The worst trends…

Today I’ll post a rant about one of the worst trends in videogames right now.

Leveling monsters
I was exposed to this heinous trend for the first time in Oblivion (of the Elder Scrolls series). Leveling monsters mean that your enemies grow up in power as you do; gain a level, and they grow a bit stronger. In theory, that's a good idea. It means the player should always be challenged, and never too much, by the enemies he (or she) encounters.

The problem with that is that it shows up in RPG, where often, part of the fun is to level up your character, and in some case part of the strategy too. It effectively renders pointless the idea of leveling, since you’ll never be able to truly dominate enemies, and when stuck against an enemy you have trouble fighting, say a boss, leveling will do you no good.

This trend can be found in generally open-ended games, like Mass Effect, Fable and Dragon Age, and this is understandable, as the developers have no clue where the player will be headed first.

Still, it feels like learning a new spell or reaching a new height in strength is not as satisfying, since you know the next enemies you’ll encounter will have magically leveled up…

The worst offender I played was Oblivion, which is an otherwise stellar game. During my first playthrough, I didn’t know how I’d level up my character. I had played Morrowind, but had not decided what I wanted to play. So I ended up leveling a few characteristics and making a diverse character. At first, I had no problem; goblins fell to my swords and spells, and I quickly leveled. At some point, however, enemy types started changing. No more goblins in sight in any dungeon: they were replaced by the much tougher Minotaurs, who were then replaced by the annoying Will-o-wisps. At that point, I had not realized that enemies were leveling with me, so I leveled up. And once I was strong enough to easily take down will-o-wisps, I had to fight other creatures (my next character, a pure fighter, had a terrible time during those few levels where you fight Will-o-wisps, because of their resistance to weapon damage, yet somehow the later levels seemed incredibly easier!)! The points I had spent in non combat-related abilities really brought my character down.

In a game where it is possible to level a character with out-of-combat capabilities, this system shows even greater problems: how to balance for both? Plus, I always thought it was lazy on the part of the developers. Instead of giving exact stats to a wide number of creatures, they simply scale them up.

Solution: Either return to the old-fashioned system, where some areas where tougher than others and other easier, or make sure the difference between levels is not substantial enough to make low level monsters too easy for characters of higher level. In such a scheme, a level one character would be challenged by fighting one or two goblins at a time; a level 20 character with good gear would beat those goblins, and then some, with relative ease, but not to the point of making the encounter trivial.

Regenerating health
When Halo came out, I loved the regeneration function. It was cool, it was new to me (as before that I didn’t play much shooters, aside from Turok and Perfect Dark) and it fit well with the character and universe. For those who don’t know or don’t remember, Master Chief had then a shield bar that regenerated if you could stay out of the fire for a while, as well as health points that you lost when your shield was depleted. Your health could be recovered by taking health packs.

However, it was good then because it made sense. Master Chief wears that shiny green armor, and it has a shield protecting him from harm. However, the regenerating health has spread to the point where you can’t seem to find a shooter that does not use it. Gears of War, Call of Duty, Killzone, you name it, the characters in all of these games have a magic regeneration power that is never explained. Let’s say it makes sense in sci-fi games (nanobot regen or shield or whatever – I can live with that, but at least say it during the cutscenes!) but in CoD games, not so much.
Solution: Explain why a character can be healed! Or use the old system, if you can’t find an explanation. Better yet: why not add a Medic mechanic? Your character is hurt, you shout medic, and an NPC comes to heal you. You need to be out of the fire or the medic risks being killed too. For instance, in Gears of War, one of your buddies might carry a first aid kit. It would definitely make sense in CoD and it could also be used to great effect in multiplayer matches!