Star Wars: Episode III
Published by Mark Marino June 29th, 2005 in Text Art.I’ve been thinking more and more about Episode III, the game for PlayStation
As you play, your characters, Obi0-Wan (Ben) Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker become more and more distinct in their fighting styles. This strikes me as a move towards characterization in games that has no doubt been tried before in games, such as GTA: San Andreas, where a character might fall out of shape and become slower or the legendary Fable. In this game, character change is inevitable, which returns us a bit to our Hamlet discussion. This seems to be a step in the narrative direction that also affects gameplay in interesting ways.
The other aspect of the game I’ve noticed is that in the cut scenes Ben Kenobi is so relaxed and so jolly that I envy him. In other words, the cut-scenes alienate me from the character, such that I believe there is the actual Kanobi, and then there is me… I would imagine a better player might surpass Kenobi’s abilities….Oh, to live only in cut scenes where the world unfolds as planned and there is enough time to have a conversation!
Actually there are at least three Obi Wan’s: The Obi-Wan in the film segments interspersed, the Obi-Wan in 3-D cut scenes, and my poor Obi-Wan action figure.
So this helps us develop the notion of identification that we’ve been working on. In a third-person game, do you identify with the character of the cut-scenes?
Put another way - what is the predominant reason for Anakin’s fall - pride, fear, or jealous love? The answer in the myth is all three (they are inseparable) but perhaps you could inflect the dialog of the editing of the cutscenes and get slightly different endings based on your play style.
At the simplest level: give Anakin three special moves, each of which corresponds to a dark personality trait: 1. the subjugation finishing move (pride) 2. the force-block (fear) 3. the force-grab-their-weapon (eh, jealousy-ish). Make it difficult or impossible for Anakin to win (inflict enough damage, survive) without using one or all of these - aggregate statistics on how often each is used, and at the end of each scene, run the inflected dialog that has to do with the deadly sin corresponding to the player’s play style.
Interesting related example from a recent review of the game “Darkwatch” on Slashdot:
“Gameplay and story are somewhat interconnected. Throughout the game, you’re presented with ‘good’ and ‘evil’ options. Choosing either path nets you new vampiric powers, but disappointingly does not affect the storyline or the game’s outcome.”