Game Design Blog #3

This week I'm going to talk about one of my favourite games, and one of the reasons I love it: Its pacing! The game in question, is the lovely, the fantastic....

So first things first, I will end up going more into depth over the overall pace of the game rather than the pace in specific levels. This is because there isn't a whole lot to write about in terms of the pacing of levels, it's not that it's bad it's just that it's pretty standard. Now then, why do I love the overall pacing for the game? Well, to put it simply the game does a good job of keeping a steady but ever-building pace. When the game starts (and after the tutorial), the player only has 2 members on their squad and they are given 4 missions which reward the players with additional squad members. By doing this the player is given a chance to experiment with their squad without the number of unused squadmates getting out of hand. After a point in the game the player unlocks an additional 4 missions which are much the same, allowing for a break before the player gets new squad members.

Another interesting thing is the Loyalty Missions. These are missions which require the player to go in with 1 squad mate preselected for them. This gives the player a chance to interact with characters they might not necessarily interact with and get used to working with them. This also serves as a strong way of preparing the player for the finale of the game in which they go in with every squad member and have to divide it up into different teams while making use of their different skill sets.

In terms of the story pacing, the game does an excellent job of providing the players with points that ramp up into action while providing brief interludes where the player doesn't have a lot of stress on them but the game isn't boring, i.e. the missions to acquire new squad members are in the slower points of the game and serve to help build up anticipation for the next big missions. The overall pacing for the story does a good job of building the players anticipation and interest until the big finale of the game which puts the player in a position where they simply do not want to stop until the end of the game.

Overall, the pacing for Mass Effect 2 is quite good at maintaining the players interest and allowing them plenty of time to learn the skills and squad members that they gain over the course of the game.

That's it for now!