Style Analysis in Video Games- Task 1

Style Analysis in Video Games

The individual style in video games has become a bland plane of existence in recent years as the large companies strive for more realistic graphics. But as we progress into better graphics, we lose the need to be able to distinguish our games by making them as visually defining, as the old technology was so limited that game makers wouldn't need to take too much time on making 3-d models. To counter the chunky models, the artist would spend more time making better textures which includes their colour schemes, this made games incredibly individual, and distinguishable, and for a game to look dull was a big deal as it was very difficult to put that little effort into a game.

But there are some companies today that still strive for style as well as substance and with the graphic potential of technology, the models and environments are well modelled and stylised. To further prove my point, here is a list of noteworthy stylised, well written games:

Walking Dead

Walking Dead was originally a comic, but as its grown in popularity for having well written characters and brilliant plot lines, it has branched out to being a TV Show, and a thriving Game series which has just finished its second series under the company Tell Tale Games.

The art of the Walking Dead is very faithful to the comics, its cell shaded, with bold graphical lines in a very comical, but not unrealistic drawing style. This works on both an artistic and technical level; the fans enjoy the comical style as it hints back to the source material and gives a more mimetic feel to the rest of the franchise, and the simple style is easy to render which allows the game to have more memory free for props, environments, dialogue, and plot in general.

The colour scheme for this game is also masterful as the desaturated colours, and earthy palette works incredibly well with the apocalypse setting, as if earth really has lost its light and is being taken over by depression. This induces lots of negative, but atmospheric emotions for the player; it helps us relate to the main character (Lee Everett), as it makes us feel as if we are in the same situation as the realistic colours, combined with the minimalistic way using almost exclusively genuine sounds to the scenario without a large musical score, replicates a realism we can attach and immerse ourselves into. Also, as a little note, as the game begins, the colour palette is bright, with bolder, more saturated colours, but as we progress, the colour palette drops into the signature brown, greens, reds, greys, and blues. This also give the player the subliminal messaging of the world going from good, gradually deteriorating into terrible, and devastating.

The Walking Dead video game is also critically acclaimed for its writing; it uses episodic gameplay (a method used to release a full game cheaper and quicker by releasing 3 hour long episodes at a time over a period of months) to separate each 'B' plot into single episodes, and add to the over arcing 'A' plot over the whole series, it also allows cliff hangers for the end of each episode which hints back to the TV series, and their style of including cliffhangers, and 'next time in {shows name}' montages. That isn't the reason its remembered, however, the Walking Dead is best known for allowing player to choose their path. Dialogue trees, actions, and quick decisions are all up to the player, and you feel the pressure as some decision literally end with death or situations that land you into incredibly hot water, and some of these decisions have to happen within a few seconds. This style of gameplay (as far as I can tell) is exclusive to Tell Tale Games, and is very recognisable as theirs, originator and perfecter.

Player Choices through dialogue ("Maybe you married the wrong woman."- Police Officer)

 Another style that is related to the Walking Dead as a franchise is that is has a well known method of causing extreme negative emotions in the fans, regardless of the incarnation. In my own personal experience, I played through this game and was beside myself with tears at the end, and even in the TV show I got to Episode 5 before I was crying. They are famous for being soul destroyers of the highest calibre.

This trope still remains unchanged.

To put this into context here are 6 of the most disturbing examples from Season 1 of the game; 

This is in chronological order, and features graphic scenes of gore, and disturbing images from the beginning, as well as spoilers, you have been warned.

Lee smashing the baby sister

 

This is about 10 minutes into the game, and that girl Lee is killing is a little girls babysitter who turns into a zombie (and his 3rd kill), and the little girl (Clementine, 8 years old) hides in her tree house until you arrive, you then find the babysitter and beat her to death with a hammer, while Clementine is stood in door way watching the whole ordeal. In addition to this already awful scene, after the last hit, the hammer gets stuck  and we get to watch Lee rip it out of her eye socket with extremely unsettling sound effects.

The establishing shot of the drug store

A few days in, Lees travelled with a surviving family (Kenny, his wife, Katjaa, and his son, Duck) and ended up back in his hometown, Macon, and takes shelter in his family's old drug store; before we are even allowed to search the place Lee is told they dragged out an old infected couple (his own parents) out of the office into the alley. Upon further exploration of the office, Lee finds a broken picture of his family, and the old mattress where his Dad and mother took shelter before his infected Dad bled out trying to protect his wife.

The back office

This on its own is fairly upsetting, but it gets horrible when Lee is trying to find the keys to the pharmacy for supplies. When Lee goes outside to look for the keys, he finds them on his trapped, infected brother. But he only retrieves them after apologising to his brother for not being there to protect him, and slamming an axe into his brothers head to kill him, but not after 4 excruciating attempts to his neck which makes his brother gurgle and shout in pain.

Lees apology to his brother

The final swing

Shortly after, Lee and 2 survivors clear a motel of zombies when they hear sobbing from one of the rooms. When you convince the crying woman to come out, shes says she bitten and begs for a gun to kill herself, you can choose whether to give her a gun or not. If you do, you are forced to watch her kill herself, so you can pick up the gun when she dies. If you choose not to, she starts crying uncontrollably before throwing her self off the second floor railings, and cracking her skull on a skip.

And just before episode one is over, you have to choose between two of the survivors to save when zombies break through the barriers and grab Carley (a journalist with a gun and a crack shot) and Doug (a slightly naive, but mechanical/technological genius). This choice is awful as they are both equally savable but you only have a few seconds to choose, only enough time to save one, and no one else is there to assist you as they both cry for your help.

The worst part about this is, regardless of who you save, when another survivor admits to selling supplies to keep bandits at bay (the stopping of which resulted in an attack on the motel), the leader completely loses it and kills Carley/Doug when they throw themselves into the path of the bullet to save the betrayer, making your first choice completely pointless.

Dougs Death

Carleys Corpse (from the inter-series spin off game 400 Days)

An episode later and after the bandits attack, the full extent of its damage is revealed when 10 year old Duck is bitten and is slowly dying and its your job to convince his father to stop believing he will pull through, and to kill his own child. After the time it takes to convince him, stop and go to a forest for  him and his wife to kill their child, you hear a gunshot and its revealed that it was, in fact, his wife committing suicide in front of her family.

Katjaas suicide

You then get the choice to let a very catatonic Kenny kill his child, or for you to do it instead.

Lee about to euthanize Duck

This isn't helped or easily forgotten as when they reach the next city, and go clear a house to stay in, Kenny comes across a child zombie (Fivel). He is extremely emaciated, he died of dehydration/starvation, and we are told that as he hid and slept up in the attic, he also ate dog food to try stay alive. But as soon as Kenny sees him he immediately freezes because he looks like Duck and Lee is also rendered emotionally helpless because he realises if he didn't save Clem, this would have been her fate. We then see Fivel repeatedly try to attack the men, but he keeps collapsing under his own weight, and when neither Lee or Kenny can face killing him, you can convince Kenny to kill him, kill him yourself, or allow another survivor (Christa) to kill him for you. 

Although this scene was short, it still remains one of the hardest to watch and play throughout the entire game. 

The zombie, Fivel.

Clementines parents

But Fivels scene is nothing compared to when Lee is bitten and is slowly turning into a zombie while having to worry after Clementine is kidnapped. Lee becomes incredibly admirable as he can elect to have his arm cut off in an attempt to stave off the zombification process, you can also choose for him to cut it off himself or have Christa do it. He then goes around the city until he finds the hotel Clem is in, and then climbs over a breaking 3 story high sign, ends up in a street full of zombies, and with his one arm, chops his way through a hoard of zombies until he gets to the hotel. Then he confronts the kidnapper signals to Clem to kill him with his his gun, then covers Clem in zombie guts so they can pass back through the hoard. But as they are passing through the hoard Clem spots her now zombified parents and is forced to keep moving and keep silent before she raises suspicion. Shortly after though the infection has gotten too strong and Lee collapses in the street leaving Clem on her own.

Clementine being grabbed 

The dialogue choice when you choose to not be shot 

 Luckily Clem manages to drag the dying Lee Everett into an abandoned building, and get him sat down by a radiator. While in his dying state Lee tell Clem to get the cuffs off a zombie officer and he cuffs himself to the radiator so he can't hurt her when he turns. Then the zombie officer attacks Clem and Lee has to try help her while passing in and out of consciousness. When Clem is finally safe, Lee tells her to find the other survivors, then you are given the choice to have Clem shoot you, or for her to leave you. And if this choice wasn't bad enough, the dialogue turns into Lee preparing Clem for her life alone, giving her advice on staying safe and  how important the decision is to kill him (or not). It ends with Lee saying he'll miss her and Clementine in tears as she takes the final shot, or leaves Lee as he slumps against the radiator and dies alone.

Its a fantastic end for any game, its brilliantly written and has reduced the most emotionally sedated people into floods of tears. You see them go through so much, and how devoted Lee is to keeping her safe, and to have his death be so inevitable, watching his deterioration throughout the whole final episode and have it all finish off in a filthy abandoned building while still trying to keep Clem safe is heartbreaking.

These styles, the graphical comic art, the changing colour schemes, the game play mechanics, and the masterful writing, when all combined makes the Walking Dead game a severely independent and defining series. Everything from the opening, to the final scene is well thought through and brings new ideas to an incredibly cliched genre of both screen writing and video games.

The final shot of the game if you chose to leave Lee 

The final shot of the game if you choose to have Clem kill Lee

Papers, Please.

Papers, Please is a very curious indie game, as it's one of the best indie games of the 2013, yet its also one of the hardest to market because you spend the entire game in a booth doing paper work as the border control of a communist country.

Papers, Please title screen

The art of Papers, Please is very retro, they used simple, 8 bit graphics as was the style in the 80s, when game takes place. Its also worth noting the colours as throughout the game the remain exactly the same. As the game takes place in the communist styled 'Arstotska' A collection of maroons, beiges, reds, and greys invokes a vintage feeling, and the desaturated colours also hint to depression, and oppression, which also comes through as the countrys 'personality' is shown through its governments laws, and the news.

A screencap of the gameplay

What is also very memorable about Papers, Please, is the soundtrack. The music is played by a traditional orchestra, instead of 8 bit to go with the art. It's styled on traditional Russian music and is played on traditional instruments as well. It gives the game a very strong cultured atmosphere without feeling cheesy or cliche.

The game play as well is incredibly peculiar. As previously mentioned, you play as a border control investigator, and its your job to makes sure peoples paperwork checks out before you let them in or reject them. It begins with very easy rules, such as simply people from certain countries, then people with entry tickets, but as per a video game goes, it gets gradually harder as you progress so you have more to think about and remember, even down to recognising if a paper is forged by the error on the stamp. This on its owns makes a very realistic, but very repetitive game.

A discrepancy discovered in the stamp of an entry permit

This is where the writing comes in.

A character Jorji, whose bad attempts at entry are a recurring joke 

The beauty of the game of Papers Please, is in its writing style. From the beginning it seems like a very simple game, you're just getting to grips with rules so its all very basic. But you start coming across people who ask for you to let them in regardless of their paper work because they want to see their family again, or would die if they returned to their country, and you are given the moral choice to let them in, or reject them. These choices vary though. From letting people and their loved ones reconnect, to deciding whether or not to accept papers from a secret service to give to your supervisor to sway the Arstotskan Government into a freer, fairer country. It quickly gives a massive sense of scale when you are given choices that can lead to you overthrowing your government, or accepting a massive bribe off an unknown source. It was described by a critic as 'Feeling like a thousand stories, both big and small, are being filtered through that little booth and you are either a fleeting face, or crucial character'. The combination of these choices also proves to have a bigger effect than first thought as the game is said to have up to 20 endings but only 1 ending where you keep your job after the 31 day plot. The endings vary from fleeing your country, to being killed for disloyalty to the country, to killing an innocent person, or running out of money and having your family starve to death.

This masterful style, both loyal to its setting, but refreshing in its gravity hasn't been seen in such a simple indie game in a very long time, and even though it can be very tiring, and demanding, its still shows level of intricacy that games should have even if the game only takes place in one little booth.

Bioshock

As some may know, Bioshock isn't a singular game, but in actual fact, a franchise, and as their writing, and concepts go hand in hand, I will use the first game (Bioshock) and the final game (Bioshock Infinite) to show the superb style that crosses the series.

To begin, I would like to add in a little description on both games to get their core concepts, and ideas down to help enable me to talk more about them.

Bioshock 

The players first view of Rapture

The first game, Bioshock, begins with you flying across the ocean in a commercial jet until it crashes into the sea. From there, you swim to safety onto a lighthouses island where you find a pod that takes you to the under water city, Rapture. From the beginning you learn of its founder Andrew Ryan, and his ideas which shape his now devastated city which comes across immediately in the phrase stitched into a flag on his statue which reads: "No Gods. No Kings. Only Man." Where artists were never censored, and "scientists will not be bound by petty morality." This is the essential theme behind the entire game, of where the science has so few limitations, and can go into any expanse of testing, that consequence isn't thought of anymore, and now its mutated and evolved into a devastating plague upon the citizens.

Andrew Ryans giant bust in the lighthouse tower.

A spider splicer

You are guided round by mysterious radio voice, Atlas, as you traverse the devastated city. You are fighting from the get go against mutated humans called 'splicers'. Splicers were once humans who used so much of one of Raptures praised inventions 'Plasmids'. Plasmids are injections that rewrite the human genetic code to allow them to have powers that fire out of their hands such as: lightening bolts, balls of fire, telekinetic powers, sonic booms, tornadoes, and holograms are among the the lineup. Another breakthrough that occurred . Some of the splicers can be found wearing masks out of shame of their deformity.
You also pick up audio diarys people have made that document the citys history and events through the eyes of its citizens and workers, although these tapes are more crucial than they are made out as one of the first you hear has clear sounds of a voice shouting "Long live Atlas! Death to Ryan!", which doesn't incur immediate feelings of comfort and safety, to say the least, as almost 20 minutes in and you can no longer fully trust the guy who saved you. But hes your only chance at survival so you continue through the city at his command to get to his family. You also end up meeting the originator of the splicers, the head surgeon of Rapture, Steinman. Him and his 'wunderkind', a small German girl (and genius scientist), discover ADAM in seas slugs which, according to Steinman, 'Turns human flesh into clay' and then he ends up going mental convincing himself he could become another Picasso to turn traditional beauty into his new modern image, a.k.a deforming every patient he works on. You go through him, through Cohen, a murder crazed composer desperate to create his finest masterpieces. When you finally find Ryan, it turns out you are his illegitimate child with genetic ageing enhancements. You also find our Atlas was an alias for Ryans enemy Fontaine who liberated the lower class of his city into rebellion. Finally you find out that Atlas was controlling you by using the phrase 'Would you kindly' in almost all of his conversations with you. He even used it to crash your plane by having it in a letter you read on the plane containing the phrase. He also manipulate the system and the city to guarantee your arrival. After you kill Ryan, Fontaine leaves you to die by releasing hostile security drones into the room. You're saved last minute by Dr Tenenbaum who created the little sisters and begs you to save them early on in the game, she removes the effect of the trigger phrases, including one that could stop your heart, and leads you to Fontaines office to kill him once and for all. He pumps himself full of ADAM which deforms him into a hideous monster, similar to the splicers, and you use a group of little sisters to drain the ADAM from his body, subsequently killing him.
And, depending on the moral choices, you either escape to the surface with 5 little sisters who become your daughters until your death, or you takeover Rapture and become a morally broken overlord of the devastated city and its inhabitants.

The corpse in the lighthouse

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock infinite begins with your character, Booker Dewitt, being delivered by rowboat to a lighthouse. He's given a box of belongings, one item of which is a picture of a girl on which is written 'Bring to New York unharmed'. You then arrive at a light house, while travelling up it you come across multiple religious phrases framed on the wall, as well as corpse with 'don't disappoint us' around his neck. But when you get to the top, you put in a code and sit in a barbers chair which turns into a shuttle and launches you into the air where you are delivered to Columbia.
You discover the place is incredibly devoted to religious beliefs, mainly based on the founder fathers of America (Jefferson, Washington, and Franklin), and the only way you can get into the city is by being baptised (drowned), where he then washes up into the entrance of the city.

2 of the founding fathers

Immediately you are trying to get to the tower to rescue the girl but are attacked along the way when the guards discover the tattoo on the back of his hand which says 'A.D' this means hes the false Shepard here to take the 'lamb' (the girl Elizabeth) away from the city. Then you have to fight your way through hundreds of soldiers to rescue Elizabeth and thousands more to escape, including a giant mechanical songbird programmed to protect her at all costs. From this point you explore through various areas trying to procure an air boat to escape, obviously while being constantly attacked and faced with problems to solve. You go through The Prophet Comstocks house, the graveyard where Elizabeths mother is buried and have to kill her ghost, the slums where Comstock condemned any person of colour, save a gun maker from being killed, get entangled with the rebel group called 'The Vox', and find out Elizabeths beginning as she was experimented on by the Lutece twins giving her the ability to open 'tears' (portals to other dimensions). The game is fairly straight forward until at the end it turns out you were sent from a different dimensions to save Elizabeth as Comstock originally got you to give her over to him when DeWitt (A.D), in exchange for cleansing your sins; but at the last minute you try get her back by stealing her before Comstock jumps through a tear to the dimension where Columbia exists. Because of the tears the ending is very confusing, but its incredibly interesting and intriguing  finding out that the different dimensions intertwining is

The racism illustrated by Lincolns Assination interpreted by Columbia

she was a baby, your baby who was also called Anna
essentially what you are playing. Comstock is a version of you who did get baptised but turned evil, changing his name to Zacharay Comstock and creating a city in the sky where he could keep his daughter safe.

Comparison
The reason I decided to use the first and last games is because they both pick up on and interchange themes within each other to illustrate really concise points, such as: the over capitalisation of the world and the addictive personalities we have as a society when presented with wish fulfilling items; or the idea and concept of paradise and total freedom which inevitably results in more blood shed than before, and more problems than we could face without a proper and balanced structure of rules and law to follow. These sorts of themes and way of presenting them is exclusive to the Bioshock series and adds to the style set by the company in a truly mind boggling way.

The vigor 'Undertow'

And these themes are demonstrated mainly by the use of plasmids/vigors in the series.

Columbia (Bioshock Infinite) is set in 1912 where the invention of Vigors is a revelation, people are beside themselves with this stunning new technology and are aching to try the new enhancement; but in Rapture (Bioshock), which is set in 1959, the vigors (now called plasmids) are an over mutated curse on the city with mind bending effects which is responsible for the corruption of Rapture. I really do adore this type of writing because its shown a realistic evolution of such a dependable item. It can be linked to technological evolution within such items as mobile phones, as they started as literal mobile phones to now being able to access the Internet, handle our money, and control our homes heating if we really wanted; Bioshock just takes the step forward where we become so singularly dependant on an item that we go into the crazed riots we associate with criminals.

They also comment on the historical shift from putting everything extraordinary down to science instead of god as our technology progressed.
This is a more obvious leap as during Inifite you are constantly learning about the Lutece twins and their scientific endeavours and how they created the tears, and by extension, Elizabeth herself.
Even though the game starts as strictly religious, god is almighty, and all is well; but as we continue we learn about how Comstock used science to found most of Columbia as well as everything within it, including the vigors. but without telling its citizens so they wouldn't lose faith in him. However in Rapture (which again is set  1959) anything that can't be explained through science is expelled, which is why the over science fuelled city goes to ruins in the first place.

The statue of the prophet Comstock

Andrew Ryans motto for Rapture.

They also show the citizens pure devotion to whichever side of the faith coin they are devoted to through the medium of the enemies of we face.

During the science ravaged first game, we are going against the citizens who adored the scientific breakthroughs so much, they are the broken deformed citizens that are a product of overconsumption and dependency on the science they love so much. But we do see their regret as most times, before the enemy would attack, we would hear their ramblings to their selves and most scream about what they have become and what they once were, who they've lost, and who they blame; which was actually a really cruel way to humanise them as we feel for their troubles and really do want to help, until they are charging at us with twin metal hooks and a lot of determination to kill us.

But to contrast, the enemies in Columbia charge at you almost immediately, and although we do come to expect this in video games, we don't realise the true extent of this until we hear Comstock taunting us; he goes on to say the soldier we are fighting know their cause, that in death they have a better life waiting for them, and know that they will be honoured for their work and devotion to him. Which although seems fairly standard, comes off as borderline suicidal extremism and terrorism in affect as his soldiers are willing to run into a dangerous situation with no thoughts on what may happen should they fail purely on the complete devotion to the religion they have been presented with by Comstock.

The enemies of Columbia

The scientifically mutated enemies of Rapture

This theme is a stunning remark on both faith and logic as a base for a society and the Bioshock series comments beautifully on it; and combined beautifully with the themes of addictive dependency and over dependency makes it a blindingly intelligent work of art.
Other honourable mentions for themes presented in the two games is: the effects of losing loved ones and how that impacts a humans mind, and how moral choices can also warp a persons psyche.
These combined with the absolutely gorgeous arts and story writing as a whole is what makes Bioshock one of the most individual and distinguishing games of all time.

 Overall the style of a game shouldn't just be how it looks visually, for a game to truly stand out it should have good writing, well developed characters, and smart gameplay that ties in well the entire game. A games style should give it a feeling and a character, the ability to have a colour, sound, or style immediately remind people of your own work is a priceless quality in a memorable piece. These lessons I will try to incorporate to the best of my ability in my own work.