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Games with the best pacing

NinjamicWZ said:
I recently replayed God of War 2 for the first time since 2007, on Vita, and came away absolutely loving it where I only enjoyed it back then (and used to think it was a slightly disappointing follow up).I think that game definitely had great pacing
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Yup. GOW2 is fantastic. Easily why I am super excited about Cory Barlog once again taking over the franchise now.
 
Metal Gear Solid 3. I still think it's still the best as far as pacing and variety goes. You're never doing the same thing for too long in that game. And then you have a bunch of very imaginative boss fights.
 
I came into this thread thinking RE4 and Uncharted 2 and the OP mentioned both. Both are great but to me RE4 is on a whole other level. Its like:

RE4 >>>>>>>>>>>>> UC2 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Everything else

I thought the pacing in TLOU was too slow. If the entire game was like the winter chapter then it could have been a real contender. To me, that seemed like the only chapter where the game really fires on all cylinders. Its such a cut above the rest of the game.
 
A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds had good pacing in my opinion, especially the latter due to its non-linearity (and therefore unfortunately easy) dungeons progression. Minish Cap felt rather fast paced as well, though it's been a while since I last played it.



And Super Metroid as well.......... if NOT for Maridia. This is the first time I've ever played Super Metroid, and the pacing was great for me until I hit that area. Not only a mechanical change due to it being
under water and thus the changing physics (DAMN WATER LEVELS), but also the quick sands
??? Hmph, just need to buckle up some more.
 
FF VII. I like the story and overall game of VI more, and Tactics more to via its plot and gameplay...

But the pacing, tension, and atmosphere is the one thing that VII, at least in its prime, absolutely nailed. The violent tension going through Midgar (culimating with the bloody halls and the murdered President), then the reprieve you get as you reach your first open world town which just perfect tightens the tension again as you end your trip down memory lane and then come across the shocking Midgar Zolom. The fanfare and excitement of Junon, and then your first chance to really travel across the world. The perfect timing of the 'break' in the Golden Saucer, and then the build-up to Rockettown and the magic of getting that first exploration vehicle... It continues for most of the game. The timing of relaxing, ominous, exciting, depressing moments are pretty perfect and you get new vehicles, exploration, side games (snowboarding, choboco breeding, etc) at almost perfect intervals.

For whatever faults the game has, the pacing is pretty much perfect and it results in pretty unrivaled atmosphere.

Deus Ex Human Revolution is a recent good example IMO and worth mentioning in the context of pacing maybe being the original Deus Ex's only fault. Most of DX's pacing is perfect but the last quarter or so does become a little overly linear and enclosed with one too many adventure zones instead of open world areas, and I do admit almost every time I replay it, I do get a bit tired with the Underwater or Area 51 areas. I think Deus Ex HR's pacing is one area that they genuinely improved on by keeping much better balance between adventure areas or paths and still always giving a chance for open world exploration. It's not perfect because the horrible bosses can destroy the pacing, but otherwise I think pacing is one thing DX HR nailed and even improved upon for the series.

Sleeping Dogs probably is one of the best paced open world games, too. It's very self-aware in that it doesn't try to be something it's not, inflate the story with stuff they know their core audience don't want, or try to overreach with its scope or scale. Other than maybe 2 missions, it keeps it focused, brisk, and still rather exciting and interest, and is probably one of the best action or open world games at achieving a genuinly movie-esque (or at least 8 episode drama) pacing.
 
Choomp said:
I agree wholeheartedly and would like to say EarthBound as well. It usually takes a lot for me to really get into RPGs like those, but I felt those two games combined the interesting narrative with the gameplay in such a way where the player wouldn't get bored with the game.
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Loved both games but I'll admit Earthbound is kind of a slowburn, specially at the start. Charm and comedy make up for it, but you can get lost easily. Mother 3 in the other hand is Earthbound refined to perfection, if this game is ever localized I can guarantee a huge flux of new fans.
 
SolidSnakex said:
Metal Gear Solid 3. I still think it's still the best as far as pacing and variety goes. You're never doing the same thing for too long in that game. And then you have a bunch of very imaginative boss fights.
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MGS3 is a masterpiece and I agree. Another example of a game that offers consistently new and inventive scenarios to apply the game mechanics.
 
Mushihimesama Futari and Eshatos (360) for sure
Crimzon Clover World Ignition (PC/Steam)

Although great pacing is something that's synonymous with much of bullet hell / danmaku genre (besides Touhou / Treasure atleast) The fast arcady action and the way difficulty ramps up from easy to rock hard in 5 short stages / 30 minutes, the psychological effect of a mass of bullets on screen and how a good shmup designer through enemy ship & bullet types plus their placement can wax and wane the pressure with popcorn enemies and mid bosses.
 
uber said:
Pokemon, no grinding required, unless you go to Silver Cave in Gold/Silver
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Actually, those and their remakes are the only Pokemon games I consider to have terrible pacing. From gyms 4-7 it doesn't feel like you're leveling up much at all, because all of your opponents are so weak. Then suddenly at gym 8 everyone's above your level. It's an annoying curve that makes a large portion of the game seem to drag on.
For almost all the other games though, yes, I agree, they have awesome pacing. They always do a good job of being linear while you learn the ropes for a small but reasonable amount of time, then thrusting you into a much more open world.
 
NinjamicWZ said:
I can't disagree with picks like RE4 and Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger especially, you can point to pivotal moments like arriving in the future and learning just how much bigger and more serious this adventure was going to be, after having just concluded a solid arc and done something that could have been a final boss fight in it's own right.

I recently replayed God of War 2 for the first time since 2007, on Vita, and came away absolutely loving it where I only enjoyed it back then (and used to think it was a slightly disappointing follow up). I think that game definitely had great pacing, escalating spectacle and immensity, and then soft calms for brief, intuitive exploration. The way it throws mid bosses and bosses, and significant challenge scenarios, at you in succession almost feels like a Treasure game... but remarkable in it's own right for working within a much less quirky, "anything goes" kind of motif where it's an easier design feat to throw anything at the player at any time. Even the way it introduces new and old abilities/weapons, feels smart and well timed... ie: holding out on stone gaze for quite awhile, whereas having it pretty early on in GoW1 made it such a go to decimation for almost every significant battle, unless you actively chose to ignore it.
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RE4/CT are obv picks, but I always felt GoW2 was great as well, for all the reasons you picked. Despite all the different locales, it felt like a cohesive experience, building to something. Little combat puzzle across the swamp would be followed by a unique molten rock monster, and then a little climbing and light exploration in the temple before you fight a cerebrus miniboss that just ate Jason and the Agrnonauts, which grants you this bitchin' golden fleece that lets you parry shit and makes a godlike sound effect. You'll do this spectacular swinging across the Lowlands section that leads into some tight, challenging cavern areas with some new enemy types, which then leads to Icarus and the great Atlas chapter.

Always a new gadget or environment interaction or some shit. Cory Balrog and his team at SSM just had a lot of good ideas. They successfully built on the gameplay formula in the first game and improved on it in practically every regard, from the magic to the bosses to the puzzles, the enemy variety and environmental design.

It was a great game, none of the other God of War games are even close honestly. Really excited to see what Balrog does next now that he's back.
 
Final Fantasy VII.

The game has glorious pacing.Never spend too long anywhere in the game.Great balance of story,battles and variety of locales.
 
I think what I like most about RE4's pacing is that while it's a long game for it's genre, it doesn't feel like a long game. The game has no padding, and each encounter is well designed and thought out. The game never hits that reusing ideas, and recycling stuff pitfall that so many games run into.
 
If you take the boring and terribly slow combat sections out Deadly Premonition's is perfectly paced. Really great buildup to the crazy ending sequence and a nice epilogue.
 
3bdelilah said:
A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds had good pacing in my opinion, especially the latter due to its non-linearity (and therefore unfortunately easy) dungeons progression. Minish Cap felt rather fast paced as well, though it's been a while since I last played it.



And Super Metroid as well.......... if NOT for Maridia. This is the first time I've ever played Super Metroid, and the pacing was great for me until I hit that area. Not only a mechanical change due to it being
under water and thus the changing physics (DAMN WATER LEVELS), but also the quick sands
??? Hmph, just need to buckle up some more.
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It's funny, this is the second time today I've seen someone with that opinion about Maridia in SM. I never had that problem with Maridia as I think it's a nice of change of pace. It's slower than the rest of Zebes, but the music is good and it's so immersive that it draws you in. It's slow(er), but in a good way I think. By the time you get the Space Jump and get out of there, it feels like you've been through something really heavy.

I agree with your LTTP and ALBW picks. That would have been my choice too.
 
I'll go with most of Shinji Mikami's games.

I'm playing through The Evil Within for a fourth time, and it's not suprising how little downtime or padding there is. The great thing is the contents of each chapter continue to surprise me because it's so varied. It really replicates that wonderful feeling of first playing RE4 and going through it over and over and over until I had enough of it memorised (to this day I still don't have the entire thing memorised despite playing through it like 20-30 times) to be able to plan ahead.

RE1, REmake, Vanquish, PN03, God Hand, The Evil Within- they all have perfect gear changes and intelligently gauged peaks and valleys, heartpounders and relaxing breathers in equal measure, while mixing in a healthy dose of variety and surprises, ensuring the journey never gets stale. He's a master in this regard imo.
 
Naughty Dog's games have amazing intros and then the games are painfully dull for an hour or so. The museum bit in Uncharted 2 is crappy after playing it the first or second time.
 
The Mega Man robot master model is extremely good. Whether it be the straight-up 8 masters and a fortress or some variation like MM3's two-boss remix stages or MM5's second castle, it's always a great time, with plenty of variation and solid internal pacing (per level) as well as overall pacing (of the whole game).

SalvaPot said:
Mother 3.

It grabs you with its narrative and it never lets you go.
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Mother 3 is undeniably a masterpiece, but pacing is the one area that I could reasonably see someone complaining about. It does a much better job than most RPGs, but in chapter 7, the narrative sometimes does kind of let you go for a while, depending on how you go about things.
 
Wolfenstein: The New Order may have the best pacing of any game I've ever played. I really think it perfectly nailed the ebb and flow between the action set-pieces and the slower, story driven bits.
 
Miker said:
I'll put in an odd entry: Binary Domain. I played the last 6 hours of the game straight because the plot was moving so rapidly, and the game itself was also constantly escalating its encounters.
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I agree. I really liked Binary Domain. They did an excellent job, especially considering it was their first take at a game like that.

But, yeah, as many people are saying: Resident Evil 4 and Uncharted 2 are pretty incredible in this respect. I think Uncharted 2 sticks out to me in particularly as constantly keeping you moving without being tiring. Such a well-constructed game.
 
+1 vote for Binary Domain.
Last of Us was not a good example imo. It visibly drags around Bill's. Uncharted 2 was evenly paced, a masterpiece actually. Always something interesting to find out.
 
Yeah. I'm gonna have to cosign all of these nods towards Resident Evil 4. Blows my mind that the game restarted development in only 2003 and was released in early 2005 considering the level of creativity going on. Either they reused buttloads of scrapped content from earlier iterations, or Mikami is just that good.
 
Chrono Trigger, RE4 and Uncharted 2 are all pretty obvious picks I agree with.

One game I think actually has great pacing (especially considering it's subgenre) is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. You're never in one area of the castle for too long, and none of the sections in the game ever feel like a complete slog to go through. Even considering the nature of the Soul System, using it to it's advantage never feels like a grind (a trap that sadly, Dawn of Sorrow falls into). Boss encounters are designed just right; They aren't the damage sponges they are in Circle of the Moon, but they aren't disgustingly easy like the ones in Harmony of Dissonance. The castle design is better about directing the player to make sure they dont get lost, yet it never feels like a linear experience, or that you're being guided along. It's pretty easy for a Metroidvania to be filled with needless filler, but Aria always moves you along briskly, finding a great balance between uncovering new plot elements, boss encounters, and gaining new traversal abilities at just the right times.

It's one of the few Metroidvanias I can replay without having to go "Oh, now I have to play this part again...". Even Super Metroid and SoTN, arguably the peaks of the subgenre, have instances of that for a lot of people (Maridia and Inverted Castle, respectively).
 
Resident Evil 4: Takes a pretty basic combat loop of directional body damage/3D aiming and melee system, and then pushes it to the fucking limit by having sooo many diverse encounters and enemy types. Moving platforms, armored enemies, tight corridors, open villages. The game never stops throwing new things at you throughout the whole 15-20 hours, it's incredible. And beyond that the game has a good sense of peaks and valleys, with plenty of quiet, atmospheric moments in between some of the more climactic battles.

MGS3: Apart from a slow beginning, the game is similarly masterful in the sheer diversity of encounters (although this time stealth based) and level design. Boss fights are perfectly peppered in and the game kicks into high gear for an incredibly climactic ending at just the right time too.

HeelPower said:
I'll add Resident Evil 3.

I think the pacing is absolute perfection.
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Damn straight. You have the awesome slow burn RE1&2 sort of feel in the city streets in the first half of the game (punctuated by balls out insanity whenever Nemesis shows up) and then once you get the trolley up and running the pacing really ramps up and you go from awesome location to awesome location, all leading up to the awesome climax in the dead factory.
 
restraining order said:
Yeah. I'm gonna have to cosign all of these nods towards Resident Evil 4. Blows my mind that the game restarted development in only 2003 and was released in early 2005 considering the level of creativity going on. Either they reused buttloads of scrapped content from earlier iterations, or Mikami is just that good.
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The only correct answer. Interesting to see Binary Domain and The new order mentioned a lot here. I will def have to try both those games out.
 
Seven Force said:
Chrono Trigger, RE4 and Uncharted 2 are all pretty obvious picks I agree with.

One game I think actually has great pacing (especially considering it's subgenre) is Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow. You're never in one area of the castle for too long, and none of the sections in the game ever feel like a complete slog to go through. Even considering the nature of the Soul System, using it to it's advantage never feels like a grind (a trap that sadly, Dawn of Sorrow falls into). Boss encounters are designed just right; They aren't the damage sponges they are in Circle of the Moon, but they aren't disgustingly easy like the ones in Harmony of Dissonance. The castle design is better about directing the player to make sure they dont get lost, yet it never feels like a linear experience, or that you're being guided along. It's pretty easy for a Metroidvania to be filled with needless filler, but Aria always moves you along briskly, finding a great balance between uncovering new plot elements, boss encounters, and gaining new traversal abilities at just the right times.

It's one of the few Metroidvanias I can replay without having to go "Oh, now I have to play this part again...". Even Super Metroid and SoTN, arguably the peaks of the subgenre, have instances of that for a lot of people (Maridia and Inverted Castle, respectively).
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Aria of Sorrow is a great choice, too. Maybe the smoothest playing Metroidvania ever, very easy to just glide along its rhythms for its entire runtime. Like you said, even in SotN, the inverted castle bits are more cute than they are clever, a bit of a bother really.
 
Feel free to call bullshit on this, but: Max Payne 3

The amount of detailed, varied environments that the game practically shoves the player through is surprisingly impressive given how much negatively received it was.
 
I'll add another vote for Resident Evil 4, even the Ashley part had good pacing. Also, Bayonetta 2 really did up the ante with there rarely being a dull moment
 
Seeing as the most popular games have already been mentioned, I'll second The Evil Within mention. Game's pacing is excellent and I echo Neff's sentiments.
 
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