I just checked out the tech demo for Alone in the Dark's new engine. I was a little confused at first as the engine claims to be "Real World" something-or-other. Well, what it boils down to is that you can use items in the world fairly like you would expect, but you can also combine things to make better things. I essence, your interesting things turn into more interesting things that you can do quite a number of things with. Heh...
Ok, so that's a lot of things, but where can this all go wrong. Well, the danger here is that the combining of objects leads to one or two combinations being king. For example, in BioShock, you were able to mix and match your Plasmids, but in reality there were a few that were so much better than the rest that there really was no desire to experiment.
Alone in the Dark is in danger of making two things, essentially. 1) A mechanics toy. 2) A third-person game that uses 10% of that toy in order to win.
They don't intend this, I am sure, but without the careful hand of level designers, this interesting system will not be worth all its "cool." I hope I am wrong. I loved the old skool Alone in the Dark games...the original was my fav.
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GDC is next week and I won't be there. :( Sad Panda. On the flip side, I am sooper excited to be starting my new job, so it will be just fine. :) To all my friends who will be there, have fun, take pictures and make sure you learn something.
I still don't have furniture in my apartment...boo.
4/5 days in Seattle have been sunny so far!
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