I am making a separate thread because the spoilers thread is all about the very good story, and most people in the OT are still playing and enjoying the very good game, and I am an attention whore so what.
I watched this presentation shortly before the game came out, and was excited by Ken's vision and how it would make Elizabeth's AI character more dynamic and important than typical companions.
He mentions that the team's most requested feature to cut was Elizabeth, and that he had to push really hard to make it work.
However, after completing the game, I am wondering what was the point? It's obvious from that talk that a great deal of effort went into creating her. She was designed to be able to navigate the world and react to it and not get in the player's way. Objects had to be designated as points of interest, special animations had to be made to interact with things, her facial expression and tone of voice had to change based on what was happening around her, and etc.
It sounds good on paper, but here are a few of the most meaningful interactions I had with her during gameplay.
1. I walk into a room and see two bad guys, I kill them and then start looking around. Elizabeth is upset now, I guess, so she decides to sit in a nearby chair and frown. However, there is a bloody corpse draped over a table not 6" from her which she completely ignores, making the whole situation look ridiculous.
2. I spend about 5 minutes in a large confrontation shooting crows out of my hand and setting people on fire and exploding other people. As the last guy dies, the music wraps up and Elizabeth says "ah!", to express her concern about what just happened, and then starts wandering around looking at crates.
3. I saw a locked door and pressed x on it.
As an AI companion, she is completely inoffensive, but I was expecting something more. I wanted Elizabeth to be Alyx taken to the next level. Instead, what I got was Alyx who can spot lockpicks and toss coins.
I assume the point of having with her with you at all times was to make you bond with her more, but if anything, it made me care about her less, since 90% of our time together was wordless walking around, or "here, take this!".
I think the main problem is that they tried to create a dynamic system where emotional moments would occur organically, but it cannot compete with traditional scripting, and I don't particularly see the point in trying. All that work especially seems wasted in a game as linear as this, with so few reasons to replay. I don't really care that Elizabeth will react differently next time I play, because if I ever do replay it, it will be far enough in the future that I will have forgotten what she did last time anyway. Instead of walking into a room and her sometimes wandering around and looking at a banana, and sometimes wandering around and looking at a desk, I'd prefer that every time she gasp in horror at the dead bodies and menacing message written on the wall in blood.
I watched this presentation shortly before the game came out, and was excited by Ken's vision and how it would make Elizabeth's AI character more dynamic and important than typical companions.
He mentions that the team's most requested feature to cut was Elizabeth, and that he had to push really hard to make it work.
However, after completing the game, I am wondering what was the point? It's obvious from that talk that a great deal of effort went into creating her. She was designed to be able to navigate the world and react to it and not get in the player's way. Objects had to be designated as points of interest, special animations had to be made to interact with things, her facial expression and tone of voice had to change based on what was happening around her, and etc.
It sounds good on paper, but here are a few of the most meaningful interactions I had with her during gameplay.
1. I walk into a room and see two bad guys, I kill them and then start looking around. Elizabeth is upset now, I guess, so she decides to sit in a nearby chair and frown. However, there is a bloody corpse draped over a table not 6" from her which she completely ignores, making the whole situation look ridiculous.
2. I spend about 5 minutes in a large confrontation shooting crows out of my hand and setting people on fire and exploding other people. As the last guy dies, the music wraps up and Elizabeth says "ah!", to express her concern about what just happened, and then starts wandering around looking at crates.
3. I saw a locked door and pressed x on it.
As an AI companion, she is completely inoffensive, but I was expecting something more. I wanted Elizabeth to be Alyx taken to the next level. Instead, what I got was Alyx who can spot lockpicks and toss coins.
I assume the point of having with her with you at all times was to make you bond with her more, but if anything, it made me care about her less, since 90% of our time together was wordless walking around, or "here, take this!".
I think the main problem is that they tried to create a dynamic system where emotional moments would occur organically, but it cannot compete with traditional scripting, and I don't particularly see the point in trying. All that work especially seems wasted in a game as linear as this, with so few reasons to replay. I don't really care that Elizabeth will react differently next time I play, because if I ever do replay it, it will be far enough in the future that I will have forgotten what she did last time anyway. Instead of walking into a room and her sometimes wandering around and looking at a banana, and sometimes wandering around and looking at a desk, I'd prefer that every time she gasp in horror at the dead bodies and menacing message written on the wall in blood.
