“Within the first recreation we sometimes paced gameplay to cycle between traversal, fight, and narrative beats. The skateboard match fairly simply into the traversal piece of that method,” Meyr explains. “Skating has a big affect on the fight facet of the sport, however we didn’t let it take over. In the long run, we needed the sport to nonetheless have quite a lot of what makes a standard shooter really feel enjoyable. We didn’t need the skateboard to muddy the FPS expertise by having to blow out goal help or allow you to transfer so quick enemies must do loopy issues to maintain up with you.”
The sport wastes little time in getting me on the board and it isn’t lengthy till I’m unleashing this tandem of skateboarding and taking pictures in Excessive On Life 2, like sliding throughout powerlines as I dispatch a wide range of alien goons within the opening zoo stage. The skateboard by no means feels prefer it will get in the way in which of the taking pictures; it amplifies it, nudging me to combine it into my newfound capability to achieve alien foes on rooftops who would in any other case be inaccessible with out it.
The primary recreation already featured quite a lot of verticality and distinctive traversal components because of the Gatlians like Knifey and their grapple capability – however the skateboard solely intensifies that ambition. Grinding, driving in sewer pipes, and wall driving all create alternatives for unexpectedly advanced driving choices within the setting. Each stage options distinctive alternatives to check your abilities, like navigating throughout a mixture of floating rails and swimming pools, large balloons to bounce on, and different zany obstacles whereas traversing the planet ConCon as one such instance.
Board driving will also be very important, as highlighted in among the boss fights thus far. With the bounty hunter Sheath, it came about in a big room with slanted, quarter-pipes that run up the partitions, making for loads of alternatives to stay on the transfer whereas dishing injury. Or combating in opposition to Brutakis, the mini-boss of MurderCon, the whole zone felt like a skatepark with loads of ramps, rails, and stairs to navigate. This all feels designed with purposeful intent to maintain you shifting to assist carry a pure enjoyable and circulation to the battle.
Letting Go of Your Fingers
It’s at all times a steadiness to show a brand new mechanic to a participant whereas making it not really feel such as you’re holding up the momentum of the sport. Initially, the staff did quite a lot of “hand holding tutorial” exams for the skateboard and located it made for a horrible expertise. In the long run, they pared the tutorials again till they have been simply hitting the necessities and letting the participant grasp and play with the mechanics on their very own time.
