Kinect and the RPG – Happy Together?

By
Lawrence
 – November 9, 2010Posted in: Role Playing Games, RPG Feature Stories
Mock-up of a Kinect RPG

Don't get excited -- this Kinect-controlled dungeon crawler does not exist ... yet.

Like many gamers, I spent a good part of the past few days playing with Kinect, Microsoft’s new motion control accessory for the Xbox 360.  What does this casual-friendly device have to do with a blog focused on role playing games (one of the least casual genres of video games)?

Hopefully, a lot.

I won’t pretend to understand the tech – basically, Kinect uses a combination of camera, infrared projector, and multi-array microphone technology to read and track a user’s skeletal structure, recognize faces, and respond to voice commands, all in real time, without any physical controller.  The gameplay applications of this device are demonstrated to a limited extent by Kinect’s launch library – for example, Dance Central can evaluate whether you are properly executing dance moves, and Kinect Adventures (which comes bundled with the device) lets you control all of the limbs (and head) of your on-screen avatar by moving your real-life limbs and head – but overall, the gameplay currently available does not take full advantage of Kinect’s capabilities.

Kinect

Kinect -- Will it deliver a new level of immersion in the RPG genre ... or just more bowling?

In particular, the potential for an incredibly immersive RPG experience seems glaringly obvious to me.  So obvious that I would be surprised if one or more developers were not already hard at work creating one.

Here is the game that I hope someone is making – a Kinect-controlled dungeon crawler in the vein of Ultima Underworld.  The game would be played from a first person perspective, with the player-character’s hands visible on screen.  To look around, you move your head.  To walk or run, you walk or run in place.  (To make this less physically taxing, there might be optional voice commands to “walk,” “run,” “stop,” etc.)  You jump to jump.  You pantomime climbing to climb.  You make a motion like you are pulling a sword from an imaginary scabbard at your hip, and your character draws a sword in-game.  Move your arms to wield your sword and shield.  Use a combination of hand motions and voice commands to cast spells.  To access your inventory, reach for your imaginary backpack.  You get the idea.

There would be limitations and compromises – for example, creating a game with the scale of Fallout: New Vegas with gesture controls would probably be a disaster.  I imagine the game would require a slower pace than most of today’s RPGs, with an emphasis on exploration instead of fighting.  To make combat manageable, the game would only throw one or two enemies at you at a time.  Also, to play to the strengths of Kinect, a small and contained environment, with lots of objects that you can manipulate, would be ideal – just as it was in Ultima Underworld when that game reached new levels of immersion with the technology of the early 1990s.

Will my imaginary game become a reality?  Or will Kinect developers take the lazy route and flood the market with minigame collections that could just as easily have been made for the Nintendo Wii?  We will have to wait and see.  But don’t write off Microsoft’s “controller-free gaming and entertainment experience” as a casuals-only toy.

Mark my words – Kinect holds a lot more promise for our favorite genre than the Wii (or Sony’s Move) ever did.

Kinect is available as a stand-alone accessory and as part of a 250GB Xbox 360 Bundle or a 4GB Xbox 360 Bundle.

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