heywood on 6/10/2015 at 17:41
Mass Effect 2's minigames were probably the best I've seen in terms of providing the illusion of performing a hack or door bypass. But they failed in other areas.
And the breakout minigame would be totally out of place in Deus Ex, but in Neon Struct it sort of fits in with the game's style. I thought it was a good choice for that particular game.
Nameless Voice on 7/10/2015 at 01:43
What about 5 - the outcome is guaranteed but other aspects (such as how long it takes) may be dependant on skill.
Deus Ex runs with that system (hacking is guaranteed, more skill makes it take less time and give you more time to play around before you get kicked out); lockpicking and bypassing works the same way.
Thief's lockpicking also has a similar one (guaranteed outcome, but no skill to affect it).
In both of these cases, the fact that they are real-time and you need to do them carefully to avoid being caught by enemies lends them some meaningful gameplay despite the activity itself being fairly uninteresting.
As for Bioshock - that was just badly implemented all around. You are basically encouraged to hack everything, and there are a lot of things to hack, so you have to play the same minigame a thousand times. It doesn't help that the minigame is boring and repetitive, but also random - with the game liking to give you completely unsolvable ones where the exit is completely blocked off by alarm/overload tiles.
icemann on 10/10/2015 at 06:35
Quote Posted by nicked
I think Human Revolution's hacking is probably the best implemented minigame I've seen.
Shadowrun on the Mega Drive / Genesis went with a nearly identical system long before HR, though from a 3rd person perspective rather than top down.
Inline Image:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/18/Shadowrun-Matrix.pngI definitely agree though. Easily the best system for hacking that I've seen in a game.
ZylonBane on 10/10/2015 at 18:45
Quote Posted by Nameless Voice
As for Bioshock - that was just badly implemented all around.
And it asks you to accept a reality where security devices can be bypassed by stuffing them full of cash.
Pyrian on 11/10/2015 at 00:17
That's how guards are supposed to work! Ever since Ultima III, at least...
Jason Moyer on 11/10/2015 at 02:37
Quote Posted by ZylonBane
And it asks you to accept a reality where security devices can be bypassed by stuffing them full of cash.
Well, it *is* a libertarian Utopia.
Pyrian on 11/10/2015 at 03:19
Quote Posted by Jason Moyer
Well, it *is* a libertarian Utopia.
Win.
it's becoming an increasingly common mechanic for a pretty solid reason: significant amounts of people just don't want to play the mini games. So they let you buy out.
Shadowcat on 11/10/2015 at 04:49
I think we've just looped back on the discussion -- I'm sure they'd be far more willing to play them if they weren't rubbish.
Jason Moyer on 11/10/2015 at 07:25
I kinda like the lockpicking in Skyrim, although there should be a permanent lock-out if you fuck up too many times. You can pick any lock in the game, it's just more difficult with a low skill level and no perks than when your skill is boosted and you have perks out the wazoo. I liked the hacking minigame in FO3/FNV as well except for the 25/50/75/100 skill gating they did for that (and the lockpicking, which was otherwise Skyrim-like). If they took that hacking minigame, removed the gating, added a proper lock-out, and balanced it a little better it would be great. Actually, the difficulty would be alright as-is with a permanent lock-out and the harder hacks ramping up above where the current gates are. At 0 hacking and 100 hack difficulty you'd have a data stream with nothing but long words that would require total blind luck to solve. At 100 skill and easy lock difficulty it would be like it is now, where you can completely remove everything but the right word well before you run out of the empty brackets.
Yakoob on 11/10/2015 at 09:26
Well, in my game you can avoid guards by stuffing them with vodka ;p
ShadowCat, I gotta disagree with you on "people wouldnt need an option to buy them out if they weren't rubbish." Some people (myself included) simply don't care for minigames, so having an ingame option to bypass them is a nice touch. No matter how awesome your minigame is, it will get repetitive at some point.
