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BEING A FAN OF A GAMES DEVELOPER: WHY IT'S UNCHARTED WATERS FOR ME - by Mr Biffo

7/5/2016

19 Comments

 
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Back when I was running the original Digitiser, I used to mock those readers who blindly tied their colours to the flagpole of one particular games company. 

Even those who would accept everything Nintendo ever did - regardless that Nintendo rarely put a foot wrong in those days.

The fanboys. The zealots. The hardcore. Those were the names we used to mock them.

I always thought I would take every game as I found it. That I wouldn't pre-judge based upon a company's track record. After all, games companies were faceless. The days were gone where you could feel an emotional draw towards your favourite one-person development team.

As yet, we stand on the eve of the fourth and final proper Uncharted game, I find myself realising something odd: I've never not liked a Naughty Dog game. In fact, I might even be at a point where I would be excited about a new Naughty Dog game before I knew anything about it.

Could it be that, after all these years, I'm a fan of a games company?

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ULTIMATE FAN
​Thinking about it, like everyone I probably considered myself something of a fan of Ultimate Play The Game, back in the Spectrum days.

There are only so many times a company can make a game you love before you join the cult.

They started to lose me somewhat when they became Rare - I never got along with Battletoads - but usually, a Rare game was reason to pay attention.

As history records, Rare went a bit funny after Perfect Dark, and managed to squander all that goodwill - yet there's no denying that the company utterly owned the 80s home computer scene.

But... man... Naughty Dog... Crash Bandicoot was a solid start for them, but I loved the Jak & Daxter games. I mean, really loved them. One of my most dramatic gaming traumas occurred when my daughter wiped my Jak II save files. I've rarely felt such a loss.

And the weird thing about the Jak games is that I bought into the world and characters. I don't know how Naughty Dog did it, but they somehow made me engage emotionally with a cartoon-y 3D platformer. I cared what happened. I wanted to stay in that world.

When I played the first Ratchet & Clank I went into it expecting more of the same - not realising that, despite graphical similarities, it wasn't the work of the same team. Suffice to say, it has taken until the recent PS4 remaining of R&C to warm to that series. At the time, it felt like a betrayal.

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PICK-UP PAD
When I played the first Uncharted, I didn't expect much.

I picked up the pad, not knowing it was from the people who had made my beloved Jak & Daxter.

I was braced for a wannabe Tomb Raider rip-off. And that's exactly what it was... but it was something more. It did something no other game had ever managed to get me to do.

I actually cared about the characters.

How? It's hard to put it into words, because it's so precise and subconscious. Yet there are little moments throughout the Uncharted games where that genius shines through. In the first game the turning point came for me in the submarine, which Nathan Drake stumbles across on a tropical island. As he steps through the doorways of the listing, rusting, hulk, he braces himself against the doorframe.

It's so subtle, yet what it does is huge: it makes Nathan Drake feel real. He's not disengaged from his world; he's a part of it. And so we become a part of it, and become a part of what he's experiencing, physically and emotionally.

In any other medium, Drake would be unremarkable. He's the heroic archetype. Likewise Sully - every bit the typical sidekick. And yet in video games those characters remain a revelation. The relationships between them, and their world, and by extension the player, is why those games work.

Through writing that was by turns warm, funny, playful - and dramatic when it counted - I came to genuinely like Drake and Sully.

How ironic is that the Tomb Raider series is now as influenced by Uncharted as Uncharted was by Tomb Raider? And yet Lara Croft somehow remains an aloof, untouchable, superhero. By isolating her from other human characters it isolates her from us. You can make her shiver in cold temperatures all you like, but it's finding her warmth and humanity that would really make us love her. 

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REFINED TASTE
​Naughty Dog refined their storytelling across the Uncharted series, and took it to whole new heights in The Last of Us.

An altogether heavier, more serious, world and story, all of it is in service to building the player's connection with Joel and Ellie. 

Yet it does it without ever once being melodramatic, by avoiding obvious cliches.

A man haunted by the death of his daughter. A girl who was born into a brutal world - who we later learn in the sublime Left Behind mini adventure, has suffered loss of her own. Each fight a futile battle against the connection they feel for one another. When they finally realise that it's hopeless to resist, the choices that are made are brutal. Selfish, and yet so, so human.

Hardly ever does the game drag you into a cutscene. Their interaction, their relationship, is constructed through action, through character-building. It's a repeat of the two-character trick that Uncharted has used, but a wholly different sort of relationship. 

When (SPOILER) Joel falls from a balcony onto a metal bar, it's traumatic for the player. Because their emotional vulnerability was so well sculpted, so I came to believe their physical vulnerability. I'd never once been shocked by anything in a game. Never had anything close to an emotional outburst, beyond frustration. Yet when Joel was impaled on that spike... I cried out. I didn't want him to die.

Can you imagine that happening with any other character? You just hit 'CONTINUE' when Master Chief dies. If Joel had carked it in that hospital, I knew he would've been gone from the game, and my life, and Ellie's life. I didn't want either of us to be without him.

Suffice to say, my expectations for Uncharted 4 are wholly through the roof. It can only disappoint, and Naughty Dog only have themselves to blame - for being the unchallenged masters of video game characterisation and storytelling.

FROM THE ARCHIVE:
  • THE GREAT DIFFICULTY MODE DEBATE: ANOTHER STORM IN A TEACUP? - BY MR BIFFO
  • WE ASKED THESE STAR WARS ACTORS WHETHER THEY'D EVER SMUGGLED A POSSUM INSIDE THEIR COSTUMES - AND NOT A SINGLE ONE REPLIED
  • WE ASKED THESE VETERAN GAME DESIGNERS WHETHER THEY'D EVER GIVEN BIRTH TO A LIVING MINIATURE VERSION OF THEMSELVES - AND NOT A SINGLE ONE REPLIED


19 Comments
Jareth Smith
6/5/2016 12:52:14 pm

I tied my allegiance to Rare in the 1990s as everything they did was so brilliant (except Killer Instinct on the N64). The same with Nintendo, although most of their releases are still fantastic in my opinion. Whilst everyone's in such a hoo-hah about the Wii U, it's ironic the exclusives released on it have been of such high-quality.

These days I'm also an Indie game zealot eager to support these dudes no matter what. Ori and the Blind Forest... man!

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Ben
6/5/2016 01:38:47 pm

Oh man, that moment in the Last of Us provoked a guttural, gasping response, one that, like you, I had never experienced in a game before. The subsequent transition to a solitary Ellie in the snowy wilderness was so powerful, they really kept you hanging and I was desperate to know that Joel was OK...the way that scene switched the dynamic was so strong. I don't expect that kind of thing from UC4, hell, I don't even own a PS4, but I bought one for Uncharted 2 so who knows?...

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RG
6/5/2016 01:49:28 pm

In a similar way, I've been a Valve fanboy since the 1st Half Life game and never yet been disappointed (although I've not bothered with Dota 2 or TF2 - I'm not really into multiplayer stuff).

I worry that they're making too much money from the multiplayer stuff to go back to the awesome single player games again though. In a similar way GTA V is making too much money online to ever do a story DLC and if you read Polygon's excellent piece on Epic Games (http://www.polygon.com/a/epic-4-0), why they'll never do single player again...

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Clive Peppard
6/5/2016 03:28:10 pm

Im a big fan of Naughty Dog, Im also a fan of Rockstar and look forward to their releases immensely.

Oddly i though HomeWorld Cataclysm was a Sierra (also great) naughty dog collaboration, it wasnt it was barking dog studios that became... Rockstar North.

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Nick the Gent link
6/5/2016 03:50:55 pm

I hear you Biff. That section in The Last of Us (minor spoilers) where you work your way through an underground safe haven, and realize what happened to the people who lived there, really gets you.

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Mrtankthtreat
6/5/2016 04:26:07 pm

Never understood the love for The Last Of Us. I was bored to death playing it. Oh look, another dumpster to push up against a wall and a plank to swim with. I only persevered because I'd been told the story was so good and I have to see the ending. Well it was rubbish. The Christmas episode of Bottom did a better job of telling the story of a reluctant relationship forming between an adult and child. Love the Uncharted series though (although 3 was a tiny bit of a let down) so hopefully will get 4 soon.

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Mr Biffo
6/5/2016 05:20:43 pm

Your brain has made a series of terrible errors, MTT.

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Col. Asdasd
6/5/2016 07:29:52 pm

Come join me, fellow wrongthinker, in the luxuriating damp of the What Is All The Fuss About The Last Of Us Rhyming Couplet Asylum. Meals are at 7 and 5.30. The heating is on for a couple of hours in the afternoon, unless the warden forgets or we're overheard making fun of ladder puzzles.

Nothing's more baffling than the praise its story gets though. It doesn't avoid obvious storytelling cliches, it just discovered a cache that had only been exhausted on film and in books rather than in gaming. It's Three Men and a Little Lady with Zombies. And two less men.

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Stay
6/5/2016 11:45:02 pm

I played about half of TLOU last year on PS4 but I just realised I just wasn't enjoying myself so I stopped. Playing against human enemies was fun but the zombies and the one hit kill clickers were no fun and their behaviour just seem to unpredictable.

I really enjoyed the Uncharted games, especially 2 (loved the co-op) but 3 felt a bit flat for me and the characterisation is great.

Personally the Yakuza games have really good characterisation that really made me feel an emotional attachment to the characters and felt that emotion during some of the later story beats. If you want to jump into the series then I recommend starting at Yakuza 3.

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Superbeast 37
6/5/2016 04:43:34 pm

I've never really felt that connection to the people behind a franchise even though I have felt a connection to a franchise.

That really doesn't make sense I know.

I gave Quantum Break "a chance" because I've enjoyed Remedy games in the past but that is as far as my fanboism goes.

With characters or universes it is a different story. I can become deeply attached to them. As I say, this is pretty dumb given that there are real people behind them and yet I don't care so much about those people.

Maybe as a pure consumer it is because they are unsighted. I've never met them and would not know the name of a single individual at the company in most cases (apart from the big/notorious names like Moly, Cage, Levine, Kojima etc).

I'm one of those a-holes that skips the credits....unless I think there might be an Easter egg or a good track playing.

"Screw the names, just give me my achievement!!!".

I'm with Razorfist on TLoU - it might have superior writing versus most games but it's probably only on a par with the average episode of The Walking Dead. We remember the story told through the environment and notes in those sewers, we remember the scene in the house halfway through with those two lads we'd met......but in between those sparse moments of intensity we had generic third person combat and hours of just opening drawers looking for scissors.

@Mrtank - that made me PMSL thinking about the Bottom Xmas episode!

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Kelvin Green link
6/5/2016 06:04:10 pm

I have a lot of time for Naughty Dog, but Rings of Power was a bit rubbish.

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ploppypants
6/5/2016 08:54:58 pm

Ultimate were only really good if you were a Speccy owner. Their Commodore output was dodgy. They started off okay but have a look at Imhotep - it's one of the worst games I remember playing.

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Nor teed ogg
7/5/2016 11:10:00 am

Spent *many* hours on PS1 Crash Team Racing, and still dig it out occasionally. Bought on the strength of a Digi endorsement, IIRC.

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Jenuall
7/5/2016 12:29:53 pm

Probably the only developers I've ever had this kind of approach with was Looking Glass Studios.

I was absolutely blown away by System Shock and so went on to instantly buy pretty much everything they did on PC after that. Was never let down once, and had some phenomenal experiences.

The love carried over to Irrational by association and so I bought most of their output on that basis as well, however they were never on the same level as Looking Glass.

Also, the original Jak and Daxter was an incredible game - possibly my favourite PS2 release, but the sequel was such a let down that I gave up on the franchise and haven't played a Naughty Dog release since.

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Spiney O'Sullivan
7/5/2016 01:22:14 pm

That's a shame. Jak 3 fixed a lot of what was wrong with Jak 2, though I'd love to see a return to Jak and Daxter.

Personally I have come to accept that everything Naughty Dog does will be very high quality, though it still doesn't mean I'm going to play everything they make. The Last of Us just isn't my thing, for instance. Because I'm a massive coward.

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Jenuall
7/5/2016 08:22:21 pm

That's worth knowing, I've still got the PS2 so may check out Jak 3 one day.

I went with the 360 for the last generation of consoles so Uncharted and Last of Us were sadly off limits. I have been tempted by the PS4 recently though so may work my way through the Naughty Dog games that I've missed...

Dangerous Dave
8/5/2016 08:49:06 am

I'm playing through the Uncharted Collection for the first time (I'm up to chapter 11 on the 3rd game) and I have to say i'm not overly impressed. Much like The Last of Us, it's the story seems to be the glue that holds everything together. It's an entertaining action flick, but you have to push through the rather shallow and uninspired interaction to get your reward. It's clearly not very well thought out from a gameplay perspective.

That and i've played all the PS2 Prince of Persia and Tomb Raider games, and this is very similar (Dare I say it, but I think the Prince of Persia games are better!).

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combat_honey
8/5/2016 01:25:15 pm

I've never really been a fan of any particular games company, mainly on the basis that it never really occurred to me to even find out which company made what game - that seems boring to me (like when people actually *care* about what record label a band is on), and usually I can get a better idea of what a game is like just by reading a review or looking at screenshots.

The exception that proves the rule is Ubisoft, as I've come to discover that every single one of their games involve climbing towers for some reason.

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Starbuck
10/5/2016 11:32:32 pm

Seeing Knightlore running on a TV in WH Smiths was the moment that I became a man.

Ultimate.

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