While playing Assassin’s Creed 3 recently, I entered the Frontier for the first time as Connor and decided to “borrow” a horse from a nearby house. All at once the world seemed to spread out and open up before me, and I was struck by the innate desire to veer off the beaten track and see what was out there.
Up until that point I had been jumping from one main quest to the next, wanting to see the story through as quickly as possible, but that changed when I started riding. I took my time, slowed down and set out to see what I could discover. I hunted, met new NPCs and completed side quests I would have otherwise skipped. Eventually I strayed back to the main path and finished the story, but I was glad for the distraction; it made my experience rewatching that game all the richer.
Open worlds are big. And they only get bigger. As developers try to cram them full of things to do to increase playtime and keep players coming back for more, these worlds can feel a little overwhelming. So with nothing to draw them towards these distractions, many players will choose to ignore them in favor of the main story. This is where horses come into the picture.
Remove a player’s ability to fast travel and they will be forced to make their own way across the world and, hopefully, engage with whatever they encounter along the way. However, if the distance between the targets is too great, most players will stick to the beaten track and do everything they can to minimize this travel. Give the player a horse, and suddenly the terrifying distance between them and their next target is no longer so terrifying. Suddenly the whole world opens up.
Being on horseback allows a player to move freely and quickly across a digital landscape, galloping across mighty plains and leaping over cliffs and crevasses, to reach their destination ten times faster than walking or running. This also means that anything that catches the player’s eye – the crumbling tower on the hill, the dimly lit cabin in the woods – becomes a detour they can reach and check out in seconds rather than something to ignore for now and try to find again later.
Horses create a sense of speed and freedom in the player that drives home the idea that they really can go anywhere.
The Spirit of Adventure and Animation
Despite their prevalence in video games through the generations, horses are hard to get right. But why do so many games get it wrong? Simply put, horses are weird. They are complex creatures with distinctive joints and muscles.
Horses are a massive weight supported on four shockingly slender legs. These legs have surprisingly little muscle for a creature that is so heavy and can run so fast. This may interest you : An Uncharted Avatar: The Last Airbender Game is listed on Amazon. The upper thighs contain all the muscle, while the lower half of the leg is supported and given movement by a series of incredibly tense and strong tendons. These act like rubber bands, stretching and snapping back in different ways for each of the horse’s different gaits.
Because of this, horses are difficult to animate correctly – far more so than other four-legged animals, which can be quite a pain to animate realistically. Horse legs have many joints that must bend down and spring up perfectly to allow the leg to move forward with each step and not just collapse under its own weight (Elden Ring’s Torrent, for example, would collapse into a broken heap if his legs bent like in real life). This gives horses an almost jovial spring in their step, but it is a spring that many animators choose to leave out.
Why? Because it’s a lot of work to get it right. Humans and other bipeds only need a pair of movable joints on each leg of a character model to move semi-realistically, while horses require around four per leg. This results in a lot of fancy programming and animation time that will mostly go unnoticed by all but the most horse-obsessed players. And if the majority of players are going to be looking at and interacting with the enemies and the world around them instead of focusing on the horse below them, will all the extra time spent on animation be worth it?
For most games, the answer is no. And that’s okay. Most developers don’t want to make an ultra-realistic sim, they know what part of their game players are going to focus on the most, and that’s where they’re going to spend most of their time and resources. In most games, horses are just glorified vehicles for getting from A to B.
However, those games that take the time to get it right can – like Breath of the Wild and Red Dead Redemption – create horses that are amazing to watch in motion and really capture the spirit of the wild.
Horses as More Than Just a Furry Vehicle
In games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, it can be an exciting experience to ride through the forests and moors of England, build up speed and watch the Roman ruins whiz by. But once you reach your goal and dismount, Eivor’s horse, for all intents and purposes, ceases to exist. To see also : High Tech meets humans. Yes, the model stays in the game (for a time), but now it’s just another NPC at best, and at worst just another obstacle or part of the scenery to avoid. The next time Eivor whistles a turn, a completely different model will follow their call.
But what happens when a horse is not treated as another object or NPC, but as a character? Then you get games like Red Dead Redemption 2 and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Games where horses are not only living, breathing characters in these digital worlds, but also your friends.
The ability to name and care for a horse radically changes the way a player interacts with them. In the Assassin’s Creed series, if the player’s mount is killed in a frantic chase, it doesn’t matter since the player can just jump along the rooftops until they find another one and continue the hunt as if nothing happened. If the same thing happened in Red Dead Redemption 2, the player would be devastated.
The Power of Names
It’s amazing how much of a difference a name can make. The Witcher 3’s Roach may be a buggy and hard-to-handle mess, constantly getting stuck in the wild at the least opportune moments, but when the credits roll and players walk away from Geralt’s story for the last time, they’ll remember her fondly. To see also : All winners. The bugs and glitches that plagued Roach at launch even became part of her personality, one that developers CD Project Red really embraced.
Agro, Wander’s horse in Shadow of the Colossus, on the other hand, behaves and controls wonderfully. What sets him apart is the fact that he is the player’s only companion in an empty and desolate world. Sometimes he is the only other living thing for miles around. As the player progresses and takes down the ancient colossi one by one, they come to rely on Agro. Without him, who would cross the vast plains and sun-drenched deserts, or build up enough speed to put Wander into the side of the raging Colossus? And they begin to build a bond. A bond that only helps twist the knife when the bridge collapses and Agro falls to his apparent death, and adds real emotion to the scene when he returns.
Bonding Time
But it’s choosing a horse’s name for yourself that strengthens that bond more than anything else. Likewise, having to crush a wild horse before you can claim it as your own helps further strengthen the bond.
Red Dead Redemption 2 and Breath of the Wild do this spectacularly. In both, the player can find wild horses roaming the vast open worlds, and if they are fast, quiet, or agile enough, they can jump onto the back of a stallion and attempt to break them. The better the horse, the harder the mini-game that breaks in, but also, the more the player feels they’ve earned the right to call this horse their own.
After breaking in a wild horse, players of either game can take them back to a nearby stable to name them, buy a saddle, and properly claim the horse as theirs. Both games require you to deepen that initial bond by searching and riding together, but Red Dead goes one step further with the ability (or rather the necessity) to care for your horse. Taking the time to care for this virtual animal – brushing dirt from its fur and removing the saddle after returning to camp after a long day on the trail, patting its flanks and praising it when it does well, feeding it and holding it happy – not only raises the in-game bonding meter, but also raises the player’s real-life bonding level.
Horses in Red Dead Redemption are not only abandoned when the objective destination is reached, they are lovingly tied to a hanging post, brushed and patted before the player goes to trigger the next mission. And when trouble starts, there’s no one else they’d rather have by their side to get them out of it.
But as exciting as it can be to go headlong into battle on a horse you’ve tamed yourself, villain in a spectacular set piece, it can also really raise the stakes. A stray bullet can hit you, yes, but that’s ok, you can just restart at the checkpoint, but one can also hit your horse. When tragedy strikes a horse you’ve trained and called your own, it suddenly becomes much more than a mesh of polygons and pixels. In this way, the death of a horse can have as much or even more impact than the death of a main character (I will never forget you, Athena, RIP your wonderful horse).
So the next time you ride a horse in a video game, take a moment to thank the developers for all the effort and hard work they put into getting it there. Stop thinking of your horse as a mode of transportation and start thinking of it as your companion on the long and winding road. And let your sense of adventure take you to places you never knew existed.
That said, boys and non-binary people are always welcome to play Star Stable Online. We make sure to have a variety of clothes, decorations and hairstyles to give players a chance to customize their character to look more like themselves or who they want to be.
Is horse riding the hardest sport?
Equestrian is in the Olympics and it has officially been ranked as the hardest sport in the Olympics.
Is horse riding more difficult than gymnastics? Our experience is that Gymnastics is a much more physically demanding sport and requires a better natural athlete. Horse riding is very difficult and yes, the best riders are great athletes, but the true athlete in the equestrian world is the horse.
Why is horseback riding a hard sport?
It requires a high level of fitness to perform at the top of the sport. Most professional riders ride several horses a day, and many others keep up with their cardio and weight training when they are not riding.
Is horseback riding an extreme sport?
Horse riding is the most dangerous sport, study warns.
What is the best horse game 2022?
The best horse games
- Star Stable.
- The Sims 3: Pets.
- Equestrian Club Championship.
- Red Dead Redemption 2.
- Stories about horse riding.
- Horse Haven World Adventures.
- My horse and me 2.
- Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord.
What is the number 1 horse game in the world? 1. Star Stable (PC, Mac) Star Stable is one of the most popular online horse games on the internet. This Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) game has an open world where users from all over the world can interact and play together.
Are there any good horse games for PC?
The 7 best horse PC games of 2021 go to Star Stable, Sims 3 Pets, Horse Riding Tales, Riding Club Championship, My Riding Stable: A Life With Horses and Horse Isle 3 and Rival Stars Horse Racing.
Can you breed in equestrian the game?
Players can mix breeds freely, and if they do, the foal will inherit its physical appearance from both parents.
How do you unlock dressage in equestrian? You must complete all courses in the current level with a Clear Round (0 penalties). The tracks to the next level will then be unlocked.
Can you sell horses in equestrian the game?
Do horses age in equestrian the game?
When I first wrote about Equestrian on The Mane Quest, a commenter asked if horses would age and die in the game: Molly confirms that they will age, elaborating: “I’m actually not sure if they’ll eventually die or just retire .
Can you breed horses in Equestriad?
Fans of horse riding will also be thrilled with the customization features that allow players to create unique elements for their riding duo, including clothing styles, horse face markings, patterns and breed.
Can you sell horses on equestrian the game?
Older horses in equestrian sport? When I first wrote about Equestrian on The Mane Quest, a commenter asked if horses would age and die in the game: Molly confirms that they will age, elaborating: “I’m actually not sure if they’ll eventually die or just retire .
How do I sell my horse?
Some of the most popular classifieds sites for selling your horse include EquineNow, Dream Horse, and Equine.com. Don’t be afraid to use more than one site; In fact, more listings will likely generate more leads.
