Water Levels Suck

(Orignally posted on Cohost on August 5th, 2023. Side note, I did end up quitting the game shortly after this.)

I've been playing Genshin Impact since day one and if there's anything that could finally make me quit this game (or any game), it's adding extensive underwater exploration. Since it appears that is the highlight of their next big update, it got me thinking about the one universal truth in video games: water levels suck. Seriously, I challenge anyone to give me an example where going underwater made a game better.

To continue using Genshin Impact as an example, consider the mechanical strengths of the game. First, the open world exploration. I love roaming around the beautiful, well designed nations of Teyvat. This doesn't feel tedious because you have many ways you can enhance your movement. There's a wonderful feeling of freedom, something that you lose immediately when you're limited to a slow, plodding swimming mechanic as soon as you dive underwater.

Second, I feel the game's combat system is the main driving force to play the game long term. I've spent hundreds of hours farming relics, building characters, and composing teams to find the most fun and effective ways of dispatching enemies. All of that becomes meaningless underwater. The 4.0 update preview has shown a simple, bespoke combat system for underwater encounters which appears to be the same regardless of your character choice. Frankly, it looks boring.

Ultimately, this is the age old design mistake of adding new mechanics for the sake of variety without considering if this is something players actually want to do. We've seen this throughout video game history, whether it was water levels, mine cart levels, the escort mission, the stealth mission... these can be OK in small doses, but usually fail because they take you away from what you liked about the game in the first place.

I find it amusing that in the 4.0 preview stream, the Mihoyo team pays lip service to these issues. It shows we're all aware this is a problem, but for some reason developers keep trying. It's like water levels are included because it feels like they should be, that's just what you do when you make a video game. From Super Mario Bros. world 2-2 to the nation of Fontaine in the latest Genshin Impact update. They've always been around, always will be, and all of them are bad.

There are other things I'm looking forward to in the 4.0 update. The urban areas look beautiful, and the main story quests are consistently good. But the moment I'm stuck underwater, swimming in circles to look for a hidden quest item, that might be time for me to quit.

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