During the down-time I've had this week following exams, I found myself replaying one of my most favorite video games: the original Half-Life. Originally released in 1998 by then-unknown Valve software, Half-Life went on to receive immense critical praise, and set a standard for first-person action games that has yet to be surpassed. Certainly, with the advent of more modern games, we've had games that have never looked better, but do they truly -play- better? I personally don't think so.
One of the biggest aspects missing from more recent games, one which is over-abundant in Half-Life, is that of atmosphere. Sure, the game tells you that you're a space marine going to fight an unknown alien menace, but do you -feel- like the man you're controlling should? Of course not - you just feel like you're steering him around, pointing, and firing. It gets the job done, but it really is not noteworthy. In Half-Life, the game simply does not shoot you out of the gate, guns-a-blazing. The game begins as though it were an ordinary day at work, in the Black Mesa Research Facility. The man controlled by the player, Gordon Freeman, has a clear name, and a purpose - he's there to help with the experiment intended to occur that day. However, within moments, everything goes wrong. Strange alien creatures seem as though they appear from thin air, the building is in shambles, and your co-workers are all either dead, dying, or powerless to help. There remains a glimmer of hope, though, that the military is sending in troops to rescue you... until you finally encounter these troops, and discover that they're not here for a rescue, but instead, a clean up, to ensure no one knows of the accident.
From the beginning to the end of Half-Life, the overwhelming sense of dread that comes from being trapped miles below the earth's surface, not knowing who or what is around the corner, and knowing that only you can determine if you're able to survive help elevate the atmosphere of Half-Life to that of survival horror games, even though Half-Life is far from a survival horror game. It truly is a shame that the emphasis nowadays lies instead with building a prettier game than with making one that leaves the player with something more.
What are you looking for?
If you look at it, some games will be better with atmosphere, some won't. the same goes for movies. If you were to watch a streetcar named desire, the atmosphere has a lot of flexibility, because that's not what you're supposed to be paying attention to. The sam goes for romeo and juliet, twelve angry men, as well as a host of other politically based movies. Now if we were to watch "into the wild" we would need Alaska in all it's awesome glory. THe same goes for "Jeremiah Johnson" needing the Rocky's. Rambo needs some insane warzone with epic places to hideand ambush people with a knife. I have never played a "survival horror game" unless you count cub scout camp, but if it is necessary to the genre to set up that particular situation, than I would say that is all that you need. I know when I used to babysit we played some game called "kingdom hearts" where I played as goofy and beat people up with a giant key. what made the game awesome though was the fact that every world we went to though was intensely disney, and it was that environment that made the game.
However if someone needs atmosphere to play minesweeper than maybe they should be slapped.
Other games such as the Call of Duty series, you are generally too busy shooting things to notice the scenery, unless your shooting your name into the scenery with it. the small maps on multiplayer are the best, becasue who needs atmosphere when you've got a scope and a joystick?
Post new comment