Unreal! NEVER ever ever!

[Afflict]

I just kinda wanted to find out what you guys would like to see in an adventure game that "has never been done"
or seems to "UNREAL" ? this should be a intresting topic...

I would like the "subject or idea" and a reason why it wont or couldnt...

[Stickieee]

A plot.


No, really, a plot. Not just get-out-of-a-room thing, but something I could mistake for a movie. A hollywood movie. A twist! Antagonists, a real protagonist that develops in the game.

Try that, that's surely something unheard of.

[Peter Thomas]

I was gonna say exactly the same thing as Stick...

The closest I've come to it was in Myst III, with Saavedro, or however you spell it. It was great to see him as this evil character, and then to learn that after what he'd been through, you sort of feel sorry for him, and understand what he's doing.

But I've still never played a game where I've finished it and thought "wow! that was like playing a movie!", which is an experience I would love to have, and I know it could be done, if the game developers just put a little more effort into things. I'm bloody sick of all these FPS that are "revolutionary" and they're not at all...

[BerserkerTails]

The first (And one of the only) games I've played that has had a plot very Movie-like was the original Metal Gear Solid. I remember when I first played that game, I was amazed at it's cinematic qualities.

[Pizzaman]

I always thought games like Indiana Jones and the Fate of Atlantis had a pretty decent plot. 

The game I am producing is going to be concentrated on plot and character.  Of course many elements i am borrowing from other movies, like Gladiator and Last of the Samurai, but still...

Oh ya, I would like to see in an adventure game, intense timed scenarios. 

-Pizzaman

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

DOesn't "The Longest Journey" have such a plot? ANd the Gabriel Knight series? And The X-Files (all other crapiness excluded)? And Blade Runner? And Black Dahlia?

[Afflict]

Well I also crave decent storys and plots cause the crappy
commercial games all suck nice graphics ok sound the
controls are redefined... smooth ride man like a nice lambo..
with no engine! what iam saying is the heart of the very
beast is gone and all the effort is lost in never ever unreal
land. So yes hollywood movies are good and some great!
And all the very thing that can turn a great adventure into
a Prodigy of the genre is always set aside as low priority
and then I get into my lambo and crank up the nice sound
sit in the soft relaxing seat and ... damn the battery is flat.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

...wow. Literary David Lynch. As in, I don't get that at all. Could you try and be clearer?

[Renal Shutdown]

It's not really like a Lambo in need of a jump start. It's more like having a bitchin' car, but with no where to drive to.

[DCillusion]

Whaaaa? Movies? :o

They tried that in the 90's & I don't know how old a lot of people are on this site, but...it sucked....HARD.

Games can have plots, but they have to be game plots.  Movies plots are How did this affect him/her & This happened & this happened - What Now.

Game plots should be about constant discovery and personal interpretation.  That's the tough part; people have personality, the world acts how it acts, & something happens - GO!!  Fitting a plot into that can be daunting. 

That's why adventure games fell out of favour with companies to begin with.  A great action game like Max Payne or Metal Gear can have their plots in an, almost, interstitial format between actual gameplay, but an adventure game has to weave plot & gameplay together.

[Afflict]

Thats intresting please list the games that where movie related and failed , DCillusion
Just want to try and avoid the pot holes in my lambo.. oh btw Iqu it doesnt have an
engine so I wasnt going anywhere, and now its got a flat battery too!
Ive come up with awesome game technology that could change the face of gaming!
I do this when I get bored or see somethings not working.. I designed a system about
a year ago.. rockstar has designed a simmiler one which they employed into GTA SA

Rui, I was just saying that just because people like things that look nice and shiny
thats all developers do. They have nice graphics good sound and lousy gameplay!
No plot or sotry what so ever and the players are left wanting like they where
robbed from their hard earnings they spent on this over developed MOD of
QAUKE;DOOM;HALF LIFE! and this just doesnt apply to the 3d Shotter genre but
too all of them!So here ill explain;

• The shiny lambo and all its bells and whistles, represent the nice graphics and sound.
  
• The nice sound system the good music and sfx.
  
• The awesome steering mechnism the games controls and playability
  
• The engine "the heart of the beast" The story / the plot... MIA
  
• the battery representing the player that can only take so much
       without the engine there to recharge it.
  
  So its all good having a really awesome car but if it aint going anywhere
  no one will want it for long cause you can only enjoy it until your battery runs out!
  
  WARNING
  this mite not make sense to all of you and yeah ok I compared games to cars, Bite me!
  just kidding!

[DCillusion]

Games that were movie related - Daedalus Encounter, City of Lost Children, & Phantasmagoria 2 are the best examples I can think of.  People could argue Phantasmagoria 1 sold relatively well, but when Sierra was at their height, they hyped the game to death.  When 2 came out with a more "cinematic" plot, as well as much improved acting & graphics - nobody cared; leading me to believe sales were all HYPE.

Most movies, the ones with plots anyway, are dependant on the character presenting an exact action to further the plot.  In games, this is done by having a cinema, usually a L-O-N-G one, where the everything right happens to continue.

In a movie this is fine.  You're just sitting there the whole time.  In a game, this is suicide.  It's like waiting in line at a carnival.  The ride,(game), is AWESOME, but while you're waiting in line,(cinema), your mind wanders.  "Is the electric bill due?" "When do I pick up the kids?" etc.  Checking game reviews, there are a fair number of people who complain about waiting for a "talking" description of an action as opposed to text.

The 70 million-dollar game Shenmue is, perhaps, the greatest effort in history to create a "movie-plot" game.  It featured the ABSOLUTE highest amount of gameplay & the lowest amount of cinematic "pauses".   The game even altered its interface throughout to extend play even further.  It failed MISERABLY. 

I think Gabriel Knight 1 is the closest thing to a movie plot a game should ever come.  Even so, there was constant discovery of events & the player "pieced" the plot together by themselves.  The actual "Plot" was absent from the game.  Instead "Clues" were scattered throughout the adventure for players to find.

[DCillusion]

I think it would be only fair if I actually answered your post, (intead of replying to replies).

I would like to see a game where the gameplay "evolved" as the game progressed.  We relate everything to movies as a reference point.  A movie is all story, if it's bad, it's because of bad plot.  A game is mostly play value.  We should look at games that have remained "timeless".

- Monopoly, it begins as a game of chance.  The luckiest person gets the most "quick" money.  Then is changes to a race to collect the most well-placed properties & land development.  Finally, it shifts again to bankrupting the other character.

- Chess, right from the start, there are multiple ways to play.  You can "plow" through enemy defenses, you can sneak behind enemy lines to take the king, you can set up defenses.  It literally never ends.

I think a game should start with an experience you want the player to feel & move backwards, ending with how you play.  Most developers start with how you play, & design conflicts based on gameplay,

Example: (You can jump - problem, getting really high) (you can shoot - problem, lots 'o monsters)
It's the second example that makes people SO sick of Doom & Unreal.  You can shoot....that's it? Really?

Great examples of game-understanding are: Resident Evil 1 (it's scary - how do we present these feelings to the player), & Tenchu (Ninjas - you're sneaky, how do we present this? You can't just slam into EVERY conflict head-on.....)

Sadly, instead of inspiring others to work this way, these games merely created new genres for others to copy.  The creator of Resident Evil 1 was actually fired from Capcom after refusing to "rehash" his game in a sequel.