Tobold's Blog
Sunday, August 09, 2020
 
Tactics vs. Execution

 My wife plays computer games, must mostly the ones that do not require you to react quickly: Point-and-click adventure games, mobile puzzle games, and the like. She says that in a PC or console game like Assassin's Creed, she never manages to push the button at exactly the right time, and then ends up missing the attack or the jump or whatever was required. So when a few months ago I started playing Assassin's Creed Rebellion, I didn't show her the game. I was drawn to the mobile Assassin's Creed game by having played several of the series' games on PC, and thought as she hadn't played those, she wouldn't be interested. Today my wife by chance looked at my screen while I was playing, and contrary to what I had thought was very interested in the game. She doesn't know the characters or the series, but she likes the cute graphics of the mobile version. And, as it turns out, she also like the gameplay.

The gameplay in Assassin's Creed Rebellion is turn-based. You can still make tactical decisions, like whether you want to sneak past a guard, assassinate him, or attack him head-on, but you never need to press the button at exactly the right time. You just have a percentage chance for things like assassinations or jumps, and combat is also just a numbers game. Which means that you have a lot of the tactics of an Assassin's Creed game, without needing to bother getting the execution right.

Sometimes I wish there were more games that would get the real time to turn-based conversion treatment. I'm still playing World of Tanks, I'm still not very good at it, but my trouble clearly is with the execution, not with the tactics. That is why I prefer tactical games like XCOM to shooters or platformers. Many games seem to be designed for the typical reaction times of teenagers, and I just can't keep up with that.


Comments:
I'm surprised you or your wife dont play more RPGs Tobold. Plenty of great RPGs out there today with turn based or real time with pause combat. Perfect for those who prefer tactical gameplay over reaction based stuff.
 
I can empathize. I was stuck for months in Resident Evil VII, in a sequence where the villain you are confronting murders you time and time again with a giant hacksaw. According to playthroughs I was simply not dextrous enough to survive the sequence. I finally beat it after 20+ consecutive tries in a row. Last week I let my son (he's 9) load the game. He blew through the sequence on one try on hard difficulty and then had the poor judgement to mock dad for saying it was hard (poor judgement because dad made him take all the trash out and do the dishes then).
 
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