Patrick’s Top 10 Games of 2011
This year has been an interesting year. A lot better than I had initially expected it would be. When looking at all the games coming out for the year I wasn’t sure if I’d be buying many of them. Nothing really caught my eye. We had big franchises with their 3rd titles being released as well as a handful of sequels but not too many new IP’s. The year has now passed and I can honestly say it’s been a busy year. I played a lot more games than I had planned and I am happy for it.
The Illusion of the Moral Choice
For quite a while now, game designers have been working moral choices into video games. Gamers find themselves having to make decisions that will shape their characters, making them the ultimate hero or the diabolical villain. Many games have been praised for forcing people to actually think about what they want to do in a given situation, and some gamers, myself included, have found it next to impossible to take actions in game that would go against their moral codes.
When I look beyond the surface of these choices, however, I begin to wonder if they are not just a facade. Do the choices you make in the game really affect the outcome? Does choosing to be a jerk really mean anything if you can just erase the stain by being a saint come the next moral choice? Are we, as gamers, really being given a moral choice that will truly affect the game itself, or are we just being given something that looks that way so the designer can list that as a bullet point for selling the game?
In order to answer this question, I am going to look at just what makes up a moral choice in real life and then look at how companies have tried to introduce that into gaming. I will be examining many of the games which have been heralded as providing gamers with moral dilemmas to see if the choices really made that much of a difference. Basically, I am going to attempt to see if the games we play have really done a good job of integrating moral choices or if it is all just an illusion.
More than just Black and White
When I ask you about making a moral choice in a game, what comes to mind? Whether to help someone or kill them? Whether to serve the interest of a large entity, be it a corporation, government or otherwise, or help innocent people? Whether to help someone defend something valuable in hopes of a reward or kill them and take what you want?
Let’s face it; moral choices in video games normally boil down to two things: Good or Evil. The choice is so obviously black and white it tends to lack any real punch. Jordan put it best in his article “Mass Ineffective;” the extent of most of the moral choices in games boils down to “Throw the puppy in the furnace” or “Turn off the furnace.” There is a slight problem with that: moral choices in real life are rarely so cut and dry.
When was the last time you faced a moral dilemma that was that obvious? Granted, they do exist, but I am much more likely to be facing questions like whether I should follow up on something at work that as not handled correctly and therefore serve the customer or throw it back in the lap of the person who made the mistake. Sure, the person who made the mistake needs to learn, but there are times where the right thing to do would be to just get the job done, and yet I balk at it because I feel entitled to making the other person fix it. Meanwhile, the customer is the one who suffers.
It’s choices like that one that truly define our morality. We live in a world full of shades of gray. We also have seen our games start to reflect our world more and more, whether in storyline, graphics or physics. So why have they not found ways to really integrate the moral struggles we actually deal with?
Maybe you think I am being a bit too harsh in saying that. Maybe I am. The only way to know for certain is to take a look at some of the games which have presented us with “moral choices” and see if they fit this pattern. Just as a word of warning: these next sections will contain spoilers; there really is no way of avoiding them.
You’re doing it wrong
Any of you remember what one of the major selling points of Fable was? You were going to be given the opportunity to create the ultimate hero or villain, and the choices you made were going to shape the world around you. While I liked the original Fable and really enjoyed its sequel, this was one of the many promises Peter Molyneux failed to deliver. The “Moral Choices” you make in that game are ridiculous. When a new quest is available in the Hero Academy, you are actually given two different versions of the quest: one good (protect the innocent travelers on the road) and one evil (join the bandits in robbing the travelers). Even the choice you make at the end of the game, whether to kill your sister in order to keep this ultimate weapon or destroy the weapon to save your sister, really does not have a major affect on the outcome. You can be the devil and kill your own flesh and blood, and yet you are still the “hero” because you took down the main villain of the game.
Bioshock is another great example of a game which presented you with what appeared to be a moral choice with real consequences. Throughout the game, whenever you finished off a Big Daddy, you had to decide what to do about the Little Sister it was guarding. You could choose to cure her, gaining some Adam and knowing you have done the good thing, or you could harvest her, killing her cruelly yet gaining much more Adam for your troubles. Only two major problems with this perceived moral dilemma: every time you free three little sisters, you are given a gift pack containing extra Adam among other goodies which kind of offsets the positive bonus you get from harvesting, and other than the ending cut scene, the choice you make has no real effect on the game itself. The designers really had a chance to change things up based on the choices you made; they could have had Doctor Tenenbaum refuse to assist you if you harvested the girls, making you find another way to take out Fontaine. What could have been a monumental choice ends up really not mattering in the end.
What is even worse than the black and white moral choices are the ones which end up becoming more about the game mechanic than the choice itself. A great example of this is inFAMOUS. Most of the choices you make in the game are so completely black and white they make the choices in Mass Effect look gray. Then there is the “Do I save the woman I love or the doctors,” which ends up not really being a moral choice since Trish dies either way, one way professing how proud she is of Cole, the other cursing his name. Those pale in comparison to the last karmic moment of the game: do you choose to activate or destroy the Ray Sphere. Destroy it and you game some experience and some good karma. Activate it and you gain a ton of experience, three new battery cores to help you stay charged and your karmic rating is forever branded as evil/infamous. Now you know going into this decision that activating it will give you great power at the cost of many lives, but by putting that kind of a weight on it, the choice is now moot. After all, what kind of a moral dilemma is it if one choice ruins what you have been doing the entire game?
There are many other examples I can bring to up to show how little the moral choices really affect the games we play. No matter how noble you are when you meet Marle in Chrono Trigger, you will still end up having to fight your way out of jail. In the original Mass Effect, saving Wrex was more about getting charm or intimidation leveled up than it was about the choices you made. Modern Warfare 2 tried to force gamers into making a moral decision in the “No Russian” level, but since you cannot change the fact you are going to be shot and killed at the end of the level no matter how many innocent people you gun down, it kind of loses its teeth and becomes something many gamers, myself included, feel has no business being in the game. The list of games which just do not seem to get it goes on and on, but there have been a few which seem to be catching on.
Not all Moral Dilemmas fail
As easy as it is to rag on games where your moral choices just do not matter, there have been a few examples recently where designers seemed to have started to make them count. Fable II is one of these examples. While many of the moral choices are pretty obvious, a few do have more far reaching consequences. In the beginning of the game, you have to earn enough money to buy the music box. You go to Oldtown Bowerstone to try and find ways of making money and are presented with different quests where you can either help the honest people of that district or help the local crime lords. If you choose the former, Oldtown Bowerstone will become a thriving community later in the game. If you choose the latter, the area will be overrun with crime. Add to this the loss of experience when you choose to not be cruel in the Spire and the ultimate choice at the end, and you have a game which tries to make more out of its dilemmas than most others.
As much as Jordan ragged on it in his article, Mass Effect 2 actually does a decent job with some of its moral choices. There are a couple of times in particular where this comes into play. The first is during the loyalty mission for Samara. When Samara and Morinth are facing off, you get the opportunity to sway the outcome of the battle. Choose Samara and Morinth dies, while the Justicar pledges her loyalty fully to you. Choose Morinth and Samara is killed, with Morinth coming with you pretending to be her. This does make a difference as Morith’s powers are not the same as Samara’s, and if you do take the Ardat-Yakshi onto the ship, there is a chance you can lose Shepard. Then there is what happens after the Collectors kidnap the crew. While Jordan may not have known there was a danger to the crew if you did not go after them immediately, I figured there must be based on the comments about keeping your crew alive through the final mission. The problem is that event will be triggered a certain amount of time after trying to integrate the Friend or Foe tech into the Normandy. So what do you do if you have not fully gained the loyalty of your teammates before your crew is captured? Sure, you can go after the Collectors and try to rescue your crew, but without the loyalty of your team, your chances of making it back in one piece or at least with all the members of the team in tact are greatly reduced. What makes this work as a moral dilemma is it is not about being Paragon or Renegade; it is about how you played the game up to that point and whether you are willing to risk your teammates to save your crew.
Of all the games I have played where the moral choices have truly made a difference, the one which stands out is one which has been blasted by the critics. Alpha Protocol has many flaws, but one thing the developers did with this game has set it apart from any of the others on the list: they made your moral choices matter. At the end of the first chapter, you are given the choice t0 kill the terrorist who was responsible for shooting down the commercial airliner, arrest him for his crimes or set him free him to help you get the information on the corporation that set you up to die. From that point on, every decision you make matters. Choosing to only disable the CIA agents in the infiltration mission will raise your reputation with Mina, which benefits you. Madison Saint James can be a great help in Rome, but getting her involved could get her killed, which could help you deal with a major enemy later if you play your cards right. If you choose to kill Brayko in Russia, you will not learn who really smuggled in the weapons and will miss out on an entire mission. You are even faced with some real moral dilemmas, including one where you must either decide to rescue the Taiwanese president or allow him to be assassinated but stop the riots designed to let his assassins escape. Unlike most moral choices in games, this one forces you to decide which you think is the lesser of two evils: letting a good man who has worked to help his people die or saving him at the cost of the lives of many of the people he has chosen to protect. Oh, and thanks to the time limit you face when making most decisions in game, you do not really have the time weigh the pros and cons of both sides. It is choices like these that set Alpha Protocol apart. While the game may have several frustrating bugs that make it difficult to play at times, it more than any game I have played shows how moral choices can be integrated into video games properly.
Where do we go from here?
While a few game designers seem to understand that morality involves more than just black and white, it appears many have not realized adding true moral dilemmas into their games is going to take work. Of the three examples I listed of games where the choices mattered, it can be argued only Alpha Protocol truly demonstrates how morality can affect the game in more than just subtle ways. If game developers really want to add a level of realistic moral choices to their games, they will need to realize the choices need to involve more than the standard options of hero or villain.
Of course, there could very well be a downside to this. Adding moral choices which change the game can upset gamers who want to experience everything about the game in one sitting. That, however, is a discussion for another time.
2009 Year in Review: Game of the Year
It’s that time of year. The time where everyone gets together and starts to put together their year in review articles and podcasts. If you caught podcast 41, you heard what we at Everyday Gamers feel were some fo the biggest news stories of the year. We have at least one more year in review podcast coming, but when it comes to these kind of lists, there is one that is expected from every video game website: Game of the year.
So, we here at Everyday Gamers decided we would come together and give you and idea of what each of us feel are the five best games we each played this year.
Eric Bouchard:
5. Tie: Scribblenauts/Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure (DS) – Yes, I know starting out with a tie seems like a bit of a cop out, but I cannot help it. In what seemed overall like a down year for the DS, Scribblenauts and Henry Hatsworth were 2 absolutely can’t miss games. Scibblenauts adds a whole new twist to puzzle solving with no set way to beat each level, while Hatsworth combines platforming with puzzle gameplay in a way that is just astounding. The games stand out as the best on the handheld, and I dare anyone to play either one and not enjoy them.
4. Torchlight (PC) – In a world of big releases, it is rare to see an indie game catch on the way Torchlight has. Made by many of the creators of Diablo, Torchlight manages to be both a deep dungeon crawler and yet an accessible game for those not used to that type. You can pop in and play for just a bit or get lost for hours, something most games cannot balance. Excellent gameplay, an inventive inventory system with the ability to have you pet sell you items and 3 truly unique classes to play set Torchlight apart from other Diablo clones, and that’s not counting the mods people are already making available for the game. Heck, it deserves to be on the list if for nothing else than it has gotten me back into PC gaming.
3. Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360, PC) – When Left 4 Dead 2 was announced at E3, there were many people, including some 0n this site, who thought it was too soon after Left 4 Dead. Many were afraid the game would just be Left 4 Dead 1.5, but it did not take long for that to be proven wrong. The sequel has surpassed its predecessor in every way, from tighter controls to longer, more involved campaigns. Add to that plenty of new weapons including melee based, new special infected, the uncommon common and more multiplayer modes, and Left 4 Dead 2 ends up feeling like much much more of a complete game than the original. This version is worth the $60.oo price point.
2. Dragon Age Origins (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) – This game was in the running for Game of the Year when I was first started playing. Bioware set out yo make Dragon Age Origins to be the spiritual successor to Balder’s Gate, and the company has achieved that. A deep storyline, excellent character interaction and a rich combat system make this an RPG to make hardcore RPG fans proud. In the end, however, that is part of why it did not make number 1 on my list, as the one the made it there was much more accessible and has the best Co-op I think I have ever played.
1. Game of the Year: Borderlands (PC, PS3, Xbox 360) - There is something magical about this game. Gearbox has managed to do the best job so far of combining an FPS with an RPG, and the cell-shaded look to Borderlands just helps add to the joy you get while playing it. Though the single player campaign is strong, you are really doing this game and yourself a disservice if you do not play it Co-op, and as such the 360 version may be the best because of Live. Random weapons, 4 unique character classes that can be leveled up in many different ways, enemies who level up based on the number of people playing and a wry humor that just permeates the game make Borderlands the clear choice for GOTY.
Honorable Mentions: Uncharted 2 (PS3), Street Fighter IV (PC, PS3, Xbox 360), Batman Arkham Asylum (PC, PS3, Xbox 360), Assassin’s Creed II (PS3, Xbox 360)
Patrick Adams
5. InFamous (PS3) – I was a little skeptical about the game until the demo released, once I got my hands on it I instantly knew it would be a day-one purchase. I’m not one to pay attention to the story in a game but InFamous made it hard not to with it’s sweet comic book art-style. The platforming elements in InFamous were very refined and overall the game is one of the best on the PS3.
4. Shadow Complex (XBLA) – Shadow Complex was so good that I almost added it to my top 10 favorite games of all time list. Yes it pays homage to Metroid but for someone like me who has never played Metroid it was still an amazing game. The game was very polished and overall just plain fun. Once I completed the game I only wanted to play more. I hope we’ll see a sequel sometime in the near future.
3. Uncharted 2 (PS3) – Everyone knew U2 looked beautiful and the hype for it was pretty high. Naughty Dog delivered and the game lived up to the expectations. Like the first one, U2 is like an adventure movie that you play and that’s awesome. With a thin line between the cutscenes and the actual gameplay U2 is right next to Killzone 2 as the best looking game to grace the PS3.
2. Red Faction: Guerrilla (Xbox 360) – I think the main reason RFG is #2 on my list is because it really caught me by surprise. I had heard nothing about the game until I played the demo and that demo was enough to make me go out and buy RFG on day-one. RFG is about destroying everything and destroying everything is as fun as a game can get.
1. Game of the Year: Borderlands (Xbox 360) – I went out on a limb and bought this game purely because of reading good things about it on Twitter and here it is my #1 one pick, my game of the year. The funny thing about my experience with Borderlands was that I played the entire game by myself. It was exactly what I needed, a blend of the action in an FPS and the addiction of collecting loot and leveling up in an RPG. Borderlands also has an art-style that hits the spot for me. With the announcement of plans to make it a franchise I am excited to see more of Borderlands in the future.
Honorable Mentions: Killzone 2 (PS3), GTA: Chinatown Wars (DS), Left 4 Dead 2 (Xbox 360), and N.O.V.A. (iPhone).
Yuoma
inFamous
Since it’s launch, the Playstation 3 has struggled to penetrate the market the way that both the Nintendo Wii, and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 have. While any number of reasons can be pointed to for the less than stellar sales figures that the PS3 has experienced, Sony’s first party titles have in no way factored into the formula. Names like Uncharted, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, and Motor Storm – all first party games – have wowed owners, and non-PS3 owners alike. Well, you can add one more name to that list… inFAMOUS.
Sucker Punch, the studio that brought you the Sly Cooper series on the Playstation 2, has created a brand new I.P. from the ground up. SP’s inFAMOUS is a super hero story centered around an everyday bike messenger who goes by the name of Cole. With the lack of back story or comic book tie-in, Sucker Punch has successfully created a story that is accessible to any gamer interested in jumping into the shoes of a super.
Players are introduced to the story of inFAMOUS through beautifully rendered comic book story windows. The narrative begins when a package that Cole is delivering explodes leaving Empire City – the game’s world – a mess, and Cole in a coma. Cole awakes from the coma to find the city devastated, and discovers that he has an electrical power which he can use to wreak havoc on the game’s inhabitants, or help reclaim the the world in which he lives.
Empire City is a living, breathing open world not much unlike GTA’s Liberty City. As Cole you are given free reign to run about the world interacting with NPC’s, scaling massive buildings, and completing missions. At first glace the game’s parkour-like approach to maneuvering throughout EC, may draw Crackdown comparisons, however a little hands on time will show the gamer that the control scheme is somewhat of a mixture of Crackdown, Mirror’s Edge, and Assassin’s Creed. When Cole leaps to, or from a building he will automatically stick to the next mountable piece of environment if you are in fact close enough to said object.
Combat is handled in a few different manners – you can perform hand to hand combat, which for it’s part works really well, or you can use one of your electrically charged super powers. The standard electrical attack functions much like a gun does in a shooter with the weapon making way to the Cole’s arm, and bolts taking the place of bullets. The on screen reticule works wonderfully, and makes taking out enemies a breeze.
Probably the most compelling aspect of inFAMOUS is the choices that you are given throughout the game. You can approach each of the game’s scenarios from a multitude of angles, but one way or another you have to chose whether to play as good, or evil. Depending on the path that you take, the game will unfold differently – Cole will have access to either good or evil powers, the cities inhabitants will fear, or learn to trust you, and ultimately the game’s story will be effected.
Through the development powers of Sucker Punch, Sony has published yet another game that gives those without a PS3 a reason to purchase one. inFAMOUS is one of the most fascinating, and fun to play titles to come out, not only this year, but possibly this console life cycle. If you’re still on the Playstation 3 purchasing fence… here’s one more reason to jump on board.