Metro: Last Light is arguably one of the most realistic upcoming first-person shooters, and Huw Beynon, the communications head at THQ recently spoke to the difficulty in trying to attain a true sense of realism within the game.
According to Beynon, achieving realism within a video game is not just really, really hard, but virtually impossible. The challenge comes from striking a balance between fun and reality, as tipping too far into the later ends up stripping enjoyment from the experience.
I mean, realism in games is such an interesting topic, because there is no such thing. The whole thing is inherently unrealistic. Not just the world and the setting, just the fact that you’re going to lug three weapons around with you, or that when you pick up the ammunition, it goes into your magic pocket of bullets. And you can reload with half a clip and somehow all of it [transfers over].
Everyone knows all of this stuff. You ignore some of these things because it’s better for gameplay. You can get too hung up on, you have to make all of this stuff super-realistic. Because if you did that you’d probably end up with a thoroughly unenjoyable game.
Fortunately, this insurmountable challenge hasn’t deterred the development team working on Metro: Last Light from reaching for the skies, as “the interesting thing for [them] is to see how close [they] can get.” Look for the game when it hits store shelves sometime next year. In the meantime, you can read up on our impressions of Last Light here.
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