Over the last few weeks I have found myself engrossed in two completely different types of game; Uncharted 3: Drakes Deception and Skyrim couldn’t be further apart from each other in the way each plays and how their stories are told.
U3 lets you guide its protagonist, Nathan Drake, through an intense story with twists and turns every few chapters. It guides you exactly where you need to go, you cannot deviate from its strict path, to do so results in death. Skyrim on the other hand, whilst also telling a truly epic story, gives the player a lot more freedom to progress through the world at their own pace, discovering hidden locations and new enemies to battle as they make their way throughout the land. Being guided down a narrow path allows a developer to tell a focussed story, one that they wish to tell, that their writers spent months crafting, whereas open world games allow the player to craft their own stories through exploration and discovery. Some people prefer sticking to one type of game, either linear or open world, which is a massive shame because both can offer so much to someone looking to be entertained.
I really wasn’t that interested in Skyrim as launch date rolled around. Sure the initial teasers and live action launch trailer were impressive but nothing about the game really grabbed me. Reading previews, speaking to Ryan and Jenn about their Eurogamer hands on I just didn’t feel like I needed to play the game. It also didn’t help that the only other Elder Scrolls game I played, Oblivion, bored me to tears. “What changed Joe?” I hear you say. Well, I read a couple of reviews where the writer had told of the stories that he had been able to be a part of whilst playing the game, not even on the main quest missions, but random acts that happen that bring Skyrim to life.
After picking it up from my local store I jumped straight into the game with trepidation. I still wasn’t sure that this would be the game for me. As someone who loves solid storytelling I just thought it all to be too big, and everything would be very washy. But Skyrim surprised me, I have more stories to tell from playing fifteen hours than I do in most games. This past weekend I was battling some bandits on a fort, miles away from any quest missions. After hacking, slashing and arrowing my way to victory I set off on my merry way to find someone else in need of slaying. As I exited the fort a shadow was cast upon me as a dragon swirled overhead. What I didn’t see initially was that on the open plains just below me was a lonely mammoth, minding his own business. I began jousting with the dragon, sending arrows and fireballs in his general direction. As the dragon started raining down his molten breath I started to flee across the field towards the mammoth. It may have been that look in my eye that did it, or the fireball that burnt the mammoth’s arse, but in that moment man and mammoth stood side by side, creating the world’s greatest tag team in order to subdue the circling reptile…
… and take it down we did. We were both a bit worse for wear as the dragon disintegrated on the floor. I felt I had made a new friend, the mammoth didn’t seem to mind me being too close to him, even with my bow out. It was at this point that I felt great sadness. I needed to move on, find my next adventure. I was going to leave my newest friend behind but I needed something from him. As I walked away, giving myself a good twenty meters room I stopped. Turned to look at my former tag team partner, raised my bow and shot him square in the face sending him crumpling to the ground. I went over and ripped that tusk straight out of his nose so that a woman in a faraway city would like me and teach me how to improve my speech. I felt bad for killing him, but it needed to be done. When there are dragons about you have to form allegiances when you can, but also break them.
Even though the game is coded in a way that certain characters react to other characters differently depending on the situation, on the surface it feels organic, as you traverse throughout the land of Skyrim. These unscripted events give you that sense of the world being alive, and the open world nature of the game allows that to happen. It’s something that isn’t as overly possible in a more linear game.
But I think what linear games have over open world games are the ability to flesh out their main characters. To use Nathan Drake for example I feel like if he was a real person I could walk up to him in a bar and have a conversation with him about everyday things. I know so much about him as a person, not just how he can slaughter hundreds of villains in a days work, but about his love life, what makes him tick and what winds him up. Same with Uncharted’s supporting cast; I want to have a sit down with Sully and maybe head out for some food with Elena and Nate. I feel attached to these characters because the Uncharted titles push you down a path they want you to take, and while that kind of gameplay may not be for everyone the narrative and characters never suffer. Sometimes I want to be able to explore as much as I want, create my own stories, use my imagination a bit more in order to fill out gaps in narrative but, at other times, I want to be told where to go and what to do in order to get the full experience that a team of writers and developers have worked so hard on to craft.
Whether you are playing a game like Uncharted or Skyrim the most important thing is that deep in the recess of your brain a little spark flickers, wakes your imagination, causing a chain reaction allowing you to fully open up and absorb what is in front of you. To feel. To believe. When you can believe what is on that screen in front of you, that is when you will feel the greatest reward.
Could NOT agree more with this. I was exactly the same about Skyrim, now I am loving it.
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you make some great points Joe and I agree in most part. What can be frustrating with Linear titles is A) the replayability i.e. you get a campaign that takes you 5 hours on a good day to complete and there is little or no reason to play it again B) value for money this links in quite nicely to the above you can get some 100+ hours out of an RPG akin to Skyrim or a sandbox game like GTA but you can spend or waste hours mindlessly wondering around doing what you fancy. I sit on the fence between both, some if not most of my favourite games are linear to a point but give you that feeling of a much larger world/universe by the way they are executed, games like Bioshock, Final Fantasy VII, Little Big Adventure, Half Life 1 and 2, Beyond Good and Evil ,Zelda and many more I have sunk hours into these games which i wouldn’t consider having a narrow path approach. I dislike nothing more than a linear game that might as well be on rails it is so heavily scripted for the amount of input to what happens you get (SEGA made that very mistake with the mega CD where a large portion of their releases were just interactive FMV that required the odd button press see Night Trap, Road Avenger, Tomcat Alley etc ) But I get easily lost and distracted when playing super large open world RPG’s as I like a little direction and I hate to miss stuff (easter eggs, side quests etc) I agree regarding strong narrative and characters but I believe that when done right it can be achieved without sacrificing choice, interactivity, innovation and gameplay.
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Couldn’t agree with this article more! I just beat Uncharted 3 today, and a couple of days ago I was playing Dark Souls, and the level of attachment I felt towards both worlds was like night and day, on one hand, Dark Souls is grim depressing world, where you can’t really find anyone to befriend, and when I was fighting alongside Solaire of Astora, it made me really thing “Man, this guy is a total bro!” and when he went hollow because I failed to kill all the sunlight maggots, I felt bad, because I had to kill him, and it was my fault. On the other hand, however, much like you said, my knowledge of Drake’s, Elena’s, Sully’s lives makes me want to sit with them in a bar, share a couple of beers and just talk, Uncharted’s story line is magnificently written, though restricts a certain path.
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