Analysis of specific game design mechanics, trying to work out what makes good games good, bad games bad and nothing perfect.
Why does BioShock feature first aid kits? In practical terms they don’t serve a purpose, health itself doesn’t really serve a purpose. Because of the Vita-Chambers death is not permanent. Purchasing, or searching for, first aid kids is money and time wasted. The health meter in BioShock seems as redundant as the Power-Meter in Super Mario […]
One of the first things you see upon setting foot in Rapture is a Vita-Chamber. No matter how many times you are killed, you are always “reborn” at the closest Vita-Chamber free to continue from where you left off. There are benefits to this approach, but also some validity to the criticism that overly explicitly encourages […]
It’s common for games to provide an array of tools by which you can alter your own character or the environment to better suit a particular play style, but without some degree of active encouragement it’s possibly for a lot of these tools will go unused. While playing System Shock 2 you are required to manage you resources, it’s necessary […]