The game commits a multitude of sins, but today I just want to talk about two fairly common narrative devices that Zeno Clash manages to completely foul up.
1) The Diegetic Tutorial. In these increasingly common sequences, a character (or, occasionally, delusion or sentient computer program) within the game teaches you how to play the game under the pretense of putting you through a training course. Now, I understand the desire to couch everything crunchy within something fluffy, to always ensconce a mechanic in a bit of story and flavor. Theoretically, relating every game concept through the fictional world aids immersion.
The problem with this is mostly that it causes frustration, especially if you're replaying the game. Many games rely on control conceits common within their genres, so tutorials are often completely unnecessary for experienced players; a person who plays first-person shooters regularly does not need to be told that W moves forward and mouse1 attacks. Worse, these sequences are far too rarely removed from the main game and often cannot be skipped. This all works against the intent because nothing breaks immersion quite like being compelled to scream "I KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME, PLEASE LET ME PLAY THE GAME" at your screen.
These sequences really work best when they're not a part of the main game—perhaps behind a "Tutorial" option at the main menu—or when they can be skipped easily. The latter is trivial to implement: your instructor/sensei/evaluator/robot asks "Do you know how to X?" and then you answer in the negative to start the tutorial or in the affirmative to skip it. Zeno Clash, impressively, manages to screw this up even worse than most games. Not only is the tutorial a mandatory but thoroughly unimportant part of the main story, but (presumably to ensure that the game's Half-Life 2-style chapter structure doesn't let you skip past it easily) it's broken up into three parts that occur during three different chapters. And then, to really rub it in, the controls for the game are incredibly simple (yet somehow still frustratingly inconsistent*) and there's nothing in the tutorial actually worth learning.
2) The Lure of the Unknown. It's common in many different media for creators to attempt to pull the audience into a story by starting them with insufficient information to understand the earliest events of the plot. The author hopes that the mystery will entice the audience to stick around, wondering "Who's that man? Why does he have a gun? Whoa, where'd that robot come from? Wait, am I in the wrong theater?"
Sometimes this works beautifully, but frankly I think it fails more often than it succeeds. Frequently it ends up looking amateurish and driving the audience away because they have difficulty identifying with characters who are strangers and caring about situations that they know nothing about.
Even in the cases where it works, though, it's vital to open the information valve pretty early on. Regardless of their quality, enigmas grow stale quickly if not hydrated with a little bit of insight now and again, and this is where Zeno Clash fails in a way that seems almost malicious. This mysterious woman that travels with us, what's her story? Who is she? How do the Corwids survive long enough to grow into adults if they're so single minded about things that they never stop to eat? How did ANYONE not immediately know Father-Mother's "secret"? What happened to the gun I was carrying? Why can't I just sneak back into town myself? Who could possibly have thought that ending was a good idea? All these questions and more, Zeno Clash boldly refuses to answer.
Seriously, there is a woman with you in nearly every scene in the game and the only thing you learn about her is her name. Why did she decide to hang out with you? What drives her? The game's only response is a resounding "Who cares? She's not actually a character! We just needed some reason for the protagonist to slowly divulge uninteresting memories."
*You press Spacebar while walking sideways to step out of the way of enemy attacks, but this only works if your hands are empty. If you're holding a weapon, Spacebar throws the weapon instead. Several times during the game, you are expected to fight charging enemies who can only be damaged with weapons, but if you try to dodge to the side when they charge you all that happens is you throw your hammer at them and then get flattened. Brilliant design decisions, guys.
1) The Diegetic Tutorial. In these increasingly common sequences, a character (or, occasionally, delusion or sentient computer program) within the game teaches you how to play the game under the pretense of putting you through a training course. Now, I understand the desire to couch everything crunchy within something fluffy, to always ensconce a mechanic in a bit of story and flavor. Theoretically, relating every game concept through the fictional world aids immersion.
The problem with this is mostly that it causes frustration, especially if you're replaying the game. Many games rely on control conceits common within their genres, so tutorials are often completely unnecessary for experienced players; a person who plays first-person shooters regularly does not need to be told that W moves forward and mouse1 attacks. Worse, these sequences are far too rarely removed from the main game and often cannot be skipped. This all works against the intent because nothing breaks immersion quite like being compelled to scream "I KNOW HOW TO PLAY THE GAME, PLEASE LET ME PLAY THE GAME" at your screen.
These sequences really work best when they're not a part of the main game—perhaps behind a "Tutorial" option at the main menu—or when they can be skipped easily. The latter is trivial to implement: your instructor/sensei/evaluator/robot asks "Do you know how to X?" and then you answer in the negative to start the tutorial or in the affirmative to skip it. Zeno Clash, impressively, manages to screw this up even worse than most games. Not only is the tutorial a mandatory but thoroughly unimportant part of the main story, but (presumably to ensure that the game's Half-Life 2-style chapter structure doesn't let you skip past it easily) it's broken up into three parts that occur during three different chapters. And then, to really rub it in, the controls for the game are incredibly simple (yet somehow still frustratingly inconsistent*) and there's nothing in the tutorial actually worth learning.
2) The Lure of the Unknown. It's common in many different media for creators to attempt to pull the audience into a story by starting them with insufficient information to understand the earliest events of the plot. The author hopes that the mystery will entice the audience to stick around, wondering "Who's that man? Why does he have a gun? Whoa, where'd that robot come from? Wait, am I in the wrong theater?"
Sometimes this works beautifully, but frankly I think it fails more often than it succeeds. Frequently it ends up looking amateurish and driving the audience away because they have difficulty identifying with characters who are strangers and caring about situations that they know nothing about.
Even in the cases where it works, though, it's vital to open the information valve pretty early on. Regardless of their quality, enigmas grow stale quickly if not hydrated with a little bit of insight now and again, and this is where Zeno Clash fails in a way that seems almost malicious. This mysterious woman that travels with us, what's her story? Who is she? How do the Corwids survive long enough to grow into adults if they're so single minded about things that they never stop to eat? How did ANYONE not immediately know Father-Mother's "secret"? What happened to the gun I was carrying? Why can't I just sneak back into town myself? Who could possibly have thought that ending was a good idea? All these questions and more, Zeno Clash boldly refuses to answer.
Seriously, there is a woman with you in nearly every scene in the game and the only thing you learn about her is her name. Why did she decide to hang out with you? What drives her? The game's only response is a resounding "Who cares? She's not actually a character! We just needed some reason for the protagonist to slowly divulge uninteresting memories."
*You press Spacebar while walking sideways to step out of the way of enemy attacks, but this only works if your hands are empty. If you're holding a weapon, Spacebar throws the weapon instead. Several times during the game, you are expected to fight charging enemies who can only be damaged with weapons, but if you try to dodge to the side when they charge you all that happens is you throw your hammer at them and then get flattened. Brilliant design decisions, guys.
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