Action sequences?

[Edward VanHelgen]

Hey, haven't heard anything about the good old grog smelling action sequences. Are there gonna be any in Tales of MI? How do u generally feel about them?

I think if they are properly done they can be nice change of dynamics and contribute to the atmosphere, but only if they succeed not to be boring and tedious and still feel like an adventure, to be enough interesting and good implemented. Monkey Island 3 had few of them, like mini-games with cannon shooting or ship battles.

But, if sequences are boring and thrown to take your time then its much better to avoid them, as multi-genre generally is hard to balance and demands good implementation.

[onemanandhisdroid]

I don't like that term actually. I mean, ok it's just semantics. But this appears to be a word that's being used to seperate just about anything that may or may not require some hand/eye coordination from the ever so present McGuyver-conundrums, logics puzzles, sliders and all the other supposedly typical elements of your supposedly classical adventure game.

Personally I'd love to see these guys coming up with whatever kind of gameplay they think fits best. Be it insult sword fighting, spitting contests, cruising ships... oh wait, been there done that already.

[Gryffalio]

I like Insult Sword Fighting, even though game developers throughout the series seem to have been perplexed as to why it is so popular. But I do think they could maybe try to add in a skill-element to such things. Sure MI isn't an action-adventure, but especially in MI3, you come up beside a ship and all of a sudden you're sword-fighting the captain. All you have to do is insult them, I think possibly there should be an actiony bit, though it would indeed be very hard to combine that with comedyesque things such as Insult Sword Fighting.

I liked the ship-battles in MI3, but I don't think it really imrpoved the game that much, and some of the puzzles in MI4 (like Monkey Kombat) were just irritating. The boulder-throwing thing in MI4 was alright, though.

[Threepwood4Life]

I wouldn't mind a little mini-game to play maybe a little like Sam & Max had when you can travel around the streets in the DeSoto.

[Olaus Petrus]

Action sequences are a double-edged sword, they can ruin the entire game or add some nice flavour to it. I'm not a big fan of action sequences, but if it's nice and logical sequence with good controls, then I don't have anything against such idea.

[doodo!]

Maybe they will have a secret action sequence like they did in DOTT where you can play maniac mansion, instead you'll play Blood island in old school graphics ,and when you up the hole in the tomb it will be CMI graphics instead of old ones.

[PariahKing]

That banjo bit in Curse was great.

[Edward VanHelgen]

Originally Posted by PariahKing

That banjo bit in Curse was great.

yes, i agree

[Marduk]

I think too many "adventure" games are adding puzzles in place of the usual lateral thinking excercises because, in my oppinion, they CBA to come up with anything better to challenge the players. Broken Sword 3 had a bunch of tedious crate puzzles (you ha to move a series of crates to get over walls or through windows, etc) and BS4 had this seriously annoying "hacking" puzzles where you had to use the main character's PDA to get various information from the web where you had to make a line (that represented the line between you and the server you were trying to hack) reach a certain point by bypassing certain obsticles using reflecters and all sorts of rediculous crap. (The whole thing just sucked and not just because of the stupid PDA puzzles).

I know these might not be what you mean, necessarily, but if the developers of action games don't watch what they're doing they could end up adding things that detract from the game completely. A lot of people felt this way regarding Monkey Kombat. (which I liked, personally).

Maybe some mini games, to be played separately, could be packaged with TBI? maybe not even packaged, i dont know... just a little extra dose of piratey goodness as a bonus

[onemanandhisdroid]

Originally Posted by Marduk

I think too many "adventure" games are adding puzzles in place of the usual lateral thinking excercises because, in my oppinion, they CBA to come up with anything better to challenge the players.

That depends - I'd argue that your "typical lateral thinking exercise" is likely to be of the same painted-by-numbers-kind than anything. "Use newspaper on door".

It's not like these are superior by definition.The first chapter of the original Monkey Island game is still a quite fantastic example of proper out-of-that-rigid-box thinking. Or just the triumph of imagination over the tedious.


What does CBA mean by the way?

Broken Sword 3 had a bunch of tedious crate puzzles (you ha to move a series of crates to get over walls or through windows, etc)

Which probably were all compromise. What all this rather formulaic crate pushing was vaguely hinting at was something that was hardly ever touched in this endless sea of same same object inventory puzzles, levers, doors locked by sudokus and what else: environmental interaction or "puzzles" if you prefer that term.

That is, objects that can actually be touched, pushed or anything you can think of - which Revolution maybe thought was a bit of a stretch for people they thought were used to scenery that acts as a flat backdrop to a string of Jigsaws or whatever. But then I could be wrong.

[Edward VanHelgen]

as for broken sword i agree, crate-puzzle-things were not bad designed, but they were tedious with already problematic keyboard controls. as for hacking mini-game, it was fun at first, second time you would say hmm, again, well, ok, and then third time you would look at the walkthrough

the problem with action sequences in an adventure game is that they are not much worked-out and programmed to be as good as a standalone game. thats the main reason because it has to be playable and interesting so it would need more then just basic adventure programming.

[Jake]

I don't think we have any "action sequences." There are moments with an action-oriented or suspenseful presentation, and there will surely be some puzzles which involve realtime elements, but (like the rest of MI) the series is more or less free of minigame-type things, or full-on action gaming sequences.

[Gryffalio]

Originally Posted by onemanandhisdroid

What does CBA mean by the way?

"Can't be arsed" unless you're an American, in which case I believe it involves a reference to donkeys or some such

Originally Posted by Jake

I don't think we have any "action sequences." There are moments with an action-oriented or suspenseful presentation, and there will surely be some puzzles which involve realtime elements, but (like the rest of MI) the series is more or less free of minigame-type things, or full-on action gaming sequences.

I wanted Guybrush to pull out a couple of handguns, put some shades on, and run up the wall.

[Austin P]

I don't know about minigames in general, but I would like some small action sequences like the cannon part in the first chapter of Curse. For one, it's nice to feel genuinely piratey, and for another, they're just plain fun.

[SeanSeanston]

Originally Posted by onemanandhisdroid

That depends - I'd argue that your
It's not like these are superior by definition.The first chapter of the original Monkey Island game is still a quite fantastic example of proper out-of-that-rigid-box thinking. Or just the triumph of imagination over the tedious.

Ah, but that was in the first game so it's alright!

Much like how Indy 4 is made worse by the fact it has a few inconsistencies like RPGs in 1957 but Raiders is still great even though you could write a short book on what's wrong with the whole situation in that film.

Old stuff will always be treated as better than new stuff even when it's not true because nostalgia will always beat quality.

Originally Posted by Austin P

I don't know about minigames in general, but I would like some small action sequences like the cannon part in the first chapter of Curse. For one, it's nice to feel genuinely piratey, and for another, they're just plain fun.

Ya, they can be nice for a change of pace and whatnot.