How Games Make "Boring" Movement Seem Interesting
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- Опубликовано: 13 июл 2024
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Walking. It is in a lot of games, and on its own, it is kind of boring. However, plenty of games that use it are still enjoyable. From Death Stranding to various Naughty Dog games to anything in the walking-sim genre, people don't get bored out of their mind while playing them, so how is that? In this video, I explore some of the things that distract players while they walk, and discuss what works well, what could work better, and if any of this even matters.
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Additional Music and Sound Effects by Epidemic Sound: epidemicsound.com/creator
00:00 "Good" Movement vs. Walking
02:05 The Simple Stuff
05:03 The Use of Tension
10:52 Immaculate Vibes & Conversations
13:16 Mechanically Complicated Walking
14:17 Final Thoughts 
Игры
good afternoon gamers! for people asking about games, someone went through and listed all of em. if this helps, you can thank vergil1us.
0:03 Neon White
0:06 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
0:11 Halo Infinite
0:16 Guilty Gear Strive
0:19 Monster Hunter Rise
0:22 Ori and the Blind Forest
0:26 Neon White
0:29 The Pathless
0:33 Webbed
0:39 Blue Fire
0:46 Monster Hunter Rise
0:55 Neon White
1:01 Super Mario Odyssey
1:05 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
1:13 Life is Strange
1:16 Control
1:19 God of War 2018
1:21 The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
1:22 Red Dead Redemption 2
1:25 Resident Evil VIII Village
1:29 The Last of Us
1:36 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
1:39 Firewatch
1:43 A Plague Tale - Innocence
1:50 Disco Elysium
1:54 The Forgotten City
1:56 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
1:59 The Stanley Parable
2:05 Ape Out
2:09 Hades
2:12 Superliminal
2:19 Doom Eternal
2:24 Prey (2017)
2:28 Disco Elysium
2:33 Horizon - Zero Dawn
2:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
2:40 FF14
2:47 Red Dead Redemption 2
2:53 God of War 2018
2:55 The Witcher 3
2:59 Elden Ring
3:02 Ghost of Tsushima
3:06 Nier: Automata
3:10 Portal
3:16 Life is Strange
3:22 The Witcher 3
3:27 Alan Wake
3:32 Prey (2017)
3:34 Grand Theft Auto V
3:35 BloodBorne
3:36 Red Dead Redemption 2
3:40 Assassin's Creed - Origins
3:44 God of War 2018
3:51 Resident Evil 2 Remake
3:58 Uncharted 3
4:06 Resident Evil 2 Remake
4:09 Death Stranding
4:12 The Last of Us Part 2
4:19 Resident Evil 3 Remake
4:26 Limbo
4:32 - 4:49 The Witcher 3, God of War 2018
4:50 Ghost of Tsushima
4:56 Red Dead Redemption 2
5:02 Resident Evil VIII Village
5:12 Unsighted
5:17 A Plague Tale - Innocence
5:25 Alien - Isolation
5:30 Death Stranding
5:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
5:40 A Plague Tale - Innocence
5:48 Resident Evil VIII Village
5:56 Resident Evil 2 Remake
5:59 Little Nightmares 2
6:04 Resident Evil VII
6:10 Resident Evil 2 Remake
6:19 The Pathless
6:23 Death Stranding
7:19 Final Fantasy III
7:24 Apex Legends
7:28 Final Fantasy VII Remake
7:31 Ghost of Tsushima
7:39 Resident Evil VIII Village
7:46 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
7:50 Death Stranding
7:55 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
8:00 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
8:09 The Last of Us
8:10 The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
8:13 God of War 2018
8:19 The Last Guardian
8:24 Life is Strange
8:28 A Plague Tale - Innocence
8:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
8:40 Red Dead Redemption 2
8:46 The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
8:50 Prey (2017)
8:53 Horizon - Zero Dawn
8:59 The Quarry
9:02 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
9:11 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
9:19 The Suicide of Rachel Foster
9:21 What Remains of Edith Finch
9:23 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
9:24 Call of The Sea
9:25 Event[0]
9:27 Dear Esther
9:33 Gone Home
10:23 Alan Wake
10:27 The Suicide of Rachel Foster
10:33 Alan Wake
10:37 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
10:43 Resident Evil 2 Remake
10:51 Life is Strange
10:55 Death Stranding
11:00 Red Dead Redemption 2
11:03 Firewatch
11:06 Ghost of Tsushima
11:11 Death Stranding
11:14 Red Dead Redemption 2
11:18 The Last of Us Part 2
11:25 The Quarry
11:34 Uncharted: Lost Legacy
11:42 Firewatch
11:47 Horizon - Zero Dawn
11:52 Resident Evil 2 Remake
11:56 Red Dead Redemption 2
12:06 Firewatch
12:16 The Last of Us
12:25 Yakuza 0
12:29 The Last of Us Part 2
12:38 Horizon - Zero Dawn
12:41 God of War 2018
12:49 Red Dead Redemption 2
12:56 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
13:01 Horizon - Zero Dawn
13:09 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
13:16 Gone Home
13:22 Death Stranding
13:59 Marvel's Spider-man
14:02 Death Stranding
14:17 A Plague Tale - Innocence
14:29 God of War 2018
14:31 The Last of Us Part 2
14:34 Firewatch
14:40 Gone Home
14:44 Life is Strange - True Colors
14:45 God of War 2018, Death Stranding
14:50 Dear Esther
14:55 Life is Strange
14:57 Kentucky Route Zero
15:01 Elden Ring
15:04 Fallout 4, Uncharted - Lost Legacy
15:07 Call of The Sea
15:14 Marvel's Spider-man
15:20 Neon White
15:26 Death Stranding
15:30 Spyro Reignited Trilogy
15:31 Marvel's Spider-man
15:32 Mirror's Edge
15:34 Gone Home
Helli
Ohh no i meant helli
HELLO NOT HELLI
And for me good night
Good afternoon sir.
For me, sound design goes a long way. The sound of footsteps through grass and splashing in water, the wind in the trees, animals in the distance, etc. can make walking very immersive. This also works with tension in a major way.
Darkwood is a great example of creating tension through sound design, every trip out of you're shelter is made extremely tense, because of the limited field of vision, you have to pay attention a lot on the sounds around you. Darkwood is so good at it, hearing a twig snap behind you is enough to put the player on edge.
The Witness does this fantastically. Not so much the tension part, but certainly the sound design. It has over 1,000 different footstep sounds so even if you’re walking on the same type of ground for a while, it never feels repetitive, which is good because you do _a lot_ of walking in that game.
I also find tesselated footprints and proper shaders to be incredibly satisfying as well. Whenever I see muddy foot prints, clothing get wet or dirty, grass folding etc etc i immediately find the game so much more enjoyable. This combined with really good sound design makes movement so nice to me.
the various kinds of footsteps and armor rustles in souls games is forever imprinted into my soul, its a very soothing sound cause being able to run freely without fear of ambush means that you're probably in control of the situation and that youre just chilling until you're forced to walk very very carefully again
Yes! Its a major part of Animal Crossing
the segment about tension is so true that it's the reason I cant play most horror games
my friends wonder why I'm so terrified when "there's literally nothing happening" and I'm like "I KNOW THATS WHY IM SO FREAKIN SCARED"
i agree, tension is the worst. i’m a big fan of horror films, but i can’t do horror games because i just can’t force myself to move forward and play when there’s so much apprehension about what might happen
God yeah, when I play somewhat empty games and I'm just going from place to place even if it isn't a horror game (think Shadow of the Colossus) in the back of my head I'll be thinking "what if there was a jumpscare :)" even though I know there won't be
yeah, Gone Home scared us a lot cuz of the atmosphere
personally we find the tension fascinating but we also have a low tolerance for it... a very unfortunate combination :T
This was the problem with Gone Home for me.
I was so terrified despite knowing that it's not a horror game, that when "something happened" I quit the game and haven't gone back since.
(I walked through the office into the library, and when I came back through, the chair was facing a different way than my first time past it)
@@thaddeushamlet i actually have a steam achievement for bailing out of amnesia as soon as something mildly spooky happened
My least favorite thing is games where running has zero impact on gameplay but the game limits how long you can run anyway
Personally find ten second flashlights a bit more annoying... but yeah. That one too.
Yes! It doesn't make the game more fun or challenging. It just slows it down and becomes very tedious, very fast. Just let us run or build a world where running isn't necessary.
That probably wouldn't even be that annoying but those games also always make it so the player character gets winded after a 10 second sprint.
Yeah, like final fantasy XV having a stamina bar for sprinting that has the UI by default off.
@@destinyhntr That last line encompasses so much good design philosophy in a single sentence.
The baby Raz lives with: *Takes their first steps*
Raz: _riveting_
gonna give her a hookshot right off the bat to keep things interesting
@@razbuten You gotta be careful about power creep, handing the hookshot over that early
@@razbuten Raz no!
@@mateogoron pulling a twilight princess and giving her _another_
@@EtamirTheDemiDeer At that point, why not a third?
I think a very important game to bring up in this discussion is Pathologic. The entire game is spent walking from place to place, possibly avoiding danger from time to time. And you are on a schedule so the tension is always on, if you don't make it to a place in time, the game still goes on, you just have to deal with the consequences.
Yes! Another really great example of a game that uses tension incredibly.
Yes! Another thing it does well is making navigation a big part of the walking. There are a bunch of dead ends, different points of interest, and different risks for different situations. Sometimes you need herbs and avoid people so you go through the steppe, and sometimes you need food so you risk infection and go through the town. There is never one strategy that always gives the most efficient route, so it keeps you engaged!
I really don't have it in me to play the original Pathologic. I really love the idea of the game, but I tried years back and just couldn't do it. I'm very curious about Pathologic 2, though. Seems like they made it a bit more accessible while preserving the core of the experience, though it's a shame that it only has one of the characters' stories from the original game.
@@itsaUSBline i haven't played it but a lot of my friends have and from what I've heard even though it only has one route to do because of the fact that it's so easy to mess up and miss stuff it's still incredibly replayable
@@itsaUSBline To put it as simply as possible: Pathologic 2 is a video game adaptation of the original Pathologic.
I'm convinced that the main purpose of having two movement speeds is to absolutely destroy my hand by making me hold down shift for the entire duration of the game. Thankfully a lot of games let you set it as a toggle instead, but it can really exacerbate wrist pain and prevent me from enjoying a game 😞
This is the real shit.
The main purpose of two walking speeds is for moments of finer motor control like picking up that dang herb I keep darting past. It isn't really necessary when either the fast locomotion is slow enough or the item's bubble big enough to actually reach these interactions without jogging back and forth.
I FOUND A SOLUTION!!!!!!!!
Bind shift to scroll wheel
@@BonaparteBardithion I feel like sprinting should be the default and then you can hold shift to slow down if you want
@@bigboar0074 Hmm, I don't think that'll work for me. Maybe I have to get a pedal and bind shift to that. Generally just holding down a button for extended periods of time can be really bad. In ARPGs I struggle with left click, and for W I switch between which finger I use to hold it down.
"Even if I'm doing something that isn't actually faster, I do what _feels_ faster. Or at least what feels more interactable."
The perfect quote on what makes an engaging movement system.
Two things.
Firstly, nice comment, I agree.
Secondly, I appreciate your nickname. It intrigues me. Any backstory to that?
*jumps around the whole world*
Not perfect, but close.
Make slow feel fast, boring feel exciting, repetitive feel unique. Make nothing into fulfilling.
@@fab006 or roll
In witcher 3 I'm constantly over burden and can't run so I look at camera hold the guard and do a punch thus allowing me to roll around everywhere lol
I've seen people ridiculed for cranking their FOV up all the way in Minecraft, but that is a big part of the allure:
It _feels_ like you're going faster. Especially when going back to a more reasonable setting and you suddenly feel like trying to run in a dream.
My problem with the “being chased by something that can kill you” thing is that if I DO die, all the tension is gone for my next attempt, even for horror games. I become more annoyed by the danger than afraid of failing or dying
Adam Millard made a video about how Subnautica uses terror, which is closely related to that. Basically, the sea creatures aren't all that likely to actually kill you, since you have plenty of opportunities to escape, and that maintains the fear far better than actually getting killed.
the worst thing is you respawned to the starting point before your run and it's far af and nothing you could do to speed it up other than redo it all over again
@@AnotherDuck it also matters if the death has actual consequences and not just reset the chase sequence and -5 coins. Death in Minecraft usually comes with a lot of terror because you explode your items everywhere and have to recover them. (This makes the consequences of death dependent on your location, inventory at death, and ability to recover)
@@jasonreed7522 For me, that comes at a much higher cost of annoyance than fear. It means that unless I can recover the items I need to grind to get back to what I was doing. That's also a strong discouragement against exploring, since if you're far away you're less likely to recover your stuff. As such, I usually play with mods or options that allow you to keep your stuff when you die, since I don't want to waste time on that recovery period where you can't do what you wanted in the first place.
@@AnotherDuck while that is true you also have to consider unique loot lost that is irreplaceable (namely named gear and sentimental stuff), and some deaths like the void and lava are true hard wipes.
Although my point is more that if you die it should mean something, and in Minecraft's case that can mean up to hours of work lost/spent on recovery, and time is the 1 true currency of life. (And annoyance is still a reason to avoid death, the recovery is annoying so you really don't want to die)
The difficulty in instilling fear is that fear is an emotion so its all about perception and not objective threat. The Warden in Minecraft is scary, until it isn't, amd if Subnautica's leviathans are only half heartedly try to kill you then as long as the player thinks they are really trying to kill them they are scary. (This could easily be expanded into real world psychology and phobias, its based on perception not objective measurable threat so 1 person's terror is another's good time)
It's a bit of a silly example, but when I was playing Hollow Knight, despite the amount of backtracking being potentially very boring, I noted that I was having fun walking around because I was enjoying how I could hack and slash at various objects in a very spammy way: chopping down grass, bending lamp posts, cracking eggs, etc. It was mindless, but something about that was satisfying and an effective distraction that kept me immersed. I bet that for some games, it might not even be destroying the environment that's needed to distract, but just having the world react to them, like grass bending and ruffling around their steps.
I felt kinda bad when destroying things in the backround lol
Yeah, having stuff to interact with is always nice, though I've always had a difficult time getting into Hollow Knight and ironically, it's somewhat boring movement seems to be the main reason. Ori has really spoiled me in that regard. :(
Completely agree
@@ThePC007 It's been a while since I played Ori, so I might not be remembering it too well, but I did enjoy how fluid the movement felt. I loved the escape sequences as opposed to boss fights at the end of each dungeon. I haven't played Will of the Wisps yet, but I don't know if I'll like the shift to boss fights.
It's not really comparable to Hollow Knight imo, except for them being both metroidvanias. If Ori's movement felt fluid to me, Hollow Knight's feels precise. Personally, I'm having a lot of fun practicing the bosses and getting better at the controls of the game. I understand that it's not for everyone, though. It can feel a bit stiff sometimes.
Having the sand react to your steps in journey was surprisingly satisfying, you don’t see that effect in a lot of games
Those sections where you are forced to slowly walk in a game that usually has faster movement are pure pain. I'm rarely actually interested in the exposition dump that gets thrown at you in these situations, so I'm forced to just sit around with the single action of pushing the joystick forward available to me.
Those sections are especially bad on repeat playthroughs.
flashbacks to Assassin's Creed's tailing missions and 3-minute monologues
It's interesting that I have a lot of moments where I voluntarily slow down to feel the moment and tension, but those forced ones never work. Let me slow down when I want please
Halo when that stupid flood monster is talking. Or was it cortana freaking out? Sucked either way. Never hated those characters more than after and during that
@@Drekromancer this one is so bad. Playing Origins right now after not playing anything in the series since Black Flag came out. Forgot how tedious it gets.
Movement that ive always found the most satsfying is the one that just "makes you experience the character". For example in Mgs V I find Snakes movement soo good. He moves so fast and methodically, and the sounds of all your gear rattling around and your boots violently hitting the ground just sells you the fact that you are here on a mission.
I also love the camera shake when you run also
The whole control system feels so good and refined that it feels like your typing with your controller
@@richardsonrichly8456 Yup Yup
Most stealth games have good movement systems. Hitman, Thief, MGS etc
Itz even better in death stranding: your whole package is influenced by your movements, so you can see how they lean on the side when you turn and hear them ratle. And sam animeted differently according to his weight
@@user-zn5zr2ed3x I cant wait to have time to play that. I can imagine how good the movement must be considering its such a big part of the game.
I think there's something missing from the conversation here. Movement isn't simply something to distract players from - at least, not always. Movement is also a primary way you interact with your surroundings. It can define your relationship with the game environment.
Some of the best movement in games I've played has included feedback from the environment. Whether that's the way rain affects grip in death stranding, or the gravity of a planet affects how far you can jump or step in Outer Wilds, or how the speed of running/rain/slope can affect how quickly you can stop in Miasmata. In all of these games, the way you move teaches you about the game's environment and world. Sometimes it seems that walking can be a dialogue system between you and the world. Just as every choice in a dialogue tree informs your outlook and character going forward, so can every step in a game (where the movement system is well designed). In Outer Wilds, a planet feels small when the gravity is less; it also feels alien, and makes you curious.
And this may just be me, but when playing Death Stranding, half the time I play it just to interact with the environment - just to walk through it. I will walk instead of using vehicles just to feel the ground at my feet. Hell, I barely even run. I plan my routes based on where I can find a nice place to sit and relax along the journey - and it's so easy to see them, like they're laid out for you. If I was playing it with the mindset of distracting myself from the movement, I wouldn't be playing. I dunno, I've seen a lot of people talk about their frustrations with the game, but I have rarely fallen. It might punish your mistakes if your goal is speed, but in my experience it actually punishes haste. Those who take their time, and their pleasure, will enjoy the walking. It teaches you how to approach the environment; how to approach the game too. I think we could do more listening and learning where movement systems are concerned.
Walking is fun. If the game is responsive enough. Or just IRL.
I'm not the only one!! I've probably left too many comments around youtube about how my favorite part of Death Stranding is just making the journey. You put it into much better words than I've thought of. So many people just bash on the game and boil it down to "mailman simulator where all you do is walk", and yeah I guess it is, but I think the game's just not made for them. I feel like the game is made with people who take their time and enjoy the journey in mind. The game does give you conveniences too, sure. I've put up a zipline course to travel from the farm to many other places near and not-so-near it in almost no time, but that's when the game starts to feel a little boring to me. The fun comes in where I find myself appreciating the environment and interacting with the land itself. Now and then, I'll put down a timefall shelter and have Sam take a seat while I finish whatever I'm snacking on at the time.
@@Road_to_Dawn Yes, exactly! Glad to hear from others with a similar experience. Particularly what you said about snacking while Sam's resting - this game encourages self care for me more than any other. So many moments to stop and check in if I need food/water/a break. I feel really good playing it, no long stretches without food or water unlike a lot of other games. I hope to see more games like this
100% I don't use the ziplines and I'm disappointed when some standard orders have too much cargo and I'm forced to use a truck. Death Stranding has definitely raised the bar for environment interactivity. After grinding DS makes a lot of game's traversal seem floaty and automatic.
The game made me obsess about making a large zipline system and doing that was a big journey by itself. Got to see parts of the map I normally would have never gone to and in return got a system that allowed me to get good travel times.
obviously assassins creed has a complex movement system, but back in the older games even running around on the ground was intuitive because there were different ways to run to maximize speed, which was made more complex by the fact that if you run into people you slow down or fall, made just getting through a crowd in the street an interesting experience
This, the movement system back then are so engaging even when you're not doing the complex stuff.
yeah I remember how in AC1 you had the ability to instead of going into a sprint, you could just run but shove civilians out of the way in case the streets are a little too crowded and you needed to get away, and when you walked you had the ability to do a gentle push to get around civilians without causing a scene or do the blending walk to move past guards in a lockdown at the cost of being very slow
Just press parkour button and walk into that direction, there's no complexity i remember playing AC2 the other day and most of the time finded mind numbingly boring 70% of the time, the other 30 that was interesting was the kinda puzzle in movement where you can't just press Parkour and go in a straight line
Movement in AC is revolutionary but it also deserves all the memes that came out of it. Having one button do three different things can be a pain. Sometimes I wonder if the NPCs think I'm a crazy person when I'm trying to control my character. Accidentally jumping on a barrel, a railing, a merchant stand. Accidentally dropping my axe when I'm trying to get on my horse. Accidentally stealing from someone when I'm just trying to push him out of the way.
List of games with timestamps. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.
0:03 Neon White
0:06 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
0:11 Halo Infinite
0:16 Guilty Gear Strive
0:19 Monster Hunter Rise
0:22 Ori and the Blind Forest
0:26 Neon White
0:29 The Pathless
0:33 Webbed
0:39 Blue Fire
0:46 Monster Hunter Rise
0:55 Neon White
1:01 Super Mario Odyssey
1:05 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
1:13 Life is Strange
1:16 Control
1:19 God of War 2018
1:21 The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
1:22 Red Dead Redemption 2
1:25 Resident Evil VIII Village
1:29 The Last of Us
1:36 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
1:39 Firewatch
1:43 A Plague Tale - Innocence
1:50 Disco Elysium
1:54 The Forgotten City
1:56 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
1:59 The Stanley Parable
2:05 Ape Out
2:09 Hades
2:12 Superliminal
2:19 Doom Eternal
2:24 Prey (2017)
2:28 Disco Elysium
2:33 Horizon - Zero Dawn
2:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
2:40
2:47 Red Dead Redemption 2
2:53 God of War 2018
2:55 The Witcher 3
2:59 Elden Ring
3:02 Ghost of Tsushima
3:06 Nier: Automata
3:10 Portal
3:16 Life is Strange
3:22 The Witcher 3
3:27 Alan Wake
3:32 Prey (2017)
3:34 Grand Theft Auto V
3:35 BloodBorne
3:36 Red Dead Redemption 2
3:40 Assassin's Creed - Origins
3:44 God of War 2018
3:51 Resident Evil 2 Remake
3:58 Uncharted 3
4:06 Resident Evil 2 Remake
4:09 Death Stranding
4:12 The Last of Us Part 2
4:19 Resident Evil 3 Remake
4:26 Limbo
4:32 - 4:49 The Witcher 3, God of War 2018
4:50 Ghost of Tsushima
4:56 Red Dead Redemption 2
5:02 Resident Evil VIII Village
5:12 Unsighted
5:17 A Plague Tale - Innocence
5:25 Alien - Isolation
5:30 Death Stranding
5:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
5:40 A Plague Tale - Innocence
5:48 Resident Evil VIII Village
5:56 Resident Evil 2 Remake
5:59 Little Nightmares 2
6:04 Resident Evil VII
6:10 Resident Evil 2 Remake
6:19 The Pathless
6:23 Death Stranding
7:19 Final Fantasy III
7:24 Apex Legends
7:28 Final Fantasy VII Remake
7:31 Ghost of Tsushima
7:39 Resident Evil VIII Village
7:46 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
7:50 Death Stranding
7:55 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
8:00 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
8:09 The Last of Us
8:10 The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
8:13 God of War 2018
8:19 The Last Guardian
8:24 Life is Strange
8:28 A Plague Tale - Innocence
8:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
8:40 Red Dead Redemption 2
8:46 The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
8:50 Prey (2017)
8:53 Horizon - Zero Dawn
8:59 The Quarry
9:02 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
9:11 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
9:19 The Suicide of Rachel Foster
9:21 What Remains of Edith Finch
9:23 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
9:24 Call of The Sea
9:25 Event[0]
9:27 Dear Esther
9:33 Gone Home
10:23 Alan Wake
10:27 The Suicide of Rachel Foster
10:33 Alan Wake
10:37 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
10:43 Resident Evil 2 Remake
10:51 Life is Strange
10:55 Death Stranding
11:00 Red Dead Redemption 2
11:03 Firewatch
11:06 Ghost of Tsushima
11:11 Death Stranding
11:14 Red Dead Redemption 2
11:18 The Last of Us Part 2
11:25 The Quarry
11:34 Uncharted: Lost Legacy
11:42 Firewatch
11:47 Horizon - Zero Dawn
11:52 Resident Evil 2 Remake
11:56 Red Dead Redemption 2
12:06 Firewatch
12:16 The Last of Us
12:25 Yakuza 0
12:29 The Last of Us Part 2
12:38 Horizon - Zero Dawn
12:41 God of War 2018
12:49 Red Dead Redemption 2
12:56 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
13:01 Horizon - Zero Dawn
13:09 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
13:16 Gone Home
13:22 Death Stranding
13:59 Marvel's Spider-man
14:02 Death Stranding
14:17 A Plague Tale - Innocence
14:29 God of War 2018
14:31 The Last of Us Part 2
14:34 Firewatch
14:40 Gone Home
14:44 Life is Strange - True Colors
14:45 God of War 2018, Death Stranding
14:50 Dear Esther
14:55 Life is Strange
14:57 Kentucky Route Zero
15:01 Elden Ring
15:04 Fallout 4, Uncharted - Lost Legacy
15:07 Call of The Sea
15:14 Marvel's Spider-man
15:20 Neon White
15:26 Death Stranding
15:30 Spyro Reignited Trilogy
15:31 Marvel's Spider-man
15:32 Mirror's Edge
15:34 Gone Home
Thanks!
2:40 is Final Fantasy XIV Online
Wow I can't believe you got 99% of this list on your own without having to edit it.
Damn.all those games and no mention of titanfall. The ultimate movement game
Ty sir
One of my favorite things in video games is movement. Flying around at 500mph while jump sliding in titan fall 2 is so fun I dont even need to be good at the game to have fun.
I think the boating segments in god of war are an amazing example of talking while travelling
you'll get stories that don't really affect the narrative of the game, and whenever you get off the boat, Mimir will pause and make a comment about finishing the story later
Once you go back to the boat, he will pick up a little bit before he left off, and it feels natural
Then there's stealth games like Dishonored and Hitman, which I think offer a similar solution to horror games with tension. Despite walking in hitman being relatively slow, I've never found myself thinking that it was boring, with people that could spot you put in various places
Subnautica, while not usually walking (though some sections of walking were super tense in below zero), also adds a lot of tension whenever you're in an area you know to be dangerous (which can be almost anywhere). Some pda voice lines also multiply that tension tenfold
For me, one thing that really helps to make long runs or walks in games less boring is just having some nice eye candy to look at. If the environment around me is gorgeous to look at, then I kind of don't really mind spending a bit of time appreciating it as I travel.
Unfortunately will lose effectiveness in repeat playthrough or if the game make you visit/go through the same place multiple times.
Horizon is a game that I never fast travelled in, only when other people are watching me. That game is beyond gorgeous, absolutely the most beautiful environment in gaming and exactly what I wanted from a post-apocalyptic world
Final Fantasy XV's walking and running animations make it for me. The transition between running, walking and stopping are so smooth. Characters step aside suddenly when you bump into them. Every party member actually looks like they're running as fast as they can, judging by their natural arm movement. No human runs as fast as they can, sometimes even unnaturally fast like some games have their characters run, while almost having their arms only wave back and forth, while only barely leaning themselves forward.
It's exceptionally important for the game considering the amount of time you spend walking. The characters also talk a lot during walking, and everything is 100% voiced. The game's animations in general are super natural, some head movements during conversations aside.
The movement in that game is a gem, particularly because they all move so differently, and if I'm not wrong have slightly different movement speeds? Or at least the perception of different speeds, which matches their movements. All of their movement feels personal.
The annoying thing for me is when the character is supposed to be an athletic freak with superhuman agility and dexterity and they move like Ricky Gervais in-game. There's a certain disconnect like in Witcher 3 for example. Geralt has a turning radius of a limousine. He cannot stop on a specific spot like a basketball player could. He cannot just turn right to grab something, he has to circle to his right.
One thing you missed is keeping players engaged by having them go through an area with a lot going on in the background. Maybe you're walking through a city and suddenly hear an acapella performance taking place right ahead of you, elsewhere you pass a quarrelling couple, a man with a megaphone announcing the latest propaganda, an air balloon launching off. Maybe you leave the city, on the way you see a waterfall way in the distance that is unreachable, or you see an airship pass by high above, little things like that can give the player something to watch and take in while they're hitting the forward button.
I love travelling in "Kingdom Come: Deliverance". On hardcore mode without fast travel, you can spend tens of minutes just travelling. But the scenery is so beautiful that I can just play to game to feel imersed into beautiful medival Bohemian empire.
And also in kcd, you have to still pay attention to your surroundings, because being caught off guard by a group of bandits most of the time will lead to your death, this becomes less of a issue later on in the game though
I love how whenever you started talking about tension while walking, the firewatch out started playing in the background. good attention to detail raz. amazing video as always!
Razbuten, how do you decide on a video idea? Do you come up with them while playing games, do you have a premade list of game elements, or something else entirely? You always make very insightful videos, and as a developer I have found them very helpful, but they are often on topics I don't even think about while making/playing games!
It really varies. I'd say typically I come up with an idea from playing a game that does something I find interesting, and then depending on the topic, I will either make the video then OR sit on it until I have more examples. For instance, the video I made back in September currently titled "Have Video Games Gotten Worse" was made pretty much right after I had the idea, while this idea is one I have been sitting on for years, as I wanted to play more games to observe how they make walking interesting (especially Death Stranding). I do have a list of elements from games, but that comes from playing stuff.
@@razbuten This makes sense, and it's very impressive! You have a knack for finding interesting mechanics, and then effectively and eloquently discussing them. Thanks for your videos, they are always very helpful and interesting!
Dunno if you saw my video from last year called "I Hope This Video Doesn't Suck" but that is a good insight on parts of my process and the realities of the career. Definitely lighter on the process side, but still should give you some idea of it!
@@razbuten
Can you make one making tbrpg (turn based) more interesting? Astria ascending has a strong risk reward system, but relies a bit too much on a one approach strategy, and I find most tbrpg to be spam big guard and ultima. Only seen golden sun have solos so far.
@@razbuten Have you ever considered doing a video on how important sound design is in video games?
I only just started to realize how important it is in any form of medium, but especially in video games.
The games that people hold in high regard, oftentimes have sound effects that reflects whatever is happening.
This is a fantastic video on something I'm always thinkg about.
People--especially critics--dismiss walking sections all the time. But it really can be done right. Where the gameplay influences emotion (like you rightly point out), rather than the story just demanding players just walk through an area just because the controls no longer allow a run option.
Great work and I hope this blows up because I think this conversation is filled with people who are overly quick to dismiss the mechanic.
What I got out of this video is that Death Stranding, which is a game about moving from Point A to Point B literally over and over and over again, manages to make moving from those points over and over again just so engaging and fun in all the right ways.
Like seriously, you kept talking about how to make “boring movement” interesting and I was like “oh Death Stranding does something like that” just over and over again. Basically I think Death Stranding is an amazing game, and this was a great video
One thing I love about the Yakuza series is that walking is always a viable and efficient form of movement. The cities you explore throughout the series are full of substories, stores, and beautiful sights, so walking around has its own reward. On top of that, it makes each city feel like a real place, since you can walk across a part of town in a matter of minutes. Fast travel taxis are limited and cost money, so while occasionally they're quite useful, walking usually works better. Lastly, you can sprint in many of the games, but even then the game limits it at first until you upgrade it, encouraging players to take in the experience early on yet letting late-game players blast past everything they've already seen.
And since you mentioned detailed movement, the latest games expanded walking animations. Kiryu will often adjust his coat, check his watch, or stretch his arms a bit while moving around. I've always loved the series for how it makes towns come to life, especially with Tokyo, since it returns in every game. There's always something new to look for, and the town evolves between games, almost making it a character in this grandiose story.
Was just talking about this with a buddy yesterday. He's making a puzzle game similar to Antichamber and others and just adding sprinting, camera zooming, jumping, and little things to tool around with make the game much more fun to play. Kind of like little fidget spinners to play with while you're thinking about a puzzle.
Tell him to add a puzzle where holding an object needs to be placed somewhere and jumping would solve it, but is too far away so you need to zoom with the object on top of the platform. Like a cup on a table across a gap where in perspective, the table is higher than the player unless they jump, but the cup can break making it mind boggling.
Would feel like throwing things and mix the puzzling mechanics.
ive always wanted for fps games to have random parkour elements in their spawn rooms. if you're gonna be spending a lot of time in one location then please give people something to do just for the sake of doing something. i think spectating the kind of behavior people get up to in portal 2 when they get fidgety and frustrated would be a good idea, too, people literally start climbing on anything can be climbed on and using every element in a room to mess around
You've done "When to stop a game", I'd like to see "How to start a game" or something along those lines. Tyvm for all the work you put on these videos!
I never thought of walking in games so deeply, makes sense why I drop so many games as I'm bored of it.
As someone who aims to get into the game dev industry in a couple of years, I'm really glad I stumbled on this video: you have such a well though opinion on what is, frankly, an overlooked mechanic by many indie or even AAA studios. Thank you for sharing!
The point about working dialogue into travel has me wishing I was a game developer so I could play with that possibility. Imagine a Witcher or Elder Scrolls game where you can ask your travel companion to talk about their life while you're walking or riding - or where you can hire a bard to travel with you and play songs along the way. The possibilities are endlt for games with escort missions, so long as the programmers make it less painful to match the pace of the escorting group.
Frankly, I think that the best way to manage that with an escort mission would be to offer players the option to toggle a paced mode on or off that automatically slows the player's speed when they are getting too far ahead, so that they don't have to worry about pausing and waiting every dozen yards or so: you can just keep tilting forward and your speed would vary based on your relative position to the companion. You would have to be able to toggle it off if you want to check ahead on the path, but otherwise I think it would dramatically reduce the frustration you mentioned about getting too far away and not being able to hear the NPC.
I appreciate you pointing out that the most satisfying experience is always when these elements are balanced: I can easily get sucked into the experience when managing the stamina meter in BotW, but I find that gets tiring after a while as I run out of areas that are unfamiliar in the game and I don't encounter those perfect moments you describe.
There are companion mods for skyrim that do that you describe. Inigo, Vilja, Recorder, even Rigmor to an extent, plus lots more I haven't tried yet, add characters that talk to you (or amongst themselves!) while you explore. It makes the journey less lonely, plus the more followers you add, the more you feel like you are a traveling band of adventurers exploring and finding ritches through skyrim. Makes the game way more fun imo.
There are games where the companion can run as fast as you so you don't have to stop and wait for them. Some examples are Witcher 3 and Dragon's Dogma if I remember correctly.
Absolutely perfect video (I promise I’ve already watched)
(I lied I’m watching now)
(I have just finished, and yes, it was phenomenal. Well done, sir.)
@@thecrappycoder (Thank you for the offer, but I prefer my PB and J without the J)
@@thecrappycoder (So what are you up to?)
@@thecrappycoder (Yeah, I’m a very Indecisive, but once I do decide I’m SUPER opinionated and stick with those opinions forevor)
Just Cause 3 solves this problem by giving you a wing suit. Super easy to stay engaged with movement when the tension involved is the very real possibility of faceplanting into a building or mountain.
One thing I feel I have to bring up is Guild Wars 2. It's an MMO, and like most other MMOs, it has mounts. However, in all other MMOs a mount will do little more than make you move faster, or occasionally, fly. GW2, however, went a step further, as its mounts not only let you move faster, but ALSO let you do other unique movement styles. The Raptor gave you a long jump. The Springer gave you a high jump. The Skimmer flew over the surface of the water. The Jackal blinked forwards a short distance. The Griffon flew, but in a way that required you to flap your wings and use the momentum gained from diving to shoot very fast over the land. The Skyscale worked like a helicopter, but could only hover so far before is slowly moved downwards. And the Rollerbeetle zoomed over the ground using momentum, picking up speed downhill and slowing down when going uphill.
Regardless of any other pros or cons, GW2 did a FANTASTIC job revolutionizing the idea of mounts, and I hope other MMOs take note of it.
Don't know anything about this game, but this is looking really interesting
finally some gw2 appreciation
Something that I never noticed until I played Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 back to back is how massively improved the game is just by being able to roll and sprint longer. In ME2 Shepherd can maybe sprint for 5 seconds before the game forces you into a lazy jog.
I don't understand why games still implement limited sprinting. I've played games with unlimited sprinting and its perfectly fine. Limited sprinting has never been an interesting mechanic ever. You sprint for 5 seconds, wait for the sprint meter to fill up, sprint again for 5 seconds. Boring.
Hey, quick suggestion, if it’s possible could you have a list of the games that were used for footage. Some of titles were not mentioned for games that look really interesting that I don’t particularly know the name of. Thanks!
I really want to know the game at 0:40, for instance
I totally agree. The game at 5:20 (and other spots) looks cool. He featured it in his crafting video too.
@@bendunster8859 i think this one is A Plague Tale: Innocence
2:24 Prey 2017
What’s the one from 5:12 - 5:16
For story-driven games with a big world, I think ORAS worked well with its inclusion of Latias. Basically, instead of fast travel, you jump onto Latias and fly over the map. You get the fast movement without breaking immersion or player interactivity. With games championing larger and larger worlds, I think the best thing to do sometimes is to let players make it smaller.
I was thinking of Pokémon too for movement, but moreso X and Y. I loved skating around the world and doing tricks, so much that even though a bike would be faster I stuck to skating
@@PKMNResearcherSkyler having tricks and whatnot means the system is more mechanically complex, so it's outside of the scope of this video which talks about simple movements (the boring one). I agree with you though, movement systems that are engaging are more fun.
First off, I love your videos because a lot of what you say I have thought or had conversations about with my friends. When you are flashing a whole hosts of games across the screen, I wish the title was somewhere to be seen. You know so much and have played so much, but from my perspective I maybe know the game or played the game 60% of the time, and the other 40% I wish I knew so I could play it.
Other than that, keep doing what you're doing. Love the content and just want to play more from these videos.
Now that was cool. When you were talking about “walking progresses the story“, I thought of Firewatch. I looked up from what I was doing and saw a Firewatch clip. Then a couple seconds later, when you were talking about “walking too fast or slow so it’s hard to hear conversations“, I thought of RDR2. Great video man!
Honestly, I feel like in most games I play the thing that pulls me along is "resource gathering" or something similar to it
Congrats on the abstinence from BoTW and Outer Wilds!
my favorite essays are ones that point at something painfully obvious that I never look at and go, look at how interesting this thing is! this video nails it.
As someone who is currently trying to develop a game that is basically slow walking through its entirety in a no tension environment, I've found that little interruptions along the way help a lot with enjoyability and retention, like a lonely dog, or a colorfull house amidst a grand vast ocean of monotone houses, stuff like that, great video btw
I'm here from twitter to confirm that I, would indeed, watch you talk about anything
Being able to take in the surroundings is a big part of walking for me. I'm playing GTA 3 on PS2 (after having played San Andreas previously), and it's really noticeable that you can't swing the camera around with the right stick. It makes walking much less fun as I have to stop to see what's around me when I'm trying to explore.
Honestly, first person walking Sims are my favorite genre of game. If done right narratively, they can be one of the most engaging and immersive games ever
You should put a list of shown games in the description. A lot of these look pretty cool, and I'm kinda upset that I can't look them up.
@@ICountFrom0 7:56 and 9:09 thanks!
@@ICountFrom0 do you know 5:14 ?
@@ICountFrom0 1:45 ?
@@majesticspasian6758 1:45 is Plague Tale: Innocence
0:03 Neon White
0:06 Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury
0:11 Halo Infinite
0:16 Guilty Gear Strive
0:19 Monster Hunter Rise
0:22 Ori and the Blind Forest
0:26 Neon White
0:29 The Pathless
0:33 Webbed
0:39 Blue Fire
0:46 Monster Hunter Rise
0:55 Neon White
1:01 Super Mario Odyssey
1:05 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
1:13 Life is Strange
1:16 Control
1:19 God of War 2018
1:21 The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim
1:22 Red Dead Redemption 2
1:25 Resident Evil VIII Village
1:29 The Last of Us
1:36 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
1:39 Firewatch
1:43 A Plague Tale - Innocence
1:50 Disco Elysium
1:54 The Forgotten City
1:56 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
1:59 The Stanley Parable
2:05 Ape Out
2:09 Hades
2:12 Superliminal
2:19 Doom Eternal
2:24 Prey (2017)
2:28 Disco Elysium
2:33 Horizon - Zero Dawn
2:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
2:40
2:47 Red Dead Redemption 2
2:53 God of War 2018
2:55 The Witcher 3
2:59 Elden Ring
3:02 Ghost of Tsushima
3:06 Nier: Automata
3:10 Portal
3:16 Life is Strange
3:22 The Witcher 3
3:27 Alan Wake
3:32 Prey (2017)
3:34 Grand Theft Auto V
3:35 BloodBorne
3:36 Red Dead Redemption 2
3:40 Assassin's Creed - Origins
3:44 God of War 2018
3:51 Resident Evil 2 Remake
3:58 Uncharted 3
4:06 Resident Evil 2 Remake
4:09 Death Stranding
4:12 The Last of Us Part 2
4:19 Resident Evil 3 Remake
4:26 Limbo
4:32 - 4:49 The Witcher 3, God of War 2018
4:50 Ghost of Tsushima
4:56 Red Dead Redemption 2
5:02 Resident Evil VIII Village
5:12 Unsighted
5:17 A Plague Tale - Innocence
5:25 Alien - Isolation
5:30 Death Stranding
5:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
5:40 A Plague Tale - Innocence
5:48 Resident Evil VIII Village
5:56 Resident Evil 2 Remake
5:59 Little Nightmares 2
6:04 Resident Evil VII
6:10 Resident Evil 2 Remake
6:19 The Pathless
6:23 Death Stranding
7:19 Final Fantasy III
7:24 Apex Legends
7:28 Final Fantasy VII Remake
7:31 Ghost of Tsushima
7:39 Resident Evil VIII Village
7:46 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
7:50 Death Stranding
7:55 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
8:00 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
8:09 The Last of Us
8:10 The Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time
8:13 God of War 2018
8:19 The Last Guardian
8:24 Life is Strange
8:28 A Plague Tale - Innocence
8:36 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
8:40 Red Dead Redemption 2
8:46 The Legend of Zelda - Twilight Princess
8:50 Prey (2017)
8:53 Horizon - Zero Dawn
8:59 The Quarry
9:02 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
9:11 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
9:19 The Suicide of Rachel Foster
9:21 What Remains of Edith Finch
9:23 The Vanishing of Ethan Carter
9:24 Call of The Sea
9:25 Event[0]
9:27 Dear Esther
9:33 Gone Home
10:23 Alan Wake
10:27 The Suicide of Rachel Foster
10:33 Alan Wake
10:37 Hellblade - Senua's Sacrifice
10:43 Resident Evil 2 Remake
10:51 Life is Strange
10:55 Death Stranding
11:00 Red Dead Redemption 2
11:03 Firewatch
11:06 Ghost of Tsushima
11:11 Death Stranding
11:14 Red Dead Redemption 2
11:18 The Last of Us Part 2
11:25 The Quarry
11:34 Uncharted: Lost Legacy
11:42 Firewatch
11:47 Horizon - Zero Dawn
11:52 Resident Evil 2 Remake
11:56 Red Dead Redemption 2
12:06 Firewatch
12:16 The Last of Us
12:25 Yakuza 0
12:29 The Last of Us Part 2
12:38 Horizon - Zero Dawn
12:41 God of War 2018
12:49 Red Dead Redemption 2
12:56 Final Fantasy 7 Remake
13:01 Horizon - Zero Dawn
13:09 Uncharted 3 - Drake's Deception
13:16 Gone Home
13:22 Death Stranding
13:59 Marvel's Spider-man
14:02 Death Stranding
14:17 A Plague Tale - Innocence
14:29 God of War 2018
14:31 The Last of Us Part 2
14:34 Firewatch
14:40 Gone Home
14:44 Life is Strange - True Colors
14:45 God of War 2018, Death Stranding
14:50 Dear Esther
14:55 Life is Strange
14:57 Kentucky Route Zero
15:01 Elden Ring
15:04 Fallout 4, Uncharted - Lost Legacy
15:07 Call of The Sea
15:14 Marvel's Spider-man
15:20 Neon White
15:26 Death Stranding
15:30 Spyro Reignited Trilogy
15:31 Marvel's Spider-man
15:32 Mirror's Edge
15:34 Gone Home
You're actually my favorite video game essay youtuber. Your talking feels so natural and compelling and you always put so much time and thought into your videos. Much love
While I think the merits are implied in your discussion of other types of movement mechanics, I think games that rely on WHERE you go can also break up the monotony of movement. This is especially true of stealth games which give players diverse options for approaching a target, each with their own implications, even when getting there is some iteration on a sneaking/running/climbing/teleporting sequence
The sheer number of quality games shown in this video, with different types of movement that match with the content, is really impressive. Great video design and editing!
"...at some point I either accidentally cut off a character mid sentence by hitting a new zone..."
This happened to me in real life today. *IMMERSION*
Hey thanks a lot for this video! It’s exactly what I needed before continuing to work on my game. I absolutely needed a quick lesson on this kind of stuff.
I really don't play many videogames, but I enjoy your content of theoretical analysis and breaking down different aspects of this artform so much, that I recently played some of your favorite titles. Mostly story based games, because I simply don't "enjoy" the manual challenge of gaming. But it is very cool, that I was introduced into this whole new world because of you!
Thank you for that.
I've always loved the parts of Breath of the Wild where you just walk in empty spaces. Often these moments look - and especially sound - beautiful! I could never articulate why these moments made me love Breath of the Wild so much, but your description of these moments made it click. The idea that these are times where the game is asking you to reflect. Spot on!
made me smile to see another video of you pop up on my recommended videos
Lol, i love this channel so much. When i spend time thinking in a subject you came with a video exactly about it. You read my mind everytime, sir
I was expecting to see The Long Dark, a game that got... well.. none of that right, at all. The walking is part of the struggle. You FEEL the pain of it. Walking is pain, and punishment, but it's also survival. You TRUDGE.
Yes, but also it felt natural and like it was supposed to be like that so it didn't bother me🤔
Love that most of the topics handled are obscure but can make the game many times better. Cant wait to see more!
You always put so much effort into your videos it's incredible. I would love to see a video about final bosses next!
as soon as you mentioned narrative being a tool to expedite the players movement, i immediately recalled the event of midnas darkest hour, from twilight princess, and i was very happy to see a clip of that make it in. love the video !
While We are Talking about games that make Walking Interesting I'd Like to talk about My Time with Morrowind.
While You can Eventually craft magic that lets you jump the entire map in seconds, The Vast amount of the time I Was walking from one place to another.
I really Love how the lack of a fast travel system had me planning out the fastest way to travel on the Boat/Silt Strider "Bus Routes". It made traveling around the Island of Vvardenfell the Easiest, with going further inland taking more time.
Around the Midgame you start to unlock the "Propylon" Teleporters, which was something you Had to make happen and helped with getting around, but didn't just take you Exactly where you wanted to go.
I'd also Like to mention how much I enjoyed slowly gaining skills, They made playing as a late game player so much more rewarding to me because I saw how big the world was When I was Slow, and I loved reaching a point as a character where I could Cross it quickly.
Morrowind is interesting because the walking itself is the very definition of boring movement but as you say the game uses this to make planning your trips more interesting by forcing you to plan around that (and, importantly, making sure you can).
For me the long travel times make setting off somewhere feel like much more of an adventure than in the comparatively dense later Bethesda games where you are often falling over new locations and enemy encounters every other minuet but I can certainly see why other people don't apricate that; its certianly not the most efficient use of the player's time.
I don't know if you've every experimented with the Ashfall camping/needs mod or dynamic time mods (which make time pass faster in the wilderness) but I'm going to give them both a go the next time I play through the game (if and when that happens) because they sound like they could massively improve that feeling of setting out on a long adventure. Though I have heard dynamic time mods can cause problems in Bethesda games so I'm not sure I will go for that in the end...
couldn't help but think about the movement in stealth games like thief. The sound of footsteps being different on different floors makes it pretty engaging
You're such a good RUclipsr, thanks for the stuff you do and for the comments you answer to.
i just discovered you channel and i love it. you break games down to thier core concepts and constructs. me as a game designer, you have helped me realize a lot of different things that make a good game a good game. youve taught me a lot so far
I love the vibes option when games do it, because it also acts as a dip in the tension arc. Like I get to chill and look at a pretty scene and listen to nice music between fights for my life. It's nice.
Dang good timing, I just started Death Stranding the other day and I'm loving it so far
Good video! I think you touch on it toward the end, but positive forms of tension are useful too. Mystery, intrigue, something to pull you forward. Even on replays, good architecture concepts help make this feeling repeatable.
You are quite possibly the best video game video essay RUclipsr I’ve ever consumed content from. You can make a 17 minute video of a topic that seems boring into an interesting video. I’m bad at wording things so yeah, but have a great day and keep making great content!
Personally, I’m a massive fan of the Spider-Man games and one thing that they do while your not swinging around is create bustling and interesting environments to discover on the floor, fans to take selfies with or give hugs etc. so even when you’re not being awesome and swinging through the air, there’s something to do on the street level.
Razbuten: walking is boring
Also Razbuten: I hate fast travel
I'm really happy to see you do a video on movement! It sounds weird but it's one of my favorite aspects of games and can make or break the experience for me. You hit the nail on the head for why games like Resident Evil are able to be so engrossing for me: the tension, the immersive animation and sound, the quiet moments where I'm figuring out a puzzle or reflecting on story beats.
I want to point out that in some games/genres, tension is accomplished through other means too! In the survival genre, Subnautica has a lot going for its movement. Of course you almost have 6 degrees of freedom. The O2, food and water meters essentially put constant timers on your movement like you brought up in your video. This works much better than it does for timed sections of other games though because it synergizes with the exploration of the open world and the crafting system. By crafting upgrades to your movement or new vehicles you essentially expand your playable area. That and how the different forms of movement are more qualitatively different from each other than the usual horseriding creates a lot of decision making. Subnautica uses other tools you went over, like Moments and tension from setting or monsters. Meanwhile, The Long Dark is my other favorite survival game and its movement is a lot more basic, but I actually tend to be less bored holding W in that game than in Subnautica. I think it does three things really well: it ratchets the timer tension up to 11 with brutally punishing temperatures, it makes stealth matter, and most importantly it makes players pay attention to the environment. Your movement matters in The Long Dark because the game is balanced around your slow pace. Like a walking sim, walking is the main way you'll interact with the world since resource harvesting, crafting and combat don't take very much time. However walking in TLD involves a whole tree of decisions including your survival meters, avoiding threats, and getting more information on what's in your environment so you can plan your next move.
Similarly, Hunt: Showdown's movement is much slower than its flashier competitors like Apex Legends and much less involved and immersive than its hardcore peers like Escape from Tarkov. Yet I think Hunt's movement is amazing! Because the sound system is so fleshed out, choosing to walk, run or crouch makes a big difference in being detected by AI or other players. The AI is designed incredibly well to put pressure on the player and force them to move or shoot. The level design, both in and out of compounds, is top notch and helps to make movement choices matter whether you're in a firefight or running from one end of the map to the other. It's very satisfying to go from giving AI a wide berth to running straight through them because you know you can use a certain part of the level to lose them, and of course this makes a competitive difference too.
Essentially this falls under the umbrella of tension, which I often think of as pressure, but I just wanted to demonstrate that your principle works for more than just AAA story-driven games that you mostly used as examples in your video. Sometimes it takes different forms that synergize better with the goals and other mechanics of the game.
This is an amazing video with a lot of efforts put in it! I love your channel.
I feel like level design and challenge also plays a role in this. It's why climbing is boring in Uncharted but I really like the platform challenges in a Prince of Persia game.
Personally my favourite movement in a game is the first ori game, it just feels so fluid, and cool
Right? That's pretty much why I dropped the second game, where the movement got always interrupted because of the fights.
I find the movement in the second one even better. The first one feels stiff and restricted after playing Will of the Wisps
I always felt like will of the wisps feels a bit better, but it was more of an add on to all the movement the first one could do, so I chose to give the first one the credit for it
@@Lawrence741 that Doesnt make any sense
@@Exel3nce i liked ori because of the platforming, not because of the fights. The 2nd games fluidity was always interrupted by the fighting segments and felt unsatisfying for me personally. The first game didn't had the issue since it had no real battles, which is why I liked it much more.
Perhaps it makes more sense now.
Another Razbuten video another great time, thanks for lighting up my day!!!
Really great video, Raz!!!
Walking and listening to character's dialogues has always been most engaging for me. No matter what mechanic the game developers come up with it gets mundane over time even if it evolves periodically throughout the game in some way. Dialogues however let the storylike progress and make the game feel more as a game, rather than a movie, as I'm actively performing some sort of action while the 'cutscene' is playing. Dialogues, if done well, are a staple human thing that never gets boring.
The dialog cuting out part annoyed me a lot of Guardians of the Galaxy. If you wanted to hear the end of any conversation you had ot stand still because doing anything might cut it off
A razbuten video without any mentions of BOTW? unbelievable.
No BotW shout out? 🙁
The little klinks and klanks of Link walking or running are so relaxing to me, and the climbing and running mechanics make traversing the world of Hyrule so seamless and engaging. Not to mention horseback riding with the soothing mechanics, and with the plethora of things to do on your way to your destination.
Just a masterpiece 🙌🏽
I feel like good walking is done by having nice environments. So walking is just scrolling through the nice visuals.
Yes and no. If Walking is simply that, it will become stale fast
@@Exel3nce Ever went on a hike irl?
@@LutraLovegood not the point
@@Exel3nce If you say so.
@@LutraLovegood you know its true
If you carefully plan the pace of walking, the ability to run or crawl, add physics to make movement more realistic and immersive,and work on your environments for them to be visually appealing you can heavily improve your game. This topic is more important that it seems, since boring movement might lead to boredom and come between you and enjoying your game. I love the movement in Spider-Man PS4 and Miles Morales because moving is quick and the environment and swinging make traversal very interesting and even fun.
I love all the time and effort that you put into your videos! It makes everything that little bit better.
Amazing video! Never thought of this and you talked about it fantastically!
As weird as it may sound, walking in SMT V was pretty enjoyable.
I enjoy it a lot too
The animations and all that stuff just makes it for me
Love your work! I’ve been thinking about stuff like “urgency” in open world games and how it seems kind of dumb. The story of calls for me to hurry to the next quest mission however I don’t actually have to. Do you have any examples of urgency done well in the open world? Thanks.
Satisfactory does a great job with locomotion. Other than walking, you can run, swim, zip line, slide, built an item that makes you run faster and jump higher or build other items that allow you to fly or hover. There's jump pads. Hyper tubes. Items that stop fall damage from any height. You can run, then crouch-slide into a long jump. And then you have multiple vehicles that all handle completely different. The nice part about it is that because the game is about building factories, you can basically design your own parkour course.
I have fun in that game just running around sometimes.
Dude I absolutely love your content! Keep it up man your doing great!
Long dark goes the opposite way and purposely leans into the slow and steady vibe of walking. Really gives it a calming and lonely atmosphere. It can go the opposite way when supplies are low, with the hope being that wherever u chose to search has what you need. Then it's this sense of a slowly running down clock
"... nor even mention Jet Set Radio Future ?"
JSTR was such a joy to play and run around. The mechanic to keep you active felt as though it was just your skater having genuine love for skating and constantly pulling out tricks... with the characters being unable to stop continuing that dance whenever standing still.
1:10 I regularly enjoy walking around in video game worlds like this. It's so immersive, and there's so much to look at and explore that you may otherwise miss if you're just sprinting around the map all the time.
2:41 The whiplash of seeing Radz-at-Han in a random non-XIV video got me
I feel like the issue you keep coming back to in this video is that a game can try to use lots of narrative/artistic smoke-and-mirrors to disguise shallow movement, but players will see through it pretty quickly. I think this applies to a lot of mechanics beyond movement. In general, I don't think there's any reliable way to make a shallow game "seem" deep without just actually introducing interesting mechanical gameplay. A lot of the best media (interactive or otherwise) benefits from being revisited multiple times so you can dig into all the subtle little nuances of the work. If you do that to a game that tries to paper over shallow mechanics with flashy presentation or detailed storytelling, you're quickly going to realize that there was never any nuance in the first place.
Not necessarily. What Remains of Edith Finch is essentialy a walking simulator but the way the story is interwoven with the places you go and how you're shown the story makes the game much more interesting than the gameplay itself is
@@cinthiaMP I think that's a little different - I agree that Edith Finch is a walking simulator, but I've never considered walking sims as "games." I think they're their own, separate, equally cool thing. Not every piece of interactive digital entertainment strictly needs to be "a game."
It's sort of like how not every work of paper-bound literature needs to be a novel. Books of poetry also exist, and are also cool, but live in a pretty different creative field. You generally don't discuss poetry using the same language you would use to discuss a novel because they're each extremely different disciplines (albeit with a few small points of overlap).
The ways Edith Finch presents movement and environmental interaction *is* a tool for storytelling in a walking simulator. But I think that same tool is a lot less effective inside of a game, where the focus is typically on more freeform interactions that express player agency (instead of heavily scripted interactions that express a designer's specific ideas)
What's super cool about your channel is that even when you're talking about things I have no idea about or don't care about, you make it interesting and make me care! That is super cool!
This was a good video and a great departure from the "I don't like these games because" road you seemed to be going down. I enjoyed this.
Good day Raz, thank you for releasing another amazing video
i need to have either:
-jumping that doesnt lose speed (eg. gta5, minecraft, lego games, portal, those are some fun ones to walk around off the bat)
-rolling
-dashing
Great video, thanks for the update.
For a year now I've been brainstorming how to make a video about walking mechanics and how some games just dumpster fire the whole ordeal and here's Raz with my exact idea. I hate youtube.
But also amazing video Raz the quality here is as great as ever! Glad you're back to it with the new babby!
Thank you for the non auto generated subtitles! Great video too!