Randomly Generated Environments

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Its a very interesting idea, from a technical point of view, but personally, I have yet to find a game where randomized environments truly enriched the experience. I mean, take Diablo for example. Does it really matter, if the corridor makes a turn to the left or to the right? Does it add any replay value? The randomization makes the levels look so generic, they might as well be the same on every playthrough for all the difference it makes.

With a non-randomized game it's much easier to create emotional impact, pacing, proper gameplay flow, proper balancing and difficulty, all those game-designy things. And for a good gaming experience that's essential I think... but then again, I'm always interested in experimenting when it comes to games, so if you have an idea how your gameplay could actually benefit from the randomization or even need it, that would be awesome

[Obliviator27]

I think Palistov has tried randomization before. Not sure how he did on that.
But randomized environments add replay, I feel. I mostly look at Diablo II VS. D3. I could play D2 over and over again, but D3 had such little variation in it's environments that I simply got bored with it. That, coupled with gameplay mechanics that I wasn't overly fond of.

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I could play D2 over and over again, but D3 had such little variation in it's environments that I simply got bored with it.

Never played D3, but yeah, if the environments don't have much variation anyway, its even worse without randomization ^^ I just prefer hand-built levels in general I guess... (That's what I found so boring about Oblivion's visuals - most of those forests weren't built by hand but generated and it showed... still an awesome game of course )