Moments In Gaming 2014: Part 2 - The Serious & The Story
seem to be going through a fight to be seen as an
art form, but with behaviour like this, it’s no wonder
we’re still seen as a bunch of snotty nosed kids,
with too much freedom to express our opinions.
The Growth Of Narrative
constant need to imitate Hollywood at every turn
- this trend is far from about to die out - but with
games like That Game Company’s Journey showing
off minimal narrative elements, and in its place
a reliance on the players’ want to explore and
understand the world they’re thrown into, games
are starting to play to their strengths.
This year has been greater than ever for the idea
of narrative within the interactive worlds we so
frequently find ourselves visiting. The evolution of
gameplay is set to stagnate with iterative versions
of franchises being released year on year. There
are exceptions of course, some notable series have
taken a turn away from their standard fare such as
Assassin’s Creed, while still managing to keep the
core crowd interested.
There are plenty of examples of Hollywood
storytelling though. Beyond: Two Souls was
released at the end of this year and relies very
heavily on the tried and tested scene method
of story development. The game jumps from
moment to moment explaining to players snippets
of Jodie’s (the main character) life, one incident at a
time. The most notable difference with traditional
storytelling is its non-linear timeline events. This
This has meant tricky questions for several means you’re experiencing Jodie’s life in an order
developers, who have been forced to try and find that just manages to keep enough from you, while
inventive ways of keeping the player constantly still enough to make the story interesting.
engaged. Games appear to be surpassing their
Issue 52 • February 2014
10 • GameOn Magazine