Can we excuse bad gameplay for good story?
A Confession
Friends, there is something weighing heavy on my conscience — nay, my every waking moment. The weight that bores down on me is something I have grown to love and covet — The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt by CD Projeckt Red. I have been immersed in this world (and this horribly addictive card game Gwent, which thank god doesn’t exist in real life or any form outside of The Witcher 3) for about 40 hours now, and while I absolutely am driven mad when I cannot play it, discussions with some of the other editors are crafting the chain just like those of Marley and Marley in A Muppets Christmas Carol.
How can this game weigh me down? Well, to be truthful, it is but the final stone upon a pile of stones that have been building over the last several years, and the story, and rock pile, started with TellTale Games’ The Walking Dead.
I had been playing The Walking Dead, and I enjoyed the story immensely. It was a satisfying side story that had depth, character development, good pacing and it fit nicely into the world of the comic books. I even named it a game of the year contender. But is it a good *game*? As a story, it’s great. But the engine used to tell that story is broken — bad controls and almost no ‘game’ type elements. Is this really any different than a quick-time event game? A choose your own adventure storybook in a different format?
“Nonsense!” I decried, as I cherished my own personally crafted story with Lee and Clementine. Then The Wolf Among Us released, and I enjoyed it deeply, as well. But the cursor had issues. And I kept noticing. Game of Thrones on the new consoles popped up, as did Tales from the Borderlands…
And we still had the same basic issues. Not just in controls, but in gameplay definitions and participation. Tales of the Borderlands gives you some alternate modes beyond the standard formula, but it isn’t much.
And now, as I play The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, I find myself deeply engrossed in every side mission, wanting to find the motivation for the sick things that both monsters and people that are monsters inflict on others. I’ve been telling some of the editors that the allure for the game is that Geralt is basically a one-man, fantasy CSI unit. The game is nothing but mysteries and he’s the man to solve them! If… I can just… find the right angle to get the … NO NOT EXTINGUISH! LOOT! Maybe if I turn back towards the camera…
And here we find the crux of the matter – the weight I realize that I have been crafting for myself over the past few years. I have been excusing poorly crafted games due to their ability to tell great stories. And now the Witcher 3 has broke me. I find myself still completely immersed, until I try to move Geralt (seriously what’s going on there?), I try to ride my horse ANYWHERE, I try to loot something that has a candle on/near it (–and at what point did the devs NOT know that was going to be a problem — does snapping your fingers to light/extinguish flames override the fun factor of one of the game’s main mechanics — looting? I think not) and inconsistent level notifications for opposing monsters — all these things pull me out of the experience faster than you can say Yennifer should start with a J.
The problem truly is a subjective one. For me, it has always been about story — but I realize that my criticism of these games may not have been as harsh as they could have been because I was potentially willing to overlook technical issues for the stories those engines brought me. I can no longer excuse it, answering the issue listed above. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt is a phenomenal game, but it has many, many issues that should have been addressed before shipping to give us the polished experience the Polish developers intended.
Which is more important to you? Story or gameplay?
As with all things, it comes down to a balance and depends on the game. Something like Axiom Verge is a heavier gameplay experience and The Walking Dead is more of a story experience. There is a minimum for each, and we have been seeing some games dip closer and closer or on occasion pass that minimum. I feel that much of this is because companies and fans keep looking for a grander and grander scope which inherently increases the complexity. Couple that with the more ready ability to constantly tweak and update games via online updates, and there is a perfect breeding ground for shipping less polished games.
Like you said though, it is subjective to each player and each game.
The only time it’s excusable is when the story is the overall focus and the gameplay lends to help telling the story (adventure games for instance).
The Walking Dead, technically, is a visual novel mixed with adventure game. Expecting good gameplay in the traditional venacular and sense from a visual novel like The Walking Dead or Phoenix Wright is a highly unrealistic expectation. At that point, you might as well start expecting the tight platforming of a Mario game in a Call of Duty shooter.
Also, from all reports, Witcher 3 has great gameplay. I haven’t played it yet, but I have played Witcher 2, and that has great gameplay. I highly doubt there’s a major downgrade between the two titles, but every Wticher fan I know is reporting the exact opposite. The author may take issue with some of the controls, such as controlling Geralt’s horse, but nothing he said actually made a case for what he defined as “bad gameplay”.
An actual example of bad gameplay but good story would be the Silent Hill games, noticeably 1-3. The Walking Dead – a glorified visual novel – isn’t a really good example. Silent Hill is.
My stance? Games like that have their place. Horror games like Silent Hill games never advertised themselves as having great gameplay, they always were touted as being incredible horror titles steeped with atmosphere and amazing story. Horror games have historically been that way, because having fun takes away from the experience of being scared. By the same token, adventure games like Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, Day of the Tentacle, and even many rpgs – especially western ones – fall into a similar camp.
For the record, the games I consider to be the best game stories – Grim Fandango, Silent Hill 2, Killer 7, Shenmue II, Planescape: Torment – are all games historically known for controversial gameplay. For my part, I find that they fill their niches in a place gaming really needs that push the medium to heights it rarely ventures into.
Great reply, Naomi. I didn’t want to get too deep into the weeds, nor make it sound like I didn’t like The Witcher 3 — I tried to give enough lip service that I *love* it — but having the horse (as the example cited) get hung up on *everything* is something that pulls me out of the immersion. If you ever try to ride to the fast travel sign outside the Bloody Baron’s keep, the horse gets into chinks in the fence that an animal that large would never fit into, and then you spend twenty to thirty seconds just trying to turn him around. There is a momentum to movement that makes sense at high speeds, but seems very odd at low speeds to have the same physics apply. Its things like this that lead me back to the debate we have on a regular basis between the editors of ‘to release or not to release’ — I enjoy *most* of the gameplay very much, and recommend it to fantasy or mystery fans. I think you also uncover an interesting thought with your best game stories – Grim Fandango is very much the beginning of what has evolved into The Walking Dead; Telltale distilled that experience into something accessible to everyone. And by definition, it is a game (albeit I agree, barely) – but I think that evolution is what’s going to need to happen to keep it relevant moving forward. They need to figure out a way to build *good* gameplay into a good story. I was also very surprised Catherine was not on your list; to me that was a super niche game that really pushed the envelope of mature storytelling with compelling (if not sometimes overly frustrating due to difficulty level) gameplay. –Mark
(PS, I hate that I can’t have paragraphs in replies!
Catherine has some issues story wise for me. For instance, I’m not too keen on the expose at the end where the bar tender spills the beans. It had been doing so well up to that point, but that didn’t work for me and it ruined the story for me. Still pretty great though.
Btw, I don’t think TWD’s story would be as hard hitting it it DID have traditional gameplay.
Here’s a Gamasutra article on my favorite game of all time, and how I think pushing player emotion and what games can do really matters. Shenmue is considered by many a game with bad gameplay due to it being boring, but I call it deliberately mundane and boring on purpose to give the story and setting weight.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/117856/Analysis_On_Shenmue__Dare_to_Be_Dull.php
The only time it’s excusable is when the story is the overall focus and the gameplay lends to help telling the story (adventure games for instance).
The Walking Dead, technically, is a visual novel mixed with adventure game. Expecting good gameplay in the traditional venacular and sense from a visual novel like The Walking Dead or Phoenix Wright is a highly unrealistic expectation. At that point, you might as well start expecting the tight platforming of a Mario game in a Call of Duty shooter.
Also, from all reports, Witcher 3 has great gameplay. I haven’t played it yet, but I have played Witcher 2, and that has great gameplay. I highly doubt there’s a major downgrade between the two titles, but every Wticher fan I know is reporting the exact opposite. The author may take issue with some of the controls, such as controlling Geralt’s horse, but nothing he said actually made a case for what he defined as “bad gameplay”.
An actual example of bad gameplay but good story would be the Silent Hill games, noticeably 1-3. The Walking Dead – a glorified visual novel – isn’t a really good example. Silent Hill is.
My stance? Games like that have their place. Horror games like Silent Hill games never advertised themselves as having great gameplay, they always were touted as being incredible horror titles steeped with atmosphere and amazing story. Horror games have historically been that way, because having fun takes away from the experience of being scared. By the same token, adventure games like Grim Fandango, The Longest Journey, Day of the Tentacle, and even many rpgs – especially western ones – fall into a similar camp.
For the record, the games I consider to be the best game stories – Grim Fandango, Silent Hill 2, Killer 7, Shenmue II, Planescape: Torment – are all games historically known for controversial gameplay. For my part, I find that they fill their niches in a place gaming really needs that push the medium to heights it rarely ventures into.
Great reply, Naomi. I didn’t want to get too deep into the weeds, nor make it sound like I didn’t like The Witcher 3 — I tried to give enough lip service that I *love* it — but having the horse (as the example cited) get hung up on *everything* is something that pulls me out of the immersion. If you ever try to ride to the fast travel sign outside the Bloody Baron’s keep, the horse gets into chinks in the fence that an animal that large would never fit into, and then you spend twenty to thirty seconds just trying to turn him around. There is a momentum to movement that makes sense at high speeds, but seems very odd at low speeds to have the same physics apply. Its things like this that lead me back to the debate we have on a regular basis between the editors of ‘to release or not to release’ — I enjoy *most* of the gameplay very much, and recommend it to fantasy or mystery fans. I think you also uncover an interesting thought with your best game stories – Grim Fandango is very much the beginning of what has evolved into The Walking Dead; Telltale distilled that experience into something accessible to everyone. And by definition, it is a game (albeit I agree, barely) – but I think that evolution is what’s going to need to happen to keep it relevant moving forward. They need to figure out a way to build *good* gameplay into a good story. I was also very surprised Catherine was not on your list; to me that was a super niche game that really pushed the envelope of mature storytelling with compelling (if not sometimes overly frustrating due to difficulty level) gameplay. –Mark
(PS, I hate that I can’t have paragraphs in replies!
Catherine has some issues story wise for me. For instance, I’m not too keen on the expose at the end where the bar tender spills the beans. It had been doing so well up to that point, but that didn’t work for me and it ruined the story for me. Still pretty great though.
Btw, I don’t think TWD’s story would be as hard hitting it it DID have traditional gameplay.
Here’s a Gamasutra article on my favorite game of all time, and how I think pushing player emotion and what games can do really matters. Shenmue is considered by many a game with bad gameplay due to it being boring, but I call it deliberately mundane and boring on purpose to give the story and setting weight.
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/117856/Analysis_On_Shenmue__Dare_to_Be_Dull.php