Top Five Games As Art from WeeklyGeekShow
As far as I'm concerned, the debate about whether or not video-games are/can be art is a profoundly trivial one. I'm a firm believer that art is in and is only in the mouth/hand/eye/ears/nose/and throat of the beholder. The only people who feel a need to debate it or even bring up the debate are vacuous windbags like Roger Ebert, and no one wants to be like Ebert now do they?
Having said that, here is my list of most art-like video-games. Consider it your Christmas shopping list for that special geek in your life.
-ICO
-Shadow of the Colossus
I'm lumping these two together for two reasons. One, they are both produced by the same group, and two, they are both quite similar in feel. You are a lone young man trying to save a young girl from death. Your world is vast, ancient, and almost totally devoid of life aside from the beautiful landscapes. ICO is more of a straight-up adventure, with many black shadow beings to vanquish and seemingly unending platforms to jump and puzzles to solve. Shadow is a much more refined adventure. There are only a small number of foes, but the hook here is that those foes are the largest beasts you're likely to ever encounter in any game past present and future. These are the colossi. Are they evil machines of destruction? Are they simply gentle beasts defending themselves? Guess what? Kill them anyway, 'cause that cute chick in the coma ain't gonna wake herself up now is she?
-Katamari Damacy
This one is more art as video-game than video-game as art. It has what is quite possibly the simplest control scheme of any modern-day game, as well as the most straight-forward goal: get bigger. With the game-play and plot dealt with, Katamari fills up the rest with a million little tastes and touches that become instantly addictive. Add in what is inarguably the best original soundtrack ever produced (yes, I said inarguably, so don't even bother) and you have one of the most pleasurable and refreshingly positive gaming experiences anywhere.
-Myst/Riven
You can't have one with the other. Myst set the stage/broke the mold/tired cliche for the point-and-click genre. With no guide, you are plopped down into a living world full of odd machines and puzzling wildlife. All you can do is wonder around and poke at things, hoping to find a pattern and a purpose. When you do, most often you are rewarded with an even tougher problem, an even larger world to explore, which you will do until your eyes are bloody and your mouse-hand is a petrified claw. Then you'll start Riven.
-Final Fantasy XII
This is an example of excess as art. It never ends. I should mention that I'm still playing it, and am over 70 hours in with little sign of slowing. Let's just say that there are 13 of a certain thing to find, and I have 4, not to mention the hunts I have left and all of the other small items to deal with. What at first I thought was a fatally flawed battle system has shown itself to be both smooth and elegant. I still think the license grid is lame and flawed (my characters are still almost identically powered), and I see no reason to use more than a four or five gambits (you can set up twelve?), but it's a small price to pay. The world is huge and open, the amount of back-story to be found in the Clan Primer is insane, there are constant twists to the game-play, and oh yeah, the actual plot is epic in scope. As someone who is not going to be getting a PS3 for a couple years (if ever), Final Fantasy XII is/will be the best thing to happen in the RPG world for some time.
-Killer 7
It would be easy to focus on the visuals of Killer 7 (surreal and cell-shaded) as the defining art-like element, but it's actually the bizarre plot that does it for me. You play as a team of seven killers fighting an army of increasingly strange enemies, all set in various equally odd places. It seems like a normal world, but then there is this dead guy that keeps talking to you, and the room with the old man in the wheelchair with the sexy female attendant, the guy that powers you up by mixing blood in some weird machine, and the slow realization that maybe none of this is real. Everything about this game is still fresh and original and pretty bizarre. It's not for the faint of heart.
-The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker
For the faint of heart, there will always be Zelda. Many people might think that the much more child-like take on the series was a step back, but for me this is easily the most fun and most elegant example of an adventure game out there. Again, the world is seemingly endless, but this time it is bursting with life as well as secrets. This is another game where you can simply noodle around digging up secret after secret without really advancing the plot. The large collection of gear opens up a vast array of game-play situations that can really make one's mind bend in new directions. For the first time, Link can express a wide range of emotions, and simply watching him watch the world around him can be fun. Wind Waker is a series of increasingly rewarding discovery, which is the exact definition of a great game.
-Okami
Basically, see the above review, only add a god-dog as the main character. A super awesome god-dog.
-Rule of Rose
Moving away from the happy world of bright colors and cartoon heroes, we have the survival horror genre. What better place to start than with the game that has just recently been banned in Italy! Rule of Rose is not happy, not fun, not revolutionary. It is a seriously flawed game that nevertheless pushes the bounds of storytelling. The plot is the only saving grace for RoR, but if you are willing to slog through the flaws you'll find a rather unique moral. Please do not listen to the scare tactics surrounding it. The reports of various lolita-esque situations have been greatly exaggerated. This is a game about a girl, her dog, and ownership. Oh, and a group of girls that totally finger-bang each other!!!1OMG!
-Silent Hill 2
The awesomeness of SH2 is tough to sum up in one badly presented paragraph. It's the defining game of the survival horror genre (because I just can't think of Resident Evil as survival horror anymore). It features a hero that is a weak, impotent putz with girl issues. The world regularly falls apart into a hell of rust and cages full of monsters that are walking nightmares and music from the insane drummers of Azathoth. Again, you'll often find yourself wondering if any of it is real. Every path is an endurance test for your nerves, with the prison and hospital levels left to weed out even the most bold adventurers.
-Super Breakout
This could go on forever, so I'll leave with this, what is still possibly my favorite game ever, Super Breakout for the Atari 2600. Simple can't get much simpler: Hit the ball, break the bricks. The control can't get any more refined: left or right. The sound can't get any more basic: square waves. Yet every game is different. Every path leads to a new world. The end is always just out of reach yet the desire to reach it always grows stronger. This is art.
Showing posts with label Rule of Rose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rule of Rose. Show all posts
Rule of Rose
I finished Rule of Rose last night, and I have some very mixed reactions. (One plot spoiler to follow)
First off, despite what the various ads and previews would have you believe, RoR is not nearly as controversial as it sounds. Yes, it involves a society of young girls (the Aristocrat Club) and their mis-treatment of the main character Jennifer. There is no sexual content however, and the other torments she suffers would barely register on a Silent Hill or Resident Evil scale. A dead rat is about as gruesome as anything ever gets.
The story itself is very cryptic and ultimately remains that way to the end. There are very few characters, all of whom remain drastically under-developed throughout the story. The girls remain two-dimensional: the brainy one, the fat one, the pretty one, the quiet one, the sick one, etc. The other two or three grown-ups are hardly worth mentioning, aside from the fact that they are the main bad guys.
Ultimately, RoR is a story about a girl and her faithful dog Brown. Jennifer loses her family and is sent to a school/orphanage. All alone, she first finds a friend in Wendy. Not long after, Jennifer finds Brown and they too become fast friends. Wendy does not take this well.
As for the gameplay, it's really nothing new to the survival horror genre. Jennifer is clumsy and hard to control, running in a wide circle whenever she simply needs to about-face. The camera is fixed but you are able to swing it around behind you most of the time. The map provided is almost useless as it has no labeling of rooms in any way. Jennifer is a horrible fighter, and this isn't helped by the awful combat system. It's as basic as you can get. All you can do is swing you weapon and hope you connect. Even if you manage to hit the model of the bad guy, you might still miss. Apparently you have to hit a single pixel embedded in the center of the enemy. Simply hitting its arm, leg or head will not do. This very often puts Jennifer in harm's way, as the enemies don't have to play by the same rules and can often slam Jennifer to the ground simply by walking past her. This leads to some of the worst boss battles I've ever played, the first boss in particular. You have a weak weapon and very few health items at the time. He only has to hit you three times to finish you off, but you have to hit him about 20 or 30. His reach is also twice that of Jennifer's, so you have to run right up to him, swing once, hope you hit him (about a 20% chance) then turn (in a wide circle) and run (slowly) away before he can swing or lunge in return. It's some of the worst combat and the most one sided battle I've ever experienced. I only beat him because I managed to catch him in a corner behind Brown.
The main focus of the game is to find various objects that the Aristocrat Club is looking for. All of these end up being animals. Again, don't be fooled, this is a game about a girl and a dog. This isn't some twisted journey into a Lord of the Flies-esque fight for survival. It's a series of fetch quests, literally. Brown's main function is to sniff an item and then fetch something else that smells like it. Sometimes it's just another of the same item, sometimes it's something else. This then leads to the search for the next item and so on. It also leads to some funny shots of some very large objects suddenly appearing under Brown's nose. There are no puzzles to solve, no riddles to answer and for the most part, no battles to fight. When the baddies start to shamble around, it's often easier to simply run past them. Fighting gains you nothing, no items or greater heath or skills. There are a few smaller fights that you must undertake, but these are much simpler than the aforementioned boss battles.
The music throughout the game is excellent. It's all performed by a small string section and ranges in mood from light and almost happy to frantic and disjointed. In general it provides a calm and slightly fussy atmosphere very well suited for the subject matter of children who think that they have superior standing and who are trying to be sophisticated, when really they are just a bunch of brats going through the motions.
Possibly the best features of the game are the menu and story-book designs. They all feature shaky, child-like hand-drawn lines that end up being much more wicked and spooky than most of the highly polished CG sequences. That is also a rather apt description of the entire game. At its core, RoR is a wicked children's fable brought to a clumsy, aimless sort of life. That, in turn, is an apt description of the main plot. The children have a broken understanding of the grown-up world, and when they try to mimic it, they are doomed to failure.
Despite all of the negativity above, I enjoyed RoR very much. Then again, I always like games that break away from the traditional definition of what a video game "should" be. RoR, much like Siren or Kuon, is more about the small world it creates than trying to be the biggest and flashiest new thing. It's a clunky independent movie compared to something like a Resident Evil blockbuster (I'm talking about the games, not the actual movies...) They have their flaws, but games like RoR always manage to find a much deeper and far less simple path to follow.
The main question Rule of Rose seems to ask is, what does it mean to protect someone? To have total control over them? To want to keep them for yourself? To own them? You won't find the answers in the splash of zombie brains or a blast of machine-gun fire. You'll find them at the end of a leash.
First off, despite what the various ads and previews would have you believe, RoR is not nearly as controversial as it sounds. Yes, it involves a society of young girls (the Aristocrat Club) and their mis-treatment of the main character Jennifer. There is no sexual content however, and the other torments she suffers would barely register on a Silent Hill or Resident Evil scale. A dead rat is about as gruesome as anything ever gets.
The story itself is very cryptic and ultimately remains that way to the end. There are very few characters, all of whom remain drastically under-developed throughout the story. The girls remain two-dimensional: the brainy one, the fat one, the pretty one, the quiet one, the sick one, etc. The other two or three grown-ups are hardly worth mentioning, aside from the fact that they are the main bad guys.
Ultimately, RoR is a story about a girl and her faithful dog Brown. Jennifer loses her family and is sent to a school/orphanage. All alone, she first finds a friend in Wendy. Not long after, Jennifer finds Brown and they too become fast friends. Wendy does not take this well.
As for the gameplay, it's really nothing new to the survival horror genre. Jennifer is clumsy and hard to control, running in a wide circle whenever she simply needs to about-face. The camera is fixed but you are able to swing it around behind you most of the time. The map provided is almost useless as it has no labeling of rooms in any way. Jennifer is a horrible fighter, and this isn't helped by the awful combat system. It's as basic as you can get. All you can do is swing you weapon and hope you connect. Even if you manage to hit the model of the bad guy, you might still miss. Apparently you have to hit a single pixel embedded in the center of the enemy. Simply hitting its arm, leg or head will not do. This very often puts Jennifer in harm's way, as the enemies don't have to play by the same rules and can often slam Jennifer to the ground simply by walking past her. This leads to some of the worst boss battles I've ever played, the first boss in particular. You have a weak weapon and very few health items at the time. He only has to hit you three times to finish you off, but you have to hit him about 20 or 30. His reach is also twice that of Jennifer's, so you have to run right up to him, swing once, hope you hit him (about a 20% chance) then turn (in a wide circle) and run (slowly) away before he can swing or lunge in return. It's some of the worst combat and the most one sided battle I've ever experienced. I only beat him because I managed to catch him in a corner behind Brown.
The main focus of the game is to find various objects that the Aristocrat Club is looking for. All of these end up being animals. Again, don't be fooled, this is a game about a girl and a dog. This isn't some twisted journey into a Lord of the Flies-esque fight for survival. It's a series of fetch quests, literally. Brown's main function is to sniff an item and then fetch something else that smells like it. Sometimes it's just another of the same item, sometimes it's something else. This then leads to the search for the next item and so on. It also leads to some funny shots of some very large objects suddenly appearing under Brown's nose. There are no puzzles to solve, no riddles to answer and for the most part, no battles to fight. When the baddies start to shamble around, it's often easier to simply run past them. Fighting gains you nothing, no items or greater heath or skills. There are a few smaller fights that you must undertake, but these are much simpler than the aforementioned boss battles.
The music throughout the game is excellent. It's all performed by a small string section and ranges in mood from light and almost happy to frantic and disjointed. In general it provides a calm and slightly fussy atmosphere very well suited for the subject matter of children who think that they have superior standing and who are trying to be sophisticated, when really they are just a bunch of brats going through the motions.
Possibly the best features of the game are the menu and story-book designs. They all feature shaky, child-like hand-drawn lines that end up being much more wicked and spooky than most of the highly polished CG sequences. That is also a rather apt description of the entire game. At its core, RoR is a wicked children's fable brought to a clumsy, aimless sort of life. That, in turn, is an apt description of the main plot. The children have a broken understanding of the grown-up world, and when they try to mimic it, they are doomed to failure.
Despite all of the negativity above, I enjoyed RoR very much. Then again, I always like games that break away from the traditional definition of what a video game "should" be. RoR, much like Siren or Kuon, is more about the small world it creates than trying to be the biggest and flashiest new thing. It's a clunky independent movie compared to something like a Resident Evil blockbuster (I'm talking about the games, not the actual movies...) They have their flaws, but games like RoR always manage to find a much deeper and far less simple path to follow.
The main question Rule of Rose seems to ask is, what does it mean to protect someone? To have total control over them? To want to keep them for yourself? To own them? You won't find the answers in the splash of zombie brains or a blast of machine-gun fire. You'll find them at the end of a leash.
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