I am a notorious reset-er when it comes to facing the repercussions of my actions in games. This is most prevalent in sports titles, where I reload a save if I think I’m going to lose an important game in my season. This trait of mine also rears its nasty head in RPGs that require big, game-altering choices. While I don’t always reset the game, I’m prone to create several save files, all of which happen at big points in the story, so I can revisit them if I don’t like the outcome. I think I reloaded the Landsmeet in Dragon Age 3 or 4 times, just to choose the one I liked best.
One game where I tried to avoid this sickly habit was Heavy Rain. As the story featured several main characters, you could actually die right in the middle of the game and have the narrative continue, just from someone else’s eyes. Knowing that you could lose somebody you cared about at any moment made some of the mind-bending quick time events that much more intense. As a result, the experience of Heavy Rain was a long-lasting and fondly remembered one for me.
A recent article over at PopMatters about Irreversible Consequences in gaming really got me wondering if this is something that developers should try to achieve more often. Continue reading Should Games Have More Irreversible Consequences?