NieR: Automata Analysis

NieR: Automata Analysis

David Hunter

August 15, 2018

1 Overview

NieR: Automata is an action RPG developed by Platinum Games and published by Square Enix in February 2017.

2 Formal Elements

NieR: Automata is a direct sequel to NieR, which was released in 2010. NieR itself is a spin-off of the Darkengard series. Much like its predecessors, NieR: Automata combines

• flying combat reminiscent of Geometry Wars and more classic twin stick shooters,
• vertical and horizontal scrolling shoot ’em up gameplay similar to Ikagura, Aerofighter, and others
• platforming action a la Mario Brothers, Castlevania and Metroid
• 3^rd-person action combat in the style of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry
• RPG elements including dialogue choices and leveling mechanics

2.1 Players

NieR: Automata is played from various 3^rd-person perspectives: top-down, side-view, and over the shoulder. Throughout the first playthrough, the player will control several different characters:

• 2B: a female android who can fly a combat mech, and who can wield two different weapons in melee combat
• 9S: a male android who can also fly a combat mech, and who wields one weapon in melee combat. His unique ability is hacking. This allows him to unlock doors and boxes that are blocked to 2B, and in combat allows him to take control of, damage, or use as allies various robotic and android enemies throughout the game
• : A2: another female android with identical abilities as 2B. She can hack under special circumstances
• various robots at certain plot points

NieR: Automata shares several tropes with Dark Souls: although it is a single-player experience, the player may find the corpses of other players around the game world with custom messages left by those players. Further, when the player dies, their android consciousness can be easily downloaded into a new body, however, any experience and custom chips (similar to skills or abilities in other RPGs) remain in the previous body. The player must retrieve the experience and chips from the previous body before dying again, otherwise, they will be lost permanently.

2.2 Objectives

The player is tasked with eliminating a machine threat on Earth. Aliens invaded several hundred or thousand years ago, but have not been seen in centuries. Humans retreated from Earth and (we are told) live on the Moon. Meanwhile, alien-created machines and human-created androids engage in a long drawn-out proxy war on Earth’s surface. Throughout the story, the player will be forced to fight and ”kill” machines, who are claimed to be inhuman, lacking consciousness, etc, but who repeatedly demonstrate just the opposite.

The player may choose to engage in several side quests. These often reduce to fetch quests or kill 5 As, but showcase the game’s generally well-written dialogue.

2.3 Rules

2.3.1 Areas

The game is made of several discrete areas, most of which are interconnected. Some, such as the mysterious tower at the end and the Bunker, can only be reached through a loading screen. In general, new areas are unlocked through reaching plot points.

Although not a rule of gameplay per se, camera control is altered dramatically in certain areas and during certain sections of the game. During the opening, the camera follows 2B’s combat mech around the same as in a top-down shooter: it is stuck in one place while the background and enemies scroll by. The camera later changes to that of a typical third-person RPG, and still later to side-scrolling platformer. Sometimes this is triggered by reaching some story point, sometimes it is triggered by entering and exiting particular areas.

2.3.2 Combat

NieR: Automata was developed by Platinum Games. That by itself should create an image about what combat is like. In more detail, 2B and A2 have light and heavy melee attacks; both can be charged to deal more damage. Different animations are played based on what weapons are equipped. In addition, all three main androids have access to ranged attacked by using pods. Initially, the player only has access to one pod which fires plasma/laser blasts, but may later gain access to a pod with a rocket launcher and another with a lightning-like attack. Pods may be upgraded and modified with different special abilities on cooldown timers.

Players may jump and dodge during combat. An attack immediately following a successful dodge triggers a counterattack. Light and heavy attacks, ranged attacks, dodges, and jumping attacks can all be strung together in balletic combos.

2.3.3 Stats and Leveling

In NieR: Automata, XP, weapons, and chips gained by one character are shared by all playable characters. As the player completes main and side quests, hacks and or kills enemies, they will gain XP. Like many RPGs, NieR: Automata makes use of an exponential equation to determine how much XP is needed to level up: the equation 7.98 * NextLevel².6 closely matches the XP needed to reach the next level. Unlike most RPGs, NieR: Automata has a limited set of stats.

• HP: This is increased by level and determines how much damage the player can receive before dying.
• Melee Damage: Determines how much damage the player deals with melee weapons.
• Ranged Damage: Determines how much damage one’s pod attacks deal.
• Defense: Determines how much damage is absorbed.

Besides the stats above, there are many ”hidden” stats that can be affected by equipping different chips. Movement speed, shock waves to weapon attacks, speed of health regeneration, and the stats above can all be modified by chips.

2.3.4 Crafting and Inventory

NieR: Automata features light crafting elements. In general, the playable characters’ appearances can only be slightly modified by equipping hair ribbons, wigs, or other small cosmetic changes. New weapons may be found around the game world or purchased from weapon vendors, and can also be upgraded by collecting the required number of parts and spending increasing amounts of currency for each upgrade.

Chips may also be upgraded by combining two chips of the same level, producing one chip of the next highest level. Although this does require exponentially increasing numbers of chips, chip drops become increasingly frequent, and the rate at which chips drop can, of course, be modified by equipping a chip.

2.4 Procedures

2.4.1 Leveling and Upgrading

While completing quests and killing enemies, the player will gain XP and collect parts and money to be used for leveling up and upgrading equipment. Leveling occurs automatically, but upgrading chips and weapons must take place at weapon or item vendors.

2.4.2 Exploring

NieR: Automata features several diverse environment types, including a space station, forest, city ruins, amusement park, desert, and a few others. Many of these environments are multi-layered, with several stories both above ground and below ground. Although humanity no longer lives on Earth, the environments are dotted with small android and robotic villages, as well as fauna such as boar and moose, and of course the ubiquitous robotic enemies.

Exploring them works similarly to exploration in some of the best RPGs, such as The Witcher 3, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, or Dark Souls. You can discover new side quests, powerful items or weapons, or simply notice touching environmental details.

2.4.3 Hacking

When playing as 9S, and in limited circumstances as A2, the player can enter hacking mode. This is a bullet hell style mini-game where the player must avoid incoming bullets and environmental hazards, and at the same time destroy enemy units and finally CPUs. There are about 50 different versions and most of these have several stages and time limits. The player usually has three ”lives” to succeed, after which they will exit hacking mode and return to the previous mode.

2.4.4 Boss-Slaying

As a Platinum Games title, NieR: Automata would not be complete without epic boss battles, and it does not disappoint. Bosses vary from huge mechas to single human-sized opponents, and they frequently have several stages which change the approach necessary to pass through or defeat them. Further, the approach is very different when playing as 9S versus 2B: since 9S has hacking capabilities, it is often more efficient to hack the boss rather than engage in melee combat (this is actually dramatically necessary for several bosses).

2.5 Resources

All resources have been described in some detail earlier.

2.6 Conflicts

2.6.1 Stat Point Investment

Through purchasing chip storage expansion packs, the player may increase their equipable chip capacity up to 128 slots. This may seem like a lot, but most of the GUI, including maps, health bar, XP bar, enemy data, etc, are actually chips that take up space. Some of these can be removed to allow more space for other chips, but removing the ”OS” chip will result in player death.

2.7 Boundaries

2.7.1 Chip Slot Investment

The maximum chip slot storage capacity is 128, and as you increase the level of your chips, they begin to take up more and more slots. It becomes really tough deciding which bonuses you want helping you all the time, and which you want to keep for particular situations.

2.7.2 NPCs

Most NPCs are invulnerable to attacks from the player.

2.7.3 Map

The map features high levels of verticality, with tall towers and deep chasms both having important roles in the story and action. There are extensive invisible walls to prevent the player from accessing areas they should not.

2.7.4 Inventory

A limited number of most items may be gathered and held in inventory at a time, usually about 99.

2.8 Outcomes

There are several outcomes. In fact, 26 official endings have been listed, one for each letter of the alphabet. However, the majority of these are for failing at some point or for ignoring a message about not leaving the combat / mission area. Only 5 outcomes really matter:

• A: this outcome is received when you beat the game the first time, playing as 2B
• B: complete the game a second time, playing as 9S
• C: complete the game a third time, playing initially as 2B and 9S, and later 9S and A2. Choose A2 at the end.
• D: complete the game a third time, playing initially as 2B and 9S, and later 9S and A2. Choose 9S at the end.
• E: complete the game a third time, playing initially as 2B and 9S, and later 9S and A2. During the credits, decide to delete your play data in order to help another player.

3 Dramatic Elements

NieR: Automata has incredibly strong story elements.

3.1 Characters

NieR: Automata has three main playable characters, but has an interesting cast of side and supporting ones from both sides of the conflict.

First and foremost is the poster child for the game: 2B. A battle model android, who for unexplained reasons enters combat while dressed as a blindfolded French maid, 2B is an experienced and hardened fighter, taciturn and often unwilling to share her emotions. She does not question things, and simply wants to get her job done, which is eliminating as many alien machines as she can.

Her partner, 9S, is a scanner model, who displays irreverence for authority, questions nearly everything, and is not afraid of showing emotions. He has a crush on 2B, but what exactly and Android crush means is not really clear.

Later, the player mets and takes control of A2, an earlier prototype for the B model. Like 2B, she is terse and competent, and shares 2B’s hate for machines.

Besides the playable characters, there are many others you will encounter through out the game. First and foremost are the leaders of the machine army, Adam and Eve, who, despite their names, are actually both male and possess similar features as 9S and 2B. Their motivation, as is typical of most villains, is ridiculous: they killed their alien masters because they were boring, and they want to capture humans in order to dissect them and understand their interesting behavior. The player will face them in battle several times throughout the game. In addition to Adam and Eve, the player will battle and destroy many different machine adversaries. Most of these lack personality, but the bosses all seem to have some kind of psychological damage.

Finally, there are numerous friendly NPCs throughout the game. The player will get to know Pascal, the leader of a group of communist pacifist robots; Jean-Paul, one of the aforementioned community’s members who enjoys waxing philosophical; Anemone, the leader of the Android resistance, who appears to have some kind of previous relationship with A2.

3.2 Story

The action begins several thousand years in the future. Earth was invaded a great time in the past by aliens, who attacked with a machine army and humans had to evacuate Earth and take up residence on the Moon. A group of androids, called YoRHa, combat the machines in humans’ stead. The androids launch a large attack on Earth to eliminate several ”Goliath” class machines, although the attack is successful, the two ”survivors” of the attack had to go kamikaze in order to destroy the machines. Since the survivors were Androids, their consciousnesses were just downloaded into new bodies.

Following this success, the survivors, 2B and 9S, are partnered together in order to make contact with the resistance and eliminate more Goliath machines. In the process, they discover that the resistance has been working together with a group of machines that appear to be conscious and even sympathetic to the Androids’ plight. 2B and 9S reluctantly agree to help these machines in exchange for information about the machines still under control of the aliens.

After more exploration and boss battles, 2B and 9S eventually encounter Adam and Eve, and later discover that the aliens have been dead for hundreds of years. Adam takes 9S hostage and 2B must kill Adam to rescue him. This leads to a climactic battle against many machines, culminating in 2B and 9S killing Eve.

If the player decides to play a second time, this playthrough allows them to control 9S. As a scanner, he has the ability to hack any machine system, unlocking doors, short-circuiting enemies, or getting access to the thoughts of other machines. This allows him greater access to the background of what is going on the 2B, and he learns much about the motivation for the machine enemies acting the way the do. He also learns that besides the aliens being wiped out, humans are extinct as well. The whole YoRHa program was created as an excuse to keep going and to keep active, instead of sinking into despair and committing suicide.

If the player decides to play a third time, the action picks up after 2B and 9S defeat Eve. YoRHa decides to launch a massive attack on the machines, and the player will alternatively take control of 2B and 9S during this effort. However, it is discovered that there was a timed logic virus, which will be released at certain points in the war, in order to reset everything and keep the machines and androids locked in battle forever. All the YoRHa androids on the bunker base in space become infected with this virus, and even 2B gets infected. When she encounters A2 while trying to get as far from everyone else as possible, she asks A2 to kill her. 9S sees only the last moments of this exchange, and swears vengeance against A2. For the rest of the game, the player will switch between 9S and A2, as they try to give meaning to their lives. 9S attempts to unlock a tower that has mysteriously appeared on Earth. They learn that android’s cores are actually machine cores, although it is not clear who created the androids, the last humans before they died, or the alien machines. The end is kind of a mess: there are more boss battles, and a final confrontation between 9S and A2. The player must choose who to control for this battle. But in either case a main character will die and a tragedy will occur.

4 Dynamic Elements

The game environment itself does not feature a large number of dynamic elements: there is no change in the weather, it is always daytime, enemies do not learn your patterns of attack, etc.

4.1 Patterns

This section focuses on game patterns as discussed by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans in Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.

4.1.1 Playing Style Reinforcement

The player can have two sets of equipment to switch between, three sets of chips, etc. The weapons and chips equipped can be customized to fit the player’s play style: quick weapons for dealing small amounts of damage quickly, massive weapons for all or nothing devastating swings, chips that increase your ranged damage or your movement speed.

4.1.2 Dynamic Friction

The main source of dynamic friction comes from the enemy scaling and from XP requirements. Enemy levels increase as you progress through the game, and the amount of XP required to reach the next level also increases.

4.1.3 Engine Building

There are very light elements of engine building, as the player may equip chips that alter fundamental rates in the game: chips that increase item drops, or chips that increase the XP gained.

4.1.4 Stopping Mechanism

Several supporting abilities are on timers, but these are the only stopping mechanisms in the game.

4.1.5 Trade

The player may farm items and sell them for more cash at many different vendors.

5 Conclusion

NieR: Automata is a grab-bag of many disparate elements which have attempted to be unified and united into a coherent whole. Overall, the elements succeed in gelling, creating an interesting and unique experience. The story elements, although strong, stumble at the end, failing to achieve a relatable comprehensible story arc. Instead, it seems focused trying to cause the player as much emotional trauma as possible, thus showing its hand and making this tactic ineffective and and the story insincere. Still, the unification of the story elements and themes and the gameplay, such the GUI elements being chips you can install or remove, creates a powerful immersive experience.

5.1 Potent Elements

The theme and gameplay unification, along with the combat and RPG elements stand out.

5.2 Areas for Improvement

The story’s structure is revealed to be manipulative and incoherent, near the end, designed only with the intention of making the player suffer.

Custom Calendars and Times

Hi all,

So I've fallen off the blog wagon again, but never fear, I haven't just been checking out the latest cosplay porn videos based on Nier: Automata or Overwatch. I've put work on Particularly Wavy on hold for the moment to focus on a creation tool for the Unity Editor: a tool that lets a game designer create a custom calendar.

Why would I do this? This is yet another part of my plan for creating a deeply reactive RPG/RTS smashup. I don't want to just use the default calendar system, with 365 days in the year, 12 months named their familiar names with their familiar lengths, seven days in a week, 24 hours in a day, 60 minutes in an hour, and 60 seconds in a minute. I want to set my game in a fantasy world, so it makes no sense for them to use our calendar. But, at the same time, I don't want to hard code everything for that particular game. I'd really like a tool that lets me set up the calendar how I want, and then get on with designing the rest of the game. The NPCs in the game will make plans based on this calendar, they will have needs and moods which change based on events (which happen at particular times and last for set amounts of time), quests will have time-based elements to them, such as meeting an NPC at a particular time of day, or completing a task within a time limit, and of course there will be a day/night cycle which influences NPC activity and stealth, etc, etc.

I have now began working on such a time system three times, and I think the 3 time could work. The first two were based on an extremely flexible system with classes something like the diagram below. The work flow would go something like this:

1. Create a calendar
2. Start adding time categories. The first time category added is always primitive.
3. The secondary time categories can be changed on the fly:
• their base category
• the number of base categories
• the names

As a small example, if you wanted to mimic Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen time system, you could first create a calender, then create a primitive time called Beat, and set the length to 1 real time second. Then, create a non-named time called Bell and set it to equal 3600 Beats, making it the same as an hour. Next, you could create a non-named time called Day, and set it equal to..., say, 24 Bells, for now, although we really don't know exactly how long it lasts. Lastly, you create a non-named time called Year and set it equal to...nobody really knows, for now let's be uncreative and set it to 365 Days. If we wanted to add months, we could to this by adding a SequentialGameTime before the Year, calling it Month, and then adding however many month names we wanted inside this category, and then setting the length to be identical, or giving each month a different number of days in it.

However, I needed to duplicate most of the code for every class because the BaseTime class is based on Unity's ScriptableObject class, which can only be created inside the Unity Editor and not during actual gameplay. This would prevent me from making a new date or time requirement dynamically, which defeats the whole purpose of creating the time system in the first place. I was also using Unity's UnityEvents, which function something like C#'s delegates and events, but are serializable, so their listeners persist after you close the program down and relaunch it. However, although they sound nice to work with, they are actually a huge pain in the ass.

So, instead of having complete flexibility, I created a system with Second, Day, and Year built in, and then allowed the designer to create subdivisions of Day and Year in order create however many or few categories they wanted.

Right now, I am at the stage of making sure that I can accurately update this system during runtime, after which I will worry about saving and loading a game time, and still later I will worry about setting times for events and conditions such as those described for NPCs and quests above. So far, it seems to be flexible enough and easy enough for me to understand what to do etc, and does not require duplicated code.

I do still plan to return to Particularly Wavy in the near future, but for now this is what I'm most interested in working on.

Nioh Game Analysis

Nioh Analysis

David Hunter

June 22, 2018

1 Overview

Nioh is an action RPG developed by Team Ninja and published by Koei Tecmo in February 2017.

2 Formal Elements

Nioh falls under the general group of games known as ”Souls-likes,” due to their similarity to the Souls series developed by FromSoftware. These games are primarily single player experiences, which allow the player to enter other player’s games online in special circumstances. The player controls a 3D avatar in a 3D world that features winding, twisted, and complexly overlapping interconnected levels. In these levels, the player will fight a variety of human and monstrous enemies, including bosses, most of which are based on Japanese history or culture. In combat, stamina management is key. Using attacks and blocking/dodging drain stamina, which can put the player in a weakened and vulnerable state. All enemies can kill the player if the player is not careful; every enemy does a lot of damage. If the player dies, they will be respawned at the nearest resting point, with their unused XP left where they died. In order to get it back, the player will have to fight back to that point. If they die before doing so, the XP is gone forever. To anyone who has played a Souls series game, Lords of the Fallen, Salt and Sanctuary, Ashen, Necropolis or DarkMaus, these features should be instantly recognizable.

2.1 Players

The player controls William Adams, an English navigator from real history who sailed to Japan and served on Tokugawa Ieyasu. The player moves a 3D avatar of William around a 3D world, interacting with NPCs, killing monsters, and finding items and equipment. The player may discover graves of other players throughout the world. Touching them will allow the player to engage in battle with an NPC controlled version of that player and if won, to pick up some of their equipment and earn Honor.

The player can even join in-game covenants based on powerful Japanese families of 1600 that offer bonuses to particular weapon types and abilities.

The player can where different armors and change their hairstyle and beard to achieve a look that is pleasing to the player.

2.2 Objectives

The game starts much like any game in the Souls series: the protagonist is thrown in prison without armor or weapons and must escape. This area serves as the tutorial of the game. During this mission, the player’s guardian spirit is stolen and taken away to Japan. The rest of the game is the player’s quest to stop the thief, an man named Edward Kelley, in his plans to use a special kind of stone called Amrita (found only in Japan), to resurrect demons and allow England to take over the world. To achieve this, the player will travel across many areas of Japan, foiling Edward Kelley’s plans.

2.3 Rules

2.3.1 Areas

Unlike the Souls games, there is no interconnected map for every area. Instead, there are self-contained areas which play like levels in a more traditional game. These levels feature the hidden items, secret paths, dark environmental story-telling, and booby traps that you would expect in a Souls game. Each area is loaded from a map screen, from which the player may also load different non-combat related areas, such as a store to trade, dismantle, and upgrade items, a tea house for online play, and a dojo for training. Like in the Souls series, saving is accomplished at a save point where the player may also level up. This is a shrine, similar to the bonfire of the Souls games. As an added twist, there are small green spirits called Kodama hidden throughout many levels. As the player finds them, they gather at the shrine. The player may use them to grant a special bonus, such as increasing item drops, elixir drops, armor drops, or weapon drops.

Although there are no minimaps as such, there is a small radar screen, which shows nearby save points, treasures, and a few other custom markers. The player may use special items to interact with the level in various ways, for example using a Travel talisman to return to the most recently prayed at shrine, or using a Harakiri sword to commit suicide, leaving the area and returning to the main map, but also losing any Amrita the player has accumulated in the mean time.

2.3.2 Combat and Magic

The player will spend a large amount of time in combat, and it features more complicated rules than the series it owes so much to. For starters, there are four stances for all melee weapons: high, mid, low, and sheathed. High attacks are highly telegraphed, slow and powerful, while low attacks are rapid, near instantaneous, and weak. Mid stance strikes a balance between the two. The sheathed stance is mainly useful for swords and dual swords, which have unique attacks from this stance. No matter the stance, the player has two kinds of attacks available: fast and strong, and unlike the Souls series, the player can unlock combos and special moves for each kind of weapon. For example, by investing in the spear skill set, the player may unlock a move where the player runs straight forward twirling the spear in a figure eight pattern until you run out of ki, or you may invest in a leg sweep to knock enemies off their feet, leaving them vulnerable to a ground thrust.

The player can use these attacks and combos to deal damage to enemies, and the player may either block enemy attacks or dodge them. Both use up Ki, which slowly recharges, allowing the player to initiate more attacks. Besides melee attacks, the player may also use ranged attacks and magic to kill enemies. Ranged ammo is extremely limited, but offers the player the chance to potentially one-hit kill distant enemies. Magic is much more limited than in the Souls series, mostly consisting of a few elemental bolt or shot style attacks, protection spells against those same elemental damage types, and a few extra status effects.

The player may also lock onto nearby enemies, but this lock-on is disabled once that enemy dies.

As described before, the combat is in many ways the same as the Souls series, but there are twists. At the end of a series of attacks, the player’s used up Ki disperses in the air around the player. The player may gather some of this Ki back by using a Ki pulse, which must be timed correctly to achieve the best result. Although inspired by Gears of War’s active reload mechanic, it makes Ki/stamina management more interesting in combat. Changing between stances further deepens the gameplay, allowing the player to adapt to better deal with the current set of challenges.

The other main change is due to guardian spirits. As the player deals and receives damage, a meter for their chosen guardian spirit fills. When it is maxed out, the player may make use of it. This triggers a dynamic animation, after which the player’s weapon’s become imbued with the power of the guardian spirit. They will use slightly different animations, do more damage, and are usually faster than the regular attack animations. Depending on the guardian spirit, there may be additional benefits or triggering conditions as well. For example, the Phoenix guardian spirit will automatically trigger if the player loses all health, allowing the player to continue to fight and possibly win through and survive. In the beginning, the player only has access to three guardian spirits, but with each boss defeated, the player gains a new one. The guardian spirits generally have an elemental damage types, plus other passive bonuses that the player receives just by having it equipped. As an example, the Nine-Tails guardian spirit gives a bonus to Divine/Ethereal item drop rates and lowers enemy defense.

2.3.3 Stats and Leveling

There are eight stats that the player may invest in when they level up:

• Body: increases life, and resistance to poison and paralysis. Increases weapon damage, mostly spears. Also unlocks samurai points.
• Heart: increases Ki. Also increase weapon damage, mostly swords and bows. Unlocks samurai points.
• Stamina: Increases life and maximum equipment load. Unlocks samurai points.
• Strength: Increases Ki pulse (how much Ki is recovered) and damage with axes, hammers, and odachi. Unlocks samurai points.
• Skill: Increases Ki pulse, and damage with dual swords, tonfas and rifles. Unlocks samurai points.
• Dexterity: Increases ninjutsu power and damage with kusarigamas. Unlocks Ninja points.
• Magic: Increases power of Onmyo magic, increases resistance to Yokai debuffs. Unlocks Onmyo points.
• Spirit: Increases power of Guardian Spirit, and the speed with which the Amrita Gauge fills.

But in order to level up one of these eight stats, the player will need to collect Amrita. This can be obtained by damaging and killing enemies, by consuming soulstones which can be found by exploring, and by completing missions. Much like the Souls series, leveling up requires an increasing amount of Amrita.

2.3.4 Crafting and Inventory

Another point of difference between the Souls series and Nioh is the crafting and inventory systems. Although the weapons and armor pieces have similar stats to those in the Souls series, items may be dismantled in Nioh to produce materials which may be sold or crafted into new weapons or armor pieces. These materials, like the items made from them, have different rarity ranks, and give different bonuses to the items. There are also numerous sets of armor that give different bonuses, depending on the number of items from the set the player has equipped.

As the player uses a weapon or Divine rank piece of armor, rather than degrade, the player increases their familiarity with it, which increases its damage (reduction).

Besides these points, there is refashioning, reforging and soul-matching. With refashioning, a player can take the stats of one item and simply replace the looks with another item, for example, by taking an Oni Sakon’s Spear and reforging it to look like a Tombikiri spear. This is mostly for cosmetic purposes. With reforging, the player may use different materials to take different bonuses or effects on the item and alter those for a randomly selected bonus. Depending on the rarity of the item, you will have access to fewer or more bonus slots. Finally, with soul matching, the player has the chance to take items they like and match them with other similar items. For example, the player may take a level 75 Tombikiri spear with excellent bonuses, and match it to a higher level Tombikiri with poorer bonuses, or even to any other higher level spear, such as a Greatspear, or Great Frog Spear. This lets the player keep equipment that they like throughout the game, and also opens up the possibility of combining the weapons to create something that has great bonuses from both items.

2.4 Procedures

2.4.1 Leveling and Upgrading

Leveling proceeds much like in the Souls series. There are no class restrictions, so the player may use any equipment or abilities that they meet the requirements for. The main decisions the play must make is how to increase their stats to most benefit their playstyle.

2.4.2 Exploring

Nioh does a fine job of making moving around a level interesting. There are many hidden items and unlockable shortcuts, and hints about the events that happened just before the player arrived.

2.4.3 Boss-Slaying

Like the lesser enemies, the bosses are each designed to be challenging to the player in different ways. Some are extremely aggressive, some are fast, some attack slowly but do massive damage, others use mostly magic attacks. Many of the bosses have stages to their battle, and several actually come back to life after the player has ”killed” them. Other take advantage of the level to move in unique ways, such as jumping off walls to launch lunging attacks on the player, flying in the air, or being confined to particular elements in the environment, such as water.

Their attack patterns must be learned, and there are often clues as to what they are weak to somewhere in the environment or in dialogue with an NPC.

2.4.4 Crafting

With the completion of the main game, the player may start one of several New Game Plus modes, which unlock a new class of items: Divine items, and later Ethereal items. These can be soul-matched with identically leveled items to produce even stronger items of the next level up, for example two Divine Level 150 Kusanagi Tsurugis (a type of sword) may be combined into one Divine + 1 Level 150 Kusanagi Tsurugi. This Divine +1 weapon has its familiarity reset to zero, but the base damage starts at the maximum of the previous Divine weapon. Another Divine + 1 weapon may be combined with the previous one to produce a +2 weapon, etc. This creates many new opportunities to craft items, but even before this the game allows the player to use soul matching to raise the level of their favorite weapons, disassemble unwanted items to salvage their parts, which can then be used to create items you do actually want. Or the player could take their favorite items and reforge them to try to get bonuses that better match their playstyle.

The only downside to these possibilities is it makes inventory management much more crucial and more of a time sink. Should you offer up an item and receive some Amrita, sell it, disassemble it, or use it and then soul match it to another? Which one makes the most sense for the player may change with the next loot drop, or upon more careful examination of one’s inventory.

2.5 Resources

2.5.1 Abstract

• Health: Losing all your health means dying and respawning back at the nearest shrine. As mentioned before, the player will lose all currently possessed Amrita as well.
• Ki : Ki determines the player’s ability to attack, dodge, and block during combat, and managing it is critical in every encounter. It is drained by running, dodging, and attacking, and slowly regenerates when not engaged in those acts. It regenerates even more slowly when blocking.
• Damage Meters: There are many kinds of special damage that the player can receive: water, lightning, fire, wind, earth and poison damage, for example. These damages fill a special meter that only becomes visible when the player receives them. If the meter fills up completely, a special status effect will take effect on the player. Poison damage, for example, will cause the player to slowly lose health until the poison meter is empty, while frost damage will slow player movement and prevent rolling until it is empty.
• Amrita: Amrita is collected from Amrita stones, killing enemies, and completing missions. It is used to level up your character and improve your spirit guardian.
• Weapon Familiarity: Depending on the rarity of the weapon, there is a familiarity limit. For Divine weapons and armor, this is 999, but it decreases with each rank below it. The higher your familiarity with a weapon, the more bonus damage you receive.
• Prestige: Prestige is awarded for completing any of a huge number of tasks in game. Killing 50 humans with a sword awards a prestige title, completing a level within a certain time limit awards another, and killing a boss or group of enemies without taking damage gives another. Dealing certain amounts of lightning, water, fire, etc elemental damage yield many more titles. In general, melee titles give points towards Ungyo, and magic titles give Agyo points.
• Agyo Points: By using magic, the player will receive prestige titles and unlock Agyo points. These can be spent on a pool of randomly generating bonuses loosing dealing with magic.
• Ungyo Points: Similarly, by engaging in melee combat, the player can receive prestige titles and unlock Ungyo points, which can be spent on a pool of randomly generating bonuses.
• Honor: Honor is acquired by killing NPC versions of player characters. It can be used to buy items, gestures, and other objects from the Teahouse.
• Level: The player starts at level one, and after collecting enough Amrita, may increase any stat. This increases the player’s level.
• Proficiency: Besides familiarity with specific instances of weapons or armor, the player gains overall proficiency with the class the weapon belongs to. Like familiarity, this increases the player’s damage bonus with that weapon class over time, and also serves as the criteria for unlocking certain missions.

2.5.2 Physical

• Weapons, Armor, Items: Depending on the player’s luck, they may receive different drop rates of different types of items throughout the game. When opening a container or after killing an enemy, these may spawn. These may be left as is, equipped, sold, dismantled, reforged, or refashioned. At shrines, they can be offered to the gods(?) in exchange for Amrita and the chance of receiving extra items, such as soulstones, elixirs, etc.
• Materials: These are received from dismantling weapons, armor, and other items, and also by defeating certain types of enemies. They can be used to craft new weapons, or sold.
• Companions: At several points during the game, the player will travel through a level together with one or more AI controlled companions. The player may also summon human players to assist them through difficult sections, much like in the Souls series. If the AI companion’s health reaches zero, they will enter a dormant state, kneeling on the ground waiting for the player to assist them, while if the human companion’s health reaches zero, they will be returned to their own game. The same will happen if the player is killed.
• Money: Unlike the Souls series, Nioh has separated XP and currency. The player can find money on the ground after killing enemies, breaking containers, and receive it as a reward for completing a mission. The player may also earn money by selling unwanted items at the Blacksmith. It can be used to buy items, or to pay the Blacksmith for special services, such as soul matching or reforging.

  Guardian Spirit: The player starts with three Guardian Spirits to choose from. These may be switched at a shrine, and the player will unlock more after completing missions and defeating bosses. After completing the base game, the player may even equip two Guardian Spirits, and switch between them on the fly (with a short cool down between switching). The game also allows the player to level up their Guardian Spirits by using Amrita. As mentioned before, when the player dies, their Guardian Spirit is left behind to guard the Amrita the player collected before dying.

2.6 Conflicts

2.6.1 Stat Point Investment

As the player invests points, it becomes apparent that around 40, the benefit of each additional point invested starts to decrease. This effect of diminishing returns forces the player to consider whether investing in a different stat might better benefit them. Further, the cost for increase one’s level increases dramatically at higher levels, further forcing the player to carefully consider each investment.

2.7 Boundaries

2.7.1 Stat Point Investment

There is a soft maximum level cap at 750, at which point the player will have 99 in each of the 8 stats.

2.7.2 NPCs

Unlike in the Souls series, non-combatant NPCs may not be attacked.

2.8 Outcomes

There are no major choices which the player must make during the game that affect its outcome. The only outcome is achieved by defeating Edward Kelley, and the final monster which he summons.

2.9 Inventory

The player may carry 500 items, some of which stack. Beyond that, they must sell, drop, or offer the items if they want to carry something new.

3 Dramatic Elements

In general, the story elements are stronger than in the Souls series, but at the same time there are no choices for the player to make.

3.1 Characters

The player takes the role of William Adams, an English ”pirate” who initially seems interested only in getting back his Guardian Spirit, Saorise. To do so, he tracks down her kidnapper to Japan and encounters many historical figures along the way, meeting with Hattori Hanzo, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and many others. While somewhat interesting, these characters serve mainly as a backdrop for the action, and as a loose narrative holding the missions together.

3.2 Story

William Adams tracks down Edward Kelley to Japan, and completes many missions all over Japan in order to thwart Kelley’s plans, or those of his allies.

4 Dynamic Elements

Much like the Souls series, Nioh lacks many dynamic elements found in other RPGs, such as NPC status tracking, reputation, dynamic weather, or a day-night cycle.

4.1 Patterns

This section focuses on game patterns as discussed by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans in Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.

4.1.1 Playing Style Reinforcement

Nioh contains several examples of playing style reinforcement. By increasing stats such as Body, Heart, Strength or Skill, the player can receive Samurai Points to learn new skills related to Swords, Spears, Odachi, Axes, or Dual Swords. These new skills make it more beneficial and interesting to use one of those weapon types.

Additionally, the player may join a faction which gives bonuses to their preferred weapon, stance, or armor set. Armor sets themselves often give bonuses to particular weapons, weapon abilities, or stances, further incentivizing the player to make the most of weapons, armor, and stances that match how they like to play.

4.1.2 Dynamic Friction

Nioh contains many examples of dynamic friction. As the player progresses through the game, they increase their ability to deal and withstand damage, but so do the enemies.

With each level increase, it takes more and more Amrita to reach the next level.

Basic skills in the Magic, Samurai, and Ninja categories only take one point to unlock, but this amount increases as the player progresses further into the skill trees.

Soul matching Divine rank items requires an exponentially increasing number of higher and higher Divine items to get to the next level: +2 requires two +1’s, which require four base Divine items, while +4 requires two +3’s, which require four +2’s, which require eight +1’s, which require sixteen base Divine items.

Smithing higher level items of course requires more money.

4.1.3 Engine Building

The leveling, equipment and Guardian Spirit systems may together be taken as an example of the engine building pattern. The player may choose certain equipment and Guardian Spirits, and invest in particular stats to increase the amount of money they receive, maximize Amrita rates, or increase the amount of (rare) items they receive. It depends on the player’s goals and how (consciously) they take advantage of synergies between the systems to achieve them.

4.1.4 Stopping Mechanism

Ah, the stopping mechanism. Nioh makes use of the stopping mechanism almost as much as it makes use of dynamic friction. Ki is limited, preventing the player from spamming constant attacks and abilities. The player must wait for it to recharge.

As the player invests in stats more and more, the number of Samurai, Ninja, and Magic points they yield decreases.

After activating one’s Guardian Spirit, and in New Game Plus mode after switching between Guardian Spirits, there is a cool down timer during which the player cannot activate it again.

4.1.5 Trade

The final pattern contained in Nioh is the trade pattern. The player may sell any item in exchange for money, or offer up any item in exchange for Amrita and the chance of getting another consumable.

5 Conclusion

Nioh is not only a strong entry into the Souls-like genre, but excels in certain areas where its inspiration failed or lacked polish. The animations are much better than the early Souls games, and the combat retains the same tension while giving the player much more flexibility in how they play and use each weapon and each set of armor.

5.1 Potent Elements

The combat shines out as flexible, action-driven, and highly enjoyable. The multiple stances, Guardian Spirits, and special abilities stack together to create a complex multi-layered experience that you will probably want to come back to again and again.

5.2 Areas for Improvement

The story and the lack of choices that affect the story is Nioh’s weakest point. Managing one’s inventory is also more of a chore than it should be.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands Analysis

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands Analysis

David Hunter

May 16, 2018

1 Overview

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands is an open world 3rd person tactical shooter game with light RPG elements. It was developed by by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft in March, 2017.

2 Formal Elements

2.1 Players

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands can be played as a single-player game or as a multiplayer cooperative game. In either case, the player takes control of one member of a four member military squad. The player can customize the member’s gender, facial appearance, and clothing, although this has no effect on gameplay. The player and the other three members of their team is deposited in a fictional version of Bolivia.

2.2 Objectives

The player is in Bolivia to take down a cocaine cartel called Santa Blanca, which is headed by a drug lord called El Sueño. His cartel is divided into four branches: Security, Influence, Smuggling, and Production. Each branch has a head of operations, subhead, and between four to six buchons, or bosses. The player must ”gather intel,” which consists of going to a pre-tagged location and interacting with an object or talking to a person, and then completing a mission. The mission will consist of a very limited number of types: killing or locating an NPC (without being detected), locating (and destroying) some object(s), or escorting/protecting an NPC/object to a location for a certain amount of time. After between three to six of these missions, a mission to take out the buchon will be unlocked, which will be a mission of one of the above types, and after enough buchons have been taken out, the player can start a mission to take out the subhead, which will be one of the above mission types, and then start a mission to take out the branch head, which, you guessed it, will be one of the above mission types. After two heads have been taken out, the player may make a move on El Sueño himself, or the player may try to totally dismantle the cartel before moving on El Sueño.

2.3 Rules

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands features a wide ranging rule set.

2.3.1 Equipment and Vehicles

The player may only have three weapons at any time: two large rifles or SMGs, and a pistol sidearm. Grenades, mines, C4, diversion lures, flashbangs, and different kinds of drones may also be equipped, provided that the player has invested the skill points in unlocking them. Each weapon type also has a number of modifications which the player may change, sometimes on the fly. For example, sniper rifles come with different lengths of barrel, different barrel attachments, different scopes, stocks, magazines, and triggers, each of which affects the use of the rifle. Longer barrels make the weapon more accurate at range, and increase the range, but also make the gun slower to raise and lower. Suppressors reduce but do not completely eliminate noise, making it easier to sneak around, but also reduce the damage and penetration. Etc. However, enemies only come in three or four varieties, and they all take roughly similar amounts of bullets to kill. Further, new types or levels are not unlocked as the game progresses, making much of the variety and customization mostly mute. There are two main decisions a player must make: loud or quiet, and CQC or distance. From those two choices, the type of weapons a player should choose naturally follows.

There are also many different types of vehicles:

• motorcycles: only seat the player, fast moving and somewhat useful for offroading
• cars, two-seaters: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage
• cars, four-seaters: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage.
• vans: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage. Some have mounted machine gun turrets.
• trucks: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage.
• helicopters: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage. Could be scouting, transport, attack, or heavy attack models.
• airplanes: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage.
• boats: handle slightly differently depending on the model, and can take different amounts of damage. Most come equipped with different machine gun turrets.

These are scattered around the map, and the player can even hijack cars passing by on the roads. Given the size of the map, it can still be quite a hike to reach one, especially a helicopter or airplane. The player’s AI controlled squad mates will automatically spawn into any vehicle that the player takes control of. It is possible to die while in a vehicle, and depending on the circumstances, your squad mates may or may not be able to revive you.

2.3.2 Stealth

A great part of the game will involve sneaking around. Your basic enemy soldiers are somewhat perceptive, but not as perceptive as in the Dishonored series: they will notice dead bodies, shots fired at them or near them, but will never notice a missing soldier on patrol, and sometimes not react to lights being shot out, etc. The player can use a drone to mark them, and can use ”Sync shot” to take out more than one enemy at the same time. Moving at night or staying in shadows during the day further reduces the chances of being spotted. The player may also adjust their stance from standing to crouching to prone, which also reduce the chances of being seen. If the player is spotted, all nearby enemy soldiers will be alerted and will begin to move in on the player’s location. Depending on the circumstances, enemy reinforcements maybe called in for support.

All is not lost, as the player can often fight their way out of the situation, or try to break the enemies’ line of sight, hide, and wait for them to return to ”normal” behavior. Even if the player is spotted, if the player can kill the enemy quickly and silently enough, no enemies will be alerted. Once the player is spotted and attacked, the status will change to ”Engaged,” but if the player can hide, then it will change to ”Hunted.” If nearby enemies have seen or heard something, but are not sure what it is, the status will be ”suspicious.”

2.3.3 Stats and Leveling

The exact amount of health the player has is hidden, but you can take several shots before dying. When you die, your squad mates will approach you and attempt to revive you. Initially, this may happen only once during a fight, but as the player levels up, the amount of damage you can take can be increased, as well as the number of times you may be revived. After taking damage, your health will slowly regenerate, as in almost every cover-based shooter since Gears of War.

The player also has a hidden amount of stamina, which really only determines how long the player can run before returning to walking/jogging. This also regenerates and can be increased by leveling up the appropriate skill.

Marking enemies, killing them (while undetected)/(by headshot)/(at a distance greater than 400m) will grant the player different amounts of XP, which eventually raise the player’s level, granting skill points. Skill points can also be found as ”commendations” which are scattered around the map. The player can also pick up ”medals” which provide a small bonus to particular skills, such as increasing damage against vehicles by 5%. Similarly to The Witcher series, a larger amount of XP is granted by completing story missions, but unlike that series, almost no effort has gone into making them interesting or compelling for the player. Skills are arranged in six categories, which are divided into four tiers each. Most skills have several different levels, which require more and more skill points and resources to unlock. The first tier of skills is available from the beginning, but the second and third only unlock after reaching particular levels, while the fourth contains a special skill that unlocks automatically once the player has invested in the first level of each skill in the category.

Besides enough skill points, the player needs enough of one of four resources to level up a skill: gasoline, medicine, food, and comms. Like skill points, these are scattered around the map, but the player can also receive larger amounts by completing optional side missions that might involve tagging a convoy, hacking a radio station, defending a radio transmitter, or racing from one radio tower to another within a certain time limit.

2.3.4 Areas

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands takes place in a fictional Bolivia. Although exact figures are difficult to come by, the map is anywhere between 200 km² and 600 km², or about 20 km by 20 km to 24 km by 24 km. The game is huge, and the terrain is varied and diverse, with no loading screens anywhere, except for the interminably long one you will face upon starting the game, oh, and every time you die, which on harder difficulty settings will be often. Oh, and when you fast travel, which also might be often as you want to avoid the minutes long track from one place to another. You can explore jungles, deserts, swamps, grasslands, sea/lake cliffs, and numerous mountain formations. The terrain and world are beautiful and breathtaking, and looks great, with very little pop-in, screen tearing, or other artifacts to interfere with your enjoyment of the scenery.

Its very size, however, is something of a backfire, as it takes forever to get anywhere by foot, and can take over 10 minutes to fly from one side of the map to the other. The vehicles, almost without exception, handle like a greased water buffalo, floating and sliding around with little control or regard for user input.

2.4 Procedures

2.4.1 Leveling and Upgrading

The player will level up throughout the game, and will probably be able to unlock every ability, which mostly make small incremental changes to player stats, although some unlock new items for use, such as C4 or nightvision.

2.4.2 ”Exploring”

There are a great of items scattered around the map: weapons to collect, skill points, bonus medals, resources, and weapon mods, and also many side missions. In typical Ubisoft style, some are marked on your map from the beginning, while others can be unlocked by gathering intel from enemies, which are also marked on your map. For the most part, due to the size of the map, the player will rarely feel like they have discovered something, or if they do find something that was not previously marked on their map, it is register as a non-event or fluke.

2.4.3 Completing Missions and Boss-Slaying

As mentioned before, there are a great many missions in the game. There are 20 buchons, four subheads and four heads, plus the final boss of El Sueño. Each buchon requires the player to complete between 3-6 missions in order to unlock it, creating an actual total of 110 story missions. Unfortunately, they mostly fall into an extremely small number of types, and lack enough distinguishing details to make them interesting or distinct in the player’s mind. After completing the 3-6 missions, the player will be able to engage in a ”boss-battle” with the buchon. This might involve killing them, or reaching their location and extracting them to a rebel outpost.

2.5 Resources

2.5.1 Abstract

• Health: Unknown amount, if it reaches zero you die, and must wait for a companion to revive you. If this has already happened in the fight, you must reload from an autosave point. While not being hit, it slowly regenerates.
• Stamina: Same story as health.
• XP: Almost same story as the above. It is mostly hidden to the player how much XP you get for everyday activities like sniping, killing enemies, and the like. Completed missions display this clearly, for some reason, but the player is not shown how much XP they currently have, nor how much is needed for the next level.
• Skill points: These are used for unlocking new abilities or for upgrading existing ones.
• Suspicion: Moving in front of enemies at close distances in well-lit conditions increases suspicion, as does making noises.
• Level: A marker for player progress through the game. Receiving enough XP increases to the next level and grants skill points.

2.5.2 Physical

• Gasoline/Medicine/Comms/Food: These are different crates that can be found dispersed over the map, and also in large convoys that patrol the map. Necessary for leveling up.
• Intel: Items found or interacted with in the world give the player intel, which reveals the locations of items or missions in the world.
• Ammo: Can be replenished at ammo boxes, and also by walking over dead enemies.
• Weapons: Can be found all over the map. Described above.
• Vehicles: Can be found all over the map, must be abandoned if damaged too badly lest they blow up with you in them.
• Escort/Allies: If an escort dies, you must restart the mission. Your companions, on the other hand don’t matter.

2.6 Conflicts

2.6.1 Stat Point Investment

Increasing a skill requires an arithmetically increasing number of points, so deciding which skill you want could make a significant different in gameplay and of course influences what other skills you will be able to invest in.

2.6.2 Factions

There are three factions in the game: Santa Blanca, the rebels, and Unidad, and whenever one encounters another, they will open fire on each other. The player can also use vehicles marked with the appropriate faction’s logo to gain access to certain areas without raising alarms or suspicions.

2.6.3 Stealth vs. Loud

The player may choose to tackle missions by going in guns blazing or trying for a stealth approach. Either is usually feasible, although the guns blazing approach may not be allowed depending on the mission requirements. Given the player’s limited health, and the ability of most outposts to call for reinforcements, it generally makes more sense to at least scout the location and disable the alarms before going all Rambo on them.

2.7 Boundaries

2.7.1 Stat Point Investment

After the player has max out all abilities, there is no more progression possible.

2.7.2 NPCs and Factions

If you kill three civilians within a short time of each other, you will be forced to restart the game, but other than this civilians have almost zero impact on the game. They will not alert the cartel of your presence, you cannot ask them for assistance or info during missions, and your efforts at destroying the cartel have zero appreciable effect on their behavior, living situation, etc.

As for the factions, they do not seem visibly affect by the player’s actions either. The cartel does not become weaker, less well-supplied, or more disorganized, and Unidad is not altered in any way either.

2.8 Outcomes

There are two main outcomes, depending on how much of the cartel the player has dismantled before attempting the final mission, but this is BUGGY! I completed every mission and still I was given the ending for players who had not. After the mission, I even received the message ”You have only completed 100% of the game. Continue to explore Wildlands and dismantle 100% of the cartel to see a different ending.” In the forums, it is claimed that the missions of taking out El Sueño are included in the total, which is stupid, as it forces the players who have already completely dismantled the cartel to complete the last two missions twice in order to see the ending that matches the state of the cartel. It especially makes no sense as in the first playthrough El Sueño IS FUCKING KILLED, so how can the player take him out again?

3 Dynamic Elements

3.1 Time

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands has a dynamic day-night cycle, which influences the playstyle to some extent, as it is easier to be spotted in the day than during night.

3.2 Weather

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands also has a dynamic weather system, but this seems mostly for show/immersion, and has no known effect on gameplay.

3.3 Patterns

This section focuses on game patterns as discussed by Ernest Adams and Joris Dormans in Game Mechanics: Advanced Game Design.

3.3.1 Stopping Mechanism

The stopping mechanism pattern occurs in several areas of gameplay. First, the player may be revived a limited number of times each fight, preventing the player from abusing this ability. Second, the player may only use one rebel support action at a time, and there is a cooldown timer these, again preventing the player from using it too often.

3.3.2 Dynamic Friction

The dynamic friction pattern also occurs in several areas of gameplay. First, in stat point investment: the player needs increasing amounts of resources and numbers of skill points for each level unlocked. Second, in notoriety: if the player goes loud, it is possible that Unidad will be alerted to the player’s location, which if the player continues to stay visible and attack loudly/aggressively, will cause more and more Unidad patrols to be sent to attack the player.

3.3.3 Play Style Reinforcement

The play style reinforcement pattern is present in the sense that as the player levels up, they may invest in skills and item unlocks which make it easier/more fun to play in their particular way.

4 Dramatic Elements

This game analysis has already said some very cruel (but true) things about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands, but unfortunately for this game, it only gets worse from here.

4.1 Characters

The characters are stupid. The less said about them the better it will be for the reputation of Ubisoft’s writing team. All of them are one-dimensional, lacking in personality, and come off as stereotypes or caricatures.

4.2 Story

The story suffers similarly. A lot of effort has clearly gone into making the audio files, text files, and videos explaining the story and giving the player info about the characters, their history, and their motives for doing what they are doing, but none of it is very interesting or compelling. After watching the first three or four videos, I stopped caring for the rest of the game. It is all quite transparently setup for the player to explore each area of the map, which is where the majority of development time and effort were clearly devoted.

In brief, there is a cartel in Bolivia which is selling drugs, which is bad. There are bad people in the cartel. You need to kill them or capture them. That is the whole story. Explaining the rest would just further aggravate me for having to write it and you for having to read it.

4.2.1 DLCs

There are several free DLCs, one featuring Sam Fisher from the Splinter Cell franchise, and another featuring the predator from the Predator franchise. Somehow, Ubisoft managed to make both of these horrible. The Sam Fisher DLC requires some uber-sneaking skills for the first section, before plunging the player in a punishingly difficult firefight which they must endure for several minutes before extracting him to another location. Similarly, the Predator DLC features a short investigation followed by a long and repetitive battle against the Predator.

5 Conclusion

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a missed opportunity for Ubisoft. Although the terrain generation is fantastic, they filled the terrain very poorly with boring missions and activities, and made moving around it tortuously slow on foot, excruciating by car, and simply boring by helicopter and airplane. I cannot recommend this game to anyone except as an exercise in what not to do when designing an open world game.

5.1 Potent Elements

The shooting elements are solidly done, and the world itself is pretty amazing to behold.

5.2 Areas for Improvement

The rest of the game goes here. The story is bland, and the player lacks any real sense of agency, as after totally dismantling the cartel, nothing in the world has actually changed: the NPCs struggling to live under the cartel still go about their random walks and live in shitty cinder block houses. They will not thank the player, and the player has not changed their lives at all. As the player battles the cartel, it undergoes no changes as a result of the player’s actions, so killing those soldiers in training and their training officers does not result in lower numbers cartel soldiers elsewhere, nor in weaker soldiers due to lack of training. It was just an excuse to make the player explore that area of the map, which is the real showcase. The player is not even given any videos showing how their efforts are making a difference to the drug trade abroad.

Recursion and Stackoverflow

Hi all,

Just thought I'd share a little incident that happened while I was working on Particularly Wavy yesterday. I had a light source on the left, and two light splitters on the right. When I tried testing this level, as soon as the two light splitters were setup as in the picture below, my speakers would explode as they tried to play hundreds of sound effects at the same time. Then Unity would freeze just after giving me a stackoverflow exception error. I tried the same level several times before giving up because I had some errands to run.

As I was walking to the train station to run those errands, I finally figured out what was happening. The way that light splitters work is when light hits one, we check if the light ray has hit this splitter before. If it has, then we just update its children, which involves using a function called Emit. If it has not hit the splitter before, we create two children: one which passes through the splitter, and a second which reflects off the surface. After creating those two children, we run Emit on them. The kicker is that we use Emit to determine what type of object we have hit, so the HitSplitter function can be called from Emit.

If you haven't got what was happening, here it is: When light hits the first splitter, it creates two children, one of which passes through and hits the second splitter. This also creates two children, one of which passes through, while the other reflects back to hit the first splitter. Here, again, we create two children, one which bounces back to hit the second splitter. And I think that's enough. Basically, I had created a situation where light would bounce back and forth an infinite number of times, or as close to infinite as your computer can handle before crashing the program.

The solution to this is as simple creating the problem in the first place: I was already keeping track of the "depth" of the light ray, or how many times it had bounced or split from the light source, so just checking whether this number is less than a limit, say, 20, prevents infinite recursion.

In any case, I now have 75 puzzles set up and earlier this week created two new game mechanics, but they need more testing and debugging to make sure they work correctly.

Final April/First May Update

hey all,

I've been super busy with work the last few weeks, but I have also been putting in some programming and design hours on several fronts.

First, Particularly Wavy now has about 74 complete puzzles. I noticed and fixed yet another series of bugs regarding loading and saving XML files, an issue which plagued me several months ago, and I've gone through all the puzzles to make sure they are actually complete-able following a resize to the mirrors. Also, I've started a few prototypes based on a few new game mechanic ideas.

Second, I've just come back from a "retreat" in Karuizawa, where I read most of Homo Ludens and completed a few design activities for my long dreamed-of game project, an RPG/RTS smash-up. I plan to complete a few more design activities for it in the near future, but I've more or less promised myself to begin development on it by 2019.

Cheers,

Second April Update

hey all,

It is currently raining cats and dogs here in the land of the rising sun. But that has not stopped me working on Particularly Wavy. I am now up to 70 completed puzzles, and I am pushing out an updated version with better controls for Android operating systems today.

I've also been playing a few games and getting in a little more design and research for my dream project: an RPG/RTS hybrid with procedurally generated quests. In terms of games, since finishing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I've been playing This War of Mine, Ghost Recon Wildlands, and Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice.

Ghost Recon Wildlands in particular deserves special mention for its horribly voice-acted characters, bland and generic mission design, and totally inconsequential story. Ubisoft has reached a new low in terms of open world game design.

In contrast, This War of Mine is a tiny game in which player choice always matters, and everything you do has a consequence. Granted, it is also very heavily influenced by the bigger game State of Decay, but both deserve attention for how they model the consequences of player actions on other characters and the world.

Cheers,