Gaming Writing for the LCD: FPS games

Thats what Tim thought I meant when he edited it, but frankly I'm just not clever enough to know more than one acronym...

 

I think what helped with Prey is that the game opens with you looking in a mirror. It helps to tie the player to the character and make that link that you are him and he is you.

As for the guns, I thought Prey had a nice mix of weaponry. I'm playing it through again for a second time, and I find myself switching weapons pretty regularly. Sure, some of them seem rather weak (leech cannon could use a larger clip capacity), but they all serve a purpose.

I agree tho, enemy AI wasn't that great. They knew how to hide when they were out-gunned, that was about it.

 

a couple games that did a reasonably good job in the story/immersion departments was both Metroid Prime and Star Wars: Republic Commando

Metroid prime was unique in that while there was no dialog, the way the story was told through scan points and the detail given to the environment kept everything in tune and immersive.

while the gameplay elements of republic commando were not stellar, the excellent voiceovers gave the characters more life than most other VG characters.

the end point is that if the characters are not fully fleshed out, the story doesn't really make a major difference.

 

Anyone ever played armed and dangerous II?? That is a hilarious game with the subtle (NOT) hints that they give away in the cutscenes.. The only thing that let the game down was poor graphics.

 

I was thinking of RC too. Most of the player's character dialog originated from actions the player did, so it felt like the player initiated the dialog.
RC impressed me largely because, even tho these guys are all clones of the same man (and have the same voice actor), each member of the team had unique personalities. The camaraderie between them made me actually care about the characters.

 

I take your point about RC, though I consider character development to be an aspect of plot (or story, as a general term) and is why I spent a while talking about protaganists. Trust me, I could have gone on for another 8 pages or so talking about supporting characters, design and the effect of level design, but I thought best to focus on the core issues and not stray too far from the point.

Anything anyone want to know about Adventure games in the next installment, or ideas of who to quiz? A genre or topic you want discussed later? PM or email me at joe.martin@bit-tech.net, or add it on here.

 

Loved your article... FPS IS my favourite game style, although I do like Lucasart-adventure games...
Just finished MI 1 & 2, and the 3 is starting. Full trottle was soooo good.

God bless ScummVM !!

Interview Ron Gilbert !! (I'm sure it's your dream to do it !!^^)

10 hours gameplay for Crysis ? nOOOOOO, all this wait for that. (hope they double it at least)

 

I guess it would be interesting to extend your brief here into how RPG developers create a sense of association with a character when they are traditionally staged from the 3rd person. I know I found the story in Jedi Knight 2, for example, ressonably compelling... Or maybe I just want to remember it that way. And yes, I realise you could choose between first and 3rd person in that particular game. 3rd is better for lighsabering (it is a word)

 

In the first page you say that gamers have come to expect more storyline based game and I want to argue that point. While I agree that storylines are important I don't think they are all that important to FPS games. I mean when a game is really fun I usually skip the cut scenes to get to the action. FPS games are usually more about having cool effects, nice graphics, and decent levels. Now The reason I'm saying all of this is not because I think that storylines are unimportant to a games success. In fact I think that storylines can be a very nice addition. But I think that really gamers didn't really care about storylines until reviewers started caring and adding it to the rating. And I believe we still don't really care but a lot of the time I only read the conclusion of the review so sometimes we miss why the game got a bad rating.

 

HL2 EP2

You know, technically, Halflife 2 Episode 2 isn't episodic content because you can no longer buy Episode 2 on its own. You are required to purchase the "Orange Box", which contains HL2, Episode 1, etc.

 

First off, excellent article

I think the plot / character development makes all the difference in the world when it comes to games. Good graphics can only go so far (see Doom 3), good, innovative, gameplay takes you further, but a good story line and characters that not only have personality but that you actually care about it what turns my crank. It's for all these reasons that I thought HL2 was the greatest game ever.

The other one of the HL series that stuck out for me was OpFor because of the innovative weapons / tools. It was the first game I played with a sniper rifle, and remember the miniature tounge thing you used to get across ravines and the strange creature that rode on your hand and you fed exploding balls to? In any other game these would be a rope gun and a grenade launcher, but the fact that the creators did something truly different with these common elements made it memorable for me.

So there you have it. Graphics and game play are all well and good, but IMHO a truly great game also needs innovations, plot and good characters.

 

DO NOT PLAY MONKEY ISLAND 4! It's an awful game, will ruin the series for you and rewrites the backstory. Leave the series alone at number 3, which is pretty damn good.

Instead, jump from number 3 to Sam and Max if you haven't played it, or go for the uber kill and try Grim Fandango. If ever there was a better adventure game than Monkey Island 2 (an issue I'm still torn about) then it is Grim Fandango. Moody, moving and miraculously executed with art to rival the Tate and dialogue straight out of a Humphrey Bogart film.

 

"Writing for the LCD"
Writing for something which we're all divisible by?
But that's true, because I've seen a lot of division over games.

 

Im not sure we will ever see truely epic stories within FPS, because the level of immersion within this type of genre is very limited. Dialogue with NPCs tend to be short and sweet affairs. Even if developers try and build depth of character into a game, how many people will simply get bored and skip through these parts to get to the shooting bits?
Deep complex storyline works great for Movies because you have absolutely no control over the medium and are just along for the ride so to speak. With FPS you are in direct control, yet (to my knowledge) only Deus Ex has attempted to provide alternate avenues for story arcs to progress along.
Unless the character really has the ability to change the course of the unfolding storyline, I think we will be stuck with the status quo. Oblivion has attempted to integrate RPG with FPS which I think is a step in the right direction, but we need to get the main character influencing the way things unfold.
For this genre of gaming, we need a story telling on a totally different level to which we're accustom.

 

If we took LCD to be "lowest common denominator" then Joe would have written about "Championship Manager" and "Fifa 2007" being as that's what Chav's all play

Stereotypes Cheesecake!

 

Effect an unfolding story? Like this you mean? It's not exactly a shooter, but it is first person and very interactive. You type what you want to say and the AI just picks it up and goes with it. Different story every time you play and utterly different outcomes. Worth a download and at least two plays since it only takes 10 mins to finish.

 

Yep this is where we need to explore more with FPS. The film "The Shawshank Redemption" shows just how a good script can help you connect with the characters and still entertain you without all the fancy window dressing of special effects. It's this level of depth we are missing.

 

Really nicely written article there, it's good to read something that explores concepts other than hardware sometimes. I'll be looking out for further articles like this.

 

You can still buy it separately through Steam.

 

I'd put money down on the fact that the people who want decently developed stories in games are the same people who think games are an art form...