Unreal2 too short - will Doom3 be longer?

[Tetzlaff]

I heard from many players that the recently released Unreal 2: The Awakening has a way too short play time, many said they finished it in 6 ours, and some of the episodes only take 15 minutes to complete.

Unreal Fans seem to be very disappointed because of this (and other aspects). Will id Software do better with Doom3? John Carmack already stated that the game will take around 10 ours for a skilled player, and since todays game developers aren´t very good players in most cases I fear he overestimates it, maybe.

Do you think they can make the game longer without rewriting the whole story? Well designed, pure action levels in between the story heavy levels maybe?

[Fredrik]

Well, both of the first Doom games can be completed in 0.25 hours, I don't get it when people complain about the length of new games :P

[Tetzlaff]

Well, it´s a difference if someone wants to make a speedrun on purpose, or if someone actually *plays* the game, including exploration of the maps and searhcing for secrets, etc.

[Dslyecxi]

I'm not too worried about D3's length.. it's going to be a continous fight from one end of the UAC base to the very depths of hell itself.. should be a blast. Lots of continuity, something I'd imagine U2's planet-hopping style severely lacks. And aside from that.. the story should be pretty enjoyable as well. Throw in a great engine, loads of fear, unequaled atmosphere, tons of scripting.. I'm not worried in the least.

[dsm]

Yeah well, people complained about RtCW being too short - I still think that game is long enough, so my conclusion is that:

People = Bunch a' whiners.

I mean for fuck's sake, people expect games to take forever to complete - if a game ended up taking a whole week to complete if you played it constantly, I'd eventually get fed up with it.

If id makes Doom 3 at least as long as RtCW or Quake 2 then I'd be happy.

[Tetzlaff]

For me it isn´t necessarely a matter of actual play time, it´s more a matter of feel. A game feels long enough for me, when it starts feeling like a real world, not just like a couple of levels linked together, and when at some time in the game I can´t exactly remember each single level I played before (that´s kind of a rule of thumb for me ;) Has to do with exploration and good level design, I guess.

Games that had a perfect length in my opinion:

- Halflife
- Quake 2

[dsm]

Tetzlaff said:

For me it isn´t necessarely a matter of actual play time, it´s more a matter of feel. A game feels long enough for me, when it starts feeling like a real world, not just like a couple of levels linked together, and when at some time in the game I can´t exactly remember each single level I played before (that´s kind of a rule of thumb for me ;) Has to do with exploration and good level design, I guess.

I couldn't have said that better myself.

[WhilelM]

dsm said:

I couldn't have said that better myself.

No, you didn't =)

[Arno]

RTCW's play time is a bit shorter then Quake2's, but still pretty decent IMO. If Doom III is going to have about the same length as RTCW, I certainly won't complain.

Doom III is probably gonna take me a lot of time anyway, since I intend to drool all over the graphics. I hope there will be a ton of secret areas to search for too.

[AirRaid]

Unreal II isn't too short. I'm still playing through it. It can't be too short.

[999cop]

The velocity of the character will decrease therefore the length of the game will take a whole lot longer than most people imagined

[Linguica]

I think I remember hearing something about Doom 3 is supposed to be about as long as Q2?

[Fredrik]

A game is of good length if it takes at least two weeks of intense playing to finish, and you long to get back to it every time you leave the game.

[dsm]

Fredrik said:

A game is of good length if it takes at least two weeks of intense playing to finish, and you long to get back to it every time you leave the game.

That takes far too long time - I'll get annoyed with it eventually, regardless of how good the game is. The most important feature is replayability - play through the game, go back and play it over again to realize that you can experience it in different ways.

Good play lenght = 3-5 full days of intense playing imo

[Dubh]

I plan on playing the entire game (first time round) on a hard difficulty level. None of the easy bullshit. I wan't realism. I want to die if I get shot a couple of times etc..
I will also explore every nook and cranny before I progress.

No matter how long or short the final game is, I will make it last.

Then I'll play it again.

[Dark-tenshi]

Do you think they can make the game longer without rewriting the whole story?

Umm,adding red yellow and blue keycard.the whole level will last longer.

Seriously,as 999cop said,the movement of player will be slow.Great atmosphere(Level`s detail,Monster howl,Moving shadow) should make players stop and pay attention to the level.Scary factor would make the movement of player more slower.

[Fredrik]

dsm said:

That takes far too long time - I'll get annoyed with it eventually, regardless of how good the game is. The most important feature is replayability - play through the game, go back and play it over again to realize that you can experience it in different ways.

Good play lenght = 3-5 full days of intense playing imo

Dude, I spent a lot more than two weeks with Ocarina of Time, and other games have had me playing for even longer. If a game is good enough, it absorbs you completely, and you simply don't get annoyed. You rather get annoyed when you finish it because you want more.

[EVIL]

me agree's

[dsm]

Fredrik said:

You rather get annoyed when you finish it because you want more.

Then play it again dammit!
I've tried several long games that I thought were awesome at first - then I eventually got tired of them because they seemed to never.

People who whine about cool games being too short seem to forget that there are usually modding tools for these games that can allow them to make their own maps - it never gets too short, because you can make your own maps or play other peoples' custom maps - plus, these people don't give themselves time to explore the game or experiment with play styles.
I'd say that in 75% of the cases, people who bitch about a game being too short never tried completing the game using only the weakest weapons (in the case of an FPS) - they should really try that, it makes the game fresher and longer.

[Rotting Corpse]

Well the time it takes to bet a game depends of the diffaclty. The Hared the skill level the more time it takes to beat the game. I all ways start on the easy seting and work my way up. This way even a short game takes a long time to beat. With games like zelda they are veary story driven. There is a lot of talking. I bet of you take out all the talking its only 5 hours of total play time. I dont think doom3 will have alot of talking so tis going ot be short compared ot any rpg.

[Wobbo]

It depends on the replayability, of which doom 3 might have anywhere from none to the original dooms level (a lot if you are a retard and didnt know that).

It takes about 5-15 days of REALLY intense playing to finish Alpha CEntauri, and you can replay that game literally 700 times before it starts to gewt boring (im not kidding, you have to see my save game directory to beleive it)

[Sharessa]

If you want to bitch and moan about game lengths, switch to strategy or adventure games...some of these have like infinate replay value. Unfortunately, no one makes adventure games anymore. :(

Also, Hexen is one Hell of a long game, at least for me. I finaly made it to the 3rd hub and the last two took me 3-5 hours each. Some of those puzzles really make you search like a bastard.

[The_Aeromaster]

I'll bet, when D3 comes out, the people who come on and bitch that the game was, indeed, too short, are the same people who are speculating it is now. So when it does get released, they'll play it as fast as possible just so they could say they were right, like dumb fucks, and ruin the game for themselves without actually givin it a chance, just so they have something to piss and moan about.

Me, on the other hand, I'm going to actually play it, enjoy it, LIVE it. And I'm sure it will be plenty lengthy if u play it right.

[dsm]

The_Aeromaster said:

I'll bet, when D3 comes out, the people who come on and bitch that the game was, indeed, too short, are the same people who are speculating it is now. So when it does get released, they'll play it as fast as possible just so they could say they were right, like dumb fucks, and ruin the game for themselves without actually givin it a chance, just so they have something to piss and moan about.

If I'm still a Mod around that time, I'm gonna kill any post/thread that bitch about the lenght - I've seen so many of them on other forums and they serve only that one purpose of "AndrewB bitching" - bitching for the sake of bitching - which is something that just makes me and other people pissed.

And if I'm not a Mod of the D3 forum by then...well...then I'd strongly encourage my successor to do it. If someone doesn't show the whiners that they're a pain in the ass, they'll never stop bitching.

[Agnes]

the_Danarchist said:

Unfortunately, no one makes adventure games anymore. :(

Huh?

[Shaviro]

I wonder what "more than 30 HUGE levels" means...

[Tetzlaff]

More than 30 huge levels, said who?

[chilvence]

If I counted up the hours Ive played Baldurs Gate over the years I'd say at least a month in total. System Shock 2 comes close to that, because even though its comparatively short I cant stop replaying it. I can say I'll play Birth of the Federation for half an hour and then watch the sun go down and come back up again before I can tear my self away from the screem. If people bring their PC's round my house to play C&C its not out of the ordinary for me to lose 3 or 4 pounds from not eating*.

Straight FPS games will never, ever be long. They dont make you stop to think, so the length must be labouriously made up with more and more and bigger levels. So, If D3 has the same volume of levels as System Shock 2 had, it will still take half as long to complete.


*lie

[dsm]

Tetzlaff said:

More than 30 huge levels, said who?

An id guy once said in an interview that Doom 3 would have 30 huge maps and it was also said that an experienced FPS gamer would be able to complete it over one weekend (two days).

[The_Aeromaster]

dsm said:

An id guy once said in an interview that Doom 3 would have 30 huge maps and it was also said that an experienced FPS gamer would be able to complete it over one weekend (two days).

In that case, I think it'll be plenty long.

I don't think experienced would be the right word there... I'd say dedicated. I'm def. an experienced FPS gamer, and doom in particular, and I doubt I'll finish it over the weekend. It's more about how much time u play it(dedication) than it is about how experienced u are.

I suppose anyway.