Am I Just Getting Older?
by n33d2skate on Comments
On March 28th, 2013, DICE released roughly 17 minutes of gameplay for the upcoming Battlefield 4. In those 17 minutes we saw a car submerged in water, a lone soldier sneaking in a building with no ammo, and plenty of expected explosions that the franchise has come to be known for. However, there was one thing we didn't see: maturity. I'm not explicitly calling out Battlefield and calling them immature. I love the Battlefield series and Battlefield 3 was one of my favorite games of 2011 and one of my favorite online shooters of all-time. I watched the gameplay of Battlefield 4 that will be released in the fall for current gen consoles (quite a surprise) and it felt to me that all that needed to be shown was the firefights and crumbling buildings. This is perfect for a military shooter, but there's no emphasis on the story. Battlefield 3's story was nothing spectacular, it was actually pretty good for a military shooter, but it was lackluster when compared to other games. What many developers might not notice is that a great and engaging story can fascinate a wider variety of audiences than guns and big explosions. The first scene we witness in the gameplay is four soldiers in a car that's underwater. One of the soldiers is trapped under some parts of the car and the two other soldiers desperately try to free him. The fourth, the player, merely stands and watches. A few moments later, the trapped soldier literally orders the player to shoot out the window so the three can escape, but leaving him behind. Here's where I want to make a point. Yes, we barely know anything about these men other than they're fighting for their country, so it's difficult to say that this scene won't have any emotional affect on us as players when we play the full game. However, showing a character death like this so early makes me worry that DICE doesn't care much at all about their characters. Throughout the whole scene, there was only one soldier who seemed to be protesting from the heart. Where many people would contemplate the decision of shooting out the window, the player character simply aims the gun at the window with a shaky hand and pulls the trigger. The screen then cuts to black to show you what happened before and how the four men got to where they were. Like I stated earlier, most people would debate with themselves over whether or not to shoot out the window. Perhaps if Battlefield 4 took a few notes from Call of Duty: Black Ops II it may have changed this scene. Black Ops II did one thing that not many military first person shooters would do and that's giving the player a choice to make. Upon watching the Battlefield 4 gameplay, I thought about Black Ops II and how a similar decision making choices in Battlefield 4 could enhance the story. Sadly, everything just seemed to be done for you without you ever having to make a decision for yourself. This sounds like the same old story we hear when we play a new FPS. It's no secret that the FPS genre is usually criticized for its poor stories. It's as simple as looking at a globe, pointing to any random country, and saying that the Russians have invaded it and the US must stop them. Now, if I remember back to my middle school days, I was extremely excited for games like Modern Warfare 2. I loved mowing down enemies, causing gigantic explosions, and trying to take on the competition online. However, nowadays these aspects of gaming bore me, as I've seen them all to often. Where I used to be in awe at the big set piece of an FPS, I now yawn. These military FPS games are basically the summer blockbuster: they aren't particularly good, but they're very popular and generate a lot of money. I don't have a problem with Call of Duty, Battlefield, or the FPS genre itself, its the lack of substance that aggravates me. The stories of these games aren't original, but they could be. For example, instead of making the story about taking out Russians in Iran, why not have the story focus on the ideas of war and why it is being fought. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots did something similar to this and it made the story all the more interesting. I would much rather play a military shooter that deals with the consequences of nationalism and religious radicals than nuclear weapons. This may just be because I'm more mature than I was back in the 7th grade and I would like to see my games mature with me. In the past few years, my interest in the power of storytelling has dramatically increased as opposed to my dwindling interest in the set pieces, explosions, and shock value. There were two games that were released in 2012 that really caught my eye, not for the gameplay, but the story. The games were Telltale's The Walking Dead and Ubisoft Montreal's Far Cry 3. The Walking Dead told one of the greatest stories ever in a video game and is one of the big reasons that the industry needs to look at how powerful the pen really is. On the shooter side, Far Cry 3 explored the theme of insanity and how far a person is willing to go to gain something they desire. What made these two games have such strong stories were the strong characters that drove it. Be it the manically insane Vaas or the sweet, moral compass Clementine, the characters found in the two games were interesting and felt as if they were real. If Battlefield 4 were to write their characters the same way and give them deep characteristics and emotions, than the scene of the trapped soldier would be much, much more powerful. There is also a short snippet of a female soldier. I would love to see DICE take that chance and deal with the subject of females in the military and whether they should or shouldn't serve on the front lines. Let's say DICE read this blog and created stronger characters, crafted a better story, and explored the harsh themes of war. Would people be willing to go for it? I remember a conversation I had back in 9th grade with two students. The two guys were saying how they were excited for Modern Warfare 2 and God of War III. I said I was excited for both of those games, but I also mentioned Heavy Rain. The two laughed. "There aren't any guns in that game!" I remember one saying. The presence of guns in a game should not justify its quality. We watch movies that are purely just people talking with no weapon being drawn, no gun being shot, and no person being killed. Why can't we have games that do the same? It's because the general person looks at games being fun and most of them about killing. If a game was released in retail and not downloadable that contained no sort of violence, how many people do you think would buy it? I'd bet not very many. The industry needs to break away from always having violence and concentrate and heavily on its story. Video games create a whole new way of telling stories, creating characters, and experiencing emotions that no other artistic medium on this planet can provide. I would love to see a game that is compared to F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby" or Yann Martel's "Life of Pi". Journey did a fantastic job of presenting a beautiful allegory to the player in a way literature or film could never do. What if Battlefield 4 was like Tim O'Brien's "The Things They Carried" and talk about the burdens of war? Perhaps it would cause media outlets to no longer look down on video games and blame them for tragedies. The stories are out there and the industry needs to tell them in a whole new way to the public. 2013 will no doubt be a huge year for gaming as we'll see the rise of the next gen consoles. Hopefully, we'll also see the rise of storytelling in games. Hopefully, games will start to mature with us and tell adult stories. The newly released Tomb Raider was criticized for almost having a rape scene, but I praise the writers for making that move as it is a mature subject for games (plus it was vital for characterization). Strong storytelling and characters will emerge in the coming years and will hopefully spread out from games like The Walking Dead, Far Cry 3, and BioShock and find homes in games such as Call of Duty and Battlefield. We as a mature audience want to experience mature stories that are thought provoking, not just mindless killing. I'd like M for Mature to mean something more than blood and gore and mean something about us.
Log in to comment