SONY - Heavy Rain to be of a new genre -- "Interactive Drama"

[Staude]

Killergran said:

Staude said:

Killergran said:
You're evil, Khuutra, messing with me like that.

I would argue that Portal is as far we have come today. It's a story that is played, rather than passivly observed. But I haven't finished Shadow of the Colossus...

But, again, let's hope that Heavy Rain can push storytelling forward. Let's hope that it offers more than the interactive dramas of the past.

 

I wouldn't say portal is as far as we have come. Half life 2 is told in the same way (but more exciting in the beginning)

 

Honestly when i started portal.. i hated it.. i really thought it was awesome in the end though XD .. but still... boring beginning in my opinion.

 

In either case, i think games like doom 3 and half life 2 are equally positioned with portal ... storytelling wise. Now i'm not saying they have great stories (well half life 2 has a really big universe but doom 3 is more simplified with the whole.. "go kill zombies.. and .. oh .. try to survive" thing they got going.

 

I also think there are other games that take it further.. without wanting to specify from the top of my head :p

This is my 500th post, so I'm going to indulge myself and go totally off topic and tell you why I think that Portal is as far as storytelling in gaming has come.

Let's start with reasons the experience gotten by stories in Videogames is usually not as strong as they could be. Firstly, there's the seperation of gameplay and story. I just breezed through a fight in the JRPG xxx, and right after there's a storysequence starting with all characters in my party being out of breath and looking like they just barely escaped death. Story and gameplay do not match, and this nullifies the impact I can have on the story. The story feels seperate from what I am doing. This means when I'm playing the game, I'm not experiencing the story, not being caught up in it.

Second reason is all the small parts that points to this being a game. Scripted sequences that spring up when I pass this point, characters with bad animation, bugs, interfaces, tutorials, and so on.

Third reason is, weirdly enough, interactivity. The story assumes who I am. Usually it's 'the hero'. It does that even if I act insane, running around looking at the floor, shooting birds in the sky, or just stand still looking into the wall for a couple of hours. The people do not react to me as fully as I want them to. Assassins Creed tried to make it a virtue to act natural, but it didn't quite succeed in this. It came closer than anything before though.

Fourth reason are all the pointers. The little things that makes you completely aware of what the game wants you to think about any given situation. There is seldom any room for interpretation, it's all plainly laid out.

 

Now you ask; how does Portal deal with these problems?

The answer is short. It excludes everything that could potentially be a problem. There are no people in Portal. The only interaction you have is with a computer. Since you are always playing against the computer (in singleplayer) this makes a lot of sense. A computer doesn't care about how you act as much as a person does. So that doesn't feel like a problem. A computer is supposed to be scripted, so scripted sequences doesn't feel like a problem. They feel natural.

The fact that the levels are levels doesn't bother you, because it's... well, a training course. It's SUPPOSED to have levels. The name of the person you're playing isn't used, and since there's noone to talk to, the muteness of your avatar doesn't feel weird. The motivation of the avatar is the same as the motivation of the player. Survive. This is really important.

There are no pointers in Portal. The only real story is given by those projectors that connect the story to the Half-Life Universe and some of the lines of GLADos. Otherwise, you're free to make up your own story, use your imagination.

Portal has no menus to go through, no hud, nothing except the rather different crosshair. There's no tutorial to go through because the game itself is built upon your character (and you) not knowing what to do and going through a series of tests to see if you can survive. So the avatar and the player share the same skills and knowledge. There's no real difference between the avatar and the player, and this is important to create a unity between story and gameplay.

The important thing is that in Portal, there are no moments that break the illusion of these things happening to you, there are no places where the pace of the storytelling drops, and there are no moments that you feel that you're doing something your avatar would not do. There's always the illusion of freedom within the parameters of the story, and story and gameplay always go hand in hand. This is not common.

With this background, you can also do some interesting things. The humor in the game is funny, witty and black. It's simply some of the best humor ever produced in a game. And it would not have worked in any other setting. Then there's the fact that they could make an inanimate object (Companion cube) likeable, even loveable. It's possible only due to the lack of human interaction in the game, and it's capitalised on with great effect.

No game I have ever played has had such a flawless union of story and gameplay, nor has it avoided as many storytelling pitfalls. It's not perfect, even I know that. But right now it's as good as it gets.

 

I've felt equally immersed in other games.. and more, however, i can clearly see where you are coming from. And in most games i agree. You do feel a bit detached because of the same things you mentioned there

In particular then one where "zomg this was easy" then cutscene and your chars are dying lol XD like wot !

Or if someones dead but they resurrect for the cutscene only to be dead again afterwards !