No matter your opinion
and biases, can we all just agree that there are too many guns in video games
these days?
Look, I know what the
deal is. Video games define themselves
by having the player interact with the systems built in. The programming creates a means for
expression that’s almost magical -- and almost since their inception, the one
way games have done that in a way no other medium can is through combat. Conflict.
How you can overcome enemies is an art form in its own right…and that
art form is threatened when devs just shout “GUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNS!” and move
on.
Now, it’s true that how you shoot a
gun can be given its
fair share of flair and style, but there are two problems: A) that would
require a level of -- for lack of a better term -- fidelity that wouldn’t fit DA PLAN, and B) guns take all the
guesswork out of combat by nature, especially in a game. You aim and pull the trigger. There’s a reason why guns are the weapon of
choice in, you know, wars, but something romantic has been lost along the way.
Which brings us
(however briefly) to Infamous.
I guess that’s kind of
the problem I had with the Infamous games,
the first one especially. Here it was, a
game where you have friggin’ lightning
powers -- and by and large, every power you got was just an electric spin
on the standard video game armory, and turned the game at large into an
oft-annoying third person shooter. To be
fair, there was electro-parkour via rail-slides and hovering, but still. You can do so much with electricity powers,
and the first thing that comes to mind is to take that unlimited creative
potential and give players a sniper rifle?
With Second Son out and about, I’m hoping
that it manages to get some more mileage out of the concepts therein. But GameInformer
has already explained that you can use the neon power like a sniper rifle,
so it’s always nice to see devs taking advantage of the awesome power of
next-gen hardware. But you know
what? I ain’t even mad. How could I be? I’ve got imagination. If devs won’t come up with applications of
powers, then I guess I’ll have to.
However hypothetically. For your
pleasure and mine.
Don’t think about how
sexually-charged that sounded. Instead,
have a taste of 5 Superpowers That Would
Make Awesome(ish) Games.
Out of ten. Because the number ten.
So let's get started with...
10) Size Alteration
As shown by: Wasp
There was a
Cracked article a while back that named a bunch of superheroes that
deserved movies before Ant-Man. I’ve
never had anything in particular against Ant-Man like some others probably do,
but I do agree with a lot of the sentiments (especially the character in the
number-one slot). That said, in light of
the Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes
I can’t help but wonder: where the hell is Wasp? She was a fun character in that, and she
could be a fun character on the big screen -- and, you know, an ace at
ass-kicking. You have to admit, it takes
some gargantuan stones to fight enemies once they’re a thousand times your
size.
Games like Shadow of the Colossus and Mr. Mosquito have shown that there’s
plenty of juice in putting the player in David vs. Goliath situations. Hell, that’s pretty much what every other
game does with its boss fights. So a
game starring Wasp (or a character LIKE Wasp) could work on that level. Give you the power to fly, a couple of stingers
to pepper enemies, and let you go all in to defend the world from evil. Or just average thugs, one shot at a time.
But let’s be real
here. It would be easy to just make a
game pitting you against giant thugs and leave it at that. But for the sake of originality, I propose
something a little different. In the
same sense that Wasp can go small or large, why not give the player the same
choice? There are plenty of ways to play
it; you could start a mission at normal size, and sortie to take on some evil
syndicate.
But then it turns out
they planted a bomb -- and in order to stop it, you have to shrink down to bug
size and do a Death Star trench run to disarm it. And then in order to catch the escaping
criminals, you do your best Godzilla impression and stomp after them. We’ve done parkour in games before, but how
often do you get to do it while making King Kong look like a dwarf? Just imagine scrambling over buildings and
flipping over monorails…well, assuming you can look past the Square-Cube Law.
That’s a bit of a
regimented way to go about it, but there are ways around it -- a way to make a
more organic experience. Picture this:
you start a mission at normal size, and you’ve got the standard action game
suite: light and heavy attacks, grabs, dodges and parries, and of course your
health bar. But you’ve also got an
energy meter (let’s say they’re Pym Particles for now), and by holding one of
the triggers, you go up or down a size in accordance with your meter-burning.
Go small, and you get
high speed and mobility. Go big, and you
get raw power and durability. BUT how
you play affects how the game changes.
Are you willing to risk collateral damage each time you go big, and the
cries that you’re a menace each time you show your face? Are you all right with putting your life in
danger each time you go small, knowing full well that one or two good hits are
enough to slaughter you?
It’s not exactly an
easy game to make, I suspect. But Katamari Damacy showed roughly a decade
ago that on-the-fly scaling is possible.
If next-gen consoles aren’t willing to make use of that power and
potential, what are they even good for?
Paperweights? Please -- that’s
what my halberd is for!
9) Boomerang Mastery
As shown by: Captain Boomerang
Okay, I’m going to go
ahead and make a confession: I freaking love boomerangs. I actually have (or had) one, but I was (or
am) so much of a coward that I never tried throwing it to see it in
action. Thankfully, video games have
been there to compensate without the risk of a broken finger. And indeed, they’ve proven themselves
immensely useful in my trials. Captain
America’s shield has a boomerang effect in Marvel
vs. Capcom 3, and forms the crux of some high-damage combos. Toss out a banana with Spike in PlayStation All-Stars, and even if you
miss you can still open up an enemy with its return trip. The Strike Raid in Kingdom Hearts makes Sephiroth look like a white-haired chump. Ninety percent of the enemies in Wind Waker are done once you get the
boomerang.
I would assume (to my
dismay) that boomerangs in games only work how we wish they would work -- that is, you make the toss, it flies out, it
either hits or hovers in a fixed position for a moment, and ALWAYS comes back
to your hand. It’s a reliable, if
predictable, relationship. But that
reliability is exactly what makes them so useful; as the wielder of such an
awesome weapon, you know its trajectory at heart. And you can use that to catch foes unaware,
or solve problems that would stop a gun-lover dead in his tracks.
So the question here is
simple: why not make a puzzle game built around boomerangs?
You can’t even pretend
like it wouldn’t work, because there’s a dungeon in nearly every Zelda game built around using a
boomerang to clear a room. So it could
be the key mechanic in the same vein that portals were the hot thing in, well, Portal.
Throwing a boomerang to hit a distant switch would be the obvious way to
attack most problems, but you could add in the sorts of challenges that only a
master-boomer could solve -- things that would have a player using positional
advantages, good timing, and strategic thinking to go from one room to the
next.
And that’s not
all. In the same sense that Green Arrow
had access to a quiver full of tricks, the player could have a set of unique
boomerangs to try and handle each situation as it comes. A light boomer that moves super-fast, but
can’t break through walls; a giant boomer that doesn’t travel very far, but
stays out for ages and cuts everything nearby like a blender; a rubber boomer
that bounces off walls. There are plenty
of possibilities, and even more when you add in different stage layouts and
obstacles. Granted how those would be
constructed and approached depends on whether the game would be a full 3D
adventure like Portal, or a smaller
2D production a la the DS title Polaris. But I think it could be done.
I mean, seriously. This Captain Boomerang guy? He made time
traveling boomerangs. All he needed
was a little imagination. And a healthy
understanding of quantum mechanics, I’d wager.
8) Astral Projection
As shown by: Negative Man
This is probably
obvious by now, but I’m not exactly the ace when it comes to comic books. So even though Negative Man and the Doom
Patrol he hails from have been around for ages, I don’t really know all the
nuances…or any of them, really. As such, I don’t really know how his powers
work, or if they even count as “astral projection”. All I know is that the first time I heard
about the guy, my reaction was something along the lines of
“WHOAMYGOSHLOOKATTHATHOWDIDHEDOTHATWHATACOOLPOWER!”
From what I can gather,
Negative Man uses his power to fire off a shadowy version of himself to harass
his enemies from afar. That’s pretty
sweet. But when I think “astral
projection”, I think of going all ghostly and entering someone else’s body --
their dreams, more specifically. That
doesn’t sound like the most combat-ready ability (unless the opponent enjoys a
good mid-battle nap). And you’d be
right. It’d suck in a fight. But since when were you under the impression
that every superpower has to be tied to combat?
Smooth moves, Aizen. Leave a speech bubble blank, why don't ya?
Here’s what I’m
thinking. Let’s say that you’re playing
a mystery game, like L.A. Noire, or
(ostensibly) one of the Ace Attorney
installments. There’s a criminal -- and
his cronies -- on the loose, and if you don’t stop him, you can say goodbye to
your hometown. The only problem is that
you’re one of the first victims, and you’re stuck in the astral realm -- a
ghost of your former self. Fortunately,
you can use it to your advantage; by entering the dreams of others, you can
gather clues, find the culprit, and solve the case before things get too hairy.
I imagine it would work
something like a platformer, albeit with a heavier lean toward story elements
(and again, using evidence to press suspects and criminals). What’s important to note is that the dreams
of different people have different sets of rules and logic; the player
character is as powerless in the dream worlds as he is in the real world, but
in exchange he can use whatever he finds in a dream to his advantage. Temporary weapons? Altered gravity? Calling in the dreamer’s worst
nightmares? All more than possible. All so you can get closer to solving the
mystery…even if that means affecting people’s dreams -- and by extension their
minds -- so they can act as you dictate, seeing as how you don’t have the
physical body needed.
Did I mention the game
would get into some seedy territory? I
would have, but that’s a given, yes?
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7) Technopathy
As shown by: Cable
I’m tempted to say that
Watch Dogs has pre-empted this entry
on the list, because apparently its selling point is (or should be, if it’s
doing its job right) hacking into a supremely-wired future and affecting the
world to give the player an advantage. I
sincerely hope that it’s the core
gameplay mechanic and not just a gimmick; then again, the fact that its big
reveal trailer featured gunfights and punch-ups instead of relying on
technological guile and expertise has left me a little worried. Just a little. By which I mean a lot.
You would think there
would be a lot more technopaths in fiction, given how much technology at large
has become such an important part of our daily lives. Sure, the machines we use have gotten
smaller, but the fact remains that there’s a lot that can be done with SUPERIOR
TECH, in ways that even someone with a head as large as mine can’t
imagine. But for argument’s sake, I’m
going to give it a shot. Better hold on
to something.
I have issues with guns, but I don’t have any
problems with admitting that there’s an over-reliance on certain melee weapons
as well. Swords are pretty common, and
while there’s a lot more potential for differentiation and conveyance via sword
styles (Mitsurugi and
Yuri Lowell are worlds
apart, and in more ways than one), it’s still a little groan-worthy to see
games fall back on swords. So for the
sake of making a high-octane action game, what’s the solution? Well, how about giving the player control of
the world’s greatest -- but still incredibly weak -- mechanic? And instead of having him engage in pure melee
combat, why not make him build machines on the fly that he can command and
pilot at his leisure?
I’m surprised that no
one has ever bothered to crib off one of the PS2 Fullmetal Alchemist games -- wherein you can walk up to a pile of
junk in the middle of a battle, press a button, and turn it into special
weapons, items, or assistants to turn the tide.
(Probably because the game wasn’t all that great.) So you could fuse that with something like,
say, The Last of Us; scramble across
a hot-and-heavy field to gather parts and build some drones to fight on your
behalf. And after that, you rush past --
getting in a few cheap shots with your wrench -- to reach a pile of junk, turn it
into a walking turret, and push back against your attackers. It can go even further than that, of course;
for starters, you’d be able to make your own blueprints before a fight, so when
you start a stage you can deploy machines from the get-go.
Alternatively, you
could stockpile the parts and creations on the field to build a giant
robot. Because…well, do I really need to
justify giant robot? Didn’t think so.
6) Shapeshifting (into animals)
As shown by: Beast Boy
Sometimes I wish they’d
make a new Bloody Roar. You’d think it’d be feasible now, considering
the fighting game renaissance that Street
Fighter 4 helped usher in. But it’s
my understanding that Bloody Roar 4 killed
the franchise -- which is kind of a shame, because being able to turn into a
kung-fu tiger that could do his best “Your head asplode” impression was
something plenty praiseworthy.
That in mind, I think Bloody Roar kind of cheated a bit. Sure, turning into werewolves and werelions
was cool, but nature is deadly enough without relying on fantasy tricks and
gimmicks. (Don’t ever Google Portuguese
man-o-war. Ever.) So why not harness
that power and potential? Didn’t the
low-key hype around Tokyo Jungle show
that there’s a market -- however small -- for people that want to play as
animals? I say it’s time to indulge
those fantasies.
Not those fantasies.
So, you remember the
start of Far Cry 3 where you’ve
managed to escape from captivity and have to scramble through the jungle to
avoid Vaas and his gang of human traffickers/jerk bags? Imagine that again. Think back to it -- how you went through that
sequence and barely managed to escape.
You’re scared, alone, and frustrated; it’s when you’re at your lowest
point, and you realize that being a well-meaning human -- being human, period -- just isn’t enough
anymore. And in that moment, you
understand why you were captured, and why those bad men were after you: because
you’re one of a rare few that can turn into an animal at will.
Far Cry 3 tried to turn you into a predator symbolically, but I
propose that it be done in the most literal sense possible. Get an animal to accept you or submit to your
will, and you can transform into it as long as you’ve got the stamina for
it. And once you do that, you can use
those animal forms to avoid your pursuers -- or strike back at them when you’ve
got the opportunity. Draw strength from
the land by consuming its flora and fauna, just as the other animals do;
traverse the land, air, and sea with whatever beasts you best; cooperate -- and
clash -- with people who have the same power you do. Decide what kind of animal you want to be --
whether you’ll hold on to your humanity, or cave to your instincts and base
desires.
As long as those base
desires involve tentacles.
And there you go. Those are just five examples of how you can
use superpowers to come up with new…well, new-ish gameplay mechanics. Are they 100% practical, or even
possible? Probably not. But like I said, the new console tech should
be able to at least come close to
pulling some of these things off.
Relying on old standbys and tricks is only going to work for so much
longer -- and with superheroes being such a big part of our culture right now,
there’s no better time to start critically thinking about how a different tool
set can make for a different game.
Don’t believe me
yet? Well, just stick close. I’m not done yet; there are more powers out
there, and more ideas that can spring from them. Are they good? Who knows?
But at least they exist.
Theoretically. In the sense that
I can gab about them vis a vis a Word Document.
Also, can I just say
that humankind and the ocean were never meant to meet? Seriously, the stuff that’s down there is
horrifying. But don’t go doing a Google
search to see it with your own eyes.
You’ll thank me later. Trust me.
I mean it.
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