“I’m just trying to avoid a charge of workplace negligence”
Rediscovering the wistful world of pre-open-world shooters in HALO: COMBAT EVOLVED
oin me now on a journey through time and space. To a time when it seemed like there was suddenly more space. When first-person shooter developers, wielding the power of the new millennium’s 3D technology, began to push back the borders of their levels.
JIt began in the military simulators, which plonked players down in open terrain and asked them to crawl on their bellies through hostile territory. Games like Operation Flashpoint offered extraordinary freedom to commandeer vehicles and tackle scenarios from any angle. But they were also cruel; a single bullet could put a stop to your experimentation.
Though it’s not often credited as such, Halo: Combat Evolved marked the shift of that open-ended design to the mainstream. Yeah, there’s a lot of linear action in strangely spiritual underground monoliths. But in between those bits, Halo opens up— as far as there’s room to open up on a giant ring spinning in space, anyway.
In the green, widescreen spaces where its pitched battles take place, Halo feels like a real sandbox shooter. You might blow up a Covenant pilot
Led men to their deaths, then reloaded. never actually given any explicit directive to look after them, but I’ve found it nearly impossible to ignore their diminishing numbers over the course of a mission.
MASTER AND COMMANDER
Early on, I reloaded a checkpoint and discovered that, if I picked up the sniper rifle on a ridge overlooking a Covenant base rather than storming the front door, I’d be able to save more marine lives. And ever since I’ve been unable to escape that nagging sense of moral responsibility. I don’t know if Bungie envisioned Master Chief doing a headcount at the end of every skirmish like a teacher on a school trip, but that’s how I’ve ended up playing him. No need to thank me—I’m just trying very hard to avoid a charge of workplace negligence.
Oddly enough, Halo: Combat Evolved feels a little more freeform than some of the open-world shooters that followed, with their fondness for rote tasks. The scale continued to grow, but the possibilities became fixed and familiar. Before industry standards set in, there was a golden age where you stepped out onto rolling hills and weren’t sure what the limits were.
to how quickly I click each of my character actions on their relaxed refresh cycle, but rather on how much I explore and discover and apply prior to each fight.
ROCK N TROLL
It’s easy to breeze through Grimrock 2’ s larger spaces without digging around in the corners, but that’s how you miss buried treasure and hidden switches withholding better gear and vital supplies. These are the powdery minerals, the essential satisfaction that comes from a videogame giving you a treat for looking at it closely.
And that’s kind of what I’m looking for right now. After a busy release season and being in lockdown, I’m looking for something that cuts right to the cerebral cortex. I’m exploring, taking notes on a lovely digital map, slashing up werewolves and wizards, dodging traps, and thinking of literally nothing else. It’s the kind of game PC Gamer was built to broadcast, but also the kind of near perfect thing that gets buried in the glut of good stuff we get every month lately. Grimrock 2 is pure and potent, a game of pleasures and themes. Find it under ‘Computer Game’ in the dictionary.
Demon Hunter would have exhibited a win rate in the 60s.”
STONE COLD
Amongst the many things that were overtuned about Demon Hunter was Skull of Guldan: It draws three cards and then discounts them by three mana each when ‘Outcast’, a unique Demon Hunter mechanic that confers an additional benefit when the card is played from the left or rightmost position in your hand. Outcast is cool because it makes the order in which you play your cards crucial, enabling for comparatively high skill turns. The notion that Demon Hunter is a class that requires skill will no doubt lead to some laughter at the back, as any oppressive class which doles out vast amounts of damage invariably gets accused of being braindead, but combined with its uniquely cheap