I’m applying for jobs in the game industry for the spring, and that’s meant, among other things, giving myself a crash course in commercial games over the holiday season. I’ve also been playing Stuff People Sent Me. Here’s my recent playing list:
Batman: Arkham Asylum (complete). This is an awesomely well-designed game in every respect: gorgeous sets, smooth action, terrific voice acting. It’s also pleasingly flexible. I’m not very good at choreographing fighting, so I loved that the game let me handle a lot of the enemies via stealth and traps rather than being an endless series of exercises in thug-punching. I think it could have been even more awesome as a story had it broken a little more with the generic expectations of a AAA game (but then again, had it done so, it might not have sold a gazillion copies, so I can’t completely blame them). Fuller, spoilery discussion to follow on Homer in Silicon soon, but the short version is that the designers do a great job of integrating narrative, theme, and gameplay, but there’s too much other filler material for that story to have full impact, and the ending would have been so much better if a key decision hadn’t been stuck entirely in a cut-scene.
Pure. I fell off my ATV a lot. I have so little experience with this genre that it’s hard for me to judge comparatively, but I did admire the scenery implementation.
Lego Batman, and (for unrelated reasons) Lego Indiana Jones 2. These are fun to pick up and play (ideally with someone else) for an hour or two, but it’s hard to get really invested in them. There’s a lot of implicit humor in the Lego-ization of the traditional stories and themes, but after a while that palls. I actually found the exploration emphasis to be quite a lot like IF, except instead of examining everything interesting in a room, you have to punch everything interesting. Storywise, there’s not a lot to say: the Batman storyline is pretty weak, while the Indiana Jones games just recapitulate the episodes of the movie, and in such a bizarre and sketchy way that it’s not storytelling so much as illustration of an existing story. Only, unlike Fatale, it doesn’t really shed any particular thematic nuance on the original work.
Portal, Fable II: Replayed the openings of both of these, though I’ve finished both some time ago. The opening of Portal struck me as less confusing and more riveting the second time around.
Velvet Assassin. This has mixed reviews, and I think it deserves them. I found it difficult to the point of unplayability, but worse than that, it was extremely disturbing without earning my commitment. Batman: Arkham Asylum does a number of things to get me onboard with the violence. My attacks are non-lethal, for one thing, and for another many of the opponents are barely human. Velvet Assassin — when I got it to work at all — made me feel like I was simply sneaking around murdering people, in the most unpleasant and gratuitous way. I realize that’s kind of the idea, but even with the framing of World War II, I couldn’t get into it. I think I would have needed some more grounding in the character and situation before I could enter into her activities sympathetically. I don’t think it need be impossible to do a game about the horrific nature of war, but I’d need to have something to keep me invested.
Tales of Monkey Island episodes 1 and 2 (complete, partway through episode 3). I really enjoyed these; some of the puzzles are rather old-school for my tastes, but most work well, and the humor and feel of the original are there. I especially like the developing dynamics between Guybrush and his wife.
On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness (replayed demo I’d tried on the PC, this time for the XBox 360). I like the comicky graphical design and some of the mechanics of this, but at least on our TV screen, the writing is unreadably tiny. (I’m pretty sure that’s the fault of the TV.) If I do wind up buying the full version, it will need to be for the PC, I think. Also, the crudeness is just about on the edge of what I find funny. Still, I’d be curious to see more.
Halo: ODST (about 50%). I am not good at first-person shooters, but ODST’s focused campaign and greater emphasis on story is appealing. Also the Nathan Fillion voice acting. There’s some excellent mood work here.
Half-Life 2 (probably, I dunno, 10%). I’m still working on this, but I can see what people find appealing about the initial storytelling. I find the settings very effective, especially the genuinely European feel of the city and the big-brotherish announcements. The in-world, not-cut-scene interactions are also a real strength.
Beatles Rock Band. I really like this, and it’s definitely the game that went over best with the rest of my family. But I kind of knew that going in.
Echo Bazaar, a grind-based game that gives you additional actions each day in exchange for tweeting messages from the game. I consider Twitter-spamming an abuse of my friends, so I haven’t been using the tweet feature and have just been playing with the actions normally available. I am generally skeptical of grinding games, but this does have a lot of amusing flavor text. Jury is still out on whether I think it’s coming together into an actual storyline of any interest.
In the queue to rent next: Fallout 3, Assassin’s Creed 2, Bioshock.
Emily Short's Interactive Storytelling 
Glad to see you playing a bunch of commercial titles.
One of the reasons the storytelling in Arkham Asylum might have worked better than most games could be because people are more acquainted with the character of Batman, as compared to the protagonist of Velvet Assasin for example, so most of the tedious chracterization work would have already been done before the game has begun. Of course, this has to be coupled with quality storytelling within the game to work completely.
Arkham Asylum also dispels the common view that narration and interactivity cannot co-exist at the same time (i.e. gameplay has to stop before a cutscene can happen), but rather, shows that they can happen together, but they must not interfere with each other (via tv screens in the asylum).
While you are at this, I suggest you take a look at Quantic Dream’s Indigo Prophecy if you haven’t already, and probably their upcoming game Heavy Rain if you have a PS3. They are both masterpieces in game storytelling.
Agreed on the Twitter-spam. I only use Twitter for posts that I find useful myself.
Re. the small writing in Precipice – do you play on an HDTV? I found the same problem when trying to play XBox360 games on a standard def television, designers often take for granted that you can see the full 720p resolution that the console puts out.
I hope you enjoy Fallout 3 and Bioshock, they’re both excellent games. I wouldn’t say either was hugely innovative in story terms, but they’re both extremely atmospheric, with some really interesting characterisation.
No, no HDTV. It’s a little old CRT — I mean, I remember days when it would’ve been considered a big television, and it’s perfectly adequate for most game purposes, but it really doesn’t have the resolution for tiny text.
Luck with your future job search!
(I’m of the conviction that there ought to be more Classics geeks in the gaming industry.)
C.
I found Uncharted/2 and Dead Space to be enjoyable. Also you should definitely get an HDTV when you can!
My current favorite video game is Dragon Age: Origins. I recommend giving it a try.
Both the writing and the voice acting are terrific (it stars actors like Claudia Black / Tim Curry / Kate Mulgrew / Nolan North / Tim Russ). Even the incidental voice acting is good (my BF says that you know it’s a great game if you want to stop what you’re doing just to listen to the other members of your party chat among themselves).
What I like about it (after the writing and acting) is that it offers you choices, but you never know what the consequences of your choices are. Unlike some games (I’m looking at you: “Infamous”) where you have one obvious “good” choice and one obvious “evil” choice, you never have clear options. Similar to real life, what might be the “good” choice at the right now might have bad consequences some time in the future.
That’s on my game queue as well, just a bit further down than those mentioned.
I’m playing Dragon Age right now (although I somehow got hooked to Nethack somewhere along the way), and it does indeed seem to be very good. I am especially impressed by the hardness of the combat and the difference good tactics make–something I have not seen in an RPG since Baldur’s Gate 2, I think. (Which was to be expected, since Bioware has always stated that they wanted DA to be a game like BG2.)
But I’m not yet sold on the plot, if only because there are so many things that have been copied straight from The Witcher.
For what it’s worth, given DA’s development cycle, any copying from the Witcher was probably from the book, not from the game. I can say with some confidence (having worked on the game for a little while) that the story’s outline was complete by at least 2004, which is more or less when the Witcher was announced.
While it’s likely that Bioware did have earlier knowledge of the Witcher — since CD Projekt licensed Bioware’s Aurora engine — I’m not sure it would’ve been early enough to allow for substantial copying.
Note that I say this never having played either game, so I’m not even sure what the similarities are.
I think the more obvious copying, at least at the time I was working on DA, was from George RR Martin’s books.
Dragon Age: Origins revived the party conversation dynamics from Baldurs Gate 2. Depending on where you are and which party members are with you, they will start a conversation between themselves. Through these conversations you will find out more about your companions, their personality, preferences and dislikes. DA then ties it back into gameplay by having a gift system that lets the player find “gifts” scattered around the game, and require him/her to choose the right person to give it to. Giving it to someone who doesn’t like it increases the influence by 1 pt, while choosing the right recipient will increase influence by up to 7 pts. These influence pts can then be used to acquire special “inspired” skills in those characters.
What is also special about it is that DA removed the generic morality bar. Your actions are now judged individually by the party members you currently have in your party, so there becomes no clear right/wrong answer to everything you do in the game. Quoting the game’s lead writer David Gaider: “we don’t need to always have “evil” and “good.” We are allowed to put in options that are just logical. They can be very different. You can think there’s a good reason to do all of them. They can be a little in the gray area.”
Given your background as a classicist, Emily, I’d like to suggest some games you might want to pitch, at least conceptually, during your job search.
-Achilles vs. Hector, a recasting of the Iliad inspired by the successful game adaptation of that most excellent film Alien vs. Predator. It could perhaps be expanded into an MMORPG with gamers worldwide choosing to fight for either the Mycenaens or the Trojans.
-Grand Theft Golden Fleece, the breakneck adventures of Jason and the Argonauts. In Colchis and especially while departing, the player may take on the role of Medea in order to to be faced with several morally-charged and plot-changing choices.
-Socrates and the Sophists, a game giving its designer an opportunity to solve the NPC conversation problem once and for all in a thoroughly satisfying fashion. Who will make the best chat-bot: Gorgias, Protagoras, or Parmenides?
Hey, if you want to brainstorm on these and more, I’m available.
End of joke. Seriously, Emily, best of luck in your search. Whoever hires you will be very lucky to get you.