Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Supernatural

I am having a stupendously difficult time getting into Red Dead Redemption. I played the game for a good 3 hours. About one hour in I was looking forward to turning the game off, but I continued since I read so many phenomenal things about the game. I tried a second time and didn't get much farther. Every now and then I'll read something else about how fantastic the story or the music is in the game, pop it back into the PS3 and have a serious go at immersing myself in the apparently deep and rich narrative aaaaaand, fail to care once again and turn it off.

Why can't I enjoy a game that sits amongst the very highest scores on metacritic.com? And it certainly isn't the first time that this has happened to me either.

Any release of Grand Theft Auto is met with critical acclaim and after reading about the game (let's use 4 as an example), I get excited that I might finally understand why people love these games so much. Then, sure enough, a couple of hours into the game I turn it off and put it in its case, never to be taken out again. Call of Duty games illicit a similar response as well, although I enjoy the Zombie maps in Call of Duty 5 and Black Ops.

What is the one things that all of these games have in common? They're normal. I don't mean normal in the sense that they are every-day, boring or lackluster. I mean that they lack supernatural elements. Even if the stories get a bit carried away, all of these games feature completely normal people without any super powers other than excellent aim and, occasionally, a super-powered attitude. All of the guns in these games are based on guns that actually exist or existed and so are the vehicles, scenarios and characters. It's not the "normal" narrative that I have a gripe with, though. It's the gameplay.

Somehow, the fact that it's technically possible for me to acquire one of these guns in real life and go out and shoot it (at a firing range, of course) diminishes how much I will enjoy the game. But throw in some super powers like in Borderlands and give me guns that defy logic and have fire, acid and lightning flowing out of their barrels, and suddenly I'm interested. Each time a new GTA game is released I can't help but find myself wishing that the main character had super powers. The idea of such an open and free world appeals to me, and I've heard that the stories get better and better as the series advances. Grand Theft Auto 4 is probably a much better game than Infamous or Spider-man Shattered Dimensions (two more open-concept sandbox games), yet GTA4 hardly gets 3 hours of my time, whereas I play these other games to completion.

Now, I'm not saying that Infamous isn't deserving of the title "great game". I feel that it is. The way the developers made it fun to just move around the city as Cole, grinding on rails and floating through the air with lightning-powered hand-thrusters is wonderfully done. Just moving in this game feels great. But, it doesn't have a strong story or very deep characters. Because of this, games like Infamous fall of the grid for the most part when it comes to discussing great design, advances in gaming narrative or game of the year topics, whereas a game like Grand Theft Auto 4 is still talked about several years later.

As much as I crave a good story in a video game, maybe gameplay is still more important to me. Something that my partner has made fun of me often for is my urge to feel "cool" in a video game. Because of this, games like Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry or Bayonetta (all games with famously terrible stories) are big winners in my book. I derive a huge amount of satisfaction from dodging, attacking and comboing to destroy enemies and looking awesome while doing it. When I'm playing a game as a cowboy with a pistol and a horse, I don't get that feeling. Because of this, the gameplay doesn't make me want to continue the game. I don't look forward to the next big shoot-out if I can't launch some lightning bolts or fireballs over there alongside my bullets. I can't look forward to the next part of the story if I can't even look forward to the next battle or other gameplay element.

I have the same reaction to sports games. I cannot play the newest iteration of FIFA, NHL, NFL or whatever. I do, however, play and thoroughly enjoy every single Mario sports game that is released.

I know that I'm amongst the few who do not play Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty, but I'd be extremely interested in hearing if anyone else agrees with me. Do you have difficulty getting into these games? Is it for the same reason? If there are different ones, what are they?

4 comments:

  1. I was never able to get into GTA either, or sports games, for many of the same reasons. I just don't feel that awesome. Oddly enough, though, Call of Duty can be an exception. What really bothers me is when a game tries to be realistic, then I take a dozen bullets. For this reason, I can only play Call of Duty games on Veteran. It brings back the "I'm awesome" feeling if I win because of the sheer difficulty, and the feeling that I'm not inherently any better than any of the grunts trying to kill me.

    Did you play Prototype? There's a whole lot of 'awesome' moments, plus the city is amazingly crafted. The detail given to the soundscape is the best in any game I've ever played. I read a six-page interview with the guy who crafted the ambient sounds of New York, which tells you a lot about how important that part of the game is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Never tried Prototype. Its release was horribly timed, since it came out at the same time as Infamous, which was a very similar game, but better advertised. It'll no doubt fall into discount bins before long, so I'll grab it then. I saw 4 copies of Metal Gear solid 4 in the EB Games discount bin today for $15. Best discount game ever?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I've actually always had an intense hatred for the control schemes of Metal Gear games. Not sure why.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I agree. The controls in MGS games are really awkward and unintuitive. I've often given up on the games early on because of the controls, but always revisit them later, get used to them and end up thoroughly enjoying myself.

    ReplyDelete