On 29/09/2010 02:54 PM, Warp wrote:

>    The story is very strong. In fact, the game is extremely story-oriented.
> The game has been sometimes criticized for being very linear, but I suppose
> that with such a heavy emphasis on story-telling it's understandable.

I remember when I first played Psychonauts, I was absolutely stunned by 
how fantastic the story and acting are. Which made me realise something: 
most games have abysmal story content.

Think about it. What's the story behind Quake II? Well, uh, actually it 
doesn't matter. Just shoot anything that moves! What's the story behind 
HL1? Well, HL1 manages to add a little bit more drama, but it's still 
basically "get out alive, shoot anything that attacks you".

Even CoD4 is still about being teleported from place to place so you can 
shoot things. The shooting becomes a bit more complicated, and you have 
to actually *listen* to the various NPCs if you want to survive, but 
basically there's still not much of a story there.

Now consider Psychonauts. From the very beginning where I watched the 
intro sequence, I was impressed. The graphics (both the cut scenes and 
the game itself) are pretty poor. But the story is compelling. This is 
almost feature-film stuff. (!) And compared to this, suddenly you 
realise just how weak the story behind most games is.

Think about it: When you complete HL1, what do you know now that you 
didn't already know by the time we got to Unforeseen Consequences? Er, yeah.

By the time you complete Psychonauts, you've been on a complex voyage of 
discovery, and if you've been paying attention to your surroundings, 
you've met all kinds of interesting people, travelled to strange and 
interesting places, and found out quite a large amount of backstory to 
the whole game. (Backstory that actually affects the game itself...)

The only other game I've seen that really compares is Gunman. It's a HL1 
mod. Kinda cowboys in outer space theme. Technology is unimpressive. 
Story is comparatively good. But it still can't touch Psychonauts.

Pity they don't make games like that any more...

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