Dyack: Valkyrie scene faster than load times, corpse runs

by Xav de Matos { Aug 27th 2008 at 9:45AM }

In part two of our three part exclusive interview with Denis Dyack during a studio tour of Silicon Knights the subject of much debate was pointed out in the room like a 300 ton gorilla. Whether you're on the Too Human hate train or defence camp nearly everyone agrees the unskippable Valkyrie death animation breaks the flow of the game and gets downright boring.

When asked why the animation was not skippable, Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack was quick to compare the animation with loading a save file in other titles or an MMO corpse run reiterating that the Valkyrie scene is the only real penalty for death.

"If you're getting frustrated with the Valkyrie cinema, you might be dying a little too much," Dyack joked. "The bottom line is ... If it's a sign that people love the game so much that they just want to get back in and play, could we make it skippable? Sure, it's an easy change. Is it something we ever would have anticipated since we thought it was faster than going to get your body or losing experience [which does not happen in Too Human] ... is that a change we can make in the future? Sure."

While Dyack makes a valid point, many detractors and even fans - ourselves included - agree the scene feels dated and while he told us it could change, X3F was never told that that it would.

Stay tuned for the full interview at noon today where Xav and Denis discuss Too Human.

Tags: denis-dyack, interview, silicon-knights, too-human, too-human-week

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

ericdrum @ Aug 27th 2008 10:00AM

I don't mind the animation at all actually. I don't die all that often so it tends to happen after long grinds where my hands need a rest anyway. I accept it as a penalty don't really care that it's there. Has anyone timed it? It seems like it's 15 seconds or something like that. While I love my Mass Effect, it's shorter than a ME elevator ride.

GobiWan @ Aug 27th 2008 10:01AM

I agree that the death animation is very annoying in Single Player.

I think the death animation actaully makes co-op a bit more interesting. In co-op, if your partner dies you are left on your own to battle any enemies remaining and makes it more exciting trying to survive on your own.

If your partner re-spawned instantly after death you would loose that sense of excitement while surviving the onslaught without someone backing you up.

Neuromancer @ Aug 27th 2008 10:02AM

You can't please everyone. I had a friend that hated that in the Darkness, the main character talks to you during load screens because he thought that slowed the process down.

Vozroth @ Aug 27th 2008 10:10AM

I love the game and that doesn't bother me at all. It does get to the freinds i play with though lol.

Zoot Suit Jedi @ Aug 27th 2008 10:17AM

Is the "defence camp" parading about; destroying lawn divisions and mending inter-neighbor relationships?

S/B - defenSe

superbagman @ Aug 27th 2008 10:55AM

Xav is from Canada, so I'm pretty sure in the Great White North they use some of the British spellings. Defence is one of them. Just like color/colour, neither is wrong.

Zoot Suit Jedi @ Aug 27th 2008 11:50AM

See that? The internet can be used for more than video game news and porn. Thanks for the heads up, I feel like a jackass.

Boff @ Aug 27th 2008 11:57AM

I think you'll find the British way is always right :oP

Vcize @ Aug 27th 2008 10:21AM

So it's not just something that's up there while it starts to get ready to re-load your game?

I had kind of thought it was, at which point it would become like the Mass Effect elevators for me, IE it would be moronic for people to complain about because it's better than staring at a black screen with the word "Loading" written in the middle for the same amount of time.

But, if it's not (which he alludes to), then yeah, it should probably be shortened.

mcklein @ Aug 27th 2008 10:27AM

first time was cool, but then it gets very annoying.

notwen @ Aug 27th 2008 10:31AM

leveling my berserker up to 50 kinda sucked in certain parts, but if it bothered you enough you would try to prevent it from occurring. had less issues dying when playing w/ my bio-engineer. it does kinda suck to see the same cut-scene over and over, maybe in the sequel they can toss in a few more to keep it somewhat varied

Leathersoup @ Aug 27th 2008 10:48AM

Hahaha... My name is Dennis Dyack and I'm laughing at you because you die too much in the game that the internet warned you about, but you bought to help support a struggling Canadian town.......

:P

ericdrum @ Aug 27th 2008 11:39AM

Learn to spell your own name jackass.

Nate @ Aug 27th 2008 10:51AM

I personally don't mind it. It's a small price to pay when you die to watch a short cut scene and then get right back into the game where you left off. It could be setup like other games (PSO as an example) and unless you had something or someone that would revive you, you had to quit out to the town and then it would take forever to get back into the action.

Mazrael @ Aug 27th 2008 11:05AM

We used telepipes.. took less than 15 seconds to get back in the game (I mean in the Dreamcast days...)
PSU wasnt so good.. I died and got kicked out the game.. although there was the crystals they only got you to the start of a floor so it could take 5 minutes before you were back in the action..

Mazrael @ Aug 27th 2008 10:52AM

Being in Europe, we're safe for another day.. but It always annoys me (after a time) when you die & it has to re load the entire level just to put a few things back.. it just seems a bit lazy when you want to get back into the game.. the only game I can think of that does it right is Halo, you die couple of seconds and your back playing the game.. apposed to Mass Effect that had the slo mo death for 5 seconds, loaded for 15-30 seconds, then comes the pop up :|

the demo was a bit rubbish but I'm giving it the chance anyway, although it's worring they struggled with the Unreal engine :|

Saeth @ Aug 27th 2008 11:06AM

The death animation is just plain dumb... You can't compare it to a mmo just do to sheer amount of ways to avoid death and the average length people play mmos. MMOs also have autorun and a few of them have ways to skip corpse runs entirely

I play a berserker and my death toll is nearly 200 and I have 30+ hours played.. which is 30 minutes or so of game time just on the animation. Ridiculous.

Dirty @ Aug 27th 2008 11:29AM

I use it as time to stuff my face with cheesy puffs!

Thegamingguy @ Aug 27th 2008 12:34PM

Dyack, your death scene is a complete JOKE and so is your game. I am glad I only rented it from Gamefly. IT goes back this afternoon in todays mail. Good RIDDANCE to bad RUBBISH.

bak @ Aug 27th 2008 12:34PM

If I had a way to heal myself in single player (even a crappy way like potions) it would be much more enjoyable. The death scene is only frustrating when it's the 3rd time in a row because of those cheap archer ground pounds.
I don't want the BE healing skills, just some way to give myself a little boost when I need it.
Other than this I LOVE the game...

ZEBRA NINER @ Aug 27th 2008 12:37PM

This doesn't bother me that much. It would be cool if there were a couple of different animations. It's quicker than most load screens, and you don't have to start over!

Jeff Miale @ Aug 27th 2008 12:41PM

You know, it's not the valkyrie animation that kills me about this game. My big problem came after playing it for an hour and a half, enjoying myself quite thoroughly, and then getting frozen in purgatory while the game auto-saved at the beginning of the second level. Now, I'd either need to start all over, or not play anymore. I'm waiting to see how I feel in a couple of days.

Edog @ Aug 27th 2008 12:50PM

I play Defender - Cybernetic.(solo-run 1st play)
Level 1 - One death.
Level 2 - 10 deaths.
Level 3- 2 deaths.
Level4 - TBD

When I was dying on level 2, I thought, "These load times are pissing me off and all my amour took a minus 100 point hit. SuX!! Time to trip back to AEsir and fix my amour and weapons".
It's not a game breaker for me, but I can see how it might be for someone who isn't good at dungeon crawlers.
In Silicon Knights' defense. If you don't take the time to tweak your character and think about a plan when you enter a room full of 20 elves and two big ass trolls, you are going to die. Many, many ,many times.

Larry @ Aug 27th 2008 1:27PM

If you do not like the death animation try harder not to die.

ashraam @ Aug 27th 2008 2:38PM

First off, I love this game.

But I have to say the animation would be a lot less annoying if it didn't feel like a punishment for not having a way to heal myself.

I'm playing a Defender on my first playthrough and the first few times I won a hard-fought battle I was thinking, "That was cool, I really had to pull out all the stops to make it through that one." Then I began to realize that many of those hard-fought battles would result in my dying shortly into the next battle because none of the enemies decided to randomly drop a health orb.

That's when the Valkyrie animation starts to grate on my nerves. I'm not a big fan of dying due to random chance. I'm even less a fan of having that death rubbed in my face by an unskippable death scene.

I suppose my second (of many, to be sure) play through will be the Bioengineer.