Five ways to think whilst you kill things
I’ve re-written this opening paragraph to sound less elitist. It’s a loose statement, but generally I find that the majority of gamers aren’t going to see “There Will Be Blood” over “Transformers 2”. There have been some great moments intellectually, thought-provoking, and emotionally in some games that have been really overlooked because game audiences are never really looking for them (You can hear it when a nerd is starting to sound more and more primitive over the headset across the duration of a deathmatch.) I however found these moments to be utter highlights of the games they featured in. Some of these moments are unintentional but still resonated with me, so here is a patronizing list of games that got smart.
Manhunt - Accepting rewards for murder
Manhunt is one of the most extremely disputed titles as to whether it’s shallow and sick or daring and deep. Those who believe the latter usually go off on one about how it’s a conscious comment on the state of violence in the world today, when the truth is that the team at Rockstar North sat down at the pub and discussed how they wanted to piss off the Daily Mail.
Now, consciously designed this way or not, there is something ironic and ingenious about the central mechanic in the game. In dark alleys, a ‘director’ eggs you on through an earpiece to brutally kill thugs against your will. He is filming you through CCTV to sell snuff films and wants the sickest kills for higher ratings. You must hold the ‘kill’ button when behind your victims to build up the extremity of the kill knowing you’re fucked if they turn around. So in this gamble you naturally try to get away with holding the button as long as possible in order to achieve the goriest kill and as a result a greater score.
The superbly crafted atmosphere (thanks largely to sound and music) makes this risk feel terrifyingly genuine, and when you achieve the top kill there is an undeniable feeling of relief and mammoth sense of accomplishment. This is when you realise that you have just thoroughly enjoyed horrific murder, firmly identifying you with your character (who happens to be a convict). The ‘director’ getting off in your ear may be barking at you to kill, but it’s your decision how disgusting you make it, and the design seduces players into fulfilling the desires of the director to unnecessary extremes. It’s only as violent as you are, and that is the unique beauty of it.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare - Passing the torch
Act i
Straight out of the gate the big moustache named Price ridicules your introduction with “what kind of name is ‘Soap’ anyway?” the name ‘Soap’ itself neatly captures your rookie status, and you certainly feel a rookie when entering the unwelcoming hanger where all the big-balls look down at you. And since ‘Price’ is in charge of things and is obviously the bee’s knees, there is this immediate underlying theme setup of “Love me Daddy!” You’re also stripped of a voice as is conventional these days, but here it works well to actually make you feel stripped of anything useful to say as a novice. This puts the pieces in place for the character development that follows.
Act ii
1000 dead terrorists later as you start fitting in with Price and his team you get a little insight into Price’s history via a flashback mission where you are now playing as Price 10 years earlier. Now you as Price are making the same fuckups 10 years ago as Soap in the present day. In the flashback mission, Price has a superior figure to follow, again mirroring the present day relationship between Soap the rookie and Price the pro. After a tension-filled sneaking mission where Price (the player) receives cool and calm mentoring throughout, wide dynamic range is exploited for one of the best getaway levels ever scripted. As the energy rises you shoot a helicopter out of the sky which crushes your mentor’s legs on crash landing. Now it is time for Price to carry his mentor and the responsibility of saving him in fantastic contrast to the sneaking mission prior. The mission ends with a dramatic sequence where Price (you) holds off an army as you wait for pickup. And that day, Price became a man. It’s a great detour from the main story thread to increase your sympathy with Price when you are playing as Soap and establishes the concept that all pros were once rookies like Soap before their mentors trained them up, and in this case the disciple actually uses his lessons to save his teacher.
Act iii
After more shooting in the present day, shit hits the fan and your team ends up bloody all over the road. The bad guy emerges, shooting your buddies in the head as the world moves in slow motion through your eyes as Soap (this is quite emotional after the time you’ve spent serving under these characters). The bad guy approaches you with his arm missing after Price (you) shot it off in the flashback mission but didn’t finish the job. You look over to Price, your vision blurry and only the sound of your own heartbeat. Without words, ‘Price’ slides you over a pistol: a symbol that the baton has now been passed down to you as it was to Price from his mentor in the flashback. You take the shot and kill the bad guy, saving the day. It’s a powerful moment, and marks the conclusion of the ongoing theme of learning from your predecessors, which every shooter currently on the market has done, learning from this game. The sequel fires up and your mentor is now Soap, continuing the theme. No one noticed though, there was too much to kill.
The weaker sequel is also a lot less subtle when it comes to artistic depth as evident in the not-so-clever level where you gun down hundreds of civilians at an airport as some sort of comment on shooter games, before going online and playing deathmatch. And the story gets ridiculous.
Grand Theft Auto 4 - Moral conflicts
GTA4 is the centrepiece of video game controversy for it’s apparent lack of morals. It was to my surprise, therefore, when I was faced with great moral conflict in a way no other game has come close to. Those side missions where you take characters who phone you bowling, to strip clubs, or to get drunk aren’t as redundant as most critics made them out to be. These encounters allowed your new friends to reveal character the more they trusted you on these dates. (don’t panic anti-game story dooshes, they’re side missions.). Then came a mission where two characters (who were best friends) both asked me to kill the other one. One was rich but a dick, the other poor and likable enough but depressed on account of his life going tits up, which supports the greedy idea that you should put him out of his misery and take the money offered by the rich guy. I mean who cares about character when money will buy me guns right? That’s the conclusion I came to after an hour of (no word of a lie) clearing my head by walking through the games central park. This sounds pathetic but this world has been crafted to do just that. I got lost in Liberty city the way no other game has grasped me. I regretted taking the money and felt utterly guilty as the poor guy stood at the barrel of my gun and told me how he trusted me before I blew him away, and the rich guy couldn’t talk to me after that because he had mixed feelings about his old friend he just asked me to kill. Money didn’t mean that much to me anymore so I restarted an earlier save and never looked back.
There are various thought-provoking moments in the missions such as when you hear your cousin has gone missing and rather than becoming a mission that you can choose to go to when you like, it becomes mandatory right there and then regardless of whether you were ready to quit and save or not because that is how your character feels. It’s not a job for him to take anymore, it’s a desire. It's a simple and effective way of allowing you to identify with your character, who throughout the following fire fight passionately yells "You will not take my cousin" and it's quite effective. Even the multiple choice ending is designed in a way that guarantees that whichever character you loved the most will die. We accept that film and TV can move us this way, so now it’s time to get used to games doing it too, because they have the potential to be much better at it.
Metal Gear Solid 4 - Nostalgia is a powerful thing
Many people (myself included) have fond memories of Metal Gear Solid (1999) because it came across as a greater and more mature experience next to other mere "games". And the memories are as concrete as the world seemed with its consistent illusion that this was a place you fought within rather than levels you fought through thanks to the character and back-story given to the surroundings, allowing it to feel like an inhabited place with logical construction that went beyond being a mere arena to stop the player from falling off the edge of the world
Now Metal Gear Solid 4 starts on a sorrow note. In the most subtle of ways, something feels odd for the first time in the series. 'X' button advances through menus whilst 'circle' button is back as is tradition for western games, but this is the opposite to previous Metal Gear games. The first line of dialogue from snake, "War has changed", secretly means "war games have changed" and from here on out the metaphors heavily suggest that director Hideo Kojima doesn't like modern game trends and how they have forced him to conform. This is particularly noticeable in how alien the game feels to the series, allowing for over the shoulder and first person aiming where moving whilst aiming was never possible in the series before. It's the first time the camera has moved from top-down to free-control as is convention now.
In an opening cutscene the camera lingers on the franchise staple cardboard box where protagonist 'Snake' is presumably hiding. One side of the box says "No Place to hide" further signaling that Metal Gear's traditional game design of stealth as opposed to action is a thing of the past in this age of ADHD gamers. The other side of the box says "No place for Hideo" stating that he doesn't fit into the modern landscape of video games. Then the box is crushed by an enemy robot hunting for Snake, symbolising the final nail in the coffin for days of old. This is when we find Snake using Octocamo technology to camouflage himself into the environment, and the game here on feels as if it's just trying to camouflage itself against the sea of generic shooters.
Kojima has previously used Snake as an extension of his own voice, and as Snake suffers from accelerated ageing and is ridiculed by the more hip characters for that now-uncool habit of smoking, the outcry of reluctant conform is undeniably strong.
Then out of nowhere, the game turns into Metal Gear Solid 1 in full original Playstation 1 graphics and controls for a brief and purely wonderful time where the player tries all of their old tricks. This marks the start of the most powerful use of nostalgia in gaming. Then MGS4 continues and you're blinded by a white blizzard. As the storm clears the scenery starts to take shape and the unmistakable and chilling theme of MGS1 sings through the hearts of anyone who remembers it. You have revisited the location from the MGS1 flashback you played just moments ago, but now authentically recreated in stunning PS3 graphics. For many there was an overwhelming mix of happy and sad emotions. As you start to revisit your old haunts it becomes apparent that the place is falling apart, as is the ideologies of a simpler time.
It's a depth few games explore, and moments like this are also a big love letter to fans. Playing on the passing of time in the lives of the audience has similarly been used in Toy Story 3 through the growth of Andy who finally lets his childhood go. I cried like a baby, but remember Kojima did it first.
Red Dead Redemption - Put that brain away unless you're gonna shoot it
Whether it's the guilty pleasure of recreating the joys and memorable scenes of the spaghetti western movies that games have been lacking, or the strong mix of enjoyable story and adventure of huge scope, Red Dead Redemption is one of the best games I've played in years. As a brave move, the last couple of hours in this 26-hour adventure are it's best.
After 20 hours of killing bad guys (and some good ones depending who you are) you finally kill off your old buddies because you are blackmailed into it by the govournment in order to get you family back. Then what follows is a sheer and admirable commitment to the evolution of this storytelling medium. Development time was devoted to five odd hours of hanging out on the farm getting to know your family and building a very close relationship with your son. As you and your son talk in a cutscene about books, your character says "I don't think that will sell, people like shooting things..."
There is a pause whilst this sinks in, and it becomes apparent that the pioneers at Rockstar would love to tell stories deeply through games with the maturity of film and books, but the audience just wants to shoot things. It's sad but true. Then follows the greatest gunfight in the game fuelled by all that peaceful downtime on the farm. After 25 hours of gameplay in the shoes of John Marston, your character dies in a most spectacular and sorrowful fashion. In a sequence that blends into gameplay where you know you're going down, you just try and take as many of the enemy along with you via the slow motion aim dead eye mechanic (This is real interactive Storytelling Heavy Rain!). Turns out the game hasn't ended for the fifth time and you then play as your proud son who you take around the world as he looks to avenge his father, which he does in a final showdown. Masterpiece.
This final example sums up why only a few games dare to be this admirable. People just like shooting things.
