In the first half of this year, it is not just the "Assassin's Creed" series that shines in the global game market.
Of course, "Assassin's Creed: Origin" and "Assassin's Creed: Revelations" are undoubtedly one of the best games released in the same period, but it does not mean that they can completely crush other games in the same period.
It can only be said that the "Assassin's Creed" series has become an iconic game ip with its moving plot, elegant historical background, rich cultural heritage and unique combat system, but it has not been perfect in all aspects.
It is precisely because of this that tgn gave "Assassin's Creed" a score of 9.3, which is an excellent work.
Before the release of "Assassin's Creed", a vr game called "Traveler" scored 8.8 points, and half a month after the release of "Assassin's Creed: Revelations", a game called "Lost Fleet" The game turned out, and also got a high score of 9.3 points on tgn.
The strong appearance of this game seems to be announcing to the world: the era of Celente rule? It's still far away!
Indeed, Leiting Huyu and Chen Mo have been in the limelight in the past two years, especially the emergence of a series of classic IPs has made many foreign manufacturers feel a little breathless, and players have expressed emotion that "the times have changed" .
However, the game industry is not a zero-sum game after all. When everyone can make a good game, even if you make money, I will also make money. You will not beat me up because your game is 0.1 points higher than mine.
As long as you really put your heart into making games and truly adapt to market demand, every game designer will be successful, it's just a matter of whether it's sooner or later, more or less.
"Lost Fleet" is a sci-fi background FPS game, which tells the story of a small star fleet in the future who completely loses contact with the mothership due to an accident, and has to experience adventures in a dangerous cosmic environment.
During this process, players will experience the warmth of humanity and the cruelty of the laws of the universe in desperation, experience scenes of treacherous cosmic adventures, fight against terrifying cosmic creatures, experience the loneliness of infinite wandering in the cosmic space, and finally return to the earth. At that time, many players burst into tears like a wanderer returning home after wandering for many years.
In terms of influence and topicality, this game is not as good as "Assassin's Creed", but it is obviously an excellent work in terms of artistry and gameplay, so it also received a high score of 9.3 points.
Moreover, due to the popularity of this game, the sales volume of the novel of the same name is also rising steadily, and the filming of the movie of the same name is already in preparation.
For the players, "Lost Fleet" creates a very real cosmic environment (or it looks very real, after all, the current technology is not enough to support human beings in space travel), giving the human beings the loneliness and despair of endless wandering in the universe. The performance is incisive and vivid, and there are passionate spaceship driving and gun battle scenes in the middle. From all aspects, the evaluation of this work with 9.3 points is not at all unsatisfactory.
However, everyone's discussion of "Lost Fleet" is not limited to the game itself, but has expanded to a larger aspect.
For example... the development direction of the game industry.
The reason for this is mainly because the two highly rated works in the first half of the year, "Traveler" and "Lost Fleet", are both linear games.
In other words, these two games have abandoned the concept of an open world and have taken the path of "game filmization".
As for why... I have to start with Chen Mo's "Uncharted Sea" last year.
Before "Uncharted", the world's mainstream vr game masterpieces were basically working towards the open world, and many people even felt that if they didn't open the world, they were behind the times.
The reason is simple. The open world approach has an immediate effect on prolonging the game time of players, and at the same time can make your game appear "rich in content" and "extraordinary price".
In fact, many open world games are not necessarily better than linear games, and many open world games that are not well done are often in vain. For example, adding a large number of collectible elements, repetitive gameplay, high-level props with strict numerical control, etc. to the map of the game.
This kind of open world, players will actually feel boring after playing for a while. It's nothing more than running the map, it's nothing more than swiping.
But I have to say that the effect is really immediate. Players like to collect achievements and trophies. Although the numerical stimulation of swiping is simple and rude, it is very effective.
Therefore, many major international game companies are addicted to the concept of an open world and cannot extricate themselves.
However, the emergence of "Uncharted" changed this. Through various factors such as exquisite process design, high-performance art effects, and meticulously crafted game scripts, "Uncharted Sea" as a linear game has successfully conquered a large number of players, and it can be said that it fell in seconds at the same time. Most open world games of the period.
And the emergence of "The Last of Us" played a role in fueling the flames. Obviously, the most suitable way for a game like "The Last of Us" is to make a linear game. If it is an open world, it will ruin this classic.
"The Last of Us" won the best game of the year and many designers began to reflect. Is it good to open the world
And "Traveler" and "Lost Fleet" are the results of this reflection. Many designers no longer blindly believe in the concept of an open world, but switch to linear games, using beautiful stories and exquisite rhythm control to firmly grasp the hearts of players.
I have to say that although the open world is good, it is uncontrollable. On the other hand, for linear games, as long as there is a good script and the game merchants carefully polish it, they will almost certainly be able to create a game with a good rating.
Leaving aside whether it sold well or not, the ratings from the game media will definitely not be bad.
If the score is not bad, publicize it well, and then properly cater to the taste of the market, and the sales will not be bad.
"Traveler" and "Lost Fleet" are works that came into being under this opportunity, and the facts have proved that linear games are really good.
This has caused many designers and players to start discussions. The core question is: Is it not enough to make the open world the best with the current level of technology? Is linear game a better choice at this stage
Of course, there are some good open world games in the parallel world, but compared to the total number of open world games, they are a minority after all. In other words, as long as parallel world games are done well, they are classics, but most games are not well done.
On the contrary, a linear game with strict process and clear rules has become a very good option.