lexcalibur's Blogs

I've always been a fan of games that you can really get into, games that will change your mood or your way of thinking. Something that can turn a bad day good, or make you ponder deep philosophical thoughts about the cosmos.

Games are a lot like movies in that way, if done well they can bring about an emotion, whatever that emotion may be. While the general public [read: non-gamers] probably don't understand that games can be something more then guys shooting other guys, or hitting a tennis ball backwards and forwards. Games are a viable medium for expressing thoughts, feelings and conveying emotions.

I'll try and stay away from the whole games as art argument, and focus more on a games ability to invoke emotions. Look at what games had the ability to change your state or your way of thinking and why they were successful in doing so. Then contrasting with the games that don't do this.

Great Games with feeling

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the first game I ever remember caring what happened to characters in a video game. The whole world felt interconnected and the wide array of personalities made for a complete gaming experience. Each character was different, each had their own quirks and it was this personal touch that made Zelda standout for me. Sure the puzzles and progression were great, but the personalities is what made this game different. I remember finishing this game and feeling actually happy that the world was at peace, that all the people that you met were better off because of your efforts.

You can't mention emotion invoking games without talking about Shadow of the Colossus. This game had emotion in spades, fighting for a loved one, your trusty stead always by your side. Travelling a vast land killing huge monsters cause some being said you had to. It was the perfect setup for an emotional rollercoaster, and that it was. Seeing these huge beasts crashing to the ground was almost poetic and the games ending was truly great. This is a game that will live in infamy and one of the few that has fair claim to the description "emotionally gripping".

Braid is one of those games where you either ignore the story or you commit to taking the time to fully understand the story and the protagonist. It's both inspiring and tragic, it makes you feel both happy and depressed, and without giving anything away has one of the best most revealing final stages you'll ever see. A game has never made me think so much upon finishing it, something you can't really describe until you've played it. Plus, all of this was done in a Mario style 2D platformer. Pure Genius...

Games that didn't really stick.

In contrast to the Legend of Zelda is Darksiders. Don't get me wrong, I really liked the game, great action, good progression, fun puzzles. But for all it's strengths it had on blinding weakness, it took Zelda's gameplay, but it missed it's feeling. I literally didn't care about a single thing in this world, not even War himself. I just wanted to slay a couple demons. Without engaging characters, the whole experience felt empty and since the final credits rolled I haven't thought of it once (until now of course).

The old 2D Sonic games while not deep, had heart. They gave you a likeable hero, an evil villain and a plethora of worlds to explore. However, when Sonic transferred into the third dimension all that flew out the window and was replaced by a huge cast of hated characters, stupid anti-heroes and villains that you didn't want to hurt as much as that stupid Bumble Bee (seriously that annoying dork needed his face punched in)...It's ironic that this game lost any genuine character it once had, by introducing a bunch of new characters. Thank goodness Sonic 4 is on it's way.

I'm like, the biggest Final Fantasy fan ever (well maybe not ever). But I have noticed that with each new iteration games seem to get less and less interesting to me. While each story is good in it's own right, the formulaic approach taken to these games leaves me a little disenchanted. For me it started when they took away the world map in FFX. While I still enjoy the series I think it needs a shake up. They need something a little different to, likable hero saves the world from jaded villain come cosmic deity. This story was touching once, maybe even twice. Now it seems a little played out.

Licensed movie games, hmmmm, need I say more?...

I can summarise my thoughts on this issue using one very simple example. The single player campaigns for COD4: Modern Warfare vs. Modern Warfare 2. While on the outside they seem very similar, it's the small things that truly separate these two games. COD4 had small teams of interesting characters, MW2 had explosions, COD4 had interesting and diverse missions, MW2 had explosions, COD4 had a story, and what did MW2 have? Yep more explosions.

My point is, there are many things that can draw a person into a game and if developers want to engage gamers they need to actively make an effort to do so. I understand that not all games try, or even want to make gamers think or feel something, but to me the ones that do have always been the best, most memorable games.