Gaming — The Most Versatile Medium

Videogames are undoubtedly the most versatile form of media, yet I recently realised barely any developers are fully utilising the additional layers of interactivity that games provide. More often than not — especially at the AAA level — they opt for lower-risk and less experimental games, as they’re safer bets to make a profit. There will be major spoilers ahead for The Last of Us Part 1 and 2 and Undertale.

By no means do I intend this as an attack, but Sony’s first-party titles fall into this trap nearly consistently, and it seems a difficult one to escape. Games like God of War (2016), The Last of Us Part 1, and especially Part 2 tell interesting stories but don’t utilise the connection to the player to improve the quality and complexity. I find The Last of Us Part 2 to be the biggest offender, as it felt as though it had the perfect way to tie the player's actions into the wider plot. Being a game focused so heavily on the cycle of violence, I was hoping the way you interact with the game could have some implications for the story. In practice, however, it’s a purely on-rails experience; you’re there to enjoy Ellie and Abby’s stories the way Naughty Dog wants you to. The ending especially frustrates me, as Ellie giving up on killing Abby felt a little bizarre to me. Finally understanding that revenge won’t solve her problems is great, but it never seems to take note that Ellie has already killed hundreds of people simply because they were in the way, with no option to deal with it sneakily or non-lethally, which I felt could have tied incredibly well into some form of meta-narrative about Ellie not wanting to stoop to Abby’s level. This is by no means a direct criticism of the narrative, or the story-telling, more a personal gripe that I had hoped to be developed differently. Still, Sony is quite obviously going down the path of safer, more cinematic titles, over the experimental and unique gameplay I want to see more of.

The first title I want to delve into in a positive light is Undertale, which uses its connection between the player and the player character (Frisk) to tell an equally unnerving and clever story. I found this the most apparent throughout the game's “Genocide” route, which consists of killing everything physically possible in the game and is near impossible to accidentally run into. To begin this route, you must simply farm random encounters over and over, killing everything in your way, until eventually, no enemies will spawn, and encounters will be replaced with the “but nobody came” text. Doing this in each area will keep you on this path, which has very notable and bizarre changes to the game.

Throughout the Genocide route, Frisk seems far less whimsical about everything, with many text boxes being incredibly blunt and uninteresting, and Frisk also never bothers to engage with Papyrus’ puzzles, which he laid out for them to have fun with, even going so far as cancelling the final puzzle because the player “wouldn’t appreciate it”. NPCs throughout also end up evacuating and running away through the game, and there are hints and even direct calls to them being terrified of the player. A note in a shop in Snowdin says, “Please don’t hurt my family”. Through this, there are regular signs of Sans and Flowey being aware of what’s happening, and that there's a force beyond Frisk that’s in control: the player. Sans frequently makes comments which seem to address the player instead of Frisk, making these tragic events in-game not feel like the game's story, but a direct consequence of your actions.

The narrative isn’t the only tool used to showcase the incredible interactive elements of gaming, as seen in Manifold Garden, a puzzle game with barely any narrative to begin with. Instead, it utilises Escher-esque environments, bizarre and unexplainable. This isn’t inherently something that doesn’t work in other forms of media; there’s a plethora of art, movies, and even books that use these forms, but none have the same feel. Being dropped into these impossible locations is an incredibly strange and unique feeling because it directly contradicts any actual instinct you may have.

That Dragon, Cancer is another clever use of interactivity within the gaming sphere, yet, in this case, it utilises the lack of interactivity. The story follows a man's four-year journey with cancer, with themes of finding hope and faith through a hopeless feeling situation. There’s a specific moment within That Dragon, Cancer, which carries this sentiment when a child begins to cry. There’s absolutely nothing that you can do to soothe this child’s crying, it doesn’t take control away from the player, you’re simply just forced to sit and wait as the child continues to sob. It’s a feeling that nothing else can imitate, since, as a medium, gaming emphasises interactivity, so that expectation gets completely subverted in a way no other media would be able to even come close to.

Fumito Ueda is known for a very distinct approach to creating his games, known for Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and The Last Guardian, which are all games that either don’t hold the player's hand at all or, even in some cases, oppose the player directly. Ico was the first title he directed, and it’s notable for its minimalist design as far as gameplay is concerned. The entire lack of a HUD was a huge change, and the fact the game's primary mechanic is an escort mission opposes many of the favoured concepts at the time, yet it's done with such mastery that it doesn’t need to conform to traditional ideals, and instead manages to tell a unique story in its way. The Last Guardian does a great job at almost insulting the player, in the way it outright takes the control out of the player's hands, yet this ties to the narrative in an utterly brilliant way, taking much of that frustration and turning it into a tool to immerse the player. The story follows a boy who awakens in a castle and meets a huge animal by the name of Trico. Trico is initially hostile, but after freeing them, they have little trust, yet they still help the boy journey through the castle. Initially, though, this fragmented trust stops Trico from listening to your commands, meaning you really have to try to work with Trico, feeding and petting them to build a bond, and only then will they start to listen and work with you, and as the bond gets stronger, they’ll listen to you more and more.

FromSoftware’s titles tell the story in an extremely abstract way, by avoiding telling the majority of the story to the player and leaving it to them to find it for themselves. While there is a “story” at the forefront, it’s incredibly basic, while the more complex and deeper plot and lore implications are hidden throughout the world. Items often hide details for characters and events, while simultaneously leaving incredibly obtuse hints around the levels. Fan discussion of DARK SOULS III is a great example of this, as I hear a lot of people talking about the amount of location and reuse of story details within this title, but that’s the whole point. DARK SOULS III emphasises the looping nature of the world, but this is easy to miss. Details hidden within items, bosses, and even the ending itself hint that things aren’t quite as they seem. The similarities between DARK SOULS and DARK SOULS III are noticeable, but the way they are shown in the latter just feels wrong and distorted.

Videogames are a medium that emphasises creativity above anything else, yet not enough of them seem to take these risks. AAA games are seemingly falling into a trend of safety, and I feel indie developers will be taking the lead in innovation, along with the smaller but still AAA studios, with directors such as Fumito Ueda, Hidetaka Miyazaki and Hideo Kojima at the forefront.