Lionhead boss Peter Molyneux has revealed what he hates about melee combat, and why you won’t be seeing any in the upcoming release.
A Kinect-exclusive game and swordplay might seem like a match made in heaven, but Molyneux told OXM he decided against using melee combat and guns in Fable: The Journey because players have pre-established ideas about how those interactions should feel.
“We could have done melee weapons, but the one thing I hate about melee weapons, and guns as well, is that the human brain is encoded to expect recoil from those things,” he said.
Instead, players will wreak havoc on Albion’s hapless Hobb population with magic and thrown weapons, using their hands to control the speed and, in some cases, shape the area of effect of projectiles.
Because players can’t actually wield magic in real life, Molyneux explained, they don’t have “encoded” ideas of how it should feel that get in the way of combat.
“Whenever I swing a sword and I hit something on screen, the visuals and the sound isn’t enough,” he said. “We could have done what Zelda did well on Twilight Princess, where it doesn’t really matter what you do, what happens on-screen is the best thing. But I wanted people to feel powerful, to feel power, and that’s all about you.”
In an earlier interview with OXM, Molyneux predicted the newest Fable will drive Kinect sales by appealing to hardcore gamers, providing a much greater challenge than current motion-controlled offerings.
In Fable: The Journey, scheduled for release next year, players use hand gestures to control a horse-drawn cart, while sometimes setting out on foot to complete quests.
Source: OXM
