Anyway, I'm just gonna dive back in here and start rambling about video games. My latest flames have been (and this is no surprise to anyone who has interacted with me in any capacity for the last month) Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2. Actually before that it was Assassin's Creed 2. And before that, Left 4 Dead 2. This was not a strong year for developers that WEREN'T pumping out something with an extra digit attached to it (or in the case of L4D2, a couple extra digits. Makes you wonder what happens when they get up to the 4th installment). But this is all a massive digression. I'm not even looking to talk about AC2 or L4D because they don't contain the elements I wish to examine.
The hot trend in gaming over the last few years has been presenting players with so-called "moral dilemmas" in an effort to enrich your experience by allowing you to develop your character as a devil-may-care badass, saintly saint, or completely schizophrenic. The problem with a lot of these mechanics, however, is that the options pretty much always boil down to "save orphanage" or "light orphanage on fire". Some conundrums are so absurdly black and white that the choice can be difficult not because of any moral quandaries that may arise, but rather because both options are so undesirable that you can't decide which one you dislike more. This problem is further exacerbated by the fact that most gamers are capable of telling the difference between things you do in real life, and things you do in video games. So while I myself would never blow up a town full of innocent civilians because some random guy in a suit made a cryptic offer of maybe being rewarded, you bet your sweet ass I will do it in a heartbeat just to see what the explosion looks like on my kickass computer. The point is, that these situations cease to be dilemmas on any moral level and I simply view them as option A and option B. One will be tried on the first playthrough, it's converse on the second. They will both be attempted with the exact same attitude of clinical curiosity, rather than a nail biting "Sophie's Choice" scenario.
So what does this have to do with my latest addictions? To be brief, Mass Effect 2 demonstrates exactly why this gameplay element does not goddamn work, and Bioshock 2 shows how, with just a little tweaking to the formula, it can be one of the most effective narrative driving tools ever. But because I love pointing out fault in things, we'll start with Mass Effect.
The second installment of the game has the same "paragon/renegade" meter that the last one had, with small boosts coming from the chosen dialogue options and larger boosts coming from character actions (how you choose to complete a mission, do you let the factory full of workers explode etc.). Getting higher scores in one or the other opens special paragon or renegade dialogue options that can get you special outcomes. These outcomes, however, are exactly the same whether you choose the red text or the blue text (I'll let your big brains figure out which is which), with one garnered because you're a charmer and one because you held a fucking gun to the guy's head. This means, however, that mixing nice and mean dialogue options (you know, like a normal fucking person would do) you split the points you gain in each category. For example, if half the time you're nice and half the time you're mean, you'll have a theoretical score of Paragon/Renegade at 50/50 but only have them at half strength, meaning the majority of special options are still closed to you because you chose to dabble. If you only pick one every time, you'll have 0/100 or vice versa, but more special options are open to you total. This forces the player to just pick one attitude from the start and fucking commit. Then you just kiss everyone's ass or treat everyone like shit so you can max out your scores. It's not morality, it's fucking math. And what do I care if I hurt someone's digital feelings? I need those points to get better dialogue options and that is fucking that.
Now, I'm going to completely change gears and start singing some praises. I'm also going to point out that THIS PORTION CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE PLOT FOR BIOSHOCK 2. I REPEAT, IF YOU DO NOT WANT PORTIONS OF THE GAME'S PLOT RUINED FOR YOU, DO NOT READ THIS PARAGRAPH. Bioshock was a game that arguably did not need to have a sequel. However, being that they made one anyway, I'll go out on a limb and say that holy shit this game is so fucking awesome it hurts. Gameplay-wise it doesn't differ too terribly from the first installment. Some mechanics were tightened up, enemies rebalanced, the awful fucking hacking minigame was changed to something not retarded, but all in all the game plays a hell of a lot like the first one. This is in no way a bad thing. Now, the first one too, had morality plays in the form of "save or murder the little girls you find wandering the underwater city". This comes back in Bioshock 2, but there is a twist. Rather than just changing your end cinematic based on whether you saved or killed all the little sisters, points in the last few hours of the game play out very differently based on your save/kill numbers and how you treated the NPC's with whom you can interact. How does it change? You rescue your daughter who has been psychically observing you for the first half of the game. Her world view is formed based on how you acted, but you have absolutely no control over what she does. My first playthrough, I saved all but one little sister (I was tired and didn't want to lead her all over the level, which you have to do when you save them) but killed all but one of the NPC's I encountered. This taught her that people are tools to be used and nothing more, effectively making her a psychic, sociopathic killing machine. This sounds really cool until you watch helplessly as she fucking slaughters an entire nursery of innocent little girls. This was not what I had been doing throughout the game, and I had prided myself on the fact that, apart from one bout of laziness, I stuck with being a generally nice guy, only killing the people who asked me to or the ones who deserved it (granted that was all but one). I felt actual sorrow for the monster I had created, wanting to break through the glass of the nursery and stop this crazy, out of control bitch who I had apparently fathered. I experienced literal horror as I watched her calculatingly murder everything in her path. And at the end of it all, she came for me, leaving me with the final choice to save or sacrifice myself. And in taking the noble route of sacrifice, she realized the error of her ways and the monster she had let herself become. As she mournfully strode into the world alone, no longer with a father to guide her and memories of the things she did in his name, a literal tear came to my eye. I fucked up raising this little one and didn't even know it, but managed to put it right.
And that, dear reader, is the crucial difference. While Mass Effect, Fallout, Dragon Age etc. all let you choose your own path and determine what kind of person you want to be, you are always in control and if you don't like an option, it is always your choice simply to not do it. Thusly, any consequences you may be faced with can easily be circumvented or outright ignored. Bioshock 2, however, offers you no such choice. Your actions have been performed, observed, and interpreted and are now let loose upon the world in the form of a force over which you have absolutely no control. Don't want Eleanor to kill her mother with a harpoon? Well TOO FUCKING BAD because you have a front row seat and the game is going to make your ass watch it happen as the gravity of your decisions sinks in and you realize that this once innocent girl is the product of your own machinations and nothing more.
What's too bad is that now that this trick has been done, and done incredibly fucking well, we're probably going to be in for scores of imitators until it too loses any semblance of depth and developers are forced to once again come up with something innovative for a goddamn change.
Or they could just start appending everything with higher numbers.
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