Perfect serious video game walkthroughs to me is when they are informative. They do an excellent job in helping players with whatever game they need a walkthrough for. Maybe it’s to see other strategies in fighting opponents? Or to find items that they missed? Or they’re stuck at a part of the game and don’t know where to go or do? Maybe they want to check out the game and see if it’s worth purchasing?
Whatever the reason people check out walkthroughs, they should always be informative in some way. I don’t like it when the person playing the game keeps forgetting where to go, or that they forgot the goal of a mission is and so on. I feel like before the person does a walkthrough they should play it a few times to get a good handle of the controls and know what to do. It’ll save the viewers the trouble of watching them running around like a chicken with their head cut off. It’s not enjoyable to see something like that, especially when that could have been avoided if they had played through it first or did some research on it.
Another aspect to a perfect walkthroughs is when they aren’t rush, that the person takes their time in doing everything. They check every treasure chest, desks, bookshelves, writings (like emails, letters, posters — anything that the game makes readable for the purpose of reading) computers, rooms, check for anything on the ground, vents and they talk to everyone. Basically they are very thoroughly with it.
I know some people complain about walkthroughs that take their time. Such as watching the player exhaust all the talking options, watching the character run around a lot or something. My advice for the viewers is that they can easily fast forward to the parts they want. It’s a video and no one is forcing them to keep watching those parts if they don’t want to.
I sometimes like commentary, but only if it is done right. What makes them enjoyable is when the commentator doesn’t talk during the cutscenes or dialogue. It’s even better if they have a sense of humor too. It’s very nice to listen to them crack jokes on the ridiculous way they die or hearing their reactions when the game scares the s**t out of them.
But commentary sucks when they keep being negative and complain while they play. It’s not fun for the viewers to hear them constantly complaining about having to walk around a lot. That they can’t find a person, an item or where they’re suppose to be going. It’s fine if they just say it once or when they point something out that they don’t like. But always repeating the same thing whenever it comes up, takes away from enjoying the walkthrough. Plus half the things the commentator complains about could have been avoid if they had played it already or at least did some research on it.
Maybe it’s already knowing what happens that makes them lazy and want to rush through the game and that puts them in that kind of mood? Whatever it is, the ultimate perfect video game walkthrough is for the benefit of the viewers. It’s suppose to be helpful, fun and covers as much as it possibly can, especially if it a serious walkthrough.
There are two other kinds of walkthroughs and they are similar in presentation but they follow different rules. Such as blind walkthroughs, which is basically the person’s first time playing and they learn as they go. There will be a lot of mistakes and it isn’t perfect so it’s understandable if they miss things. But these kind of walkthroughs do it for a specific purpose. This method is best used when it comes to horror games as it’s more entertaining to watch. The second reason is that it’s for fun (personal entertainment) and they just want to share their experience.
So walkthroughs like that are fine if they aren't perfect because they have their reasons. But there is no excuse for a serious walkthroughs meant to be helpful/educational if it's poorly done. By poorly done, it means that the person didn't do their research or played it before hand, they complain a lot, make so many mistakes and so on.
 DamnBlackHeart · Thu Mar 15, 2012 @ 08:38pm · 0 Comments |
