Zoned in

Aug. 3, 2007

An old refrain – substance needed in games, not just pretty pictures
By Michael Lafferty

New games may deliver on that concept, but it is long overdue nonetheless

Once upon a time, there was the game. It was embraced, believed and wrapped around the player like a warm hug. Days of playing usually led to nights dreaming of the game played.

In fact, I stopped playing Ultima Online because I was not sleeping properly. My hours were consumed with dreaming about the game, leveling my avatar, or figuring out how to solve a quest or beat a mob boss. Then the hobby became my job. The joy did not go away, but creeping in was a sense of the mundane. Last week, Matt Eberle and I discussed the lack of innovation in MMOs, but there is a general sameness that grips the whole of the video gaming industry.

Liken it to a dream. When you first see it there is a sense of wonder and excitement, but the more you see it, the less extraordinary it becomes and the routine becomes commonplace. The colors lose some of their luster, the excitement of a new discovery is replaced with knowledge of what lies where, thus tarnishing any sense of surprise.

So why continue to play games?

For the prospect that sometime in the future along would come a game that rekindled the sense of wonder, that pulled the imagination in deeply and made you a part of the story.

While the past E3 was not all that wonderful in terms of the event itself, there were a couple of titles that rekindled that spark, that dream, that level of satisfaction that can only be experienced when you walk a distant land, and live within the imagination.

One of the titles that stretched the boundaries of what had been known before, that took the mundane and made it unique again, was Folklore. It offered a fresh look and stirred the imagination. But there was another title that reached right into the heart and pulled it in a manner not felt for a long time.

That was Heavenly Sword. The gameplay was not all that fresh or unique, but what truly brought the game through was the look on the face of Nariko, the game’s heroine. She was alive. She had personality, and there was pain and worry in her eyes, a deep wellspring of strength in the set of her brow, compassion painted on her lips … yes, she was a heroine that was worth carrying about.


A previous incarnation of Nariko


The Nariko of the latest Heavenly Sword build

There have been other heroines in the past, those unique women of great strength, like Lady Lara Croft. She is an icon, to be certain, but aside from the adventure, there was little in the way of personality that could strike a chord with the gamer. She got the job done. She had considerable talents, but – for the most part – there was not a partnership with the gamer. She was controlled. With Nariko, you get the feeling that she will do what needs to be done with or without you there in the adventure.

And, if the truth be told, this was not always the case with the story and history of Heavenly Sword. You only have to look at http://www.joystiq.com/2007/08/01/heavenly-swords-origin-is-on-first-xbox/ to see the transition of the character from the prototypical martial-action figure to a character that breathes and feels.

That is partly the blessing of the next generation of console systems. One could point an accusing finger at PC developers, who have had that power at their fingertips for a long time and have not used it. If you liken it to literature, we want novels of substance, not pulp fiction. That is not to say that pulp fiction does not have its place. Who does not want the vicarious thrills of a fast-paced heroic action adventure. But when it comes to games that will be remembered years from now, it will be the substance underscoring the pretty graphics that will be remembered.

Perhaps, finally, we are getting to that place.