I still count The Second Dream among the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I agree with you that the only reason it worked is because the game was so plotless until that point, but it’s not like the game wasn’t fun until then - it was just fun for reasons other than story. If the moment to moment gameplay hadn’t been engaging, having the big reveal be tens or hundreds of hours into the experience wouldn’t have worked at all.
The game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is another example of this sort of thing… There’s a moment near the end that hits really hard, and I feel like the whole design discussion for the game focused on that moment and the rest of the game was just a vessel to get the player to the point where it would hit hardest, and it does a great job of that. It’s only a 4 hour experience, though, not a 40+ hour one.
Oh, definitely. Warframe’s movement mechanics are second to none and the combat is sublime, albeit unbalanced as hell (though in the player’s favor at least). It went from a good game to one of the all-time greats once they added the narrative alongside handcrafted missions.
I think another cause of early Warframe burnout is needing to unlock the starchart. Its mostly linear design forces you to play several of each mission type to progress, including ones the majority of the playerbase hates. And before we got open world hubs like Cetus and Orb Vallis with activities like spear fishing, hunting and racing, there wasn’t much you could do to unwind within the game when you got bored of missions.
I still count The Second Dream among the best gaming experiences I’ve ever had. I agree with you that the only reason it worked is because the game was so plotless until that point, but it’s not like the game wasn’t fun until then - it was just fun for reasons other than story. If the moment to moment gameplay hadn’t been engaging, having the big reveal be tens or hundreds of hours into the experience wouldn’t have worked at all.
The game Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons is another example of this sort of thing… There’s a moment near the end that hits really hard, and I feel like the whole design discussion for the game focused on that moment and the rest of the game was just a vessel to get the player to the point where it would hit hardest, and it does a great job of that. It’s only a 4 hour experience, though, not a 40+ hour one.
Oh, definitely. Warframe’s movement mechanics are second to none and the combat is sublime, albeit unbalanced as hell (though in the player’s favor at least). It went from a good game to one of the all-time greats once they added the narrative alongside handcrafted missions.
I think another cause of early Warframe burnout is needing to unlock the starchart. Its mostly linear design forces you to play several of each mission type to progress, including ones the majority of the playerbase hates. And before we got open world hubs like Cetus and Orb Vallis with activities like spear fishing, hunting and racing, there wasn’t much you could do to unwind within the game when you got bored of missions.