Poll: What's wrong with linear?

[Mr.Black]

After finishing Darksiders recently, I started thinking more and more about how I enjoy linear games as opposed to ones that give you a ton of options and make you progress the story rather than the story progress you.

For a guy that doesn't really have that much time these days to play games, but still wants to, it's pretty frustrating to get to a part in a game where the story stagnates and the game gives you a lot of freedom to finish a certain task. Honestly I'd much rather be taken along for a crazy ride where the game is about as linear as a straight line in terms of progressing the story, but the story is intriguing and compelling.

Darksiders was pretty linear, but I even got frustrated towards the end at how the story just dragged out like crazy so there was more playtime before the end boss; "Go collect x-amount of pieces of this sword, it'll take you 15 minutes and you wont have to fight a thing, but we're going to make you do it anyway."

This is one reason why I cant bring myself to finish Dragon Age. A game that has so many options and so many things to it just makes me panic and not have fun. I'm more worried about how retarded my companions are going to be, or how many of item-x I need before I fight the next bunch of baddies.

Sometimes I just want a game to drag me along for a ride and for me to enjoy the crap out of it. And it doesn't bother me in the slightest if the game is only 6-15 hours long. It's too much effort wracking my brain to complete a task, I just want to have fun. Does anyone feel the same way sometimes?

 

[Altorin]

non-linear games allow players to play at their own pace, and allow games to be longer experiences.

However, there is nothing wrong with linear games as a rule, and actually, one of my favorite games of last year was completely linear - Dead Space. Not only was the game linear, but you actually followed a line if you got lost.

Another great game, Batman Arkham Asylum was linear, despite having all of Arkham Asylum to explore, once you had cleared the areas, they were empty of all enemies, and quite boring... I got all the riddler's riddles, so yeah, I spent hours and hours running through empty corridors.

and to para-quote Penny Arcade:

"When given unlimited options, I choose nothing."

 

[inpachi]

Naw any type of game is good if done right... Its just you have played sandboxes that were done wrong.. Example Assasin Creed..

GTA4.. and the list goes on..

 

[TimeLord]

I hate sandboxes that arn't really sandboxes

 

[cynicalandbored]

The problem with a lot of linear games these days is the story sucks. I'm all for linear games if they can get me involved and make me feel like I'm actually invested enough in the story to care. Bioshock would be a good example. That game scared the bejesus out of me at times and made me feel like I was part of something great. Killzone 2 on the other hand failed to engage me with its less than scintillating storytelling and characterisation. So you can get both good and bad. Unfortunately these days it's pretty bad, what with developers focussing most of their efforts on graphics and multiplayer.

Non-linear games on the other hand allow the player the freedom to take the game at their own pace and pick and choose which bits they would like in whatever order. It gives a feeling of developing the character in whatever way you see fit I think. Of course, they can be done just as badly as any bland linear game. Non-linear doesn't make up for massive flaws in presentation and storytelling.