The Importance of Story in Games

Ok so here it is, the first official GameTrocity article in like 2 months! Let me first say to all of you that I am excited to get back to writing and that I am not looking forward to renewing all of my used to be regular contacts that I get comments from.

I was looking for a topic to write about and while there are many out there, especially since Governor Patterson just signed the video game bill into law here in New York but there has been one that I wanted to examine the most. Anyone who plays games with any sort of passion recognizes that they are fast becoming a great way to go through a story. This has been in my because of one game more or less. That game being Metal Gear Solid 4.

Now I know that this game is a game that definitely rewards the long time fans more than the new comers and yes I am a long time fan so forgive any bias when I mention MGS4.

Game Developers have become more and more concerned with the quality of background story in their games in the last decade or so. This is mainly due to the improved technology that allowed games to be more believable.

For example, remember the two lines of intro you got before you first started playing contra? To put it in perspective you should imagine those same two lines of dialogue being the only story you get from a current gen game. I know it is not the strongest example but admit that it still feels farfetched and totally ridiculous. So my point is that it isn't that technology has allowed developers to add more in depth story into video games but rather it has made it a requirement.

I guess you could call it a double edged sword of sorts, since the improved graphics allow the game to be more believable a better story with developed characters can only help the game. To prove that point I think we should examine some famous game franchises and the stories that follow their games and how effective they are.

I am a total Microsoft fanboy in many ways so I would like to start with the Halo series as it is a good example of a cross game story line and how the story changes when more games are added. We all know that the early history of the game development of Halo: Combat Evolved was unsure at first. Halo was the first successful attempt at a first person shooter developed for a console system. Sure there were FPS games on consoles before it ( Goldeneye I know! so don't bother me about it) but Halo streamlined the control system which has now been basically copied for every other shooter (thus the term Halo clone). No one was sure about Halo's outcome and this affected the story. Remember that it all starts with the singular story of the Pillar of Autumn crash landing on a giant Ring Construct after fleeing from a massive space battle somewhere around a place called Reach, the events from there proceed to the Master Chief fighting to destroy the ring before it annihilated all life in the galaxy to keep the flood from spreading. The biggest event in Halo was the emergence of the flood and that opened up the game hugely but it all leaves off with Master Chief free floating in a small fighter jet waiting for pick up from god knows where. This is a perfect example of how the story was set up so that a second game wasn't necessary but could be implemented if the demand. Bungie probably only set this up because they weren't sure of Halos future.

In the second game the storyline is opened up to a more intimate view on a galaxy wide fight for survival that speeds up with the covenant discovering the location of Earth. It even humanizes the covenant by giving you control over a covenant character in the form of the Arbiter. If Halo: Combat Evolved was the first chapter then Halo 2 was the game that set the stage for the real events to come.

Then Halo 3 is the end of the saga and the completion of every story started in the first. Everyone loves to say that the end of Halo 2 sucked, but it really allowed Halo 3 to be as epic in story as it was. There were years of hype on what was going to happen in the third game because of the cliff hanger ending in the second. Everything in the second game was wrapped up respectably in the third installment and there was one plot line left open, but hey do you really think Bungie wouldn't leave the possibility of a new Halo game open?

For me the Halo series is a good example of how a story is extended because of popularity rather than any pre-planning as it is easy to tell that none of the story in Halo: Combat Evolved was entirely intended to become what it did.

The second game series I want to look at is Metal Gear Solid. If the story of Halo was extended out of necessity then the story of Metal Gear has to be some kind of ridiculously pre-meditated epic that Kojima has had locked up in his brain for about 20 years now. I know a lot of people say the dialogue in the Metal Gear games is redundant but when you look at it, it really has to be. Kojima managed to come up with an epic that stretched through the years and one he has just been waiting to let loose on the world.

It really did start with Metal Gear 20 years ago when Snake is sent to Outer Heaven to stop Big Boss and everything begins from there. The story crosses many characters and continents and touches on topics of child soldiers and what happens when war becomes a part of everyday life.

I unfortunately do not have the option to cover the story of Metal Gear even as generally as I did for Halo as then it would probably take me days to write this article instead of this sitting. The point being that the story is more than just capable of complimenting the game play but more often than not outdoes it in importance. I didn?t buy MGS4 for the game play, I bought it so I could get some answers to questions I have been asking for years because the story was that important for me at least.

It?s getting late so I am going to have to wrap this up, my point being that nowadays the story of a game directly affects how believable a game is. You can?t get absorbed by a game on game play alone anymore which is both a tragedy as it marks the end of simple games, but it certainly marks the beginning of a future that is nothing but bright when it comes to involvement in games and perhaps people taking them more seriously.

Hope you all enjoyed the first in a long line of new GameTrocity articles!

-Ichi