Disco, baby.
Playing a new game lately, Disco Elysium… reminds me of what happens when a game does world building right.
I was thinking about it, and trying to think back to the hundreds of shooters i’ve played, disposable narratives and paper thin backdrops, and i can’t for the life of me tell you what any of their main story arcs were. and that’s a shame. each on of them had an opportunity to create a world to be lost in, and each one let the chance drift, while pouring you into a mech suit perspective, and pointing you down a hallway to face down zombies, or aliens, or some kitbash of both. it’s not only sad, it’s pathetic.
maybe i’m being overly harsh, but some games have done it well, as opposed to putting you on a rail, as you tick off enemies, a one button checklist where the objective is to clear the stage of anything interesting that moves under it’s own will. just makes me long for games like myst, or the dig, or monkey island. those games were frustrating as all hell sometimes, and running around clicking every surface repeatedly like you have OCD that drives you to get your finger print on ever surface on earth can get old, but at least those games never talked down to you.
when i worked in games, on this one project, there was a ‘puzzle’ where the boss of the company made it so if you didn’t solve it fast enough, the game audibly whispered the answer to you. his concern was that if people didn’t get through it fast enough, they would be frustrated, and quit. ugh. super rewarding solving that one.
so, check out disco Elysium. it’s fun. the art is amazing, and chances were taken. we should reward challenge taking. or just buy the next triple A bowl smear about the guy, who wakes up on an alien planet, and has to figure out what’s going on, by killing all the things he sees….. wow!
Disco Elysium sounds like it might be interesting. I bought Outer Worlds, which was developed by the same bunch that did Fallout: New Vegas. Blech. Short game story, big boss fight. I really hate boss fights. Click the mouse madness. Those were fine back in, ah, 1995? But now?
In all that time, the game play just doesn’t seem to have progressed. Really, about playing a game, especially one that’s about exploring an unfolding story.
Remember the old Steve Jackson text adventure games? Those had some humor. Now everything tries to dazzle with brilliance, to distract you from the fact that they didn’t produce anything other than garbage for the story. I wonder what some of the good writers in the 1800s would have done if you told them to produce a story for games. It’s like nobody tries anymore.
i totally agree. and i tried outer worlds too. i was interested in how i might play, if i chose a character, and stuck to how i thought they might play. i put all my point into trying to charm people, and it was going well. sneaking around, not fighting, talking my way through things…. but then the inevitable robot fight, and i got creamed. kinda capped the fun for me. i like the idea of a game you could play as 2 entirely different people, and get through all the same. there’s few of those. eventually, you’ll hit a boss wall.
i don’t know if i played any steve jackson text games. played gurps for a while with friends. interesting system.
Don’t you DARE bash my baby Monkey Island! …..You aren’t wrong, though. This sounds like a pretty cool game. If I ever get two seconds to play a video game again I will give it a shot. Won’t be until after peak season though. In fact, I may not be around much until January.
who’s bashing monkey island? i’m using it as an example of a well crafted game. even if a little unforgiving. but it doesn’t pander to the lazy, i’ll give it that. i installed an old version of it a few years back. not the remake, the original. i wanted the nerd cred of beating it, OG style, with no help. didn’t get very far, and i was liberal with the cheating. it’s a hard as game. they just don’t make em like that anymore. games are far more disposable.
but i think the writer in you would like disco elysium. fair warning, there is A LOT of text. but, you can always tune out and skip bits. i think in that way, it’s an accurate simulator of taking to randos. good luck with the busy season….. these are the pain in the ass months. right in the middle of the worst weather too. that was poorly planned out.