In the earlier blog post about how the save game mechanic and influences the immersion and the gameplay, we had dissected various save game implementations.
If we are looking at the Resident Evil implementation of saving and loading games, we will realize that the development team found a very interesting way of incorporating the save game mechanic in 1996 for Playstation and Windows. As opposed to allowing saving the game in any possible situation at any possible location within the game, the development team and the designers restricted saving. In Resident Evil, there are rooms that have typewriters equipped that the actor can approach and use to engage in saving game progress. Saving therefore, is limited to specific locations that the player can visit and revisit a number of times throughout the game – and needs to visit strategically in between Exploring the area or progressing with the story.
The game designers further restricted saving, to avoid micro saving or save scumming. In order to approach a typewriter for saving, the player had to find an ink ribbon as an item in the game. Only if you found an ink ribbon and you have it in your inventory, you could use the typewriter and save your game. The ink ribbons are consumed and every ink ribbon can be used once. They are scattered across the game world, some easier to find, some more difficult to find. It has its own entry in the Resident Evil wiki: Ink Ribbon | Resident Evil Wiki | Fandom and on Evil Resource: Ink Ribbon (Resident Evil Remake) | Evil Resource
For your gameplay strategy in Resident Evil, there are a number of considerations that need to be made, that this mechanic directly drives: First you need to make sure that you have an ink ribbon in your inventory and make it a priority in your exploration to look for and acquire additional ink ribbons. Second, you need to consider whether or not you want to consume that ink ribbon, if now is the right time between explorations and making progress, or if you continue playing before you consume it – especially if you run low on that inventory.
The designers force you to be more strategic in your explorations, but at the same time be also more strategic in how and when you save the game and how you balance safety of falling back to an earlier state versus how much risk you want to assume in taking a few additional steps before saving again.
This not only prevents safe scumming, but also adds to the survival horror atmosphere that the game is building and keeping to immerse the player into this frightening, dangerous and horrible world that the player Is exposed to. It adds to the atmosphere that transports the feeling of everyone and everything is trying to kill you. By removing the safety net of casual saving, and raising the stakes in more difficult or complex situations. The immersion is also fueled by the fact that saving the game is tied to a place and an object that is found within the game. The typewriters fit neatly into the game world and do not result in the player losing their sense of place and flow, and disrupting the immersion.
Also, this save game mechanic is also tight to the difficulty level that the player chose at the beginning of the game. The harder the difficulty level. The fewer ink ribbons can be found in the game world, resulting in fewer possible Safe games, Forcing the player to take more Risks and longer gameplay stretches before saving again.
I find this a very well designed and positive example of how the gameplay mechanic can add to the overall game experience and support the immersion of the player into the game world, and actively shape and steer how the player interacts with the game world strategically. Especially in the survival horror genre, limiting the perceived safety nets, supports the overall creation and ambience. They weren’t without criticism though – many players hated them, because they robbed players from their flexibility of saving the game whenever and continuing at a later stage. It’s a tradeoff.
FRICKELSOFT 