Is Backtracking Bad?

Comments · 72

• BO

  @boxfoxscoot1614 · 3 months ago (edited)

  fun fact in morrowind you had mark and recall a way to set a teleport up before entering the dungeon  this allowed a player to teleport to the outside the dungeon WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE WORLD AND GAMEPLAY

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• DI

  @DirtyMike124x · 3 months ago

  I listen to a rotation of hundreds of YouTubers in the video game video essay space, and I am always excited seeing you've dropped a new video. Your critical analysis and voice stands out uniquely. Your work is consistently great. Thanks man. 🙏

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• PY

  @pyrodontcutoffsoldiershand2746 · 3 months ago

  Something like cry of fear has backtracking to the apartment like 4 times but it feels different each time it's metaphorical for the same traumatic event haunting the main character coming back again and again to haunt him.

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• TO

  @toiletpaper9382 · 3 months ago

  The thing about the argument in favor of Skyrim's shortcuts... Yeah, I wouldn't want to backtrack in a Skyrim's dungeon. You know why? Because they're very linear, like, to an absurd degree. Everything there is to be seen, will be seen on your way through. Had they been designed in a more complex way, maybe with more secrets with hidden loot or non-linear progression, backtracking would've been pretty fun.

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• PI

  @PictureFrame116 · 3 months ago

  <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oln-ZbrYrDE&amp;t=1840">30:40</a> You make a great point here. Even small aesthetic differences between areas can do a lot to make the player feel like they are experiencing something fresh. The original Pokemon games had a simple palette swap when you reach a new town - Fuchsia, Cerulean, Vermillion - not a huge change but notable enough to make the towns and cities feel new while using the same building sprites and assets.<br><br>There is really an art to how effectively a dev can reuse assets without the result feeling repetitive. In Call of Duty: World At War, there is a map of an insane asylum that is used in the campaign, slightly redesigned for a multiplayer map, and overhauled again for a zombies map, Verruckt. I love all three iterations of this asset and they all play wildly different. Even within multiplayer, the map felt different when playing search and destroy vs. team deathmatch. <br><br>One last thought about uninspiring aesthetics making the player feel bored: I do wonder if that is why “sewer levels” are so disliked among gamers. I’ve always found the aesthetic to be rather uninspired (resident evil 2 remake, final fantasy 7 remake). I think sewer levels also take on a rather cliche narrative device as a way to get characters stealthily into or out of a more interesting place.<br><br>Rambling aside, great vid as always Fenrick!

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• SH

  @shreksnow1918 · 2 months ago

  The things you were saying about how Dark Souls has fast travel and a bunch of shortcuts that you unlock as you go is definitely a big chunk of why Metroid is so loved. &nbsp;In addition to those things that also apply to Metroid when you unlock new abilities it lets you get stuff that was previously inaccessible, making the player feel rewarded when you revisit old areas. &nbsp;I also like how in Metroid at first there will be enemies/obstacles that are really hard/tedious, but it gives you new tools that trivialize those. &nbsp;Metroid has a great sense of progression where even when you’re lost you can get small rewards.<br><br>I agree with a lot of the things you said about the backtracking in CE. &nbsp;I think one of the BIG things that sours people on the second half is the fact that the Library is so cancerous it exhausts the player, and right when it’s done it tells you to go through the longest level backwards. &nbsp;I also think that if the game properly foreshadowed in Assault on the Control Room what the canyon was for it would’ve been less egregious since it feels like they just made that up to pad out the game. &nbsp;There’s actually a cut Cortana line where she’d talk about how the whole area is part of the Ring’s firing sequence, and you could’ve also visited one of the generator rooms in an earlier build. &nbsp;The Halo CE Restored mod adds this back into the game. &nbsp;For The Maw and Keyes I really like revisiting those locations because the Flood change how they play out, and in each you go through different parts of the ship to reach your goal. &nbsp;Ruby’s Rebalanced fixes a lot of the issues with backtracking by making you go through different unused areas depending on the difficulty to change up how they’re played, adds Flood biomass, and other things (I’ve watched several streams of the remake and it does the same, but there’s so much fundamentally wrong with the game I’ll either wait for a really good sale when there’s mods that fix the game, or just find a way to pirate it since Microslop doesn’t deserve the money for bad products that are overpriced rehashes of how Halo was before they ran it into the ground). &nbsp;The mod is super fun. &nbsp;I really liked how the guy and his team added cut/multiplayer content where appropriate to keep the gameplay fresh, and whenever he made changes the guy was careful to stay true to Bungie’s design philosophy. &nbsp;The upgraded Halo 2 mod is in the works, and comes out either the end of summer or in the fall. &nbsp;The guy’s channel is Ruby of Blue, and he has a bunch of vidocs that talk about what kinds of changes he’s been making and why.

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• EA

  @eagercadet4059 · 3 months ago

  Weirdly backtracking is a part of everyday life, be it going around the house, to work and back home or the shops. But to talk about my favorite usage of avoiding the player having to backtrack I&apos;ll issue a spoiler warning for the game Iron Lung<br><br>There&apos;s two moments where you have to navigate a narrow passage (because touching the walls will just kill you), and once you&apos;ve gotten what you came for your first thought is mostly gonna be &quot;oh God I have to do it again&quot; but just as you&apos;re about to start you feel the sub immediately get rocked by something, hmm, ok, then you look at your coordinates and realize that you&apos;re already back outside the trench. I love this because of how inexplicable it is, sure it&apos;s convenient, but I&apos;m even more on edge now

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• JU

  @Jumjum1078 · 3 months ago

  Love this channel! You&apos;ve really got me to think about games in ways I never thought of !

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• PA

  @PANCAKEMINEZZ · 3 months ago

  Really excellent points on a topic I hadn&apos;t thought about in this way before. Appreciate the work!

• BA

  @BasedBebs · 3 months ago

  Another video essay for my collection, good stuff

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• UN

  @UncleBalthasarGelt · 3 months ago

  Excellent edit at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oln-ZbrYrDE&amp;t=34">0:34</a>

• RE

  @Renegen1 · 1 month ago

  good analysis

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