how do i define an action in action games? well, i guess i could catalog them by different ways players pressing the keys, buttons. because there are different levels of "actions" that players could perform. below are the results of my observation of different games.
1. first kind of actions are performed by specified key or combination of keys. and it is one command, one action. this is the most basic design. from the beginning of video games, when the first few pixels jumped over a pit made of a few pixels, like in Pitfall. that jump command is a simple forward and jump combination. player has total control of when will that action happen. the command won't change with different situation. if the command was to ask a left punch animation to show up, the left punch animation will show up. it won't change to right punch. the height and timing won't change. the actions would also be the movements of mouse, like in mount and blade.
2. second kind of actions is more like a contextual action. it will react differently as situation changes. this kind of actions usually uses very limited key combinations. the good example is street fighter's throw. forward + punch could be just punch, or it could be a throw. what players have to judge was the distance. if the distance was too close, you can't decide if you want to punch or not. the decision is made by the program, to throw. however, the commands are still predictable. usually, the criteria of different contexts are understood easily. players could actually have the control over the situation to trigger the desired alternative commands with the same key or key combination. in the assassin's creed, the criteria of alternative commands seemed to be timing, sometimes with distance as well, i guess.
3. third kind of actions are reactions. this usually requires minimal button. and ironically, there's not much actions people could par take. what people could do was to wait for game characters or online human opponents to act, then players pressed the reaction button in timely manner. it could simply, and most likely be a key, or in some cases a combination of keys. good example of multi-buttons reaction is the deflect actions in soul calibur series. this is a reaction, however, the participation on the players' part was so great. i will have to include this here!
4. fourth kind of actions are called quicktime events. the prime example is God of War. this kind of action is totally contextual. the original command of keys are usually meaningless in the face of special events. players watched carefully the "new" commands on the screen, or monitor, trying to time every button right. if the players timed it correctly, the whole new set of "actions" sprung up. it is usually one "new" command followed with one "new" epic animation. the whole event will need to perform a sequence of commands, which means if one chain was missed, the grand finale won't show. designers have a total freedom in adding whatever they want. players usually have eye candies and awesome painful screaming as rewards.
these are the 4 basic kinds of actions. when the video games keep evolving, game designers wanted to put more actions in it. however, the more stuff they wished to put in, the complicated control inhibited this wish, or even they could not find enough input to accommodate their ambitions. so contextual input appeared, then quicktime event was born as well. with reaction button born during the whole messy thing.
i love direct control, the first kind of actions. it actually put you in touch with the actions. contextual actions and reaction, the second and third type of actions if implemented correctly, would be awesome as well. i, personally hated quicktime event. because it put me out of actions. the new animations was grand, but i did not feel like i am performing them. however, i believe if it's designed correctly, it could give some satisfactions out of it. the only thing that came even close to satisfaction was from Prince of Persia Warrior within. there were huge giant gorillas you need to fight. when you beat him in certain degree, he'd kneel down. that's the queue for you to climb him to his head. this may qualify as a contextual action, however, it's not a situation player could constantly create. it's more like when Krato beating hydra to certain degree, then he started his quicktime event. cataloging it is just a personal feeling...
when i looked at assassin's creed, i could see contextual and reaction actions everywhere. the direct action was kept at minimal. and you could see it from its fighting mechanics. there's not much you could do to attack, however, you beat most of the enemies with reactions. the team that made contextual action in terms of platforming so grand in prince of persia sands of time, proved themselves with assassin's creed again with contextual fighting and reactions. it goes the same with Batman Asylum.
i could see during the future that we will lose most of direct actions in Third Person Action games. instead, people favored eye candies, which is not just measured by pixels now, but also by animations. the main reason behind this trend is because complicated control is not preferred. it's sad, considering shooting games both in FPS and TPS are actually direct actions...
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