Although I can understand their popularity, I’ve never been a big fan of games with the Tom Clancy license. I’ve tried various games in Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, and Splinter Cell franchises (though I’ve yet to try EndWar… must get around to that demo soon), and with only a couple of exceptions, I’ve never had so much fun that I’ve wanted to run out and pay full price for the game. But there’ve been two exceptions so far: Ghost Recon 2 and, most recently, Rainbow Six Vegas, and realizing why I liked them more than the numerous other titles in the Tom Clancy “universe” made me realize an important point about the role of visuals in gameplay.
With few exceptions, the bulk of the games in the Tom Clancy franchise (or at least the ones I’ve played) take place in run-down third world environments or subdued industrial environments. I suppose these sorts of worlds are often chosen because it’s relatively easy to believe they would be infested with terrorists or evil mercenaries. But I find all these dark, brownish-grayish worlds to be literally painful to look at for hours on end.
I didn’t realize how much that sort of art direction really affected my gameplay experience until I picked up Ghost Recon 2 in the bargain bin a few years ago. The Ghost Recon series takes place mostly in outdoor areas, as opposed to the usually tight confines of the Rainbow Six series, though both models share the same tactical bent: while not quite one-shot-one-kill anymore, you can never survive more than a few bullets (R6: Lockdown aside). And GR2 takes place largely in wide-open forest areas, making for some tense, exciting, and relatively open-ended gameplay in some of the most beautiful environments at the time (I defy anyone to find better foliage on the original Xbox).
Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter came out for 360 in 2006, and I again picked it up in the bargain bin. I was glad I did, since I didn’t like it all that much. To me, swapping lush forests for cramped, monotone (brown) city streets made the gameplay lose a lot of its luster.
And I had the exact same feeling in reverse when I got R6V as a gift recently (got to love the bargain bin). The first level takes place in a small Mexican slum (that in and of itself was sort of annoying—way to be original, Ubisoft). I thought it was ugly, and though the gameplay was fun, it didn’t blow me away. I only stuck with it (I’m the sort of leadheaded player that dies a lot in TC games) since I saw the glittering city of Las Vegas shining on the horizon.
The Las Vegas environment is the antithesis of everything I’ve seen in TC games prior. Colorful lights, shiny cars, flashy casinos abandoned only due to the threat of death, and offices straight out of F.E.A.R. minus the fear. And the same passable gameplay from the first level suddenly became a whole lot more exciting and addicting. I’m not done with the game yet, but unlike GRAW, I’m not just finishing for the sake of finishing—this game is really fun.
Clearly, the popularity of the Rainbow Six franchise before Vegas shows that I’m not with the majority on this. But to me, these games illustrate how important graphics really are to gameplay. I’m not talking about technical proficiency or horsepower; I’m talking about creating virtual worlds that the player wants to be a part of. Serious modern games are all about immersion, and immersion comes from the player both believing that the world in front of them is real and desiring to be a part of that world to the point that they’re willing to suspend their disbelief in order to get lost in the fun of the game. And it takes compelling visuals make that happen.
Most Rainbow Six fans would probably say that the core gameplay is what makes the game what it is, and that everything else is just window dressing. I’ll agree with the first part. But if the gameplay is the heart of the experience, the visuals are the soul. No one wants to play games that look particularly bad, and games with a healthy amount of technical and artistic flair turn a good game into a rich, full experience.
No comments:
Post a Comment