Into The Sandbox:
Is Freeform Gameplay Really The Future?
by AXIS of Reality
© 2009 Alex Baldwin
Complete freedom has always been the holy grail of gaming. Sandbox Gameplay in games such as GTA3 and Crackdown have shown the potential for setting a player loose in a world with nought but their imagination (and usually several dozen guns).
But should we really want our games to tear down their walls and send us out squinting into a blinding world of possibilities?
For most people, the answer to that would be a resounding ‘YES!’, and who could blame them? Being able to craft our own experience couldn’t be more inviting and has become the new buzzword of the gaming world: “emergent gameplay”. Why let some pasty-skinned designers dictate what to do when you clearly have a better idea of what you find fun.
While the upcoming Prototype and Alan Wake look mighty tasty, I can’t help but search for a nice linear game to sink my teeth into.
It all comes down to what is both the strength and weakness of freeform games (sandbox), and that is letting the player do what they want.
I’m sure 90% of the people reading this have played Call of Duty 4 single player at some point. Pretty awesome wasn’t it?
Filled with memorable moments like the nuclear explosion, hiding in the grass hoping your camouflage is enough, seeing the jets scream overhead in a middle-eastern city…All from an incredibly linear experience.
The beauty is the illusion that you’re never being forced down a corridor, when in actual fact you are (but a very pretty one at that). Through this, your experience has been carefully crafted and tested for maximum immersion.
If you play through it again however you will have an almost identical experience. The enemies pop up behind the same walls, the tank always takes that shot at the building, your teammates always decide to take that sniper position. It’s all planned out with microscopic precision and results in an unforgettable experience and many water-cooler moments your friends will be able to share.
As soon as you take away the boundaries and corridor, it’s close to impossible to predict where a player will go and what they’ll do.
Planning those epic moments has never been harder for designers when you can never quite be sure where the player will appear from. Simply put, the days of set-pieces are numbered if sandbox gameplay is the future.
The best the designers can do is tweak the tools given to the player to perfection and hope they can keep making their own fun for as long as possible.
Essentially, it’s all in the hands of the player as to how much fun they’ll have – something that has divided opinions in games such as Crackdown and FarCry 2 that totally rely on player inventiveness in approaching tasks.
So which is better? Total freedom or carefully scripted fun? While of course there is room for both, the hard truth is that game development follows market trends and Saint’s Row 2, Far Cry 2 and Prototype, with their freedom and open worlds, aren’t making it any easier for the traditional but now mastered close to perfection corridor game to keep to its walls.
© 2009 Alex Baldwin
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Filed under: Console gaming, Editorial, Xbox 360, Xbox 360 News Tagged: | alan wake, Crackdown, emergent gameplay, Far Gry 2, GTA 3, GTA IV, linear gameplay, Prototype, sandbox gameplay
