Edward 1Gaming First Impressions, the Good and Bad
September 9th 2010 13:28
It takes skill to make an immersive, interesting story for a video game. But if the person writing the story doesn’t know about video games, then the story will surely fail. Knowing the game mechanics and limitations of the hardware, and who the game is catered to are essential in writing up a story which is immersive and fun for the person playing it. I’m going to cut through most of my library of games to see which games give the best and worst first impressions in the gaming spectrum.
The Good
Infamous: Hitting the start button ignites an explosion on the screen, and we are immediately put in the shoes of a man who looks like he survived being burnt alive, Cole. He, like us, doesn’t know what the hell just happened. A helicopter flies over head instructing us to get to safety, like you would expect to see in reality. This intro into the game was effective in introducing us to the world and the basic control mechanics in the game while feeling realistic, and thus, relatable.
Silent Hill 2: James Sunderland wipes his face with his hand in front of the toilet mirror. He exits out and we see he has parked on the out skirts of the foggy town of Silent Hill. His motivation is a letter from his dead wife, instructing him to go to the hotel they once stayed in. As we explore through the town, the use of fog limiting our field of vision sparks a sense of vulnerability of the unknown in us. The town itself is much a central character as is James. The air of mystery due to the fog and creepy sounds immerses us into the story, making us more susceptible to getting scared by the disturbing images and creatures.
Star Ocean 2: The Second Story uses the common story convention of dumping the player into a world the main character, Claude, has never encountered. We can immediately relate with Claude when his ship crashes into a field on the planet Expel, because he is too a stranger of the world he has landed on.
The Bad
Metal Gear Solid 2:
Hideo Kojima wanted to make Solid Snake more heroic by showing how cool he is through the eyes of Raiden. It falls flat on its ass because fans already know how awesome Solid Snake is. We were him when he took on a hulking guy with a gatling gun, switching controllers against another with telekinetic powers, busting radars against a giant mech, running circles around a tank, shooting missiles at a jet and even fight against a cyborg. We had our chains pulled when we played Snake in the first level of the game. Even if you haven’t played the first game, Kojima should have just went straight to the Raiden story, instead of disappointing us by only making Snake playable for the starting 15 minutes.
Final Fantasy 13 – Ok, we are thrown into a warzone at the start. Naturally, like in Infamous, we would relate if the main character doesn’t know what’s happening, and is guided by a NPC out of the chaos. But the difference here is the "main" character, Lightning, is fully aware of their power as an orgy of explosions and flying ships zip around.
The start is certainly eye-catching and immediately grabs my attention, but it soon goes down hill as I'm immediately thrown into some elses shoes soon after. We barely knew Lightning before she was quickly replaced by Snow, then Lightning, then Snow, then Hope, and we haven’t even gotten out of the first setting of the game. It made it harder for me to immerse myself into their story.
In Final Fantasy 7, we got to be in Cloud’s shoes for well over half the adventure, and even when the player controls Tifa, his absence was meaningful because we had went through so much with him. At the point I was controlling Hope, I didn’t know who the main character is anymore. This is the exact same problem with Star Wars Episode 1, a full analysis can be found on Youtube by RedLetterMedia if you type in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)”.
The Good
Silent Hill 2: James Sunderland wipes his face with his hand in front of the toilet mirror. He exits out and we see he has parked on the out skirts of the foggy town of Silent Hill. His motivation is a letter from his dead wife, instructing him to go to the hotel they once stayed in. As we explore through the town, the use of fog limiting our field of vision sparks a sense of vulnerability of the unknown in us. The town itself is much a central character as is James. The air of mystery due to the fog and creepy sounds immerses us into the story, making us more susceptible to getting scared by the disturbing images and creatures.
Star Ocean 2: The Second Story uses the common story convention of dumping the player into a world the main character, Claude, has never encountered. We can immediately relate with Claude when his ship crashes into a field on the planet Expel, because he is too a stranger of the world he has landed on.
The Bad
Metal Gear Solid 2:
Hideo Kojima wanted to make Solid Snake more heroic by showing how cool he is through the eyes of Raiden. It falls flat on its ass because fans already know how awesome Solid Snake is. We were him when he took on a hulking guy with a gatling gun, switching controllers against another with telekinetic powers, busting radars against a giant mech, running circles around a tank, shooting missiles at a jet and even fight against a cyborg. We had our chains pulled when we played Snake in the first level of the game. Even if you haven’t played the first game, Kojima should have just went straight to the Raiden story, instead of disappointing us by only making Snake playable for the starting 15 minutes.
Final Fantasy 13 – Ok, we are thrown into a warzone at the start. Naturally, like in Infamous, we would relate if the main character doesn’t know what’s happening, and is guided by a NPC out of the chaos. But the difference here is the "main" character, Lightning, is fully aware of their power as an orgy of explosions and flying ships zip around.
The start is certainly eye-catching and immediately grabs my attention, but it soon goes down hill as I'm immediately thrown into some elses shoes soon after. We barely knew Lightning before she was quickly replaced by Snow, then Lightning, then Snow, then Hope, and we haven’t even gotten out of the first setting of the game. It made it harder for me to immerse myself into their story.
In Final Fantasy 7, we got to be in Cloud’s shoes for well over half the adventure, and even when the player controls Tifa, his absence was meaningful because we had went through so much with him. At the point I was controlling Hope, I didn’t know who the main character is anymore. This is the exact same problem with Star Wars Episode 1, a full analysis can be found on Youtube by RedLetterMedia if you type in “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace Review (Part 1 of 7)”.
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