Why is linearity considered bad?

Apparently those pauses in the action were playing the game.

Wasdie

Modern shooters are criticised in a way that makes them comparable to Time Crisis but with control over the pcs movement. Stop and pop relentless shooting, built around setpieces and moments which more often than not removed the player. Not that it can be all bad at all, see Bulletstorm, but it is a common trend that's overused.

Just like brown mazes and key hunts in the 90s.

Its bad if done wrong, regardless of game.

Beats me. Linearity is perfectly fine. It doesn't matter if a game is linear/streamlined or non-linear/openword, or if a game has a short length orr long length. What matters is the actual content present within the game. Some of my favorite games are linear.

A game doesn't need a huge world with 2,000 hours worth of exploration to be good.

The moral of the story is that FF13 is horrible and hopefully no one attempts that again. Linearity is okay, but I don't want to keep pressing A all day. Give us SOME choices, I want to actually feel like I'm playing a game rather than an interactive DVD. That said, FF13's story was also horrible. This is the most important part. If the story was good, people would have beared through the horrible gameplay.Famiking

The problem is when linear is taken to the extreme. Whenthe developers throw the player down a hallway of shooting galleries from start to finish, with scripted events happening all around them and not offering them any freedom/choice or variety of scenarios.

I miss FPS games with multiple objectives and a variety of gameplay scenarios, it wasn't just "kill these respawning enemies and move forward". Look at TimeSplitters 2, for example. There are sections where YOU were given the switch to turn on the action button when YOU wanted to. Options to stay unnoticed. Side Objectives for you to complete. Some exploration thrown in for good measure.

[QUOTE="Famiking"]The moral of the story is that FF13 is horrible and hopefully no one attempts that again. Linearity is okay, but I don't want to keep pressing A all day. Give us SOME choices, I want to actually feel like I'm playing a game rather than an interactive DVD. That said, FF13's story was also horrible. This is the most important part. If the story was good, people would have beared through the horrible gameplay.Heil68

That's a large field in Gran Pulse, full of monsters and treasure, but honestly I found the more "open" parts of the game to be the least interesting. The more linear areas are more detailed and have more interesting design. The field above is fairly boring.

[QUOTE="Famiking"]The moral of the story is that FF13 is horrible and hopefully no one attempts that again. Linearity is okay, but I don't want to keep pressing A all day. Give us SOME choices, I want to actually feel like I'm playing a game rather than an interactive DVD. That said, FF13's story was also horrible. This is the most important part. If the story was good, people would have beared through the horrible gameplay.Heil68

That's a large field in Gran Pulse, full of monsters and treasure, but honestly I found the more "open" parts of the game to be the least interesting. The more linear areas are more detailed and have more interesting design. The field above is fairly boring.

Most games are linear. I guess it's when games are linear to the point where you notice it while playing it could be a problem. It's the same with open world games, where some feel completely directionless, while others are pretty fun.

I've never had a problem with linearity.

[QUOTE="Famiking"]The moral of the story is that FF13 is horrible and hopefully no one attempts that again. Linearity is okay, but I don't want to keep pressing A all day. Give us SOME choices, I want to actually feel like I'm playing a game rather than an interactive DVD. That said, FF13's story was also horrible. This is the most important part. If the story was good, people would have beared through the horrible gameplay.Heil68

I don't think linearity is a bad thing. Some of my favorite linear games of this generation include Dead Space and Dead Space 2 as well as CoD games such as MW, MW2, WaW, and BO. I also like linear games such as the Halo series and the Medal of Honor series. Several modern 007 games are good, like Everything or Nothing, From Russia With Love, and Blood Stone.

[QUOTE="Famiking"]The moral of the story is that FF13 is horrible and hopefully no one attempts that again. Linearity is okay, but I don't want to keep pressing A all day. Give us SOME choices, I want to actually feel like I'm playing a game rather than an interactive DVD. That said, FF13's story was also horrible. This is the most important part. If the story was good, people would have beared through the horrible gameplay.Heil68