We looked for answers in level design books. This article examines the methods Bandai used to disorient players, and attempts to answer the following question: How does the experience of getting lost contribute to the gameplay in Code Vein? We looked for answers in the game. We’re certain that Bandai wanted us lost, and the developers considered the challenge of map navigation fundamental to this game. We would have enjoyed the game like a drink of pure water, rather than a bottle of mezcal with a worm inside. We would have fought more mobs per minute. Certainly we would have better enjoyed the game if its maps had a linear dungeon format, with mobs in the tunnels, bosses at checkpoints, and treasures in the corners. It goes without saying that we despised being lost in Code Vein. Once you’ve cleared the trash from a Code Vein map, there’s no more fighting unless you return to the last waypoint and reset the map, destroying any forward progress you’d made. Passing time like a rat in a laboratory maze was equal parts frustrating and boring. No real-world city’s directions could so have alluded us no paper maze could so have consumed us and no puzzle game would have left us without a clue for hours on end. That’s a conservative estimate, but it’s still more than a 24-hour day. The minimap was useless.Īll in all, we spent at least 27 hours lost in a virtual environment. Sometimes they walked the same roundabout path ten times in a row-a series of mistakes had become a habit. They pulled levers, opened doors, and climbed stairs that led to dead-ends or places they’d been before. The path that does not stray had disappeared. They’d abandoned the true way through the map. At least 30 percent of the time Code Vein was running, though, our Revenant avatars weren’t fighting or listening to tales of Blood Beads and broken hearts. On tough bosses, we wasted ages dying and reloading, correcting our mistakes. We spent hours watching cutscenes and upgrading gear and skills. Playing two to four hours per evening over a month, we invested about 90 hours in the game. Yesterday we completed every main Code Vein map. Inferno by Dante Alighieri, Canto 1, translated by Allen Mandelbaum The lake within my heart felt terror present.” Which serves to lead men straight along all roads.įor through the night of sorrow I had spent, I looked on high and saw its shoulders clothed That had harassed my heart with so much fear. The point where I abandoned the true path.īut when I’d reached the bottom of a hill “When I had journeyed half of our life’s way,įor I had lost the path that does not stray.
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