Can a team-based shooter have atmosphere?

[Squid Empire]

I've been talking to a variety of people on whether online multiplayer, team-based FPS games can have atmosphere/immersion.

My standpoint is 'optimistically yes' but I have to admit the opposition has a good argument. A lot of the people I talked to play 'Counter Strike - Global Offensive' so that's where they're coming from. I don't really play any online games so that's where I'm coming from...

 

My friends say that it can't work because atmosphere relies on immersion, and playing a multiplayer game means you'l be playing the same map over and over, dying and respawning all over the place. No matter how beautiful your world is, players will cease to see it after a couple of dozen rounds. Trying to build atmosphere (though quiet environments, slow pace etc.) is also doomed to failure because you'll have a team of chums on the voice chat loudly enjoying themselves, oblivious to the subtle wind effects. Inevitably, your game will become simply a chessboard to your players, where the actual game-world is almost entirely irrelevant.

 

What does everyone here think? Is it possible to have a multiplayer fps game with immersion/atmosphere? How would you do it?

 

 

 

Bonus:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_effect

 

 

[GeneralCamo]

I could see it with a vast open world, ARMA style. Set up some worldbuilding, and you can work wonders with the atmosphere. But Box Canyon FPSs... not really.

[Shnappz]

Heh "The Pauli Effect" I read about that when I was reading Synchronicity: By Carl Jung

 

It's an interesting thought and I think you hit the nail on the head, atmosphere is definitely lost when you play a map multiple times and when you respawn 20+ times. I think it would take some effort, and also music would play a big part.

[DeviousDave]

It's funny this topic came up as this argument is currently being fought over at the moment on the HAWKEN forums between the Arena shooter 'purists 'and the western mech fans.

 

As for whether or not FPS team based shooters can have immersion, that depends on how much effort you want to put in to your game and by the games backstory. My view on it is that a game created atmosphere and immersion when everything in that game works together to pull you into that games world and tricks you into almost believing you are there.

 

Just look at Unreal Tournament, that has pretty good immersion and atmospherics given that its set in a gladiatorial futuristic environment and everything in the maps points to this, from blood stains and bullet holes to advertising boards in the backgrounds and sound effects that make the battlefield seem abandoned by the rest of the world.

 

Or Natural Selection 2, a team based FPS (or FPC [First person claws] if your an alien] that handles immersion and atmospherics really well, especially when an alien chews through a power node and plunges the room into pitch blackness with only flashlights to show you what is happening.

 

Or HAWKEN, which used to be very immersive back in the public beta and early Steam release, back when the game balanced between traditional arena shooter (fast movement speeds, dodging, hitscan weapons, high skill cealing, infinite ammo, fast matches, respawning, focus on movement and positioning) and mech simulator (bloom, high TTK [time to kill], acceleration and momentum, fuel consumption, weapon temperature that resulted in overheating, impact landing and shock absorption) which when combined with great sound effects and a detailed cockpit (with working dials and readouts) really pulled you into Hawkens world.

 

You really felt like you were in a big stompy mech suit, that had weight behind it back in those days...

 

Then the devs at the time started leaning towards full generic FPS arena shooter 101, and removed the awesome cockpit and replaced it with a meh one with 'holographic' readouts (think UT hud) and removed 90% of the mech features (momentum, impact landing, bloom, acceleration, high TTK, lowered fuel consumption [and removed it from dodging], reduced heat buildup when firing)

 

Now IMO the games a hollow reminder of what could have been and has little in the way of immersion, I don't think I'm in a big stompy robot, I think 'hey Ima playing my Unreal Tournament clone BWAAAAAAAAAAAA' (think that bit in the I'm firin ma Lazor voice)

 

So in summary, yep you can have FPS team based shooters with atmosphere... but it's bloody difficult to pull off.

[OWA]

I believe that atmosphere is delivered through the sound and environment. W3D games typically have music masking the ambient sound, so it would require a change in focus for the audio department. However, I believe that an immersive atmosphere can be achieved.

[VERTi60]

I guess in W3D case it is all map based. E.g. RA:AR's map in production, Fort Bradley will build up a good atmosphere for the game. All it needs is a little ambient effects/sounds/animations, extra objectives, cool map props and a back story behind it and there you go.

[Jerad2142]

Yes they can, everything from textures to sounds comes into play of course. Btw, unless the definition of immersion requires that it always be immersive I don't see how "you'll be playing the same map over and over," even comes into play, eventually the immersive factor of any game wears off, it just lasts shorter in multiplayer.