The Face of Things to Come

Facade is the most important videogame that most gamers have never heard of- if it is in fact a videogame at all. It's the face of things to come; the place videogaming will go when it outgrows it's core demographic (18-35 year old males) and ventures beyond Bioware and Bethesda's combat-driven realms of fantasy.

 

Meet Trip and Grace, your hosts for the evening

So what is Facade? To put it simply, it's a 'watch a marriage falling apart simulator.' You play as a friend of Grace and Trips, a couple you set up in college. The game begins with Trip inviting you over via answering machine message, and after picking a name and gender, you arrive at their apartment where the harsh tones of an argument are escaping the front door. Trip lets you in, retreats to the kitchen to retrieve Grace (more hushed aggression), and you all exchange pleasantries. Where things go from there is up to you. The two trade passive-aggressive remarks over drinks that grow increasingly less passive, ask for your frank opinion with leading questions to spite each other, and react to whatever else you elect to say or do. In addition to typing out dialogue, you can kiss or hug both characters, sip drinks and pick up the hideous sculptures that adorn the couple's apartment. 

The AI's text recognition is better than you would expect provided you stick to suggested path of topics: drinks, interior-decoration, and careers will almost inevitably pop up, though all roads lead back to Grace and Trip's characters. Trip turns out to be a manipulative, waspy, superficial asshole, while Grace is insecure, frigid and hypercritical; fresh faces in a medium populated by cliches, though neither character is particularly likable. If you sit and speak only when necessary, watching the evening take it's course, you're in for a rather trying exchange; this may not be a typical videogame, but the violence the form is known for is still present. It's just mediated through incrimination and accusations instead of fisticuffs and gunfire. And true to form, said violence is also vastly more enjoyable when you participate in it as opposed to just watching things fall apart. 

Blunt crudeness and belligerence will get you thrown out; on my second play-through I greeted Trip with an insult and he slammed the door in my face before the evening could get underway. But if you play Iago and subtly play off their reactions and assertions the evening is much more fun: a kiss here, a disagreement there, followed by a perfectly innocent inquiry about their sex-life... oh it's a fun night. It offers the domesticated, matured equivalent of the illicit glee one derives from tearing through Liberty City with a machine gun and a Humvee.

Of course, one could also play towards reconciling the arguing couple. As the happy ending available, one might look at it as implied goal of the game. Unsurprisingly, it is also the most difficult outcome to achieve, and I have yet to accomplish it. This is partially because I don't think they deserve a happily ever after, and partially due to shoddy controls. Trip and Grace frequently speak at the same time, so clarifying the recipient of your replies can be frustrating and difficult. Just as hardcore gamers tend to scorn casual titles that trade accessibility for precision, I found myself wishing for a more structured conversation system. Then again, conversations in real life don't adhere to strict frameworks, and trying to impose them may stifle the experience, which is already rather stunted by the limitations of AI. More reliable rule sets and inputs must be determined before Facade can be considered a successful gaming experience.

Blatantly stolen (via google) from The Atlantic's article on the game. Please don't sue me!

Then again, Michael Mateas and Andrew Stern weren't setting out to create a gaming experience, but an Interactive story. The download for Facade is hosted at InteractiveStory.net as opposed to Facadegame.net, and on Wikipedia, it is listed as Facade (interactive story) as opposed to Facade (game). Then again, they also entered the game in Slamdance and the Independent Game Festival as a contestant, suggesting that they don't mind their creation be regarded as a videogame. But rather than trotting out the weary old query "What is a game?" and turning down the interesting, but over-emphasized narratology vs. ludology line of inquiry, I'm interested in exploring how Mateas and Stern could have succeeded at telling a better story with Facade.

I believe that Interactive Fiction is unique and significant enough as a medium to stand apart from videogames and drama, but Facade doesn't make that argument. It borrows a problem, perhaps the most serious problem, from videogame narratives: the main character is a looking-glass. You can pick a name and a gender, but these choices have no influence on your presence in the story. Aside from the tidbit that you introduced Grace and Trip, your relationship to them, and your involvement in the narrative is completely incidental. In order for interactive narratives to grow, developers need to escape this idea of the 'window character'. The screen is our window; the avatar must be our vehicle.

One way to do this would be to take a page from Bioware and allow the character to choose from a number of different histories relating to Trip and Grace. Maybe you're Trips boss, or Grace's ex-boyfriend turned platonic friend. Maybe you did introduce the two of them back in college, but if that's the case, let the player decide how that first meeting went down. Could he already see the seeds of dissent that have now blossomed into bitter fruit? These decisions may make the game more linear, but they will also provide the player, or reader/actor, with context to make the experience meaningful.

Another possibility for engaging the player would be to place the operator outside of virtual world altogether, giving them a directorial position like the godlike control one has in The SIMs. Rather than determining the player's actions, you could mediate the character's interactions interactions by planting memories in their heads to control the flow of conversation. Or you could adjust factors like room temperature and the weather outside to affect the general mood of the preceding. Finally, you could flesh out the characters' desires and histories as you go along, making the narrative increasingly cohesive or convoluted as you please.

Facade isn't important for what it is, but for the ideas it represents. It's a jumping off point both in terms of subject matter and form for what will come, or rather, what is now arriving.

Charting New Territory

I held out against the appeal of owning a PS3 for a long time. This was fairly easy in the beginning, seeing how there was no appeal for a good long while. Things got a little harder when MGS 4 and Little Big Planet were released, though a host of much-touted but sorely disappointing titles (anybody remember Lair? or the one that should have been called Goddess of War?) were enough to sober me. I heard that Uncharted: Drakes Fortune, was a good enough game, and that the Ratchet and Clank series was still going strong, warming me back up to the idea of PS3 ownership, though I wasn't swayed until I heard the praise for Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.

I think Uncharted is a pretty cool guy, eh seeks Cintamani Stone and doesn't afraid of anything.

In a world where journalism and marketing hype are not only indiscernible but treated interchangeably, the value of high praise has pretty much dissolved. There are a few phrases that still command some attention however and "Best Game I Ever Played" is one of them. I heard it applied to Uncharted 2 more than once. Now, that's not a bridge I'm willing to jump off of, but I will say Uncharted 2 won my vote for best game of 2009 (against some stiff competition), and that it is the most cinematically pleasing video game I have played thus far.

Now my use of "cinematically" is problematic for a couple reasons. First of all, it is not actually a word, and secondly, when a game is described as cinematic, it generally means that there uses lots of cut-scenes; narrative videos that transform operators into an audience as opposed to players. Many 'cinematic games' tell excellent stories, but they also have the obnoxious habit of seizing control of players right before they get to do something incredible. That is never a problem in Uncharted 2. Rather, the game employs cinematic techniques in gameplay to excellent effect (Reader beware, spoilers ensue henceforth.)

The coolest moments of the game, the ones that make you hold your breath and exhale an emphatic "Holy mackerel!" when they pass, all exist within the context of play. Building collapsing in the middle of a firefight? The firefight continues as the world slides apart beneath you. Hero decides to carry a wounded comrade to safety as villains chase you with machine guns and rocket launchers? All you. Chase scene with Jeeps in the Himalayas? "Let me guess: you drive the jeep?" No. Because you have done that in other games and doing it again is considerably less incredible than jumping from jeep to jeep while sniping at tires and bad guys. Playing Uncharted 2 is the closest most of us will ever get to living Indiana Jones' life. Until Uncharted 3 anyway.

In addition to letting players take part in the action, there are host of cinematic touches that don't actually change the gameplay so much as they surprise the player. That may not sound like much, but when you remember that video games as a medium are dominated by explosive imagery and constant movement, visually surprising a gamer is an impressive feat indeed, and Naughty Dog pulls it off consistently throughout the narrative. They do this by employing time tested cinematic techniques that have yet to arrive in video games. You'll be walking through a hushed frozen cavern, and part of the foreground will turn out to be a monster; a surprise in a game that has been devoid of the supernatural thus far. Another example is when you manage to escape a tank by going onto a mountainous ledge, only for the tank to suddenly start to go over the wall and think better of it. In text, these sound like cheap, "Gotcha" moments and they may be; but in play, such direction makes for an exhilarating experience.

The content of the narrative itself may not be groundbreaking, but the quality of the writing and voice acting that delivers it is superb. There is more chemistry between Nathan Drake and each one of the lovely heroines than there is in most modern adventure movies, let alone most video games. How people can still be transfixed by 'characters' like Bayonetta when there are personalities like Elena Fisher and Chloe Frazer boggles my mind a bit. Leather, long legs and boobs are awesome, but there are other ways to be appealing, and indeed sexy, in video games. I am similarly perplexed by the antiquated trend of the mute hero in adventure games. I can understand the case for "immersability" in a role-playing context (though I tend to disagree with it), and Link has a long standing laconic legacy so he gets a reprieve, I can't imagine another action/adventure scenario that would benefit from a lack of speech. After enjoying Nathan Drake's wit and charm, taciturn protagonists seem woefully under-realized. Then again, this is another issue entirely; one deserving it's own discussion.

In conclusion Uncharted 2 is an incredible game right down to the details. The graphics are lush with details and pop off the screen with color, the sound effects are spot on and the music swells with the same majesty as John Williams scores. Just listen to this theme! Even stripped of this presentation and the narrative, you have an incredibly tight 3rd person shooter featuring positively effervescent freedom of movement. You read that right: your ability to climb, hang and jump from almost everything in the environment bubbles with possibility. If games like Gears of War and MW2 didn't feel dated before, they should now. Uncharted 2's multiplayer may not offer as many guns and brutal methods of execution as those other titles, but it is more balanced and mobile, which to my mind, equates to greater variety in play.

Long story short: If you have a PS3 you should do yourself a favor and play through Uncharted 2: Among Thieves. It is the best video game of 2009.