Gameplay Elements

Terrain

Terrain is the environment that is located around the persons or player's whereabouts. Terrain can range from many different types of genres and settings with areas such as deserts, mountains, ocean, arctic and much more. Terrains can be defined in ways looking at the objects and weather in the scene which give the environment a greater and more realistic effect. For example, A desert would have objects such as cactus' and tumbleweed as a sandstorm could occur every now and then.

Minecraft

In Minecraft, there are many different Biomes that consist of having different types of environment and terrain which changes how they are generated, how they look and difference in resources that you can find there. A list of all of the different Biomes are: Plains, Desert, Mesa, Taiga, Northern forest, Swampland, Extreme Hills, Ocean, Ice Plains etc.

Here are some images displaying what some of the terrains look like within the game.

Desert:
The Desert is a terrain that is very plain with nothing but tonnes of sand and a few cacti scattered around the biome.

Plains:
The Plains is a grassy land filled with grass, dirt, trees and some hills which shows how a field like terrain would look within a virtual and blocky world.

Borderlands

In Borderlands, There are Terrain that seem very rural and deserted filled with dirt and rocks with a lot of space and then there are areas within the game that are clearly man-made like buildings which alter how the terrain would look like if there wasn't any man-made objects. You can also see how the environment doesn't seem too clean or fancy since everything seems as if it has been made out of scrap material.

Castle Crashers

Here is a forest-like terrain within Castle Crashers and as you can see, the game sticks with the 2D cartoon-like and quirky artistic effect which fits in nicely with the game and successfully portrays how the terrain is supposed to look.

Architecture

Architecture is the way the buildings within the terrain are structured in a certain type of style. For example, in environments located in regional areas such as Japan will have buildings that are created to look similar to shrines and actual structures that are traditionally linked to the country because of the Japanese type of culture and way of living. Compared to another type of building is a large and futuristic scientific lab looking at games such as Portal which use smooth and clean types of materials where there are a lot of machines that mass produce a lot of products and most of the objects are defined using shapes rather than actual objects.

Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 4

Portal 2

Objects

An object is an item that you are able to see, touch and interact with. This also means that objects are things that get regularly used within real life and video games. Objects can range from things such as weapons, books, plushies, phones etc.

Pokemon

In all of the Pokemon games, There are many different items that you can collect and obtain for yourself to aid you along the way whether it be a potion to heal your Pokemon, A bicycle to help you ride around quickly or a Key Item that is key to have to progress through the game. Items within the game are used very frequently and they can be found in certain areas or they can be bought in the PokeMart where a large majority of the items are sold for currency you earn through winning battles.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, when the game begins you are able to entering a buying menu by pressing the default key "b". In this buying menu, you can spend the money you have earned throughout the current game you are in by killing a numerous amount of enemies and just as the rounds go by.

Characters

Characters are the people that the player controls to progress through the game. Some characters may have different abilities compared to others which are used for each completely different purposes, meaning that some could be beneficial in ways that the other couldn't be.

Tracer (Overwatch)

Tracer is an offensive flanker who has the ability to "blink" in any direction by a radius of 7 meters. She can use her blink ability every 3 seconds and she can have 3 blinks stacked up all at once, which allows her to easily get into the behinds of the enemy back lines so that she can take out fragile support character or deal a larger amount of damage to the various tanks with her pulse pistols. When she builds up so much damage. she can use her ultimate ability where she can throw and stick a bomb quickly onto an enemy target which could kill a radius of players if they are in a very close range to each other.

Reinhardt (Overwatch)

Reinhardt is a core tank which is almost a must-have in every game. Reinhardt has the ability to pull up a shield whenever he likes with a total life of 2000 health. This shield is designed to protect his team and more importantly, block "choke points" of the various maps within Overwatch. Reinhardt also carries a large hammer which swings in the whole radius in front of him dealing 75 damage per swing, meaning that he can be a big problem for characters with very low health or characters that are stood in the same area. Reinhardt's ultimate ability is named "Earthshatter" where he lifts his massive hammer into the air and slams it down ferociously to the ground leaving enemies in his sight dazed and unable to move, making them very easy to kill.

Torbjorn (Overwatch)

Torbjorn is a defensive character who stays within the back lines of his team as he has the ability to build an automatic turret which he can also upgrade to "level 2" when using his hammer on it. His turret does a surprising amount of damage and can be a large problem in specific games when it is not taken out. When Torbjorn uses his ultimate ability, "Molten Core", his turret proceeds to automatically level up to level 3 where it has extremely high damage and fire rate, more health and he himself also gets more health and deals more damage.

Mercy (Overwatch)

Mercy's job is to support the team in any way that she possibly can. Mercy can use her staff to either heal her teammates at a moderate speed or she can boost the damage of a target that she selects by 30%. Mercy can also easily glide towards her teammates every 2 seconds using her "Guardian Angel" ability. When Mercy's ultimate is charged, she can resurrect a number of teammates that have recently died within a specific radius which can be a game changing play that could put your team in a huge advantage.

NPC

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon - Partner

In PMD, you will have a partner who you will help receive their goal whilst they try to help you get back to being a human. Throughout your adventure, You and your partner go on various different adventures together where you explore through various dungeons completing missions and various quests where your partner fights along side of you. Your partner will always be concerned and talk to you whenever you need it, and he also takes the place of being a very special friend within the game.

This video will contain spoilers for how the game ends, but it shows how the ending is so impactful even though it is played using various NPC characters to guide you along the way. The music that plays gives a great emotional impact and you can feel the emotion of yourself and your partner with the various facial expressions and effects that take place within this final cutscene. 

Feedback

Feedback within video games is the way that the game tells you how well you are doing at the game which is given back to you by showing you statistics, creating various sound effects or making the controller shake vigorously.

Super Smash Bros.

In this GIF, you can see how each hit deals a certain percentage of damage towards the target that is being hit and that percentage is easily seen by the player because of its bright flashing animation and the numbers jiggling about. We can also see that each slash leaves a slight lighting effect which is also feedback for the player since it lets them know that the slash created contact with the enemy.

Here, you can see what it looks like when a player is defeated and how the end of the game is displayed with large and bold letters that imply that the game is over and a winner has been determined.

Interface

The interface is the visual components that the player can see which gives them information about the character they are controlling and things that can help a player be aware. An interface in an FPS game like Call of Duty has interface with things such as ammo, score, time, cross-hairs, hit-markers, mini-map, equipment etc. As you should be able to tell, there are all things that can make the player more cautious of the play-style they take as they may not have a lot of ammo or any flash-bangs left to kill more players meaning that they need to take a more careful approach.

Call of Duty

Town of Salem

The UI in Town of Salem is rather simple but it gives you everything you need in the game to complete the game and fulfill the role that you were given at the start of the game. There is a button which will open up a black page known as a "will" which will be stated to the town when the person dies. In that will, they can write down anything whether it is information to pass on to the townies or the mafia tricking the townies into lynching one of their own. There is also information showing what role you received, descriptions about your role, people who are currently alive, the chat, the role list and if you are in the mafia, then it shows the other members of the mafia since you are all working together to kill all of the town.

Perspectives

Perspectives in video games can change a how it is played completely as there are a range of different perspectives for different games. There are perspectives that could give a game a more realistic view where you play the game in a first person person so you see through the characters eyes which is good for genres such as FPS, Action, Horror etc.

1st Person - Mirror's Edge

3rd person - The Last of Us

Side Scroller - Rabi Ribi

Top down shooter - Touhou: Perfect Cherry Blossom

As you can see, Perspectives in video games can change in many different ways which could possibly be because of the game genre or the general intention that the game is meant to be played. For example, I believe that mirror's edge was in first person because it wanted to make you feel the adrenaline of the fast paced parkour type of action so it felt some what realistic. I think that The Last of Us was in 3rd person because it helps the player progress through the game when using stealth movements as they have a wider view of the environment around them that the character themselves cannot see but I also think that the game wanted us to feel sympathy for the characters within the game.

FMV

FMV stands for Full motion video, and this is basically a cut-scene used within a game to enhance the story's narrative further using pre-recorded videos.

In this, we can see how they have used various 3D renders and music to display what the game is going to be like since this was an official Infinity Ward trailer advertises the game to hype the audience and get ready for the release of the game. 

Here is the introduction cut-scene to GTA V, which introduces the main characters that you are going to play as within the game which tells us something about their personalities and themselves.

Game Genre

Sport

The sports genre simulates physical activities and sport into the video game, where the player can control a specific character or multiple. Sports games are highly inspired by real life sport such as football and tennis, where the atmosphere is similar to what it would be if you were watching it on TV which brings out the competitive and pumped up side of the player.

Skate 3

Skate is a game where you ride a skateboard and can perform various tricks around the city. There are some ideal places within the city which can give you really high airtime and then there are other places such as skate parks which are really good to practice tricks that will give you more score or just for basic entertainment.

Rocket League

In Rocket League, you control a car that you can customize in various ways that you would like to but the objective of the game is to play a game similar to football on a pitch with 2 goals but the twist is that you are vehicles instead of people. This is interesting because you have to control the car in various ways to where you predict that the ball is going and you also have a boost ability which boosts you at a faster speed which recharges.

Simulation

In a Simulation game, the events are simulated from the real world and processed within the game so that the player can compete in realistic events in a game. This is good for things that people may not be able to do, such as skydiving, skiing, racing, driving, roller-coasters etc.

Euro Truck Simulator

In Euro Truck Simulator, you basically take the role of a Truck driver and drive around Europe. The game may seem very boring and basic just by reading the title and synopsis but when you are playing the game, the experience is quite relaxing and enjoyable to play when you want to kill some time or listen to some music.

Role Play

An RPG is a game where you take a role of a character and are able to customise it to your liking.

Pokemon Yellow

In Pokemon Yellow, your goal is to adventure the Kanto region, capture all 151 Pokemon and to become the Pokemon Master by defeating the elite four. Pokemon Yellow is a special edition of Red and Blue where your starter Pokemon is Pikachu and your rivals is Eevee. There are also some little hints and bits which relate to the anime series such as Team Rocket's Jessie and James, Officer Jenny and your Pikachu follows you around because they don't like being inside of the Pokeball.

Borderlands

In Borderlands, you begin by selecting which character you would like to play, as they all have different abilities and play styles. After that, you are given various quests by random NPC's such as Claptrap and others that you meet along the way which will reward you in currency that you can spend on weapons, health kits and ammo and you also gain experience which initially gives you more strength and gives you one skill point to spend on special characters that you decided to pick.

Adventure

In an adventure game, the player is allowed to freely explore a large map in order to find new items, resources and to also expand within the story of the game.

Minecraft

In Minecraft, you are able to explore so much land since the blocks can be unlimited which means that the map could go on forever meaning that you could find all sorts of new types of caves, forests, biomes, mineshafts etc. The player is free to explore where ever they want to and they can build their own houses and equipment to help them survive which is a really cool concept.

Strategy

In a Strategy game, you use tactics and plans to take the victory of a game. These are usually against other people rather than A.I. 

Town of Salem

In Town of Salem, you are given a random role under: Town, Mafia, Neutral killing, Neutral Evil or Neutral benign. With whatever role you are given, you have to work out who is who and start lynching or killing the people that oppose you role. The Mafia can see each member whilst Town and the other actually have no idea who is who unless they are investigated with a town role.

Management

A management game is where you are in control of the system as a manager and tell the system how you want the game to be played out by managing everything within the game.

Football Manager

Football Manager is a franchise where you take the role of a Football Manager and create a football team by buying new players and working up the leagues to become the best. You can buy and sell players and control who plays on the pitch and what formations should be made within the match.

Action

Action games are filled with many physical scenes where the player can: Run, fight, jump, shoot, fly, swim etc. The games are encouraging fast paced action content that you need to use to progress through the game.

Mirror's Edge

Mirror's Edge is a Freerun/ Parkour styled game, where you take the role of a free-runner and take part in jumping and climbing from building to building where some cases are in a set amount of time.

Puzzle

In a Puzzle game, you need to complete various puzzles to proceed within the game for new and more complex puzzles.

Portal

Portal 1 & 2 are very successful puzzle games from valve, where you solve various puzzles using the portal gun. The portal gun opens up a portal that you can walk in and then you end up walking out of the second portal that you have created. I really like this because its really unique and a new way of figuring out individual puzzles. However, this game actually has a pretty good base story lore, where things get out of hand and the player needs to escape the labs.

Educational

In educational games, you are taught and tested on your general skills using mainly maths and sometimes other subjects which can be useful for general and everyday knowledge.

Brain Training

In Brain Training, you solve different puzzles and sums which help keep your brain active and can be very useful for general revision. Brain Training is especially useful for people who are older, as it can help reaction time and keep the brain in good shape by solving a couple of puzzles each day. After you solve a puzzle, you are given an age result where the game tells you an age which your score is estimated based on the time taken and the score you gained.

Game Review

OVERWATCH

1. Introduction

Overwatch is a multiplayer first person shooter that is created by the AAA studio known as blizzard, famous for creating other huge games such as World of Warcraft and hearthstone. The full public version of Overwatch was available for purchase on the 23rd May 2016. Overwatch progressed to become a successful fast paced FPS as many people have fell in love with the game and achieved GOTY (Game of the Year) for 2016.



2. Terrain

Overwatch has a range of different maps that are randomly selected before you join the lobby. Each map has a rather unique terrain where areas can be located in different areas which could urban or rural. The environment around the maps could be rather different too, focusing on weather and objects located around the environment. There are maps which can also change during seasonal events demonstrated in the recent winter event that took place as maps were edited to look as if it was winter using cold weather and snow to demonstrate this. The winter event changed maps including: Hanamura, Kings Row and Ecopoint Antarctica.

Kings Row (Original)



Kings Row (Winter)



3. Architecture

Overwatch uses architecture to strongly define an environment as the structures can easily tell you where the map is located. Using Hanamura as an example, we can see that the buildings are based from the Japanese and Asian-like culture as the buildings have a structure that is closely related.

Hanamura (Original)

Hanamura (Winter)



4. Objects

In Overwatch, there are many different objects that are used to decorate the game using objects such as the Pachimari plushies and arcade machines in Hanamura and some objects can be moved by shooting or hitting them within a game. There is an easter egg like event which uses the basketball set up within the spawn where if you melee the ball into the basket ball hoop, then confetti will fall and party pops will pop which I personally think is a really cool addition to add into the game. Objects such as the trees shown above also give away the location of the map very nicely as cherry blossom trees are well known in Japan as they are colourful and memorable and shown within a lot of films and anime.





5. Characters



Overwatch has a wide variety of different characters that you choose to play within a game. Each character has a different move-set and abilities that alters the way you play in the game. The characters are created so that they each have different strengths and weaknesses that can work with other characters in the game and combine attacks which could result in a much easier push. The characters are designed with different abilities that can combine with other characters within the game to be successful in the game, as there are 4 different categories of characters known as offence, defense, tank and support. You would usually want to divide your team up so that you have enough of each character for the suitable role so that the team is fairly balanced and is easily able to work with one another.

The object of an Offence character is to deal lots of initial damage and for some to be able to flank the enemy team using abilities that the character possesses to easily pick off supports and other offensive characters on the enemy team. An Offensive character should always be moving around into different location whether it is close up to the enemies, behind them or dominating the high ground to secure the position that is more powerful.

A defensive character is mainly to stay with or around the objective and defend it. defensive characters usually tend to not move around very much or perform much better at long distance combat which usually allows them to not be able to move as much as offensive characters. With the acceptation of Mei, a character who gets close range up to the enemy and freeze them making the enemy unable to move and she can deal extra damage by using her secondary long range damaging weapon. She is listed as a defensive character because she has the ability to easily stall objectives since she can build walls that block off a certain area that could potentially protect her and she can also freeze herself into an ice block making her invulnerable to enemy attacks and she also regenerates health whilst in this form.

The duty of a Tank is to be able to act as a front line so that they can protect their own team using abilities including shields that soak up enemy damage and they also have lots of initial health so that they have a higher chance of survival since they can't attack like an offensive character since the rest of the team needs them to survive.

Support characters in Overwatch are used simply to benefit the whole team whether it be healing, damage boosting, speed boosting or even teleportation. All of these help the team in a huge way that are needed on every single team to be successful. Support characters tend to stay in the backline away from the battle since they are key to stay alive and they can't fight as well as other heroes because they are not as powerful.

6. NPC

There have been some NPC's within the couple of Overwatch event's that have been released being: Junkensteins Revenge and Uprising. Both of them have been PvE events which are completely brand new to Overwatch and the players since everything in the game so far has been PvP. The events have aimed to tell the player more about the story of Overwatch and you take the role of the various characters that have participated within the event and control them as if you were back when that actual event took place.

Uprising

Slicer - These are small omnics that run up towards the payload and slowly destroy it with lasers.



Nulltrooper - The basic and most common omnic that appears. It can shoot frequently at players and the payload, and it has a fair amount of health.



Eradicator - These have a lot of health and they contain a barrier which protects them from the front and also possess a barrier which can be destroyed when the large arm is shot off.



B73-NS - Uses the same mechanics as the Hero "Bastion" with an AI controlling it.

OR14-NS - Uses the same mechanics as the Hero "Orisa" with an AI controlling it.




7. Interface

The interface within Overwatch gives you the details that you should be keeping your eye on all the time whilst playing. First of all, you have your crosshair which helps you aim onto the enemy precisely using the variety of reticles that the game gives to you. Then, you can see your health, ultimate charge and abilities which are all crucial aspects to the character as you need to know always when you have abilities and how close your ultimate is. Another thing you can see is the amount of ammo you have before you need to reload your weapon.

8. Feedback

In Overwatch, you can receive feedback by pressing tab mid-game and viewing what statistics you have gained throughout the game, whilst the medals indicate how well your doing in specific parts compared to other people on your team. This can help show who has been performing the best or done a good job with the role they picked.

9. Perspectives

In Overwatch, you will see through the eyes of the character you use within the game in a first person perspective considering that the game is literally labelled as an FPS multiplayer game.

When playing Reinhardt, you take a 3rd person perspective when using your barrier so that you know exactly what area you are protecting and you are not missing anywhere which could be crucial for the team.

10. FMV

This is how Overwatch was originally introduced to the public, using base story lore with a dramatic setting and a high quality animation/ cut-scene showing a fight between specific characters from the Overwatch universe. I really how Overwatch was presented because it leads us to think that more and more will unravel about the story as the animated shorts are filled with lots of action packed and interesting scenes that get the viewer hooked.