Choice in Video Games, : To Be Right or Wrong

When playing a video game, you will often be called upon to make a choice.  You’ll need to decide What what weapon to use against a particular foe, what character to select in a fighting game, or other similar and simple choices . I am here to talk about the harder choices in games, typically more difficult for the developer than the player .

Plenty of games tout the ability to make a choice and have that choice matter.  Gamers want that decision to matter (whether they know it or not) as it helps pull them into the world.  I personally want it to matter since immersion is my number one goal when playing a game (Unless I'm playing Call of Duty or the like, then I just want to be able to not suck).  So when a game cover, preview or, developer commentary yammers on about the choices they placed in a game, I go in expecting to somehow make a difference in whatever world I am entering, yet more often than not, I end up disappointed.

How to do it wrong, : light side or dark side choices. 

This is not just Star Wars games, quite a few games, like Star Wars games, have you make polar choices like this, that in reality is that they aren’t much of a barely a choice at all. I use the word polar purposefully  because the choice always seems to go like this.:

Light/Good side: Rescue hostage, pay their bills, set up a trust fund for their children .

Dark/Bad side: Punch hostage in genitals, steal identity, light family on fire, eat dog in front of them .

The worst part is that the “choice” doesn’t actually matter. You do something to the hostage and get a few points on a meter somewhere. Those points MIGHT influence whether you can get certain abilities or equipment down the road but it doesn’tthey don’t actually matter because those abilities or equipment will functionally be the same on both sides.  Other characters may recognize your disposition for inherent evil or goodness but, while they may have varying dialogue, ultimately they tell you the same thing regardless.

Obviously I am exaggerating, but that’s what it ends up feeling like . Especially  when you play through a second time to see what the difference is and there really isn’t one. Oh you get the dark ending, which is later deemed non-canonical so it doesn’t matter anyway.  But where does the blame lie, if anywhere? Developers usually only have so much time and money so it seems like they cannot give these choices the depth they deserve.  They should anyway .  If a hostage is placed in my way and I absolutely have to deal with it, make it matter.  Make the hostage different every time I play.  Maybe the hostage is a psychopath and setting him free gets everyone on my street murdered. That would make me have an emotional attachment to my choices as opposed to “oh I am playing a good guy this time so I set him free.”

The worst offender for me right now in this category is the new Star Wars MMO.  I kept seeing videos and articles going on and on about how my choices would matter and but have yet to see that actually be true.  I leveled a Jedi Consular to level cap and chose to play her light side, and but the whole time I felt like she was an unfeeling  robot. So I started over as a Knight and purposely made dark side choices only to have the same thing happen. Choose to save a guy? Get an in- game mail from him saying thanks and giving me a dollar. Kill him? Get an in in-game mail from the government saying thanks and giving me a dollar . Maybe the next guy in the quest line has something to say but it is always “Wow I can’t believe you (let him go/killed him)” I face palm every time this happens because it’s not really a choice. What makes me angrier is during the game’s “Flashpoints” or instanced dungeons, they force the group to come to a computer or something similar and a cut scene begins that says “You see some guys over there,. they They are working with the bad guys but they are doctors or something equally innocuous., what What do you do? A) Leave them alone. B) Send in hot dancers for them to make their day better then utterly kill the ever- loving shit out of them.”  It makes no sense and only serves as a vehicle for the game’s useless inconsequential light side/dark side meter.The only thing that meter does is make the game harder for the developers because now they have to make gear for both sides. This whole thing is even more baffling as BioWare, the developers of this game,  executed the choice thing correctly before this game was out with Dragon Age: Origins.

This dialogue doesn't matter

How to do it right,: choice Choice is actually a choice with repercussions. 

I am given the objective of finding a secret weapons cache deep in some enemy territory. That’s it. I am free to decide on a number of things,  like weapons, point of entry, tactics,etc. Maybe I come in from up high up and work my way down sneakily. If I get caught, I will have to deal with every enemy I skipped on the way. Or I can kill my way in, effectively dealing with an army just to see if they have a cache or not. My choice. These choices are better  as they are not presented in a menu format where I am forced to pigeon hole my character into some type of social archetype
. 

The Deus Ex games, and as mentioned before, Dragon Age: Origins do this choice right. Sure, in Origins you get the menu choice of being an ass or not, but it doesn’t get written down on a scale that boils down to light or dark ending.  Instead, If if you defile those holy ashes, your religious companion may be so offended that she tries to kill you. Depending on the choices you may or may not have made up to this point, you may be able to talk her down. That is choice. Choices have depth and meaning. 

However, I should point out that even these good choices may end badly . The original Deus Ex had lots of good stuff going for it, but the endings seemed to have left the developers of the sequel scratching their heads. They couldn’t decide which to make canon so they moved forward as if all endings were chosen (leading many players, including myself, to say “What!?”)  The prequel developers must have had an even harder time because all of the ending choices don’t matter at all, as if they said “fuck it” at the last minute. 

So developers, here is what I want.: Depth in choices. I want to be a nice guy in my dialogue because I am lying through my teeth to get what I want. I want to Palpatine it up and play both sides against each other. Every time I see a dialogue choice that says [Lie] I attempt to strangle my monitor. Don't treat my dialogue choices as my personality. I can say things and not mean them, the game will figure out I was lying when I do things differently.

What’s that you say? Developers couldn’t possibly make choices matter and in such a way and keep a cohesive story? I call malarkey on that, good sir. Maybe they aren’t given the development time or money to do so, but seeing what I have seen in the industry (the same things you have seen) I fully believe if given the time, every single choice could work within the greater scheme of any game’s story. Now hop to it developers, I have a trust fund to set up for this psycho hostage.

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Forgetting Can Lead to Good Things

Now for the true purpose of this blog: As I have limited funds, I tend to obtain games well after their peak when they go on sale or I can otherwise obtain them for meager  amounts of money. I believe the developers deserver the sixty or so dollars they charge, I just don’t have the means to give it to them. As such, my reviews will be about games that are at least one year old.  If you are looking at some older games and were wondering what a slightly eccentric gamer thought of them, look no further.

Amnesia The Dark Descent was developed and published by Frictional Games and is quite possibly one of the most immersive games I have ever played.  I am not given to fear easily (usually because I don’t put myself in potentially horrifying situations) but there were times during this game when I had to stop to do something else.  I KNEW it was just a game but the fear persisted, so well played Frictional.

Amnesia is a first person action/adventure game where you take the role of an amnesiac named Daniel. You awake in a castle with no idea what the fuck is going on with only a strange liquid trail to propel you forward.  The developers have said themselves that the whole amnesia thing is typically a bad cliché, but in this case they did make it work.  As you move forward in the game, you discover darkness both within and around Daniel. The story is simple but serves its purpose of making you brave the bleak Castle Brennenburg in search of answers.  

When you first load up the game, it tells you to play in the dark with a good headset.  I fully agree. To truly experience Daniel’s breaking sanity, you need to put yourself in his situation.  Small sounds and subtle camera shifts all add to the ambience of 1800 era Prussia. 

You may know there are monsters in this game, which there are, but the catch is that you have absolutely no way of fighting them. As you are incapable of picking up anything that won’t later solve a puzzle, your only defense is to attempt to outwit these creatures.  There are a good amount of points where you are genuinely trying to trick these beasts, but it often becomes a matter of “OH FUCK IT SAW ME FUCKING RUN ITS GOING TO EAT MY ANUS!” then hiding in a corner, weeping softly, hoping it moves past and leaves your anus intact.

"Hi would you like to buy some cookies?"

As I mentioned above, the game is dark, and for some reason, fragile minded Daniel is horrified of the dark.  So fragile is his mind that his wafer-thin sanity starts disintegrating when spending any amount of time in darkness. Stay too long and he starts hallucinating, falls, and generally makes a blubbering ass of himself.  This will often happen when something hungry for anus is nearby.  To preserve your sanity, you have a lantern with a limited fuel reserve, tinderboxes for lighting torches, and the game’s gamma adjustment settings for light (leave the gamma alone you wuss). The point of the game becomes: find items for light, find puzzle pieces to solve puzzles, find pieces of the story and protect your anus, all while traveling further into the giant castle. 

The graphics are good enough that if you let yourself become immersed, you don’t think about the polycount. The big seller for me though is the sound and music.  Every time the “shadow” screamed at me I tended to bolt straight forward (usually right into danger).  The game-play itself is not very challenging and sadly, once played through; the only reason to play through again is the (very worthwhile) developer commentary. The difficulty comes in forcing yourself to play it. If you claim you don’t scare easily, give this a whirl. I know a few people who don’t like being scared and therefore refuse to play, but I suggest playing even if you find yourself in this category. 

You can't see it, but the coffee maker is just to the right

If you find yourself unable to play this game but want to experience it anyway, I extremely highly  recommend some Lets Play videos, especially this one. Or if you don’t think you want to watch the whole game but want a sampling of how awesome it is, watch this infamous video.

I give this game a “Fuck Yeah!” out of MIND SHATTERINGLY AMAZING. Play it; it’s not that expensive and you’ll be funding the developers ’ next foray into forcing you to procure new pants.

Skyright and Skywrong, my love affair with the harsh northern world of Tamriel.

Like many in the gaming world, I eagerly awaited the coming of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.  I have been in love with Elder Scrolls titles since Morrowind and longed for a return to Tamriel, the land in which all of these games take place. While I admit the game ended up being worthy of the Game of the Year awards it has already received, I wanted to share my thoughts on the game, both good and bad. I warn you now that I will not be using any kind of spoiler tag as this is pointed at people who have spent a good amount of time playing the game. So if you have yet to do something you don't want ruined, tread carefully.

I am starting with my biggest gripe because it comes to mind easier and often creators look for criticism before praise (or is that just me.)  As I said before I love the game but there are a few things that drew me out of the game with a grim look on my face.

My biggest peeve is a technical one. Bethesda talked about the favorites menu and how it would allow you to switch between spells, weapons, and powers on the fly.  Even though the manual said I could use my numbered keys to save my choices it wasn't until I did some poking around on the internet that I learned I could only assign these things from within the small in game favorites menu.  And even then, only 8 things total. 8. Even tough I play on the PC where there is more than an alphabets worth of friggin keys to push.  I know there are those that would be quick to point out that it was also made for consoles and they have limited means of assigning and selecting things. My response? I don't give a shit. I play on a computer.  I understand that they want to appeal to as large an audience as they can in order to make as much money as they can, and I am fine with that.  What I am not fine with is it seemed like they made no effort to make a difference between the versions.

Now some response to that would be, "oh just download a mod to have more keys." I have, but the point is I shouldn't have to. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy with the modding community and the amazing mods they have come out with despite the lack of an SDK, (the Creation Kit in this instance) but it shouldn't be left to the modders to do something like this. Let them be the ones who break the system and come up with new ways to play the game (Like letting me block with my one handed sword while having a spell equipped in the other hand, another limitation based on console controllers) It wouldn't be as bad if there weren't 20+ shouts in the game, powers based on race choice, whether or not I am a vampire/werewolf, special abilities granted by quests, and standing stones. If i had a sword, bow and shield and that's all, I could still run out of keys with arrow choices. I typically play battle mages or night blades, so I need these keys to rapidly switch between my arsenal during combat (and yes, I do use all those different spells) So please Bethesda, I understand you have to make things fit on a console controller, but do not forget about us with keyboards. At least in Morrowind I had 10 keys at my disposal.

I have other small beefs with the technical aspect (like the above mentioned blocking issue) but I can live with those. Other smaller things are some of the textures, specifically weapon and LOD textures. They seem needlessly small and ugly after staring at them for as long as I did. Again the modders were quick to answer and they have done a great job, but it always makes me wonder why they are forced to do someone else's job.

Moving on, I typically play games to be immersed in the world and story, (which is why I am not often seen playing multi-player games) And for the most part, Skyrim nailed it.  I loved being able to walk through a town a listen to people have conversations that were not specifically about me and things I had done.  Also talking to someone and letting the world move on was a great step forward.  There were a few times where I walked away from conversations I was in the middle of because I heard other people talking about something that piqued my interest. The breaker for me was, where the hell is anyone outside of a town? Sure there was a person here running for their lives, or a guard escorting a nobleman everywhere in the province. But where was everyone else? I heard plenty of people talking about caravans, and what not. but I only saw roaming guards or soldiers.  I only encountered one or two adventurers inside caves so I began to get the impression that everyone in this world would have been completely screwed if I had not shown up.

"Oh no someone has stolen my magic ring of dimples, I would go after them but I am no warrior" yet you have no problem drawing steel on me, the person you expect to one man army an entire stronghold of thugs, when I accidentally grab a bread loaf instead of that book you set out for me. That theft was bound to happen because 90% of the residents of Skyrim are bandits or "dark" mages intent on doing whatever weird and gross stuff they are doing. Or the Forsworn, screw the Forsworn and their spine swords.

So the other half of immersion is the story, and I am still unsure how i feel about the various quest lines in Skyrim so far. For the most part I enjoyed them, but I felt a little let down. Sort of how you do on Christmas even though you got everything you wanted.  I'll start with the main quest here, as it is most important to the game. So there I was, the mighty Dragonborn, ready to save the land of Skyrim from Alduin the world eater, or something.  I felt like there about six people who cared that I was trying to help save everyone (for really no personal gain beyond learning to yell in interesting manners.) Trying to get people to help me was like pulling teeth with my bare hand and they are still awake and fully aware of my hand going in their mouth.

"I need your help to stop super dragon from eating the land and the souls of your dead friends." I valiantly exclaimed! (No need to explain how to exclaim valiantly, when you are Dragonborn, even your darkest murders are valiant)

"I don't trust you," says the jarl/general/other jarl ive already helped twice/hobo on the street.

"But I am Dragon born!"

"So?"

"You know of my legend do you not?"

"Ah yes, the world eater comes to destroy us all and only the Dragon born can save us!"

"Yeah that, also I'm the person you mentioned, the guy who is trying to save you"

"I could not even be bothered to give the tiniest of shits unless you go into a cave I made up and find a specific rock that doesn't exist and bring it to me"

"..."

Ok it is nowhere near that bad, but it seems like none of the populace believed I was doing these things despite the fact I just yelled and changed the cloudless day into a full on lightning storm that disintegrated the people attacking the town.  And then my biggest helpers, the two remaining Blades, turn their backs on me because I refuse to kill the one dragon who is not being a total asshat.

I remember feeling exausted in Morrowind as I traversed the landscape making a name for myself. And there, only a few knew of my legend, and the ones who did were either actively trying to stop me, or help me. (Or some combination of both you strange dual skinned demi god with a town named after you).

The whole shebang didn't feel like it took that long either, and I refused to fast travel (better chance for random dragon attack I thought) From "AMG YOU DARGONBORN" to "Here are cooler and more powerful ways to yell" to "You must learn " to " Defeat Alduin" to "You saved heaven! and Skyrim! YAY we guess." Again, only like four people cared, and they reacted as if I had just brought their mail in when I came to visit. "You did what now? Oh cool, thanks, just put it on the table." No sacred gem, no hidden power, hell you spend three fourths of the game eating dragon souls, but when you ace the big bad, he explodes (albeit in a cool way) and everyone stands there staring. At first I thought they were awestruck. Nope.  I didn't feel like I impacted the world. Maybe that's for the best though, these people seem incapable of casting the level one healing spell or drinking the practically free healing potions, so a scare such as that may have left me and the gray beards as the only people living in Skyrim. On to guild quests!

Dark Brotherhood.  Easily my favorite in Oblivion, I was looking forward to being an agent of Sithis before I woke up in that horse drawn carriage next to that thief and those stormcloaks. Ultimately it also left me feeling the worst. Don't get me wrong, it had some incredibly cool moments, but once the story got rolling, I could tell what was going to happen from a mile off. Also if they made that jester any more annoying I would have cheated and made everyone in that cave kill-able and been done with it. I never got that dark feeling that I did in Oblivion, yet I can't put my finger on exactly why.

Thieves Guild. I was barely interested in these guys in Morrowind and Oblivion, but when I joined I ended up being glad I did. The whole deal with Nocturnal's cowl altering reality, stealing an Elder Scroll to fix it, awesome. So again, I was excited for some epic hi jinks. Luckily I was less disappointed. Ultimately its hard to one up stealing an Elder Scroll, but I will say that the Riften guild did their best. The idea that someone essentially stole from a god and severed its subtle ability to make a thieves life easier and totally screw the guild in that way was an interesting tale. The twists were not super obvious, and fun.  Joining a failing guild and them not letting me lead them until I had completely lifted them out of their funk took a good deal of effort and that felt worth it (to me at least, I just want Vex to stop being such a bitch to me, but I can deal)

The College of Winterhold. The Mages guild analogue was better than I expected.  Granted I didn't expect much as I typically only join to get access to the really cool spells and items, so even though I didn't travel through time or defeat a long dead evil, I felt like I accomplished something, and the fellow members seemed to care and realize just what I did to help them. I don't think it made be worthy of being their leader, maybe a high adviser given the fact that I am NEVER there, but none of them seemed to care about that so I didn't either. I wish they had gone into more detail about the Psijiic order, or even let me join them, but oh well. Maybe in DLC.

The Companions. I went in with the worst expectations to this guild of fighters (in fact I avoided it for a good hunk of the game despite they are practically right on front of you when you start) but left feeling the warmest. By the end of the main quest, I actually felt like one of them despite my magical and sneaky ways, and I felt like they wanted me around. This was in no small part due to the characters, Vilkaas, Farkaas, and Aela. I don't know what it was about them that made me care about their plight, but I did.  I only had two small issues with this quest line but really they aren't even worth mentioning.

The Civil War. Imperials vs Stormcloaks.  I didnt know what to expect going in and for the most part Im pleased.  I have only done the Imperial side at this point because I grew to despise Ulfric, (as a character, the folks behind the character, actors writers and what not did an awesome job) At first I really liked these quests, they were affecting the world, the quests seemed different and interesting and you get to fight giant battles. What better place to call upon your pet dragon or animal companions and truly use your power in giant melee's.  Some the wind got sucked out my sails halfway through when the interesting quests stopped and it became "go take over that fort" for the rest of the campaign. It felt like the developers ran out of time and just let it be what it was.

Overall, the quests in the game were quite solid, but all major quest lines seemed short. Luckily they all have "radiant" quests, which all sadly become "do the same barely worthwhile task for hardly any reward" style quest"  My biggest deal with the guild type quests is that with the exception if the Civil War line, the leader of every guild bit the dust. Whether through my hand or not, it was impossible for them to be more dead and so the underlings just seemed to name me leader because none of them wanted to deal with change.  It struck me as bizarre in all cases (going back through the other elder scrolls as well) that my actions in the fifteen seconds I was in the guild made me leader.  Only in the thieves guild did i feel worth it.

I feel like I am being needlessly harsh, but its only because I love the series so friggin much.  I play games to get lost in their worlds and none have done it better than this series so far. As I said the game is very deserving of the accolades it has and will recieve, but there is always room for improvement.

Despite this giant list of caveats, they are really only nit picks (except for the eight keys thing. More definable keys now) I can only see things getting better from here unless they start really dumbing it down. Bethesda, I only give you shit in the from of this blog because this is one of my favorite series of games, and I want you to be the best you can. P.S Bethesda, never cave in to people who want multiplayer in elder scrolls. We both know it doesn't fit.