Less IS More! NOT Bigger.Badder.Bigger...Broken
I am pretty much done with GW2 already. I have a series of disappointments. Here are a few from a laundry list. The maps are just too complicated and cluttered. Bigger. Badder. Bigger. How about... Cluttered. Confused. Cluttered. GW was a simple premise that was a big hit. GW2 seems to have taken sequal to mean "take what worked in the original, and add so much to it, that it loses it's charm." It does not play like it's predecessor. I am headed back there. A #1 tenet in design is KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid), put another way... Less is more. There is so much more distraction in this game, that most of the time, if I am lucky enough to vanquish an opponent, I am not sure who it was that I vanquished, and half the time I have no idea where my vanquisher was. Top that off with so many layers of special fx visuals (blasts, flame, explosions, electricity) it's a wonder anyone can see anything. I generally just start blasting away, unable to see what I am blasting at, hoping to get a score before being inevitably vanquished myself. Where's the skill and gratification in that. Witness by example, the new Aquatic Center ( a repurposed GW1 Garden Center ) is decidedly more cluttered and modified, than the Garden Center. Changing the lighting and color palette, and adding so much clutter just makes it uncomfortable, not fun. There doesn't seem to be any consideration for contrasting colors at all. It just makes a cluttered scene harder to distiguish features and things that should matter. Just because Frostbite can handle the polys, textures, transparencies, layers, reflections, refractions, dynamics, physics and whatevs, doesn't mean a game sequal has to push the limits of said game engine and hardware. Does it? The maps seemed considerably more thought out. I wholeheartedly appreciate the staggering effort that goes into creating a game like this. It is a beautiful achievement and a monument to the creative process, on all fronts. I am in an similar industry to game dev. Gamers don't come close to understanding the blood and sweat that goes into creating a game such as this. How many read the game credits in the Backyard home base kiosk. I did. All the way to the end. I'm just saying it's a tad distracting and overwhelming and it interferes with gameplay. My lowly and humble 2 cents and initial thoughts. Like I said, I am amidst a much wordier offline tome. I am going take care of my eye tick now, then go back to GW1 and relax.
