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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