Sunday Thoughts: Depth
Is depth a good thing?
Published: 15:00, 02/01/2011 by Kris [Halbpro].
28So here we are, start of a new year and all that. I hope you all had a lovely Christmas, a New Years Eve full of partying and are looking forward to things getting back to normal over the next week or so. Personally I’ve been using the time to lounge about, not doing much and dipping my toes carefully into the waters of Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood.
This trepidation about Brotherhood may seem peculiar to you. “Why Kris!” I hear you cry. “The Assassin’s Creed series is simply fantastic, and Brotherhood is the best yet!” I’m certainly with you on the first part there, and from what I’ve played it does seem that Brotherhood is the cream of the series so far. The slight timidness with which I approach the game comes from remembering what happened when I played Assassin’s Creed II mid-way through last year.
See I lost about a week of my life to Assassin’s Creed II. I’d pick up the controller for a quick half hour blast as a reward for a few hours work, and the next thing I new it was six hours later and I’d lost the day. It’s rare that a game does this to me, normally I get sick of it after an hour or two.
The reason the game managed to grab hold of me with such force was the sheer depth the title presented you with, the variety not only of missions and possibilities, but of Italy itself. Few titles actually manage depth anywhere close to that, but Assassin’s Creed II really did deliver it in spades. From what I’ve played of Brotherhood it seems to be even deeper than it’s predecessor, in particular the restoration of Rome mechanic takes the shops, which were fairly trivial in ACII, and brings them to the forefront of the game giving them a meaningful purpose.
There aren’t many titles that I see anything like this kind depth appear in, and it’s not just because there are titles that aren’t set in a sandbox world. I mean if we only had one type of game things would get pretty tired quickly. Anyway, there are plenty of titles that manage to have a story the feels deep across all genres. Look at Call of Duty: Black Ops, the story felt deep to me even though it was ‘only’ a FPS.
Of course it does seem harder to achieve depth if all of your level design is completely linear. I mean Sonic is a fantastic game, but it’s hardly the poster child for depth or complexity now is it? The only way it ever could be would be to transform it into something it really isn’t, and that’s not what I’d want to see.
Not every game needs a world that feels as close to real as possible, you don’t need to have a city that lives and breathes, that thrives and wilts. Games that feel pretty shallow can be incredible, and games that have all the depth in the world can be absolutely terrible.
However, it’s undoubtedly harder to create a world, story or characters that feel deep or meaningful in any way and most people, to some extent, are looking for the easy way forwards. If that’s creating a game that’s still fantastic, but doesn’t have the depth that can really hook you then that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I suppose part of me wants more games that managed that kind of depth and really dragged you in, but the other part doesn’t like investing that much time in one title.
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02/01/2011 at 15:27
Member since: Apr 2010
Bizarrely the last game I literally couldn’t put down and lost all day to was Game Dev Story! Not a posterchild for deep gameplay. I will usually prefer a game with depth though, even if it is just something like Guardian of Light where you have fun little sub-missions to try as you play. Just a little something to break up the main game. Like COD and the “gimmicky” levels where you fly a plane or float in space.
02/01/2011 at 15:39
Member since: Feb 2009
I think it might have been handy here if you’d started off by defining depth from your perspective. When you say depth are you talking about closely resembling the real world, or that there’s a lot to do? Either of those definitions could fit assassins creed 2, one of my favourite games this generation. The thing is, i enjoyed it so much because there was a lot more to it than most games. If all games were like that, it wouldn’t have been anything new, and therefore not really enjoyable.
02/01/2011 at 16:20
Member since: Mar 2009
I’m starting Brotherhood tonight having been given it as a birthday present back in December by a friend. Looking forward to getting into it, I have fond memories of the first game. Depth is very important for this type of game I think, assuming you’ve got a good game to start off with. There’s no point adding loads depth in a game’s development until the gameplay mechanics are fun to play.
02/01/2011 at 17:37
Member since: Apr 2010
Why Brotherhood… How addicted that game left me…
Seriously, there is SOOOO much to do in that game.. It borders in insanity.. XD
02/01/2011 at 18:11
Member since: Nov 2009
I unwrapped Brotherhood for Christmas, and since then, I’ve playing nothing else (aside from the occasional iPhone game.) Though it felt a little tedious at first, as soon as the world opens up, it has you hooked. The online, which I was extremely skeptical about, is my biggest time-sponge; no two matches are ever the same, and there is a sense of adrenaline/paranoia which no other online game achieves.
I’m in the same boat as you Kris. I will wake up and reward myself with some AC:B if I get up early. I think to myself, “yeah, I will just claim a Borgia tower and then check on my contracts.” A couple of hours later, I have renovated a dozens stalls, and full-synced an entire chapter of the game.
02/01/2011 at 22:17
Member since: Apr 2010
The multiplayer is awesome! So different to anything else, some really tense moments.
02/01/2011 at 20:16
Member since: May 2010
I got Brotherhood for Xmas but have to play it (only a brief stint before dinner on boxing day). Unfortunately I have seem to avoided this addiction but have gained another one in the form of Medal of Honor.
02/01/2011 at 21:04
Member since: Jan 2010
@Kris
Just make sure you NEVER quit the game when you’re out of the Animus. Always save from WITHIN the Animus, otherwise your savegame will be lost forever.
02/01/2011 at 22:19
Member since: Aug 2009
I lost so many months to a PSP game and Demon’s Souls… aaaargh!!… there’s nothing like that
03/01/2011 at 03:17
Member since: Jan 2010
I really need to play it, I bought it day of release but I just can’t get into it, I’ve played about 2 hours of the story and a bit more than that online.
03/01/2011 at 10:31
Member since: Jan 2010
It makes games more realistic, but sometimes less accessible, which most publishers don’t like