I finished up L.A. Noire last night and was somewhat disappointed by the end (I will expound on this in my review - coming soon!). As I also disliked the end of last year's Red Dead Redemption, I decided I would look up a plot summary and see how GTA IV concluded (I've never played it and I'm not going to) just to see if I dislike all of Rockstar's game endings. Anyway, I came across these 2 articles concerning decision-making in Mass Effect and GTA IV.
Basically the argument is that BioWare makes too much of an effort to keep you, the player, happy, instead of taking risks to tell a surprising story that keeps you on your toes and that Rockstar improved that with their ending in GTA IV in which they kill off the character that you've shown you're more attached to. And now that I think of it, there's a similar scenario in inFamous, where you're given the choice to save a group of doctors or your girlfriend, but it turns out that whichever one you go to save is actually the one that gets axed.
I just figured I would post these up since I know we have a few Mass Effect lovers on here, as well as a few GTA lovers.
The articles are sort of lengthy, but well-written and interesting.
Mass Effect article
GTA IV article
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Those are really interesting articles, and pretty well written, but I don't think his well-worded summary hits "video game storytelling" where it always lives.
ReplyDeleteThe core narrative element of Mass Effect, the dialogue/decision trees, are subtle enough to not be obvious, but interesting enough to draw the character into the world. The whole point of those dialogue trees is to draw out an emotional response from the player. Without them, we have a flat shooter experience with a pretty complicated story on top. The player's involvement create the story.
GTA is a very passive narrative experience. The good chunks of story are told through cut-scenes, with the player at the mercy of the game designers narrative concept. We can't change Niko's path in any huge way, nor is there any way to let the player inform the game of what they want (as the player or the character.)
Neither of these methods are intrinsically bad, and for the most part, they work really well in their respective games. (dialogue trees in GTA?) In relation to the articles though... - Mass Effect creates emotional involvement, and GTA assumes that the player has it already. When I played GTA for the limited time I did, I found it difficult to care about what was going on. It seemed like the story wasn't going to get good, until I started wanting to kill everyone and get back involved in this life of crime. I've said it before, maybe I play GTA "wrong", but it does severely impact how I interpret the story.
At the end, it's all about choosing the best method for your story. I just don't care to put up with Rockstar's. I'm still looking forward to Noire though... if for nothing else to see what disappointed you.
The articles were good reads, but I agree with Amateria.
ReplyDeleteI do feel that it's more of a preference than anything, but in my mind, allowing me to choose option A over option B is not only more immersive, but more powerful as well.
I do agree that Mass Effect 1 and 2 can have some pretty ham fisted discussion points. It's very "24" at points where Chloe is always saying, "I can't do that Jack!" then Jack yells, "Just DO IT CHLOE.....DAMNIT!" then Chloes says, "Okay."
Mass Effect does one thing better than any game or movie I've ever played or seen. It allows me to fully realize myself in the game world. At times it can feel contrived, but you can respond positively, indifferently or negatively in almost every interaction and decision you make.
The forced story of games of old don't allow that and while I'll agree that killing off people you get you "into" the game is a great way to make a more powerful story it's also a great way to piss me off personally.
I know that the article was written pre-Mass Effect 2, but getting to see and talk with Wrex in ME2 was one of my most memorable parts of the game to me.
I worked extra hard to make sure that if anyone makes it through the end of ME2 that it was Garrus. It was something that weighed on me as I played. Knowing that a poor decision in choosing a squad captain or slow progress in combat could get Garrus killed only strengthened my resolve to do well.
Also, there's a huge plot reveal (when you realize who the Collectors are) in ME2 that blew my mind! That's evidence, to me, that you can have a branching player directed game with shocking, emotion inducing plot points.
I loved my team in ME (Garrus and Wrex) and in ME2 (Garrus and Miranda) and I fight for their survival.
Killing them off for shock value or emotional involvement is the EXACT reason I stopped watching 24. They killed off every damn great character over and over and when they finally got around to Tony Almeda....I quit the show.
I understand the writer's points. I just disagree completely.
Also, we should be able to guess the ends of any Rockstar game going forward. Pick the most "ironic" ending because it gets the most powerful response.