What does a huge, open-world roleplaying game and a linear point-and-click adventure from the 90's have in common? Well, aside from the fact they have the honor of The Jimquisition's attention, they both succeed in delivering the same thing, despite using almost completely opposite methods to do so. Confused? You won't be after you watch this intense, sexy episode!
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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PS2, iPod Touch, Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid, Dynasty Warriors 3
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Contest:
3:00 PM on 12.12.2011 | 
Sound fair? good.
WAIT! I know you...
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WAIT! I know you...
I approve.
It was just such an iconic environment that I went from wondering "when the heck am I gonna get out of here?" to dreading that moment like the ending of a good book :)
Another game in the same vein as the minimalist classics mentioned here, but encompassing a small town: It Came from the Desert. I'm hoping it will come to PC or iOS or Xbox Live or something like that, one day...
FREE.
But beware, it's their xmas sale, you might get caught...
Good episode. I know Jim didn't like The Witcher 2, but what I liked was that it did areas with a richness of detail that was ridiculous. It didn't have the scale of Skyrim, but what was there was so well realized that it felt vast in its own way.
Incite? More like Win-cite. Keep fucking my eyes with your awesomeness and we'll get along just fine...
Cole's means of travel around the cities is intimately tied to the cities themselves, and the player, by the end of the game, comes to know every power line and rail like the back of his hand. The city itself becomes one of the player's best allies.
Brilliant game design that I think perfectly illustrates Jim's point here.
Another game that took this "less is more, but we'll still shove a crapton of stuff down your throat" was the original Gothic. It was the first "breathing world" I think I ever experienced. That is to say, NPCs had daily routines and became very hostile when you started rummaging through their stuff. Your paths of advancement weren't easily a "good or evil" choice. Everything had shades of grey that didn't make you think "well, that's the evil choice and since I'm a good character I don't want that."
By comparison to Skyrim, it's pretty small size and content-wise. Hell, once you're able to survive you can walk end-to-end in maybe 10 minutes tops. But the shear amount of content that's been placed within that relatively small area is quite intense. It doesn't have a particularly engrossing story and by today's standards it's fairly feature-bare and clunky... but for the time, it was an achievement and to this day has more character than most video game offerings available. (This is, of course, an opinion.) This is despite the simplistic story and strange pacing.
"Level of freedom games have never dreamed of allowing". Aside from you know... other Bethesda games and open world games. I'm pretty sure you could fly in Morrowind, and I don't mean being smacked into space by giants.
Yes, well defined worlds with a strong sense of place is amongst the greatest things a game can do. Ambition is an entirely different beast and requires doing something challenging or out of the ordinary, a few simple rooms will not cut it these days.
Lone Starr: A million? That's unfair.
Pizza the Hutt: Unfair to payor but not to payee. But you're gonna pay it, or else!
Barf: Or else what?
Pizza the Hutt: Tell him, Vinnie.
Vinnie: Or else pizza is gonna send out for *you*!
Which is why I said "these days".
A game as small scale as Beneath a Steel Sky could not be released today and honestly expect to get the respect it has, telling people those kinds of games are instantly going to get incredible acclaim (and be seen as ambitious) is outright bad advice.
If you can get Beneath a Steel Sky for free, then you're obviously not going to feel ripped off.
@Bluj162
Jim and some others want to believe that Skyrim is perfect, bugless and is a type of game that has totally never been done before.
I've been thinking about the ideas presented here a lot lately, might it be that the hometown in Zelda 3D-games (OoT and later) feels like a real hometown because you're forced to spend so much time there in the beginning of the game?
Anyway, great show, Jim!
I would say they made a game this generation that thrives on small familiar environments - Dark Souls. While its certainly larger than a point-and-click adventure like Beneath a Steel Sky, its fairly small for a AAA title.
One of the greatest joys in that game is exploration. Everything and everywhere is so dangerous and mysterious that just poking your head around an unfamiliar corner becomes an exhilarating experience. Each environment is unique in its own way, from the scum and Basilisk infested sewers to the grand sunlit cathedrals of Anor Lando, and they are all threatening.
However, the Metroidvania inspired design and lack of hand-fed directions or maps means you will be doing a fair amount of back-tracking. Areas that were once impassable gauntlets of deathtraps and monsters become familiar routes and stomping grounds. A combination of better stats and (more importantly) greater familiarity and skill in the player transforms those once hostile environments into relatively safe-havens that the player feels comfortable in.
I spent so much time becoming accustomed to the world of Dark Souls I could probably draw a half-decent map just from memory. The only other games I think I could do that for are old NES and SNES titles like Zelda.