Peril is a crucial part of most story telling. Even though we all know that there is very little chance that the protagonist of our favourite stories can fail in their journey, it's very important to believe that they might. Whether it's Harry Potter at the end of JK Rowling's books or Frodo at the end of the Lord of the Rings, we need to believe they could die..
What's got me thinking about this is the distinct lack of peril in games. For example, I love Skyrim and have spent around a hundred hours in the remarkable world created by Bethesda. As my level 50 warrior strolls around clad in Dragon Bone armour with swords and shields suitably enchanted, the chances of me meeting anything that should even begin to bother me is minimal. However, even early in the game the thought of backing away from a confrontation is virtually zero. Why? Well, if I should die when charging brainlessly in to battle then I simply reload from a few minutes before and avoid the battle entirely or approach it in a different way.
Anyone who has played a Call of Duty game online is well aware that people charge around like they're Superman, shooting anything that moves for 10 minutes or so and likely get killed by nearly as many people as they kill (everyone would of course tell you their Kill Death Ratio is much better than 1:1 though).
Imagine if you will though, walking across one of Skyrim's beautiful vistas and seeing a dragon circling on the horizon but instead of charging in fearlessly, ducking behind a tree and hoping the majestic beast hasn't seen you. Why? Because dying in the game has real consequences. Perhaps even the permanent death of a character that has seen you through 50-100 hours of gaming.
The joy inherent in this tension has struck me following hours spent playing XCom: Enemy Unknown and indie hit FTL (Faster Than Light). In both games death can be a genuine consequence of making poor choices. In XCom my 15 hour, 70 kill, top level Heavy Colonel could be brought to an untimely death through one simple and poor move on my behalf leaving a genuinely somber tone as you imagine poor Colonel Wang's little children. Recognising this emotion Firaxis have taken a step further with their global Facebook Memorial Wall found here. The level of feeling attached to what should be virtual cookie-cutter soldiers wouldn't have felt nearly as touching had Firaxis made it easy to keep these characters alive or reload an earlier save.
Now, I'm not stupid of course and realise that most gamers would be put off in an instant by perma-death of a 70 hour RPG character or if death in Call of Duty multiplayer meant a 24 hour lockout of the multiplayer component but perhaps there should be an option or rewards for selecting this most hardcore of hardcore gameplay styles. I worry that without it games and gaming lack an edge of excitement that they could have.
The Walking Dead by Telltale games managed to make you fear death throughout its first season and never left you resting on your laurels. Perhaps this is why the game has garnered such positive reviews and the delight in not knowing who would make it to the next episode kept many playing (and voting it as their game of the year).
I know that this is a post that will mean nothing to most and in fact, death is becoming less and less of an issue in gaming. From near constant autosaving forcing the loss of a few minutes of game time in most games through to the actually impossible to die 2008 Prince of Persia game (which was excellent), the aim to gather more casual gamers will likely make death more and more unlikely. I just state for the record, I would like more peril in gaming as it's what makes story-telling exciting.
As always, love to get your comments and thoughts.
'Games at the forefront of what we do,' was one of the key messages given by Microsoft's Xbox team throughout their hour and half press conference from E3 today and they weren't entirely lying although it was sadly a little underwhelming. Halo 4, Call of Duty: Black Ops II, Fable: The Journey, Forza: Horizon, Tomb Raider, Resident Evil 6 and Gears of War: Judgement all made unsurprising appearances in some form or another during the show and it would be trite to say that they didn't get my gamer blood flowing.
Halo 4 is looking good and polished with an opening of a UNSC science ship crashing on to an unknown planet. Master Chief turns up to investigate and soon comes across some covenant, using a redesigned battle rifle and assault rifle the chief makes short work of a few of these before they are destroyed by an unknown foe. We're then introduced to an organic-looking AI enemy, one of whom drops a weapon which Cortana quickly explains is early Forerunner technology. A few new Forerunner weapons and a new heat-sensitive visor are shown off but again nothing overwhelming. Call of Duty went through its usual paces of scripted scenes and big explosions. Some were certainly impressive, especially a building collapse near the end of the scene. How much do people care about what Call of Duty does in its single player mode though?
The most interesting gaming addition of the show, for me, was the announcement of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. It looks like the same engine as the very enjoyable Splinter Cell Conviction with Sam Fisher, now firmly back in the fold as the leader of a newly founded unit Fourth Echelon. With Sam moving quickly through his environment killing on the way, the game looks polished and surprisingly close to ready considering its Spring 2013 release date. Kinect support is integrated and Sam can distract guards and call in support from home base using voice commands.
Whilst we're on it, Kinect support looks to be highly pressed by Microsoft with the addition of Kinect features for Fifa 13 and Madden. A slightly puzzled looking NFL legend Joe Montana was dragged out to make a few calls as a quarter-back and Kinect seemed to pick them up nicely and a short video and talk demonstrated Kinect being used to change formations, make substitutions and direct your players in 'Be a Pro' mode. A quite nice touch was shouting at the referee and the commentary picking up on the anger at a bad decision; I was left wondering if you get booked for swearing though. Fable Journey looks a little like a fancier Gunstringer, although I do love the universe Lionhead have created.
The biggest 'surprise' of the show was the announcement and demonstration of Xbox SmartGlass. This had previously been leaked but some of the integration, particularly with games, could be very interesting. We saw a return to Madden 13 with the use of a Windows 8 tablet being used to select and draw out plays and a return to Halo 4 with the integration of game and tablet by selecting a ship on screen and getting information on the tablet. With the right developers this could be a brilliant addition to the Xbox but I worry the best uses will be limited to a few creative developers. Rather brilliantly however is that this will work on existing tablets including iOS and Android devices.
Most disappointingly though were the apparent attempts at copying other games and console ideas. Tomb Raider and Resident Evil 6 both look like they're trying to capture some of the pace of the Uncharted series with scripted moments through collapsing environments. New Xbox Live game Wreckateer is a fairly shameless Angry Birds ripoff in 3D (and was described as rad!). Forza Horizons has too much of Burnout or Need for Speed with more realistic vehicles look for me. New game from Signal Studios, Ascend New Gods, looks like it has clear pretensions to Shadow of the Collosus. And even Xbox SmartGlass, whilst quite interesting, is a clear attempt to pick up the Wii U market before the Wii U even comes out.
Asides from a handful of celebrity appearances, the aforementioned Joe Montana, South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone showing South Park RPG and a frankly peculiar 5 minute Usher interlude linked to Dance Central 3 near the end of the presentation, it was a pretty by the numbers press-conference. The reveal of the previously leaked SmartGlass raises some interesting possibilities and I'm intrigued to see what innovative developers can do with it beyond inventory management and maps.
I'd be intrigued to know what others think so leave your comments in the box below.
