Before
looking at current examples let’s start by backing up through history for a
better idea of when games and story began to mesh together. Early games from
before the late 1970’s had little to no story. Games both lacked the graphics power
to display large amounts of text and the memory to store it so what could be
achieved was limited. One of the first examples of games coming into
storytelling was ‘Colossal Cave Adventure’ in 1976. A text based adventure this
was basically a book that being a game allowed for the interactive dimension, in
which the player could interact and navigate with the text based environment with
short commands such as ‘Get lamp’. (Ryan, 2014)
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| It would have been a different movie if he'd had barrels to throw |
Years later
in 1981 Nintendo produces the first game to tell a complete story via cut
scenes with the Donkey Kong arcade game (GWR, nd) but even with this, with only
one monkey and no typewriter is wasn't going to be Shakespeare. The story was
simply ‘Donkey Kong has kidnapped the princess you better go find her’ and
while it’s not much it was a start and it got the message across just as well
as cinema managed with its lady stealing giant ape except this time you got to
be the one to knock it off its tower (when you say it like that it sounds awful
but I’m sure you get what I’m saying). Also simple as it is, ‘save the princess’
has been the overall goal of almost every Mario game from then onward just
with more to the story, more locations and a spikier ape like creature to do
the kidnapping.
Moving on from these, the world seems very undecided on what
story telling in game constitutes and researching has left me somewhat more
confused than before I started. It’s all well and good to come from these points
such as Donkey Kong to where we are now but what I've found is the debate that
just ‘a game with a story’ is not the same as ‘an interactive story’. This is a
debate that actually made me question the point I was trying to make when
starting this, was I looking for good storytelling in games or games that pull
off an interactive story. This left me sat there stumped for a good long while
of what I was actually looking for. Thinking it over interaction with the game
and its story was what I originally wanted, to put the fact you have control
and freedom within the story environment to use. This swiftly opened up many
more debates surrounding it.
A story can’t be interactive if it linear. It’s not
interactive if it’s scripted. Yet games that have this in abundance are receiving
praise for their interactivity. Beyond two souls received a lot of
praise, with the official PlayStation magazine calling it ‘an essential
purchase for interactive-drama fans’ (Iwaniuk, 2013). Beyond received a lot of
love, love I get the feeling in the result of Stockholm syndrome because to me
it was essentially a film that held me hostage because it occasionally needed me
to tap a button. If that was just to make me feel like I was actually of use to
it or because the quick time events were all that stood in the way of it being
shipped as a game rather than an animated film I don’t know but while it was
different and I thought it was pretty good as a movie but having me tap a
button at scripted points to check I’m still watching is far from an
interactive player experience.
Games will always have a level of restraint, if the game
doesn't have a dance option then there isn't going to be any dancing (modding community not included), you can’t
get past the need for things to be programmed in but I don’t think that has to
be a major hurdle. Despite my view of beyond two souls I disagree that a game
can’t be linear and immersive, it’s more about how involved you get as you
follow the story. I’m not talking get from A to B and shoot anything that moves
but something that gives you a level of freedom within its story. Half-life
achieved a nice in-between of the styles of Quake and Metal gear in terms of
little story or dumping a large amount of information in your lap. Half-life
began to allow you to decide your own level of involvement and immersion, you
could be a man escaping from a secret base during an alien attack or you could
look deeper and discover a bigger story full of conspiracy. (Hodgson, 2004)
I found this again with Deus Ex: Human revolution, again you
follow an overall linear story but talking to the right people, going off the
map provides access to more information and gives the feeling off more story on
a larger scale. Basically non-linear gameplay within a linear story.
To conclude this creating immersive, interactive environments
in games doesn't seem easy, especially when the accepted view on what that is
exactly seems so confused and cloudy. There doesn't seem to be one right way to
do it and some do it better than others and to offer Beyond two souls some redemption
even if I don’t think it worked it took a shot and tried something new, which
is a good thing in an industry so uneasy about going off the beaten track.
Ryan, M. Emerson, L and Robertson B (eds) (2014) The John
Hopkins guide to digital media. Baltimore. John Hopkins University Press.
Iwaniuk, P. (2013) Beyond: Two Souls review – an essential purchase for
interactive-drama fans. (Online) PlayStation official magazine UK. Available from:
http://www.officialplaystationmagazine.co.uk/review/beyond-two-souls-review-official-playstation-magazine/
Hodgson, D. (ed) (2004)
Half-life 2: Raising the bar. Roseville CA.Prima Games.
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