Realizing the Promise of Realism

I’ve long been a proponent of highly sylized video games. This probably has much to do with the fact that I cut my teeth during the NES era. After all, visible pixels don’t exactly lend themselves to realism. But now that the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3 are on the scene, everything’s beginning to change. The extent to which recent games have approached reality (speaking in terms of both art assets and physics engines) has been quite astonishing. Though even some of today’s most valiant attempts still fail to deliver in one respect or another, gaming may be on the verge of a new golden age. Or perhaps it’s just me coming around to something others have known forever. In any case, over the last few years, I’ve tended to appreciate fanciful, interpretive games. Stuff like Beyond Good & Evil or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.  But throughout 2008, I’ve begun to see real merit in attempting to closely model reality.

Is This Hell or Indianapolis? Grand Theft Auto IV

Liberty City, for all its sandboxy, open-world qualities, isn’t exactly the free and easiest setting in video games.

As with Indianapolis, there’s (probably) a lot of fun to be had, but you have to be damned motivated to find it. Unfortunately, it’s also much like Hell in that endless suffering awaits those trying to complete story mode in a timely fashion.

In short, I would’ve liked to see a great deal of the core missions made optional. Give Niko more leads sooner, so that interested players can chase his ghosts as truly driven, urgent playactors; let anything else fall by the wayside. Or not, depending on user preference. But a surfeit of objectives to confront after concluding our storyline isn’t problematic — not in the least. Their draw would underscore one of the game’s strongest themes: the ease with which disaffected individuals become inextricably embroiled in the seedy underbelly of a corrupt and gang-ridden city.

Oooh, and — one more complaint — restarting missions is an inexcusable CHORE. Can we get some freakin’ checkpoints next time?! I mean, holy Christ in a Cornflakes box. Ish is real out there. Far too much so.