So recently, I've been playing Dynasty Warriors 6: Empires (DW6:E) and Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes and I've been thinking about that type of action game.
I'd like to call this sub category of action games Mass Battle. The player is a single character against many other enemies while fighting in real time in an open arena setting. Unlike recent MOBAs, there are no predetermined environmental paths or specific character playstyle that needs to be adhered to. Instead the focus is on freedom to move about the environment and to develop a personal playstyle that best fits the battle situation. Within Mass Battles, there are two types I’ve noticed: the Hero Mass Battle and the Clone Mass Battle.
Hero Mass Battle: The player is a “heroic” character who stands out from the rest of the generic NPCs, is far stronger than generic NPCs, and there are only a handful NPCs who are “heroic” like the player. An example of a HMB is Dynasty Warriors.
Clone Mass Battle: In these battles, the player is similar, if not the same, to all other NPCs but can customize their appearance or equipment. An example of a CMB is Star Wars Battlefront 1.
Games of the Genre:
HMB: Dynasty Warriors Series, Earth Defense Force, Crackdown, PROTOTYPE
CMB: Star Wars Battlefront series, Brink, Lost Planet 1 & 2
Allure of Battle
What I love about these games is the awesome feeling of being a badass on the battlefield. In CMB types, you’re as vulnerable as everyone else so it’s your skill and finesse in gameplay that sets you above the rest. The satisfaction comes from mastery of game play. In HMB types, you’re a champion taking out huge numbers of enemies and racking up amazing combos (if available). Eventually, an enemy “heroic” character shows up and you finally face off against an enemy of equal power. However, there are problems that persist across the Mass Battle genre.
Stab and Repeat
One of the main issues is of the repetitive nature of game play. The main thing you are doing in these games is fighting people. The core game loop is centered on that combat, which removes a lot of variety from player actions. Sometimes you have different things to hit people with and different areas to hit people in, but it doesn’t vary up how you play the game. In DW6:E the combat missions are varied with delivering messages and protecting traveling civilians, but it’s at best ancillary to the main mechanic of battling.
Stemming from this, without proper customization or incentive, the replayability of these games are low. Straying a bit, Crackdown 2 has this problem; once the main story is finished, the Cell all but vanishes with the only incentive to continue playing being collectables. This is the ultimate end in these scenarios: the enemy is defeated so there is no one left to fight. On top of that, because Crackdown, 1 and 2, have very minor customization, there isn’t an incentive to replay the game for a different experience. On the other side, DW6:E, and the later ones in the series, has significant amounts of character customization but also grinding. The game play is monotonous battle after battle and feels more laborious than satisfying to level up and make your character stronger.
Outstanding Fighters
There are some games that handle the replayability flaw well. For CMB, Brink does this by giving variety to gameplay. The dynamic system of changing objectives based on objective completion as well as having secondary objectives the player can choose from allowed variation in core gameplay. The different classes and RPG elements gave the player significant customization options in term of gameplay, and the visual customization gives the player the chance to make more visually unique.
For the HMB, the Earth Defense Force series sets itself up apart in that its structure is basically dozens of skirmish maps along with scores of different weapons for the 4 classes. The game reuses assets and locations with different combinations of enemies and then drops the player in with whatever weapons the player has chosen.
A Champion Emerges
There is a game I've played that has stood above the rest in Mass Battle types, and that is Mount and Blade: Warband. Mount and Blade is a action RPG series on the PC, available on Steam. Warband has you set in a medieval world as a person recently set off on their own. This game does CMB right. Your player and all enemies are equally vulnerable; a well placed strike or arrow or axe to the head will kill anyone. The story mode battle systems is essentially a skirmish mode (discussed later), there is an actual skirmish mode to play outside of the main game, and the combat is accompanied by a robust political and economic system. Instead of leading an army, you could travel around delivering cattle, open your own winery, marry into a royal family, or follow the tournament circuit.
The world of Mount and Blade: Warband defies the problems of repetitiveness with the random nature of world events, the in-depth player customization, and diverse activities for the player to take part in.
Move to Multiplayer
Changing gears a bit, the CMB genre feels like it has slowly been phased out in replacement of online multiplayer, with good reason. A better challenge for the player is another human player who can master the game at the same level. Like the new Star Wars Battlefront, and many main steam shooters, another player is a better enemy than an AI. This is a reasonable progression of technology. However, this has regrettably removed the need of skirmish modes. Skirmish mode, in this context, is generated battle outside the main story mode that uses bots, computer AI, as enemies. These are more often found in strategy games, like the Civilization series, where you want to play random scenario against AIs.
Skirmish modes rely mainly on the idea of customization. Customization allows the player to change themselves (such as a load out, class, or equipment) and change key variables of a skirmish instance (location, enemy type, directive, etc.). It’s the ability to set these starting variables and then let the situation play out that give the allure of skirmish modes, the possibilities.
Skirmish
But why bemoan the replacement of skirmish modes in action games if multiplayer provides a more challenging experience? Because then the life blood of these games is multiplayer, and without a significant player base, the game dies. Frontlines: Fuel of War, an action shooter from 2008, had a, at the time, amazing 50 player option for multiplayer. When the servers shut down, that shrunk to 16. Red Faction Guerilla had an incredibly fun multiplayer that made use of the destructible environments, but the game could only support online multiplayer.
For these games, a skirmish mode could have extended their lives even further and it would do the same if not more for Mass Battle games. This game mode and Mass Battles share a focus in customization of the player experience, in replaying the game or grinding, and in creating different experiences using repeating elements. The skirmish structure addresses some of the problems with Mass Battles as well: skirmishes generate new content from random elements pieced together, adding significant variety. Now this doesn’t necessarily fix games with gameplay that isn’t as varied, I’m looking at you Dynasty Warriors, but it does help for games whose gameplay ends too soon, such as Red Faction Guerilla or PROTOTYPE 2.
TL;DR
Mass Battle games are fun, but if their repetitive nature isn’t counteracted with diverse gameplay, they aren’t fun for too long. Also, Skirmish mode in action games need to come back.
Have other games that fit this description? Let me know!
Till next time everybody.