Hack and Trash

The action-RPG genre has been the well respected bastard offspring of the action and RPG genres since the dawn of the computer gaming era, and in that time the genre has consistently failed to take the best of both action and role playing. Action-RPGs often use a traditional role playing leveling system and then give the player nothing more than control of their character's attack frequency and location. The Elder Scrolls series is a perfect example of this. Bethesda employed a system that was designed more for turn based or tactical combat, but decided to give the player the ability to flail their weapon around as they so pleased. Unfortunately, the direct control of attacks is not enough to constitute action gameplay. Other action-RPGs lean the other way and make intense, blood pumping combat systems, but sorely neglect the leveling system that they tacked on to garner mass appeal. To fix these problems with action-RPGs we need to examine what it is that makes both genres great.

First let's dissect RPGs. The first, and most obvious thing is leveling up. Nothing quite sets off a gamer's endorphins like that satisfying ding and the promise of a whole new batch of skill points. It allows each player to customize their character so that they can take advantage of their play style. Do you want to focus on melee combat and heavy armor? We have skills for that. Magic and summoning? Skills for that. RPGs can offer the player a great way to play the game the way that they want to play it. Other high points of RPGs are their epic storytelling and characterization.

Action games are characterized by blood-pumping, explosive combat, relentless gameplay and the ability to have complete control over the character. Games like Half-Life and Prince of Persia offer their players intense gameplay that requires both fast reflexes and skill. While they are two very different games, they both exemplify the qualities that make action games great. Dying is a momentary setback, and the combat is paced so that you are prepared for each encounter and can spend less time trying to heal or stock up on equipment and more time fighting and advancing the story.

Now, the idea of an action RPG should be to combine the best elements of the two genres into one super-genre, so let's see how this should work out. The most basic elements lie in the basic gameplay and story implementation. By giving total control to the player in combat the game allows for action, and then by granting levels to the player as they advance they have implemented the RPG aspects of the game. Simple right? Well the problem that many game designers face is then implementing pacing. RPGs tend to be much slower, ponderous affairs, while action games tend to try and run the player through the story as quickly as possible so they can get right into the action. To counter this a designer could use a system like Half Life 2s where they keep the player in full control during cutscenes. Players would be able to continue fighting and adventuring, or select dialogue options a la Bioware games in order to keep them involved. By keeping the player playing during story sections, action oriented gamers will have their twitchy kill instincts sated, and RPG gamers will get the deep story and characters that they crave.

The bigger problem is pacing in combat. In a traditional turn based, or strategy based RPG players are willing to slog through either lengthy cut scenes, and can accept having to hit a rest button to heal their party. Action games however, require a much more rapid pace. My biggest issue with the Elder Scrolls series was having to stop every encounter in order to sit on my ass, chugging potions, or having to hit a button to make me rest so that I could get back to full health.

To fix this issue designers have to start using a technique that Left 4 Dead has pioneered: The Administrator. Using the Administrator system, game devs can make sure that, as the player advances through the story, the game is constantly feeding them just enough health and equipment to get by. This will prevent the obnoxious Elder Scrolls scenario of having to go to sleep after every fight and can keep the action gamers engaged, while the leveling and story can keep the RPG-ers satisfied. Then we can have a true cross genre videogame.