After seeing that the new Metro Exodus DLC was getting great reviews, I thought I'd jump back into my save game and finish the main game.
I didn't know why I stopped playing it, because I seemed to remember enjoying the game's new direction. The game loaded up
, and within seconds I realized what had happened.
Somehow this game shipped with some of the worst FPS controls I've ever used on a controller. There are two main issues:
1. Moving the viewpoint up and down has a separate sensitivity than moving it left or right. Now this is annoying in and of itself, but in this particular case they also made it so you can't smoothly look in one direction then slightly adjust in another. What happens is that as soon as you start moving the viewpoint in a slightly different direction, the previous direction you were moving in stops abruptly. For example, if you are "quickly" panning the viewpoint left then slightly push up, the speed at which the left turn was happening almost completely stops and you start looking up with almost zero leftward movement even though you are still holding left on the stick at the same place.
2. The highest sensitivity for the look stick is extremely slow. Even with the slider maxed out, you turn far too slow. If you need to quickly turn around, forget about it.
Now, how did this happen? FPS controls on a console were solved two decades ago with Halo and then perfected with Call of Duty: MW.
How was this game able to go through an entire production and QA cycle with no one pointing out that the controls were completely fucked up? Even the worst Unity asset swap games have standard working gamepad FPS controls, and this is a massive AAA endeavor. And not just any AAA game. A AAA FPS shooter that was released on all consoles.
This is like if someone came out with a new car where you had to turn the steering wheel four times as far to turn the car. There would have to be so many failures on so many levels for that car to get released.
I didn't know why I stopped playing it, because I seemed to remember enjoying the game's new direction. The game loaded up
and there was a bear bashing through a burned church
Somehow this game shipped with some of the worst FPS controls I've ever used on a controller. There are two main issues:
1. Moving the viewpoint up and down has a separate sensitivity than moving it left or right. Now this is annoying in and of itself, but in this particular case they also made it so you can't smoothly look in one direction then slightly adjust in another. What happens is that as soon as you start moving the viewpoint in a slightly different direction, the previous direction you were moving in stops abruptly. For example, if you are "quickly" panning the viewpoint left then slightly push up, the speed at which the left turn was happening almost completely stops and you start looking up with almost zero leftward movement even though you are still holding left on the stick at the same place.
2. The highest sensitivity for the look stick is extremely slow. Even with the slider maxed out, you turn far too slow. If you need to quickly turn around, forget about it.
Now, how did this happen? FPS controls on a console were solved two decades ago with Halo and then perfected with Call of Duty: MW.
How was this game able to go through an entire production and QA cycle with no one pointing out that the controls were completely fucked up? Even the worst Unity asset swap games have standard working gamepad FPS controls, and this is a massive AAA endeavor. And not just any AAA game. A AAA FPS shooter that was released on all consoles.
This is like if someone came out with a new car where you had to turn the steering wheel four times as far to turn the car. There would have to be so many failures on so many levels for that car to get released.
