Controls: Avencast
This is the third post in my mini-series on controls.
Recently, I started playing an interesting game called Avencast. It’s essentially Diablo’s hack ‘n’ slash gameplay with an extra layer of depth in the controls. Avencast has a steep learning curve because it’s controls are quite unusual for an action RPG. It handles more like a top-down shooter where the keyboard controls your movement, and the mouse controls where you’re looking/shooting. Double tapping a directional key triggers a roll, then you can change the direction of the roll by changing your view with the mouse. You can side-step by hitting space+directional key.
As you can probably tell from that rough description, there’s a lot more dodging and quick movement in Avencast than in the typical Diablo-style action RPG. I’m going to focus on something that’s much more unique - combos. Every spell in the game is mapped to a specific key combo, similar to Street Fighter. Typical combos are three keystrokes: up left, up right, left up and so forth followed by a mouse click. Left click on the mouse triggers a blood (melee) spell, and right click triggers a spirit (range) spell.
This control system has some interesting implications, and there are two that I consider the most important for my experiences in Avencast. By having all the spells mapped to combos that use movement keys + mouse clicks, it means I never have to move my hands from where they belong - resting on the main controls. I don’t have to reach out to try to hit 9, or ALT+9 or whatever other out-of-the-way control I have bound to a specific, rarely used spell. That helps make the gameplay more fluid because I maintain a state of readiness for dodging enemy attacks. The other important element is the sense of empowerment it provides from having all the controls and spells right at my fingertips. It definitely feels like a fighting game, and in those games mastering the range of controls and attacks is part of the experience. Controlling my character this way makes the game feel more involved.
The previous paragraph comes dangerously close to contradicting my earlier post about the impact of difficult controls and how they ruin games. There’s no question that the controls in Avencast will be a huge stumbling block for many players, but they do allow you to setup simple one-click hot keys that are useful for spamming the same spell. We’ve seen better examples of this in games that use unique interfaces, such as Dance Dance Revolution. In DDR, the control system makes the game way harder than it would be otherwise - but that’s also what makes the game fun. It’s a delicate balance between using difficult controls to provide gameplay versus being difficult for no good reason. Avencast treads way too close to this line, but it does an admirable job for first title from a small developer.
All of the moves in Avencast are easily executed, so it doesn’t need the same degree of mastery as a fighting game. However, it still carries some of the same problems. There’s a short ramp-up time whenever I play after several days as I re-familiarize myself with the controls. I experienced the same thing in fighting games, and it usually took about a minute or two to get back up to full speed. Interestingly enough, I find the combos to be most useful for the rarely used spells as opposed to the common ones. This is strange, because it’s harder to remember a combo for something you don’t use as often. It works for me because the rarely used spells really aren’t that rare (every couple minutes), and it makes me feel like I’m doing something major. If I want to quickly spam a spell I can use a regular hotkey.
I’m enjoying Avencast enough that I expect to finish the game, which is something that’s becoming increasingly rare for me lately. Numerous nights of Street Fighter and Soul Calibur made it easy for me to adapt to the new control scheme. Avencast’s controls enable gameplay, while Gothic’s blocked gameplay - that’s the key difference. This first outing is far from perfect though, and there are a number of areas where the controls are clunkier than they should be. For some people, I expect Avencast’s controls will be just like Gothic’s were for me, and that’s a bad thing.
Still, I find the controls in games to be an interesting subject, as you can tell from this rambling stream-of-thought post. Maybe someday I’ll collect my thoughts on the subject in a more coherent and complete manner… but that would require a distinct lack of laziness.