| MTZehvor said: O/T: As others have said, I think OP would be benefitted by a bit more brevity. I do think it's entirely fair to analyze the game's story this heavily, especially when the narrative and characters are some of the main selling points of the game and have been praised consistently, but I feel that you'd be better served by listing one or two main complaints, and then going through and explaining how these are embodied in the game. If you want to focus on inconsistencies in the narrative's tone, then it might be better to state that up front and pick a few examples that last maybe a paragraph or so. As it stands, getting a seven paragraph summary of the opening scene (which most of the people reading this will already be familiar with) with so many of the details (relevant to your argument or not) included just makes it harder for people to understand where the argument is going, as well as more likely to stop reading. Personally, I had to re-read a couple of times to figure out specifically what the major complaints were. |
There's not really that much more I need to add. That is the perfect example of the problem I have with the game. If you're going to make a serious stab at a narrative driven game (within the body of an open world game of course) then you have to find ways of retaining the narrative beats, the emotional context and the way you want the player to play/feel/interact. The boat and the stories told there are a perfect example of how to 'avoid' the problem, but there are many more linear moments that jar badly simply because the writers reached for the easy way out instead of contextualising them. Lines that essentially just state: 'I'm angry now, I'm sad now, I'm fighting inner demons now' etc.
If you start a narrative sincerely, which this game clearly does occasionally, then you have to treat the journey through to its conclusion with equal sincerity. You can't just expect the player to think: 'Ok, where was I? Oh, yeah, I'm sad now.' There was unique chat between Kratos and Atreus throughout several mini journeys in the game so there's no reason to waste those, but they do. It's as if they've viewed the cutscenes as the story and the chat as secondary to the story, only there to give pointers or fortify what we should already be able to work out for ourselves. It's why TLOU is a masterpiece. We only need a simple glance at a watch and we are there emotionally, and that was contextual because it also told us he wasn't just thinking of his daughter, he was starting to see Ellie as a father, something he later then fights to hide with anger and the line 'you sure as hell ain't my daughter'. He initially thinks he's done that for what's best for Ellie but yet another simple look over to Ellie tells us -- now he's in a moment of calm -- he realises why he was angry and begins the process of coming to terms with it. This narrative ends with him telling Ellie to get up on his horse. Again, all we needed to see the final conclusion of his reignited Fatherliness. In TLOU the lines he delivers has nothing to do with saying 'OK, Ellie, I was a bit harsh back there. I'm sorry.' In GOW it would have been.
I call it the David Cage syndrome, much to the chagrin of many.
Last edited by GribbleGrunger - on 25 April 2018
The PS5 Exists.
