Why are water levels in games so bad?

[jupiter_ex]

Us humans are land creatures, and most videogame characters are first modeled after a human (even if they're an anthropomorphic animal or similar). Physics for jumping, running, etc are all modeled after our daily experience so, that. Excepting games where you are water animal I guess, I don't know. The Ecco the dolphin games I guess they're not terrible to control because the whole games are underwater.

 

I was thinking about this very thing the other day. In the race for realism in FPSs in the nineties, when underwater areas appeared they were cool. Submerging and whatnot, the physics change, the color grading changes. Until the damned experience proved to be too cumbersome and too uninteresting and now I can't remember any recent FPS where you can swim (not that I miss the experience). In the first Deus Ex for instance, you could still swim, and even put xp points to it. In the most recent ones, no way.

[RDETalus]

1 hour ago, jupiter_ex said:

Until the damned experience proved to be too cumbersome and too uninteresting

Then why is Subnautica such a good game?

 

The game contains much of what everyone in the thread complains about: air meter, shitty movement, convoluted spaces, slogging gameplay, etc...

Edited April 22 by RDETalus

[Xcalibur]

Water levels can be done well or poorly, like anything else in games. I think alot of the complaining comes from ppl who don't like changes in the control schemes, coupled with a few bad experiences. Personally, I like when games switch up the controls, it adds variety & challenge, as long as it's introduced fairly and executed properly.

 

Off the top of my head, good water levels:

World 3 in SMB3, especially with the Frog suit, which made swimming awesome

2nd level in Ironsword W&WII, it gives you a moon jump underwater instead of a swimming mechanic, which is cool.

Terra Tubes in Battletoads, great mix of wet & dry here, and controls well. Yes, that game is infamously hard, but quite good if you practice at it (alternatively, you can play the Japanese version of the game which is essentially easy mode).

Underwater areas in Turok: Rage Wars, those were fun for multiplayer combat back in the day.

Bubble Man's level in Mega Man 2, although that boss should've been immune to metal blades to make his fight interesting instead of nerfed.

Water Temple in Ocarina of Time, despite everyone complaining about the puzzle, I had fun with it.

 

What I said above also applies to ice levels, which were done well in SMB3 (world 6) and in Link to the Past (Ice Palace in Dark World), to name a couple.

Edited April 22 by Xcalibur