It has become abundantly clear that NPCs in AAA games do not keep quiet. There is an argument to be made about how realistic NPC dialogue is in games, where they would likely be occupying silences with some sort of conversation or random comment. It makes sense that these characters would be sharing these comments, and a genuine mockup of a realistic conversation is impossible to convey perfectly because players could choose to stand idly in one spot for a long time. However, these comments often goad the player along in a way that is intrusive to the experience.
Games like Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy, God of War Ragnarok, and Horizon Forbidden West do this constantly, and The Callisto Protocol is the latest culprit of this behavior. God of War Ragnarok’s NPCs abruptly solving puzzles for the player gained more traction in terms of annoyance, but it is also guilty of having NPCs hurry the player along. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy would not even let players search down corridors without an NPC asking why they would look there for anything, which calls into question why loot or collectibles would even be put into these games.
AAA Games Need to Let Players Enjoy Idle Exploration
The Callisto Protocol is the latest game to have this sort of dialogue and as such it might resonate more with players who were disturbed by it. The most annoying instance of this interpolative NPC dialogue is when players are indulging in a game’s scenery and trying to enjoy the developers’ work, but the NPC with them will not stop prodding them to continue onward.
This exploration could be as minor as looking around a single room to enjoy the asset work that environmental artists put into it. In The Callisto Protocol’s first playable moments, Max will shout at Jacob to move along if players spend more than a few seconds standing still or perusing around in each character’s bed chambers looking for audio logs.
Later, Elias will continuously shout at Jacob to come talk to him at his cell until players interact with him. Even if there is nothing to look for in the environment, this is a terribly irritating way to get the player’s attention and detracts from The Callisto Protocol’s overall detail and beauty when players are told to only focus on the NPC. The Callisto Protocol features few NPC characters, but that only makes this nuisance stand out more plainly.
Of course, NPCs may be annoying based on their own merit. But they should not interfere directly with how players would like to approach idle exploration, especially if they are in the middle of a monotonous escort quest.
Bridging the Gap Between Players and NPCs is Unenviable
AAA game developers need NPCs to be informative enough that players are not completely abandoned to their own wits, because that would not be immersive. For example, it would not make sense narratively if God of War Ragnarok’s Kratos was scratching his head over an obtuse puzzle and Freya offered no aid on her end.
The gap that needs to be met here, then, is how soon after encountering a puzzle should the NPC offer their guidance. Otherwise, some games have implemented an input prompt that appears over the NPC’s head after a period of time, letting players decide precisely when they would like to solicit help from their companion.
In terms of NPCs goading players to move along a game’s critical path, it becomes trickier to find a way to bridge that dissonance. Players could know full-well where they need to go to progress the narrative and be looking around elsewhere for fun, but there will also be players who could be genuinely lost and unable to find the trigger to progress. The only reliable solution for both instances is if NPCs do eventually lead the way, but there has to be enough time before they shout to the player in order to let them find the way themselves.
Then, after an NPC shouts where to go, there needs to be enough time before they shout out again so that players are not bombarded with the same alert notification. Other AAA games are sure to include NPCs like these in the future, but The Callisto Protocol has hopefully demonstrated how detrimental that can be to the player’s experience.
The Callisto Protocol is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
