We all save scummed in Baldur’s Gate III, right? A bad roll, fight’s not going well, time to mash quick load, baby. In stealth games this behavior may manifest as a compulsion to pull the ripcord every time you get spotted, while 4Xs see us setting up a temporal base camp right before declaring a risky war. But what if living with the consequences of your actions could be fun? Usually I’d say I do enough of that in real life, but a recent dalliance with Baldur’s Gate III’s permadeath Honor mode gave me pause.
With save scumming at the top of our minds, it was time to get to the bottom of things by asking a professional for their take. Five professionals, in fact: two RPG developers, and three who work on immersive sims, aka ‘the thinking man’s FPS’, aka those games where you crouch walk everywhere and knock guys unconscious.
First up is Nick Pechenin, lead systems designer on none other than Baldur’s Gate III itself. From the start, Pechenin bristles a little at the value judgment inherent in the term “save scumming,” arguing that it’s “making a sin out of routine player behavior”.
Esta historia es de la edición May 2024 de PC Gamer US Edition.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición May 2024 de PC Gamer US Edition.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 8500 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
PHANTOM PAIN
The unseen side of the occult in PHASMOPHOBIA
ALMA MATER
Horror is a family affair in FEAR
OFF PUTTING
Lee Carvallo's PUTTING CHALLENGE 2: another great Simpsons fan game
BEST BEHAVIOR
Donkey Crew's lead gameplay developer, SERGII GREBEN, on programming AI for NPCs
THE GOD FACTORY
A group of players built a record-breaking plant
GRIM FANDANGO
Death is a slave to the city in LucasArts' last great adventure.
GET STARTED IN HELLDIVERS 2
Take to the stars and fight for managed democracy.
OLD WORLD BLUES
The beautiful HORIZON: FORBIDDEN WEST COMPLETE EDITION struggles to move on
LEVEL ZERO: EXTRACTION
Tarkov meets Alien in this terrifying extraction shooter
EIYUDEN CHRONICLE: HUNDRED HEROES
Spiritual successor to Suikoden promises an grand adventure