Curmudgeon Creep

As I grow older, I find myself increasingly annoyed by little inconsistencies in video games with respect to the IPs they are adapted from.  Maybe I'm being grumpy or maybe I'm just overly picky, but I'll try to get at the heart of what's bugging me by talking about three different properties.

Acid for Blood

Alien, as a franchise, has always made a big deal out of their xenomorphs bleeding highly corrosive molecular acid.  It was shown that facehuggers have this biological defense in the original film, while the second confirmed that the queen and adult forms also possess this trait.  It has never been demonstrated in any film that the same is true for chestbursters, but I imagine it would be best to assume so.  Despite all this, video game adaptations of the IP seem to largely ignore what is a defining aspect of these creatures.  Only a small number of the games in this franchise account for splash damage when dispatching xenomorphs at close range.  As I recall, Aliens vs. Predator 2 (the game, not the movie) is the only title that visually shows the effects of acid blood by having little hissing clouds of vapor rise from the corpses of slain xenomorphs.  In truth the most accurate approach would be to have dead aliens sink into holes of their own creation.  More dramatically, acid eating through the flooring of a spaceship is almost guaranteed to be a disaster - electronics, plumbing and ventilation damage leading to fire, flooding, decompression, etc.  Yet, pretty much all Alien-themed games have the player running around blasting xenomorphs without any of these consequences.

Sabers of Light

Star Wars has demonstrated time and again that the only thing a lightsaber can't cut through is an energy field.  Sometimes it's like a hot knife through butter and other times more like a chainsaw through oak, but the fact remains; if it is matter then energy swords can slice it.  When it comes to video games though it seems like beating enemies (particularly bosses) repeatedly over the head with a lightsaber is the only way to get results.  It's almost as if these iconic weapons of the Jedi and Sith are only slightly more lethal than a wiffle bat.  Of course the reason for this is Star Wars games being rated "T" for "Teen" and not "M" for "disMeMberMent"...(Rated "MMM"?).  As for inanimate objects, it's much like the acid blood problem in that game devs really don't want to tackle the the challenge of poliginal deformation.

Command and Control

While not quite in the same league as the previous two problems, RTS titles (especially ones taking place in a pre-modern setting) almost always handwave how giving/receiving orders is accomplished.  Historically speaking, battles fought up until the later half of the 20th century were plagued by miscommunication or outright failed communication.  Obviously, pre-planning was important as well as delegating responsibilities to subordinates.  Nevertheless, pretty much every RTS gives players complete and instantaneous control over every unit on the battlefield.  To their credit, the makers of the Total War franchise do include the option to toggle on a limited area-of-control sphere centered around the field commander unit.  While I appreciate the gesture, in classic total war fashion it doesn't do much to address the more fundamental problem of dimwitted A.I.

Now, I'm sure if any developer were to read this blogpost they would dismiss my complaints with a flippant comment along the lines of "it wouldn't be fun."  Maybe...maybe not.  However, video games are an interactive medium and far too often developers treat their game worlds more like an amusement park or museum rather than sandboxes and a toolkit.  "Look, but don't touch," feels like a guiding principle of environmental design "because anything else would be too much work."  It's a shame, because games like Mario and Minecraft are what has proven to be successful...not FMV rail-shooters like Sewer Shark.  We have the technology.  We have the hardware.  Let's make the next generation of gaming more than just the same thing, but with 4K resolution at 60fps.