[rant title="We don't call them motion picture games for a reason."]

Whoever first said "video games should be more like movies" should be shot. Twice. Right between the eyes.

First of all, NO. There was a time when I agreed with this statement. When I was young and stupid. There are some valid points to the statement of "video games should be like movies". Video games should try to reach a certain level or visual and auditory artistic quality like movies. Video games should try to diversify their subject matter beyond shooting aliens and stealing cars. Video games should have interesting characters and well thought out stories. BUT, I refuse to use the statement "video games should be like movies" because it seems too many people take this quite literally as "video games should not allow the player any real control over what is happening".

Let's take three of gaming's recent "blockbusters": Heavy Rain, Assassin's Creed and Uncharted. These games are heralded as excellent games, with great storytelling and movie quality artistry. But what makes them games? Heavy Rain, Assassin's Creed and Uncharted fall into what I call the Laziness Gap. In the LG sit games that present all the flair and bombast of AAA titles with shovelware gameplay that enables any schmuck to experience a powerful and adventurous story. This sounds like an excellent concept, a perfect way to expand gaming's audience while still providing the high quality work that is expected. But there is a fundamental flaw with this plan. The actual "game" aspect is being diminished.

I wanted to like Heavy Rain so bad. I have always enjoyed Quantic Dream's unconventional game ideas, but their execution in actual game play was always fairly weak. I kept reading about Heavy Rain's revolutionary control scheme that supposedly worked great, and for the most part it does. It is a huge improvement over their previous titles which used color matching games and other crappy, almost childish devices to control the action. But the one thing that games have always allowed us is creativity and entertainment. This is where Heavy Rain falls dangerously short.

The beginning of the game is horrendously slow. You control the main character as he gets out of bed, dons clothes, and prepares for the day with his wife and children. I understand what they're trying to convey, but this is where the "video games as movies" bit really intrudes into the wrong territory. In a movie, yes these scenes do a lot to establish character, tone, and setting. But in a video game, they're just boring, and stupid. As a cutscene (in essence a movie within a video game) it would have been perfect, but to actually play through all of this is just lame. Of course I may have felt differently about the whole situation if I had been given freedom to explore the house, and tend to different tasks at my own pace, but again the game gives no chance for that. Unlike a game like Fallout 3 or Dragon Age: Origins, Heavy Rain has almost nothing to explore beyond the few pre-set events in the game. I was so caged-in by the whole experience.

At one point the character's wife asks him to get some plates out of the cabinet. Just to see her reaction, I decided to ignore her and watch some TV. But there was no cue to turn on the TV when I walked near it. OK so TV's are actually a lot of work for game developers to make so maybe I shouldn't be so selfish. So I decided to try and grab a magazine off the table, no such luck. There was a desk in the corner with things stacked on it, maybe I could learn a little bit more about this guy and his family and read some of the stuff. Nope. Everywhere I went there were only two choices, get the damn dishes or play with the kids. In a game that's trying to present a realistic and cinematic tone, it seems pretty backwards to only allow the player to engage in one of two incredibly stupid activities. In the bedroom a few minutes earlier, I had the option to take a shower, pick out clothes, even brush my teeth, but in the living room I only had two choices. The game delivers freedom but only when it wants you to have that freedom, so it's not really freedom at all. For all the hype and praise surrounding Heavy Rain for it's great story telling and "every action has a consequence" gimmick, it's pulling the same stunts that RPG's did back on the SNES.

Now Uncharted violates this same principle, but in a another way. Uncharted automatically assumes that you, the player, are retarded, that you can make no sound decision on your own. Whereas Heavy Rain gives the players very narrow choices, Uncharted gives none whatsoever. The opening to Uncharted 2 is straight out of an Indiana Jones reboot. Nathan Drake dangles from a wrecked train hanging tediously off of a frozen cliff. At this point you take control of Nathan and must climb back to safety through the train cars. So I decided that the door above me looked like a good place to start. If I could grab the door handle and somehow climb or swing inside of the first car, the next move would be easy. With a single button devoted to all actions, I pressed it, and nothing happened. OK, so I can't get to the door. I guess I can climb along the railing until I can reach a window. Nope. A few shimmies towards the edge of the car and Nathan stops. Then I realize the game wants me to pull myself onto the railing and then stand on it, and then Nathan automatically dives for one of the seats in the car. So now I'm inside the first car, there are rows and rows of seats, I try to jump to another seat. Nathan doesn't budge. I try another. No luck. This continues for a while all the way up the train.

The problem here is that all my choices are made for me. There was no interactivity to the entire scene other than shimmying Nathan a little left or right and hitting a button. I wasn't even a clever puzzle or something, just dumb trial and error. It's like a point and click adventure, with full 3-D models and live orchestral soundtrack. The scene was supposed invoke fear and urgency, but I felt neither, since I knew the game would always lead down a safe path. Is this what people expect games to be? Stupid hoops to jump through so that we can see another train blow up or another enemy die? It's boring, it instills no emotion and degrades the medium.

Assassin's Creed has plenty of freedom and that in itself is a huge plus to the game. Unlike my other examples, AC allows you to go wherever, do whatever, and kill whoever. Awesome. Just one small problem. I don't feel like I'm actually in that moment. AC has the actions for the character mapped out among the four face buttons and two triggers. Each button is responsible for a different part of the character's body movement. This sounds great, since you have complete control of the character at all times, but that is rarely the case. When free-running around the city, the only button you need to use is the Feet button. And there's not even any timing involved, just hold it down, and any obstacle you come in contact with, the character will automatically leap over, or climb onto, or whatever. When passing through crowds of people, you can hold down the Empty Hand button to kindly move people out of your way, or when running, to violently push them out of the way.

There is no skill involved with these buttons, so what is the point of having them at all? If the game is just going to execute these animations automatically with the button held down, then why wouldn't someone use that button? I'm sure there are examples of when you wouldn't use the button, but they are far and few between. Some say the simplified controls allow the player to focus less on gameplay mechanics and more on game strategy, but honestly it's just cheapening the experience. If it's so easy to run away, then why is there any strategy needed?

Maybe we need to come to an understanding here, developers. Not all of us like our games to be stupid. If you feel a section or mechanic of a game is going to be too hard or too difficult for some average schmuck to handle, then make some kind of easy mode for them. A prime example is the original Devil May Cry, which actually simplified the control scheme for players who found the aiming and firing of the guns too difficult. I am sick of games using dumbed down level designs, one-way bullshit corridors for an entire game, and cheesy one-button control schemes that make game boring or too easy for those of us who actually know how to play them. Stop catering to the retarded all the time. Tons of great games feature easy modes that allow inexperienced players a chance to get in on the action without killing the difficulty curve for the rest of us.

Overall, "video games should be like movies" doesn't stand up in practice. Too often we get games that are little more than interactive DVDs. Games should never be like films, because games are supposed to exhibit a degree of freedom and control that movie can never do. Stop stifling the medium with stupid ideals of other media. Let's make our own ideals of what video games should be.

[/rant]