Q1 2016 Games Played

March 28, 2016

I thought that, rather than write a bunch of posts on games I’ve played, I’d do quarterly write-up on what I’ve played and some brief thoughts. This, by the way, is reflective of games I’ve played in Q1 2016, but not necessarily Q1 2016 games 🙂

Batman: Arkham Knight (completed)

https://www.batmanarkhamknight.com/

This game was plagued with performance problems on PC when it was released, so I left it on the back-burner until now. Overall, I had a good time with this game. I enjoyed the more adult, darker vibe (more Christian Bale than comic zaniness) The game had refined and enjoyable gameplay, and I did enjoy having the batmobile as a chance-of-pace from Arkham Asylum + City. If I were to rank Asylum, City, Origins and Knight, I’d put Asylum first but Knight second.

While I did enjoy it, I was disappointed it didn’t fully commit to the dark vibe throughout (I could give an example of a plot point, but out of concern for spoilers I’ll hold back). I did get game-fatigue closer to the end, and was not inspired to bother with any of the side-quest stuff (particularly the riddler puzzles). I didn’t bother in Arkham City either, so no surprise there.

Goat Simulator

http://www.goat-simulator.com/

Here’s a little change in pace from Batman 😉 This game almost borders on party game, from the point of view that it is a ridiculous game that is even funnier when you have friends to laugh along with you. There is no real story to speak of – only that you’re a goat, and you have objectives offered up progressively by the game for points. Other than that, it’s open-world with no guidelines. You can totally mess around in here, and you certainly do. Your goat has a hell of headbutt, a jump, sticky tongue, and can’t truly die, so you can get yourself into a lot of trouble. When you do “die”, you become a floppy goat corpse, but can still move it around until you reset the goat. Even that is pretty amusing 😉

I’d recommend this one for a good laugh for a couple of days. To note, a prototype of the game was originally created as a joke, and the developers got such a positive response to it that they turned it into a commercial product!

Pillars of Eternity

http://eternity.obsidian.net/

I grew up with the AD&D Gold Box games made by SSI, followed by Baldur’s Gate and its ilke via Bioware. This game manages to nail the memory of Baldur’s Gate to a tee. To feel this nostalgic, yet still be modern and approachable, is saying something indeed! It’s very easy to sink a lot of hours into, and the game isn’t exactly small. It’s basically what you want from this kind of isometric RPG (unless you want Planescape: Torment or Fallout, which both have modern iterations in Torment: Tides of Numenera and Wasteland 2).

Unfortunately for me, I got bogged down in some difficult combat and it was enough to side-track me onto the next game… I haven’t made it back to continue yet.

Homeworld: Battle of Kharak (completed)

http://www.desertsofkharak.com/

I missed out on the original Homeworld games back in the late 90s because I found 4x space RTS games were way too confusing with camera angles and the like. But when I found this was more Command and Conquer (or StarCraft 2) than Homeworld, I gave it a spin. I’m very, very glad I did! The game’s audio and visuals are stunning. Speaking as someone who lives in a desert climate, it gets the color spectrum and feelings exact. This is a great little game and a fantastic example of what you can pull off in the Unity Game Engine.

If I had any complaints, it’s that it’s FRIGGING HARD! I am no rookie to RTSes (though I tend to turtle) and I lost the first mission. Yep, it’s not a walk in the park. But it’s a great experience all around.

Rise of the Tomb Raider (completed)

http://www.tombraider.com/us/

While Homeworld surprised me, I was waiting for Rise of the Tomb Raider. And like Homeworld, this game nails the visuals. Everything looks great, and on a number of occasions I stopped just to look around and take it in (thanks for not being Call of Duty in a constant sprint to the finish line!). Some of the exotic settings and ruins are incredible.

The gameplay is very much an evolution of the original reboot, but I enjoyed that game a lot and thus enjoyed this as well. It plays well, and you like to be in this world, especially as you get better skills in survival and combat. This was one of the few games that actually motivated me to try to get 100% on each map, though as I got to the latter couple of maps a combination of game fatigue and map scale served to end that goal.

If there was anything weak in ROTR for me, it would be the story. In a word: predictable. I figured out a plot twist early on that wasn’t revealed for a dozen more hours. Plus, the characters are a bit archetypal – they play to stereotypes and again become predictable. But, honestly, this wasn’t a big hindrance, and I had no problems playing through to the end.

X-Com 2 (completed)

https://xcom.com/

Ahh X-Com. I have such fond memories of the original ’90s PC game, and the reboot got a lot of it right. X-Com 2 follows in these footsteps and tries to innovate on the existing design with (mostly) good improvements.

This game was very addictive – the “just one more mission” kept me up way later than I ought to have stayed up. I also made sure to name/customize the soldiers to be family and friends, which gives you a LOT more investment in them than you’d normally have. You really want them to live, and even yell at them when they miss 🙂 I loved the base building, the combat, the exploration… pretty much everything.

My complaints stemmed from particular aspects of how they ramped up the difficulty. For one, you start “behind the 8-ball” in terms of limited resources and contacts. You spend a lot of the game just trying to dig yourself out of the hole and (personally) I found this frustrating. This was exemplified with the “Dark Events”, where you could choose to stop an enemy activity – but not all of them. So you were guaranteed to get punished, but you could limit the damage somewhat. Not motivational. Another angle was the introduction of timed missions (10 turns to win or automatic lose). It changed the typical X-Com “take your time” strategy and forced your hand. The problem with this is it happened MOST of the time, so people who enjoyed the strategy of setting up troops felt cheated.

One complaint I have about both reboots was that the original X-Com hid enemy movements from you, including when aliens shoot at you! So you would genuinely “stumble into an alien” on a mission at point blank, or a laser beam would shoot out from the fog of war and SCARE THE CRAP OUT OF YOU. These reboots have the aliens traveling in packs and revealing themselves instantly… I miss that old element!

The Witness (completed)

http://the-witness.net/news/

It’s hard to know how to feel about the Witness in a number of ways. Developer Jon Blow seems to know how to push the right buttons 🙂 This game is different from most other games you’ve played, perhaps overlapping with the classic game Myst most.Myst had little story, and neither does the Witness – they both mainly embrace the puzzles they present. Myst, at least, had more clear motivation on what you were trying to do… The Witness is vague at best in anything narrative (intentionally).

The game is very beautiful and it is interesting to see how it was designed to encourage players to teach themselves the logic of the different kinds of puzzles. But forget X-Com 2 or Homeworld, THIS GAME IS MIND-MELTINGLY HARD. Some of the puzzles are best suited to people who are very logical (good at math and science? this is for you) and punishes everyone else with no real assistance aside from the initial “training puzzles”. A lot of people will dislike how this game denies support or assistance in any way, but since its main reward is the thrill that comes with solving puzzles, it kind of makes sense.

It’s worth a try, perhaps as it gets cheaper, but don’t expect to beat this thing unless you are committed, a logic-genius, or resort to puzzle assistance (this was me) 😉

Firewatch (completed)

http://www.firewatchgame.com/

If The Witness sounds frustrating, or if you are much more drawn to characters and story, Firewatch is much more up your alley. Situating yourself in the 1980s as a park ranger, the majority of your interactions come from another park ranger over the walkie talkie you carry. You spend a lot of time walking around the park (and man is it pretty), and a genuine sense of “being alone” (both positive and negative connotations) come into play for the character. You have the ability to ask and answer questions with some choice, and care was taken to make your choices feel unique.

When I finished the game, I read up on some reviews and realized the game changes notably based on how you response to questions. I hesitated to play again, however, because I felt I got “my story” from my choices. It’s not impossible to replay, however, because the game clocks in at about 3hrs to completion. Some people may complain it’s too short, but it respected your time (especially valuable when you’re older and, you know, have responsibilities other than playing games). I recommend this to most people as a really engaging and unique experience worth having (as long as you don’t mind “not shooting stuff”).

Helldivers

http://arrowheadgamestudios.com/games/helldivers/

Speaking of shooting stuff, Helldivers is a very intense isometric shooter with co-operative play (up to 4 players). Borrowing from the Starship Troopers vibe, you invade three different types of worlds to “bring justice” to different alien races… through shooting stuff, of course!

The game has a basic formula of choosing a difficulty level, generating a procedural map with specific types of objectives to complete on the mission, and allowing the player to choose a start point. You configure your gear, and drop in. Depending on the difficulty, the game introduces more/different types of enemies, and this game gets very VERY HARD. A friend and I jumped into a game three levels higher than I was playing at and I died in less than 30 seconds 😉

The game plays well and is fun, but is based fundamentally on “level grind” progression which can get a bit tired after a while. Also, while the levels are procedural, the mission goals are from a set group (maybe 7 or so?) so you end up doing the same kinds of missions often. But the coop (collaborative) aspects make this game pretty enjoyable for quite a while. And did I mention this game was HARD? There’s also friendly-fire you can’t turn off 🙂

Superhot

https://superhotgame.com/#trailer

Now THIS is an experience that surprisingly-new! It’s a First-Person-Shooter-Strategy game, more or less. An FPS, but where time (basically) doesn’t move if you don’t move. So rather than an FPS where you run for high ground or cover, Superhot gets you running AT your enemies, dodging their bullets and feeling, quite literally, like Neo from The Matrix. You need more spatial awareness than any kind of hand-eye coordination, because you have to figure out where the baddies are coming from and what they’re doing. It is really refreshing, and rewarding to clear a level like some action hero would do. Though a totally different experience, there’s a bit of a “Hotline Miami” feeling of accomplishment upon completing a level.

The game steadily increases in difficulty as you progress, and the latter levels get really complex and difficult (hence why I haven’t beaten it yet). Graphically it is very abstract, which gives it a unique look and takes some of the violence out of your actions. It also helps you see enemies and bullets as they show up in different colors than the background. Play this if you want a notably-different (but exciting) gaming experience.

Grim Fandango Remastered (completed)

http://www.grimremastered.com/

It’s been a long time since I played this game originally, and in most ways it still holds up. Grim Fandango is a classic adventure game set in the Land of the Dead with a Film Noir style. It has some of the best plot/environment/dialogue that I’ve seen in any computer game. It’s a classic, and that’s probably why it finishes in the top 10 on most “best game ever” lists (presuming you’re not a console elitist). It’s great to see the Remastered edition allows another generation of people to play this game, since the original is difficult to get set up properly. The developer commentary is also excellent, as it gives us insight into a lot of decisions and processes that made the game what it is.

Now, I can’t let GF off without some gripes – there are some really unclear puzzles in this game. Perhaps spoiled a little by more modern games, there were times I genuinely didn’t know what I was supposed to do next, nor could I figure out what worked with what. They were also experimenting with 3D (physical) puzzles in this game, and some of those are downright confusing or tricky (glitchy) to get to work. I even had the game crash on my a couple times! And the game -STILL- has a puzzle that you can break the game with, which has been there since it was originally released. But honestly, despite these grumbles you really need to play this game if you have not. So good.

And that’s all I’ve played in this quarter… judging on my impending move back to Canada in July, I’m probably not going to have nearly this much to comment on for Q2… but I’ll give it a try 😉

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The Magic of Photogrammetry

March 18, 2016

 Hellblade – 3d-scanned face of actress playing Senua

Photogrammetry is a fascinating process you may or may not have heard about before, but it is becoming much more common. This technique has appeared in a number of places, but for games the Vanishing of Ethan Carter did it first. The most mainstream example, however, is Star Wars: Battlefront. In fact, at GDC this past week there was a talk specifically on Photogrammetry in SW:Battlefront! Because of my interest/background in photography and video games, this combines a couple of interests at once.

What is it?

Photogrammetry (for video games) is the process of producing 3D models and textures through the use of source material from digital photography. But photos are two-dimensional, right? Yes, that’s true! The trick with photogrammetry is through the software it uses. This software (Agisoft Photoscan the most common) is able to extract unique points in each picture for the object. So, by taking a number of photos from many angles of an object, these photos can be matched against each other for unique points, and the software is able to figure out from where (what angle) each photo was taken. It sounds clever, but the real magic comes from the software extrapolating all the unique points from all the photos, ultimately producing a textured 3D model!

Why not just do this the old fashioned way?

The traditional method of creating a 3d object and its textures is typically based on producing textures that tile (repeat) or are symmetrical. While this works well for some (often man-made) objects, other objects don’t look natural when they are uniform. Also, the level of (texture) detail of objects is something that, traditionally, someone has to create by hand. The more detail, the more time invested. Photogrammetry is able to extract this from megapixels of photos, giving it far more detail than the typical artist is willing to put in.

Waterfall from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter – this level of unique, asymmetrical detail would be incredibly time-consuming to produce traditionally

So how does it work?

In order to illustrate the process, I’ve selected a wall-mounted lamp in my backyard. It seemed reasonably easy to photograph, plus is isn’t perfectly symmetrical (some broken bits) and a distinct texture (dirty).

1. Take photos

There is a whole technique for doing this, but fundamentally you just need to get good coverage of your object. Too few photos and you don’t get enough information, but too many and your computer will struggle to be able to process it. It’s also worth mentioning you want to shoot on an overcast day (or inside in an evenly-lit room), because uneven light causes shadows and this means some angles will have less detail.

2. Load them into the software and align them (Generating unique points)

Lamp photos aligned, with unique points visible

Once you have your photos (in my case, I took 33), you load your Photogrammetry software and drop in the photos. I demonstrate this with Agisoft Photoscan, as it offers a free trial. Once this begins it will take a while (depending on your computer and number/quality of photos). Once done, you get a neat sphere showing where all your photos were taken around the central object.

Before you move on, you can remove points you don’t want. These may be points that are errant or are part of the background. The more you remove here, the more consistent/clean your object will end up.

3. Create a dense cloud of points

That’s not a texture – that’s a PILE of unique points!

A closer zoom in, with points visible

Now that you have your initial points, you can generate a dense cloud. This, again, can take a while. When done, you should have a clear view of what your object looks like. What you see is not a texture, but just a pile of unique points! In my lamp, I have 17 million points (that’s a lot!) You can also do another pass at removing unnecessary points, and this will help produce a smoother mesh.

4. Create the mesh

The Lamp Mesh

With the dense cloud created and cleaned up, it’s time to generate a mesh. Yep, more wait time. The result, however, is pretty detailed. My lamp is 1,189,000 faces. Note: for those not in 3d modeling, this is a ridiculous number of faces for something basic like a lamp. This will ultimately need to be scaled down to a reasonable amount. As a source mesh, this has (well in excess of) all the detail we’ll ever need.

5. Create the texture

The mesh with the texture applied

Now that we have the mesh, we can generate the texture. Photoscan lifts all the visual detail from the photo and maps it onto the mesh, producing a glorious texture map. However, it will produce textures that are broken up into many smaller pieces (not user friendly). This is something that can be tweaked by increasing the texture size, and by manipulating it in a 3d program after the fact. In all honesty, it’s the texture production which has the greatest visual impact for the end user. Everything looks unique.

6. Import to the 3D program of your choice (to fine-tune/clean up, rig, etc)

Once you’ve saved the mesh and texture file, you can import it directly into 3D Studio or Maya and start manipulating it.

So why don’t we do this for everything?

Well, for one, it’s still relatively new. With the success of the process in Star Wars: Battlefront, you will start to see a more mainstream uptake of this technology. A good example is HellBlade, where they used the process to capture the face of the protagonist in this video (Hellblade takes it to 11 by adding photogrammetry to in-engine live facial and motion capture).

Secondly, it’s worth noting only a couple of development houses have been willing to take on the financial burden of the photogrammetry rigs. To capture faces quickly and effectively, they use a LOT of SLR cameras in sync (by a lot, I mean 40-80!). So it is a bit expensive to start with. But with proven results and reduced production time, it will inevitably become cheaper and more common in the years to come.

Ten24’s capture stage. That’s a LOT of DSLRs!

Lastly, as I mentioned above, you get a lot of detail (mesh and texture) – more than you will need. So depending on the application – for example, a game for mobile phones, it is likely not an efficient process. Phones aren’t powerful enough to handle the detail, so it’s wasted. Heck, if I had a bunch of objects in a game as detailed as my lamp example above, it would struggle to run on powerful gaming PCs. It always needs to be scaled back (unless your end result is a video).

Anyhow, I hope that gives you some insight into this fascinating process, as I can guarantee you’ll see it used more and more in the coming years.

For more detailed information:

• The Vanishing of Ethan Carter’s Photogrammetry concepts (and some interactive photogrammetry models!)
• Star Wars Battlefront: Photogrammetry
• Hellblade clip talking about the “Facial Scan” (Photogrammetry) process
• Polygon article talking about SW:Battlefront’s Photogrammetry process
• TGA Digital’s walkthrough of using Agisoft Photoscan (YouTube)
• ClassyDog’s walkthrough of Photogrammetry (tips and tricks) (YoutTube)
• Ten24’s 3d Scanning services

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Hands-off Exploration and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter

April 25, 2015

“This game is a narrative experience that does not hold your hand.”

And in many ways, they mean it. The Vanishing of Ethan Carter is essentially an exploratory puzzle game. The player arrives on the scene because of a letter sent to him by Ethan Carter, and your job is to try to uncover what is going on.

Beyond that, there’s not a whole lot of guidance. Players are left to explore and uncover things in the environment, piecing the story together like a detective examining a crime scene. It’s an interesting approach to take in this age of game maps and objectives and directives. There is no game map, and there is not even always a clear direction. Sometimes I found myself exploring only to find that I had doubled-back on my position to a previous puzzle I had solved (specifically when trying to find the mine).

The graphics in this game are stunning. Look at the detail on the rail!

All in all, this experience was a good one. The game is short, but does not need to be any longer. The puzzles can be challenging, but there were enough clues that I was always able to figure them out. The mechanic of reassembling crime scene narratives into the correct order was also entertaining. Characters were believable, and there’s a healthy dose of surrealism going on here. And something you would remember when this game was originally teased: the graphical textures/materials in game are stunning. There’s a crazy amount of detail and you can even zoom in to see more!

While it echoed bits of other games, such as Dear Esther or Alan Wake, this is clearly its own entity and a refreshing change. There’s more control than Esther (which isn’t saying much), but the game does not choose action to deliver its engagement. Akin to something like Myst or 11^th Guest, the atmosphere goes a long way to prompt emotion in the player, as well as thrill (damn miner!)

“Hands-off”, exploratory games give the player time to “take in” the environment, and explore at their own pace

It is an interesting coincidence that prior to playing this I have been thinking more and more about designing games that privilege exploration. A hands-off exploratory approach lets the player stop and take in the environment. The player explores at his/her own pace and has a genuine sense of satisfaction from finding things “their own way”. By the end of the game, they (hopefully) feel like the game experience has been their own, rather than a canned, scripted affair.

Where this could backfire is in missing pieces of or entire puzzles while exploring. For example, the boundaries of the first puzzle you encounter in Ethan Carter are not immediately clear. I ended up uncovering most of it, but continued exploring and found myself at a second puzzle. “Oh, I’ve got to go back and look more”. This could be particularly frustrating for someone who missed solving a puzzle early on, and has to backtrack through a notable portion of the game. Levels need to be designed with a natural flow, yet not feel like corridors (Ethan Carter does this quite well). Alternatively, if you’re clever enough a designer, design it so that the puzzles are optional as well. Of course, when puzzles are attached to a kind of narrative, it might get tricky.

An idea I’ve returned to regularly would be a game designed in a hands-off, exploratory manner but that contains multiple different narrative/puzzle elements. Players, based on their own exploration, might find all, some, or one of the puzzles. For example, if a player was trapped on an island, there might be multiple ways to get off the island. Players will explore and find some of these ways to escape, but different players will have different gameplay experiences. It’s a fantastic concept for prompting discussion of gameplay experiences, which could be harnessed in education to have students journal their gameplay experiences and share them.

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Valiant Hearts: The forgotten war is remembered at last

March 21, 2015

AAA game studios are known for their flashy graphics as much as their overly-violent renditions of gameplay. They’re fast, they’re fun, and they’re fluff – when you finish you rarely come away with a more enlightened view.

It’s rare to find a video game that puts forth a mature theme and message, and yet this is the second post in a row where a game manages to do just that (The Talos Principle being the other). It’s even more rare to find a game like this come from a AAA studio, but Ubisoft saw this diamond and wanted to share it.

I’m so very glad they did.

Valiant Hearts is a game that does a great job providing players with the experience, atmosphere, and background research about a war we rarely talk about in games: The Great War: World War 1. While it does take occasional liberties with the narrative to promote drama and gameplay, the result is still very true to events and gives what is likely the first and only game that provides an accessible World War 1 experience through a game.

 Nailing the unbelievable horrors of trench warfare

Made at Ubisoft Montpellier, it has some Canadian sensibilities, such as a considerable effort to reflect all the different players involved in the Western Front. The usual suspects of Germans, British, and French are represented, but also other key players such as the Belgians, Canadians, and Indians. Even medics, and their canine companions, contribute considerably to the game. It’s refreshing to see a multicultural cast reflective of real events. Now I can hope this game sold well-enough so they can make an Eastern Front game replete with Ottoman Turks, Australians, Austro-Hungarians and Russians which is even less-remembered these days.

 The diverse cast of characters you play in Valiant Hearts

The game itself presents very mature and horrific themes, but does so through its stylized art (think Adventures of Tintin) and tailored gameplay such that the experience is shocking but not repulsive. Rather than take the typical gaming “low-hanging fruit”, the game avoids you overtly killing in the game. While this may sound sterilized, the levels on the front are littered with the injured, and corpses. Player focus is placed on solving puzzles and helping others, and as the medic directly treating the injured. It provided such a fresh experience and the pace allows you to take things in and appreciate the details.

 The only overtly-“educational” aspect of this game, completely optional (yet a great read!)

What makes this stand out from a battlefield of educational game corpses is that the game has ensured that gameplay is the top priority. It works well as a game, and because of that it is able to provide historical context in a way that does not disrupt game flow or feel contrived. To me, at least, it reinforces why educational games need game developers to guide the process, rather than educators with a spurious knowledge of how games work. It’s this kind of game that continues to inspire me to work towards finding and defining the balance needed for educational games in the future.

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“Philosophical Portal”: The Talos Principle

March 14, 2015

As soon as I first heard about The Talos Principle, I was excited. Not as much because CROteam was known for Serious Sam (which I’ve never been partial to), but because Tom Jubert and Jonas Kyratzes were attached on the project as writers. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting both at GDC, and both lean more towards philosophy and exploration of concepts. So this will be a puzzle game with some genuine depth to it?

And…. I wasn’t disappointed! For those who are familiar with Valve’s acclaimed game Portal (which I presume is most people), the Talos Principle:

– provides a similar test-like environment in which the player must solve physical puzzles using the tools they are provided
– focuses less on the player’s need to be dexterous during play (it’s not pixel-precise, nor does it require quick reflexes)
– focuses much more on the “narrative”: a mashup of found-texts like diaries, literary excerpts and emails which explore concepts such as “what it means to be human”
– includes an insane number of little easter eggs

Chatting An example of the physical puzzles you need to complete to collect… blocks… why am I doing this again?

The second point is something I think should make it more accessible to a diverse group of players. You don’t have to have first-person-shooter skills to play this game. The game never rushes you or judges you for taking your time (or giving up and trying a different puzzle). In fact, the game will actually encourage you to do so if you seem to be taking a long time! This is tied into the narrative, where the emphasis is put on completing the puzzles rather than speed-running or being driven along by a world-ending scenario.

 Chatting via old school text-chat

The third point, I believe, is where this game really differentiates itself from its peers. I’ve had a number of game experiences that, while enjoyable at the time, leave me feeling a bit “hollow” at the end. Why did I just invest 30+ hours in this? What did I learn? The Talos Principle actively engages your intellect through its dialogue and readings to consider concepts that apply beyond the game itself. Rather than just react, it hopefully makes you think about the bigger picture of life itself. There is also some self-reflexivity in the game, considering you are using a computer to play the game to … use a computer 🙂 This delivery made me feel both like I was being nosy and being exploratory. It has more gravity than someone barking audio-narrative at you as you play.

If I were to grumble about anything, it would be that the game has so many puzzles that I got a bit tired of completing them after a while (I’m also a completionist, so I did more than I needed to). There also a number of “arrange the shapes to unlock” puzzles which are tedious. Both of these issues may be born from the demand to have games meet a certain number of hours in length (15/20+ hours), and/or it may just be my personal preference (and lack of spare time).

Ultimately, the Talos Principle is a great example of a game that is grown-up. Something adults who are less interested in the twitch-gaming (and mass murder) of Call of Duty could get into. It’s a game that tries not to be hollow, and give you something to take away from the experience.  We need more grown-up games that matter, and this is the kind of experience I aim to reproduce in my own work.

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Far Cry 4: Two Choices and no Options

March 1, 2015

My personality has just enough of the obsessive and compulsive that I struggle with open world games. There’s always more to unlock or discover, and if there are multiple endings my psyche nags me until I see all the outcomes.

But I’ll be honest: I didn’t finish Far Cry 4. Well, aside from the secret ending right at the beginning. And for me and my above-listed personality, that is uncharacteristic. So what was different with Far Cry 4?

A Gritty, Real-World Grey

First of all, I want to emphasize how nice it is to see a different locale and populated by “geographically-accurate” ethnicity. There aren’t many white people in this game, and none of them encourage affinity. I also want to highlight that Far Cry 4 does a solid job of reflecting the gritty, complex happenings of problem spots we read about. With the war in Syria a great parallel example: Who’s bad? Who’s good? How do you tell the rebels from the extemists? Can a newsreader summarize the problems into some convenient sound-bite? Absolutely not. While President Bashir Assad was “painted black” and the rebels “painted white” at the beginning, everything’s a murky grey now.

Torture: just one of many example of gritty subject matter Far Cry 4 deals with in a blunt, believable way

Far Cry 4 presents these kinds of issues with a variety of dubious allies and decisions to make to find out more about Kyrat, its past and its potential future. For example, do you burn the opium fields and destroy the corrupt government’s means for income? Or do you save the fields for the rebels and use the money to help defeat the same government? Which is right? Which is wrong? Ubisoft intentionally leaves this unclear, challenging the player to consider that their actions may not be having the clear-cut intentions they hope.

I have to give credit to Ubisoft for permitting this angle to be reflected in their game. It is uncharacteristic of mainstream games to take a distinctively “unHollywood” like approach. This game often feels more documentary than action movie (though there is more than enough action to go around). A particular standout is the character of “King” Pagan Min, whose eccentric (and somewhat unhinged) personality is as vibrant as his suit. Sadly, he doesn’t feature as prominently as I’d like, considering other characters come across much less compelling. He’s an easy guy to hate at the beginning, but as players encroach on the ending he doesn’t seem as out of place (or crazy) as you’d expect.

So, Where Was I?

Back to my problem. With the “Golden Path” rebel’s two leaders always at odds on how to proceed, your character is brought into the fray to be the definitive voice on which leader’s plans are applied. In the game’s final act, you must choose which leader you will back in a final mission: to destroy (or capture) a holy temple. Whomever you support will ostensibly become the leader of the Golden Path (and ultimately, the country).

The two leaders of the Golden Path: Amita (top), and Sabal (bottom)

So I heard Amita’s argument. Then I heard Sabal’s. And I must admit: I didn’t like either of them. I wanted a third option, which pushed me onto the Internet to try to figure out why I’d want to choose from two bad choices. I ultimately found that whomever you support, it’s still a bad choice. And here is where the game falls flat for me.

Again, I appreciate the effort put the player into a real-world, complex political situation. However, in their narrative delivery this open-world game became distinctly limiting. Instead of the bad choices, why couldn’t my character, a Kyrati-expat, do his own thing? Don’t I have as much right to become the leader as these others do? Unfortunately, in a game designed around freedom, I had none.

And so, with all the Bell Towers, Fortresses, and Outposts captured, I threw up my hands, quit the game and watched the endings on Youtube. While I don’t need a Hollywood ending, I think most players ultimately feel compelled to want to solve problems and try to do “the right thing” as best as we can. Alas, in the case of Far Cry 4, that real-world option is not open to us.

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