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As with most RPG gamers who grew up round The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, I’m positively rabid for loot. Take actually any merchandise, put a giant quantity subsequent to it, and you’ll guess I’ll stuff an inconceivable amount of them into my knapsack earlier than hauling my burden again to the closest settlement to promote.
Possibly my worst loot-brain second (apologies prematurely for this) was once I stripped a complete battlefield in Kingdom Come: Deliverance, shuttling at a snail’s tempo back-and-forth to the closest city, the place I used my mountain of Groschen to purchase the fanciest armour set and Herod’s Sword.
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While I do not remorse buying essentially the most OP sword within the sport—on quite a few events it killed folks in pleasant duels in a single hit, leaving me to awkwardly mutter “Not again” because the guards closed in—it has made me mirror on how RPG loot and carry capability has rotted my mind. So many instances I’ve hauled huge portions of treasure again to settlements to amass extra coinage, however is filling your gills actually so significant?
I say no, and actually, I’m going one additional: carry capability is unimaginative in a majority of RPGs. And earlier than you ask, sure, I did play Death Stranding 2 not too long ago, and sure, that’s most likely the explanation I’m right here writing about this. Being overencumbered is a bore—it is primarily a line of textual content saying “Sir, you’ve had enough”, and pointing you within the path of the closest civilised hub the place you may set about emptying each retailers’ coffers.
In some methods it is a good mechanic, forcing you to periodically return to settlements so you will discuss to NPCs, hear the newest gossip, and purchase extra quests, as an alternative of binge-rinsing your entire world. In survival crafting video games, it is an incentive to craft a backpack or construct some base storage. That stated, it is a boring option to characterize what you carry. One unimaginable factor that Death Stranding 2 does is will let you carry issues your manner. You can strap packages to your arms, legs, stack a teetering tower in your again, and even fold out a cute little floating trolley that you simply pull behind you on a lead.
Even essentially the most seemingly mundane components could be changed into a satisfying a part of the simulation.
In permitting you to customise what you are carrying, it personalises loot and carry capability, making it nearly beauty, as you strap what you need, the place you need. It additionally displays your playstyle, as you determine what’s most essential so that you can shortly entry. “But Sean (me), Death Stranding 2 is a game ABOUT carry capacity, that’s its whole thing, so no RPG is going to create such a complex system just for hauling junk around.” While that is 100% right, I’m satisfied there is a center floor available. Take a have a look at Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2’s armour system, as an illustration.
With a number of guidelines about what layers you may equip the place and when, in addition to a complete social system related to what you are sporting and the cleanliness of stated gear, Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 proves that, for an RPG, even essentially the most seemingly mundane components could be changed into a satisfying a part of the simulation. I really like taking a shower in Kingdom Come after which equipping my clothes and armour one layer at a time, like I’m on the brink of head out into the world and tackle quests.
It’s simple to see how a system like this might characterize the groundwork for a extra attention-grabbing method to carrying gear and loot. It’s one thing I additionally cherished doing in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online, fastidiously curating my cowboy with a single or double holster, what lengthy arm I wished, and swapping out outfits for cold and hot climate. Red Dead can be nice at balancing sensible carry capability with its rewards, as you strap skins and carcasses to the again of your horse, or buy a wagon to haul much more.
One of my favourite gear and carry capability techniques really exists within the type of a TTRPG, Blades within the Dark. In the sport you play as a legal enterprise heists in a Dishonored-esque metropolis known as Doskvol, however earlier than each job you determine your load. Either “Light”, “Normal”, or “Heavy”, altering each how a lot you carry and the way inconspicuous you look—somewhat much like what Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 does.
Here’s the cool half, although; you solely announce objects while you use them. Say somebody’s attacking me and I would like a weapon? I announce that I’ve a blade and check-off one slot of my out there load. While this would not essentially work in a videogame, I believe it is proof that carry capability could be a enjoyable and important a part of a sport vs simply numbers in a listing.
Just having a backpack like Sam’s could be a complete game-changer for many RPGs.
Can you think about how good it will be if an RPG put Death Stranding 2 ranges of element into carry capability? Maybe you are enjoying a mage, adorned with numerous pouches containing magic objects and potion elements you have meticulously organised, or perhaps you are a barbarian, strapping weapon after weapon to your self like a strolling armoury. You might even be a rogue, seemingly innocuous, however concealing numerous hidden weapons, devices, and stolen items. Even simply having a backpack like Sam’s could be a complete game-changer for many RPGs, letting you organise your load and strap objects the place you need.
It appears like most video games have chosen the system of least resistance: you’ve a quantity, objects have a quantity, that is carry capability. What I believe this fails to recognise, although, is that by making gear and loot into extra tangible objects, you endow them with a higher sense of worth. Wouldn’t it’s cool to tie an precise treasure chest to your again in an RPG such as you’re enjoying Sea of Thieves? Or bedeck your self in stolen valuables such as you’ve bought some gaudy Diablo 4 pores and skin? What if all these objects that cosmetics and skins strap to you have been really strapped to you?
Turning loot and kit into precise carried objects additionally encourages a extra cutthroat method to hold capability that I believe a whole lot of video games desperately want. It’s one thing that extraction shooters do exceptionally effectively, an nearly “Kill your darlings” method to gear and loot that solely allows you to take a lot, and solely provides you a lot time to determine what you take. What appears extra beneficial to you? 300lbs of various valuables in a listing, or a sack of gold slung at your waist, spilling its glittering cash onto the earth as you battle out of a dungeon.
I get that I’m asking an excessive amount of for many video games. It’s not like carry capability is all that essential and the numbers system actually is not abrasive—if something it is what we have all gotten used to. However, I’m satisfied there is a extra evocative model of carry capability available in video games—one which encourages a measured and valued method to loot and kit vs the everyday RPG “vacuuming the world empty one dungeon at a time” that we have all grown accustomed to.
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