Returning to unfinished games

Tafdolphin wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:Look at the trophy and achievement stats, most people don't seem to finish games

This is a really unique and interesting challenge for those who design narrative heavy games of considerable length. How many people walk out of a movie they're enjoying, or put down a good book and never pick it up again? Narrative designers can't rely on a killer denouement or that the story will only make sense in the third act because, as you say, most people simply don't get there. Games are perhaps the only medium where a decent story can spool itself out over anywhere from 5 to 100 hours and whose consumers often don't care one jot about the story being told.

I'm sure I saw a headline about this recently but my ravaged attention span meant it passed me by in a fug of similar recommendations. Thanks twitter.

Honestly? Games are just generally too long. Everything often feels the equivalent of a multi-season box set, and anything that isn't will get derided for being "poor value". I would absolutely love there to be more narrative driven games clocking in at only a couple of hours, but the market seems openly hostile towards them.

I really enjoyed Subsurface Circular and Quarantine Circular (from Mike Bithell of Thomas Was Alone fame), which are pitched as "shorts" and designed to each be played in a single sitting, but they seem to have passed the wider gaming world by without much note. I think this is probably because of their length. That length of game is still in its real infancy, and you'll see people call any game like that "experimental" or similar. The Stanley Parable is perhaps the most well received game with such a short runtime and focus. Telltale games and similar are comparable, but use the "episodic" approach which still makes them more series like than film like in how they are consumed.

With huge open world games, the stories we often remember are the smaller ones, not the overarching plot. Think of The Witcher III and the Bloody Baron quest which won the Golden Joystick. These games are often more like collections of stories featuring the same world and protagonist, rather than a single narrative that the player experiences across 80 hours.

You're correct that it's all tied to ROI I think. When a $60 game could take me 100 hours to complete but a narrative title lasting 2 or 3 costs $15 or $30 of course they're going to come off negatively in a straight comparison.

Strangely enough it seems to be the mobile market where examples of shorter narrative games have flourished. 80 Days and Florence are amongst the most affecting titles I've played in years and each takes around 45 minutes to play through. I haven't played Bury Me My Love but it's apparently much the same. Each of these cost around £6 at launch and this coupled with the relatively lower reputation of mobile gaming as a platform meant they were readily accepted and became successes.

I fully agree that games often seem too long these days and it can make completing them feel like a chore. Developers seem afraid to make a game that isn't full of stuff to do, no matter how tedious those things may be and it feels like every other game these days wants to be 'open world'. I'd much rather have a single player game that's shorter or more linear but has a strong, concise narrative. Value shouldn't be all about how many hours a game can fill but how much fun it actually is. Unfortunately as OrangeRKN says, the market seems to be completely against this.

One of my favourite gaming experiences last year was 'What Remains of Edith Finch' - I played through it in one sitting and was absolutely gripped from beginning to end, it was just a brilliant experience. On the other end of the scale was Mafia 3, the first two Mafia games are some of my favourite games because of their strong narrative - both were heavily criticised upon release for being too linear and lacking things to do in comparison to GTA. Mafia 3 is more open ended and does have more in the way of side quests, it's also a tedious grind at times which is a shame because the story at the heart of it is brilliant. Being trimmed down and having half the padding lifted would have made it a significantly better game. If I wasn't so invested in the series I would almost certainly have packed it in part way through.

I think it's a really interesting comparison from Tafdolphin about other entertainment. Generally a book, tv series or film would be heavily criticised for being filled with padding, yet games are often praised.

I recently finished the main quest line of The Witcher 3 and don't think I can stomach another 40 hours of DLC over experiencing some other game in my backlog.

Cuttooth wrote:I recently finished the main quest line of The Witcher 3 and don't think I can stomach another 40 hours of DLC over experiencing some other game in my backlog.

This is fair enough, but the DLC has some of the best content in the whole thing. I still haven't finished Blood and Wine despite starting it over 2 years ago though...

A games length is a problem, certainly for me due to time. I enjoyed AC Origins but had to take several breaks due it's unnecessary length forced by having to bugger off and do side quests for a few hours at a time just so you were ready for the next level in the tale being told. If they'd brought down the levelling system a notch or two the actual story could have been done in 20-25 hours and there would still be lots of side stuff to do. Far Cry 5 seems to have just about got the balance right. I've completed about 50% of the story, including some side missions etc, and have put about 18 hours in so far. I reckon I'll have it done by around 30 hours.

Far Cry 5 is a perfect example of a game I stopped playing half way through. It's narrative problems aren't in its length but in the mismatch of an open world sandbox with a story that keeps kidnapping you to force you to experience it. Although the reason I stopped playing it was more its insistence of forcing a combat encounter every 100 metres, rather than allowing the player freedom to explore.

That's a shame. I rather like the game myself. In fact without having yet played New Dawn I'd even go as far as to say 5 my favourite FC title.

No idea why you'd restart a game instead of just picking up where you left off sure you may forget things but you soon remember when you play and/or look at your inventory/in game notes.

OrangeRKN wrote:Far Cry 5 is a perfect example of a game I stopped playing half way through. It's narrative problems aren't in its length but in the mismatch of an open world sandbox with a story that keeps kidnapping you to force you to experience it. Although the reason I stopped playing it was more its insistence of forcing a combat encounter every 100 metres, rather than allowing the player freedom to explore.

I had exactly the same thing. Far Cry 5 is the most obnoxiously demanding game I've played it a long time, demanding here referring to its constant demand that you do something now rather than letting you set the pace. The amount of times that game has your character kidnapped with no prior warning is insane, not to mention the constant encounters it shoves in your face.

Tafdolphin wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:Far Cry 5 is a perfect example of a game I stopped playing half way through. It's narrative problems aren't in its length but in the mismatch of an open world sandbox with a story that keeps kidnapping you to force you to experience it. Although the reason I stopped playing it was more its insistence of forcing a combat encounter every 100 metres, rather than allowing the player freedom to explore.

I had exactly the same thing. Far Cry 5 is the most obnoxiously demanding game I've played it a long time, demanding here referring to its constant demand that you do something now rather than letting you set the pace. The amount of times that game has your character kidnapped with no prior warning is insane, not to mention the constant encounters it shoves in your face.

Sounds like you're not part of the engaged core enjoying all that #gamercontent.

I do this quite a bit. Life generally gets in the way and sometimes it can be a few weeks between playing a game and then getting a chance to pick up where I left off. Happened over the weekend actually with two games that I hadn't played since probably mid-January. Had to re-learn the controls and remind myself what was happening. Was fine for one of them, but in the other I just couldn't be arsed with the story and so am now just skipping the cutscenes and getting on with playing the game. Very rare that I'll abandon a game altogether though - will usually take the time to remind myself what's happening and keep going until it's finished.