supernormal
Member
Oh, I agree.
They are doing a brilliant job on what it actually is, and expanding naturally on what worked for the previous games. I'm not saying at all that these super-setpiece moments should somehow be open.
In fact, you can clearly see what is very much a "funnel" in level design in this video.
It starts with a shootout in the market, with different covers and possibilities. You jump into a car, and it has different paths and possibilities while being chased by the truck. Slowly, you make your way down and the level funnels into a chase to the convoy, again with some different paths. Eventually it funnels further into the rope sequence, then the truck, then the car again, all very linear. It all boils over in a shooting-only sequence with no camera-control to top it all off.
It's a very natural, impressive way to slowly take control away from the player as the stakes go up and the director takes over to show you what's happening.
They've mastered the linear setpiece -- as a PART of a more deep, thorough gameplay experience. I couldn't ask for more.
Well, I can ask for couch multiplayer
Excellent point. It's very different to cut from "full-on" gameplay straight to cut-scene or quicktime, than to do it the way ND has done it in this demo. Slowly taking control from the player step by step until they actually reach a cutscene in the end.