Quite frankly, AoW2's story is much weaker than AoW1. There's a couple reasons for it, not just the whole Merlin/Amnesiac thingie.
1. Ray had an insane year (lost job, moved, had kid) so I wasn't able to give it as much attention as it deserved, and much to my disappointment (and yours) it showed. As a result I didn't do much homework on fleshing out an official timeline, nor did I write any detailed story snippets above that which was found in the game, some of those elements really tied AoW together, where as in AoW2 I didn't have the time for it.
2. The Campaign structure was the last piece of the game to be completed. When we started AoW2, there were a number of features and possibilities that I thought we had in place for the campaign, which we really didn't, because there was so much game, so little time. In fact when I initially wrote the story, I didn't realize that Merlin would forget all his spells as he jumped from sphere to sphere. I was somewhat disappointed with that, but at the time and considering the schedule and the need to balance the maps, etc, it wasn't something we could change without great difficulty and time which we didn't have.
If I had know that he was an amnesiac, I could have eluded to him placing his mastery of each magic sphere into a central object or something, like a key to open the path to the "Cosmic" sphere. I could've integrated that fact more into the story than I did. It wouldn't have felt like such a rip off. Had the campaign structure been better defined, we could've better reflected that change in the cutscenes as well.
AOW2 STORY SPOILER:
Of course Merlin, in the story, was an amnesiac... in that he couldn't even remember he was dead! ;-)
END SPOILER
3. The story had to be done much earlier in the development cycle so it could be translated, voice overs recorded, cutscenes had to be blocked, and all of it correlated prior to many of the game mechanics being completed. It ties into point #2. But because it was more frontloaded than I would've liked I didn't have the freedom to tweak it to death.
4. We let the mapmakers do whatever they wanted for the maps. The story was done prior to most maps, or there were placeholders in there, and if they were complete, I seldom went back and looked at them, to see how they played out. A lot of this is a matter of practicality, I played the first half of the campaign over a dozen times with each build, and so I knew that part pretty well, but I couldn't play the final maps.
We also had a major leap in AI near the end, which made ALL the campaign maps that much more difficult than they were when they were initially designed, which made the campaign hell to play through... at least in some cases. Quite honestly, I never played through all the maps, because by the time I got the last rev, I was sick of it, and would've had to start over again, something I'd done 15 times prior.
***
IMO story is just another tool for a game. It serves the same purpose as 3D graphics, or an interface, or any feature. Not all games require 3D, or keyboard controls, but they add to the game's flexibility, and what it offers. Story can be relevant to a game, much like boobs can be relevant to Tomb Raider. It's not the main feature but if it didn't have it, the game would be flat... (pun intended)Story serves to immerse players into the game, remind them they're not just sitting in front of a computer wasting their time, but tries to trick them into believing that they're doing it for a vital reason. The luscious Julia is in dire straits, and only ***YOU*** can save this luscious elf woman from imminent destruction. You would be a heartless monster if you ignored her undulating pleas for help. Imagine Julia pleading with you in seductive tones, "Oh please, prepubescent boy or hormonal teenager, the whole universe hinges upon your ability to click the mouse!"
IN AoW:SM we faced many of the same challenges we did with AoW2. I was more prepared to deal with them, and took more time with the map makers to make sure the events tied better to the storyline. One of the things we did with these maps, however, was to just have fun with them. We decided to lighten up some of the events, really pouring a lot of personality into some of it. It's not perfect, and some of it will probably distract from the overall game, but at times it's refreshing to be reminded it's just a game... As in AoW2 I have NOT written a timeline. It's probably because I'm lazy. That looked easy to do, but it was a major pain...
But you be the judge. Play through the first couple campaign maps and see what you think. We don't have the Amnesiac problem because you don't play a single wizard per string of maps. Of course this has its own problems... some of which I'm sure you'll point out, and I'll say, "Err... we MEANT it to be that way, you see... there's this part of the story which I haven't yet told you!"
The story in AoW2 (how I wanted to tell it) is quite good, it's a shame I didn't have the optimal vehicle to tell it, but then, it wasn't about the story, as much as it was about making a cool game.
--Ray
[This message has been edited by rayb AoW (edited 06-18-2003 @ 02:29 PM).]