Less Yackin, Mo’ Smackin!
by Adam
![yackin_ramsay_st](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_ramsay_st.jpg)
The epitome of first class dialogue and scripting
Games have been plagued with bad dialogue for years, but worse still is when game designers forsake time spent playing in favour of more time explaining the badly written plot or trying to endear you to two dimensional characters in their vast 3D world. Even when the publishers invest in big names to deliver the scripts written by the great minds behind today’s best films and television shows, they’re still not getting the balance just quite right. Do the best games contain more gameplay or more talking? Does bad dialogue ruin a good game and can great dialogue make a bad game seem better? Oooh the questions, the questions!
It would be scornful of me to only examine the modern methods of script and exposition as games have been guilty of getting this all wrong way before our acceptance of having a fully voiced cast to bring the game to life. Text has been as much a curse and a blessing for gamers, particularly when it comes to stopping gameplay dead. Final Fantasy VII, whilst not being the first game to be guilty of such a crime let alone the first in the series, overloaded you with inescapable blocks of text during the game’s best sequences. This is, of course, to be expected in a role playing game and by no stretch of the imagination were fans of the series surprised by the degree at which the ante was upped from its previous incarnations on the Super Nintendo. This was quite literally Christmas, Birthday and the coming of the Easter Bunny all rolled into one for its long anticipated, 3-Disc PlayStation release. Long time fans of the series really lapped up the delivery of VII’s twisting, complex tale, but for my pal Joe Gamer – it really was a bit much at times.
The need for the player to sit and read through all of the text on screen (or even to just sit and mash X until it all went away) would leave the player completely unable to otherwise interact with the game, offering nothing else interesting to look at. Animation during these sequences was rare and only really consisted of watching the characters plod up and down, occasionally pushing imaginary strands of spiky hair from out of their scarily big eyes with their cube shaped hands. In the more dramatic sequences, you would occasionally be treated to the characters running from one side of the screen to the other, but rarely were you invited or trusted to take on that responsibility yourself.
![yackin_ffvii](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_ffvii.jpg)
That's not a knife... THAT's... presumably debris from a crashed Chinook
At times, the game managed to keep the action flowing wonderfully by simply splashing the text boxes briefly across the screen, not requiring any further action from the player other than to soak it up and to keep playing. This really helped to draw the gamer in closer to the events and tighten their grip on the pre-DualShock PlayStation pad by giving the effect of speech without ever being able to broadcast any. It showed that the technical limitations imposed by available compression methods and storage technology of the time could be overcome by simply tweaking the status-quo in order to deliver a better experience for the gamer. But, for large sections and long stretches, sitting their reading the equivalent of Charles Dickens ‘Bleak House’ (translated into French, then into Spanish, to Russian, Japanese and back again) just created more tedium and repetition in the actual time spent playing, something the gameplay was already bogged down in.
![yackin_snake](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_snake.jpg)
Hold that thought please, I have to take a call
When games of that era were finally treated to fully vocalised casting, the problem of finding yourself not really doing very much to contribute to the game was dragged into the centre of an even brighter spotlight. I know I’m wheeling out the staple names of the generation here (It’s better I go after the big dogs than menacingly wielding my hammer on the likes of Chrono Trigger) but Metal Gear Solid went the extra mile in pushing you ever closer to taking up knitting whilst the game snapped the controls from right out of your grasp. Whilst brilliantly voiced by some of the best heard voices in the industry, both then and still today, Kojima’s brilliantly fun stealth-shooter left you with no other option but to surrender to its intrusive dialogue, accept its occupation and wait for Gameplay to mount an impressive invasion on the northern shores. The games cut-scenes, whilst long and sometimes confusing were at least interesting and well animated. The release of Twin-Snakes – The definitive version of the game – on the Nintendo GameCube six years later took those sequences even further by making the scenes even more dynamic and aesthetically pleasing, but the game still slammed to a complete standstill whenever Snake had to take a phone call.
Let’s try to ignore just how impractical it was for Snake to just take five, sit himself down and have a chat with Naomi about her childhood issues duing the middle of a blazing firefight and focus on the enjoyment itself. Metal Gear was by no means a straight forward action game, this is not a plot you could ever have seen coming nor ask the staple action heroes Van Damme or Steven Segal to portray on a straight to DVD release. It wasn’t as simple a tale as bad guy plots evil thing, good guy sent to stop it, love interest created and subsequently threatened by the overall impending doom, survival of the human race ensured after a backs to the wall comeback before riding off into the sunset on a snow-ski (Ok so the last bit is accurate). The game simply required a lot of explaining and at times it felt like their wasn’t enough, yet if you were to take out the dialogue, put it on the hardest difficulty (European Version – of course) then this explosive two disc title will only take 14 seconds shy of two hours to complete (I’m not kidding either) for what is otherwise designed as a nine hour long rollercoaster of thrills. spills and cardboard boxes. The delivery of these conversations, from a gameplay perspective, is mind-numbingly tedious. Thankfully, much of the Codec sequences were skippable and, better still, fast-skippable by being able to automatically cycle through the text to the conclusion of the exposition. If you were stuggling to get into the game in the first place then you really weren’t treated to a whole lot during these phases. The equivalent of .gif animations of the speaking characters faces appeared at either side of the screen along with a verbatim-transcript of the dialogue underneath. If you’ve never experienced Kojima’s masterpiece, drill two holes in a Saucepan, stick it on your head, put the news on (with subtitles) and see how long you last before you go reaching for that drill again.
Having had a lot more money behind the game than Final Fantasy VII, Metal Gear Solid thankfully avoided the ‘All your base are belong to us’ qualities that plagued the JRPG’s translation into English but for all the magic added by having voiced characters and a coherent script, it still felt incredibly disjointed in its delivery. It never felt like the voice actors portraying the characters were reacting to the other characters in the game. During the cut-scenes, this was less of an issue than during the Codec sequences as the on screen action gave you more than enough enjoyment to distract you from the occasional shift in tone. When you all had to look at was a screen comprised of Black, Green and White however, the issue was far more prevalent.
Whether or not the plot could have been better delivered remains to be seen but Metal Gear continued its own tradition right through to its recent conclusion on the PlayStation 3. The Codec was made more attractive to sit and watch, adding in more dynamic cameras to display who was talking as well as giving more animation to the talking heads. Of course, the fans loved it and the game still went on to sell over five million copies. Final Fantasy also continued without ever making any changes to the presentation of its style of traditional JRPG story deliverance until its debut on the PlayStation 2 with Final Fantasy X. Text still remained a driving force in the Square-Enix’s Waterworld epic, not wanting to overload the DVD format with voices for every single interactive character in the game, but time after time were you forced to down tools and wait for the game to let you back in whilst the badly voiced pre-pubescent characters rattled on about how colourful their clothes were.
I don’t think it would be possible to argue that either game could have been made better were the dialogue removed or simply shortened, despite my arguments that sections of the game were killed off completely by snatching away the controls. Metal Gear Solid is a cinematic title which relies on heavy sections of exposition in order to unravel its extensive plot and Final Fantasy was designed as a story book adventure for players to sit back and enjoy. I expect that more gamers enjoyed these aspects of both franchises than initially opposed it but there’s no denying that such intense yapping slams on the brakes so hard that you start to question why it is you’re on this train in the first place.
Proving that there is an alternative to keep the gameplay flowing, a quick look at Snake’s commercial rival, Sam Fisher in the original Microsoft exclusive Splinter Cell, demonstrated how less really can be more. In keeping with the game’s tech-heavy world, Sam Fisher is able to communicate with Third Echelon without ever having to stop for a picnic. Quite how the patrolling guards couldn’t hear Sam as he made his away along a conveniently placed ceiling pipe just a few feet above their heads (especially with his deep husky voice) is a question for another day, but the ability to opt-in to the game’s back-story by paying attention to Lambert whilst getting on with the mission came as a very welcome and refreshing change to accepted conventions of game mechanics. The game can further be credited by making the most of having the seemingly innocuous guards reveal additional information that could be of benefit to the player, not just in terms of helping lure the player into the world of espionage but providing hints and solutions to obstacles faced in the mission (Again, Thief was really the champion of this but let’s leave Thief be. I quite liked Thief but it still has a lot to answer for). If Sam Fisher can save the world with his Sony Ericsson Bluetooth Headset, then why couldn’t Otacon have supplied the great Solid Snake with a comms device that didn’t require him to have a stop for a picnic every five minutes?
![yackin_fisher](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_fisher.jpg)
I've told you a hundred times... I am NOT turning myself in as the bastard lovechild of Chuck Norris and Kris Kristofferson, now LEAVE IT
There’s obviously huge room for debate on which is the better the game out of the two stealth adventures and this has been a hotly contested race for the number one spot over many years. On one side of the fence are the gamers who proclaim Metal Gear as the greater game for its cinematic and story driven experience whilst on the other side are the gamers that praise Splinter Cell for its dynamic narrative and insistence that the player remains in control at all times. Neither one can be credited for having the greater script with Metal Gear often complicating itself in the dialogue and Splinter Cell opting to go with the much more simplistic (and cheesy) action cliché script. Both are delivered as well as the other and so quality never really factors into the impact on the game. The key instead lies in its implementation in both games and how the player responds to that.
These days, we’re all so used to the luxury of never having to read on-screen content in order to make sense of the plot, more often it’s entirely optional for those that really want to know every facet and detail of their favourite game, letting the Joes just sit back and enjoy the world around them. The days of being forced to sit down and wait whilst you were told about the great wonder of things have now been replaced with hand holding train rides between scripted, set-piece battles. It’s arguably no different to invasive blocks of text but at least the developers are conscious to the problem of disconnecting you from the game. Those games that still choose to stop the player dead in their tracks whilst a minor celebrity talks at them should have at least tried to find new ways to keep the player engaged.
Fallout 3 is one of the better examples of where improvements are still to be made in this area. Conversation in this game is painful to the point of considering placing a phone call to the Samaritans (Either for livelier conversation or for advice). Encounters are face to face, emotionless and completely static. Players are never invited to do any more than to subject themselves to more of this drivel. Whilst suffering these conversations, players who just don’t care are reduced to the following options:
- Mash the pad until they stop talking whilst the journal collects all the available data for you to browse at your leisure
- Take more drastic steps to prevent these conversations from happening again by backing out of the conversation altogether, engaging VATS and going to town on the characters head with the bluntest instrument in your inventory.
I can tell you now that the latter often results in bringing about Game Over as Bethesda don’t take too kindly to killing off the games major characters. The games pseudo cut-scenes, where characters interact with other characters in the room, still leaving you in control really are as enjoyable as a West-End stage performance (if you’re into that sort of thing) but, as I’ve previously discussed and will not be returning to, aren’t particularly interactive and leave you very much out in the cold until you are summoned. Compared with the blockbuster Mass Effect 2, these literal face-to-face encounters appear as bad as blocks of text dominating the screen, with Bioware’s creation giving you more dynamic conversation through its incredible motion capture and on screen animation. When viewed objectively, there’s little and no difference between the two games with the player still forced to sit and wait for the character to respond before being able to select another conversation option and unravel more of the more plot. Clearly Bioware identified the problems in requiring such an extensive script by creating a camera system for use in their game that allows the developers to present the dialogue in the same fashion that TV and movie directors are free to do so. Even the simple option to select the next topic of conversation or to pick your response just before the characters had finished speaking kept you on your toes and help to keep the conversation flowing at a steady and natural pace. On top of that, Bioware always had gamers poised to interact with the conversations through the games Paragon/Renegade interruptions that would fast track the action whilst helping the player to further develop their Sheppard centric avatar.
Once the action kicks in on both games, players are treated to dynamically generated one-liners for the characters to keep the player informed of their status as well as their level of anger at being shot at. Here is where both games could have benefitted more from looking to some of the more unconventional titles for some inspiration on how to impart their wisdom upon us. Take the action heavy Gears of War for example. Lots of running, lots of gunning and plenty of shouting, but instead of just relying on the usual grunts, bravado insults and snappy retorts, much of the games narrative and dialogue is delivered on the fly, as you play. Dom and Marcus may not be the most deep or interesting of characters to listen to (don’t even get me started on the ‘token black guy’ nature of Cole) but Epic demonstrate perfectly how games can tip the scales from dialogue heavy back to gameplay whilst still maintaining a structured narrative, entertaining and informing the player all at the same time.
Perhaps there really is no magic solution to this problem despite me highlighting the many ways in which games have been getting it wrong all these years. Lately I’ve been playing Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar’s latest open world rollercoaster through the Wild, Wild West. This is another fine production from the San Diego studio with the games voice acting showing the entire industry once again how it’s done. The script isn’t perfect, I head the phrase ‘High School dropout’ used by one of the characters recently which is gravely misplaced in the games turn of the 19th Century setting and the plot itself has issues (which I’ll gladly save for another day). But the script and performances really are of the highest calibre.
Rockstar have struck one right chord with its balance between cut-scenes and narrated gameplay, never forcing you to wait too long before putting you back in control of John Marston, rarely are you given time to make a cup of tea. My issue with the game is perhaps more based around its design. In its attempt to remain true to the setting of the game, most missions start out in the game’s towns, farmsteads and taverns, requiring you to travel out into the Western Plains where you’ll probably have to shoot someone, someone’s friends, their employer and probably their adopted stray dog too. Giving you the option to fast travel would of course have killed off one of the more joyous parts of the game where you’re able to soak up the game’s beautifully designed world whilst riding from A to B (though in some specific missions, the game does make the offer and advises you to take it). By putting the mission starts and the mission destinations too close, you’d be killing off the authenticity of the games world and asking players to make these long journeys in near silence (or as silent as you can get with the constant clippity-clip-clop) would probably drive the player insane. The studio’s previous title, Grand Theft Auto IV required just as much ferrying between points of interest but the game happily distracted you with its busy, bustling world and where expository dialogue was not used, players had the vast radio and music network to keep them company.
![yackin_gta](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_gta.jpg)
I swear, if I have to listen to you drone on about nothing in particular one more time... I'm gonna end up jumping ship to Activision
So what to do about it? Well of course you throw in a little chit chat to take your mind off of things by having you saddle up and ride off into the sunset with your band of merry men. We’ll ignore how difficult it may be to ride through the dusty desert on horseback and still maintain conversation, seeing as I have chosen to forgive every other game so far for its sins and focus purely on the conversation. Most of the dialogue during these sections in Red Dead Redemption, as with Grand Theft Auto, is pretty benign crap. I’m not kidding. I’m about halfway through the game and I’ve only encountered one interesting character, the rest have so far annoyed me or just failed to register on my apathetic friends list. They don’t have much to say that I want to listen to and I don’t have the option to shut them up. Sometimes, in order to be able to deliver two and a half minutes dialogue in a minute and a half’s ride, the leading character will ride slower than you want, requiring you to keep pace despite wanting nothing more to ride on ahead so you can get back to the killing. Even with the slower riding characters, it’s likely you’ll reach your destination before the conversation is over, causing you to either cut the whole thing short by triggering the next event (often meaning that the most important detail of the conversation is lost) or that you’ll be left standing ten feet short of the waypoint waiting for Yosemite Sam to shut the hell up.
Perhaps if the characters were better constructed, more likeable or had more interesting things to say then I would be inclined to ride a little slower and hear them out. More often than not, the characters spend most of the time recapping details from the skippable cut-scene just passed in its now unskippable gameplay form. Little incentive is provided to not just ride off, ahead of the pack and once you twig that the cut-scenes are simply replayed on the way to Kill Town, you soon find the temptation to just skip the drama and get right back into it creeping its way from the back of your soul (even though cowardice always stays my finger from ever daring to skip).
Maybe I’m just too hard to please (I heard that at the back!) but there doesn’t appear to be a comfortable middle ground here. Worse still is that this is often a detail that perhaps takes a backseat for many. As previously said, some gamers are actively crying out for the interactive story book experience whilst everyone else is just in it for the senseless violence, happy to ignore/skip any of the painstakingly crafted, expensive dialogue in the hope that theirs bigger bad guys with shiny loot waiting just around the corner. But it strikes me as such a small problem that, if easily overcome, could really add a level of professional polish to the dullest of sticky brown turds.
![yackin_force](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_force.jpg)
Step back, or you'll find out that what I did to that Jimmy Olsen kid in Smallville, that turned out NOT to be Jimmy Olsen in order to protect the mythology for future outings... spoiler by the way, was just me gettin' warmed up!
Which leads me nicely on to Lucasarts and the sticky brown franchise: The Force Unleashed. Whilst the first game was a game no more or less guilty than those already detailed, Sam Witwer – star of…well he’s the star of The Force Unleashed (he was pretty good in Battlestar Galactica and suitably annoying as Doomsday in Season 8 of Smallville, but he’s about what you expect these days in terms of B list Celebrities), has pledged to bring script writing, casting and voice acting up to code with the rest of modern media in the games upcoming sequel. With Skywalker Sound faithfully providing the game’s sound effects and score, you’d expect nothing less than a five star audio experience and so Witwer has encouraged the rest of the team to get behind a more professional approach to the game’s characters. Artists will be recording face to face with the rest of the cast that appear in the scene and will have a much wider freedom to explore new dialogue opportunities. I’m confident that the script book hasn’t been entirely thrown out of the window here but it’s refreshing to see a studio encourage the game designers to work around other contributors rather than the other way around.
There is, of course, one company that’s taken off so far ahead of the pack that we often forget just how successful they are. Valve have long challenged the way in which games can be narrated, so much so that you don’t realise that you’re ever being told anything despite being able to recount every detail of the game when the end credits roll. Half-Life 2 set a new standard in gaming for having a plot unfold around Gordon Freeman without him ever being able to say a word and Portal went even further by achieving the same result with just one character. But where Valve has really shone in this department is the multiplayer survival thrill-fest, Left4Dead.
![yackin_left4](http://www.gaminglives.com/wp-content/uploads/yackin_left4.jpg)
You guys? Guys! Seriously... I can almost reach whatever that shiny thing was that I saw earlier, just one more hour should do it...
Critics have long been heaping on the praise for the way in which the events of the game are told to the players with such subtle exposition being used both in dialogue and desperate etchings on the wall. They painfully created a detailed world that players can opt in or out of, satisfying both sides of the fence without ever forcing the player to put up with their opposing elements. Dialogue is diverse, rarely repeated and perfect for building up an atmosphere. Instructions are delivered clearly, briefly and without ever having to justify to the player why it is they need to follow them. The sequel went one step further by linking each ‘movie’ to the next, having the characters meet for the first time at the mall and becoming the best of friends at the game’s final conclusion. The characters are free to develop their bonds with one another at the same pace as the player, creating a more inviting experience than the likes of Red Dead Redemption where the plot and respective backgrounds of the characters are shoe-horned down the players’ throats. The only issue with Left4Dead arises when you find yourself fighting for survival with a full complement of friends where half of them are checking every door, nook, cranny and Old Mother Hubbard’s cupboard for more details whilst the rest of the players frantically battle to keep the horde back.
Is this a big deal or am I just making something out of nothing? Games have progressed a long way in terms of visuals and innovation over the past twenty years but I still feel that certain areas are being left behind. More and more people are turning to video games as a source of renewable entertainment in the drought of bad TV and I think it’s only fair that, when they turn up on our doorstep, we’re able to invite them for a nice cup of tea, with biscuits rather than without. Subjecting them to inane drivel for the sake of it is a cruel punishment when they just want to rock up, shoot guns, blow something up and dance off into the sunset. For the long time sufferers, surely we should be given a break from the tedium and treated to something new? We’ve heard it all before and we can figure out most of it for ourselves anyway. Anything we can’t, we probably don’t care about and if we did, we’d probably just look on Wikipedia anyway. Surely the developers could save themselves a fortune by just employing someone to put all the back-story in a nice Wiki rather than pay minor celebrities to give an underhelming performance for us?
It took over 4000 words to raise these questions. Oh the irony…
Last five articles by Adam
- Party Pooper
- Battlefield 3 - Review
- Red Orchestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad - Review
- Burnout CRASH! - Review
- Dead Island - Review
I agree with you on some stuff. Red Dead Redemption has bored me so much that I can’t be bothered with it, which is really saying something because slogging through games is what I do.
Also, you’re bang on the money with Valve. Portal, Half Life 1 & 2 and L4D are all almost peerless when it comes to conveying emotion and context without much explicit exposition.
But, I’m not with you on quite a few things. Broadly, I don’t see much of a problem. I like a big, rich story to really sink my teeth into. I know I’m not the only one who was progressing through the likes of Metal Gear Solid and FFVII and finding that the next interminable cut-scene or conversation between characters was the main reward for that progression, rather than a punishment.
And personally, the last thing I’d criticise Fallout 3 for is anything relating to its story and the way it’s delivered. But I already know that’s not your favourite game!
The issue with games that don’t have long, non-interactive plot sections, like, recently Splinter Cell: Conviction and Modern Warfare 2, is that their plots are nonsense.
I guess I’ve never had any problem with setting my pad down, making a cup of coffee and listening to some British Machivelli soliloquise about cloning and the nature of existence. Even if every developer had the talent to weave it all seamlessly into a Half Life 2 I’m not sure I’d want them to. I guess there’s a place for the short, sharp snap of an Orwell, and there’s a place for the eons of rumination and meandering of a Dostoevsky.
It’s an interesting topic either way though.
Thanks Cuddles. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed FF and Metal Gear immensely growing up and there were times when they were able to use things like the codec wonderfully rather than the red call sign and ring ring being an indication that I’d had my fun, now sit down and take 5, we don’t want you racing ahead! I thought that in the end sequence of Metal Gear 2 where **BTW -Spoilers** the codec is ringing off the hook and you dont want to answer it because on the other end is batshit crazy Colonel but it’s that intriguing at this stage that you answer it anyway, incase you miss out on some vital clue.
It’s good that some game can reward you, especially following a lengthy boss fight, its good to catch a break then but looking back at Metal Gear, it was pretty much as you entered most areas that you had to take a phone call from the dunegon master to tell you why you were here.
I suppose its just general impatience creeping in at old age and knowing that every hour spent on a game is an hour not spent ticking something else off the list. If that one hour of gaming was all about the gaming and less about watching a movie, I personally would come out of it more satisfied and less cheated, but thats of course just my gaming habbit and I think that we’re still a long way off in terms of delivery and style before we get a better quality game rather than the best quality story.
I don’t pay attention in cut scenes and if the option is there to skip them, then I do. Same with dialogue moments, I mostly can’t be bothered but it’s not because I’m some shallow beast, it’s because I generally have no more than maybe two or three hours per WEEK to actually sit down and play, so the last thing I want to do with my time is sit through something which may actually be interesting but is, in all likelihood, going to be reflected in my journal or objectives anyway. While I found the story in Fallout 3 to be incredibly deep and satisfying, it wasn’t the cut scenes or dialogue scenes that explained the story to me, or pulled me in to their world, it was by opening my eyes and paying attention to everything around me. If the start of the dialogue seemed important enough, then I’d let it play and see what had to be said (the stuff with Elder Lyons for example) but, for the most part, I skipped through.
I agree with Cuddles as far as Red Dead Redemption is concerned – it’s my first time playing a Rockstar game so I’m not used to how they do things. I came downstairs after playing it for an hour or so and complained to Lorna that my experience of RDR was, to that point, very formulaic… do something for two minutes, watch cutscene for five minutes, do something else for two minutes, watch even longer cutscene. I sat through them though, because I didn’t know how important they’d be… but I quickly realised that they were just thrown in to drag the game out and make it seem longer and they were, mostly, just going on about nothing in particular.
Ultimately though, my choice to skip over cutscenes and/or dialogue scenes is down to me having a ludicrously short amount of time to actually play, even at weekends, so I have to savour every moment and actually progress through the game. Other than the start of Red Dead Redemption, and whenever I’ve allowed a cutscene to play out, I don’t think I’ve ever been subjected to “inane drivel” that wasn’t part of the storyline.
One thing I’d say though, which I found rather odd… is the tea and biscuits analogy… you say it’s better to invite them in for tea AND biscuits rather than without biscuits (presumably because you mean that you want to give them something more than just the tea?) but go on to say that people want to go and blow shit up rather than be told the story… surely that’s taking the biscuit back from them and leaving them just with the tea? Had I actually the time to properly indulge myself in gameplay, I’d rather know the story.
It’s important to remember that while you yourself may want to just blow shit up, there are millions of gamers who don’t necessarily take the shallow approach to gaming and so both have to be catered for. They’re being catered for by having the cutscenes, dialogue and immersive storylines built in to the game, and you’re being catered for by having a B button that’ll skip through it straight to the action.
I play a lot of RPGs purely for the story and dialogue and character interaction… I could forgive Mass Effect’s technical short-comings on that basis, that the dialogue was well written and the characters interesting and the plot exciting. It was a bonus when Mass Effect 2 was really well made and had better gameplay in combat, but didn’t scrimp on the stuff the first one had done well in the process.
I can think of a lot of games where the dialogue and plot take precedence over the gameplay, and some of those are amongst my favourite games. The Ace Attorney series on the DS, is almost 90% people talking. And I love those. It’s like a book you can interact with. Maybe that’s the problem… nobody reads books anymore. Sam & Max is a similar kind of deal, where the attraction is the character interaction. I could go on, listing various RPGs and Point and Clicks.
The only two times I can say I’ve genuinely been annoyed by the ratio of cut-scene to gameplay are Metal Gear Solid 4, and Final Fantasy XIII. But that’s because the story and characters in both of those are complete bollocks. Metal Gear for some time now has been becoming more and more about Hideo Kojima masturbating in public, with the game taking less and less screen time in order for him to pretend he’s being profound and saying something important with his characters, but actually it’s just confusing bollocks delivered by increasingly bad voice actors. And Final Fantasy suffered from the fact that not a single one of the characters was likeable, so you didn’t give a shit about their story or what happened to them.
The fact remains however that there are some gamers who quite like large amounts of dialogue in games, who would rather play a long-winded RPG or Point and Click than just blow stuff up in a Halo-type game, just as long as it is well written.
Got to agree with Preacher on this one. I do quite like to have a well written story from time to time. I’m not saying that I dont like blowing shit up, because I do. However I think both camps are well catered for therefore I don’t really see there being a problem. If you want long winded story play something like Mass Effect, if you dont, go and play Serious Sam. Job done. The only way I can see something like long cut scenes being a problem is if you had no clue about the game that you were buying and you just brought the bugger because the box looked cool, and what you wanted was Serious Sam, yet what you got was Mass Effect. Even in this situation though most cut scenes are skippable nowadays like Mark said.
Yes! Yes. Yes yes yes.
I think I mostly agree with you (in the games you talked about that I’ve played that is). For me it’s the classic game vs movie thing. If I want to kick back, watch a plot unravel and remain passive then I’ll put on a dvd. When I game, I want to game. I want twitchy thumbs and to be interacting with what’s on the screen. I have almost zero interest in lengthy cutscenes or blocks of text, am probably worse than you in that respect. I know to avoid certain types of games as I’ll be bored stiff and I’m aware that it’s different strokes for different folks. It didn’t matter how many people raved about the scenes in GTAIV being well written or funny, truth is I was *boooored*, I wanted to get back to nicking cars and shooting crooks. The part where you wrote about riding with your friends in RDR had me nodding along because I’ve found exactly the same. I’m riding behind Bonnie or whoever and they’re chattering away but I start to zone out. I’ll get distracted by a bunny hopping alongside or mull over what’s for dinner and completely miss what I’m meant to be doing once it goes back into proper gameplay. There is no “stfu” button
I’m not anti plots and there are games that have involved me while still letting me play which I’ve loved. You mentioned L4D and that’s something I’ve spoken to friends about because you’re not just watching the story, you ARE the story. Other recent ones would be Arkham Asylum where you’re in the “cut scene” so feel involved – can wander about, or Splinter Cell Conviction which made you follow parts of what could have been a straight cut scene using security cameras etc.
I’m not saying that they should quit making lengthy RPGs but more inventiveness in keeping me involved would be appreciated. Perhaps games could come with a “cut scene” warning label for some of us! ^_^
@Preacher @Ste
I’m not anti-the deep, lengthy games, I’m a big fan and always will be. My problem is how games deliver that to me and where games take control away from you in order to do just that. Mass Effect was near perfect by always giving the player the option to opt in to the bigger picture and in conversations, to always highlight the option to advance conversation by keeping those options on the right of the cheese wheel. It really struck a good balance between the two types of games for me. Compare that to Final Fantasy and Metal Gear and it’s not the option to opt in but rather the option to opt out which leads me to…
@Markuz
I’m with you. I just don’t get the time these days to enjoy that luxury of sitting and not playing, instead being ‘treated’ to some expertly scripted and well animated cut scene. It was part of my problem with Fallout, not having the time to listen and read, I was just running around shooting and looting which I really did enjoy but coupled with my lack of time and my dislike for the morbidness of it all, I otherwise felt disconnected from the plot, characters and setting which was something that probably had a lot of time go into it.
As for the tea analogy, that was more about sweetening the deal for the casual and the tv generations to have a look at ‘core’ stuff but I see your methods there. It works as good way to describe how I wish games would give you the option to opt in by taking a Biccy or opt out by not doing so, but still having to wait for people to eat them? Hmmm…almost!
I’m not calling for a segregation of games with shooty shallow one side and deep story on the other. Just that games make it more seamless and try for press a for more rather than a to skip…
Thanks for support guys. I have more to pick up on from points raised but I’m of course at work and so time is my enemy today.
@Kat
A ‘stfu’ button would be awesome. It happens once in Mass Effect 2 where you can go Renegade and just blow someones brains out mid conversation, damn it feels good! More games need that
Its funny you mention Batman: AA. I finally started that today before I went to work. I looked at my watch, figured I had 40 minutes so I fired it up. This was perfect timing really, it would of featured great in the article. So the game starts (for those of you that haven’t played it -theres a review of it on the site by Preach) with Batman having arrested the joker and the introduction see’s him brought into Arkham Asylum, restrained and then dragged down to his cell. This takes about 10-15 minutes of just plodding along through the Asylum whilst the Joker starts to tease Batman about how easy it was to arrest him. It reminded me a lot of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay where Riddick is the prisoner and being dragged to his cell. You still have the option, as with Batman, for being able to look around and you, for the most part, remain completely in control whilst the opening credits roll. This could have been done differently, they could have showed it from distant cameras and kept showing up the things they wanted you to see, but this way, you remain in control and so you can get used to the controls, merging the introduction and the tutorial all into one. Add on to that the dialogue and you’ve got the backstory too.
Rocksteady get it spot on from the very little I’ve played and they also throw in a bio section too thats there for you to look at when you’re ready rather than forcing you to learn details about them if your not big on batman by having to create cutscenes to explain it.
I even did a little squeal of excitement when the game went one further to help with todays post when after eventually getting into the combat and starting the game proper, I bumped into a security guard and the game gave me the option to press A to chat. I already could tell what his problem was as he was banging on a door (my guess being that the door was locked -I R Detective) and sure enough, pressing A to chat he turns and tells me that the door is locked and I should find another way. Sadly, this killed the pace of the games opening somewhat as having had an adrenaline five minutes in a mini combat tutorial, i’d engaged in a converation which required:
….the security guard to stop what he was doing
….the security guard to turn around
….the security guard to say hey batman
…batman to say, hey, wassup?
…the security guard to say doors jammed dude!
…batman to say Oh Noes!
…the security guard to say yep
…batman to ask, what we gonna do?
…the security guard to say well you could try going the other way!
…batman to say oh ok, yeah i was probably going to try that anyway, i just thought I’d see what was up wid yu furst
…the security guard to say oh, no its K, I’m just gonna bang on the door some more incase it opens
…batman to say K
…the security guard to say Bai
…the security guard to turn around
…the security guard to start banging on the door again so that it doesn’t look weird when it cuts back to gameplay
I make it out to be a little longer but after the initial rush, it felt far too long an exhange just to be told that the door was locked, which I really had figured out anyway. On top of that, despite having given me total access to Batman so far save for brief moments where it wanted me to absoultely see something cool, I was now in a Mass Effect 1 conversation with static cameras and I was dreading a cheese wheel appearing on the screen or conversation options, it really would have made me switch off at that point. Not because it has them, but because it was going to be clear that this wasn’t going to be a game I could spend a 40 minute stretch to get into. At this point, i was about 20-25 minutes in and already running out of time and wanting to do more! I couldn’t then start having conversations I didn’t want to have but felt like i would have to if it was going to give me something in return i needed (alot more than about the door being shut).
I had a few more of these converations with characters as I went around and it quickly became apparent to me that these sections are there completely optional (opt in!) and really only there to add that little bit more backstory or to give a game hint. Great! I can figure these things out for myself and right now, I just want to play, the backstory can wait for my retirement! Perfect!
That for me, invited me so much more into a game by showing just how in control I was. I look back and think about the whole Nibelheim sections in FFVII and I thank god that games have progressed
Hee! With the door thing I’d love if the subtitles for Arkham Asylum actually came up as “wtf?” and “‘k” and “bai”. Basically an option for lolbatman would be great. I forgot about the backstories being optional, that was perfect. I did go and listen to some of the tapes but for characters which interested me. The whole Joker/Harley tapes especially were great and worth a listen but then I loved the characters, poor Harley *sniff*. I adored Batman: AA. Totally adored it and am drooling over the thought of a sequel already. If you even contemplate ripping it a new one in an article our friendship is over. Just sayin’
<3 Hope you enjoy the game!
Interesting article. Disagree though, pretty much. I’m constantly appalled when people *cough* Mark *cough* skip cutscenes or shun the story. To me it is a crying shame – (reminds me of manuals when people don’t bother reading them and then whine that they don’t know what to do!) Perhaps it astonishes me because I spend a vast portion of my time conjuring stories and characters.
For me at least, the story is an important element of the game. Yeah, I’m probably one of two people in the world who actually read the character stories at the end of Mortal Kombat. On the one hand games have to fight against accusations of shallowness and yet people shun the actual stories when they are there? I feel bad for the games (and indeed, storytellers) that do make a genuine effort – it goes without saying that some are attrocious – and pity the gamers who don’t get to appreciate a good game on that extra level because they miss out on so much through turning their backs on the story and other gubbins.
Personally, I like the game to be as rich an experience as possible and the story and characters in cut scenes and chat are a big part of that if done right; they are woven into the fabric of the game and really help to make it worth playing.
Yes, there are some tedious cut scenes and hammy dialogue but I’d rather put up with that once in a while for the sake of the gems than have nothing but mindless nonsense. There is probably a sizeable majority of games which cater to people who want a shallow, care-not, blastathon… I’d hate for games to slide backwards into this sort of thing because people were too bored or lazy to take an interest. So I always sit though the cut scenes….but only the first time round unless they were great
And I have to watch anything with Tim Curry in just for entertainment value…it is the law…
@ Lorna
Of course I don’t want a regression to the blast-a-thons. This has never been really about story games for me, this is more really how I see a way for games to be more inviting by looking for new ways to deliver a seemless story that you can enjoy AS you play rather than between playing.
I’m sure If I ever made it so far as to work with writing staff on a game, I’d start to /cry a little when i was told of people going for the ‘Skip’ option but therein lies the challenge. Can you have an interesting story and can you deliver it well rather than having to settle for just one of those as we really do with the majority of all the adventure/rpg’s
I’ll agree that some games have poor writing at times, but we’re still in an infancy, I guess, and a lot of games can still have amazing stories, or ones that work due to their minimism.
However, I’m like Lorna, and get really pissed when people (Dad) skip the cutscenes and then complain they don’t know whats going on or that they don’t understand what they’re doing. Though, my Dad now does it to specifically piss me off, so more fool him.
However, I think one thing that games can do that nothing else can IS have that element of being able to have the story optionally. If you read a book or watch a film, most of the time, you HAVE to understand, know and take part in the story. In games, it is possible to play without the story, because its just another layer of the game, and you don’t have to have it if you don’t want to.