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How to make a James Bond Vgame with Replay Value
I believe that the best way to make an interesting Bond game with replay value is to do the following:
1) Have an original globe-throtting action adventure single player plot, taking under consideration all the elements that make a good Bond story. However, you mustn't forget that games nowadays come by the dozen, so if you want your single player to outshine others, you need to be able to give the same thrills as say, Uncharted, or Splinter Cell. And of course, you need it to be a lasting experience. Nobody plays again which doesn't have a heart and feels like a quickie.
I'm well aware that James Bond is nothing like Uncharted, but we can't deny this type of games are the ones that have kicked James Bond's ass in videogames in the last few years. Here are some of the things that Uncharted learnt from James Bond's playbook
- Incredible locations around the world
- Over the top action and stunts
- Interesting villains with world domination schemes
- Interesting girls who do more than just being eye candy
So, if you add those up in a James Bond game it might make it quite interesting. Oh, another thing, try to show more through gameplay and less through videos or briefings. Nowadays if you don't show it through gameplay, the most probable thing is that people ain't gonna care.
2) Nice gameplay and a good variety of weapons. Nothing kills a game faster than having a gameplay which doesn't feel right. You must feel agile, and able to move around the map easily, as well as having weapons with the right “kick“. No two weapons should feel the same.
3) Reward players with real stuff and not useless trophies/achievements. Add cheats in singleplayer story, that can be bought through your progress. How would this work? Imagine for a moment that if you kill 30 enemies with headshots you earn a certain amount of money which then you can use to buy this things from Q Branch. Q Branch can appear in the main menu as an option to visit, where you can decide what you want to buy. For instace, certain tweaks on gameplay can really change the mechanic. Here some ideas about this:
- Add weapon selection. Nothing makes you feel more badass than being able to shoot people with an explosive weapon and wreaking havock. Or what about being able to use the laser gun from MR? Or the golden gun? Or what about a spear gun and impaling enemies in the walls?
- Add skin selection. Once you've played the game you can unlock certain skins, and here's where you could actually play as other James Bonds without disrupting the main storyline, nor the core concept of the game. And you could also use some villain skins, and Bond girls skins, making it even more fun to see and replay the story. I would most certainly love to play as Jaws while doing the main storyline.
- Add single player tweaks that change gameplay. What if out of the sudden you could only use old weapons? Even your enemies have to use them. It changes gameplay completely. Or what having enemies with more body armor? Or making you deal half the damage to them?
- Let players find things that are related to other James Bond films hidden through the game. For instance, lets say that you can find a cat belt that belonged to Blofeld's cat. Or something less cheesy, like finding Jaw's teeth, Oddjob's hat, Rosa Klebb's shoe, Kananga's fake face, Tee Hee's claw, Gobinda's tuurbant, Octopussy's octopus, TSWLM Faberge egg, options are endless.
3) Robust competitive multiplayer. This can be really made a jewel if you use interesting multiplayer maps and features to play with. For example, you should have at least one major location from each Bond film as a multiplayer map. Who wouldn't love battling in the Golden Gate bridge? Or in Dr No's lair? Or what about Fort Knox? Or the gypsy camp? or the maze from FRWL? or the monastery from FYEO?
Now, add certain elements to the maps that make them more engaging. What if you are playing in the Volcano Lair and as the scoreboard grows, the map starts being destroyed? Or what if you are playing in Scaramanga's funhouse and it starts burning? Or the Ice Palace and it starts melting?
Also in the same multiplayer thing, make certain kill streak rewars, a la Call of Duty, where u can summon certain things from James Bond films? For example, lets suppose that a 5 kill streak allows you to call in some henchmen (or soldiers) that can battle for your cause? Or a 20 kill streak that allows you to use Goldeneye on the map, or even the earthquake device that Max Zorin intended to use? Or what about obtaining rare weapons or gadgets? Or even being more outlandish, what about obtaining a rare Baron Samedi ability where u can only die after being killed three different times? or obtaining Gustav Graves' combat suit?
Now, this is important. Give both customization and skin selection. Way too many times we've seen games who let us play through multiplayer in the skin of a soldier who his mother wouldn't even recognize. Give us faces we know, and allow us to tweak them. How about buying different suit pieces for our James Bond character? Making them wear an astrounaut suit in multiplayer?
And above all, make it rewarding. Add plenty of unlockables. Unlockable maps, weapons, skins. Make the player feel they are achieving something through gameplay. You could even add certain clips or behind the scenes footage from the films.
4) Robust cooperative multiplayer. How can you make this? Easy. Take a cue from Spec Ops in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In this game you could play missions that were kinda related to the main storyline in order to promote certain gameplay elements, either sabotage, elimination, infiltration, etc, making it quite intresting to play with someone else.
Now, how do we do these for a Bond game? Name it “For Your Eyes Only“ and make gamers relive certain missions from Bond past. Just certain key moments. This way you can reimagine certain things about James Bond and utilize different weapon sets for a particular mission. I'm giving some examples about this:
- Hai Fat's Garden (Infiltration) Gain access to Hai Fat private quarts from TMWTGG without being detected. You and your partner play through the garden and face guards. Special reward for the player who manages to shoot Nick Nack.
- The Gyspy Camp (Elimination) Survive with your partner unti a certain number of enemies is dispatched.
- Fort Knox (Assault) - Infiltrate Fort Know and sabotage Goldfinger's plans
- Space Station (Stealth) Make Drax's space station visible to your allies without alerting other guards.
- Ice Melting (Timed Race) Escape the deadly Icarus using a high speed vehicle
Among others, the point is to revisit the main action sets from the films and make them missions that either one or two players can play. Don't be afraid to change things. After all, it's always regarding to eliminate some major James Bond villains.
5) Make Mi6 Headquarters a place you can visit and explore. Ever played Perfect Dark? It was great to walk around the Carrington Institute and do things. Imagine this but in a James Bond context. You can have a shooting gallery, some bomb defusing practice, some hand combat practice, gadget practice, and make them available for scoreboards online. This way, whenever someone tells you that they can certainly kill people with an M-16, you can say, but you haven't got a golden medal using Bond's wristwatch gun, have you?
Well, those are some ideas that I believe might make a James Bond i would actually buy and not just play. Everything's so expensive nowadays that you actually think twice about buying a game which is only going to last you a week.
Liked my ideas?
1) Have an original globe-throtting action adventure single player plot, taking under consideration all the elements that make a good Bond story. However, you mustn't forget that games nowadays come by the dozen, so if you want your single player to outshine others, you need to be able to give the same thrills as say, Uncharted, or Splinter Cell. And of course, you need it to be a lasting experience. Nobody plays again which doesn't have a heart and feels like a quickie.
I'm well aware that James Bond is nothing like Uncharted, but we can't deny this type of games are the ones that have kicked James Bond's ass in videogames in the last few years. Here are some of the things that Uncharted learnt from James Bond's playbook
- Incredible locations around the world
- Over the top action and stunts
- Interesting villains with world domination schemes
- Interesting girls who do more than just being eye candy
So, if you add those up in a James Bond game it might make it quite interesting. Oh, another thing, try to show more through gameplay and less through videos or briefings. Nowadays if you don't show it through gameplay, the most probable thing is that people ain't gonna care.
2) Nice gameplay and a good variety of weapons. Nothing kills a game faster than having a gameplay which doesn't feel right. You must feel agile, and able to move around the map easily, as well as having weapons with the right “kick“. No two weapons should feel the same.
3) Reward players with real stuff and not useless trophies/achievements. Add cheats in singleplayer story, that can be bought through your progress. How would this work? Imagine for a moment that if you kill 30 enemies with headshots you earn a certain amount of money which then you can use to buy this things from Q Branch. Q Branch can appear in the main menu as an option to visit, where you can decide what you want to buy. For instace, certain tweaks on gameplay can really change the mechanic. Here some ideas about this:
- Add weapon selection. Nothing makes you feel more badass than being able to shoot people with an explosive weapon and wreaking havock. Or what about being able to use the laser gun from MR? Or the golden gun? Or what about a spear gun and impaling enemies in the walls?
- Add skin selection. Once you've played the game you can unlock certain skins, and here's where you could actually play as other James Bonds without disrupting the main storyline, nor the core concept of the game. And you could also use some villain skins, and Bond girls skins, making it even more fun to see and replay the story. I would most certainly love to play as Jaws while doing the main storyline.
- Add single player tweaks that change gameplay. What if out of the sudden you could only use old weapons? Even your enemies have to use them. It changes gameplay completely. Or what having enemies with more body armor? Or making you deal half the damage to them?
- Let players find things that are related to other James Bond films hidden through the game. For instance, lets say that you can find a cat belt that belonged to Blofeld's cat. Or something less cheesy, like finding Jaw's teeth, Oddjob's hat, Rosa Klebb's shoe, Kananga's fake face, Tee Hee's claw, Gobinda's tuurbant, Octopussy's octopus, TSWLM Faberge egg, options are endless.
3) Robust competitive multiplayer. This can be really made a jewel if you use interesting multiplayer maps and features to play with. For example, you should have at least one major location from each Bond film as a multiplayer map. Who wouldn't love battling in the Golden Gate bridge? Or in Dr No's lair? Or what about Fort Knox? Or the gypsy camp? or the maze from FRWL? or the monastery from FYEO?
Now, add certain elements to the maps that make them more engaging. What if you are playing in the Volcano Lair and as the scoreboard grows, the map starts being destroyed? Or what if you are playing in Scaramanga's funhouse and it starts burning? Or the Ice Palace and it starts melting?
Also in the same multiplayer thing, make certain kill streak rewars, a la Call of Duty, where u can summon certain things from James Bond films? For example, lets suppose that a 5 kill streak allows you to call in some henchmen (or soldiers) that can battle for your cause? Or a 20 kill streak that allows you to use Goldeneye on the map, or even the earthquake device that Max Zorin intended to use? Or what about obtaining rare weapons or gadgets? Or even being more outlandish, what about obtaining a rare Baron Samedi ability where u can only die after being killed three different times? or obtaining Gustav Graves' combat suit?
Now, this is important. Give both customization and skin selection. Way too many times we've seen games who let us play through multiplayer in the skin of a soldier who his mother wouldn't even recognize. Give us faces we know, and allow us to tweak them. How about buying different suit pieces for our James Bond character? Making them wear an astrounaut suit in multiplayer?
And above all, make it rewarding. Add plenty of unlockables. Unlockable maps, weapons, skins. Make the player feel they are achieving something through gameplay. You could even add certain clips or behind the scenes footage from the films.
4) Robust cooperative multiplayer. How can you make this? Easy. Take a cue from Spec Ops in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. In this game you could play missions that were kinda related to the main storyline in order to promote certain gameplay elements, either sabotage, elimination, infiltration, etc, making it quite intresting to play with someone else.
Now, how do we do these for a Bond game? Name it “For Your Eyes Only“ and make gamers relive certain missions from Bond past. Just certain key moments. This way you can reimagine certain things about James Bond and utilize different weapon sets for a particular mission. I'm giving some examples about this:
- Hai Fat's Garden (Infiltration) Gain access to Hai Fat private quarts from TMWTGG without being detected. You and your partner play through the garden and face guards. Special reward for the player who manages to shoot Nick Nack.
- The Gyspy Camp (Elimination) Survive with your partner unti a certain number of enemies is dispatched.
- Fort Knox (Assault) - Infiltrate Fort Know and sabotage Goldfinger's plans
- Space Station (Stealth) Make Drax's space station visible to your allies without alerting other guards.
- Ice Melting (Timed Race) Escape the deadly Icarus using a high speed vehicle
Among others, the point is to revisit the main action sets from the films and make them missions that either one or two players can play. Don't be afraid to change things. After all, it's always regarding to eliminate some major James Bond villains.
5) Make Mi6 Headquarters a place you can visit and explore. Ever played Perfect Dark? It was great to walk around the Carrington Institute and do things. Imagine this but in a James Bond context. You can have a shooting gallery, some bomb defusing practice, some hand combat practice, gadget practice, and make them available for scoreboards online. This way, whenever someone tells you that they can certainly kill people with an M-16, you can say, but you haven't got a golden medal using Bond's wristwatch gun, have you?
Well, those are some ideas that I believe might make a James Bond i would actually buy and not just play. Everything's so expensive nowadays that you actually think twice about buying a game which is only going to last you a week.
Liked my ideas?
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Comments
But I have one thing to add : Open-world. I would love a Red Dead Redemption-like game. How about roving around London ? Start in your apartement, eat your scramble egg and coffee, read the newspaper, go drive your Bentley around the city, go in the pub and buy a beer and smoke a cig, then go into MI6 and just move around the building !! Visit Q, chat with your secretary... That would be a killer game !!
I love Uncharted too, and I know it's different from the James Bond films.
@DaltonCraig007, I have thought of that too, but wouldn't it be a bit tricky in a way? You know, having different locales around the world make it more complicated to have a real open world feel. Maybe, just making certain parts or certain missions open-world like, located in one particular country, that would make it interesting, for sure! :D
The past history with Star Wars and Indiana Jones have been greatr successes. If Daniel Craig needs to have more fun as Bond...start with Lego! :-)
I'm not being sarcastic by the way and fully support the need for an open world Bond adventure akin to Just Cause 2/GTA also. Heres hoping!
-Dr. No: instant kill attack with metal hands
-Red Grant: instant kill with strangling watch attack
-Rosa Klebb: instant kill poison shoe kick
-Goldfinger: special golden revolver
-Oddjob: the hat
-Wint: cake bomb
-Kidd: flaming shishkabobs
-Tee Hee: instant kill mechanical arm attack
-Baron Samedi: invincibility for a few seconds
-Scaramanga: comes equipped with the Golden Gun at all times
-Nick Nack: able to hide easily
-Jaws: deflects bullets if shot at the face; instant kill with teeth; super health
-Drax: comes equipped with laser gun at all times
-Gobinda: comes equipped with sword at all times
-May Day: extra punch damage
-Sanchez: comes with machete at all times
-Xenia Onatopp: instant kill thigh attack
-Stamper: super health; extra punch damage
-Renard: super health
-Gustav Graves: electrocuting battle suit
-SPECTRE Volcano Lair: Play as 007 and Tiger Tanaka; defeat Blofeld's forces and stop the Bird 1 rocket from intercepting the US rocket
-Piz Gloria: Play as 007 and Marc Ange Draco; defeat Blofeld's forces and destroy the communications center
-Liparus: Play as 007 and Commander Carter; defeat Stromberg's forces, infiltrate the control room, and stop the submarines from destroying New York and Moscow
-Space Station: Play as 007 and Colonel Scott; defeat Drax's forces
-Afghan Airbase: Play as 007 and Kamran Shaw; defeat Koskov's forces and hijack the cargo plane
-Stealth Ship: Play as 007 and Wai Lin; defeat Carver's forces and stop the missile launch