Linear gameplay. Sometimes it can mean an excruciatingly simple and trudging story that you can do little to make fun. Other times, it can be one of the most thrilling experiences you can have playing any video game at all. In recent times, some of the best games to be released were largely linear experiences. I speak of course of titles such as Modern Warfare 2 and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, games that were not focused on giving you a whole-wide world to trudge through and wreak havoc upon, but rather very engaging set pieces with simple goals. I, for one, enjoyed the campaign of Modern Warfare 2 immensely. If I described it to someone, I would call it "the best summer blockbuster you'll never see in a theater," and I think that held true for one reason: Linear gameplay.

Linear gameplay, that is to say, gameplay that nudges you along in the right direction with no allowance of real exploration, can be a real benefit for game developers because they can concentrate on immersing the player in the story they crafted. One of my favorite parts in the MW2 campaign was the first portion of the mission in Brazil where you had to find the right-hand man of a target you were after, from that opening where you were sitting in the car, to pursuing the contact, and then to shooting him in the leg. Not a complicated gameplay segment at all, but very engaging and definitely thrilling. Why? Because YOU were there and YOU had to shoot that guy in the leg.

Uncharted 2 is no different in the way that. Yeah, you're just shooting a bunch of guys, jumping over stuff, and getting to an area that has something you need, but how it's presented made a world of difference. Who can forget having a shootout in a collapsing building while there was a helicopter outside causing the collapse in the first place? When the player knows what he needs to do and there's a path mostly apparent to him, he can concentrate on all the things going on around him, like a helicopter shooting at him and destroying the building beneath his feet.

However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, non-linear games like GTA4 and Fallout 3, while immersive in the way that they will put you smack dab into a living, breathing world where they can do whatever they please with no real guidance other than a story they can progress when they want to. Open world gameplay itself is a great kind of experience, but when it comes to immersion, it goes about it in a very different way. Rather than dazzling you with story and set pieces, the game actively shows you the kind of impact the player has on the world. It can be in the form of saving lives from an undetonated nuclear bomb or blowing them all up or simply being pursued by police because you punched too many civilians, the player has an impact on the world.

It could be said that a gameplay type is made out of necessity, in the way that if you have an open world game, a developer may not be able to dedicate much time on wowing you with scripted events or detailed side quests. As much as I would love to see a GTA look as good as Modern Warfare 2, that just isn't going to happen in this console cycle, unfortunately. It is something to wonder of the crafting of the world can just be as important as the gameplay itself, and after watching the trailer for Red Dead Redemption, developers are slowly getting to that sweet spot of immersion without having to take a linear versus non-linear approach.

There is one game that I will say is a good hybrid and you've probably already played it: Mass Effect. From the moment you start playing and until you finally put the controller down for the last time, your mission was clear, to save the galaxy. While playing ME, the player is given choices on how they want to go about accomplishing that mission. Freedom of choice for the player is an interesting take on the idea of non-linearity, but throws it into a game that is largely linear. ME was definitely a pinnacle of storytelling for me for this reason and the sequel will no doubt raise that bar in many aspects, including the "conversation interruption" where you can cut to the chase and push people out windows or maybe shoot them. And who doesn't enjoy doing that?

What are your thoughts?