This is the following of the analysis' second part and, in case you missed it, to the first one; I highly suggest to take a look at each part to better understand the game's progression and it's patterns.
Today we'll see Gears, Weapons and Vigors. Let's get to business!
Gears, Weapons and Vigors
Figure 5
Although this graph may seem overwhelming at first, it provides useful informations:
The first areas (until Monument Island Tower) introduce the player with two Vigors (therefore the mechanic of using them in combo), two weapons (the mechanic to swap weapon, pick one up, and the limitation of two at the time) and two gears (explaining how gears work and how they can be combined for different strategies): this is nothing less than a masked tutorial.
What happens then?
Followed by that, a spike for the gears (allowing to equip a full set, and making player choose between different ones) and new weapons for the player to try and choose from.
The further the player goes into the game, the wider his choices in gears becomes; This allows the establishment of one own’s tactic, with smaller adjustment room to suit the situation, (self-expression via playstyle), and, having 4 slots for the gears, this reduce the possibility of the paradox of choice.
What about the guns?
For the weapons, from the middle of the game most of them have been presented to the player and at this point he will most likely have chosen the ones that suits him the most, therefore just a few new ones are introduced as minor variation to other weapons already presented; following the weapon discovery there usually is a fight to allow the player to test the new found weapon.
Last but not least, the Vigors:
The Vigors curve, however, has a stable trend: one new Vigor is introduced every 2 to 3 locations in a row, then in the next 2 to 3 locations the player can test, understand and master the new Vigors he’s comfortable with, and the circle repeats. The reason not to provide all Vigors together, other than ruining their search and discovery, is to avoid overwhelming the player, with the risk of him sticking to the first 2 he understands.
Conclusion Number Seven: To avoid overwhelmingness, provide new features (Vigors) with a pattern of discovering something new, and time/space to test/understand it.
Vigors and Upgrades
Figure 6
For the first half of the locations, Vigors’ upgrades are provided upon the Vigor’s discovery, since having few options and money brings the player to choose carefully, evaluate each Vigor’s potential and the impact that an upgrade would bring.
This also gives the player the possibility to upgrade only the Vigors which upgrades are available, most likely the ones considered most useful or effective by the developers in those parts of the game.
But then something changes.
After the first half, however, upgrades are available in higher quantity, for different reasons:
To fulfill a player’s (who used a Vigor without available upgrades) wish to purchase it
To give player choice and possibility to max their Vigors (as anticipation of bigger challenges ahead)
To make the player choose wisely which Vigor to upgrade (and therefore use it as well as he can)
What's going on in the last areas?
The last locations have no new upgrades, since they are at the end of the game, and providing new options to the player in that moment would draw away the focus from the main part: the game’s finale.
