I hadn’t really read up on this game but it went gold so I looked at the press release. You play as a secret agent with amnesia? Is this what passes for creativity? Cel-shading and lifting plot devices from soap operas?
Not like a soap opera! Like Memento! Its a game though, what kind of writing are you expecting?!?! Even PST was sorta cheesy.
etc
What’s the problem? I can’t remember the last time I saw that.
The Bourne Identity and Memento come to mind. I know those are movies so let’s just forgive XIII for not being about a cop/ex-cop who needs to revenge the murder of his father/wife.
Sadly there are getting to be fewer and fewer action/adventure games where I don’t chuckle damn near every cutscene. But I think XIII is going to fall flat on its face way before we get involved in the storyline. The free demo getting passed around was about fourteen seconds long and by the end of it I was almost already sick of the gimmick.
I’m pretty sure the Frog (no wait, Belgium) comic that XIII is based on was printed in the 80s, and was basically a riff on Kennedy, Bourne Identity, and Manchurian Candidate.
Plus, using amnesia as a plot device for a game is brilliant! Nobody’s ever done that before, have they, where you start the game not remembering who you are?
[size=1]Brad: Sarcasm again.[/size]
Well, have a look at most movies these days. The writing in most action flicks is around the same level as games these days.
Me either. You know what I’d really like? A shooter game about you being the last human trying to repel an invasion of demons or aliens. Or, maybe a game where your spacecraft crash-lands on a strange alien world and you have to fight your way off. Oh well.
C’mon guys… every shooter story boils down to:
- 1 guy
- against all seemingly insurmountable odds
- saves the world.
It’s all how you dress up that basic storyline, I guess.
I, for one, am really looking forward to XIII.
I’m still waiting for one where you get half way through and it turns out that your boss is really an evil villain. I just don’t think I’d spot that coming and it would be almost as exciting as when I got to the villain and found out that he was only working for the real villain all along! Then we could have sequels. And cake.
No one’s tried to make a FPS look cel-shaded, with side panels that appear comic-book style. :P (It’s based on a French comic novel, which is why Dargaud’s name is on the box.)
I for one hope that the final XIII isn’t completely on rails like the demo levels were.
Here is where I might insert a comment about how no one plays shooters for their storylines anyway.
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I saw the game at E3 and tried out the demo. I really thought the cel-shading worked well despite the shitty demo. But there are simply too many games on the market right now that I’d rather play than this one.
How about one where halfway through you realize YOU’RE the villain and then you’ve got to outwit your own hand as it tries to shoot you!
Hey no one mock the amnesia plot. It worked for Torment.
That could be the problem right there. Torment used the amnesia device so magnificently that I doubt any future game will be able to live up to the standard. It be would like “re-imagining” Citizen Kane. What’s the point?
I installed it recently to replay… I really must get back to that…
Most people I remember yawned at it when it appeared in Torment. It was one of the biggest cliches surrounding the project, aside from the whole playing a corpse with irresistable sexual magnetism thing (Ngggh!). It succeeded because the rest was so good. Somehow, I doubt XIII has that depth of story behind it ;-)
At least some shooters are working on that first point now. Halo and especially Freedom Fighters come to mind.
I’m sorry, what was this topic supposed to be about, again? I can’t seem to remember…
Not to derail this topic even more but… it also succeeded because it actually wasn’t just a cliche. The entire game was based around the Nameless One dying repeatedly and always forgetting things from the last incarnation hence the tattoos to remind himself. The movie Memento used a very similar plot device to great effect, I wonder if the director played PS:T. :)
Anyhow, I didn’t see the amnesia in PS:T as anything but part of a finely woven plot, it wasn’t a gimmick at all when looked at in the full context of that game. But it is an overused plot device both in film and games, sure, I concede that point with no argument.
I’m wondering why nobody has bothered to ask Mark to list all of the games with original and creative storylines that he’s been playing. Aside from Ape Escape 2, I mean.