A new trailer for action game Vanquish shot up the internet. The gameplay itself looks like a blast. Definitely excited to see more of this game. What am I not excited about?
The on-screen HUD (Heads Up Display) looks like it takes up a lot of space. Why is a good chunk of the real estate on the side of the screen mucked up with interface? Doesn't that defeat the purpose of, you know, a wide-screen television?
That's not to say HUDs are bad. Both Gears of War and Killzone 2 have HUDS; however, the weapons HUD pops up when you want to swap out guns. In Vanquish gameplay clip, the weapons HUD always seems to be on the screen.
This begs the bigger question: Why is the game's HUD even on the screen? Take something like Dead Space, which was able to convey a great deal of information without cluttering up the screen. Certainly, this could be personal taste on my part. And while the inclusion of the Heads Up might seem somewhat old fashioned on the part of the developer, it could simply be preference.
Granted, this embedded clip is not high quality and playing the game could be another story altogether, but it should give you an idea how this user interface just seems to...get in the way. Now, playing Vanquish could be something else altogether.