The writing is top notch, especially for the era and genre. Still don’t think anything comes close. The “Movie” genre of video games don’t really have deep plots.
But the level design was a mixed bag. I miss that era because there wasn’t as “academic” level design philosophy. You could get “Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap” or “A Converted Church in Venice”, but you could also get the opening and closing levels of Marathon 3. I couldn’t imagine actually finishing these games without guides back in the day. I would have never figured out the timing of the pillar of “Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!”. Too many switches in Marathon active things outside of the view of the where the switch actually is. I can understand where the hand holding from Halo comes from. “This cave is not a natural formation” comes from play testers not being able to find the entrance, so they framed it out more, but didn’t have time to change the dialog.
Nowadays, AAA Game level designers all went to the same schools and all feel samey. You have to go to the indie devs to find real experimentation. Dusk and HROT are good examples of that.
The writing is top notch, especially for the era and genre. Still don’t think anything comes close. The “Movie” genre of video games don’t really have deep plots.
But the level design was a mixed bag. I miss that era because there wasn’t as “academic” level design philosophy. You could get “Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap” or “A Converted Church in Venice”, but you could also get the opening and closing levels of Marathon 3. I couldn’t imagine actually finishing these games without guides back in the day. I would have never figured out the timing of the pillar of “Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!”. Too many switches in Marathon active things outside of the view of the where the switch actually is. I can understand where the hand holding from Halo comes from. “This cave is not a natural formation” comes from play testers not being able to find the entrance, so they framed it out more, but didn’t have time to change the dialog.
Nowadays, AAA Game level designers all went to the same schools and all feel samey. You have to go to the indie devs to find real experimentation. Dusk and HROT are good examples of that.