Drama ex Machina: The Desperation Meter

Original Post: April 11, 2010

This post is a speculative solution to a problem I noticed in Assassin’s Creed, both I and II, but could equally be used in other vaguely similar games.  Firstly, let me outline the problem as I see it, and then describe my mechanical solution.

I loved both Assassin’s Creed games, the first was a revelation, and the second made the first look like a tech demonstration.  However, there was a basic problem for me: it was too easy.  Both Ezio and Altair were far too strong, essentially able to ignore the sneaking and barrel headlong into any number of guards with a reasonable expectation of survival.  In AC2 it was even worse because arguably the most efficient method of dealing with an enemy would be to go in unarmed and use the disarm/kill combo to insta-gib the baddies.  In either case, armed with the longsword, both assassins could simply back up to a wall and deal with the enemies one by one.

This broke the fiction for me, as my concept of an assassin is a killer who doesn’t ever fight, let alone face off with heavily armed and armoured troops.  Assassins come in the night, and their victims die without ever seeing them.  Perhaps like in the Hitman series, the assassin isn’t even there when the victim is killed; instead a series of traps are laid and the killing might seem accidental.  The cost for this is that assassins must travel light, to go unnoticed they must blend in and disappear.  They cannot carry heavy weapons, wear armour etc.  Their economy of power, if you like, is squarely situated in the surprise attack, not in battle prowess.  If Altair/Ezio were a unit in an RTS, they would be clearly over-powered.  They should be like a rogue or thief in RPGs: deadly from behind but unable to take much of a direct attack.

The word thief brings me to my next point: Thief (capital T) had the right idea.  In that game, being caught was death.  It introduced the light/shadow mechanic that many stealth games utilize today, in combination with standard line of sight mechanics. The configuration of Altair/Ezio’s talents begged the question: why do they worry about stealth, subtlety or planning when barging in and fighting out are just as effective?

Of course, this indicates that the game overall would end up being much, much harder.  It would also remove one of the joys of the game: those quick counter-combo take-downs that are fun.  So how do we keep this, but enhance the drama, the pressure, on the player?

The first thing that would have to change would be a significant upgrade to the speed and strength of the guards, relative to our hero’s “normal” fighting abilities.  Our assassin should still be able to back-stab and throat-slit for instant kills, but face-to-face, a group of 2 or 3 guards would have to be (much) more likely to kill our assassin than be defeated.  (I even loved the dual wristblade action in AC2, so I’m happy for the hero to be able to kill more than one baddie, provided he stays stealthy.)  In any group larger than this, “normal” Ezio/Altair would be a dead man for sure.  So when the player misses that jump, or pulls himself up onto the wrong balcony and the squad of guards sees him, there is real fear, there is desperation.

Desperation is a key element that I feel was missing from both games.  I suggest introducing a ‘desperation meter’ which increases as the assassin takes damage.  Something like power meters in fighting games, this resource would open up new moves for the assassin to perform, but only when running low on health.  (Perhaps simply being spotted would grant a small amount of desperation, just enough for basic maneuvers.)  So, normally, Ezio would not be able to perform the spectacular counter maneuvers that disarm the guard and dispatch him with his own weapon–but if he is below say, 20% health, he becomes desperate, the adrenaline starts pumping, and he attempts a high-risk, high-payoff move to save his skin.  Success means Ezio escapes certain death, but also costs a significant amount of the desperation bar: he can’t do it over and over.  Failure (the player misses the correct keypress or timing) and the assassin dies.

Performing such an escape maneuver successfully actually means something when the risk of failure is real.  Being able to pull it off all the time dilutes the drama significantly.  Narrative drama uses this kind of scenario all the time: the hero tries standard actions but this fails to stop the impending danger, until the very last minute when s/he tries something crazy that works.  The ‘all-or-nothing’ risks are obvious, and this is what makes the action dramatic.  I never felt that I risked much in either Assassin’s Creed game… well, ever.  I never doubted my ability to fight off however many guards were about to attack me.  Not because I am some spectacular player though; as an experiment I just stood still and waited for them to beat me to death.  It took a ridiculously long time.

There are other mechanics that could be incorporated into a desperation meter, and some play-testing would be necessary to balance them properly, but the following are some examples:

Bullet time: as the hero becomes more desperate, the game slows down to give the player a greater chance to dispatch whatever the problem is.

Smoke Grenade: perhaps an early one that doesn’t cost much could be the smoke bombs (or flashbangs for other game settings) Ezio carries.  As the meter starts to fill up, simply tap the button to drop a smoke bomb right at the assassin’s feet and make a run for it.  This could be one of the earliest moves available, maybe simply for coming into the line-of-sight of an enemy, to give the player a chance to ‘reset’ the attempt at infiltration.

Super jump: Parkour bonus that allows the hero to escape by running at then jumping off the shoulders/back of an enemy to reach a handhold he wouldn’t be able to normally.  Or the wall-run, where the hero will run as if fleeing, then run up the wall a couple steps, and backflip to land behind the attacker.  Our hero can then either kill his opponent from behind, or simply run away.

Disarm and kill counter: as is already in Assassin’s Creed 2, but make this a significantly risky move.  It would have to cost most of a full desperation meter and result in death if the player fails to pull it off.  If he succeeds though, the hero gains a weapon and loses an enemy: good pay-off.

Environmental: Probably the hardest to actually implement: setting something on fire, causing an explosion, or knocking over a cart of melons/ball bearings/logs while fleeing.  Perhaps grabbing a torch and throwing it at the pursuing guard, knocking over a burning brazier across your path, forcing the guards to go around. The exploding red barrel comes to mind here, but again, they must only become active when the desperation is high, or its just another fight mechanic.  Not everything in the environment should be related to desperation, that limits the creativity of the player too much.  But some things certainly could be.  This is a lot like the sand in the eyes trick in AC2, which is also not far off the smoke bomb effect, but relies on there being sand on the floor.

Combinations: disarm and kill with a smoke bomb, especially useful when a group of enemies is attacking.  Kill the one that is about to kill the hero, then throw the smoke to escape the rest of them.  Again, must be risky with a high chance of failure leading to death because the pay-off is so high.  Perhaps a smoke bomb then a super jump off the back of a confused enemy, less costly because none of the enemies are dead, but a good escape technique.

Anyone who has played a videogame or seen an action movie will probably find these ideas very familiar.  I don’t pretend like the actions themselves are innovative, in fact many of them exist in Assassin’s Creed already.  The important part is limiting their use to the really desperate moments of the game, during fights where things are going badly.  So, we first have to establish that fights can go badly–which in my experience they really didn’t.  I got tired of fighting more than I got killed.  That’s a very bad thing in this kind of game.

To further ensure that the desperation meter increases drama, hook it up to regenerative health.  This way, a player cannot jump off a building to lower his health, then run around with 3/10 bars on his health bar, with a full desperation meter all the time.  We could also cause the desperation meter to decay over time, though that might be somewhat redundant if the health bar increases.  One might have to make the decision at a design level that eventually our hero will have to escape: the number of guards will continue to increase perhaps, or they will perform a phalanx-style charge eventually that will kill our hero, so the player knows he can’t just fight indefinitely.  This adds pressure to use a couple of the mechanics, and also reminds the player that their character is not invincible, which Altair and his cousin Ezio ultimately are.

So in conclusion, if this sounds like a laundry list of cool new powers for Ezio, Altair and any other (mostly hand to hand) videogame fighter, it is with the one caveat that you have to be almost dead before you can use them!  This would reward the player who plans well and avoids getting into nasty fights where he will most likely die, but also give those kinds of fights a dramatic element that they don’t have currently.

As a side note, the thought occurs to me that this kind of mechanic can be used in reverse quite effectively also.  World of Warcraft makes extensive use of the stealth mechanics for rogues and druids, but this could be extrapolated into an action game as well.  I haven’t played Splinter Cell: Conviction yet, so forgive me if this is exactly what they do, but: an agent like Sam Fisher might have a set of very deadly abilities that he can only use when he is not desperate.  As he is seen, so loses his advantage of stealth and surprise, he loses some moves (just like rogues in WoW).  As he takes damage and/or attracts more attention he loses some other abilities, but perhaps gains others–more escape-centric.  I am not sure how this would pan out in a very linear-based game, as opposed to the more open-world situation Altair and Ezio are in.  Worth consideration though.  Perhaps after playing more Splinter Cell, I will do so.