4 ms·

I have not played any computer game in over more than a decade, but I played a lot earlier. Anyway, what I did for a while - not recently due to a lack of good

I have not played any computer game in over more than a decade, but I played a lot earlier. Anyway, what I did for a while - not recently due to a lack of good targets - is watch Youtube "playthrough no commentary" videos (and with story-less gameplay parts heavily cut out). That's usually 4-6 hours of game movie. The Last of Us was good, but the very top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play completely - was Horizon Zero Dawn. One of many such game movies for this game: https://youtu.be/W6jbYfmQAG4 https://youtu.be/W6jbYfmQAG4 That story seemed to be good but kind of stupid and the same as always, completely predictable, you already know what happened when you see the start and it's a bit stupid and too far-fetched - that kind. Until it wasn't. Turned out it wasn't just well-made, when you find out what was really going on it was THE BEST. Not only does it have two very different stories layered (three, if you count the present time story): One about what happened to earth and its people and one layered inside of two people, the MC and a woman in the past, with seemingly no connection, until we find out the opposite is the case. Both story-parts actually had me crying. When I found out after about four hours what had actually happened on earth, it was a great emotional shock. Same with the ending, that used the connection between the MC and that person from the past. Even the machines and their (animal) forms make sense, there is a good and IMO satisfying explanation. The stories in this game and in a handful of others are much better than most movies. If you are in the mood for something really dark, watch a game movie of "SOMA". Underwater survival. Earth is gone - a giant meteor made the surface into a fiery hell, the only survivors are some researchers in a deep ocean facility. Best small detail: They get the "uploading your brain into a computer simulation" right, see the very ending of that game which shows it one last time (TL;DW: As someone who knows neuroscience, the idea makes no sense anyway, but let's forget that and assume it makes sense. What will happen is you still stand there in front of the computer, wandering what happened, after the "upload". Because you still exist, and the copy is not you. It's a copy. You still die, there is no magical connection between you and your copy.)

OldOneEye 5y ago
I couldn't agree more with you! I played through the game and Horizon Dawn story was so rewarding! I kept playing for it even though the gameplay part had long run its course in keeping my interest. The expansion also expanded a little bit on the lore, broadening a little bit the world outside of the main arc, which was nice. This game surprised me so much, because I just picked it on a whim a short while ago. It is so much more than what the cover suggests. A very emotional and impactful story, really looking forward what they do for the next chapter of her story.
kqr 5y ago
On the one hand, I like that this much story telling effort goes into video games. On the other hand, I'm a bit sad that from a narrative standpoint, you can generally cut out all the actual game-playing parts and get a stronger experience for it. There are some exceptions to this (Spec Ops: The Line comes to mind as a case where the gameplay actually fuels the story, and I also think I've heard good things about Two Brothers in this respect too) but these are the exception, not the rule.
worrycue 5y ago
> top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play completely - was Horizon Zero Dawn I watched people play it to the end - mostly. I played it when it came out on PC - never completed it; the combat didn’t work for me. Personally I think it has a cool sci-fi premise but that’s it. I found the characters … stiff, shallow, and pretty cliché. Aloy is yet another messianic player character that we have seen a billion times. Apart from the enigmatic main villain - which is yet another well worn trope - all the side characters feel pretty 2 dimensional. I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity. I don’t know why exactly the “diversity” in modern stories bug me so much but I never had a problem with Star Trek. Maybe it’s the egalitarian in me, modern stories seem to have an emphasis on differentiating people by their ethnicity and background while Star Trek promoted the view that all people regardless of ethnicity or background be treated as peers - where you stand on your own merits as an individual.
- dudeman13 5y ago
  >I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity How so? I didn't get that feeling at all from Horizon Zero Dawn. If someone told me HZD had an obsession with diversity I'd react with a standard "wat?". I do agree that some of the forced diversity in modern stories is annoying, mind you. I just didn't get that vibe from that one story.
- marvinvz 5y ago
  While I agree on your general point about "diversity" in games I'm pretty sure HZD was before that topic became an issue.
  - worrycue 5y ago
    HZD was released in 2017. I think we were already seeing "diversity" in most media then.
- Merad 5y ago
  > I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity. How do you think HZD pandered to diversity? The main point that I have heard brought up is the wide variety of ethnicities in secondary/background characters, but IMO that is completely consistent with the game's setting and story. The game takes place in a world where human society has literally been reset and rebuilt from scratch, so you'd need to have the full variety of human kind for genetic diversity while at the same time all of the racial and ethnic prejudices that exist today would cease to exist unless the AI was trained to preserve them (it wasn't). Naturally the new world would see new prejudices arise (people are still people after all), and the game does attempt to portray this.
jebarker 5y ago
I had no idea that "game movies" existed. I'm going to have to watch a few. I was obsessed with playing games as a kid. I'm now 40 and every so often get excited about playing a game I see (most recently Deathloop) but when I actually play it I am underwhelmed by the experience and never play again after the first sitting. The only exceptions are arcade games that I don't need to invest heavily in and are a mindless escape. On the other hand I still enjoy watching the reviews and gameplay videos. I think what is lacking for me in the playing experience is that the actual gameplay never feels novel or interesting to me and usually feels like a huge amount of drudgery to extract the core ideas and highlight experiences. Open world games are overwhelming to me as I can't stop thinking about the real-life opportunity cost of the time I'm spending meandering around (strangely I don't worry about the opportunity cost when reading books...). What I enjoy from just watching is experiencing the ideas and aesthetics in a more streamlined fashion. You might say that I should just stick to movies and books, but I honestly believe games are a unique art form with great promise, so I'll keep revisiting!

OldOneEye 5y ago

I couldn't agree more with you! I played through the game and Horizon Dawn story was so rewarding! I kept playing for it even though the gameplay part had long run its course in keeping my interest. The expansion also expanded a little bit on the lore, broadening a little bit the world outside of the main arc, which was nice. This game surprised me so much, because I just picked it on a whim a short while ago. It is so much more than what the cover suggests. A very emotional and impactful story, really looking forward what they do for the next chapter of her story.

kqr 5y ago

On the one hand, I like that this much story telling effort goes into video games. On the other hand, I'm a bit sad that from a narrative standpoint, you can generally cut out all the actual game-playing parts and get a stronger experience for it. There are some exceptions to this (Spec Ops: The Line comes to mind as a case where the gameplay actually fuels the story, and I also think I've heard good things about Two Brothers in this respect too) but these are the exception, not the rule.

worrycue 5y ago

> top #1 for me as far as story goes - ignoring the game play completely - was Horizon Zero Dawn I watched people play it to the end - mostly. I played it when it came out on PC - never completed it; the combat didn’t work for me. Personally I think it has a cool sci-fi premise but that’s it. I found the characters … stiff, shallow, and pretty cliché. Aloy is yet another messianic player character that we have seen a billion times. Apart from the enigmatic main villain - which is yet another well worn trope - all the side characters feel pretty 2 dimensional. I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity. I don’t know why exactly the “diversity” in modern stories bug me so much but I never had a problem with Star Trek. Maybe it’s the egalitarian in me, modern stories seem to have an emphasis on differentiating people by their ethnicity and background while Star Trek promoted the view that all people regardless of ethnicity or background be treated as peers - where you stand on your own merits as an individual.

dudeman13 5y ago
>I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity How so? I didn't get that feeling at all from Horizon Zero Dawn. If someone told me HZD had an obsession with diversity I'd react with a standard "wat?". I do agree that some of the forced diversity in modern stories is annoying, mind you. I just didn't get that vibe from that one story.
marvinvz 5y ago
While I agree on your general point about "diversity" in games I'm pretty sure HZD was before that topic became an issue.
- worrycue 5y ago
  HZD was released in 2017. I think we were already seeing "diversity" in most media then.
Merad 5y ago
> I’m going to get skewered for saying this … but the story feels like it’s pandering to current social political trends - i.e. the obsession with diversity. How do you think HZD pandered to diversity? The main point that I have heard brought up is the wide variety of ethnicities in secondary/background characters, but IMO that is completely consistent with the game's setting and story. The game takes place in a world where human society has literally been reset and rebuilt from scratch, so you'd need to have the full variety of human kind for genetic diversity while at the same time all of the racial and ethnic prejudices that exist today would cease to exist unless the AI was trained to preserve them (it wasn't). Naturally the new world would see new prejudices arise (people are still people after all), and the game does attempt to portray this.

jebarker 5y ago

I had no idea that "game movies" existed. I'm going to have to watch a few. I was obsessed with playing games as a kid. I'm now 40 and every so often get excited about playing a game I see (most recently Deathloop) but when I actually play it I am underwhelmed by the experience and never play again after the first sitting. The only exceptions are arcade games that I don't need to invest heavily in and are a mindless escape. On the other hand I still enjoy watching the reviews and gameplay videos. I think what is lacking for me in the playing experience is that the actual gameplay never feels novel or interesting to me and usually feels like a huge amount of drudgery to extract the core ideas and highlight experiences. Open world games are overwhelming to me as I can't stop thinking about the real-life opportunity cost of the time I'm spending meandering around (strangely I don't worry about the opportunity cost when reading books...). What I enjoy from just watching is experiencing the ideas and aesthetics in a more streamlined fashion. You might say that I should just stick to movies and books, but I honestly believe games are a unique art form with great promise, so I'll keep revisiting!