GamerNode: Columns - Are Simple Storylines Better?

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However, the actual screen of the game shows us so much more:



Ignoring the user interface for a moment, as they are more than a little irrelevant to the concept at hand, focus on the invaders themselves. Not anthropomorphic in any way, and most interestingly, far greater in number than your one ship. Already overwhelmed, you must stop them from reaching you, and therefore the bottom of the screen. You shoot them, they die, and you progress. But what makes the gameplay so conducive to the narrative is that it's just so obvious.

You are the defence, the last shield between hope and oblivion, and this is made so obvious by the fact that though you can shift from left to right, you can NEVER move forwards or backwards.  Why? Because you are impassable, not tempted into a suicidal rush into the enemy hordes, nor cowardly enough to retreat further into the city who's arches you dart between, hoping to dodge that last bullet before they fail to dodge yours.

These narratives are so simple it truly does make you wonder why games developers adopt such an over-complex Hollywood model when considering storylines and subtexts. Games don't need to be complex narrative experiences that make you think, because as immersive as that is, sometimes that just doesn't mesh with the gameplay you're providing. Mass Effect's combat was not so much integrated as it was necessary; you were encouraged to investigate, and defend yourself if the need arose, but that was it. Sandbox environments like Cyrodiil and Liberty City are wonderful and so easy to lose yourself in, but in turn are so easy to lose yourself in that you begin to forget what your purpose was as you gun down thugs from a Hummer, or send a fireball into the chest of a club-wielding ogre.

I saw many titles announced at this years E3, some complex, and some so simplistic that you know you won't have to learn fifteen names before relaxing and having a good time. Gameplay that requires no recurrent commitment requires no narrative more complex than mushrooms that make you big enough to break the BIG blocks. You can bet I'll be playing seven shades of wonder out of FFXIII (and its MMO sequel, hurrah), but at the same time, I can sink into Super Mario Bros. so quickly because it's not asking me to link items and charge summons, just to run and jump a bit and save an Italian man's girl. And you know how passionate those Italian men are. See? Easy.

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