I finished "Brothers in Arms" last night, on difficult. The last mission is a real corker - I won't spoil it for anyone, just to say that it's worth playing through "Carentan" just to get to see the final level. It's a got an awful lot of what makes BIA so compelling: drama, confusion, clever tactics. But it also managed something else, which is what I'm going to talk about today.
We all know that genuinely free-roaming games are a myth. There have been some genuinely good attempts at doing it - GTA being the prime example of course. But even the GTA games stretched belief with the way they had cities spread across long, narrow islands and closed bridges between them for long stretches at a time. With FPS games it's even worse - often, level design can make or break an FPS so it's vital that there are walls, corridors, dead ends and so forth in order to keep the game interesting.
A lot of FPS games are set inside sealed areas - like the tournament levels in Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament for example. This is fine. But a lot more have outdoor sections, or are set in what is supposed to be a much more open world and of course BIA falls in to this category. There have been a number of occasions in BIA where I've wanted to climb over a particular fence or blockade but found my passage restricted - I'd found the edge of the level design. This spoils the atmosphere somewhat. Are we really expected to believe that Sgt Baker wouldn't climb over a pile of sandbags to get a good spot to flank the enemy?
After I'd finished the last level, I suddenly realised that I hadn't had a moment like that in the entire level. Why? Not because of some clever physical level design - there's always got to be limitations in that regard. No, it's simply because the excitement of the level and it's compelling narrative kept me so enthralled that I was never tempted to try and look for the edges and get to parts I'd never go to. I wanted to complete my objectives and so was driven on to do so.
A lesson there, I think for most game designers. Keep us enthralled by the game and we'll forgive you anything.
No, really, we will!