished for doing objectives but not spending time just messing around. It's probably one of the worst restriction mechanics I've seen in a game, just because no matter what you do it will punish you to some degree and there is no way to have everything at once.
So what games have you played or seen that have mechanics to restrict or punish the player, and were they good or bad? Maybe a game didn't feature such a mechanic and could have benefitted from having it, such as letting a player do something in a horror game that negates the threats around them.
I bring this subject up since last night I was thinking of games that I find fun to just mess about in even after completing them, and lamented that Dead Rising 2 would be a game I'd love to mess about in but I don't because of how restrictive and punishing it is to the player because of the inclusion of a timer. Timers were nothing new to Dead Rising at this point, but I didn't know before going in just how much of a hindrance they actually are. If I spend my time just screwing around, I will miss out on bosses, NPC encounters, and various other things that are all very time sensitive. You practically have to make haste to the first available thing in the game, complete it as quick as possible, and instantly get going to the next available thing before it times out or something after it times out because you didn't leave enough time to get to that thing. In between all of this, you also have to search for medicine for your daughter and return it to her; failing to do so means she dies and when that happens, missions that are used later in the game to extend the timer further are locked off, essentially halving your game time. Dead Rising 2 also didn't feature any other mode at launch that removes the timers, instead being added in a later version of the game called Dead Rising 2: Off The Record. So for everyone like me who bought the original game at launch, you're forced to play with these timers in place and get punished for having fun and ignoring objectives, or punished for doing objectives but not spending time just messing around. It's probably one of the worst restriction mechanics I've seen in a game, just because no matter what you do it will punish you to some degree and there is no way to have everything at once.
So what games have you played or seen that have mechanics to restrict or punish the player, and were they good or bad? Maybe a game didn't feature such a mechanic and could have benefitted from having it, such as letting a player do something in a horror game that negates the threats around them.