9. The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of
Time
Considered by some the greatest
video game ever made.
Published by Nintendo
Designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and
Takashi Tezuka
Platform: N64, Gamecube, Wii (Virtual
Console)
Length: Long
Of Note:
Ocarina of Time is a "modern"
Zelda in just about every way, for all the good and bad that implies.
It's got Heart Pieces, puzzle dungeons, and an overworld with a good
number of secrets (but doesn't make them very hard to find). It is
also, unlike the original Legend of Zelda or later bits
of Link to the Past, depressingly sequential. But an
interesting thing about it is that, despite appearances, it isn't
completely linear. After getting the bow in the Forest Temple
(approximately level four if one's counting), he can actually choose
to tackle either the Fire Temple or Water Temple next. The game's
clues point to Fire, but nothing at that point prevents the player
from either entering or completing Water. In fact, this can be done
as soon as the bow is acquired, without having to fight the Forest
Temple's boss.
Unfortunately, that's where the break
in linearity ends. The temple after cannot be reached until a
certain cut scene happens, and it only occurs after all preceding
dungeons have been conquered.
The Game:
Ocarina of Time is nearly
worshipped these days, and I have no desire to incur the wrath of a
legion of fans by telling you that it sucks. Especially since I'm
quite fond of it myself. But I'm writing about open world games
here....
One thing about Ocarina of Time
that harms the feeling of being in a vast, interesting world is that
vast plain on which nothing much happens: Hyrule Field. It's a huge
open area, even by recent standards, but so very little happens
there. In Young Link's time there are only two enemies that appear
there, the gigantic, menacing Peahats during the day, which don't
even notice the player unless he approaches one, and at night the
continuously-appearing Stalchildren, which are easy to beat. In
Adult Link's time, after Ganondorf's taken over the land, even these
enemies stop showing up. Say what you want about Ganon, at least he
did something about the Peahats! In their place are ten Poes that
are usually invisible, and it isn't difficult to avoid being hurt by
them.
There's also little to do there other
than fight enemies. There are exits south to Lake Hylia, North to
Hyrule Town, southeast to Kokiri Forest, East to Zora's Domain,
Northeast to Kakariko Village and Death Mountain, and West to Gerudo
Desert. In the middle is Lon Lon Ranch. These are nice places to go
to, but they're all exits, and between them there's not a whole lot to
see other than a handful of bomb spots.
Yet an exploration game is ultimately
about finding cool things to see and do. If there is a mountain in
the background, by jove, I should be able to climb it. If there's a
tremendous lake, I should be able to reach the bottom. If there's a
waterfall, I should be able to look behind it. And when I get to
these places, there should be a reward waiting for me; if there's not
I feel cheated, but usually there is.
This has been the essence of the Zelda
overworld throughout the series. It is a way to inspire players to
go places just because it is cool to do so. It has been a highly
influential concept, and yet there are times when it seems like it
hasn't been influential enough.
Design Lessons:
The Zelda games proved the elemental
coolness of just hiding stuff in out-of-the-way places. Of course,
there must first be out-of-the-way places in which the stuff can be
hidden.
I think this kind of game is somewhat
ruined by the prevalence of strategy guides, either for purchase or
on the internet. A well-designed game can be completed without
having to find lots of secrets, but players who use guides to hunt
them all down end up shortening the experience far short of what was
intended. If any players are reading this, then consider my plea:
leave the guides on the shelf until you complete your first
playthrough! They really aren't all that essential, at least if
the game's worth anything.
Links:
Wikipedia
Speed Demos Archive
10. Crazy Taxi
Perhaps strangely, perhaps not, but
few arcade games feature exploratory elements. How can it be that a
driving game should feature them so prominently?
Published by Sega
Developed by Hitmaker
Platform: Arcade, Dreamcast,
Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube
Length: Arcade
Of Note:
There's a code that can be entered from
the driver select screen that puts the game into "Another Day"
mode. In it, the layout of the city is exactly the same, but the
player begins facing the other direction at the start, the fares are
all different, and the flow is generally reversed. There also seem
to be fewer fares in this mode, and the player ends up driving routes
that never occur in the normal game. The result is that the feel of
the play is much different. Each of the sequels offered its own
"Another Day" mode as well, with the Dreamcast-only Crazy
Taxi 2 even offering "days" that were downloadable from the
game's website. I do not know if they're still available.
The Game:
Is this really an open world game? I
maintain that it is, and it's not even a huge stretch. But a basic
description of play is mandated here.
You drive a cab in a section of a large
city. You start out with a quantity of time, 50 seconds by default.
Scattered around are customers with dollar signs over their heads.
Park near one and he climbs in. When someone is picked up, time is
added to be main clock, and a fare clock begins. The color of the
dollar sign indicates how far he wants to go, with longer routes
granting more time and money. He says where he wants to be dropped
off, and an arrow shows the way. Make it there in time and park and
you earn money, and a small time bonus if you're fast enough. Find
another fare and keep going until the main clock runs out. There,
that wasn't so bad.
The exploration comes from the fact
that, despite this being an arcade driving game, it's not a race.
You can actually drive anywhere you want, and often usefully so.
There are also no checkpoints to race to, and no opposition to try to
beat out. The game is purely a race against the clock, and there is
nothing other than the timer itself to force you along.
In most 3D racing games, finding
shortcuts is occasionally a helpful aid, and they're often
treacherous enough to make traversing them difficult even if you know
the way. In Crazy Taxi, finding the way is part of the game.
Finding fares is also important; most people you can pick up cycle,
over time, between potential destinations, but knowing where they are
can help the player to plan ahead to form a route that extends beyond
the current fare.
You see, the city is laid out roughly
in a circle. The starting location is the University, and there are
a number of areas the player passes through on his way. Each area
has a few possible destinations, and a number of fares that might
want to be dropped off within that neighborhood (red dollar-signs) or
in another neighborhood (yellow or green dollar-signs). But there's
also another factor: fares that want to be dropped off further
counter-clockwise along the cycle tend to be worth a little extra
time. In particular, fares towards the end of the cycle who want to
be dropped off at, or even beyond, the University are worth a bit of
extra time, and customers picked up at the University or the areas
right after it are worth much more bonus time than any others in the
game. But it's difficult to find fares who want to travel the last
leg to the University! As the game continues, time bonuses from
picking people up are shaved progressively thinner, and these
lucrative trips can be lifesavers.
It's not enough just to pick any
customer up. If you drop someone off at a destination, then drive a
long way to pick up the next fare, you're going to lose far more time
than it's worth. The trick is to find a fare that wants to be
dropped off at the beginning of a valuable route. Those routes can
only be learned through long experience.
Further, once a customer is picked up
he is unavailable to be picked up again for the remainder of that
game. It's possible to play a one-credit game of Crazy Taxi for
almost an hour, but around halfway through that the player will
notice that all the good fares have been taken. That's when the
exploration elements come in, for in addition to the fares that are
lurking around the drop-off points, there are other fares scattered
around the city. Usually those are for longer routes, and a few
particular fares, like those on hard-to-reach rooftops or under water
at the marina, will ask to be taken clear across town, and score
substantial points and time. There are even a couple of little-seen
destinations, Sail Street and Fresh Avenue, that many players never
see until they start checking out those side roads and hidden nooks
for off-the-path fares.
The result is, beginning and
intermediate players can do well at Crazy Taxi by just picking people
up and taking them where they want to go, but to get really great
scores requires knowing the ins and outs of the virtual city as well
as a real cabby. And it's exploration, of terrain, of routes, of
traffic patterns, and of fares, that makes truly high-scoring games
possible.
Design Lessons:
Crazy Taxi's exploratory elements are
unique in that they're limited by the need to continually earn extra
time. Just driving down side roads randomly will doom the player to
an early Game Over. To get a good look around while continuing the
game requires finding fares that go where you'd want to go anyway.
In a way it's like a board game with a branching path: from KFC, you
can either go to the Church, the Heliport, to Tower Records, or to
FILA. The way you go depends on your knowledge of who'll want to go
where. The high-level player will want to travel to places with good
routes, and not be dropped off at a place where no fares remain.
When playing past that 40th minute, the strategy involved in finding
fares can be surprisingly involved, making Crazy Taxi a game with
tremendous hidden depth.
The main way the game increases
difficulty is by decreasing the extra time awarded for each pickup
down to a minimum value, which is constant for each route. So many
things can slow down the player between destinations that the game
has what amounts to a substantial random element, something nearly
unheard-of in exploration games. Well there is one exploring game
that features that, but we'll be talking about that soon enough....
Links:
Wikipedia
GameFAQs
KLOV