Articles
|
by Robert Washburne |
The Perfect Adventure Game |
Law 5: Window dressing
must enhance, but never dominate.
Sound and graphics are
not the measure of an adventure game. If they were, then The
Crystal Key would have been a critically acclaimed mega-hit, The
Secret of Monkey Island would have experienced mild interest and no one
would have bought the second copy of Zork.
Nice graphics are nice,
but only when they enhance the story line. Myst was revolutionary
as the first game to use sophisticated sound and graphics. It was
easy to credit the window dressing with Myst‘s great popularity,
but does anyone remember the ray-traced knockoffs that followed
such as Milo or Entombed? Indeed, Riven, the sequel to Myst, emphasized
the graphics over the puzzles and it is frequently cited as the
weakest of the Myst titles.
Myst was a mega-hit, staying
on the retail shelves for almost five years before seeing the first
bargain bin, because of its engrossing story. A story which spawned
three novels and another five games.
Sound also has the power
to draw us in or drive us away. The music of Myst did a wonderful
job of setting the mood and pulling us into the game. I have chosen
to forget those games that repeat music clips ad infinitum until
you can’t stand it any more.
Voice acting can make
or break a game. Some games, such as Rhem, obviously threw it in
as an afterthought. It sounds like the person is just reading a
book out loud with no attempt to act. Sometimes professional actors
are hired, but not properly used. In Black Mirror there are several
long soliloquies that are wonderfully done, but the rest of the
dialog sounds stilted and awkward. It would appear that the developers
just gave the actors a list of phrases but no hint as to the setting.
So they say the phrase “Yes, I will” as if talking
to a friend, when they are actually talking to an enemy. But when
it is done well, like it was in Dark Fall, then the voice acting
draws you into the game and makes you believe you are actually
in a hotel in southern England.
Good sound and graphics
will be forgettable.
Great sound and graphics
will pull us into the story and amplify its effect on us.
Bad sound and graphics
will distract us from the story, breaking the SoB.
Moral: Sound and graphics
should enhance the story and the experience, but they are supporting
actors and must never upstage the star that is the story.
