Classic and modern don’t always gel
As I made my way into Gehn’s Laboratory, I was ecstatic to see all the interesting tools and scientific gadgets lying around. I’d read Ghen’s notes nearly 30 years ago now and couldn’t wait to find out what else was cooking in the eclectic tower of mysteries from my memory.
The problem is that most of the tools and gadgets found in the tower are as static as the visuals from the 27-year-old original release. An adventure puzzle game like Riven typically thrives on only allowing users to interact with what’s necessary in order to keep the player from feeling confused or lost along the way. After all, who wants to pick up a random screwdriver that has no actual use in the game? That’s just a recipe for frustration.
Most of the tools and gadgets found in the tower are as static as the visuals from the 27-year-old original release.
As a VR gamer, I’ve become accustomed to picking up anything and everything I see lying about in a game’s world, even if there is no purpose. See a pot? I’ve definitely got to smash it. How about a ball? I’ll be throwing it as far as humanly possible to see what it can hit. Being physically present in a world—even if that physicality is virtual—makes me want to be a part of that world and interact with it.
Virtually any genre can work as a VR game, but mechanics need to be redesigned around VR’s inherent enhanced interaction paradigms.
