Monday, 20 May 2013

A Few Games that Turn Their Genres On Their Heads.


In my previous posts I have mentioned that there are certain things I look for when buying a game: story, innovation and gameplay. More often than not it has been the story which I’ve looked forward to experiencing. Well today I’d like to look more at the second point in that list, innovation, by analysing some games which take their genres and twist and shape them until they are a different animal entirely.
One such game is Fez which, at first glance looks like your traditional puzzle based side-scroller. It really isn’t. It becomes apparent very quickly that Fez is a three dimensional game set in a two dimensional world. When faced with an impassable obstacle you simply rotate the world along its X axis and you see the same area from a different point of view. Often the obstacle becomes a platform or bridge to help you pass it. It’s a game that is hard to describe in writing (so I’ll include a link to a video here) but one I definitely urge everyone who is a fan of side-scrollers to play.


A genre which is constantly receiving innovation is the racing game. Sure the basic principals tend to be the same, don’t crash, maintain the racing line and try to come first but some clever so-and-so didn’t think that was enough, so they added inhabiting the bodies of other drivers. Yes I’m talking about Driver: San Francisco, the fourth instalment in the Driver series. In the game, John Tanner, the main protagonist throughout all the Driver games (which is a bit weird right? I mean Driver doesn’t say exactly when it’s set but it feels very late seventies, so if we’re assuming that Tanner is, I dunno, twenty in Driver, that would mean that Driver: San Francisco, which, judging by the car designs is set in the modern day, makes Tanner at least 50…hmm, seems he ages well. Sorry, so as I was saying) is rendered unconscious by a car accident. The rest of the game take place in his head where he believes he is awake and has developed the superhuman powers to, among other things, boost his car up to insane speeds and inhabit the bodies of other drivers to assist him. If you haven’t played the game I know it sounds really weird and is probably a bit of a turn off. But trust me when I say that it is truly a fantastic reimagining of the racing genre.


The final game I want to talk about is a game that slipped under most people’s radar (including mine). The genre? Tower Defence. The game? Sanctum. So how can you flip the tower defence genre? By turning it into a first person shooter. Each level of sanctum featured two stages, the first had you building your traditional tower defence level, playing walls and turrets to aid you and funnel your enemies so they follow a specific path. The latter stage released the hordes and as well as these creepy little aliens following a path they would also act aggressively towards the player. So if an enemy was too tough for a turret you could finish them off, however when you approached, the pre-set path took a back seat and that enemy would come after you.
This game in 2013 received a sequel and is available to download from steam and various console marketplaces.


So there are just a few games that turn their genres on their heads. As I mentioned I don’t usually focus on innovation as much as storyline and it’s for this reason I feel these games deserved a mention. It makes a change from the same game being pushed out every year with what is essentially a new coat of paint, and while these games may contain great stories they tend not to exceed our expectations of how the overall experience of a game will pan out. They are the boy bands of the gaming world, and yes, boy bands are great, they maintain the status quo and observe our predictable tendencies, however, occasionally you need a good progressive electro metal trance beat poetry comedy act to break up the monotony of that world (is it just me or did I basically describe Enter Shikari just then?).

I’ll see you on the flip side (see what I did there?).

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