About All of Those Ninja Gaiden 2 Reviews…
By now you probably know that I’m a Ninja Gaiden fan. If you’ve read any reviews, you probably also know that the biggest complaint leveled at Ninja Gaiden 2 is that the camera is broken–nay, adversarial. Here’s my take:
The camera is absolutely paramount to setting the mood and feel of the game. When Devil May Cry first came out, a lot of reviewers didn’t like how the claustrophobic camera affected game play. They liked the mood and feel set by the camera, but didn’t like that you would sometimes get attacked by enemies out of screen. So Devil May Cry 2 was created, headed up by a former game reviewer, and guess what? The claustrophobic camera was gone, the claustrophobic sets were gone; the world was big, there were no more out-of-camera attacks, and people hated it. People missed the feel from the first one. They wanted tight corridors, crowded battles; they may even have been willing to turn a blind eye at the next out-of-camera attack, sacrificing that bit of unfair damage in the name of love of game design.
Ninja Gaiden 2 is a game that is meant to be beyond intense. When you pull the camera back, a la God of War/Heavenly Sword, you rob a bit of intensity from the feel of the game, and it leaves you with a choice: do you want to play a high-intensity game with an aggressive camera that sometimes leaves you feeling a little cheated, or do you want to play a medium-intensity game with a pulled back camera that shows you everything yet somehow lacks a certain je ne sais quoi. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.
The camera is a design decision to evoke a certain mood. The game designer decides on the mood. To me, it’s almost as if game reviewers are looking at the game, saying “I didn’t like it because it’s not God of War,” and docking it 10-15 points for not being God of War. “I didn’t like Call of Duty 4 because it doesn’t have a cover system” is an equally valid complaint; I wonder why no one’s brought that up?
I think the core of the issue is that game reviewers have to really scramble to complete all of the new titles that land on their desk from week to week, preventing them from really soaking in the nuance and subtlety. Ninja Gaiden fanboys understand that the camera must add to the frenetic pace and, yes, be a little obnoxious at times, and that through time and patience it will become a necessary evil. Personally, I’m used to making mental notes as to where the out-of-camera baddies are and attacking what I cannot see–it makes me feel like a ninja. Reviewers, playing through the game at the easiest setting, simply jot down their first impressions: some dude from outside the camera killed me and now I’m pissed off.
I think the solution is a fanboy-only review site. Ninja Gaiden 2 reviewed by Ninja Gaiden fanboys, DMC4 reviewed by Devil May Cry fanboys, and so on.
June 11, 2008 posted by James
2 Comments Comment away!
1.
yojimb0 | June 19, 2008 at 5:03 AM
well said. i agree that once you get used to it, it becomes an interesting element of combat itself: sort of like the action game equivalent of fog of war.
2.
amcclay | June 24, 2008 at 8:41 AM
It’s about time somebody addressed this. A game is composed of challenges and tension based, in part, on the LIMITATIONS that are placed on the player. This can include the camera. Limitations on camera control can be fundamental to the core mechanics of a game.
The most shining example of this is the oft maligned Resident Evil games. I loved the first two, but you had a slew of complaints (similar to DMC) about the fixed camera system. People were calling it a “fundamental flaw” with the game, when the fact is that this “flaw” was precisely what created the claustrophobia and tension in the first place.
The disorienting “Hitchcock” style cameras created the right moods at the right time. Would hearing a shuffling zombie around a blind corner be half as threatening if you could simply do a “wall peek” maneuver? You can see this illustrated perfectly with the much praised RE4.
Now, RE4 is a great game, but one thing it ISN’T is scary. I remember jumping in fear several times while playing RE2 because of it’s well orchestrated and controlled ‘scenes’. This didn’t happen once during RE4. Why? Because when you have the freedom to look wherever you want, snipe zombies with a zoom scope the sense of peril goes down the drain. It’s kind of hard to be afraid of a zombie when you have a rocket launcher.
Anyway, this is why small / independent development studios are so important. There may not be enough of a mass-market to justify a 20 million dollar, 18 month development cycle, but there might be enough to keep somebody who is passionate about the craft continue to keep creating smaller scale games with a more specific market.
You can’t always rely on the consumer’s opinion and focus groups to shape the direction of a game.
As Henry Ford said: “If I’d asked the people what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse”
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