If they move, shoot 'em

So there's been some controversy around the latest installment in the Call of Duty franchise, Modern Warfare 2. Maybe you've heard about it. The developers decided to include a scene in which you have the choice to massacre a shitload of civilians in an airport. Yeah. I don't really have anything to say about that. Well, not yet, anyway. Maybe someday, when I've actually played the thing. Until then, Kieron Gillen over at RockPaperShotgun has weighed the scene and found it lighter than a feather. It's a great, if somewhat rambling, analysis, filled with justified rage (the best kind). Obviously both links are dipped in spoilers, so if you care about that sort of thing, stay your mouse-clicking. I think it's safe to say that the plot of MW2 is grade-A bullshit though, so it probably doesn't matter much.

A violent game I have played, however, got a sequel a few weeks back. Maybe you've heard about this one too? It's called Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, and the only controversy surrounding it was of the console war kind (it's a PS3 exclusive. If you don't know why that makes it controversial, I envy you more than you'll ever know). The main character, the one you're controlling, is one Nathan Drake, dashing adventurer, charming thief, and sociopathic mass-murderer. That last part, however, isn't very clear until you start to think about what you're actually doing when you play him. Sure, this isn't the first game where you mow down seemingly endless amounts of enemies without if affecting as much as your haircut, in fact, if you play videogames once in a while you're probably used to it. After all, aren't games supposed to make stuff like murder and dismemberment fun? Isn't that the point of interactive entertaiment? What on earth would you do in a game, if you couldn't shoot shit to bloody pieces? Then it'd just be an interactive cutscene! A full-on QTE-fest! Oh no, the gayness!

..sorry, I'll stop that now. Anyway, sure, Indy shot some people in his day, no remorse needed, so why can't Drake? Let's look at some obvious differences between the original and the cardboard copy. First of all, Drake is a fucking cardboard copy, in case you just missed that sentence. He's as bland as heroes get, basically. He inhabits a bland (although pretty) world, has bland sidekicks, fights bland villains. Bland bland bland bland. He's a flat and boring character, he has the same dry, ironic, pretend world-weariness that all of these adventurers have had since the Last Crusade. Sure, some of his quips are funny, but they were more funny the first time you heard them, which was somewhere else, long ago. Second, and this is really just a follow-up to the first, Uncharted is badly written, and the violence doesn't fit with the (bland) story. Some silly South American gangleader has a bazillion goons who love nothing more than showering in gunfire? Really? Which, coincidentally, brings us to bullet-point number three: Indy may be a killer, but he's not a one-man slaughterhouse. In Uncharted you snuff out the precious life force of literally thousands of people, and Drakes rection is a weary sigh and dry comments along the lines of "oh dear, all this killing is making me sleepy". The whole thing is just downright silly. It doesn't so much break immersion as blow it to dust, vacuuming it up and emptying the bag into the Atlantic Ocean.

The thing is, this is videogame convention. Gamers are used to killing tons of dudes, it's just something we accept as part of the game. If we're to judge games on content, as opposed to mechanics, most simply fall short. Fallout 3 falls short. FarCry 2 falls short. BioShock, bless it, fucks up the atmosphere completely by having every resident of Rapture psychotically attack you on sight. The most common solution, of course, is simply filling your action game with monsters, demons, or robots, or setting the game in some sort of war. It works, but god damn it all, games are capable of more.

All of that said, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune is one hell of an entertaining game. The combat mechanics are excellent, taking cover and popping some desperate shots at the ethnic diversity is exciting, and doesn't get old. But this doesn't make it a good game. It simply makes it a fun one.