Brainy Gamer's Vintage Game Club picks Deus Ex for Sept. '08 - by doctorfrog
june gloom on 30/8/2008 at 15:34
Quote Posted by ercles
I get the fact that there is hyperbole involved here, but come on. Surely good game design should at least include all of the information required to tease out a story without requiring extra research.
Plus, considering how terrible the plot handling in almost all computer games is, at this point I'd just settle for something mildly origional and well scripted.
If you're talking about a simplistic plot, then yeah it should be obvious to everyone what this or that means, but if you're talking about a game like Deus Ex, it's made more fun precisely
because some of the stuff in it requires a little bit of research to understand its place in the game. Or if you're talking about a game with heavy symbolism such as the Silent Hill series, then I don't see what's so wrong about a healthy amount of debate (and looking up others' debates) to really understand some of said symbolism (for example, the weird table monsters in SH2,
especially their relationship to Angela, but this goes for nearly any monster.) If you want simplistic plots that explain everything to you, go play Mario or something.
ZylonBane on 30/8/2008 at 16:30
ITITTITTIITTTITITT dethtoll gets confused about the role of external research enriching one's understanding of a game's story, vs being
required to understand the story... Deus Ex being a sterling example of the former, and SH2 being a gibbering poster child for the latter.
Besides which, (
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=GUDcSeUvkOw) this is all anyone needs to know about Silent Hill 2's story.
june gloom on 30/8/2008 at 18:55
The main plot- James, his relationship to Mary/Maria, etc- is easy to understand and the game explains most of it to you outright. Everything else- such as the symbolism of the monsters, sometimes overt and obvious and sometimes not- is left for discussion/debate. If you can't figure that out there's a future in bagging groceries for you.
Koki on 2/9/2008 at 04:20
Quote Posted by doctorfrog
good-natured, cool-headed
if a tad elitist and silly
doctorfrog on 2/9/2008 at 05:23
Yeah, that too.
gunsmoke on 8/9/2008 at 10:38
dethtoll: I thought those were door-monsters, not table-monsters?
van HellSing on 8/9/2008 at 11:12
Quote Posted by gunsmoke
dethtoll: I thought those were door-monsters, not table-monsters?
Neither. While the name originally given to them on messageboards was "doormen", upon closer inspection they're revealed as something much scarier.
Beds.
I'm dead serious about this.
[spoiler]The monster is two humanlike figures on a bed, covered by a sheet. The animation suggests rape. Also, The monster's attack engulfs James' head so that it's in the position of the victim's head.[/spoiler]
Sulphur on 8/9/2008 at 16:59
There's a lot of that symbolism going on in SH2. Pyramid Head's infamous introduction scene, for one. Not too sure why it would be part of the story, though; I understand what Pyramid Head stands for.
[SPOILER]But the bed monsters... apart from killing his wife out of weakness, was James really that sick in the head as well? Or am I reading the implications wrong?[/SPOILER]
van HellSing on 8/9/2008 at 18:08
My take:
[spoiler]The first time we see it, the bed-monster is Angela's, not James'. It's the representation of her father, who molested her. James incorporates it into his own bestiary, thinking he's no better than Angela's dad himself. This, and the feminine characteristics of some monsters and Pyramid Head being somewhat a part of James relate to James' sexual frustration - his pretty wife, the object of his sexual desire, physically turned into a "monster" because of her illness. James wasn't too happy about that.[/spoiler]
