Assassins Creed Brotherhood game usability review

I've recently got into Assassins Creed Brotherhood in quite a significant way. So much so I played it all the way to the dreaded red ring of death! It's official I liked a game so much I played it till my XBox killed itself.

This has meant I've not really been able to pull my thoughts together as completely as I should have done, as the game's no longer available to me. In spite of this, here's my Assassins Creed Brotherhood game usability findings:

• Confusing story
• In some missions the game adds arbitrary additional rules that restrict the payers freedom and control
• Clumsy introduction to controls
• Poor combat
• Poor map icons/controls

Still as I say - I killed my XBox for this game, it's great. I can't wait for November - bring on Assassins Creed Revelations! 

Confusing story
One of the main reasons I play games is for their (admittedly often poor) stories. Assassins Creed Brotherhood (ACB) left me totally cold. It carried on directly from where AC2 left off, and having had no contact with AC2 I was baffled by what was going on on-screen.

There was a very short, confusing attempt to get players up to speed, but I feel it was very much aimed at previous players picking up this game after a break. No help for newbies! There could have been an option to see an extended version for new players, as it was they were left in the cold.

The end result was that I really couldn't have cared less about the characters - I didn't even understand who half of them were, what their relationship to me was, or why I should care what happened to them.

It also meant that I avoided the missions which advanced the story like the plague. I couldn't be bothered to do these people's busywork and it didn't entertain me as much as the rest of the possibilities available to me in Rome.

Arbitrary additional rules that restrict freedom
One of the complaints I've heard regularly about the previous games is the repetitive nature of the missions. I really didn't think it suffered from this too badly, but I did object when the game decided to apply arbitrary rules.

I'd be given a mission, say, go kill this man, but the game would then also apply a new restriction - for example don't kill any other guards. This restriction wasn't auditory, but was flashed up in small text to the side of the screen. Instructions placed away from where I'm attending (the center of the screen) are hard to notice, so it took me a long time to realised these restrictions were there. I only discovered the problem when I was forced to restart the mission after popping a nearby guard for fun.

It's was a real irritant, as it placed a seemingly arbitrary restriction on the game. If the story provided some explanation for these restrictions I would have been more willing to accept them, but they really just gave the impression of arbitrarily increasing the difficulty.

Strangely, the game sometimes offered these types of restrictions in a way that worked very well - as optional added achievements in a mission. Note the word 'optional'. For full marks ("full synchronisation") the player can complete the mission whilst fulfilling this secondary mission, but it's not mandatory. This is a much better approach to take, highlighting the more difficult 'route' for more skilled/committed players.

Clumsy introduction to controls 

The game introduced the controls remarkably badly! There's no denying the complexity of the controls, and the game just a few half-hearted attempts to introduce them before throwing the player into the deep end. Once more this could be a symptom of assuming the player had played the previous game.


An example - the 'leap of faith' (a signature move for the game), where the player jumps from the top of a building and landing safely (usually in a haystack). I was asked to perform one as Desmond, before the game explained how it was done. It was explained later in the game - too late! I'd wasted quite a bit of time doing a little dance precariously over a drop, sitting, standing, jumping on the spot, swinging at thin air, etc. Must have been very entertaining,


The game really needed more care to be taken in introducing it's controls to new players.

Poor combat

This is a complaint that the Assasins Creed series generates regularly. Fighting really felt a bit like a duck shoot. I'd be surrounded by enemies, and they'd all queue politely take turns to fall on my sword.

I think the designers should have a close look at Batman Arkham Asylum to see a game that handles combat really well. It felt more responsive, and free flowing than that available in ACB.

Poor map icons/controls
A more minor issue - but an irritating one for me. When wandering Rome I often had to go through the menus to look at the map. When I say often, I mean 'once every 10 seconds or so' (I'm pretty poor at pathfinding). 


There's several issues with the map, the first with it being so hard to get to. To open it up you need to pause the game, move to the third item down, select, and then zoom in (about 6 button presses). I was just looking in the manual for a suitable button for a shortcut and I've just realised there is one, the select button... doh!


Even some of the map icons are poor - the same icons are used to show unsold locations and locations on a different level. I spent a long time trying to find mysterious unpurchased locations.


The maps also quickly get covered in an array of icons - 90% are not useful at any one time. It could be useful to give the player the ability to hide groups of icons at a time (for example hide all the purchased locations), but keep the unsold. Or hide all the icons except missions.

Conclusions
When ACB was released there was a massive marketing push, suggesting Ubisoft the publisher hoped to market to new players. However, the game is quite difficult for new players to use. I don't feel these issues I've highlighted would sit well with the new players picking up the game for the first time. This could have been easily addressed with a few small changes. Much more attention should have been paid to the usability of the game, especially it's initial introduction to both the story and controls. 

Having said all this - I really enjoyed the game. It's great fun and gives you so much freedom. I'll certainly be playing the next one (especially now I've worked out the controls...). 

Fable 3 game usability review - Part 1

I've just picked up Fable 3 and I thought I'd sling down my early thoughts in a quick game usability evaluation for you all to enjoy (I haven't reviewed any of the other Fables here, so I'm taking some series staples and talking about them, as well as new features).

Some positives

Quick! After that fairy!

The trail

Everywhere the player goes, a golden sparkly trail leads out from the player to their next quest location/objective, meaning the player knows where to go at any point. This trail is a great way to ensure the player can wander off and explore - safe in the knowledge that they can find their way back easily afterwards.

Genius! For 2 reasons - it encourages exploration and ensures players don't waste time looking at maps, getting lost and generally not playing/doing what they want to do.

Some players might feel that they're being handheld, that it removes some of the challenge. However you could counter this by saying that struggling with maps isn't one of the challenges the game designer planned, so anything that eases the pain should be encouraged.

The RPG lite


Fable 3 uses a simple levelling/skill tree process, avoiding the use of stats. This fits with the casual approach the game takes to the whole RPG genre.

Most RPG games are very statistics heavy ("Take this 6-7 damage +3 poison damage thimble"). Fable 3 has taken an alternative approach. All levelling up is handled by opening chests which improve your various powers along the 'Road to rule'. This keeps all levelling simple, encouraging players to not think too hard about what to unlock next.

One negative aspect of having physical chests is that they are spread out in this 'Road', and if left unopened can be a real trek away. I had a bit of a journey to get back from halfway down the road to the first set of chests (to unlock a spell I finally decided I needed).

The pain is eased in 2 ways -

• Short cuts are offered back to where you've reached on the 'Road' (but this only goes 1 way, you still have to trek all the way back to the chests you need in the first place)
• Chests aren't reliant upon players opening previous chests first before giving them access to the next level (e.g. you don't have to have opened pie making level 1 to open pie making level 2). The game simply rolls the costs of the 2 levels together, so the player can essentially unlock them both at once. This means the players don't have to hunt for the missing chest before they can open the shiney new one.

Sense of humour and feeling of life

Boiled egg anyone?

The game has a very good sense of humour. This feels right, and fits with the game world. It has the added bonus of allowing much greater variety in the side quests, ensuring the quests remain fresh (the role play game and bickering ghost brothers being particular highlights so far).

This is supported by an excellent voice cast. Notables include Dame Judy Dench, John Cleese, Stephen Fry, Jonathan Ross, Mark Heap and Julia Sawalha, among others... I could go on! Quality voicework can be found throughout the whole cast, and it complements the writing wonderfully (Although as a big radio 4 fan it's slightly disconcerting to hear voices from Nebulous and the Museum of Everything!).

Friends' stats


During loading screens, your statistics are displayed, alongside your Live friends stats.


I know several other games do this, but this is the first time I've played a game at the same time as a friend. This creates surprisingly compelling pressure/competitiion to keep up/get ahead of your friend. It's sucked me in, that's for sure!


It's always entertaining to see how many children my friend has spawned in this play session...


The 'Sanctuary'

The sanctuary is essentially the pause menu - the central hub where you can change weapons, game settings, join an online game, etc. The novel approach is that these options are controlled in physical 'rooms' - rather than through a menu.

It's certainly... different. I remain to be convinced by it's gain in the user's experience.

It takes longer to do anything, it's particularly difficult to change quests/missions, but at the same time I think it will be more easily understood then a system of menus by players new to the RPG genre.

Conclusion part 1

In short a very good game. Quality throughout, with some nice touches which could help new players pick up the game and get playing more quickly and painlessly than other games.

Coming soon: The BAD. Poor design/development choices that I feel will interfere with people's enjoyment of the game.

Torchlight - Game usability quick review

I’m playing Torchlight. I’m stuck.

Not because it’s too difficult, quite the opposite, it’s too damn easy.

Right at the start of the game I was asked to select a difficulty. I didn’t want to be taxed too much – this was to be my “switch off in the evening after a hard days work” game so I decided to select ‘Easy’. I now regret the choice.

About 3 hours in, the game is literally a breeze. I heal faster then the bad guys can damage me. The only way I realise I’m in a boss battle is that they take more than one hit, and can cause me more than 1 point of damage. After realising the game wasn’t even a small challenge any more, I decided to ramp up the difficulty – only to find I couldn’t. The difficulty I selected at the start – before playing any of the game – was final.

Why? Why force the player to decide the difficulty at all, especially before play?  And then – why not allow them to change it later? That’s poor design.

There are many excellent examples of game difficulty adjusting to player skill/level (a la Oblivion), or perhaps Torchlight could take a leaf from Call of Duty 4’s book (A mini level to assess the player’s skill level). This could also allow players to try out the different character types before making a commitment.

Giving game difficulty control to players is rather dull, it’s not sexy or glamorous, but it does need to be implemented well, or it can ruin a play experience.

Free game usability review

So I've been writing reviews for a while now... Mostly big games, post release.

I think it's time to change that. There's little point analysing a game that's already out there - it's too late to make any significant changes. So I'm throwing my gates open to you all (as it were). If you've got a game in development, and want a game usability review (I'm looking at you, small indie developers and students), let me know!

And for all of you thinking that you don't need it... (not sure why you'd think that if you've made it to this site) what is there to lose? Free's nothing. Plus - free advertising here.

Note - I will write about my experiences in this blog, but I'll get you sign off anything I put down before it goes live. Can't say fairer then that can I? Anyone who's interested email me. alistair dot gray84 at googlemail dot com...

Wii Fit Plus game usability review

I recently did a game usability review of Wii Fit. I  suggested a couple of changes, and ended by saying that I wouldn't be getting it myself due to a lack of space - at least until we move. I haven't moved, but I have broken and got Wii Fit Plus. What can I say? I'm weak. That and whenever we visit my brother, a proud owner of Wii Fit, the girlfriend and I are always on it. The decision was made (... that and we suddenly realised we spend far too much time sitting on our behinds doing very little).

So - my game usability review for Wii Fit Plus.

In my last write up I suggested for 3 key changes.

1. A shortcut to switch between players profiles when several people are playing together.
2. A choice to allow people to hide their BMI/weight from other players.
3. Multiplayer - to allow people to play together.

I made these suggestions after playing the original Wii Fit. This was before I got my grubby hands on Wii Fit Plus. So how does the second iteration of Wii Fit do? When compared to my suggestions I'd give it a 1 out for 3.

It DOES offer a shortcut to switch between players. You've now got a small button in the bottom right corner, allowing you to select other Miis. This means if/when several of you are playing together you can much more easily switch between you (meaning the balance board won't complain when someone else tries to gets on as you).

It DOESN'T allow players to hide their BMI/weight when joining.

It DOES allow exercising in a pair - but only jogging, not anything else. This is fine, not many houses have multiple balance boards anyway. The game also offers a multiplayer option, allowing lots of you to play together.

So why not 2 out of 3. The 2 it DOES do aren't done properly (see below).

Alrighty...

Issues

The 'multiplayer' mode doesn't save your 'progress'. The length of time you spend playing and the high scores you achieve are lost ("fit cash")(both when you leave multiplayer mode and in someone elses training after using the 'switch' control). Why? They should be saved in the player's Wii Fit profile (if they have one).

Switching between players isn't a true 'switch'. The advanced levels a player has unlocked aren't offered - only those associated with the original player selected. Also getting a high scores doesn't have any effect (i.e. achieving a good score won't unlock the advanced mode). However if you are the original player selected then you CAN unlock advanced modes.

Players are going to get confused - "Why can't I play advanced cycling? I unlocked it yesterday!", "How come you just unlocked advanced? I got a higher score!". The game should properly switch between players, all unlocked advanced modes for that players account should be offered, as well as allowing the player to unlock further advanced modes if they do well.

Whilst the game does offer 2 player jogging, only 1 '2 player' mode is offered. I'm not sure why a 2 player option isn't offered for all the jogging modes?

Additional suggestions from my girlfriend - The ability to turn off tips. She sees them a "patronising, annoying little shits". Also - to have the ability to play without music. We wanted to listen to a new CD yesterday, but couldn't as the games often needs sound to play well. Joggers often have an MP3 player with them - it's easier and more fulfilling to exercise with your own music playing. The game should support this.

General list of positives

So I've been rather down on the game. But overall I am a fan. Here's some positives:

• The game uses other Miis whilst playing - there's nothing like throwing a snowball at your mother or seeing your housemates doing the activities with you.
• Allowing you to create and personalise your own exercise regimes is a nice touch, meaning you don't have to interrupt your heavy yoga session selecting the next exercise. BUT the process to set up the regimes is FAR too complex (a blog post in itself I believe...)
• The Wii Fit age is a great way to both measure your progress and get competitive with others - I went from 20 to 38 years in a day though, so I'm not entirely convinced of it's reliability.
•  Great new games (cycling, segway, tilt city and the obstacle course stand out) and more advanced versions of old classics (table tilt and balance bubble)
• Overall a good variety of activities - yoga, muscle workouts, balance games - there's not many games about that allow you to do some yoga, then some kung fu, before finishing off flapping like a chicken!

As I say, I'm a fan of Wii Fit generally, it's a great game. But there's lot of little snags that noticeably reduce the user experience in this version. This wouldn't be a major issue, but a lot of these are pretty simple stuff, and as I mentioned before, this is a sequel, this sort of minor issues should be ironed out by now. Nintendo must try harder...

Pocket god game usability playtest - part 2 - solutions

Ok, so, first of all the game usability issues encountered by the game tester, broken down into high, medium and low priority:

HIGH

• Game aims/type unclear
• Help too long and unclear
• Overwhelming amount of functionality

MEDIUM

• Controls not clear initially
• 'Open Feint' wasn't explained
• Started at episode 29 with no explanation  about the earlier episodes

LOW

• The request to allow push notifications was unclear
• Unclear when items/environment options are toggled on or off

* Disclaimer * 1 play test is far too small a number to truly be able to draw conclusions on the issues in the game (you need at the bare minimum 6 to be able to start drawing more reliable conclusions), but I'm running with what data I have...

Game aims/type unclear

Traditionally people know what type of game they are buying/getting. The game's background or premise is typically setup using an introduction movie. Pocket God cannot rely on people knowing the type of game, as people often download iPhone games on the spur of the moment. This leads to players not knowing what they’re getting into. This is exacerbated by not providing an introduction to the game.

The introductory page to the Pocket God help states:

Welcome to the Island of Oog, on an island inside your iPod/iPhone live the Pygmies, a tiny race of people that worship an unseen force... YOU. You are their God and it is your responsibility to keep them in line and guide them through their ongoing adventures.

I feel this doesn't sufficiently explain the game. The playtester thought she had to try and keep the pygmies alive/prosperous. This was why she got so upset when the pygmies started dying. The introduction needs to explain that the fun starts when you're willing to let the pygmies die, as they can be replaced easily. 


The intro text should be clarified, making it clearer what the aim of this game is. An introduction could also be added (this doesn't necessarily have to be a movie, it could be a series of images like Beneath a Steel Sky).

Overwhelming amount of functionality/Help too long and unclear 

I recently praised Batman Arkham Asylum for its well paced gradual introduction of controls. The problem with Pocket God is that as there's no storyline, there's no clear path through the game through which to introduce the different features. There's no storyline, all the functionality is available from the off, leading to this feeling of being overwhelmed by our playtester.

Pocket God could add a tutorial, introducing players to the different 'activities' available... But this undermines the spirit of exploration and discovery that the game relies on ("ooo look, I can throw them into the volcano!").

An alternative - I think the best way for the player to learn any game is to gradually seek out new functionality at their own pace. If Pocket God initially loaded with just 1 area available, this could act as a 'nursery' area for the player to come to terms with some of the more basic controls before allowing the player to approach the other areas in their own time, downloading them whenever they felt ready. This could also be applied to the different 'episodes'.

This approach of essentially splitting the areas would allow the help text to be split up. Of the 34 pages of help, 10 are generic, 4 are for 1 area, 3 for another, 5 for a third, 3 for a fourth... and 3 for a fifth. A lot of these pages are presented when they aren't relevant - why do I care about the T-Rex when I'm in the underwater area? If the pages in the help text were context specific (only show the help text for the area I'm currently in) this would simplify the text significantly.

The help text could be split into 3 sections to further reduce the number of pages presented at any one time:

1. Overall controls
2. What can be done here?
3. Open Feint/Social

Controls not clear initially

The controls are translucent. While it makes sense to try and be as efficient with screen space on the small iPhone screen, there's a risk (as seen here) that players miss the controls entirely.

I would suggest researching a little more to see how often this problem occurs with new players, and if it is a common problem to offer an option to set the controls to opaque or translucent, with opaque the default selection.


'Open Feint' wasn't explained
What is 'Open Feint'? Is it another app? How is it related to Pocket God? None of these questions are answered sufficiently.

There's no attempt to sell it at all. Imagine users as surly teenagers (several are) asking "what's in it for me?". Explain what's to be gained in signing up to this thing, e.g. See how your friends are doing by signing up to Open Feint - think Facebook meets games! (I stole the end from the Open Feint site).

As a backup, ensure a negative decision can be reversed easily (I think this is already the case, but couldn't be tested as the playtester signed herself up).

6 of the help pages attempted to explain Open Feint, but do a poor job. The explanations are text heavy, and I was unable to find the pages demonstrated when I attempted to use Open Feint myself. I think this functionality needs a video (implausible on the iPhone) or explanation text in the application itself.

Started at episode 29 with no explanation  about the earlier episodes

It must be good advertising to display clearly each time the game's updated... great for return users, not so good for first-timers. As the play tester said - "Episode 29? What about the other episodes???"

There's a couple of options with this issue:

Option 1 - do nothing. It makes no difference to the player, this problem doesn't interfere with their play (although it does un-nerve the player slightly during their initial play).
Option 2 - give the player control to advance 'episodes' at their own pace. I.e. they initially start the game in episode 1, with an option to move onto 2, 3, etc whenever they chose.
Option 3 - don't show the episode number when the game is initially loaded, display only on subsequent openings of the game.

The request to allow push notifications was unclear
This will be a common issue for many apps. What are 'push notifications'? And even those who know what they are, how often will they be coming in?

I just realised I didn't really know what they are, and after 5 minutes of studious internet research I'm now... none the wiser. I can't find much about what they are, other than they're the little red blogs apps get in their corner to let you know something's happened.

Much like the Open Feint issue Apple need a 'What are push notifications?' link each time this question is asked. There should also be another link/a following page detailing exactly how the push notifications will be handled by the specific application. Allowing users to read and learn about unknowns will massively increase the likelihood of people agreeing to said unknowns (or 'knowns' as they would then be... known).

Unclear when items/environment options are toggled on or off

I was working with a client just a couple of weeks ago who encountered the exact same problem. The 'on' selection looked very similar to the 'off' selection. This meant participants were forced to switch the option on and off several times before they could see the difference.

The solution is to differentiate the two states more clearly. This could be done by changing the on/off state from a subtle glowing around the silhouette to clear colour changes. Or using ticks and crosses alongside the silhouette.

Conclusion
Pocket God needs several changes before I could say that they support new users. It appears to have suffered game usability growing pains. Designs that were suitable initially have suffered with the increase in content. While I'm sure more experienced players will be able to overcome several of the game usability issues discussed with no problems, the issues will remain for more 'casual' gamers.

Next time - A discussion on 2 attempts to introduce achievements in iPhone games...

Pocket God - game usability playtest part 1

I recently ran a game usability playtest of Pocket God on the iPhone. Why that game? It's developers Bolt Creative recently claimed that it's been downloaded 2 million times. I was intrigued to see the appraoch the developers took to keep the game fresh - to release regular free updates (30 "episodes" over just over a year).

With so much additional content being added to the core game I was curious to see how the game introduced itself to a new player. I decided to conduct a very-mini playtest, consisting of 1 tester. Step forward test subject number 1 (the girlfriend).

Test subject number 1
Preferred genre -  Strategy/Puzzle
Favourite game - Ceasar 3
Systems owned - iPhone and PC/Mac (some play time on the Wii)
Average time playing per week - 2-3 hours

*Disclaimers*

1. I had no contact with the game before the playtest -  I didn't know anything about the controls or content. Not ideal for a playtest, but it was necessary (the iPhone used for the playtest was owned by test subject number 1).
   
2. I deliberately didn't allow test subject 1 to read any information about the game before the playtest - not even the reviews. She would normally have read the reviews, and learnt about the game to a much greater degree before purchasing. A lot of the issues encountered wouldn't have been encountered in real life (as the tester would have read around the game before commencing). I wanted to enact a spontaneous purchase.
   

The playtest

I'm just going to write what happened:

Before the game loads, an 'Open Feint' window appears and requests to use the players data. The tester (hereafter referred to as her, or she) was unsure what this was for. She thought it was a different application altogether and guessed it was some form of social tool (it is, but there's no explanation - what it is, or what you'd want to sign up to it for).

Next she asked if they want push notifications. "Are these warning messages? How often will I be warned?"

The game starts and informs her that episode 29 is loading - "Episode 29? Why start on episode 29?"

The game loads with 1 pygmy on the screen... it picks up a fishing rod and starts to fish. Almost immediately it is pulled into the sea and eaten by a shark - much to her dismay. She's left with no one on the screen anymore. She doesn't notice the 'add pygmy' button in the top of the screen. She gets distressed.

With some assistance she notices the controls in the top of the screen. They load the help, which offers some explanatory text... but this is rather small and hard to read. There's a total of 34 help pages - too much for her to take in. They started reading... then gave up. She gets distressed. "Ice monster? What? I'm meant to throw the pygmies at the ice monster? How? Why?"

She creates a couple of pygmies and tries dragging one around. Succeeds in dropping the pygmy into the sea, where it quickly drowns before she can pull it out again. She gets distressed.

After a couple of minutes she is starting to get to grips with the controls. However, they still felt overwhelmed - "There's too much...".

Pulling up the map she accidentally takes the pygmies to the 'underwater zone' "Are we underwater now? Why?". She panics, fearing the pygmies would drown.

Finding the toggle controls (where the player has the ability to toggle various interactive aspects of the zones on and off). She toggles a couple of options, but is unsure what they control "Are they on or off? What are they?"

After 5 minutes of the playtest she abandons the game. "I just don't know what to do..." She believed she was playing the game incorrectly, that there was a way to be benevolent and save the pygmies from their rather gruesome fates.

After playing

After playing she went online to see what she was missing. Reading the Wikipedia entry, the tester realised the whole point of the game was essentially to torture and kill the pygmies in a variety of amusing ways... This didn't appeal to them. The game was not to their taste, but they were still able to find several issues. The biggest being:

• The game never introduced itself to the player - there was insufficient help and no tutorial. It was also unclear exactly what kind of game it was (a sim-killer)

I'll discuss the other issues, and how they could resolve some of them next time!

Batman Arcane Asylum game usability review - the bad

So - I've finally finished Batman AA! What a game... It's pretty rare for me to complete a game, but I pulled the plug just a couple of days ago. Complete, with all 240 riddles done as well. Chuffed with that. Yes, yes, I know it's not that special, but I can now break the addiction.

So I've posted what I liked about the game. Now for part 2 - the bad aspects of the game usability/user experience. Just to be clear, the game is so good I feel I'm really having to search for improvements. I can't wait to see what changes they make to Arkham Asylum 2.


Fights can end anti-climatically

So the combat is great fun. Engaging, flexible, reactive, etc. But there is a small problem. Each fight ends with a slow-mo, alternative angle of the final puck/kick/throw/etc. But about 50% of  the time this dramatic view shows Batman doing a silly finishing move, such as kicking someone in the shin, or even missing the person completely! The slow-mo gives the player a long time to watch the final move... and see any flaws in the impact mechanics/silly underwhelming final moves.

The 'detective mode' is too powerful 

A problem I find with modern games is that it's harder and harder to see what can be interacted with, and what is just decoration. There have been a variety of different attempts to highlight 'interactive' objects. The tradition is to display the items in a different colour, make the items glow/glimmer or visually highlight the items in some other way. A good example is Bioshock - usable items have a shiny glow/glimmer. The problem being that this adds an artificiality to the game ("real bananas don't shine like that!").

Batman AA gets around this by offering a 'detective mode', where interactive objects glow orange. This ensures that the game world can remain 'pure' (no glowing objects here!) but means the detective mode is too useful. I spent most of the game with it on, meaning I missed out on the graphics of the normal mode.

Batman AA could supplement the 'detective mode' on top of the normal mode (so interactive objects can still glow and stand out, but the rest of the images doesn't loose it's colour). I'm essentially suggesting a combination (or at least a much closer connection) between the normal and detective mode. 

Other detective mode issues 

The 'detective mode' is so powerful, I played most of the game with it on. This lead to 2 problems:

• It's hard to tell wardens (friendly) and inmates (not so friendly) apart. As a result I found myself attempting to creep up and knock out wardens throughout the game. Not a major problem, but it just pulled me out of the game-world briefly. This could easily be fixed with different colours for friendly and hostile people. The game already does this to a lesser degree, inmates with guns are coloured red, so unarmed inmates could be yellow and guards green or blue.
• It's hard to tell when there's a wall between Batman and the person. As with the warden identification problem, I found myself attacking a wall (pretty embarrassing, as I was showing the game off to a friend at the time). Once more, it's not a significant problem... It just once more acts as a reminder that you're playing a game. The game could indicate to the player when there's a barrier between Baman and a person by using a darker/lighter shade of colour.
 

Equipment issues 

I had 2 issues with the equipment offered in Batman. I loved the pace they introduced more and more complex equipment as you move through the game (even updating older equipment to keep you existing gear fresh). However I had 2 (very similar) issues with the equipment controls:

• Selecting another piece of equipment when under pressure was surprisingly tough. For far too many fights I tried to boobytrap a downed inmate with some rope or the electronic hacker because I failed to pick the explosive from the radial menu. The game could pause while the player makes their selection. Alternatively reduce the amount of time the player must hold a direction in the radial menu to indicate what equipment they need.
  
• Related to this, there's no information on what equipment is selected. This leads to the same problem as above where I tried to use the wrong equipment at the wrong time for a situation - I just didn't realise I was using the wrong item. This may be a deliberate design choice - to save screen space/reduce clutter and/or because you don't have a HUD in real life. If not I would suggest adding a small transparent icon of the item. This should be placed in the corner of the screen, where the radial menu appears.

Sometimes unclear where to go next

In the previous post, I raved about the help offered when you struggled in set pieces, how the game tells you the best strategy to avoid the issue next time. Unfortunately the help isn't infallible. There are various points in the game where it's not clear where to go/what to next. I was wandering about in 1 corridor for about 5 minutes before giving up, and reading online that I missed a grate in the ceiling all along!

The developers should adjust the points where people regularly got stuck in playtesting and adjust the layout a little to accommodate this. They could find these points by defining the average time a player should get to the next section, and comparing it to the actual playtesting average. Alternatively the game could offer hints from the girl on the radio - e.g. "are there any vents nearby?" 

Quite a bit of repeats in environments

Another minor issue... again as there's so little for me to talk about here. A lot of the detail in the environments (furniture, files, etc) are repeats. Not normally a problem, but one of the details is a photo. This photo crops up over and over again all over the asylum. Either this person is the asylum equivalent of Jedward (for any non-British readers, best not go there) or they need more pictures. I've picked up on the pictures because faces are so much more memorable than tables, folders or anything else.

Batman's character

A minor issue is Batman's character. I enjoyed the game's story itself, good ol' fashioned trash. But through it all Batman himself was a little... 2 dimensional. Like the recent films all he does is grunt in a gruff voice to everyone he speaks to about how they should stand back and let Batman fix it. There's no uncertainty, no remorse, no... character. Batman's just essentially brought Joker into this island to cause havoc, killing many guards in the process - how does he feel about that???


And that's your lot! All in all a great game, with some very minor game usability issues that need adjustment. Personally? The most polished game I've seen in quite some time.

Batman Arcane Asylum game usability review - the good

I've been playing this for an age, and it doesn't look like I'm going to be putting it down until I finish it. So because I've invested so much time into it, I thought I'd split the assessment into 2 posts:

- Part 1 - the good
- Part 2 - the bad

Lets make 1 thing clear, I'm a big fan of this game. This part - the best aspects of the game's user experience, it's high quality game usability, will be EASY.

Good graphics

The game itself looks great (bar the character's comically huge muscles). The environments are detailed and busy. There's fairly few cutscenes, and those that are there look really good.

Engaging combat

As the director said they have put a lot of effort into the combat system - and you can tell. It's flexible and fun. It also looks great, dynamically adapting according to the situation.

In earlier brawler systems, the player controls the direction the fighter is facing, and is given buttons that do specific actions, such as puch/kick/throw/etc. This often led to the frustrating situation of a players character swinging just to the side of a bad guy whilst making no contact (usually whilst they watched, bemused).
A swing and a miss...

In this game players are given 4 controls (jump/avoid, counter, attack and stun), the player controls where these are directed with the control stick. The buttons don't do a specific action, but the intention of the button. So 'attack' may punch sometimes, and kick on others, or 'avoid' may jump over an attacker, or slide between their legs. All this is dependant upon the situation, meaning the games combat feel much more engaging and free flowing than others I've seen.

Players also recieve clear feedback on any combatants about to attack, a visual signal displays, giving the player time to counter or avoid the blow.

The system is pleasingly easy to pick up and understand, but I certainly feel I've yet to master it.

Good, well paced story line

The story line, while not groundbreaking, is pretty good. It keeps you moving through the areas with little feeling of being shepherded. It's also well paced, with a good variety of puzzle solving and fight scenes. Even the fight scenes are kept fresh with a nice variety of situations.

Help when you die at set pieces

One of the best parts of the game, the part I was most pleased about was the hints the game gives when players die at set pieces. For instance, when I was struggling with a boss fight - Bane - after being knocked down the game gave me a short message hinting to use my 'batarang' more.

It could consider giving more and more clues if players continue to struggle, or even offer to reduce the difficulty for that specific part of the game.

Quick save unobtrusive

A great feature I always love to see it autosave, it's great not having to worry about saved games. I know loads of games do this nowadays, but it's so well integrated I thought it deserved a special mention. Whoever put this into games in the first place was a genius...

Easy controls, gradual introduction of additional tech

The game has really well thought out controls (anyone who's read my blog all the way to this point will know this is a particular obsession of mine). It's very easy to run, jump, zip around, surprise thugs, etc. There's really very few points where you really feel you're fighting the controls to make the game do what you wanted (more on that in part 2).

The game also takes care not to introduce everything at once. Controls are slowly added with the gradual introduction of Batman's technology, meaning players are given time to get accustomed to controls before further complexity is added. This gradual introduction of complexity is a sure sign of a game developer taking care not to over-burden new players when they take their first steps into the game's world.

Even something simple like skipping cutscenes is well designed. Some games skip cutscenes after 1 button press - this means you place the controller to one side holding it like some delecate Ming china in case you hit a button by mistake. Batman needs 2 presses. The first press brings up the on-screen message allowing skipping, the second is the confirmation.

To be continued...

And there I'm just scratching the surface! For each one of these points I could go into more detail very easily, but that would mean I've got to spend more time writing and less time playing.

Generally, a great user experience.

Coming up - part 2 - the bad! (Dramatic music)

Dead Space Extraction game usability review

Dead Space Extraction (DSE) - the latest on-rails shooter. Certainly a departure from it's predecessor (Dead Space, a space based survival horror), but is it any good?

I'm going to be uncontroversial and say it's... fine, as all the reviews have said. There are a few game usability problems that really don't sit well with an otherwise pretty good game.

Ignoring the story

1 of the big attempts DSE makes is to introduce a feasible story into an on-rails shooter. The story of survival against all the odds was a key part of Dead Space and there is an attempt to reproduce this here.

The problem is a feature built into the game that rewards players who don't pay attention to the cut scenes - you can do better in the game by ignoring the story.

Throughout play you are encouraged to key an eye out for items (such as ammo and weapon upgrades) you can 'grab' using a kinetic blog thing. These items can appear at anytime, during quiet periods, firefights and during cut scenes. The result is whenever you're not shooting, the best approach is to spam the 'grab' button at anything that isn't a blank wall. The net effect is that you spend very little attention on the story unfolding around you... or you risk missing out on loot.

"Sorry - I don't care what you've got to say, get your head out the way of that cupboard..."









There's a couple of possible solutions DSE could consider:

• Don't offer items during cut scenes, the player can then fully focus or skip the cut scene as they wish
• Alternatively, offer items in cuts scenes, but only after the first play through (perhaps at the higher difficulty levels), when players will pay less attention anyway
  

Audio blogs

1 of the hidden bonuses you can find are audio blogs, with short recorded messages from the (now deceased) crew. The problem being these are lost in the poor Wii Remote speakers. I had no idea what they were saying...

DSE should consider offering the option of playing the audio messages through the TV speakers.

Turning away too soon

Another problem that should have been spotted is the occasional point where the game turns away from a creature too soon, leaving you open to attack from behind. You're facing the wrong way and the creature is repeatedly wacking you over the head... and there's nothing you can do about it.

It just pulls you back to reality. An unwelcome reminder you're playing a game, and the game really shouldn't do that if it can possibly avoid it.

DSE shouldn't turn away from creatures whilst they're still alive - you wouldn't turn away from them in real life anyway.

Recognising your gun

The game offers you a variety of weapons to choose from. A problem is that it's often quite hard to work out what weapon you're using... Several look very similar. It's not a big issue most of the time. It doesn't matter what you shoot a creature with, as long as you don't accidentally equip your Super Soaker...

The problem is at a couple of points you need to use a specific gun - the rivet gun. It's not clear you need to equip a different weapon if you have the wrong gun equipped. It took two tries at one set piece to understand what I was required to do.

DSE could consider changing the aiming rectagle to clarify the difference between the guns, or include some clearer text when a gun is equipped. When the rivet gun is needed, and not equipped, ensure the player is made aware. The characters around the player could say something, or a message could appear on the screen.

Positives

Having said all this, it's still a great game. It looks great, especially for a Wii game, the sound is good and voice acting more than sufficient (first time I've played a game featuring a Dutch accent).

The story (if you attend to it) is good, it has a great shooting mechanics and some exciting set pieces.

DSE is Aliens to Dead Space's Alien - a great fun shooting-fest... just don't expect to get too scared whilst enjoying the ride.

How about you? What're your thoughts on the game?

Late Wii Fit game usability review

Although Wii Fit Plus is already in the stores, I thought I'd get down my game usability thoughts on Wii Fit, and aspects of the game that should be considered for Wii Fit 3 - Wii Fit Cubed maybe...






Playing in a group

You can tell Wii Fit is designed to be played alone. Essentially all the activities require the Wii fit balance board. But we treated it as a party game. I had my family round my brothers copy, and we all did exercises together. However, after we all created our profiles changing between them was very hard work. After completing an exercise/minigame, to change player you had to:

1. 'Quit' out of the exercise/minigame
2. Exit the exercise/minigame 'channel' selection screen (yoga, muscle exercises, balance games)
3. Exit the welcome screen
4. Select the new player
5. Select the right 'channel' on the welcome screen
6. Select the right exercise/minigame

6 steps! Far too many for quick switches between players.

This sits poorly against the games apparent attempts to encourage group play. Whenever someone new enters the game, the other players are told of this, and says how good it is to play Wii Fit together. The game encourages people to play it together, in spite of the effort required to do so!

Wii Fit 3? Ensure there's a shortcut to change between profiles.

Personal details

People are sensitive about their weight. They don't like to tell others, and they don't want others to know. But when first joining Wii Fit, it announces your BMI for the whole world to see! There is no option NOT to see your BMI, it is plastered all over the TV. Anyone else in the room will have seen it.

The designers seem to have been aware that people wouldn't want others to see their details, and there's the ability to protect your information behind a password, but not on the first go...

Wii Fit 3? Offer new players the ability to NOT see their BMI when they join.

Multiplayer

When My girlfriend and I were playing Wii Fit, 1 of us did the exercise on the balance board, the other did the exercise alongside. We were exercising together. That's the next step... 2 balance boards on a machine at the same time. This would encourage us to use Wii Fit and exercise far more than any other change.

Wii Fit 3? Make sure people can exercise in a pair, using 2 balance boards at once (if they're sufficiently monied to have 2 boards).

Why I'm not getting Wii Fit

I really like Wii Fit. It's fun, and it really would keep me active. Anything to get my rotund behind moving is fine by me! BUT I'm not going to be getting it. Partly for the reasons above, and also partly because the game needs a large amount of space in front of the TV. I don't have that, and I can't get that... at least until I next move house.

Also, it's dependent on everyone around having a relaxed open attitude. To play Wii Fit in front of others is essentially to make a fool of yourself. You do yoga, poorly, you try and balance, you wobble, and you sweat. You need people around you who are willing to let you do all these things and not judge you. Alas, where I currently reside, I don't have these people. I can't exercise if front of my current housemates, I won't be able to relax. I'll feel like I'll be judged.

Ah well, just means I get to play it once a month whenever I visit my brother. No losing weight for me just yet.

Light of Altair game usability - demo problems

I'll be discussing the game Light of Altair, specifically the game usability issues. This game was first brought to my attention by Gamers With Jobs (thanks guys!)

I really want to like this game. It's sounds great, GWJ wrote "Light of Altair has done a great job of distilling the elements that made games like Sins of a Solar Empire so addictive. If you prefer your strategy gaming in 20-minute chunks, Light of Altair is for you. "

BUT, I can't play it! Why? The demo is just too confusing.

A demo should showcase a game simply and clearly. It should not require the player to study any complex text or manuals, or leave the player confused on what to do next. After all the aim of demo is to ensure players have a seamless experience. They should move through the demo learning about and doing some of the things possible in the game without encountering any problems, otherwise it's goodbye possible sale. Players should see enough of the game to get a taste of what they can do, and be left wanting more. This demo unfortunately leaves me cold... Here's why.

Problems with the Light of Altair demo

Simply, it's confusing. The help messages simply don't tell me what I need to do, or how!

For example, I recieved this message:

"Now that the moon base has grown to a proper colony you need to construct a research facility and the power to support it."

The problem is, it doesn't tell me how I go about doing that. I eventually discovered the "research facility" had become available in the construction list and was able to move on... Why doesn't the game highlight that? Tell me in the message, or highlight the new building option visually.

Further on in the demo a message appeared:

"Commander, the construction of the moonbase is going slower than we planned. Please focus on the objectives otherwise we will be forced to relieve you of your post"

Huh? What was I doing wrong? The game didn't tell me, I was left along to work this out. How? Trawling back through all the messages the game had sent me recently (status reports, updates and crucially, orders). I found I needed a landing area on both my colonies - why not say that? Ok, moving on. Mission complete - next mission.

According to the mission summary at the top of the screen I've got to "Gain an income of $5000 a month". Easy. Wait... how do I do that? I've looked back through the instructions and I think this is the related instruction:

"Now you have an ore supply, you are advised to research and develop an Industrial Centre that can create tradable goods out of the ores on the planets surface. These goods can then be traded via a Starport to generate more income."

Ok, I got it. Build mines, then industry, and I'll make money through the starport. The problem is, I can't work out how! I've got mines, I've got industry, but I'm getting very little trade. I've missed something out. The help text is of no use, they're essentially worthless. The instructions fare no better. So I'm stuck. I've no idea how to proceed and I've just recieved the message of doom again:

"Commander, the construction of the moonbase is going slower than we planned. Please focus on the objectives otherwise we will be forced to relieve you of your post"

I'm out thanks...

What the game should have done

• Given much clear instructions on how to do the objectives asked, e.g. "generate an income of $5000 a month. Income can be generated by..."
  
• Given tips to the player to explain how to complete the objective they're stuck on, e.g. "you need to build a landing pad in all your colonies"
  
• Ensuring the help text linked to much more in depth instructions/explanations on how the game worked, e.g. "For each mine, 2 industries are needed in the same colony"
  

Conclusion

Demos are possibly the most public facing aspect of a game. They cannot be some early levels of the game thrown together hastily. The whole experience the developers want to project to the potential buyers needs to be considered, and then that should be modelled. It will require further development time and resources, but a good demo should pay for itself by encouraging better sales.

Braid game usability assessment - is Braid a casual game?

Game Usability Review

Braid's great.




Positives

Introducing controls-
As well as being conceptually interesting Braid gradually introduces the game controls very well throughout the first level. It is essentially a training mode built into the game itself – there is no pop up or voice over explaining the controls. The required controls are simple placed on the screen near the obstacle:

Players are left to discover the controls themselves.


Feedback-
Braid also gives great ambient feedback. When reversing time a sound effect is used, the music reverses and the whole colour scheme, including the background changes. Clear feedback is one of the key features of a casual game.

Casual games as a whole-
In order for a casual game to succeed, there are a few restrictions it must place on itself in order to appeal to the casual gamer market. Braid does all of these well:

Less punishing – errors are easily fixed through rewinding time
Less complex – the control scheme is simple (control dimensionality of 3.5). Braid uses wasd controls for movement. This is fairly complex for a casual game, but I shall be returning to this topic at a later date…
Shorter – the game can be completed fairly quickly
Simpler – the games controls are simple, and the most complex aspect is the time travel
Less open ended – the only thing that is possible is to go through the game and collect the puzzle pieces
Clear feedback – it’s clear when rewinding time, and reminders of the controls appear on the screen whenever the game is played (not just on the first levels)

Negatives

There really is very little wrong with it! It seems mean to poke holes, but then again that's my job...

It could be argued that even when you work out the solution to some of the puzzles you are still forced to attempt the solution several times to succeed. Often seemingly completing the puzzle by chance. Essentially the game requires very precise movement and time control. Such precision implies the game anticipates being used by a hardcore gamer, as these are not the skills casual gamers posses.

Also – some of the puzzles are quite hard, there is little/no clues anywhere in the game (even the official game walkthrough tells you not to use any external help – to solve the problems on your own). If this game really was aimed at the casual gamer as well as hardcore, then more help should be used – clues that gradually reveal over time, or hints that appear after a certain number of failed attempts. So those players struggling are helped through the process.

So - is Braid a casual game?

I don't think so... Why? Especially after talking about how Braid is a great casual game? I believe Braid is a hardcore casual game - it's a casual game for hardcore players. This explains the high difficulty and high skill level required to solve the puzzles.

It's success stemmed from taking a good hard look at the successful casual games on the market and applying findings to a game aimed at the hardcore. The result? A great game...

The implications? Gamers like casual games too, and lessons can be learned from both ends of the game spectrum.

Assassins Creed quick game usability assessment

Assassins Creed - PC version

I will be putting down my thoughts on various games from a user experience perspective here. Here's my first review...

Good game. Hard controls.

Positives
It's a great sandbox. Players can complete missions in a variety of ways, they're free to explore and experiment new techniques and find new ways to play - always a good sign. Allowing players to play their own way allows players to entertain themselves - messing around or playing seriously whenever the feel like doing so.

The game encourages flow, it's so easy to run, jump and climb all over the city. Very little cognitive effort is involved in performing actions - players just move without having to stop and think what to do next.


Negatives
The controls are too complex.

*Please note - I'm discussing the PC version*

To get a gauge of how complex controls are you could use control dimensionality (as described by Activision Central design, and 21st Century game design). This pulls a games controls into a number, so you can do direct comparisons with other games to see how much more or less complex 1 games controls are compared to another. Simply put, the less complex a games control, the better. The control dimensionality is calculated below:

3D movement (in/out, left/right, up/down) = 3
+
2D camera = 2
+
8 key actions (left hand (high/low profile), right hand (high/low profile), run/walk (high/low profile), head, target lock) = 8 * 0.5 = 4

Total = 3 + 2 + 4 = 9

There's no way of knowing if this is too high or too low without comparing it to other games. I'm going to stick my neck out and say it's high... As this blog continues we'll be able to compare this to others.

The complex controls are accentuated by the game using modes (high and low profile). This means the same buttons perform different actions depending on the mode the player is in. This can cause real problems. In my experience modes will always cause confusion, and especially when under time pressure (like playing a game).

Also the game is a poor port onto the PC from the console versions. The on screen advice tells you to press the trigger button (advice for those using the 360 controller). The manual isn't much help either... There's 6 pages summarising all the actions possible, but I spent about 5 minutes trying to work out what buttons were for what actions.

Recommendations
The game controls were a risk. Ubisoft should (and probably did) have tested the controls with users as soon as a working prototype was available, before committing to any significant degree.

Also take more care and attention on porting to the PC. Put the right controls on the screen, or at least remove the on screen prompts. Ensure the new manuals for the new version include the controls.


What do you think? Do you agree with my thoughts? Or do you think I've over exaggerated it's problems?