Looking at Superhero Games: Combat
MMORPG.com reporter C.A. Thomas has been looking closely at the superhero genre, not just in MMOs, but in games in general. Today, she brings us her report on combat in these games and how important and diverse it can be.
General Article By C.A. Thomas on February 03, 2010
City of Heroes isn't the only fish in the pond anymore. It had a nice run as the leading (read: only) superhero-themed MMORPG on the market, but now its seat on the throne is being threatened by a number of new entries. CoH's younger brother Champions Online was second on the scene with its release last fall. With DC Universe Online planned for release this year, and the still under-wraps Marvel Universe Online getting closer, it's pretty obvious that this currently niche genre has a good chance of exploding into the mainstream pretty soon.
One thing we've seen since City of Heroes and continuing into Champions Online and DC Universe Online is a departure from the standard MMO gameplay formula in both combat and mission structure. Over the course of my next couple articles I want to take a look at why developers might feel the need to deviate from tried-and-true MMO design in order to deliver an exciting superhero gaming experience.
advertisement Without a doubt, one of the largest inspirations for superhero MMO design are, of course, single-player superhero games. It only makes sense that MMO designers look to these to see how to deliver an enjoyable experience in tights and a cape (with actual powers, of course).
Let's look at Batman: Arkham Asylum for a minute. The control scheme for the freeflow combat in the game isn't very complicated. There's a single button for each function; attack, counter, stun. Beyond that, the combat is pretty simple. There aren't any lengthy combos to memorize or timing sequences to nail. All around, it isn't a very deep system. It takes around five minutes to get the hang of and maybe twice as long to master. So why, then, is it lauded as some of the greatest combat ever seen in a video game?
)
If you've ever sat down and tried to reach the high scores in the more difficult combat challenge maps of the game, you probably already know the answer. You can beat up all the thugs you want and use every cool takedown in the game, unless you can plan four or five steps ahead and watch every corner of the room at once, you aren't getting any closer to that high score. Because of the simplicity the control scheme offers, you're able to spend more time thinking about the other aspects of the challenges. The only way to reach those high scores is to *think* like Batman; plan your entire attack chain before ever throwing a punch. Watch every corner of the room at once so you always know which enemies have what weapons. Be ready for those armed enemies and take them down using special techniques before they have a chance to hit you.
Contrast that to, say, a Spider-Man game. Sure, Peter Parker is a pretty smart guy, but that doesn't really apply to his battles. Spidey's known more for his graceful web-fu (excuse me while I copyright that) fighting style and to faithfully adapt that requires a more branching system like the one seen in Web of Shadows. In that game, you're free to create your own combos with the ability to chain almost any sequence of attacks together and have them flow naturally into each other. The focus there is clearly more on the fighting aspect of the combat.
Compare it yet again to the Marvel Ultimate Alliance games, which mainly highlight the concept of superheroes teaming up. The hallmark of that series' combat is the ability to perform joint attacks between characters, called fusion or combination attacks. These consist of heroes using their abilities together in creative ways. One popular combination is the use of Iron Man's repulsor beams against Wolverine's claws to create an area-of-effect attack rather than a single targeted blast, for example.
)
What's clear in each example I've given is that the combat system is tailored to which experience is being adapted in each game. A Spider-Man game might not work so well using Arkham Asylum's combat setup, as that takes away the very essence of Spider-Man's branching, dynamic fight style, whereas a Batman game with complicated fighting would actually take away from that cerebral experience and devolve into any old martial arts game.
As you can see, properly adapting combat is quite possibly the most important aspect of superhero games. Not to say other elements aren't important, but at the end of the day superheroes are very clearly all about action and throwing around flashy powers. In the next article, I'll take a look at the different ways that's been translated into MMORPGs--and where it needs improvement.
Never really thought about these facts much in the past. Very good article and very interesting. Looking forward to the next article.
Nice article, couldnt agree more
Was a nice read, and do hope as you said you gonna focus more on the MMORPG part and truly hope it will be indeed about superhero's, but set into a MMORPG world, where they behave and act like superhero's as we all know or atleast wish we all know that superhero MMORPG should be ALLOT more then just combat oriented games, as mentioned games in article are mainly singleplayer games as they indeed are good at foccusing on a mostly full combat oriented game, a MMORPG version SHOULD in my opinion be so much more, but then I have this with just MMORPG's in general as to me most are far to combat oriented and leave out the depth a MMORPG could have.
A example would be: give me a alter ego apart from just being that superhero: Superman wasn't being Superman all the time, we hade Clark Kent, Spiderman wasn't slinging his web al the time we have Peter Parker etc....etc.., a MMORPG based on superhero's should be able to creat the depth of having these alter ego to even occomplish things they wouldn't do when putting on the latex suit.
And yes I know I am a niche gamer when it comes to MMORPG's and simply want more just combat oriented multiplayer experiances from games in this genre.
Good article! I'm surprised Freedom Force wasn't mentioned, though. IMO, that's probably one of the most relevant games to look at when considering how to make a MMO.
/agree with Reklaw. It always seemed that the story elements in each comic book mostly occured when the hero was out of the spandex. The scenario built up in this "vulnerable" state, so that they could then turn to their hero selves to do the heavy lifting.
One of the reasons for this was the way things occurred. It's difficult as a MMO because scenarios often work the opposite of S&S. In fantasy games, players have always sought the quest; they go looking for the adventure/aka trouble, so the sprawling maps of MMO's work well for this. In comic books however, the trouble/quest often comes to the hero in the form of an arch enemy hunting them down or a criminal taking hostages in the bank they just walked by.
This is a bit of a challenge to emulate in a MMO environment. It can be done easily enough in instances, but how do you make it "massive"? IMO, the first 2 games to attempt this didn't seem to find the answer.
its still arena type combat in a static never changing world
no matter what the players do it will just reset in 5-10 minutes
and for superhero games theres almost a total lack of heroic things to do besides "thugbash"(ill copyrith this one)
which is attacking and defeating one group of thugs after another in the proverbial revolving door I quickly got bored of.
example COH you dont rescue victims from a sinking ship, or stop a speeding train from crashing into a ravine
and definatly the combat powers are focused on combat (attack defend buff debuff) with no creativity in dealing with situations
such as holding up a falling wall,, making a bridge between two roofs, working together to deflect an incoming astroid.
The problem is is that all most people think about the heroes/superheroes genre is the Kapow!
There are all types of heroes, and yes, while there tends to be allot of combat it is almost always just for combat's salke.
Take Batman for example... if you go to the source material the majority of the time his is being "The Worlds Greatest Detective" (which ironicly in the world of DC Comics he is actually the second best, but that is besides the point) and fighting normal criminals and their mastermind leaders or just stopping random crime like that that took his parents. Every once in a while members of Batman's Rouges Gallery pop up.
Take The Human Target... master of disguise and expert at combat and wepons. He takes the role of the victim of death threats or hitman contracts and then turns the tables on the attacker disguised as the target.
The Question, the character that Rorschach in Watchmen was based on, Used a mask of artificial skin to allow himself to seek out corruption and victimizers of the innocent by finding answers to questions and puzzles that no one else were trying to answer.
There are many different types of Hero Gameplay that all the games I have seen have yet to propperly address because all they are doing is combat (and in some cases doing feats) to advance your character. I made an incrediblely fun to use character in Champions during the beta trying to have it set up like one of those characters. While I was having fun swinging everywhere, when I fought other players who were going for full combat characters I got minced. I also found out there was no gameplay for the kind of characters I wanted to build.
I am hoping Marvel or DC online will get that right.
I'm actually getting ready to tackle that *after* the next article. I think we more or less agree on that point, and I have some suggestions I'll be talking about as far as effective ways to do that sort of thing.
dc universe ! now that sound promissing!