In this installment, we’re going to talk about fire. Previous installments are:
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| The USK is not a big fan of people being on fire while still alive. |
Note that I am talking about suffering specifically “caused by the player.” For the most part, games can do whatever they want in cutscenes because it isn’t interactive. But the moment that the player can cause something to happen, the player becomes an active participant and as such, it requires attention.
This was the case with our phosphorous grenades. In the U.S. version of “SiN Episodes,” if the damage from a grenade was not enough to instantly kill an enemy, but the grenade still did damage to an enemy, the enemy would catch on fire, flail around, scream for help, and finally die after charbroiling their innards. A player could shoot the enemy who was on fire and kill him while he took damage from the flames to “end their suffering,” but the issue before us from the ratings board was that the player started their suffering to begin with.
For this one, our decision was fairly simple. If someone catches on fire, rather than let them suffer, we kill them immediately rather than let them burn out. The net effect was a minor decrease in the average combat length stat for USK players (under one second on average).
Personally, I like the change, if for no other reason than it gets the guys out of the way faster so I can dispatch the guys behind them.
Related Links:
· SiN Episodes game section
· SiN Episodes forum
· Official SiN Episodes website
