Amazing interview (Gaming)

by Kahzgul, Wednesday, March 02, 2016, 19:52 (2984 days ago) @ Korny

Personally, I like developing a vague concept first, then core mechanics, then story, then ancillary mechanics to fit the action of the story, and then you brainstorm to see what else you can do with what you currently have. But all of that needs to happen well before actual coding.

What's weird is that this approach seemed to have been taken with Black Ops 3's campaign, and while the gameplay is fantastic and the story interesting, it is so far detached from the previous games that it might as well be in a completely different universe story-wise (there are only two references to the previous games, and one of them is a buried text file within the game's Grimoire). I feel that they tacked on the connection with the previous games late into development because they focused on core mechanics and their story before finding a way to tie it into the established Franchise (heck, the "Black Ops" in the title is used in a completely different context than the last two games).

I totally agree. It felt more like I was uncovering black ops than a part of them, and while I had a lot of fun with it, there really was zero sense of connection.

Then again, that makes the story more accessible to a bigger crowd (and the ancillary material in the in-game Grimoire completely turns the story on its head).

Does CoD need that? It's one of the biggest games there is.

PS. Since I never answered the "Five games in one" thing about Black Ops 3:

Campaign (+Survival missions),
Nightmares campaign,
Zombies,
Multiplayer (+Freerun),
Dead Ops Arcade 2 (complete with driving minigame!)

Ahh, yes. I have never actually played the Dead Ops Arcade 2 stuff and totally forgot about it.