Game Mechanics of First Person Games

In today's blog, I will be describing first-person a little more in depth than before while also going over different game mechanics used in first person shooters ranging from the standard stuff you would find in all of them to more unique in game mechanics that you can't find in other games.

First-Person
As I have discussed before, "first-person" refers to a graphical perspective rendered form the viewpoint of the player's character. In some cases, this viewpoint may be from the cockpit of a vehicle like "Ace Combat" or a perspective of a video camera in game like in "Outlast". Over the years in video game history, many different genres have used the perspective of "first-person", ranging from adventure games to flight simulators. The most notable of all genres to utilize this perspective is first person shooters (FPS), where the graphical perspective has a important impact on game play.

 

"Ace Combat"

Game Mechanics
What game mechanics are at their most basic form are constructed rules and methods designed for how you interact with the game. Video games with a first-person perspective uses a game mechanic that makes your character avatar-based, what that means is that the game displays what the player's avatar would see with the avatar's own eyes. Now because of this, the player typically doesn't see the avatar that they're playing as, aside from weapons, hands, and the occasional feet. Take "Call of Duty" for example, through the entirety of the game you play as soldier who is on the battlefield of some firefight. You don't have any sort of context of what you look like or even what you sound like for that matter. (Unless seen through a cinematic cut-scene) All you see is the weapon being held in your own two hands and a objective marker telling you to head in that direction.

"Call of Duty: World at War"

Now because games with first-person perspectives don't show the player's avatar body, there is no need for any sort of sophisticated animations for the player's avatar, nor do they need to implement any sort of manual or automated camera-control scheme as you would see in third-person games. Because of this, players have a easier time aiming, since they have free reign over what they look at as well as no representation of the avatars body to block their view. However, there is a downside when it comes to seeing through first-person perspective. Depending on how fast you move or how well depth of field was implemented in game, it is hard to distinguish specific items in game. That is why whenever there is a specific item needed to be interacted with in game most of the time it is either highlighted or shown where it's at by a objective marker. 

So we've gone over how first-person perspective can limit the way the player sees the in game world, so how do game developers help with this. One way is the use of color. With the making of all games color pallets choices are very important when it comes to creating the game world. Too many games use the bland color and texture of gray,green, and brown in many shooters, and in time it just becomes boring to look at as time goes on. That's why games like "Mirror's Edge" are a special. "Mirror's Edge" uses contrasting colors to differentiate between items the player can and cannot interact with. The setting in "Mirror's Edge" is a clean, white city that for all intensive purposes is rooftops, and the player is running on rooftops using the environment to help move them around. The way it shows what the player can use is by highlighting the objects in bright red through the power of your "runner vision". 

"Mirror's Edge rooftop"

It kind of goes to show that games made in first-person allows us to really experience the game in a more, I wouldn't quite say natural, but free-form kind of way. They allow us freedom of control in game, whether it be camera or movement. First-person video games lets us dive into what we can perceive as real life, and as time goes on it will only get better. With things like "Virtual Reality" being easily accessible today and "Augmented Reality" around the corner we can see the game and world differently through our very own eyes, but that's a topic for another day. For now that's all for this blog post, until next time.