940 Choosing Immediate Or Long-Term Benefits

In the first generation of God of War games, there’s a mechanic that I’ve always found interesting where the player can choose between immediate or long-term benefits. It’s done on a micro scale, when the player finds and interacts with orbs that are cycling between three colors, representing a health fill-up, magic fill-up, or upgrade orbs. The first two are immediate benefit, helping the player stay alive or complete a challenge or boss, while the other allows the player to permanently unlock and upgrade Kratos’ abilities.

Because it’s found moderately often, the choice slowly becomes less obvious, which makes for an interesting decision/sacrifice each time the player encounters them.

I’d love to see more systems like this (although, not to be confused with the player-hostile systems in many mobile F2P design systems).

[ Today I Was Playing: Faeria ]

#game-design-topic