254: Playing for the Story

[Jaebird]

Oddly enough, I've never been much of a fan of the kind of story-telling in games such as the first Mass Effect, but when I played the sequel, I never realized how much I missed the long conversations that unfolded the story in front of me. It almost became annoying when I had to get into gunfights, because I just wanted to see where my decisions can take me.

I guess after trudging through Final Fantasy XIII's terrible story-telling, I started to pine for something better. It kinda how if you rely too much on special effects in movies, the story will suffer as a result.

 

[Uncompetative]

It is not about challenge, it is about freedom of choice and how most modern games interfere with player agency to adhere to a narrative that has been predetermined - often by some spod who can't write for toffee.

 

[Woodsey]

I've got to say, I rarely go above the normal difficulty (unless a game really is too easy) so that the story retains it's pacing.

Less about the challenge, more about the experience for me.

 

[Eri]

-GreatArticleSnip-

Okay, good; I thought I was alone. I had a very similar experience with Dragon Age: Origins and, playing it on PC, the dev-console and Mods were definitely my friend. I had no interest in leveling my characters, I just maxed everything out right away. I downloaded armor and weapon mods, unlocked all the skills on my main character for all classes; I made the character look and play how I thought the hero should... and then just waded my way through the story. Worst part? I had a ton of fun doing it that way. I had more fun cheating and modding the game to hell while playing through the story than I would have trying to play the game "as intended." Fights were simply a chore I had to do between plot points.

I wrote a quick little piece a while back called "Why Do We Hate Games So Much?" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/9.177439], in which I talked about how the gaming community as a whole is mostly "doing it wrong" and developers are following suit. We're starting to complain about lack of story in Platformers or too many cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid. Instead of appreciating things for what they are, we like to complain about what is not there. Developers are reacting and "injecting" other elements to try and please everyone. Portal is in essence, a puzzle game, and the sequel is trying to make it more of a story oriented game. Now I'm all about the story, but I played Portal for the incredibly clever puzzles. I would have rather seen higher quality writing in a game like Mirror's Edge, which I enjoyed thoroughly, but for the gameplay elements (which also could have been better).

I would love to see more narrative-oriented games in our world, and I think since our generation (25-35) doesn't have the time for competitive play-oriented games (what with our silly jobs and families and whatnot), some of us tend to look for something different in games... more of an "experience" than a "no0b-pwning sesh." All in all, great article. I hope we see more games like Heavy Rain that focus on "interactive story" even at the sacrifice of quality shooting mechanics or deep inventory systems.

Dude! You're me!

 

[ultratog1028]

I actually agree. I could barely start Dragon Age because the game play wasn't fun (although I did put in 4 hours into play). The Story seemed alright (although done before almost word for word) but the gameplay was so bad, I ended up just playing as the dog eventually just to bite Darkspawn in the crotch. End result, I returned it. It played to bad and to slow.

As for ME2, I haven't played it but I already know what I don't like about it. I actually semi-enjoyed the vehicle sections, and scanning a planet (hehe, probing Uranus) from orbit doesn't seem to have the same exploration feel too it.

tl;dr - Story that enwraps you is good, but the gameplay also needs to enwrap you.

 

[Ehra]

It depends on the game. I don't think Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, for example, would be anywhere near as powerful if it weren't for the last few boss fights. Gameplay, and especially battles, can have their own place in a game's story telling process if what's happening is relevant enough to the story that the players are emotionally invested in what they're doing. The problem is that it's extremely difficult to make a decently long RPG type game where every encounter is meaningful. Many boss battles in a FF or KH game are great examples of this, the random encounters between not so much.

 

[Sirch.Cajnos]

All i know on the subject is there must be SOME reason i'm currently on my sixth file in Mass Effect 2

 

[hardpixelrain]

This is how I'm beginning to feel about games. Its too bad there are not many games worth playing for story anymore.

 

[Hurr Durr Derp]

If I wanted a good story without gameplay to 'get in the way', I'd go read a book.

A good story is certainly a big plus, but if you're playing a game solely for the story then I think you picked the wrong medium...

 

[Space Jawa]

If I wanted a good story without gameplay to 'get in the way', I'd go read a book.

A good story is certainly a big plus, but if you're playing a game solely for the story then I think you picked the wrong medium...

Agreed entirely. Games should make gameplay their main focus. If you want story more than anything, you should stick to mediums like movies or television or books or any of the other methods of telling stories where gameplay has no ability to get in the way of storytelling at all.

It's nice when a good story can be woven into a good game without sacrificing anything, but gameplay should always be the main focus of games.

 

[Wakefield]

I'm not all together sure I didn't write this article and just not remember because this is EXACTLY how I feel about games. I'm just here for the story, gameplay doesn't really matter to me too terribly in single player games.

 

[ZippyDSMlee]

I could care less about story....if the gameplay play,pacing of game mechanics, game machanics is not there in some shape or form the game is not a game its a film you have to clumsily toil though.

I have had more fun with Dark sector(weaopn mod system keeps bringing me back to play the over all mediocre game) and Bullet witch(on hard try and save everybody or die, god I have not died so much since the 90s and I love it!!! still a under implemented mediocre game)


Bioshock,ME and even DA are AAA games missing whole segments of gameplay or polish they are tant amount to a interactive film you have to interact with all the time.....


Gaming either needs to make better games or put in a play itself option so I can enjoy the fiction without having to play thus criticize(rip to shreds) it for being a sucky game....

 

[ItsAPaul]

How can Mass Effect 2 gameplay get in the way? I can understand Dragon Age getting in the way since its a very long game, but ME2 takes like 35 hours to beat if you do everything (everyone's dialogue wheel, every side mission, etc). If you don't like cover based shooting, either play a Sentinel and choose a shotgun or don't play shooters.

Also, they call story without gameplay "books".

 

[Echo136]

Im doing hard difficulty on Dragon Age Origins right now, having already beat it on normal (wasnt easy towards the end of the game) and I gotta say, a lot of the enjoyment of the game is lost to me now. Theres barely any reason to play on hard difficulty besides the personal bragging rights. Theres no achievement for it. Its not fun when you die 50 times to one insignificant battle, and it discourages me knowing that if I cant beat this one small battle, how am I going to survive against the tougher fights. I might just bring it down to normal difficulty again.

 

[pixpaz]

Playing on "Easy" (and even occasionally cheats) is great for me because if you have small kids, time is a very precious thing and I don't want to spend it grinding. I am here for a fun time, not a long time.

 

[Jake the Snake]

I actually agree with this to a certain extent. I only play games for their story, hence me being strictly an RPG playing man. BUT I do find the combat more enjoyable than you did, however I do understand your grievances. The combat in DA:O was horrendous, especially for someone like me who can't multi task very well. Oh well, they were still both good games.

 

[Peter Andersen]

I used to always play singleplayer for the story and so I turned the difficulty down. I only played the game for a challenge if it had multiplayer. But now as I've grown older, I tend to keep the singleplayer difficulty as default, which is usually medium.

 

[Fenderaxe]

I missed this article when it was originally posted last year but caught it in the 'Highlights' area this morning.

I never finished playing Dragon Age: Origins for the very fact that I kept getting my butt handed to me in battles and didn't have the patience to keep starting over from my save point or find other quests to help me level. It seems absurd now but I never even considered lowering the difficulty to easy. I guess easy has never been an option for me with any game partially due to pride but also because I always felt I would somehow miss out on how games were meant to be played if I gimped them with the difficulty slider. I've been meaning to try Dragon Age again but keep hesitating because I fear I'll run into the same roadblocks. Now I think I will give it another shot and do what should have been obvious all along, just play on easy and perhaps enjoy it more than I would even if I had managed to grind through it the first time.

 

[lawdjayee]

Obviously the industry is with Logan on this one.

I think Logan's wrong about what he wants, though. He not only wants to play, he wants the visceral satisfaction that comes from "winning." That's why he's not watching movies or reading novels for his narrative fix. Those media don't tell you every few minutes "You're awesome! Nice work! Here's some elfroot!" The people who pitch tents about Dark Souls and Demon Souls want the same thing, too, but they want their "wins" to separate them from other people who play games ("You are REALLY awesome! Unlike [in one review I read] your 15-year-old cousin who can TOTALLY own you at Call of Duty!!").