Originally published at: Microsoft says Sony has a Superman game in development | Boing Boing
…
1 Like
As a character, Superman can have restraint, concern for the safety of others, and an internal morality that keeps him from just punting anyone that annoys him directly into the sun. (Or at least he does when he’s written correctly and with any regards to most of the 85 year history of the character.) Some of the best standalone stories (or self-contained series) is where Kal El relaxes that code just a little while still trying to protect everyone. A player has absolutely no inclination to keep to that moral code and many can’t spell restraint, mostly because they’re too busy leveling to landscape to do so.
2 Likes
Not really, no, it just requires creativity.
There was one superhero game, don’t recall whether or not it was a Superman game, the city’s health was your health bar. Use your powers without restraint, and you’d lose.
1 Like
Yeah but even given the “don’t kill anyone/don’t allow the innocent to come to harm” rule it’s still bound to feel like there are a lot of arbitrary-feeling limitations placed on what Supes can or can’t do in the context of any given challenge.
“Oh, you can’t use your X-ray vision except in certain situations because you might give someone cancer.”
“Oh, you can’t actually go faster than a speeding bullet because using super-speed would cause a sonic boom that would break all the windows in Metropolis.”
“Oh, you can’t fly to anywhere in the world on a whim because Brainiac put an invisible forcefield around the city.”
“Oh, you can’t just use your heat vision to zap the gun out of that hostage-taker’s hand because all the bad guys are wearing hot mitts now.”
1 Like
At least that’s a $@#*(& reason. I hate games where you just stop at the edge. Perfectly clear, but you can’t go past that line. Put a mountain, a canyon, a force field, ANYTHING that makes it feel less like a technical decision.
2 Likes
In “7 Days to Die” - a zombie survival game. The visuals extend beyond the edge of the maps, but when you cross over the line, you start taking radiation damage, even if you have God Mode active. You technically can keep going. It’s just not a particularly good idea.
Lately I’ve been playing a lot of Snowrunner. It’s not my usual sort of game, but I’ve been really enjoying it. I try to avoid going near the edge of the maps, however …
It doesn’t damage you to come in contact with the edge, you simply cannot go any further. It’s actually kind of dissatisfying! If all the paths and goals were far enough away from the edge that you wouldn’t see it unless you went looking for it, I’d feel a little better, but there are tasks that take you close enough that you can’t avoid seeing it.
The fact that it’s more than likely a typo makes the news disappointing, but a Superman game produced by the same studio that made the most recent Spider-Man games would likely be very good. Make it about a young Clark, Conner, or even Jonathan and you’ve got a premise that integrates learning your abilities as you go and helps you understand why you might be failing so often.
2 Likes
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
