Realistic shooters - first or third person

[SckizoBoy]

I feel like Spec Ops is a rare case because you have to remember that these products are ultimately games and games are fun. So there is always going to be a disconnect between realistic mental effect as well as realistic gameplay. If every game tried to hit the players mind the way Spec Ops The Line did, it would lead to the downfall of the FPS genre because nobody wants to feel shitty for fun.

Spec Ops was a awful awful experience. It was a fantastic game, with a fantastic story, but the impact it left made me personal feel like such shit that I will never replay that game, which honestly is why the game is so brilliant. But it is that desire to never touch it again that shows that the gaming space doesn't want to touch things in that way. Developers want you to play, they want you to keep playing, and that mental shock is not a good way to do that.

Spec Ops is a game I considering engaging rather then fun. It's really not fun at all, and that's the point. But it's engaging as hell, keeping your interest despite how shitty things continue to get and most of it being your fault.

I?ve never played the game but am having trouble understanding what?s what. As far as I?m aware, you?re a soldier who?s more or less narratively forced into certain actions to fulfill the intended thematic through line. But does the player character ever really have a ?choice? in how things play out? It would seem the game?s premise would fall apart if so.

 

[Squilookle]

It started with the 3rd, I think. You can hover over enemies with your scope or binoculars and it will tell you little snippets about them. In 4 this got really ramped up. It's at the point now where you can snipe people after learning their favourite music, little foibles they have, how they're worried their wife is cheating on them back home, etc...

Ah, had a looksie and see what you mean now. For a moment I was wondering if you meant the game would let you convert Nazis through conversation instead of killing them. But yeah, watch dogs 1/2 does something similar also. While it certainly adds a little extra something, it's still only limited to a line. You could have a Hitler on screen with the pop up merely saying "likes to paint in spare time," while conveniently omitting the unpleasantries. I can't trust this system not to sugar-coat real assholes. Perhaps if they were mandated to provide pros and cons...then we could have "likes to paint in spare time, buuuut also dabbles in casual genocide and fascism. Swings and roundabouts, eh?"

I'm fairly sure it includes some cons as well as pros. I do remember often wanting to blow their brains out even more after learning a few details every now and then. Though they were Nazis after all, so it might have just been me wanting to blow Nazis away...

 

[Dalisclock]

I feel like Spec Ops is a rare case because you have to remember that these products are ultimately games and games are fun. So there is always going to be a disconnect between realistic mental effect as well as realistic gameplay. If every game tried to hit the players mind the way Spec Ops The Line did, it would lead to the downfall of the FPS genre because nobody wants to feel shitty for fun.

Spec Ops was a awful awful experience. It was a fantastic game, with a fantastic story, but the impact it left made me personal feel like such shit that I will never replay that game, which honestly is why the game is so brilliant. But it is that desire to never touch it again that shows that the gaming space doesn't want to touch things in that way. Developers want you to play, they want you to keep playing, and that mental shock is not a good way to do that.

Spec Ops is a game I considering engaging rather then fun. It's really not fun at all, and that's the point. But it's engaging as hell, keeping your interest despite how shitty things continue to get and most of it being your fault.

I?ve never played the game but am having trouble understanding what?s what. As far as I?m aware, you?re a soldier who?s more or less narratively forced into certain actions to fulfill the intended thematic through line. But does the player character ever really have a ?choice? in how things play out? It would seem the game?s premise would fall apart if so.

There are some choices in the game but they don't make a lot of difference either way. The game is more about the Illusion of choice, kinda like Bioshock(and bioshock infinite) was. The only real choice you get is the ending, through what actions you take at the end.

Yathzee had a brilliant take on Spec Ops. He put it as it felt less like the player is in control and more like you're just along for Walkers PTSD-fueled tragedy-filled ride. Especially considering how walkers mission was to make contact and report in, not try to fix everything himself. He(and the player) continue deeper into the city despite this and continue to mess around in a situation they clearly have no ability to fix, because walker keeps insisting they move forward and, well everything else, instead of literally following orders and calling for backup.

Yeah, it's a bit contrived(like how the entire city is more or less isolated for an extended period of time(even from radio comms) and covered with mountains of sand on what's essentially a flat plain at sea level), but not much more then a lot of games that railroad you into doing stupid and awful things. Again, Bioshock railroads you fairly obviously with blocked passages and a guy you've never met before telling you what to do and such but then you get THE TWIST that justifies(kinda) the railroading(and then you go back to being railroaded for the rest of the game).

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I'm fairly sure it includes some cons as well as pros. I do remember often wanting to blow their brains out even more after learning a few details every now and then. Though they were Nazis after all, so it might have just been me wanting to blow Nazis away...

I did find one recently that literally just said "Misses his mummy." Unfortunately wasn't given the opportunity to ask them if she was called Martha, missing out on potential bonding, but oh well. I did what I could to reunite them. Assuming she was already dead and burning in hell for enabling a Nazi offspring.