G4 Editor in Chief Adam Sessler dissects the art of storytelling in video games, where it’s been and where it’s going. Taking a look at Uncharted 2 and Brutal Legend as the best of the recent crop, Adam chats about what makes for a good story, and how dialogue and acting have vastly improved in games over the years. Yes, back in the day, the story just got in the way of the action, but now the story often drives the game. Why? What changed? Tune in and find out. Enjoy!
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Comments
Displaying 1–20 of 36
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sporkassassin
ive been playing games as long as i can remember, honestly my first memory is actually of super Nintendo's Zelda: a link to the past a game i beat before i could even read the text boxes that insisted on slowing me down. i can still remember the locations of all the treasure chest in super ghosts and ghouls so obviously challenging game play will keep me playing but after playing ff7 for the first time my life (as far as gaming is concerned anyway) changed forever. i grew to care about those characters so much so that i actually shed a few tears when Aries died. (laugh all you want i would do the same to you) ff7 had horrible graphics and no voice acting but was still able to tell a story that was lengthy yet still compelling. with all the upgrades that gaming hardware has had since then the only excuse for not having at the very least a decent plot to move a game along is laziness. I'll admit that a great game can have very little story but only if the game play is truly fun and cant be found else where such as with Borderlands otherwise the only thing that can save a story-less game is a great multi-player mode and even that will never make it worth more than a rental to me. to me picking my next game is always more like choosing a book to read than finding a game to play because without a story most games become little more than a series of mini games and as anyone who has tried Mario party on one player can attest that just isn't satisfying
EdwardBlake
Story should become a bigger element in the video game medium. I love the form of media. But I think that an all too common opinion about video games is that they're nothing more than shoot'em up, dime a dozen, adrenaline rushes. I adored Resident Evil Four and Metal Gear Solid 3 but the medium could do so much more and actually be accounted for some social change. In the future I hope to see the medium be taken more seriously. In fact I will relish the day that video games are brought up in the news for something other than violence. Eventually people will realize that the medium can be just as influential as the movie or musical medium. At one point movies and acting weren't taken seriously as an expressive medium. In order to reach public acceptance of video games as a form of exspression the games need to create a new way to tell the story. Cutscenes are basically short movie snippits. The story should be intertwined into the gameplay. This would make a story much more personal as if it were happening to the player. Movies try to throw you into the action but video games put you in control of the action. It is so much easier to get wrapped up in the story when you create it and control the exact sequence of events (not to say that there are no guidelines for the events). I've actually found myself thinking about Snakes's pain in MGS3 for weeks after finishing the game. The deeper message of the game has just resonated in me for months and still does. Video Games could be so much more than just games.
Basilisk1991
I do believe the plot is a driving element in a game, there are a myriad of ways to approach it, take left 4 dead for example, there's only the one cutscene, there are clues hidden throughout the game that you can draw your own conclusions from, I personally like this theroy as opposed to Resident Evil in which ebery plot point must be explained and be important which leads to convoluted plots which I absolutely loathe because it leaves people new to the series with a WTFJH? veiw of the plot.
Hiko
Wow Mr. Sessier, I think that it is great are so humble to do this. I watch your review way back when on the Metal Gear Solid 2 game and then your one on 4. But I digress, the thing I like about this vid was the last statement at the end. Thank you and please keep doing what your doing.
lizard64
Alright first things first
RROD is Back is actually someone that tells the facts on things and express his opinion like all of us. So for those that give him bad rep and lots of thumbs down, back off.
Also, I dont know why the 360 boys troll in and try and destroy someone for talking about Uncharted 2's greatness in story. I mean Adam said it himself: Its the greatest single player hes EVER played. SO obviously, that would place that out of all the big name AAA titles hes ever played or witnessed, Uncharted 2 has one of the best. Yes that would even be more so then Halo, Gears, Mass Effect, MGS, Ratchet and Clank, Bioshock, and others. But those are great stories too, especially the latter 3. And Adam even said he got the Raiders of the Lost Ark feeling. Hes not the only one. ive checked other sites and blogs. When you have got a game being described with Raiders of the Lost Ark, you know this game is good.
ok, back to the point. Now i havnt played Uncharted 2 or BRUTAL LEGEND but I have them and once i grab my fixed-up PS3 tomorrow (launch model so repairs were inevitable) ill get into it. Now its great to hear that with the voice talent incorporated into brutal legend, a solid story element with great dialogue. And the same cane be said with Uncharted except that has more of an adventurous theme. The story and length of the single-player game is the heart and soul of the game. its what sets the theme, atmosphere, and overall setting of the world that the player is thrust to and experiences. If ur not going to have a single-player, you had better have a deep, lengthy and fun multiplayer game, like Warhawk.
But something these two games both have is what i believe to be the future of gaming: Great and lengthy single-players with a strong multiplayer added. I like it when game developers create the story and preserve it, and add upon it to create a lengthy and immersive experience. For example, Infinity Ward created spec ops mode which is a co-op mode separate from the single player campaign of MW2. The reason was for they had wanted preserve the freshness and uniqueness of the main story. I like that because they know they have one of the best multiplayers ever but theyre giving the game its own world, soul, and setting. While they created the frantic and competitive multiplayer, they're not making an entire game disc based on that one thing, other wise they wouldve just scrapped the single-player altogether. I would like to see more games like Uncharted and Brutal legend. They immersive the player into a whole new realm of game playing.
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travisslemp
you are very right adam storytelling has gotten way better over the years
spliced_up
I totally agree adam! Thats why I love the game Bioshock so much. Awesome...AWESOME story dthe gameplay is just amazing:)
can't wait to get brutal legend :D
murderbydavid
I remember when my friend wanted me to watch him play Metal Gear Solid because "It has movie like story line". For the most part this was very true, but it was an action movie, and I don't normally care about action movies(that's not entirely true, but I don't feel like explaining it more), it was a neat story line that worked for a game, but it wasn't the greatest. I think it's true that most people were just so excited that it was pretty good, they elevated it in their minds to "the best". Besides if you really want to see Snake in a movie, watch escape from N.Y., he is based of of Sake Plisken anyways.
sinnquest
Wow when a dumb*ss like this guy makes a post a lot of people respond. lol. My 2 cents worth is. RROD. Come on. It's cool to be excited about your purchase of your ps3 and UC2. Hell, I want one too. But to say what you did about Brutal Legend is wrong. Brutal Legend wasn't made to be that style of gameplay. Both are games. that's where the similarity ends!!! Your statement makes about as much sense as saying Oblivion is bad because it didn't compare to FF12 or Diablo 2. Guy, They are rpg's but different style. Wake up bro. Brutal Legend is a Tim Schaefer masterpiece. His following is on the same page as Carmack (Doom creator) or Miyamoto. They love his work and will buy them regardless of reviews. So what! Brutal Legend didn't score a 5/5. It's a great game. It's not trying to be a UC2stlye game.
hoof_hearted4
@ RRODisback (since for some reason a can never reply to a thread)
i havent played uncharted 2 yet (and didnt play the first one) but this opinion wont be altered after anyways...MGS has the best story of any game. it is soo deep on so many levels, it could easily be made into a serious of movies or amazing books and is right now an amazing series of games. MGS4 for example in my opinion is the greatest game ive ever played on any level on any system in any genre...thats my opinion and im sticking to it :)
fenrir_tenhoor
Story in games has almost always been there. Even the beginning games in the arcade had them, well some of them any way. Anyone remember Missile Command, the story of the soviets lunching missiles at the U.S. and you had to shoot them down? Also story has always been a big component of RPGs, maybe not MMORPGs all of the time, put single player RPGs. Even the first Final Fantasy had an okay story (by today's standards though it would be the very definition of generic, but keep in mind this was almost 20 years ago from a company that was about to declare bankruptcy). What I think Sess was getting to was that not only has the story quality of video games increased over the years, but now that quality is going to something more then just the latest RPG, now we are seeing great stories being told in action games as well. Now we are no longer play just to get bragging rights of beating the game but to find out what happens next. Take Mass Effect (going to start a flame war with this next comment), but the game play is so mediocre, what keeps you coming back? The story and the ability to respond to NPC's in the game. If that aspect of the game wasn't there then very few of us would love Mass Effect (for the record I do have a copy of Mass Effect and I do love to play it, but the gun play part of the game has been done better in other games).
Pyro_XX
I've always been a story driven gamer i hate playing games where I'm sitting there and I get to the point where I'm asking myself why am i doing this? An interesting new way to tell the story that I am excited for is Splinter Cell Conviction loved the others and with a nice new bada injection and then of course the story telling uniqueness gets me all giddy thinking how it'll play.
Tmidiman
Story is good, but not that important. What's the story to Trials HD again?What about Tetris? Still a god story is always welcome.
Not let's talk game play. If a game plays like crap what is the point? an adventure or game with bad play-control is never a good thing. Even an RPG needs to have a certain "rhythm"" (sp) in order to be considered good.
But again this comes back to madden games. No story, terrible play control, almost no improvements year after year and it still gets high ratings.
I'd like Adam to address that issue some day.
LarcenousLaugh
Great Soapbox sir. I think story is extremely important. If a game doesn't have an engaging story, I really have no reason to bother learning the gameplay (there are very few exceptions to this, Mario platformers being one of them, and that's only because it laughable how often Peach/Toadstool manages to get caught).
friendofbud666
Not a bad thought sir! We should hold our games to a higher standard. It's nice to get some plot as well as have it contain some quality voice acting. Let's not forget Vice City quality breakthrough in content. Can't wait for The Agency, Red Dead Redemption, and of course their secret project.
TheDrunkardHu
so yeah, i really like to have a good story in my games... no matter what... when i was a kid, if a game didn't have a decent story in it, i made up my own... voice acted the protagonist, and everything XD it's a must for me... i think it has something to do with there needing to be a reason for me to be playing the game... a reason for every time a had to start over after dying, over... and over... especially in the older games...
that said, it's almost as if the industry is catering to me personally... you see, you die less, or have reasonable checkpoints, and the stories seem to have gotten better over the years... all for me baby ^^
Secondtooth
weird, I was just having a conversation with a friend about what the pros and cons are of a video game as a story telling medium...anyhow, kudos to you Adam on a really well thought out soap box, proving again that while not always right, you are indeed the smartest of talking heads at G4..well done sir.
abelpc
I am enjoying both games..The humor in Brutal Legend is great along with the imaginative environment and Uncharted actually has a coherent story line and is enjoyable.. not to mention how beautiful it is and excellent controls....
I think Uncharted is better than Brutal Legend.. but both games are excellent in their own right.
Empyu
I'm still where Adam was 10 years ago - only because I tend to define things based on truths that apply to all forms of the thing being defined.
To me, a game is a challenge that you either win or lose. Whether a story is involved or not is dependent on the game, but it isn't required. That isn't to say it's not an important element. I bought both Uncharted2 and Brutal Legend, and the story just makes them all the more enjoyable. And I agree that for those games, the story is an incredibly important part of what makes them entertaining.
A game's story is like a tie on a business suit. A lot of suits have them, but a terrible tie can ruin a perfectly good outfit. Sometimes it's better not to have it on at all.
mronoc89
I'm not entirely sure Alan Wake should be on that list at the end. It's trying something (kind of) new in the television approach, but it's not as if television writers chose this segmented format for artistic reasons, it's just kind of a necessity, ultimately any piece of storytelling with a single, continuous, coherent narrative would be better off without interruption, the only reason something would be broken up like that is for financial purposes, but we've already bought the game, so why make us sit through recaps and "next time on..." sequences? This seems especially problematic for a game in the horror genre, because it destroys any semblance of immersion, which is essential for scaring a player.
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