Have you ever been in a position where you've heard someone rant and rave about how a particular thing is worst ever, or the example of all things bad in the world? I have. It is hard when it seems that the entire gaming community is in agreement over how terrible something is and you are the lone voice of 'but I liked it!' It's isolating. It makes you feel detached from the rest of your kin. Therefore I've decided that whenever such a thing comes to my mind, in relation to gaming of course, I will share it here in hopes of getting it off my chest and perhaps connecting with someone else who shares my point of view or has a similar story of going against the grain. My first order of business: degradable equipment in Video Games.
We've all been there at least once; you've made it to the end of the dungeon and are caught in bloody battle with the dungeon boss. The tide is starting to shift, he has exhausted all his minions and now nothing stands in the way of you beating his ugly face into a bloody pulp. You start allowing your mind to wander, idly postulating and what new and wonderful loot might await you on his corpse. Then, out of blue, you hear the sound of dropped equipment and your weapon is automatically discarded. Panic starts to build. You didn't prepare for this, that was your only weapon, you're not trained in hand to hand. Your stomach lurches as you are forced to come to a grim reality. You've bottled it, your only recourse now is to retreat, recuperate and come back sharper, more world weary and, hopefully, better equipped.
That is the effect of weapon degradation in video games, and you know what, I love it. Yeah, I know what you're thinking 'Everything you just described is a negative, wasting your time and effort only to realise that you have to retreat is the worst!' Sure, but hear me out. For me, video games are not about playing some superhero who achieves everything with no amount of effort thrown at them. Every you achieve is done so through some amount of effort, whether it be the application of brute force, wisdom or general acumen. In order to provide a solution, there has to be a problem. In the solving of that problem comes the greatest of rewards: Satisfaction. I am explaining adversity in video gaming at, perhaps, it's most basic form. That is why games like 'Dark Souls' have reached the level of cultural proliferation they have; they provide a challenge that they player has to apply effort in order to surmount and which is satisfying once done so. Call it, the 'Rule of Adversity' . Just look at 'Getting Over it with Bennett Foddy'. Or rather, just listen to 'Getting over it', the narrator actually touches on this topic at some point in his annoying ramblings.
You can likely see where I'm going with this. I see weapon degradation (And item degradation in general) as an extension of this 'Rule of Adversity'. A small layer added onto the top of combat that requires the player to enter a whole new level of thought when planning to clear a hostile area in a video game. Now, players are not just considering the power of their main weapon, but bringing a backup weapon in case of emergencies or packing 'repair kits' for on-the-go maintenance. The layer of planning is now added onto your combat strategy, just because of the addition of one new system to the game mechanics. But how do you ensure a mechanic like this is challenging but not annoying? Well, like all things in game design, it all comes down to implementation and balancing. No one wants their sword breaking every two seconds, it'd make the weapon's feel flimsy; and no one wants to be stuck in a scenario where they cannot continue playing the game because their only weapon was scuppered. The issue of balance is a nuanced one and there is one 'one size fits all' solution for solving it; developers have to look at the mechanics they have implemented and see if the concept of weapon degradation fits their game and their world. I have complied a few examples of those who have, I believe, struck this balance well and thus are examples to the industry.
The Elder Scrolls is the darling franchise of Bethesda, saving their company from bankruptcy back in 2002 and netting them near universal critical acclaim since. In both 2002's Morrowind and 2006's Oblivion, there were weapon degradation mechanics implemented in the game before being stripped in Skyrim along with many of their more complex mechanics. I won't address Morrowind here, as that game has sinned to the art of video game combat in a manner deserving it's own blog, but rather I choose to focus on Oblivion. As in any open world Bethesda game, Oblivion's weapons and armours are in no way way hard to come by. You can pick them off the floor of any dungeon, buy them at any weapons smith or loot them off any downed foe. It is within Bethesda's dedication to immersion that they endeavour to allow the player to interact with anything in the world that they should be able to react with. This is handy when coupled with the weapon and armour degradation that Oblivion features.
Not to say that merely being lousy with weapons is enough to offset the issue of them breaking, found weapons are often pre-worn and close to being scuppered. You are unlikely to find a replacement for your best broadsword if the thing breaks on you in the middle of combat, however the ready availability does mean that you are unlikely to find yourself in a position with no weapons to wield. Also, Bethesda planned ahead enough to dedicate one of the many skills you learn in the game to the art of repairing your gear, allowing for you to forgo a trip to your local smith as long as you have the tools available. This allows them to have the layer of depth to strategy that weapon degradation issues whilst also providing the savvy player with the tools and means to solve the presented complication. Like with any good problem, they had a good solution.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is another game with such mechanics and, you'll likely not be shocked to hear, they balance it incredibly deftly. Breath of the Wild was the first game in the Zelda franchise to realise an expansive open world with the level of freedom that AAA open world games offer. As such, Breath of the Wild adopted many new mechanics such as the ability to pick and use items dropped by enemies that you have slain, and that you find around Hyrule. Every item was fitted with a durability bar and so would break before too long. (except the Master Sword, which had other limitations.) This time, however, usable and breakable items were no longer limited to weapons and armour (Indeed Breath of the Wild's armour doesn't actually break.) but expanded to makeshift tools like sticks, leaves and the severed, but still animated hand of an undead skeleton.
This all married up with Breath of the Wild's approach to hostile encounters. This was not a game that was designed to be a hack-and-slash-athon, but rather they planned from the ground up to promote ingenuity and atypical stratagems. So whilst there may be a comprehensive combat system, you are not limited to use only that. In many instances, Nintendo expect to you come at problems from a completely different angle. Perhaps you could roll this rock down that hill to crush the Bokoblin camp or set fire to this patch of grass knowing that the spread of fire will reach those sleeping Moblins. Making weapons temporary was a subtle way for the developers to push players towards the making use of the world around them to solve the problems they were presented with, without shoehorning them into it. Leaving freedom of gameplay in the hands of the player, like a true adventurous experience.
Back we go to Bethesda and another landmark RPG, Fallout. It seems Bethesda had a style for open worlds as both Fallout 3 and, the Obsidian developed, Fallout: New Vegas shared many of the hall marks of The Elder Scrolls franchise. Both Fallouts had complete interactivity with an inexhaustive amount of weaponry and a weapon degradation system to boot. Obviously, degradation fits the universe of Fallout like a glove seeing as how the series takes place in a post-apocalyptic world; however, that doesn't mean they did the bare minimum in implementation. Leaning on another trope of the post-apocalyptic setting, the need to be resourceful, Fallout 3/New Vegas made sure that all those excess weapons your character picked up were actually useful, by allowing you to use their parts in the restoration of your favourite weapons.
Fallout also added events to highlight the effects of degradation without becoming impairing. In The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, when weapons reached low durability they would actually lessen their damage output, as though the blade itself was dulling with each strike (Even when we're talking about blunt weapons). This was frustrating because it pressured the player to forever keep their weapons at full durability, tilting the weapon degradation system from a meaningful addition to combat strategy into the realm of becoming a hindrance. Fallout, however, fixed this issue without scrapping the concept or it's authenticity entirely. In Fallout, for the majority of your weapon's durability you suffered no ill effects; the moment your weapon's condition entered a danger zone (One which New Vegas clearly marked.) you would start to notice that the weapon would jam on reloads. A small detail that hammered home the need to repair, without turning your weapon into an oversized toothpick.
Lastly I want to bring you back to a game I bought up earlier, Dark Souls. You see, Dark Souls differs from those previous games in that From Software didn't need to implement weapon degradation in order to cement the authenticity of their world, or add any layer upon combat or promote outside-the-box thinking. The themes of decay are meticulously seeped into Dark Souls in such a way as to be unmistakable and the Dark Souls' combat doesn't require any more layers of complexity or alternative solutions to be sublime. The only barrier to mastering Dark Souls' combat is to master your own patience and that is a truth that can't be reinforced with gimmicks or subversions. From Software embraces weapon degradation as it matches the identity of their game.
What do I mean by 'identity'? I'm referring to a concept similar to themes but living outside of 'the magic box'. (A term to refer to everything that exists within the universe of the game.) The 'identity' of the game is the way it is recognized by the audience irregardless of it's lore or the ideas it espouses. 'Identity' is concrete and tangible, bought to life in the execution of the game rather than in the writing for it. For Dark Souls that 'identity' is of being at the utmost bottom of the food chain throughout the entire game. Having the entire world against you and weighing down on you from start to finish. Persevering not by becoming some godly figure but by becoming the bare minimum to succeed and struggling along the way. That includes pushing yourself and your equipment past your limits to achieve further. This may sound like a stretch or even abstract, but if any game is the perfect embodiment of the 'Rule of Adversity' it is Dark Souls. Nothing is achieved without effort. Even if "your wings... burn in anguish, time and time again".
Perhaps I make too big a deal about the inclusion of a little green bar underneath weapons in video games, but I am a firm believer in the power of the little details. A fantastic gaming experience is built up of thousands of small mechanics all shaking hands with each other and coming together in a coherent manner. 'Weapon degredation' shouldn't be a dirty word any more than 'Minigame' should be. (More on that later.) Just as with any game mechanic, there are poor examples that reflect badly but there are also great examples that elevate the final product. No one ever gets it perfect, but if we care enough, we will perpetually improve.
Unfortunately, it seems that in recent years many games have dropped off on the practice. Whether in response to the, seemingly wide spread, disdain for item degradation or simply a redirection to a simpler experience in order to make their product more accessible; Games in general have shed their item degradation systems. Fallout and Skyrim both lost theirs, even when the consequence was being dumped with numerous pointless items. I can only assume that millions of discarded steel swords and 10mm pistols now dot their virtual landscape. From Software still persist as they have a reputation to keep and we can only assume that Breath of the Wild's sequel still has the core mechanics of the last game. However, no high profile upcoming game has mentioned any system like this. None of them at all. Does this mean that weapon degradation in gaming is dead? Probably. At least for the near future. And whilst I remain the lone person calling out their love for this mechanic, it's likely to stay that way.
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