I apologize for the awful art, above. I was tired and wanted to publish this article but my mind was fuzzled after so much writing and I could not make a proper piece of art. So yeah... sorry...My preference for video games over the last few years had always been First Person-Shooters. In fact, ever since I played Call Of Duty 3 on the Xbox 360 I had fallen in love with the genre. However after Call Of Duty took (in my opinion anyway) a turn for the worse in 2010 when Activision released Black Ops, I began losing interest in the series on a whole. I still hold previous entries into the franchise very close to my heart and some of my best gaming memories are of playing World at War and Call Of Duty 2: Big Red One of the PS2; however after the series became far more arcadey and lacking in any sort of innovation, I drifted away from it.
I tried Battlefield too, however while there was nothing wrong with Bad Company 2 or BF3, I was simply not getting the satisfaction from playing FPS games anymore. I still love First Person-Shooters and I am constantly on the look out for gems like Bioshock Infinite, Far Cry 3, Metro 2033 and a ton of others, however when it comes to generic war shooters like CoD and BF; I'm just not into them that much anymore.
Unfortunately awesome FPS games are released every blue moon, and not ever month. After I stopped playing CoD and BF online I began searching for a new game series I could consistently play. I found FIFA, however the series has been going downhill since FIFA 11 and I'm starting to get bored with that too.
Over the last year and a half I've been experimenting. When I ran my old game website Classic Gamer, I reviewed a good few games and I loved it, however at the end of the day I would always go back to playing CoD online or something. When I finish playing and reviewing a game now, what do I go back too? Most of the time I simply revert to playing FIFA however I do not anywhere near play it as consistently as I did Call Of Duty and most of the time I find myself searching online for some new games to play.
There are 3 things I look for in a game:
- Story
- Gameplay
- Enjoyment
The last one may seem fairly obvious, however even if a game has both of the first two requirements, if I do not enjoy it there is simply no point to me playing it.
Due to me having no game that I could constantly fall back on and play whenever I was not wrapped up in a new game, I decided to try out some ones I may not have given a shot before. I still haven't found 1 or 2 particular games I can rely on to play online, or something, all the time, however I have found a genre filled with hidden gems. Games that you can lose yourself in for days, weeks even - maybe even months. These aren't games with 6 hours campaigns that you then play online. These are epic RPGs. Games that are all about the story, the enjoyment, the gameplay, the epicness and generally just the constant involvement.
Last year I began playing Skyrim. Late, I know, but I was never a big RPG fan before so I didn't feel the need - or want - to play Skyrim the moment it was released. I borrowed it off of a friend actually and it is without doubt the longest I have ever 'borrowed' a game for and the longest I have ever actually played and used a borrowed game.
The reason I always avoided RPGs was because they intimidated me. They were big, expansive, often, or at least seemingly, confusing games that looked difficult as hell. While some RPGs are like this, Skyrim wasn't.
It took a few hours to get into the swing of it, however after I got going I couldn't stop. I have never been so addicted to a game. I literally got up in the morning and tried to put off playing it for as long as possible before caving in and finally starting it up again and continuing where I left off. When I was playing it, I was in constant ecstasy; bliss. It was like being on heroin. I couldn't stop playing it because if I did, all that would happen is I would crave my next fix constantly. I needed to play it to be happy.
I know hardcore RPG fans are gonna go ahead and be like 'But Skyrim isn't even a proper RPG, it's more like an action-adventure game and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah...' and all that nonsense. Sure it wasn't as hardcore as other Elder Scrolls games. Yes it needed more dialog choices and meaningful choices in general. Yes there are other RPGs out there that excel in both those areas far more than Skyrim does. But you know what Skyrim DOES do?
Well first of all it has the most brilliantly realised and in depth RPG game world I've ever been in. Everything about it was outstanding. The towns, the people, the creatures, the places, the cliffs, the sights to see; all of it. What's more the amount of places to explore is incredible. I'd be on my way to a destination and come across a dungeon or some place that could be explored and completed. I needed to get to my destination yet I could not resist going into this other place simply to explore and see what I could see. At the end of it I would come out borderline over encumbered and have to fast travel all the way back to another village so I could sell all of my goods. Then I could make my way to my original objective.
Second of all it has a sensational amount of possibilities. Become a werewolf, a vampire, a monster slayer, a thief a this a that and another this or that. You can learn more about magic or weapons and armor if you want. This is YOUR game, YOUR life; you do with it what you want with it. You don't even have to complete the main story.
Third of all it has the best stealing and looting system of any game I've played. No other RPG makes stealing and looting as enjoyable as it is in Skyrim. When I was thieving I felt like a total badass, like a real thief. When I broke into a locked chest I could not wait to see what was inside. No other game made me actually excited every single time there was a chance to loot. You never knew what you would find. An incredible staff of amazing power? An awesome mega enchanted axe? Some sort of mysterious potion? The options are endless. Looting is honestly one of my favorite parts of the game.
Fourthly, while other games like The Witcher 2 did have awesome side quests, Skyrim had so many, all interesting an fun to do, that it really isn't beaten by any other game here. I had only completed 5% of the main story line by the time I had accumulated about a billion side quests to do. While this may drive people with OCD mad, I loved it. Although I did find it overwhelming at times, it without doubt has some of the most consistently interesting and awesome side quests and stories of any game. Especially where guilds are concerned.
The fifth thing that makes Skyrim so downright incredible is the balance. The balance between difficulty and enjoyment, depth and confusion and ease of use, the entire game is sensationally well balanced. The combat may not be the ultimate best and you won't die like you do in Dark Souls, but the balance between how hard the game is and how fun it is is almost perfect. The varied weapons and the enchantments and magic you can use constantly keep it varied and fun. The depth of the features like armor and item making as well as enchanting is there, however it isn't ever confusing or hard to follow.
The game may not be the most hardcore RPG ever made, however it balances everything in an almost perfect way, and the world it creates is so well realised and vast, expansive and mysterious it will draw you in and never let you go. I've never spent so long with an RPG. I'd played for way over 60 hours before I'd even reached a twentieth of the way into the main plot, and I wasn't missing out on anything one bit. Not continuing with the main story does not hold you back; you are constantly free to do what you wish with the time you spend in the game.
It's one of the few games, if not the only game, that I can actually look back at and recall my life in it. I remember playing it in real life, sure, but I also remember different parts of the game and things that happened within the it with my character; I remember going from weak and rubbish fighter to ultimate badass warrior; I remember the time when I became a werewolf, when I was ambushed by skeletons, when I went underground and battled undead creature, killed my first dragon, completed this side quest, that side quest; I remember everything. The game implants its very own memories inside your mind. When you play Skyrim you have a life within the game. It's a phenomenal experience.After I played Skyrim iI moved onto The Witcher 2, a game I have recently started replaying. I was really, really excited for TW2 and when I finally played it I was not disappointed.
I had enjoyed Skyrim for months and I was worried my next RPG outing, or fix if you like, would not compare. Fortunately I realised that most RPGs - even the ones that are not of the highest quality - are almost always their own game.
Dragons Dogma, although far from perfect, offers its own unique RPG experience, as does the likes of Kingdoms Of Amalur Reckoning. This is part of what makes the RPG genre so damn awesome.
A lot of my interest in FPS games was lost because they became, on the whole, boring. If the genre were to get revived I would love it once again, however only unique games like Bioshock, Metro and Far Cry 3 are really interesting to me these days. They're gems really. However they are rare gems. I don't want you to think that I no longer enjoy FPS games, it is simply that there isn't anything in the FPS genre to actually enjoy. Not most of the time anyway.
The RPG genre is never dull. Almost all of the game entries it receives are unique and awesome in their own way. The Witcher 2 wasn't as amazing as Skyrim (in truth, no game can recreate the awesome memories I have of playing it) however it was absolutely stunning.
The first thing about it I noticed was the difficulty. It is a hard game and I had to start it on easy just to get a feel for it. However, and this is a feature ALL game should include, I was able to change the difficulty to medium and then hard the more I played it in the options menu. The thing I absolutely love about The Witcher 2 is its story, characters, gameplay and the intense world it creates. Skyrim's biggest fault was its lack of interesting main story line. I never felt that taken in by it, and the lack of a talking main character didn't help this. In fact side stories like the Thieves' Guild were more interesting.The Witcher 2 drew me in with its mature and confusing political tale. The characters were well realised, likeable and some of the best in an RPG if I'm honest. The world was dark and intense and is probably one of the few RPG settings that actually felt properly connected and always aware. The game never treated you like a child. Every aspect of the it that you look at is mature and implemented almost perfectly.
The gameplay was hard, but remains one of my favorite aspects of the game. The sword-play felt meaty and dangerous. Battles were intense, especially when playing on harder difficulties. Most of all though; it was FUN. I never felt bored or annoyed by it and how hard it was.
It never told you where to go either. The map system was meh and you were often left to your own devices when it came to finding your way around or even navigating the inventory system. However given that the game lasted at least 35 hours (way more if you do more quests and explore), there was plenty of time to work all of the hard stuff out.
I want to talk more about difficulty though, and how essential it is to RPGs in particular. However to properly do this we have to talk about a different game. The infamously hard Dark Souls.
After I finished The Witcher 2 I went a bit dead on the RPG front. I played Catherine, which I was blown away by and remains one of my favorite games of this generation. Then I played Far Cry 3, which is actually worth mentioning more on.FC3 implemented its own RPG like features, although it never really committed to being a full on Role-Playing experience. However it was my game of the year 2012 and the fact it was so open and did include some of those RPG features is partly what I loved so much about it. If it had been more scripted and less free I certainly would have liked it less.
In fact, the less scripted nature of first person games like FC3, Bioshock Infinite, Metro 2033, Dishonoured etc. is what makes me love them so much. Sure I loved CoD, and I still adore the older Call of Duty games, however since playing more free-form FPS games like the ones I just listed made me realize just how scripted and bland war shooters can be. Yes I do like scripted games like Gears Of War and Uncharted and Halo, however unlike CoD or Battlefield, these also succeed in being unique, and either story driven or offering some of the best combat gameplay around. They're just, well, not bland or genric.
Before and after Far Cry 3 was released, wave after wave of new games were released as well and I wasn't able to spend much time playing other titles that I wanted to. Because the time in between game release was so short (especially in March this year) I resorted to playing FIFA most of the time (which did NOT do much to help my stress levels. Just sayin') in-between game releases.
After the wave of games ended, however, and I had re-played Bioshock Infinite at least 3 times and stopped obsessing over it, I took a look at the next game release I was anticipating (Metro: Last Light, which is released in May) and then decided to purchase some games I wanted to play to keep me going until then. Two of these games were Dark Souls and Deadly Premonition. I have not yet played the latter, however when I do I will be doing an article on it.
I really wanted to play Dark Souls because it looked so unique. Sure it was hard, but it wasn't just a 'hard' game. The difficulty seemed to fit the setting and story. It seemed like the type of game that when you finish it you will feel like you have been on a massive, memorable and generally incredible journey.Well I haven't finished it, but I can already tell you it is amazing. If it stays as good throughout the entire game as it is at the moment then it could easily be one my favorite games of this gen.
The thing I absolutely adore about DS is it is simple, yet extremely deep. The setting is dull and bleak; dangerous and yet stunning. The characters you meet are either dead, dying, insane, creepy or (rarely) friendly.
The story is basic and not properly explained yet it doesn't need to be. Your character is silent, but he should be. It actually fits in this game that the main character doesn't speak. He doesn't need to. Words need to be used only occasionally.
The beauty of the journey is that it is hard, maybe even impossible for some gamers, however you are driven on by your constant desire to complete the quest, see it through till the end, see what you face next and conquer it. You're alone. All by yourself. No human NPCs are with you. But they don't need to be. You have something far better, far more useful and comforting. You have other real life players helping you, guiding you, with you. As you go through game you will see the outline of other real life players of the game who were where you were as well. You will see them running about, sometimes fighting or climbing ladders. You can touch bloodstains to replay the death of another person who was in your position too. But, most of all, you can read messages left by other adventurers. Messages informing you that enemies lie in wait, or that you need to run, or wishing you luck, or maybe giving you advice on how to kill an upcoming boss.
When you purchase the required item you too can leave notes behind and rate other peoples ones. It gives you this ultimate feelin of togetherness that, even though if the game is being played way after its release, sticks with you. Sure the people who left these messages already finished (or gave up on) the game, but their own experience is carved into it and they are always there, helping you. You're all in it together.
None of this would be necessary if the game wasn't so hard and this is what makes Dark Souls one of the best RPGs I've ever played.
DS made me realize something. Difficulty is KEY. If an RPG isn't hard or doesn't offer a challenge then you are going to blast through it, get bored and not remember it as an epic adventure all because it didn't pose a challenge. Just like in The Witcher 2 (although on a more extreme level here) every time I died in Dark Souls I didn't get mad. I never got angry. No matter how many times I was sent back to the last campfire I'd rested at only to have to face all the enemies I had just killed again only to, likely, die, again, I never, not once, got mad or even swore at the game.
When I passed through an area, when I defeated a big bad guy or a boss, when I completed something, when I reached the next campfire, when that message popped up on my screen saying 'YOU DEFEATED' I felt epic. I felt good. I felt happy. I felt like I had just gone on an adventure. And you know what? I. Had. Prevailed. It was hard. Me and my main character guy; we died a hell of a lot. We struggled. We shook our head at times. We tried and we tried and we tried again. And. We. Did. It.
Some games can be hard as hell and suck balls, but when an RPG or Far Cry 3 or Bisohock does it, it is good. At the end of it all you look back and you remember how hard and epic it was. It makes you really appreciate and remember the game for days to come.Difficulty, whether in Dark Souls, The Witcher or Bioshock, is essential. Games like Gears of War or Uncharted or Call Of Duty don't, for me at least, need to be incredibly hard because they are too scripted; at the end of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, after completing it on veteran, I didn't even feel remotely how I did after defeating the first boss on Dark Souls. Admittedly some games are built for difficulty, and some games aren't. Games that are epic journeys, like DS, like The Witcher and like Catherine, they need to be hard.
When I finished Catherine, despite feeling depressed as hell, I felt really fulfilled. In fact, if it weren't for the excruciatingly hard difficulty, I wouldn't have loved it as much. I dreaded leaving that Cafe and going into those nightmares, but I loved every damn second of it. I loved how hard it was. I loved that I died over and over tying to get to the top of the tower so I could see what the next questions were and then continue the story. Actually, and this is pretty irrelevant, but the soundtrack in Catherine was perfect to the point where the actual levels themselves wouldn't have been as good if it weren't for the music that played during them.
Anyway; I'll just say this: not every game NEEDS to be hard as hell, but some games, especially RPGs, NEED to be hard. If they're not you will struggle to really enjoy it or remember it like you would have done had it offered more of a challenge.
Going back to Dark Souls and what is so amazing about it; the thing that completes DS utter brilliance is the fact it is all game. It is all about the gameplay. It's all about being, first and foremost; a game. No constant, flashy, cutscenes. No story or character focus. No trying to be a movie. It's just you and the game and the world it exists in. You and your amour. You and your sword. You and the enemy. You and this epic journey. The game felt like an old arcade game. It's like Bubble Bobble. Forget an in-depth story for a second, forget flashy visuals: in Bubble Bobble it's just you and the game. And it's the same in DS. It forgets all else and is simply a game.
Unlike before when I would simply have put CoD or FIFA in the disc tray when I was bored or had completed a game; these days when I finish a title I sometimes replay some in my collection and wait until the next release or I look up games to play, particularly RPGs. There's something about Role-Playing Games that I have come to love over the past year. They're rarely boring. They're rarely bland. They're almost always interesting. They're almost always fun. And most of all: you can almost always spend absolutely hours playing them. Just what I need to see me through until Metro: Last Light is released. They're the heroin of video games.Prepare To Die? More like: Prepare To Have No Life For The Next 4 Weeks.
