Trigger Happy
Isometric perspective still prospers in the huge genre of strategy gaming. In SimCity and Civilization or Command and Conquer, the player controls numerous units (people, tanks, factories and so on) within a vast playing area. Construct this world in scientific perspective, without an omniscient overview, and you’d be totally lost among the details. In such games, you don’t need to peer behind at the hidden surfaces of an arms factory, for instance, because it is a functional counter in the gameplay, defined solely by its use and potential.
Scientific perspective is not just one alternative mode of representation among others; it is not just an arbitrary artistic “convention,” but is wired into true theories of physics and biology. And its lure was irresistible to videogame designers who were searching for ever more elaborate ways to convince the player that he or she was not merely watching, but was really in that world.
Being there
People usually say that the first true “immersive”
3D game was Wolfenstein 3D, released by iD in 1992. This did indeed
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