You Encounter a Level 17 Green-Eyed Monster

"Bin ich mutiger
Töte mich und iss mein Herz
Hab ich dein Weib

Töte mich und iss mich ganz auf

Dann iss mich ganz auf
Doch leck den Teller ab"

Rammstein - Eifersucht

Champions Online, among its other failings, tends to copycat superhero comic book tropes more slavishly than its predecessor City of Heroes did. So, naturally, you spend some time in an alternate dimension where a tyrannical empire grinds the world under the heel of giant robots suspiciously reminiscent of the X-Men's Sentinels. It's a decently long story arc (and a pain in the ass to solo as an undergeared newbie, let me tell you) where each mission tends to revolve (thematically if not practically) around the Sentinel copycats: evading them, halting their production and generally cowering in terror of being stomped on. Then, in one of the last missions, you get to reprogram and pilot one of them, zapping tanks and tanking helicopter missile barrages.

Stomping around the city as a mecha terror while tiny, insignificant soldiers pelt you with equally insignificant pop guns would've been mildly amusing in itself. What makes it significantly more satisfying is the preceding missions' buildup, the frustration of scampering about in the shadow of such colossi.


I also criticized Spellforce 3 for its quaint but ultimately failed attempt at melding RTS and RPG mechanics, but it did a few things very right. Throughout the campaign you occasionally fight big tough Swamp Thing looking demons called Devourers, each of which more or less qualifies as a boss fight initially. Imagine my delight upon discovering that my black magic spell shrub's capstone is the "summon devourer" ability.

Not only does a massive, life-stealing, self-resurrecting meat shield with PBAoE damage rank as fairly overpowered in preventing attrition for your other forces, but it's just so damn gratifying to have your character learn to harness one of the grandiose forces of the world around you.

Spellforce 3 likely copycatted Warcraft 3, and if there's three things Blizzard Entertainment has done well over the decades, it's
1) dumb down better games' concepts
2) advertise
3) manage its audience's expectations. When the opening War3 cinematic showed the magma golems "infernals" smashing down like meteors from the sky, it perfectly built up the mystique of one of the "ultimate" abilities to... do exactly that, in-game.

Games have rules. A good, consistent game world functions according to a set of defined rules. Rules accessible to all participants. Those big, bad boss-level abilities or badass gadgets should not exist only as props for NPCs. They work best as emblems of heroic apotheosis, as signs that the hero has conquered and mastered that which once stood as his greatest obstacles. Yes, show NPCs using them and then allow the hero to capture or learn to use them. If it's a level 21 ability, then let me reach level 21 at some point and get it. If it's an admiral's flagship, then let me reach the rank of admiral at some point, after many trials and discombobulations. Don't just give NPCs nondescript energy blasts and glowing effects, but actual abilities from player skill trees, tools and transportation purchasable by players themselves. Build up the player's envy at others' displays of power, then stage a context-appropriate pay-off at the next level-up.

In my last screenshot commemorating my first playthrough of the highly memorable RPG Tyranny, my character's wearing strapped to his back a weirdly-shaped glowing blue-headed oversized mace. It's Peacemaker, the legendary weapon of Graven Ashe, Archon of War and General of the elite iron-clad Disfavored legion. It makes a highly visible prop hoisted over his shoulder whenever you encounter him. As luck would have it, my character specialized in two-handed weapons and I spent most of the game allied with Ashe's mortal enemy (until he made an unreasonable demand) and thus eventually wound up graving Ashe. To the victor went the gaudy spoils. As they should. It was to some extent even more satisfying than proclaiming my own edicts, as it existed within the game mechanics, more... tangible, for lack of a better word.

Multiplayer games have already adopted this mindset by building up customers' envy of each other's gear, but too many single-player games still fail at fabricating and satisfying jealousy. (In that order.) There's something viscerally, atavistically satisfying about not just victory but conquest, about eating your enemies' hearts to gain their rich, tasty courage, about the Highlander routine of taking power at the same time as taking heads. Don't merely abstract it as "experience points" and don't separate the player from the game world by separating player and NPC skill trees. Allow me at the very least to gain the same abilities displayed by my enemies, to mount their heads as trophies on pikes in my yard, and wherever possible allow me to outright take their power as spoils of war. All their base should belong to me.