Comments on: Green means Gold http://www.hadenblackman.com/archives/147 Crossing the Dark Divide Sat, 10 Dec 2011 15:34:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: David Eckelberry http://www.hadenblackman.com/archives/147/comment-page-1#comment-154 David Eckelberry Wed, 27 Jan 2010 17:44:50 +0000 http://www.hadenblackman.com/?p=147#comment-154 I agree that Borderlands executed its visual language well. And I think what was even more important than the visual language on static and dynamic objects was the use of clear iconography in the world to guide the player. With even a large number of accepted quests in the mid to late game, I always knew where to go, what to do, thanks to the quest, map, and in-HUD indications of my mission objectives. But what impressed me just as much was the execution of Diablo-style loot system with a near-perfect ratio of complexity to gameplay value. This link (http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6207/borderlands200911012208.jpg) is a screenshot of a mid-level, weapon. As much info as Borderlands packs into the weapon display, it struck me as just enough variation to produce a lot of ramping acquisition gameplay, but nothing about what it can do is unclear. And the clear display of the weapon value always provided me with a good basic sense of the designer's opinion of equipment value. The principle of RPGs: Numbers go up. Profit. I agree that Borderlands executed its visual language well. And I think what was even more important than the visual language on static and dynamic objects was the use of clear iconography in the world to guide the player. With even a large number of accepted quests in the mid to late game, I always knew where to go, what to do, thanks to the quest, map, and in-HUD indications of my mission objectives.

But what impressed me just as much was the execution of Diablo-style loot system with a near-perfect ratio of complexity to gameplay value.

This link (http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/6207/borderlands200911012208.jpg) is a screenshot of a mid-level, weapon. As much info as Borderlands packs into the weapon display, it struck me as just enough variation to produce a lot of ramping acquisition gameplay, but nothing about what it can do is unclear. And the clear display of the weapon value always provided me with a good basic sense of the designer’s opinion of equipment value.

The principle of RPGs: Numbers go up. Profit.

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