The Single Player Game: Story vs. Gameplay Pt[2]

I said previously that there is a debate going on between the gameplay elements of a game and the storytelling aspects. This of course is not an actual dehbate with words, but one expressed through the designers’ games. Last time I went through the extremes in the medium and then various techniques over the years designers have tried to combine story and interactivity. You can read it here. (Edit: Part 3 can be read here.)

One more technique designers use that I didn’t get to last time follows the rule stories have endings. In interactive fiction there are two types of endings. Those that the player has been led to by the events of cut scenes and those that are dependent on the action the player has taken. The later set of games that have multiple endings reflect the consequences of how you played the game, but most fall into a black or white duality category. Where the consequences are either all is right with the world or everything has gone to hell. Fallout 3 is truly ambitious in offering around 120 different possible endings. I will reserve judgment until I see how different those endings really are. If there is meaningful difference between them I will call it a success, but if the end cut scene is merely the same actions with a different backdrop then it is anything but that.

Recently games have further evolved in their efforts to blend the two. While games still continue to make games of the start and stop variety, games have also evolved further into two notable styles.

The illustrious Grand Theft Auto III popularized the first style. It is now known as the sandbox game. Of course there are many imitators, but few actually managed to accomplish a quality title with an open world. The idea here is to create a world and let the player loose into it to let them do whatever they want. Of course there is a main story, but there are also many side stories or quick play ideas that the player can take part in at any point he or she so wishes. It offers total freedom, or as much as can be accomplished in a video game. Action/Adventure games are given this title, but it also applies to many RPGs.

The idea is to allow the player to do what they want, but the designer, if he wishes to do his job properly, then must be able to allow the story to be able to progress at its own pace. Some games accomplish this, others still force a certain amount of inflexibility because of the demands of the story. To keep the two merged requires a certain kind of story that allows this kind of leeway. Grand Theft Auto IV is the story of an immigrant and his integration into the American lifestyle. He just so happens to take jobs along the way and confront his past. This allows the player to do what he wants, when he wants to.’

Finally there is the last of major styles of note on how to combine these two elements is what has been called cinematic gaming. It takes elements from movie story telling and integrating it into an interactive experience. In a way it is another type of start and stop game, cut scenes in this case, but the points in which this happens are short and far between. It also uses a number of other techniques described in the previous article. Atmosphere, environmental clues, in game dialogue, subtle hints and so forth to bring an all around experience, but also one more thing. Something that is much harder to nail down in describing it, but I’ll give it a try.

Cinematic gaming is like a threshold of quality for the sandwich games.’ It is the fluidity of the story coming out like a Hollywood movie, but still allows the game to take place. The game allows the player to move through the level without there being the feeling of a start and stop. The idea that the story and gameplay are so integrated with one another that neither stops for the other.

Really this is the ultimate use of the techniques innovated by the games that came before it. Half-Life may have introduced the idea of having characters talk outside of cutscenes to further the story, but though the player remained the experience they were still locked down to wait for the scrip to finish before they could move on to the next part. It still had the stop and start. Cinematic gaming takes this technique and allows movement and the game to continue. The voices are a soundtrack in addition to the gameplay. Also cutscenes for the most part have been shortened for these types of games and camera angles and techniques are used to highlight moments in the game while never stopping it.

I could try and define it all I want, but the best way to explain it is through examples. Two of the best games that I feel pull of the cinematic gaming concept are Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune. Each of these games do simple things that add to the experience to the game. There is a point in Uncharted where there is an indicator to press the R2 button comes up. It isn’t necessary to push it, but if you do the camera angle changes a little to look up and you catch a glimpse of foreshadowing and Drake saying, ‘What was that” In Sands of Time when entering a new area the camera sweeps around like the camera is on a crane to give the player a sense of what they will have to do.

Shadows of the Colossus also did this. When you start the fight the camera give you a shot of the colossus that just makes you say almost each time, ‘You expect me to do what!’ In each of these examples it happens for less than ten seconds. These are only some small examples of what is being accomplished right now to blend the two elements.

It may seem that I have come down hard on single player games where the gameplay is merely the ham between the cutscene slices of bread, but I don’t mind the essence of the idea. What I mind is the execution when the story is done in such a minimalist manner, where designer’s sacrifice story for gameplay or vice versa. There are many single player games that I hold in very high regard for the ability to blend gameplay and story, the aforementioned Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, along with Assassin’s Creed, Resident Evil 4, Metal Gear Solid and Indigo Prophecy just to name a few. Whether or not you liked the games or their stories, they pulled off the combination of the sandwich formula admirably.

Of course the holy grail of gaming is to have a truly interactive experience with the player having dynamic effects on the world around him, both in gameplay and in story. Of course this might not be achievable with any amount of technology, due to the human mind being a somewhat unpredictable thing. (googafal) But we can always hope.