At the same time, other game anchors on various platforms are also suffering.
Although their personalities are different and their game playing levels are also very different, in front of "Walking with Darkness", they present a situation of "all beings are equal".
Those anchors who run fast are often timid and are frightened to the point where they perform abnormally;
Those brave anchors, but not good at parkour, always fail at key links and have to start over;
A very small number of anchors who have no shortcomings, are fast and courageous, but also have to bow down under the first kill and dynamic difficulty.
This is the charm of the dynamic difficulty mechanism: it can ensure that all players receive similar and difficult challenges. It will not let novice players get stuck for too long, nor will it let expert players pass the level too easily.
Soon, all kinds of desperate screams from the anchors could be heard in various live broadcast rooms.
"Damn, it looks like there is no road at all in this place, right? Can you really climb through it? Don't lie to me!"
"Help! It's moving!!"
"Where should I run? Hey, which way did I come from! There is yellow paint! Help!"
"There is a dark corner ahead. Hurry and hide. It should be safe... Damn, the wicked designer stuffed a zombie here! He is so wicked!"
"Dad Hunter, let me go! No-!"
"... Damn it, I'm back to the garbage mountain again! Is the designer of this game personally attacking me? Is he implying that I am actually garbage?"
After the first experience of being scared to death + breaking defenses, players quickly discovered that "Walking with Darkness" is completely different from other horror games.
First of all, this thing can't resist or fight, but it can't die either. The main skills are dodging and climbing walls.
At first, many players thought that not dying was a good thing, but they soon discovered that they were wrong.
Some players wanted to try dragging the zombies forward, but soon discovered that it just didn't work.
Because zombies will continue to attack players, biting, and dragging them. On the one hand, players have to endure huge psychological pressure and pain allowed by the game mechanism. On the other hand, their bodies will also be severely slowed down.
The level difficulty of this game is inherently high. Many places require parkour or rock climbing to pass. How is it possible to drag a zombie through the level?
Neither physically nor mentally can do it.
Players can only resist with all their strength, such as kicking away zombies, then avoiding them in circles, and leaving them behind before they can continue the game process.
And after canceling the death mechanism, players can't play anymore.
If there is a death mechanism, then there must be an automatic archiving mechanism.
Many players simply give up resistance when encountering zombies, die at the speed of light, and then load and restart the game. This can also be regarded as an escape mechanism.
However, "Walking with Darkness" has neither death nor automatic archiving. It is useless for players to fight when they encounter zombies. They can only find ways to overcome difficulties, which to a certain extent helps to enhance the horror experience.
The fear of high-altitude parkour, the fear of irresistible enemies, the fear of being unable to defeat...these factors add up to each other, making this game bring an unprecedented horror experience to players!
In addition, since zombies and hunters have higher mobility than players, players must consider route planning and make good use of obstacles in the scene to get rid of these enemies, which also places higher demands on players in terms of skills. .
Secondly, night vision and lighting systems make the rules of the game completely contrary to ordinary people’s intuition.
Human nature is to yearn for light and fear darkness. Most of the previous horror games were also designed with this idea.
For example, place the entire game scene at night or in a dark room. Various monsters lurk in the darkness. These monsters will temporarily retreat in sunny places, allowing players to take a moment of respite...
Of course there is nothing wrong with this design itself, but if it is done too much, it will inevitably lead to some aesthetic fatigue.
Moreover, in order to always maintain a sense of tension and horror, many games have almost no bright scenes in the game, and the whole process is pitch black. The later in the game process, the more serious this problem becomes.
The lack of light-dark transformation of the scene can easily cause players to feel numb and fatigued. This is why the experience of many horror games in the later stages plummets.
"Walking with Darkness" has a setting that is completely contrary to human nature: zombies are full of power in the sun, but their physical energy will gradually lose in the dark.
Therefore, players must forcibly correct their instinctive thoughts. They are more likely to encounter danger in brightly sunny places. Instead, they have to escape in the darkness, which seems to be full of dangers.
At this time, if one or two zombies that have lost their power suddenly move in the darkness, it will give the players double fright.
The night vision device is also a classic design in the prototype game "Escape". Under this mechanism, a chemical reaction is produced very well.
Finally, the punishment mechanism of "Walking with Darkness" is completely different from other horror games.
The punishment of other horror games is blood loss and death, but the punishment of "Walking with Darkness" is falling off the platform and losing a certain amount of game progress.
This punishment mechanism is very similar to "Overcoming Difficulties with Cats", which will bring great frustration to players.
But this frustration itself is also a quality of the game.
For the players, after falling again and again, they repeatedly climb the same route and become more and more familiar with the route. It even feels like going home. This is their own strengthening.
And this feeling of becoming stronger will also bring players a huge sense of accomplishment.
In addition, this mechanism also gives the game a strong program effect. The anchor breaks the defense, the audience is happy to watch, and it can also spread quickly.
Driven by various factors, "Walking with Darkness" can almost be said to have swept the world in a very short period of time, from being ignored at the beginning, to soaring in popularity due to strong official traffic, to becoming viral due to its own characteristics. Live broadcast rooms on major platforms!
This game cannot teach anchors how to write the word "death", but it can allow them to count how many stars there are on the garbage mountain.
…
As the game progresses, players are surprised to find that the initial game experience is just an appetizer.
The following levels are each heavier than the last!
After players master the basic climbing skills, the level design begins to become more and more unrestrained and unnatural.
Various long levels requiring continuous parkour, rock climbing, route selection, and stealth began to torture players.
However, these levels are designed very cleverly and will not cause too much frustration to the players.
For example, if the system calculates that the longest distance a player can jump is more than three meters, then the jumping distance at the end of a series of exciting chase battles will be set to less than three meters, which will always be slightly lower than the player's ability. .
However, during the intense and exciting parkour process, players will inevitably make mistakes. Once they fail to jump, they will not feel that the game is deliberately targeting them, they will only feel that they have performed abnormally, and it will definitely be okay to try again.
In addition, there are more and more famous scenes in the game.
For example, the zombies here will search cabinets and even open cabinet doors to force players out;
Zombies will continue to wander around the place where the player last disappeared. Many players mistakenly believe that the monster will leave after hiding for a while. However, after waiting for a long time to go out, they directly bump into it, which is doubly scary;
In the early stages, players will encounter some relatively friendly NPCs at the bottom. They either help players with mechanics or encourage players with words. As a result, these people often get their lunch quickly and die miserably;
During the game, players will also be tortured by some perverted lunatics and have their nails pulled out.
Of course, the pain sensation in the VR game cabin is strictly controlled, and the pain itself does not matter, but this immersive feeling still makes players break their defenses one after another.
So scary!
And the players were very surprised to find something.
This game seems to be "equal", no matter what kind of anchor is playing, it will be difficult!
Obviously, this is where dynamic difficulty comes into play. It not only eliminates the pretentiousness of some expert players, but also prevents some novice players from being persuaded to quit.
Everyone is unable to extricate themselves in the atmosphere of terror.
Players have lamented that the game mechanics in this first part are already so rich, will it be boring later? There can't be any new mechanism, right?
As a result, they were surprised to find that there really was one!
There are cats in this game too!
(End of chapter)
