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I beat Resident Evil 4 for the first time. I still don't like tank controls.

Zebetite

Banned
it's almost like "tank controls" are just a dumb meme bandwagon catch-all for "a style of game i don't like but i'm going to focus my complaints on the controls specifically because it makes it seem like i've critically dissected my distaste when i actually haven't at all" or something
 

DrBo42

Member
Thank you. I though I was going crazy
No, you ARE crazy. They absolutely are tank controls. Anyone saying otherwise is simply wrong, it's not a matter of opinion.

If left or right on the left analog stick rotates in increments rather than strafing or instantly turning including movement in the new heading, they're tank controls.
 
it's almost like "tank controls" are just a dumb meme bandwagon catch-all for "a style of game i don't like but i'm going to focus my complaints on the controls specifically because it makes it seem like i've critically dissected my distaste when i actually haven't at all" or something
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Dumb meme? There's nothing wrong with tank controls.
 
tenor.gif

Dumb meme? There's nothing wrong with tank controls.
Tank controls fundamentally hobble character movement. You compare Tomb Raider on the PS1/Saturn to Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine on the N64, and the difference in Indiana Jones' 3D controls is both obvious and enjoyable.
 
Agreed. The QTEs, particularly that against Krauser, are really tedious. It's always puzzled me why RE4 got a free pass regarding those, when they're maligned in other games.

Re4 started the qte craze, thats why no one complained about them. To be used in that way was pretty novel. Plus it was perfect qte. They went downhill from there. Think about it. The QTE boom began only 1 generation after n64, thats a lot of years between then and now for people to grow tired of them and hate them. Also alot of years for devs to do them wrong and milk the shit out of them.
 

ramparter

Banned
What did the S do in WASD? Every FPS has tank controls?
In fps you can still turn while moving forward using the mouse. In RE 4 you need to stop moving to turn. THATS TANK CONTROL. Leave the strafe stuff out of the conversation it only confuses people more.
 

kc44135

Member
LOL, this thread is great. Do people really not know what tank controls are? Also, I've never understood the criticism of tank controls. I mean, it's a very simple and intuitive method of control, IMO. Beyond that, RE4 and all the other older RE games were designed and balanced perfectly around this control method, so the limited range of movement is never an issue and helps add to the tension of the experience.

I guess maybe it's an issue if you've never played a game with tank controls before, or you're not used to it (which could apply to any control scheme or set of mechanics that someone is new to, I think), but that aside, I'll never get the hate for the control scheme. RE4 still plays as well to me as it ever did. Still the best game of all time for me.
 

ramparter

Banned
LOL, this thread is great. Do people really not know what tank controls are? Also, I've never understood the criticism of tank controls. I mean, it's a very simple and intuitive method of control, IMO. Beyond that, RE4 and all the other older RE games were designed and balanced perfectly around this control method, so the limited range of movement is never an issue and helps add to the tension of the experience.

I guess maybe it's an issue if you've never played a game with tank controls before, or you're not used to it (which could apply to any control scheme or set of mechanics that someone is new to, I think), but that aside, I'll never get the hate for the control scheme. RE4 still plays as well to me as it ever did. Still the best game of all time for me.
It doesnt make sense to not be able to turn while moving. I like being flexible in my games.
 
In fps you can still turn while moving forward using the mouse. In RE 4 you need to stop moving to turn. THATS TANK CONTROL. Leave the strafe stuff out of the conversation it only confuses people more.
You don't have to stop moving to turn in RE4.

What the fuck is up with this thread, seriously?
 
I mean, it's QOL features thrown on top of tank controls, but its obvious where the core movement comes from even with quick turns and such.

If RE1 with strafe is still tank controls, and camera doesn't matter, then it follows that first person games have tank controls.

The camera doesn't matter. Stop saying it matters. It's not a term that came because of controls in video games.

"Stop saying you disagree with me" is such a strong and compelling argument indeed, but I repeat my question: if RE1 with strafe is still "tank controls", and camera doesn't matter, how are first person games' controls not tank controls?
 

kc44135

Member
It doesnt make sense to not be able to turn while moving. I like being flexible in my games.
I guess, man. To me, if a game's control scheme works well within the context of a game's design and mechanics (which RE4's does), it's a good control scheme, IMO (except maybe for motion controls, which I hate with a passion).
*This* doesn't make sense.

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These controls are the scariest thing in REmake HD. Truly horrific.
 
RE4 is one of those all time greats that you really had to be there to get.

Call them what you want but those controls are terrible and I would argue only passable even back then.
 
Wtf are a good amount of responses in this thread? RE4 has tank controls, the lack of static camera changes the feel of it, but it is still absolutely tank controls.
 

Z O N E

Member
I don't think you understand what tank controls means.

lol yea. what


RE4 doesn't have tank controls. Lol

It doesn't have tank controls though.

Weird because RE4 doesn't have tank controls.

Edit - Beaten by dozen lol this thread will be fun.

Tank controls in Resident Evil 4?

tom-delonge-wtf1.gif

has anyone mentioned resident evil 4 not having tank controls yet

RE0,1,2,3 have tank controls

RE4 doesn't

Resident Evil 4 DOES have tank controls. It's the same movements as the previous Resident Evils, the only difference is the camera. Camera doesn't change the fact that it's still using the same controls. SMH.
 

killatopak

Gold Member
RE4 is not tank controls. It's more like Gears of War which is a 3rd person over the shoulder shooter.

thread backfire tbh.
 

kc44135

Member
RE4 is not tank controls. It's more like Gears of War which is a 3rd person over the shoulder shooter.

thread backfire tbh.

??? Leon moves like a tank (forward-backward movement only, plus left and right turning). Therefore RE4 has Tank controls (which are utterly perfect for this game, btw).
 
You don't have to stop moving to turn in RE4.

What the fuck is up with this thread, seriously?

Can you move forward while looking to your right? Can you instantly change the direction that Leon moves in? Can you strafe?

Or does "turn while moving" mean making wide, sweeping turns? Does he have to stop moving and pivot to make tight turns?
 

JJMorris

Member
What do you think the populous's venn diagram here is for "Unity is a unoptimized engine." and "RE4 doesn't have tank controls."?
 
it's almost like "tank controls" are just a dumb meme bandwagon catch-all for "a style of game i don't like but i'm going to focus my complaints on the controls specifically because it makes it seem like i've critically dissected my distaste when i actually haven't at all" or something

It's more accurate to say that people don't like fixed camera angles, not tank controls.

Or, rather, that people don't like tank controls, but they give RE4 a pass because it's the greatest game ever.
 
Resident Evil 4 is the game most deserving of a remake to fix those awful controls.
It would require extensive rebalancing and retooling, but I believe the game would come out the other side stronger. If your game requires "bad" controls to be "good", the problem lies with the underlying design.
 

milkham

Member
wtf re4 absolutely has tank controls

its like re4 super fans have so internalized the hatred for "tank controls" that they just redefined it so its not a valid argument against re4 being the best game of all time
 

poodaddy

Member
RE4 absolutely has tank controls. It's easy to prove this. If you replaced the character model with a tank, would it feel natural to continue playing with the current control scheme? If so, it's tank controls. Leon is a tank in RE4, he's just a special tank that can turn kick and suplex zombie not zombies after nut and head shots. He's the best tank if you think about it.
 

Curufinwe

Member
It would require extensive rebalancing and retooling, but I believe the game would come out the other side stronger. If your game requires "bad" controls to be "good", the problem lies with the underlying design.

Not being able to strafe isn't bad, and actual shooting in RE4 is still the most satisfying in any game.
 

Zebetite

Banned
It's more accurate to say that people don't like fixed camera angles, not tank controls.

Or, rather, that people don't like tank controls, but they give RE4 a pass because it's the greatest game ever.

they should probably learn how to accurately describe the things they don't like before they publicly express their distaste, then!
 

Curufinwe

Member
I agree. It has much better controls, QTE's, and enemy variety.

The original version of RE6 has probably the worst QTEs of any modern AAA video game.

Even the patched and updated version has a borderline impossible QTE sequence of shutting doors by rotating the stick in the Jake and Sherry campaign on Professional.
 

Mman235

Member
I know it has been covered a lot, but lol at people trying to suggest Resident Evil 4 isn't tank controls.

Also tank controls good.

Resident Evil 4 is the game most deserving of a remake to fix those awful controls.

Resident Evil 4 without tank controls (in the context of it being entirely rebalanced to not be the easiest game ever) would be so completely different it would barely be the same game. The way the game forces you to constantly think about your positioning is fundamental to the entire design.
 

Aizo

Banned
Fair criticisms, OP. It is possibly my favorite game of all time, but I totally understand your issues. For me, I ended up liking the controls. I've played it many times, though.
I don't think you understand what tank controls means.
Irony is funny.

Edit: How do so many people confuse static cameras with tank controls? Even when you turn off tank controls in something like, let's say Silent Hill 3 (I was playing this last night), you are able to select regular movement like most 3D games or tank controls. Even with the regular 3D movement, your movement is still relative to the camera, which can cause you to walk unintended directions. Tank controls have nothing to do with the camera.
 

c0Zm1c

Member
Can't we just do a poll and settle this once and for all?

A poll would be meaningless for something like this. It's been explained what "tank controls" is throughout the thread (even with a diagram in one post); there's nothing to settle, RE4 unequivocally has tank controls.
 

SimonM7

Member
It would require extensive rebalancing and retooling, but I believe the game would come out the other side stronger. If your game requires "bad" controls to be "good", the problem lies with the underlying design.

No, there's no design underlying controls in a game. Controls are the most fundamental part of any game - pretty much a point of genesis in a way - and if a developer deliberately limits your degree of control, it's part of the game's core design.

You don't have to like a deliberate control scheme, but to issue a blanket statement that it's "bad" is a gross misnomer.

By most accounts, unresponsive controls are bad, but if they're deliberately slower to respond, they elicit a methodical style of play. Demon's Souls is predicated in part on slow, methodical gameplay, and to make the game quicker to respond would change the very mindset it instils in a player. And again, you don't have to like Demon's Souls for this to remain true.

Racing games are perhaps the most telling. If you don't give the vehicles characteristics besides doing precisely what you desire, you remove the very point of many racing games. It's harder to control Forza cars than Mario Karts because they, essentially, control worse. You can elect to make the same true for a character based game, and it is in no means a "bad" design inherently.


I frankly find this attitude depressing, and it has homogenised controls across all games to a point where few developers even try to change the feel of a game through the way you interact with it. Gunvalkyrie is certainly a bit on the clunky side today, but I sometimes go back and really appreciate how bonkers that game feels to play. There's a unique kind of satisfaction you get from a game that you truly have to wrap your mind around, as opposed to it snugly fitting into your preconceptions of what a game with a certain look controls like, only to promptly leave you feeling like you played one of those games.

The Souls games are beloved not just for their structure and their level of challenge, they're also genuinely games you couldn't bring preconceived notions to. People who love those games overcame the obstacle of learning to like it - a notion far more powerful than it's given credit for these days when the fundamentals of a game are nearly identical across the board.

Which is not to say there isn't value in a universal control "language" for most games, but that should in no way be considered a norm developers have to follow.
 

Aizo

Banned
Tank controls are not defined by a camera in a video game, they're defined by how a tank can only have momentum forward or backward. They stop to turn.

This isn't tank science, here.
What you are talking about for sure isn't tank science. That's now how a tank works. Tanks can turn while moving, and so can Leon. It's essentially like a car, but due to the treads, a tank is also capable of staying in relatively the same spot while pivoting.
 

BocoDragon

or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Realize This Assgrab is Delicious
I would have just called this "single stick control" as opposed to "dual stick control."

"Tank controls" as a term came into being during the early Survival Horror era, and were contrasted with "Mario 64" style 3D controls. It's inherently tied to an over the top camera, and how the character controls in relation to that camera.

I don't even think you can really talk about tank controls in a TPS or FPS situation. RE4 is just a single stick TPS.
 
RE4 is not tank controls. It's more like Gears of War which is a 3rd person over the shoulder shooter.

thread backfire tbh.
So using my example below...
Okay, to those that say this game doesn't have tank controls please explain this to me.
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Same exact game but the camera was shifted. Controls exactly the same, up is still move and so on. How the hell isn't it always control like a tank?
Tell me how this section is exactly the same as RE 1,2,and 3 then.
 

poodaddy

Member
I would have just called this "single stick control" as opposed to "dual stick control."

"Tank controls" as a term came into being during the early Survival Horror era, and were contrasted with "Mario 64" style 3D controls. It's inherently tied to an over the top camera, and how the character controls in relation to that camera.

I don't even think you can really talk about tank controls in a TPS or FPS situation. RE4 is just a single stick TPS.

Now here's some impressive mental gymnastics.

The historical connotations of tank controls are irrelevant to what constitutes as tank controls. RE4 is a game with tank controls, this is objectively beyond debate.
 

DJ_Lae

Member
What an odd thread - in that I'm surprised at the split between tank controls and no. It absolutely has tank controls, as you move forward and back and turn on a pivot and have no strafing ability at all. Sure, the camera is not fixed but it still controls like the older RE games outside of some aiming tweaks.

It doesn't make the game worse as the enemies are as hobbled as you are.
 

Atrarock

Member
How can some of the people here that play re4, claim that it doesn't have tank controls when it does?

It's actually thanks to RE4 that I got a better feel of the tank control feel for the previous RE games. Honestly I felt like a dunce for being so confused, but then again I didn't get too much experience with RE 1/2/3/CV early on.

But I digress...it takes SECONDS to see and feel that RE4 controls EXACTLY as previous titles, biggest differences are :

1, Camera
2. Free aim

Go back and play previous titles and go to re4 again, they're literally the same.

I would have just called this "single stick control" as opposed to "dual stick control."

"Tank controls" as a term came into being during the early Survival Horror era, and were contrasted with "Mario 64" style 3D controls. It's inherently tied to an over the top camera, and how the character controls in relation to that camera.

I don't even think you can really talk about tank controls in a TPS or FPS situation. RE4 is just a single stick TPS.
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Goddamnit gaf, it's not that hard
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