SvennoJ said:
I was thinking about half-life as well, but that's not really through game play. The game play is on hold during those interactive cut scenes. And what you find in the world is world building, also not game play. Story telling through world building is one of the most powerful tools, used by many genres. Dark souls, fallout, red dead redemption etc. Red dead redemption 2 does some efforts to tell story through game play, making the player balance his/her moral compass throughout the game with different assignments. Not only having different ways to things but also having real consequences through the unforgiving bounty system. |
Hm, the Half-Life example is difficul for me. I tend to say it is gameplay, since you can walk around while somebody is talking to you. But not far and you cannot cut anybody of and you have to listen (never played it, just an assumption). So there is not much point in you still being able to walk around in the first place. You don't tell a story by walking two meters back and torth. ... Or perhaps you do - feels like a slippery slope, but you standing with your face turned away while somebody talks to you as very different from looking at that somebody. Would just be neat if that somebody reacts to your position in the room by altering what is said.
I feel similary conflicted by stuff you find in the world. On the one hand, yes, this is not you telling a story through gameplay. But you experience it through gameplay. It is not a cutscene where interactivity is taken away from you. Say you cannot interact with whatever you see, but you can decide to watch it, or walk by. These are very much different modes of play. You can rush through, or you can decide to stay for a few minutes and ponder the implications of that open cage and the blody smears beside it. It is different from holding yordas hand, but on some minor level it still is story through gameplay.
