Untitled Game by Section 9 Interactive

 

Like CJ Says...

There's been a lot of talk recently about the Grand Theft Auto Definitive Edition Trilogy.  Needless to say it hasn't been good; missing music, poor collision detection, graphics glitches, removed features, and some odd typos (caused by an A.I. algorithm upscaling in-game textures) are just a few of the issues.  Far more frustrating than a lack of proper quality assurance though are a bunch of cease-and-desist notices sent out to mod makers attempting to fix some of the bugs.  Adding insult to injury, the original version of these three entries in the GTA series have been delisted from console webstores.  If you want to play these games and don't have a gaming PC you have to purchase the "definitive edition" which is ironic because it is (in many ways) inferior to the originals.  Overall, the entire attempt to remaster this trio of games has been disaster.  It also makes the publisher (Rockstar Games) and the developer (Take-Two Interactive) look rather inept.  There's also the simple fact that older GTA games haven't aged especially well.

Don't get me wrong, when GTA III bumped the franchise up to three dimensions it did a lot to pioneer open-world game design.  Vice City made few minor improvements, such as adding bikes and watercraft, but basically copied its storyline from the film "Scarface."  Then came GTA: San Andres which had an interesting and original story complete with sympathetic protagonist, as well as rural regions between cities and even a proper swimming mechanic.  Because San Andres basically got what we nowadays call the GTA formula firing on all cylinders, it went on to be the most played game on PS2.  Despite all the success though, the gameplay felt a bit dated (even for the time) with sloppy third-person shooting and clunky character controls.  These were (and still are) weak points found even to this day in all of Rockstar's open-world games, as are semi-pointless minigames.  When it came to San Andres and the character of CJ, I simply got him as buff as possible in order to maximize his effectiveness in combat.  The whole eating and exercising thing felt like nothing more the annoying obstacles impeding that goal.  The dating sim aspects also seemed rather pointless.  Having said all that, I still enjoyed GTA: San Andres because I was invested in CJ.  Plus, the driving has always been fun for me.  The most interesting challenge the GTA games have ever presented, in my opinion, is procuring all the car collections.  True to the name of the game, Grand Theft Auto is at its best when you are doing just that.  The actually storyline missions, on the other hand, are very hit and miss.

Perhaps the way missions play out is something that could have been fine-tuned in a proper remake.  Sadly, a janky remaster is all were are ever getting (at least for the foreseeable future).  It's a shame because we as players already have to endure the indignity of unfinished games being pushed out to market on a regular basis.  Here though we are experiencing finished games being reverted back to an unfinished state.  Somehow things continue to get worse.  Also, sorry CJ...you deserved better than this.

Environmental Storytelling

Traditionally, the way video games tell a story is in the form of cutscenes.  In more recent years audio logs and text documents have become an increasingly common alternative.  However, neither are particularly elegant approaches.  Thankfully, there is another option in the form of pure visuals.  Games like Journey, Gris and Abzû excel at this, but they are also abstracted; relying on metaphor and allusion to communicate meaning.  Another variation in this vein is (for lack of a better term) armchair detective mode.  Games such as Dead Space and the Souls series use this method a lot in conjunction with more traditional storytelling techniques.  There is a game that recently came out though which uses visual clues to tell a surprisingly personal tale...but only one players will pick up on if they are paying close attention.  Appropriately enough, it's called Unpacking. 

As the name of the game implies, Unpacking is all about deciding where to put things when moving into a new home.  At its heart, Unpacking is a simple puzzle game.  Players have a fair amount of leeway as to where they can put things, but cannot advance to the next challenge if (for example) clothes are scattered all over the floor.  So, a certain amount of tidiness is required.  The game begins with a child's room.  Observant players will quickly deduce that they are in the roll of a girl who is somewhere around that age when one transitions from primary school to a secondary education.  Initially, players only have a bedroom to focus on.  As the game progresses though, more areas (including bathrooms, kitchens, living rooms and a foyer of sorts) are presented.  Added to this are stage unique conditions such as accommodating for roommates when the timeline advances to our female protagonist's college years.  Based on various items the player has to sort through and organize, it quickly becomes apparent that she is an artist and into fitness.  This leads to a stage where the player must decide where to put things in an already very masculine themed apartment.  It seems that she has moved in with her boyfriend.  Based on his stuff, it's not hard to conclude that he's a gym bro who likes wine, coffee, movies and video games.  It's here that we see some of the more subtle nuance seeping in.  Unlike the roommates situation, players can move his stuff around to some extent in order to make room for her own things...and yet there really isn't enough space for everything.  Her framed diploma, for example, has to go under the bed (out of sight) for lack of wall space and there really isn't a place for her art supplies or even all her personal hygiene products.

After clearing this stage, the next finds players back in the starting room of the game; the bedroom from their childhood.  A photo of a couple from the previous stage is still among her personal possessions (complete with thumbtacks), but the lack of a display surface means that it has to go in a drawer or some other out-of-the-way location.  On top of that one tack is stuck directly in the face of the male in the photo.  Presumably, things didn't work out and she is back at her parents home.  On the plus side though a stack of business cards implies that she is finding employment for her artistic talents  Unfortunately, the presence of some kind of backpain medicine indicates that she might need to change up her fitness routine due to age or injury.

There are more stages after this, but I think I have spoiled enough of the game as is.  Unpacking is a clever little game in terms of design and presentation despite the actual gameplay being nothing remarkable.  Even so, I hope other game developers take note because this indie gem demonstrates very clearly how details in an environment can say just as much (if not more) about characters and events than the written word or expository dialogue.  

From Paper to Celluloid to Digital

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World might be the greatest movie ever made....provided that you grew up in North America during the late 80s and happened to be into indie rock or video games.  As you can probably see those are some pretty major caveats.  In fact, I think the film being a theatrical failure had a lot to do with it being specially tailored to a rather niche demographic.  Certainly, the cinematography is not lacking.  So many shots throughout the film have a creative density that practically necessitates multiple viewings in order to fully appreciate.  The dialogue is also chalked full of humorous wordplay...the kind of thing that is practically impossible to convey in another language.  As if killing any potential for international success wasn't harsh enough Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is a tricky film to categorize in terms of genre.  Is it a comedy?...an action film?...Fantasy?...or romance?  One of director Edger Wright's previous movies, Shaun of the Dead, is often described as a romantic comedy that just happens to have zombies in it.  Edger Wright himself described Scott Pilgrim vs. The World as a musical with the songs replaced by fight scenes.  Much like how each song has its own theme, it does feel like each fight in the film has its own flavor:  Bollywood, Pro Skater, Rock Band, Chinese martial arts, kaiju and chambara to be chronologically specific.  Since this is a blog about video games though, lets focus in that particular aspect of the movie.

References to video games in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World range from obvious to so obscure they might not have been intentional.  One of the most overt tributes is to River City Ransom in that defeated opponents transform into coins.  Some of the martial arts moves in various fight scene are taken directly from Street Fighter Alpha 2 (particularly the "K.O." announcement).  The sequential nature of the one-on-one battles mixed with the girl-in-peril trope is a common thematic pairing for games like Karateka, Kung-fu Master and Double Dragon (the last of those three also makes a visually symbolic appearance toward the end of the film).  Somewhat less obvious is the name of one of the fictional indie rock bands - Clash at Demonhead.  This is actually a direct reference to a little-known 8-bit era NES game released in 1990.  During the "Bass Battle" the character Scott Pilgrim plays the bass line from a Final Fantasy II song (actually IV) for the SNES.  The Legend of Zelda is refrenced is several places: music from the series plays during the opening and during a dream sequence, Ramona's three different hair colors (pink, blue and green) are based on the three goddesses from Ocarina of Time, and Nega Scott is a spoof on Dark Link.  I've also seen it suggested that the indoor pyramid structure at the end of the film is a reference to Zelda 2: Adventures of Link.  What isn't clear though is whether or not it was intentional.  Another example is the importance of speaking in rhymes during battles.  The Monkey Island series by now-defunct Lucas Arts often featured swashbuckling sword duels wherein players had to select rhyming dialogue options in order to progress.  Some of the shots in the film use comic book style framing composition but few are actually taken from cutscenes in the original Ninja Gaiden.  Speaking of ninja...I think it is pretty obvious where the fictional "Ninja Ninja Revolution" arcade game got its inspiration from.  There are also numerous instances of video game sound effects being used from titles such as Sonic, Tekken, Smash Bros., and Super Mario 3.  In a more general sense, there is the appearance of health bars, 1UPs, leveling up and dialogue bleeps lifted from Commodore 64 bootup noises.  

Getting points for defeating foes has to one of the most universal aspects of classic video game design, but I wonder how many young people would understand the reference?  Even the "Continue?" countdown sequence at the end might be lost on someone who has never set foot in an arcade.  Regardless, I think Scott Pilgrim vs. The World will be a time capsule of sorts for future generations and for the foreseeable future the very definition of a "cult classic".

A Rocky Start

Some of these heroes look like they
were hitting the gym between games...

It's interesting that the sequel to the Darkest Dungeon is built around the idea of a road trip because, from a design perspective, it still has a long way to go.  To the studio's credit, Red Hook is trying to do quite a few new and innovative things.  These range from full polygonal character models to an entirely different approach as to how players manage their roster of adventurers.  Many of the subsystems that the current early access version of the game boasts certainly have potential, but are also in desperate need of refinement.

By far, the most bizarre and arbitrary mechanic has to be the five turn road combat limit.  The original game experimented with various consequences if battles dragged out for too long, such as sanity loss or enemy reinforcements.  Having combats simply end though after a predetermined number of rounds seems kind of weird and, frankly, an inelegant way to deal with potential problems.

Fan reactions seem decidedly mixed with the single most common criticism being the game is too punishing.  If you ask me, the sounds about the same as the original.  In fact, I was only able to complete the titular "Darkest Dungeon" with the aid of mods...nothing drastic in terms of adjusting difficult so much as reducing the grind.  Having to fight each of the game's bosses multiple times felt repetitive enough as is.  Needing to send expeditions in with the exact same tasks over and over just to get experience points and loot was a bit more than I could stand (especially when bad luck would result in a net loss).

It's not entirely clear how things will turn out for Darkest Dungeon II.  Unless you have an Epic Games Store account your going to have to wait until version 1.0 launches to actually play it.  Honestly though, having to hold off might be good thing because it's pretty obvious that this game need a lot of work before it can truly shine.