T w e n t y S i d e d
This game is not remotely fair. The constraints under which it was developed were unfair, and that unfairness is passed along to the player in the form of brutally unforgiving and occasionally impossible gameplay. The game isn’t mean or sadistic. It’s just indifferent.
Receiver was developed as part of a challenge to make an FPS in just seven days. For reference, that’s like trying to teach yourself Portuguese over your lunchbreak. Whatever faults the game might have, I have to give it credit for rising to an absurd and arbitrary challenge.
FPS games are routinely the most ambitious and expensive titles produced by the industry. The first-person view means the camera will be close to the scenery, which necessitates lots of detail. The genre is both insanely popular and deeply entrenched, meaning gameplay needs to be carefully designed and meticulously polished to even have a chance at standing out from the crowd. The violence creates a desire for context, which leads to cutscenes, which leads to outrageously expensive motion capture and model design, along with professional voice acting. Too much constant shooting gets to be numbing and monotonous, so you break up the firefights with set-piece stunts, moments of visual spectacle, and diverting vehicle sections that basically end up being a mechanically distinct game. (Which must also be carefully tested and balanced.)
 |
Continue reading ⟩⟩ “Receiver”
