Editor’s note: We discussed Daniel’s post during last night’s Pixel Revolt recording, and the questions he poses have stuck with me since. He may really be on to something here. Should games allow you to fail during scripted sequences? -Brett
I sat down with a friend’s copy of Uncharted 2 the other day and played through the first part of the game. The story opens in medias res with Nathan Drake waking up in a train somewhere in the snowy peaks of Tibet. Drake quickly realizes that the train car isn’t so much on top a mountain as it is dangling off the side of one. A quick tumble later and he’s hanging for dear life over a vast emptiness. Death awaits below.
At this point you actually take control of Drake, and you must climb your way up the car to safety. Each shimmy that Drake makes sways the train a little bit, and the car is slowly falling apart as he climbs. When a pole snaps free from the side of the car, Drake’s only chance is to swing and leap onto a narrow handhold. I rocked back and forth with the analog stick, pressed the X button and… Drake completely missed the handhold and plummeted to his demise.
Of course, the game gave me another chance to scale the train again, but the second time around, all of the cinematic peril and tension had evaporated. Everything happened just as it did before. I knew exactly when each bolt would break, when each chair would fall, and when each component would collapse. Events that thrilled me the first time through now glaringly reminded me that I was playing a video game.
Why should there be a chance for Drake to fall here? Why bother allowing for failure?
“Because it’s a game,” some of you might respond. “Because otherwise you’re just watching a movie,” others might reply. To those rationales I’d say that the game designers clearly had a distinct, theatrical vision of how this story begins. It’s a very solid mix of scripted moments and interactive moments. We don’t need a random death to remind us that this is a video game or that Nathan Drake’s life is at risk, because the only consequence for failing is rewatching/playing the sequence again.
My issue isn’t necessarily with the fact that I had to restart the climb all over again; it’s that I had to restart at all. Most of the climb is a strictly guided experience. You can only move in certain directions and jump in a few places. It’s not like I chose the wrong path. When I got back to the falling pole bit, I did everything just as I did it before, only this time Drake grabbed the side of the car and kept climbing.
This issue reminds me of my experiences with Resident Evil 5, another game that has some excellent cinematic elements marred by forced “interactivity.” In that game, the developers chose to use quick-time events, something I absolutely despise. Watching Albert Wesker dodge bullets and drive his fist through walls looks really cool the first time. Watching him do it three, four, even five times in a row because I didn’t press two separate buttons at the same time is pointless.
So far Uncharted 2 has been QTE-free, but jumping off of that train felt as irksome as getting shot by Wesker in the middle of a cut scene. It’s no different than one of those “press X to not die” traps: When an exciting cliffhanger can be interrupted, it lets the air out of my fun balloon.
I am not calling for an end to player deaths or to the loss of progress after a failure. These “penalties” have their function and can be used responsibly to teach players how to better their problem-solving skills. What I am calling for is an end to cramming these penalties into otherwise dazzling cinematic scenes. They are unneeded and unwanted.
Daniel Feit was born in New York but now lives in Japan. Follow him on Twitter @feitclub or visit his blog, feitclub.com