Beyond Hammertime And Hammerspace
Hola,
Anyone who has played video games is familiar with the concept of Hammerspace, that nether world in which useful items are stored. Think to the end of a level in Goldeneye, when Bond would put the gun behind his back and it would disappear. Where did it go? To Hammerspace, my friend.
Video game inventories are strange things. Where does Gordon Freeman carry all of those guns? What happened to Leon Kennedy's brief case? Why do the items Snake is carrying in his backpack not affect his stamina? Moreover, how important are visual representations of items and inventories?
Take Final Fantasy XII. Your characters can hold a seemingly unlimited amount of items, weapons, armor, accessories and loot (but just 99 of any given thing?). Yet only weapons and shields are shown in-game. I think it says something about Japanese character design that the various protectives you acquire get no graphics. Can't have the player mucking up their appearances, can we? Though I suppose this helps keep them visually distinct. Anyway, compare this to an American RPG like Oblivion or World of Warcraft where all weapons and armor are present and accounted for on screen.
So, is a realistic inventory system truly desirable? Does utilizing "Hammerspace" make a game less enjoyable? Some people seem to think so. Personally, I appreciate the effort when it is made, but in the vast majority of cases it does not affect the gameplay and is therefore unimportant.
However, as games aim more and more for realism, I think it will become increasingly important. Take the upcoming horror game Alan Wake (keep in mind I know very little about it). Seems as though having life-like carrying capacity would only help the tone and atmosphere. Pulling a flashlight out of thin-air might do something to shatter the illusion of the world and remove the ability of the game to scare.
Halo popularized limiting the number of weapons a you could hold in a First Person Shooter. However, until Halo 3, there was no way to tell what your multiplayer opponents were carrying in reserve. By including a visual of of their backup armament, players gain more information that will help them make strategic decisions.
In conclusion, I have no idea what I'm talking about and want to stop working on this post, as it has consumed me for the past few days. Hopefully, I have at least provided some incoherent food for thought. Comments are welcome.
See You Space Cowboy,
Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV
5 comments:
Oni, a Bungie-developed action game for the PS2 and PC, had a ONE weapon limit. It was an awesome, if flawed, game.
Additionally: Hammerspace is great, but my favorite inventory system of all time is RE4's. And you didn't even mention it.
I did too.
"What happened to Leon Kennedy's brief case?"
So there. If I talked about the inventory mechanics themselves, RE4 would have gotten more time in the spotlight, but I was more focused on the graphical representations.
Ah, fair enough.
I really like how they did it in Megaman Legends 2: Megaman has a teeny tiny backpack to let you know he puts crap in there.
In Beyond Good and Evil you de-materialize everything into a small thing Jade hooks on her belt. They show it in cut-scenes and everything so its consistant, and I don't feel like they used it as sort of an excuse. It is an explanation though, but I can't really see how this would impact a game. The "realism" would just up the difficulty due to the lack of items and what not.
A lot of FPSes have players run slower while using heavier guns as a balancing mechanic. In the vein of dkaufman's observation about Snake's inventory not affecting his stamina, I'd like to see weapons in inventory slow people down. It would add realism and a cool strategy element when choosing what gear to bring to a fight, but I'm not aware of any game that does this.
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