Why am I not excited for Beyond: Two Souls?

      

        
  Beyond: Two Souls came out Tuesday and so far, reception seems to be mixed.

There was a time back when it was announced that I was excited for it. It had big names in Ellen Page and Willem Dafoe, it was bound to look fantastic, it was another story driven experience, it had an intriguing supernatural element, and I liked Heavy Rain.

So what changed?
I'm not really sure.

The more footage that came out, the less I "got" what was going on. The plot seemed all over the place.
Heavy Rain was a relatively grounded thriller/mystery. The initial trailer for Beyond: Two Souls seemed, at least to me, to promise another relatively grounded story focused on one character(likely better acted this time) but with a supernatural element.
But then more clips came out and we were seeing her in the CIA, overseas in a 3rd world country, and in combat with camo.
 It just felt jarring and like a change in tone to me.

Now when I said "I liked Heavy Rain". I meant just that. I liked it. I didn't LOVE it.
I was hyped for Heavy Rain because it was fairly unique in what it was. Story driven and laden with choices that effected the outcome. Plus the enjoyment I got out of it was from the moments of tension it created.(Some people call Heavy Rain and B:TS, a return of classic adventure games, but I take issue with that. My experience with adventures games is that they were filled with charm, humor, puzzles and dialogue choices. These modern games are just story driven.)
I only played it once and didn't really feel compelled to play again to see other outcomes. Mine was the one I earned. It wasn't a good one, but those were my choices.

The thing is, one could argue, and many do, that Heavy Rain was somewhat poorly written and contained plot holes. It's much more apparent when you ask yourself, "How would I rate this if it were a movie?"
Admittedly, I'm not too sensitive to those things so I didn't catch on to that stuff during my playthrough. Plot holes rarely effect my enjoyment of a story, unless they're so obvious that a kid could see it.
(David Cage claims Heavy Rain is meant to be played once. Which makes me wonder if he KNEW there were plot holes that would become more obvious  if you played multiple times.)

But to get back to my point, the more I reflected on Heavy Rain, the less interesting and memorable I found the story. Plus, the more I read from David Cage, the more he came off as a wannabe filmmaker/artist blowhard. I can't really point to specific remarks, but he's a guy who's made story in video games his crusade yet seems to fall behind other developers in that aspect who allow more input/gameplay into their games. He wants gamers to pay $60 for what's basically a movie.(Simplistic, I know. But you get my point)


Now it's out, the reviews are mixed and I'm thinking "Neat, maybe people will realize Cage isn't quite the genius some think he is" and "I'll wait until it's cheaper and play it. I'm sure I'll at least enjoy it."
(I know I know, it's petty. But the guy irks me if he thinks his storytelling voice is unique or head and shoulders above other developers)

___

   Story in video games is still in somewhat of a period of growing pains. While there have been games with good stories through the years, it's never been a consistent thing. A lot of gamers still see it as secondary to gameplay. But, I'd say within this generation that's soon to be ending, great progress has been made. I'm guessing it's for several reasons. The age of the average gamer is now squarely in the adult range. Budgets have skyrocketed. And technology has allowed much more believable and nuanced performances from the characters. I like this trend and I hope it continues. But the thing I'm not sure Cage understands(Maybe he does and my limited knowledge of him restricts my view of him) is that you can tell a mature and interesting story in a video game without taking most of the control out of the gamer's hands.
  There have been a number of games that were heavy on action(in the sense that the gamer controlled most of what progressed the plot) without sacrificing the narrative. I mentioned them in a previous blog post but The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite both did that in my opinion. Others include Red Dead Redemption, Resistance 3, the original Bioshock, possibly GTA V, and arguably the Uncharted series(from a more pulp adventure aspect).
 Cage wants to focus heavily on telling mature stories. Fine. Good. Go for it. Don't misunderstand me. I have nothing against a more cinematic approach like Quantic Dream does. That's not my complaint. But if you're going cut out a lot of traditional gameplay, I expect more from your final product. Other developers do it and they don't pretend that the industry isn't interested in story.

There was nothing in Heavy Rain that stuck with me like Bioshock Infinite, The Last of Us or Red Dead Redemption. For a game that's focus is heavily the story, that's something you can't allow. Your characters better be fleshed out and your plot better have tension.

So I guess when it comes down to it, I know why I'm not as excited for Beyond: Two Souls as I once was. My expectations are that it'd be $60 and I'd play a story driven game that I'd somewhat enjoy but would just move on and forget about it. On to more action packed games whose stories stuck with me.




Some notes:
-David Cage may be a nice enough person in real life. I have no clue.
-I didn't mention any of the Metal Gear Solid games up there within examples of good story AND gameplay packed games. I'm not sure if the Metal Gear Solid narrative is objectively good or not honestly. Kojima writes interesting stuff. But he needs an editor sometimes. I have to wonder if people just confuse thought provoking plot with "good writing". I'm not saying it's bad. It can just be so...out there...that it's hard to tell.
-Reviews say Beyond: Two Souls is different from Heavy Rain in that the lead character can't die like the characters in HR at various times. And surprisingly, that Ellen Page is better than Willem Dafoe.
-I talk a big game but I can be easily satisfied by stories in movies. But I stand by my thoughts on video game stories.
-All of this may just be me being cynical about games that outright STATE that it's dramatic and story driven.
-I honestly am curious to play it eventually. I'm just trying to keep my expectations in check given who I think is passionate writer/director, but claims more talent than he has.

Commentary on video game commentary.

 
 
   Whenever I'm really "into" a video game and I'm away from home unable to play it, I occasionally like to bring up YouTube on my phone and watch a little gameplay just to sate my thirst for more.
I would rather not get into whether there's an underlying game addiction there or if the developer is just really good. That's not what this is about.
It's not really anything other than wanting a little taste of game's atmosphere, music and all, to hold me over.
I did it with Fallout 3. I did it with Red Dead Redemption. I did it with Bioshock Infinite.
But I take issue with a currently popular trend.

   I'm not sure how many of you are aware, but there's a thing that's kind of taken off and I'm not sure when it did. That thing is Let's Play videos.
Let's Play videos, according to Wikipedia, are recorded videos of video game plays including a commentary by the gamer.
Not to be confused with a walkthrough which I'm not sure has a real specific definition. Could have commentary. Could not have commentary.

Let's Plays and Walkthroughs are popular enough at the moment that it's pretty common to have to wade through tons of them just to find gameplay that doesn't have someone between the ages of 15 and 30 blathering on over it.
That's where I take issue.
Let me be honest here. I don't REALLY have a good reason for complaining about this topic. The only reason I take issue with commentary is because of the small amount of effort I now have to put into just finding simple quality gameplay videos and the saturation of YouTube with people trying to become "sensations".

You may be asking "What do you mean 'sensation'? How does one become a sensation with video game videos?"
(Just pretend you asked that and pretend you didn't already know the answer.)
Well, it happens. A couple of currently popular YouTube personalities are Tobuscus...

...and PewDiePie...

(Can I just say, I hate most YouTube video thumbnails. The ones that involve a real person. I'm easily annoyed by them and it makes me not want to watch the video. But I digress)

Okay. So as you can see, people love people who do commentary over video games. They like them enough to then subscribe to certain people or make their own. The relative ease means nearly anyone can do it. This love of watching them though is something I just can't wrap my head around.

I like the occasional TV show/movie commentary. I LOVE Mystery Science Theater 3000. The difference is in the case of MST3K, the commentary(jokes) are the focus. In TV show/movie commentary, you usually go out of your way to listen to it because you want to hear the thoughts of those who worked on the product.

Let's Plays and other commentary videos are just... nobodies. Nobodies talking over a game about things ranging from how THEY play it to jokes to real life issues. And the part that boggles my mind the most is people seem to actually prefer this to just straight forward gameplay videos. I'm not talking about instructional videos on getting past certain sections of a game. I'm talking someone just...talking. Commenting.


I like to sometimes do a thing where I'll have a specific thought or opinion and I'll Google it... you know... just to see if there are like minded people out there.
Apparently there aren't when it comes to this particular subject. The internet loves them some chattering unknowns mixed with gameplay videos. The recurring thought process is "If I wanted to just watch the game being played I'd just play it myself."
I understand that...but...but...that's not really the point.


All of that being said, I GET it. I get the whys. I understand that people like to hear other people's thoughts on a game as it's being played. Heck, I've even enjoyed a few myself... given they were either bad games being played specifically for the humor of it or the Yogscast guys playing Minecraft. I hold that those are completely different things.


To get back to my ranty point:
-I have a desire.(To watch some gameplay from a game I'm currently playing)
-I go to YouTube and search it.
-Suddenly tons and tons of videos with commentary.
-I'm sad.

And to put it in an even simpler way:
I. Don't. Care. About. Your. Thoughts. On. A. Video. Game. Or. Your. Jokes. Or Your. Take. On. Real. Issues.

I MIGHT care about a developer's thoughts(I listened to the commentary track that you could listen to on Monkey Island 2 Special Edition with Tim Schafer and Ron Gilbert). I like them. It's one of my favorite games. I was interested to hear what they said. It makes logical sense.
 

Why does it bother me so much?
Maybe it's the narcissism of people thinking anyone cares about their thoughts getting in the way of me wanting a simple thing. Then I find out no one else seems to be against the narcissism and they feed it.

I'm fully aware that this is basically a non-issue and I'm fully aware that I'm a hypocrite who, if I found out people liked hearing me commentate on gameplay videos, would dive into it head first.
It probably wouldn't even be an issue for me to rant about if YouTube wasn't A.) Flooded with them and B.) It was easier to find straight gameplay videos minus commentary.

It's basically me being an old man yelling at the kids to get off my lawn when the reality is that the old man wishes he was young and still had the energy to be out on the lawn playing....or an old man giving a really bad, inaccurate analogy.


So...c'mon people. Just start putting up some quality gameplay videos without you talking on them. Do it for me. You owe me...you know... for that thing I did for you.

Gamers...what do you want?

   I'd like to take a break from working on the story I've started but can't seem to make progress on to write at your eyeballs. But first, here's a red panda:

Okay, enough of that.
 Here are some questions for you if you're a gamer: What do you want from video games? What is it you want the industry to turn out? What do you want to get from the products they turn out?
(Why do I feel like I've talked about this before? If I have, suck it up. I have dementia. Or Alzheimer's. Or...that Memento disease.)

If you frequent message boards about games or get into discussions in real life about them, there tends to be a few recurring ideas. One is that modern games are trying too hard to match Hollywood, creating more story driven experiences heavy on cutscenes and short in gameplay length.
There's also the idea that game difficulty has taken a huge dive in "too easy" territory.
Basically, to me, there SEEMS to be a divide between what gamers are getting from or expect to get from their video games.
To oversimplify this: Older gamers typically claim gameplay is king. Screw story as long as it's fun. Younger gamers are growing up with the kind of technology that allows stories to be told in ways that allow for more believable character performances and budgets that open the doors for a focus on writing. In other words, why should they CARE about shooting the asteroids? What's the point?

Here I am in the middle asking "Why does it have to be only one or the other? Why can't it be fun AND compelling?"

When I was just a young lad pushing a hoop with a stick down the road, I'd push it to my house where I'd go in and play PC adventure games AND NES/Atari/Commodore 64.
My initial experience with video games wasn't JUST side-scrolling platformers with no real story. Nor was it JUST humor filled PC games driven by puzzles, story,  colorful characters and interesting locations.It was both. I'm finding more and more things in life need context for appreciation and having experiences with two approaches to developing games at a young age helped.
So the evolution of gaming to the point it's at now is by no means a disappointment or even a surprise.


"Old school" gamers sound bitter and young gamers have been spoiled.

So back to one of the questions from earlier: What do you want from video games?


Lately I'm finding less and less time to play much but the last two new games I completed were Bioshock Infinite and The Last Of Us. I loved both of them and playing them both so close to each other has really made almost every other game seem like a giant pile of garbage.(I'm exaggerating for effect)

Bioshock Infinite

The Last of Us

The point is, both of these are examples of exactly what I personally want out of gaming at this point in my life. (I liked TLOU a bit better but for the sake of this point, I'll keep them lumped together.)(It must be great to be Troy Baker this year).
They're both story driven with interesting characters, mature without trying to force it(*ahem* Heavy Rain), they're fun, involve interesting universes all while both looking and sounding great. In other words, they don't really slouch anywhere. They put it all together in one fantastic package and when it's done right, you feel it when you're done. You think about what you played.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no fascist. There's room for all kinds of games. As I get older my focus is just being narrowed. I'll still have time for skateboarding games, almost anything DC comics related, and anything that has a shred of innovation. But those will always kind of be around. There will always be room for sports games, superhero games and Bethesda will still be making Fallout and Elder Scrolls games. So I'm not talking about that stuff. We're good there. What I mean is what I want from the industry that will keep me sticking around. Keep me saying "Wow, look how far we've come." That's the kind of evolution that keeps me gaming. If people with the type of vision that Ken Levine has, those at Naughty Dog or even Rockstar weren't around, there's no telling how little I'd play games.
 I understand not everyone shares my views. That's fine. Hopefully developers are giving you what you want.

What I'm really saying is that character and story have a much bigger impact on what I play or enjoy than it seems other gamers my age, and I want to see the quality of that growing up with me. Sure, I don't want a broken game. But if I'm hooked into WHY I'm doing what I'm doing, it makes WHAT I'm doing more fun. I'm not saying I want ALL games to be serious. But the game industry has grown so much. The budgets have grown way too big for them to not have quality in all parts of their game no matter what the subject matter is.
(I know I tend to ramble so I just had to make that bold so my point isn't lost)
I guess what I'm saying is that games like TLOU and Bioshock Infinite represent the pinnacle of development team coming together under a director or writer's creative vision and producing great quality(there's that word again) in what they set out to do. The bar has been raised for serious narratives and the complete package of a product. What I want from video games is for every developer to keep raising the bar no matter what their vision is. Don't just churn out sequels that aren't much different in terms of quality from the last one. Don't treat all gamers like we're 14 year old boys. Gamers want to be taken seriously right? We'll achieve that by developers turning out stories and characters that even non-gamers can care about. Not by living in a bubble.


I hope that all makes sense. 

Now here's some more red pandas...