It is no exaggeration to say that since 2021, every month you can see a newly exposed two-dimensional mobile game, roll theme, roll art, roll gameplay, they explore the boundaries of the category, but also continue to raise the acceptance threshold of the user base. After two years, even if these games survived the cold winter of the external environment, they still had to face the cruel competition of similar competitors.
The accumulation of time and quantity makes the two-dimensional mobile game track have a sense of tension that "mountains and rain are about to come". In this context, how to find and expand its own advantage range has become particularly critical, they or through the investment of technology and resources to form competitive barriers, squeeze the competition space of small and medium-sized teams; Or find another way, target market gaps, tap potential demand, and gain a foothold with quality-assured differentiation.
As for the latter, GameRes has found a typical representative in the list of games that have been tested in recent months, "Backlight Sneak In".
"Backlight Sneak In" is a two-dimensional mobile game developed by the studio "Empty Tower" under Paperpaper, GameRes reported on the game "Secret Experience" last year, and on April 11, the game ushered in a new round of testing, it uses the extremely rare stealth tactical gameplay in two-dimensional mobile games, and many highlights can be seen in "breakthrough" and "differentiation".
"Bold enough fat" gameplay innovation
The story of "Backlight" takes place in a world with two sides of "light" and "shadow", and players will play the captain of the thirteenth squad of the "light" world shadow explosion disaster intervention force, leading his companions to the "shadow" world to fight against the Ninth Empire and uncover the truth of the world.
This description, interspersed with many new concepts, leads to the gameplay - in the face of a large number of well-organized strong enemies, it is better for us to outwit rather than attack, and stealth tactics is one of the best choices.
GameRes has previously introduced stealth tactics games, which abandon resource collection in RTS games, refine the operation and tactical choices of combat units, and shift the game perspective from the macro-level confrontation between two armies to the asymmetric confrontation of individual soldiers/squads, the gameplay is mainly oriented to latent behavior, and the tapered vision is its prominent symbol.
In the relevant player community of "Backlight Sneak In", the discussion about gameplay is no less than art, and some knowledgeable players have expressed their praise for the pioneering spirit of paper stacking while answering the confusion of newcomers, and some players bluntly said that this is an innovation that is "bold enough to fat".
Source: TapTap
Source: TapTap
Why is it bold?
In GameRes' view, there are three main points:
- The gameplay is more niche. The originator of stealth tactics games "Allied Expendables" needs to be traced back to 1998, although there were many fans of the game at that time, but the gameplay has not lasted, and almost all new works in recent years are from Mimimi Games (the developer of the shadow tactics series). "Niche" means that the game will face a certain cognitive threshold and acceptance threshold when it is promoted.
- Content output is difficult. Stealth tactics games belong to typical games that emphasize level design, it is not like conventional mobile games, with the enemy as the core of the player's interactive experience, each level must be carefully designed, can not be simply skinned, which means that the team needs to invest a considerable amount of resources to produce sufficient and high-quality game content;
- The audience is biased. The real-time tactical gameplay is more hardcore, which is different from the original audience of Paperpaper, which may increase the cost of publicity and understanding users for manufacturers.
Judging from the two-dimensional novice game exposed in the past two years, although there are many gameplay and the number of subdivided tracks is as high as double digits, it is unchanged, or "two-dimensional + X (mature category)", or micro-innovation of existing gameplay, the team will inevitably have a reference product in their hearts when developing or players experiencing it.
Like "Backlight Sneaking In", it is not unbold to directly integrate a rare new gameplay in a mobile game into a two-dimensional game.
This is a "surprisingly winning" way of playing, and it can also be seen from the comment area that the emergence of new gameplay has aroused the curiosity of many players, which can avoid the hot and form a dislocation competition. And stealth tactics is a gameplay that focuses on content design, and there is no shortcut for latecomers to imitate.
In response to such tricks, GameRes is most worried about "innovation for innovation's sake" and "differentiation for differentiation's sake", thus ignoring some benchmarks, taking games as an example, that is, can this innovation bring valuable gaming experience to players?
Let's go into specific game scenarios to illustrate.
In the game level, the enemy is outnumbered, and the cross-distributed enemies guard the main road, and once discovered, it is possible to sound the alarm and attract a large number of enemies.
In most cases, players need to identify and calculate the enemy's field of view and movement speed, relying on the time difference to hide or seek out the opportunity.
Backlight Dive also adds some mechanics to this basic gameplay, such as the dark night reduces the visible field of view, and the light can provide the field of view, as shown in the image above, the cone map represents the enemy's detection range, and the noise map represents the enemy's visible field of view
In most cases, the enemy is guarding the main road, and under the cover of the cross-vision, the player has no room to hide.
This requires players to be good at using character characteristics, or attracting the attention of enemies, or using displacement skills to break them one by one; If you have a combat character in your squad, you can also use the strategy of frontal breakthrough.
Some maps are designed to be relatively open, and players need to plan their own path while surrounded by crowds.
Sometimes it's also necessary to make full use of the interactive elements in the environment to avoid the sight of enemies or defeat them efficiently.
It can be seen that "Backlight Sneak In" relies on stealth tactical gameplay to bring a unique game experience to mobile game players:
One is a carefully polished three-dimensional scene, the game has a vertical axis, the player can move up and down through tools or terrain, the in-game scene is both ornamental and functional, containing a large number of interactive elements to facilitate the player's actions. Players need to think about the layout of the space and examine the interactive elements that can deepen the player's memory of the scene and give a high degree of immersion.
In fact, each level in Backlight is a combination of a bunch of fun puzzles, and each puzzle provides a more or less different solution, it can be:
The diversity of path choices, the diversity of environmental interactions, the diversity of characters – this is the most distinctive feature of Backlight, each character has unique and limited features, which ultimately forms the tactical diversity of gameplay.
Developers have arranged a series of puzzles in a vast, complex map, and the player's same strategy does not work in all scenarios, and they need to constantly try new strategies, implement new ideas, and find satisfaction when the plan is executed perfectly.
In GameRes' understanding, "Backlight Sneak In" is not limited to the niche category of RTT (real-time tactical games), it is not restoring the classic gameplay on the PC side, but refining the essence of this type of game, which can be described as an open-ended strategy puzzle game.
As Mimimi Games described in the announcement, Dishonored, Hitman, XCOM series and their games have inherent commonalities, players need to carry out detailed overall planning in an open environment or rich options, so as to solve almost impossible problems, enough difficulty, enough options, focus on the overall gameplay design, the organic combination of the three brings its incomparable charm to the category.
The mobile transformation of "Backlight Sneak In" is to lower the threshold of public understanding on the basis of retaining this core interest, such as weakening immediate operations, removing corpses, shrinking maps, setting up internal save points and substitution opportunities...
Another benefit of the save mechanism is that it allows players to temporarily leave the game, which meets the fragmentation needs of mobile game players
After doing the subtraction, "Backlight Sneak In" also made a little addition, the game contains a character development module, character upgrades can increase damage, health, skill effects, etc., to increase more fault tolerance for players. The diversity of characters is a distinctive feature of "Backlight Sneak In", different characters constitute different problem-solving ideas, and GameRes can guess several stealth strategies and response scenarios from the literal description alone.
The presence of vertigo and healing provides players with more tactical possibilities
From the test preview, GameRes also saw more thinking from the development team, they started from the environment, through the terrain, weather to bring a new strategic dimension to the game -
Some characters can escape
Snow and ice can slow down the movement of friends and foes
An example of open-ended puzzle solving: how to plan actions when there are many enemies and few obstacles?
If you start along this line, the future of "Backlight Sneak In" is actually promising, and the stealth tactical gameplay transformed by the development team mobile is highly compatible with strategy puzzle games, ensuring that players can quickly get started while providing a fresh experience that conventional strategy mobile games do not have.
In order to take care of players who have not been exposed to this type of game, the development team also used a large number of levels to introduce the basic gameplay of the game, which can enter the water, interact, climb, copy shortcuts, and the enemy's alertness and connectivity are also weak. Only after the player has basically adapted to the game does the game truly show its strategic charm, and the increase in enemy types, alertness, and search range make players walk on thin ice, resulting in the fun of fighting wits with game designers.
In the long-term operation, the development team can add many variables to change the game experience, such as whether enemies can move, whether enemies can be attracted by bait, set different game goals (such as not killing any enemy), and the map can be large or small, so as to meet the different needs of casual and hardcore players.
In addition, "Backlight Sneak In" has a distinct narrative component, which can be regarded as a big complement to stealth tactical games, and it is also one of the focuses of some players.
Break through the market and then break through
In the past two years, there has been no new two-dimensional mobile game explosion in China. Until recently, after the release of a batch of high-expectation two-dimensional mobile game version numbers, players shouted "there is a new hope". For manufacturers, this is both an opportunity and a challenge, the opportunity lies in the long-term market gap accumulated a certain market demand, the challenge lies in the variety of competing products, in the case of more choices, the player's game pursuit of natural rise.
And, obviously, some conventional means of adding to the fine arts will seem stretched.
"Backlight Sneak In" to a certain extent avoids such market trends, in addition to the above gameplay innovation, its art also has unique features, from the game standing painting can be seen, its brushstrokes are lighter, the character design with a little sense of transparency, the overall style is natural and fresh, looking at a dreamy and hazy feeling, different from the two-dimensional mobile games on the market.
Inside and out, from the visual presentation on the surface to the gameplay design inside, "Backlight Sneak In" has a tendency to innovate existing concepts, and players or industries have almost the same reaction to this "innovation":
Can games still do this? In this question, curiosity, doubt, and expectation each account for three points.
In fact, haven't all the new tours exposed by Paperwork in recent years caused the same reaction: curiosity, doubt, and expectation.
"Love and Deep Space" brings the otome game to the 3D stage, breaking through the already solidified 2D vertical painting gameplay, and the three-dimensional presentation of the characters makes "Love and Deep Space" unique. How much market effect can a 3D otome mobile game cause? Players expect it to bring a whole new gaming experience.
"A Hundred Faces and a Thousand Faces", a national style open-world action game, is far from the paperwork that focused on women in the past, "is the step of paperwork too big", "is it PV fraud", similar doubts are common, but in the real machine live broadcast half a month later, they were silenced, turning into a full screen full of "expectation".
"Infinite Warmth", dress-up games can also do open world? Paperwork showed their thinking direction with a stunning PV, which used the open world as a springboard to lead dress-up games into a new era, making dress-up no longer stop at the display of beauty, giving more interaction and exploration fun.
And "Backlight Sneak In", such a niche stealth tactical gameplay, can it be eaten on mobile? Two-dimensional mobile games are so powerful, what advantages does it have? The answer to "Sneaking in Against the Light" is the same, not only to think of what others dare not think, but also to be able to refine the essence of "differentiation" and dispel doubts with solid quality.
Paperwork uses a good show, constantly refreshing the industry's impression of it, and its determination to expand its territory is obvious. One thing that has never changed is its role as a "forerunner".
Whether it is the upgrade of the warm and warm series again and again, or the wave of otome games led by "Love and Producer", Paperwork has always been ahead, and in the early days, it was ahead of its peers, which may be the understanding of users, and it is a user plate accumulated step by step; Behind it is ahead of its peers, it may be a technical exploration, is the improvement of content and emotional experience.
However, these advantages may be gradually filled in the catch-up of peers and changes in the market, and if you want to survive the rising expectations of users, you must run ahead of users and create experiences that exceed user expectations. Perhaps this is the core of Paperpaper's leadership, that is, the spiritual core of insisting on originality, continuous exploration, and seeking possibilities.
epilogue
"Backlight Sneak In" is an exploration of Paperwork in the field of two-dimensional mobile games, although the stealth tactical gameplay used is quite "bold", but under the transformation of Paper, the difficulty of getting started is relatively smooth, and retains the strategic charm of this type of gameplay, which is another embodiment of the original spirit and exploration spirit of Paper.
However, in the cross-track competition, Paperwork needs to renovate user strategies, cultivate user loyalty through multi-faceted content polishing (gameplay, characters, plot, etc.), and slowly radiate and expand the circle. From the specific game performance tested, the stealth tactical gameplay presented by "Backlight Sneak In" can indeed arouse players' desire to challenge, but whether it can be expanded to a wider user base is still a problem, and the balance between casual and hardcore is not easy.
The development of new things is always tortuous, whether it is the growth of things themselves or people's cognition, the future of "Backlight Sneaking In" also requires the accumulation of processes. (Text/Xunyang)