Think about a time when you were playing a game and truly fell in love with the world in which the game was set in. What made the world so memorable? The answers to that may differ depending on the person. Some may say that it's a unique visual style the game used, like the comic book look of Crackdown or Borderlands. Some may say that the history behind the setting is fascinating and they strive to learn more about it. Now think of a character you really loved. What made them memorable? Was it the way they looked or their personal background? Believe it or not, the setting of a game world can have a personality much like a character, but only if the developer is willing to flesh it out. Unfortunately, not every game that's released is able to successfully pull off this narrative technique, but when done right it can really enhance the experience for the player.
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Think of a villain and the traits that made them the antagonist. What did they do that made them the bad guy? They might have an evil disposition, or their methods may be violent and extreme. The same can apply to the setting of a game. Let's say a recent game is set around an exploding volcano. The whole sky is dark with ash, and the mountain stares down upon you like a vulture ready to eat. That's the evil disposition part. Now, let's say the lava flowing down the volcano can kill you if you touch it, and the tumbling rocks rolling down the mountain pose a serious hazard to your health. That's the violent method part.
Now let's use a good character, like Vanille from Final Fantasy XIII. At the beginning of the game, Vanille is traveling with the depressed Hope Estheim. She tries to cheer him up whenever possible. As a character, Vanille is very cheerful and doesn't seem to care about the dangers all around her; she's willing to help out Snow fight the soldiers during the Purge, which means putting her right in the line of fire. When you translate that into a video game setting, you're probably imaging a beautiful environment filled with flowers. That's the carefree part. The flowers also raise up out of the ground when you step on them, allowing you to reach elevated areas that you otherwise had no hope of getting to. That's the "helping out" part.
Those are just a few examples of how the setting of a video game can almost seem like a character itself. Let's take a look at what I think is one of the better examples of a game having a setting that seems like a character. That game is Bioshock.
We've all seen or played it. Bioshock was one of the most unique and fascinating shooters to come out in a long time, and one of the things I loved about it was the underwater city of Rapture that the game was set in. When you meet a new character in a game, you know nothing about them. You don't know their history, what they look like (before meeting them, of course), or whether they're good or bad. The same applies to Rapture, since you know absolutely nothing about the city when you discover it. Since being underwater somewhat limits what the developers can do with the setting, the Big Daddies and Little Sisters are there partly because they makes Rapture feel alive rather than being superfluous additions. (To be fair, there are story related reasons why they exist).
In my mind, the best character in Bioshock is Rapture. The game has proven that when settings and locations are developed well enough, they can leave a lasting impression on you that doesn't go away, much like the impression that an awesome character can leave. Hopefully more studios will recognize this narrative technique as something special and will strive to put more thought into their game worlds instead of simply using them as backdrops for story events.
