He’s entirely what the developers wanted him to be, which is great. While there are times where the game restricts you in the former, to its benefit, another player’s Artyom will always be identical to your own. Its freedom extends only to combat style, the optional side quests and your total body count. As such it’s a prime example of a clash we’re seeing more and more, between the stories developers want you to create for yourself, and the story they want to tell. Having that freedom, that character choice they’d made, being ‘retconned’ by the game resulted in some understandably disappointed players. The problem was for people who had played the entire game and, via the freedom of choice provided to them by the developers, played as a lesbian. A DLC was released that had many player’s female character engage in heterosexual sex. Your Arthur Morgan is permanently yoked to Rockstar’s Arthur Morgan, and the tension at times is too much to bear.Ī recent controversy around Assassin’s Creed Odyssey offers a more specific example. Rockstar painstakingly provided you with the tools needed to craft your own story down to the minutiae, and the only issue is that the player’s choices (perhaps inevitably) are often at odds with the story the game itself is trying to tell. Take Red Dead Redemption 2, where the freedom to craft your own Arthur Morgan in the most detailed Wild West simulator to date was almost ludicrous.Īre you a diligent hunter? Do you have a balanced diet? Are you merciful? Law abiding? Clean? Do you shave regularly? What kind of clothes do you wear? Do you greet and help people on the road? All of this is an attempt to facilitate the player’s desired character. It’s a technique that allows the player character to remain ‘the player’, to inhabit the blank slate of the protagonist, while simultaneously allowing the protagonist to have a pre-existing supporting cast that deliver advice and exposition.Įveryone knows the age-old marketing line: “We let the player choose how they want to play.” Studios are indeed finding more and more ways to allow their players to experience the game they want. It’s clear why the Gordon Freeman school of character design exists, because in certain contexts silent protagonists can reduce the disconnect between player and game. The only time Artyom ever speaks is via an offscreen monologue. As you are told about your dying father-in-law’s heroic deeds, Artyom doesn’t say a thing. The entire game up until this point, you’ve not said a word to anybody: even while alone with his wife, Artyom stays silent.īeing saved by strangers in the wilderness, Artyom keeps quiet. In this situation, a line such as “He even seems to say something,” shouldn’t make you snort with laughter, but it does. Unfortunately, the biggest problem here is the choice of a silent protagonist.ĭuring the final moments of the game, the fate of Artyom hangs in the balance and you’re surrounded by all of those you fought for and lived with throughout the game. It always wonderful to see a larger studio confident enough to go all-in on its themes, to ground the player in a horrifying world, even if there’s an issue or two. You reach the train tracks and slowly fall out of your car. The Geiger counter on your wrist clicks away as you navigate around a dilapidated car abandoned on a broken road at a respectable 10 mph. Your dad is probably dead, and a child desperately retells you his final moments. With Metro Exodus, you almost struggle to keep your eyes open. A full orchestra crescendos as the game comes to an explosive climax inside a Halo ring. If you don’t reach the destination in time, you die. Bungie’s FPS ends in a beautifully bombastic and glorious manner – after your AI girlfriend triggers the finale, you take the wheel of a Warthog and frantically barrel through the Pillar of Autumn overtaking myriads of Flood and fleeing Covenant, trying to keep control and make it to the end as the Pillar starts to blow. Compare how Exodus handles this climax next to others in the same genre: to take a classic example, the original Halo. The game’s final moments encapsulate this, a slow and desperate drive.
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