Request for Case Studies: Game Stories

This is an open call for people to post their opinions and experiences of game stories in the comments to this post. I am particular interested in your descriptions of any game stories that you particularly enjoyed, and the reasons you feel the story worked for you.

Obviously, a game story doesn't necessarily need to have been a well crafted narrative  for you to have enjoyed it - this isn't about whether the stories were well made, but about what made them enjoyable to you. It's perfectly reasonable to enjoy a story whether it's good or bad (for instance, the appeal of a daytime soap is partly in its lack of quality!) Avoid talking about the specifics of the plot if you can (that is, avoid giving spoilers where possible).

Because this is about your opinion, you simply cannot be wrong, but as an extra defense against unwanted or unwarranted criticism, I ask other people not to post comments in response to other people's contributions. We should save discussion for later.

Some questions to get you started (don't feel obligated to use these as a template for your response, though):

• Did you identify with the characters? Sympathise with them? Did you find escapism in the characters?
• Was there something about the setting you enjoyed? Did you particularly enjoy the story because of the world it was set in?
• Did cut scenes add to your enjoyment of the story?
• How much of your enjoyment came from the plot? From twists or reversals in the plot? 
• Do you think you would have enjoyed the same story more or less in another media (say, a novel, a TV series, or a film?) Or was half the fun that you were playing the protagonist?

Thanks in advance to everyone who contributes!

Comments

[Johnny Pi]

The Jak and Daxter trilogy --

The world design had some of the most unified, clear and evocative visuals I've seen. They managed to blend fantasy elements with a forgotten-high-technology world without coming off as a kitchen-sink mishmash. Likewise, the story was simple yet presented mystery and wonder at almost every turn. Even the "darker" feel of the sequels didn't have the "make this edgy" sense of, say, Prince of Persia 2 (which felt forced), but seemed a natural progression of the character development.

The characters had real personality. I derived enjoyment, not from becoming the characters, but in seeing how they reacted to new plot developments. Even the secondary characters felt rounded, with their own focus and motivations.

The third game had a plot twist at the end that should have been foreseeable but surprised me nevertheless.

The designers managed to stay fairly close to the theme through the whole series, which was for me about gaining power and its uses -- pretty typical for a game, but handled with a light touch that avoided being pedantic. That same light touch extended to the balance between having what looks to be a kiddy platformer but presenting appeal to older players (without shallow attempts to add 'adult' content).

I would love to see other media from that series. Especially more games (which appear to be on the way). Heck, I wouldn't mind getting a contract to write a novella or two in that setting. As for movies . . . the visuals would be trickiest - CG might make it look too-slick, while live-action would probably just look ridiculous. Perhaps a Dark Crystal style puppetry -- the humanoids in that setting already look a good deal like gelflings.

[Corvus]

I'll post my response on MBB before the end of the week. I figured I might as well turn it into a full post, as the word count will probably end up justifying it!

[James O]

I played a number of CRPGs when I was younger and ate them up then; I don't know if my more sophisticated tastes would allow me to replay them and get the same experience out of them (in terms of narrative.)

In any case, I found the narrative of Halflife to be a strong case study of the unique strengths of the interactive media. The story, of course, is rubbish and can be thrown out the window - stop me if you've heard this before - government agency science gone wrong leads to alien invasion. However, as I mentioned in another thread, for me, I am interested more in characters than plot, and smaller scale. The game, being an FPS, is mostly about survival. Saving the world etc is not a central focus. While this implicit narrative has been present in the FPS ever since Wolfenstein, it's a nice change of pace from the typical CRPG.

In any case, I feel that character design was a great strength of the game. The visual design of Gordon Freeman is very interesting - he's the star of an FPS game, but he certainly doesn't look like it. Rather, he looks like a geeky scientist (which he is), who replaces bulging muscles with a pair of glasses. He does wear a suit of armor in the game, but it has a distinct hazmat vibe (versus a battle armor feel.) This visual design is so antithetical to the mainline FPS character design that I had to love it. Additionally, there are some other benefits of this style of design - he rather looks like the typical audience member of the title! I personally can't relate to a 6'10" 300lb badass warrior, but I can relate to a bit of a nerdy scientist, and I assume most other folks playing computer games would feel the same.

Additionally, the game goes to great lengths to ensure that the player assumes the indetity of Gordon, with no breaks from it. Specifically, I am referring to how he never speaks (which would naturally sound different from the player's voice) and how the player never leaves his body (in a cutscene.) I am personally a fan of the silent protagonist approach, and I think that it is a unique style of storytelling that can only be delivered by a game. The player fills in the appropriate responses on his own, so the game's writing doesn't conflict with what the player thinks Gordon is saying/feeling. The no-cutscene style play is also immensely interesting to me. Cutscenes always break the action, and while they may be cool to watch, they detach the player from his avatar. In Halflife, the player witnesses all the events of the game firsthand and draws their own conclusions. What is most important here, however, is that the player is never broken from their association with Gordon.

Furthermore, Halflife utilizes another strength of games by making characters the player is able to protect. The various cops and scientists scattered about the maps look relatively helpless in face of the alien onslaught, and allowing the player to take them under their wing is, to me, rather brilliant. They provide what is more or less a continuous powerup, but also a responsibility. While the characters themselves were very simple NPCs with no background to them beyond occupation (cop or scientist), having the player have to watch out for them (and having them actually be able to die without mandating a reload) helps the player identify better with both their and the protagonist's plight.

While I won't say that Halflife had the most brilliant narrative ever done in a game, I think it does utilize the unique strengths of a game to tell a story in a manner that would not be possible in another media. Rather than simply being a linear game with a plot tacked on, the smaller instances of narrative (written by the player and his relationships with the various NPC characters in the research facility) felt much more personal and relatable. The story here was ultimately unimportant, but the way the game bound the player to its characters was handled well and is a good case study for future narratives.

[Dhruin]

Without futzing through my games cupboard to refresh my memory, I just know I am going to miss the key ones...

Fallout. A different setting that stood out with mature elements and a harshness that underpinned the idea of survival in a world that was rebuilding. The character and situation was believable - no prophesy or gods, just a guy judged most likely to survive in the wilderness and bring back the needed parts. The story then develops into a simple, bigger overarching scenario but each location has its own (almost standalone) story with interesting characters. The ending "twist" is my favourite ever. No real reliance on cutscenes...I think it could make a good movie or book with the right approach but it's much more effective *being* the Vault Dweller.

Half-Life. Brilliant use of the medium - you *are* Gordon Freeman for the *entire* game. The twist is predictable but felt personal because I *was* Freeman. It also avoids lengthy exposition, letting you "discover" the story as you encounter situations and characters. A movie would entirely miss the main point.

Mafia. Just a good gangster plot with murder and betrayal and, like Fallout, no happy ending. Some effective plot twists - it really could be the plot from a gangster movie. Most of the story comes from cutscenes.

System Shock 2. SS2 manages to create a convincing atmosphere of fear and isolation by presenting and empty, eery spaceship with the only human contact through diaries from the dead you find. The personal nature of the diaries underscores the desolation and lack of living human contact.

Planescape: Torment. For obvious reasons.

As a generalistion, I like interesting characters and quite enjoy an effective plot twist but it works best when I can identify or believe in the character and discover the story myself through my actions or exploration, rather than having it presented to me. I don't mind some cutscenes but I'd prefer they aren't the heart of the story telling.

[Josh]

I responded on MBB, but I thought GoldenEye was a marking point for games in terms of trying to involve characters into a relatively flushed out storyline.

For everyone who is saying Half-Life, I'd like to pose a follow-up question:

Using only the events of the game itself ... what is the actual plot of Half-Life? For brevity, remove anything limited to Gordon either killing something or throwing a switch.

[***Editors Note***
I would really prefer the comments to this post to avoid open discussion at this stage - I'd like people to feel free to post their opinions without fear of criticism. Josh - would you mind hosting the discussion on the plot of Half Life at Cathode Tan? I will add a link here if you do.]

[Josh]

Oh, and I'll add the obligatory Halo nod. The entire subplot with Guilty Spark is simply brilliant.

[Josh]

Ah well, I had a longer more thoughtful response ... but the comments block ate it seemed. But I've been there and I'll pass. I'll just summarize by saying that conversations about Half-Life 1/2's game story always seem to center around things not concerning the story. Not being critical there, just a fact. I agree largely with James O's analysis and was just interested in getting others to purport any competing arguments.

[James O]

Like I said; the "story" of Halflife is not all that complex, nor did I find it important to my enjoyment of the "narrative" (story being a subset of narrative.) It was the way interactions, avatars, and characters were handled that made the narrative good. This is an important distinction to make - the plot of a narrative is not the narrative itself; it is merely one element.

Maybe some more elaboration on Halo and (especially) PS: Torment? The reasons may be obvious to you, but not to me (having played neither) and Chris would probably appreciate more details :)

I would give a second nod to Fallout here as well. Much as in Halflife, the story is quite simple and cliche - world gets nuked, survivors try to eke out a living in the post-apocalyptic wasteland, all while a diabloic mutant leader forms legions of brutish mutants to conquer the wastes. As Dhruin said, it also starts off with less pomp and grandeur - you're not going out to save the world; you're going out to find a replacement part for some machinery. Fighting off the monolithic badguy doesn't come in till nearly half-way through the game. The big success in this game is the setting and sense of agency - the game has a strange blend of 1950s Cold War panic and retro-future charm, all set amidst the scorched wastelands of southwest America. The manual is especially well done - thick, and presented as a "Vault Dweller's Survival Guide," and the writing in the manual keeps the immersion factor strong. Despite the gravitas of the setting, the writing and maps are humorously put together - two headed cows, oversized Geckos that are the Deathclaw terrors of the wastes, and the ever-present "Pipboy" character that illustrates the game concept and stat pages.

Furthermore, Fallout had a great sense of agency - there were a number of optional tasks to perform, and these tasks could influence particular locales in meaningful ways. Leaders of towns can be changed or killed through missions, and people will regard you differently based on your actions. The different missions you chose and chose not to complete will affect the games final ending, which uses still frames to revisit each location and summarize your legacy there (whether you left a town in control of a ruthless gangster or a law man; whether you helped another Vault repair its waterchip, and so on.) Many of the tasks you perform only result in small changes, but they have meaning for the player and greatly enhance the sense of immersion with the world.

[fluffy bunny]

Star Control II is pretty high up on my list. It's a mix of adventure, action and strategy where you are in command of a spaceship that returns to earth from a distant colony, only to find that earth has been defeated by a race of insect-like aliens called the Ur-Quan Masters. Earth were, like their allies, given the choice of fighting for the Ur-Quan (as Battle Thralls) or being encapsulated in an imprenetable shield, forever locked on earth. A small group of humans run a space station in orbit around the planet (under Ur-Quan control, but the masters haven't been around for ages).

Your job is to search out earth's old allies, find out what happened to them and try to recreate the old alliance to fight against the Ur-Quan Masters.

The story is mostly told through conversations with the various aliens you encounter. There's a tremendous amount of backstory in the game, and lots of mysteries waiting to be uncovered. Some of the aliens are funny, others are weird and some are downright scary (including some of your allies, so you're never really sure whether working with them is a good idea or not). There are no cutscenes to speak of.

I identified with the main character (who is never shown on screen), and for the week or so it took me to finish the game, I really "became" him - the game was on my mind all the time, and I was constantly thinking of what _my_ next step would be.

I also enjoyed the setting. I like science fiction (not the cheesy Star Trek-stuff, but more stuff like Babylon 5), and the Star Control universe felt very consistent and real. The more I learned about its history and the races that live in it (including the Ur-Quan Masters, who really have a very tragic backstory), the more I wanted to find out.

I can't give a good answer to your last question, because Star Control II felt so different from a TV-show or movie. The reason for this is that the game is very non-linear, and it's always up to the player what to do next and where to go next. So it felt more like I created (or at least discovered) the story myself.

[GregT]

I love and continue to love Fahrenheit (released as Indigo Prophecy in the US). Despite a weak ending, this game had me hooked from the "behind the scenes" tutorial where the game creator himself talks directly to you (effectively reminding you that the medium [a virtual world] and the content [the story] are separate).

It then takes you in with opening scenes ripe with mystery to be solved, the promise of a huge variety of choices (so you're customising the sort of character you're going to be playing by deeds right from the start), and the promise of consequences of your choices (the partial illusion that you, the player, are driving this stunning narrative).

The narrative from here onwards is carried largely by firstly how well-directed it is visually and in terms of its plot; but what is does fantastically that enables it to maintain its momentum is the way that it evokes physical and emotional states in the player using gameplay mechanics.

At one stage a character who has been earlier foreshadowed as claustrophobic is trapped in a basement with flickering lighting; the game challenges you to keep her calm while she performs necessary tasks by calling on you to "regulate her breathing" using the left and right shoulder buttons, all while you are exploring the environment and solving puzzles. Forcing you, the player, to try and regulate a simple rhythmnic activity while still thinking on an abstract level created one of the most immersive game experiences I've ever had.

Fahrenheit borrowed ably from the conventions of cinema to tell a well-paced and visually stunning tale, while ably making use of the strengths of its interactive electronic environment to justify itself as a game rather than a film. A must play for anyone interested in game design and the possibilities presented for the future of the medium.

[Chris]

Thanks for sharing this, Greg!

I'm going to have to investigate Fahrenheit at some point... although it appears to have had limited commercial success, it has produced a lot of interesting discussion on the relationship between games and narrative, which surely makes it worthy of examination.

Take care!

[Thrakhath]

I'll first nod to Fallout, great story, Modest and yet compelling.

For my own story though, I turn to an old RPG called Lufia 2. The story starts out almost laughably stereotypical. Big Evil beings are getting ready to take over the world, and your character, a just come-of-age youth from a tiny village must rise to defeat them. Complete with odd-woman-in-first-dungeon giving you a weird psudeo-prophesy.

For me, the big moment in the story that really captured my interest is half-way through the game. You assemble your team and go to fight one of the Evil Beings. You are victorious, but nearly lose your life in the process. The game stops here for a moment as you watch a very long cut-scene of your character living life in a world seemingly at peace. The monster is slain and life goes on. I won't go into details so as not to spoil it, but your character at this point develops a whole life on top of everything you've actually played. What makes this so compelling for me is that when the game resumes (The Big Evil guy's siblings come looking for trouble) you have a life to protect.

A lot of games have a grand story waiting in place, something that you're told you ought to protect and want to fight for. What this game does instead is give you half the game time to actually live this history. To get to know the people and places you're fighting for. To develop a feeling for the characters, and to develop a "domestic" life. So when the End of The World is upon you, you already have a Home and Hearth at risk. There were a lot of subleties to the story that made it vibrant, but this pause in the middle gave it it's strongest flavor.

The ending to the game was a bit weak, but this still stands out as one of the greatest story mechanics I've ever had the joy of playing. It may have been more effective if you were actually playing at that point in time rather than watching a cut scene, but the cut scene did allow for it to move at just the right pace, just the right length of 'not game' time. I could see it working in a book, where you could actually take the time to show the reader a world at peace, after some great battle, before taking them up to the final struggle, but I have a feeling a movie would be too rushed and you would either sacrifice the serenity of the middle or the tension at either beginning or end.

[michael jones]

Halo 3 for Xbox is the most exsiting game i have ever played! It is so real!