Law 5: Window dressing must enhance, but never dominate.
Articles
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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.
