"Economy of storytelling, too, is crucial in both. In screenplays and movies, you're always whittling scenes down to their essence. The same is true for games -- only more so. Cutscenes, I was forewarned, could be no longer than two minutes (about half as long as a crucial movie scene.)
"Early on, Neversoft President Joel Jewett pointed to the "X" button on a controller and said to me, "That's the enemy." When you're writing these scenes, he continued, always remember there's a player sitting on that button just waiting for an excuse to punch it."
- Randall Johnson on writing Gun
Similarly, there are folks out there that fast-forward through films until they see a gunfight. Or some nudity. Or are just skimming through a flick waiting for a scene with some sizable gore. Should films be whittled down to two minute vignettes, containing only the barest of plot elements, all moving forward for an overly wrought shoot-out?
Neversoft, developers of the Wild, Wild West-oriented Gun seem to think so. Our hero, Colton White is out hunting with his pa, Ned (voiced by the gruff Kris Kristofferson, and if you didn't know it by his voice you'd certainly realize it from the character model) when a bear attacks! After dispatching the bear, Ned and you take off for the harbor to sell the dead carcass to the locals when the boat is attacked by banditos! Then oh no Ned dies in the attack! And surprise! The boat blows up! But not before Ned admits that he is not your real father! To get to the root of the banditos and your past, you head to town, a scant two minute horse ride away! But you need a horse first! Oh look, there just happens to be a guy with a horse right here! But you need to race him for his extra horse first. But you easily win! But now he and his bandito friends are going to rob and kill you instead! But you easily shoot him down! But oh no, the local brothel that has the information you need for whatever reason is under attack! By banditos!
I'm sure you get the general picture. From varmit-hunting with Ned to being ambushed by Indians the absolute moment you exit the town boundaries, Gun is a halting, stop/start experience. There's no build-up, no tension, no excitement, just scenes where you're shooting and scenes where you're on the cusp of being shot at. Sure, you can take your own downtime by running aimlessly around the sparsely populated town or saddle on up to a Wanted poster for an unfulfilling side mission but that's devoid of drama and unsatisfying. Instead of the majesty of the epic Western, we get the cheap shoot 'em up.
There are no substantial lone treks across desolate, untamed wilderness, just tiny swathes of land that your horse can transverse before you can say 'tarnation'. The world is compressed, tiny but also hollow, insubstantial, seemingly to prevent the player from boredom and consequently smashing the "skip scene" X button. You're never out of bullets (at least in your pistol), your opponents are numerous and disposable and thanks to an overly generous continue system, death merely results in maybe losing five minutes of game progress. Tops. Easily surmountable obstacles never get boring!
Neversoft needs to worry less about constantly engaging the gamer and more about creating an engrossing world. The "X" button isn't the developer or writer's enemy, it's the impetus behind pressing the "X" button that they want to avoid: frustration. A sense of scope and presence of atmosphere drive the genre, not just the conflict between the cowboys and the indians. It may be unfair for me to judge Gun based solely on its adherence to a more action-driven and familiar formula (as well as the two hours I let myself absorb of it), but the shoot 'em up Western is nothing unique from your prototypical shoot 'em up aerial combat game, or shoot 'em up first-person shooter. While a hail of bullets will keep most users glued to their controller, what's the point of a Western motif for your game if it fails to include uniquely or optimally Western devices? Gun is pared down to the barest of narrative essentials simply to progress the action, and while that's great for those that are easily distracted or have a low tolerance for sitting still, it leaves us with two minute long cut scenes that feel hindered and emotionally vacant, comprised of simple strings of violence. There's a lot to fight for in the West, but sadly it's all glossed over in favor of making sure the audience is stimulated beyond thought. There's another button Joel Jewett should have pointed out to Gun's writer: the power button.
#1 DrJones Jan 12, 2006 09:41am
Yeah, he's from Uranus!
Regardless, I don't have a PC with enough nuts to be able to run Aftermath (HL1 runs great, though). So unless they plan on releasing it on the 360, I'll have to resort to Wimipedia for story information.
It's a goddamn conspiracy.
But back to the G-Man and his pimping of Dr. Freeman. What does Gordon get out of it? And, assuming G-man is some sort of super time-controlling being, is his payment?
#2 breakbread Jan 12, 2006 09:48am
I thought ou were referring to the abundance of filler material in HL2.
#3 Dublyner Jan 12, 2006 11:09am
What filler? The part where you shoot stuff?
#4 DrJones Jan 12, 2006 11:11am
Yeah, and all the "dialogue" and "entertainment."
What's that all about?!?
#5 Kamikaze Jan 12, 2006 01:00pm
How about all the stupid platforming sections, like the part where you try to cross a massive beach without actually touching the sand? [The reality of it is, the antlions are so fucking pathetically weak that you may as well run across the sand anyway]
Or where you're driving that shitty buggy across endless roads? The game has plenty of filler.
also this thread has been beautifully derailed.
#6 breakbread Jan 12, 2006 01:03pm
I understand the "purpose" of the buggy and airboat segments, but I still feel like they were just thrown in for filler. I think the "platforming" segment on the beach made great use of the physics engine by giving you the option to make your own patch out of debri.
And yes, this thread has been horribly derailed.
We need more in-depth discussion threads in the gaming forum.
#7 D. Riley Jan 12, 2006 01:19pm
I quite liked the antloin segments. And in those whether you liked them or not really wasn't a big deal. As people have said many times, you can just ignore them.
Boat + car were really awful. The only halfway decent part is the first part of the helicopter chase on the boat where you're driving for cover. God! Every time you got out of the car you would hope and pray that it would be the last and it NEVER WAS.
Not to mention you had to use the stupid gravity gun to flip it.
#8 R. LeFeuvre Jan 12, 2006 02:34pm
And to this day Mr Riley still trudges through that car level. Poor guy.
Question to DrJones: Why wouldn't you be able to play Aftermath? Lost Coast is the release that ups the ante in terms of PC requirements, but as far as I know, Aftermath doesn't use HDR and doesn't push systems specs any further than the original HL2.
Anyway. I have a friend who bought Gun (and who incidentally loves guns) and I think now I shall either have to borrow the game or go check it out. Thanks.
#9 DrJones Jan 12, 2006 02:36pm
I have a 64mb video card in my laptop. I can't run HL2. It's bad ass for the first one, though.
I played HL2 on the Xbox.
#10 R. LeFeuvre Jan 12, 2006 02:57pm
Oh. Gotcha :(
#11 D. Riley Jan 12, 2006 03:21pm
Just like that episode of the Twilight Zone. :(
No, get F.E.A.R.! It's awesomest!
#12 breakbread Jan 12, 2006 06:14pm
F.E.A.R. is the most amazing thing I have experienced in a long time.