A bad start is a bad start
This weekend I picked up a copy of Aquanox 2 from the bargain bin. The game is set under water and you captain a small vessel and the main gameplay involves shooting at various enemies. The first mission in the game has what I consider a significant design flaw.
No matter what you do, you can’t win the first mission in the game. Your objective is to take someone out, but he flees before you can do what you’re supposed to do. At this point, the game tells you that you have failed your objective and let’s you continue on your way. I thought I just had to get to grips with the controls, so I tried again - Aquanox let’s you replay your last mission whenever you want to - but the result was the same. As it turns out, you simply can’t reach your first objective, no matter how often you try.
If you ask me, it’s not a very smart idea to start the player off with a forced failure. The first part should be about learning the ropes of the game, especially in a game that can be tricky to control, like Aquanox. Starting out with a mission that is doomed to fail doesn’t really create the ideal learning experience. Chances are the player will feel frustrated with the game. Even if she doesn’t quit right away, it may shape her opinion about the game and she’ll be harsher in her judgement when she encounters small problems that she otherwise might be able to forgive.
In the case of Aquanox, the problem could have been solved in several ways. The easiest would’ve been to change the mission objective. Instead of destroy the enemy it could be changed to chase off the enemy, because that is exactly what you’ll end up doing. Even if you don’t want to change the mission objective, you might still consider telling the player that she succeeded at her mission, even if the enemy wasn’t destroyed. That at least tells the player she is starting off on the right track.
(19 votes, average: 4.26 out of 5)
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eddies said,
Comment • August 30, 2007 @ 15:07
wow after reading the reveiw i am pretty much annoyed i dont know why developers nowadays making games insanely hard as this one previously i was playing prince of persia and i gave up at the middle because it was too difficult .nowadays user friendly games are not being made .and yes you are quite right that a frustrated mind cannot able to play anymore if he meets failure frequently
kind regards
eddies
www.naturalgames.com
William Willing said,
Comment • September 1, 2007 @ 22:10
A few months back I was playing Nebulus for the first time. It’s an old game, first released in 1987. What struck me was how unforgiving this game is, right from the beginning. After just a step or two, you fall into the water and die, not because you made a mistake, but because the ground falls out from underneath you even though you had no way of knowing this was going to happen. Of course, when you retry, you jump over that spot and all is well, but the fact that the game starts out that way just baffles me.
If you think about it, games used to be a lot more unforgiving. Just think about graphical adventure games (they weren’t quite point ‘n click yet): in the early ones you could die in quite a lot of ways. After a while, game designers learned that dying and getting stuck didn’t make the gaming experience more enjoyable.
In general, I believe newer games do get more forgiving. Casual games clearly show that game designers have realised that not everyone is looking for a challenge in their games. Still, that doesn’t mean that all games get it right…
Deceth said,
Comment • January 18, 2008 @ 21:41
The start of the game is extremely important. The game I’m developing, BattleCity Classic, is an online only game, meaning players compete against others players in real-time. The tricky part about developing this kind of gaming environment is that what first time players will be exposed to is difficult to control because we cannot predict in advance how other players will interact with the new players and this interaction and gaming experience will vary for every new player depending who they meet and what sort of battle is going on the first time they play.
The main challenge is exposing the players to the most fun aspects of the game as soon as possible so they get hooked and keep playing, while protecting them from those evil players who would gladly destroy and annihilate new players.
Ahh, I love game design 
Amelia f said,
Comment • April 11, 2008 @ 23:15
hi thats ok things u have got in here
u could make it a lot better
anyway bye
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chico said,
Comment • August 27, 2007 @ 14:56
Hello WIlliam, long time no see!
That was a good observation. And although I like the idea of giving the player a sense of incompleteness at the beginning of the game (to set the introductory mood), telling the player that he has failed when he has done everything possible is not only unfair, but probably a major issue from a playtesting perspective.
Best,
Chico