Video Games

Thought I may as well talk about why I reckon Video Games are an art form. Now I don't know much about what makes art and what doesn't, I'm not a professional critic so what I write will probably seem a bit dumb yet sound like an attempt to be really pretentious. I dunno I'll give it a go anyway.

I think I'll start off by giving an example to look at. This game is one of my favourites and one of the levels has given me my greatest gaming moment. I'm going to look at journey

Ok well the first thing I noticed about Journey is the stunning visual style, it looks amazing. Just like with paintings, statues and film etc. there are many types of visual styles in games that can be presented with each one provoking a variety of emotional responses. Journey has a simple yet striking style and since the colours of each environment desert, "underwater" and snow, changes so drastically it really does provide quite an impact. Even the individual levels within each environment have a startling difference in colour schemes. It's a perfect example of why you need a big 1080p HD TV

The warm colours of the desert

The dark blue of the cave that gives a sense of being underwater

The pale white harshness of the snowy mountain

Next we have the music, which is wonderfully calm. It often provides a real sense of peaceful exploration, but it also has moments of tension and sadness as well. I advise you to by the soundtrack, it is absolutely brilliant. Music is really important when it comes to video games, but so is the sound design as well. An example of this would be the loud gunfire in Black, making each shot feel like you're sending the wrath of God into the enemy. Bastion has an excellent narrator that comments on what the character is doing in a fantastic wise old cowboy voice.

Black

Bastion 

Now the aspect that makes Video Games unique: the gameplay. One of the best things about Journey is it's simple gameplay, it's just walk and glide. Your character's scarf contains energy/spirit/power/whatever, that seems to be the source of you being able to glide, the energy runs out but can be restored by touching cloth objects within the levels. You can also collect symbols that not only replenish your scarf but also make it longer, meaning that you'll be able to glide for a longer amount of time. Once you've collected all the glowing symbols you have the option of becoming a white cloak, where your scarf regenerates every time you're touching the ground.

Ok I guess the next thing to talk about would be the narrative and with Journey just like with all it's other aspects it's fairly simple. Yet an important thing to note about it is it's ambiguity, it only presents the backstory through mosaics and cutscenes that have no text or dialogue. However the main narrative is of course the Journey itself, the path that you take throughout the game. It really does present the importance of an emotional journey, not having to worry about specifics in more complicated storylines that may dilute the experience. One of the main aspects about journey that can't really be shared in any other art is the co-op. thatgamecompany had the ingenious decision to have the player unable to communicate to the other player except through shouting. Well perhaps it would be better to say singing a single note. Also every person looks the same, there's no real individual difference between you and your partner (well I suppose the white cloaks and red cloaks look different but I don't think it makes much of a change). This means the co-operative gameplay transcends social and cultural boundaries including race, gender and the like. Depending on who you're with you could form an emotional bond with them, making each individual Journey unique. It really can be quite a sad experience finishing the game and having to part ways. I've even had messages sent to my PSN account from other players thanking me for Journeying with them (who you've been journeying with only appears in the credits at the very end).

Another important thing about Journey is not just the individual aspects (visuals, sound, gameplay and narrative) but how they work together and it really is a triumph in this department. The visuals by themselves are great but the fact that you can sore and explore through these beautiful environments, well it's practically impossible to describe the feeling you get. When looking on wikipedia it mentioned a reviewer that said "each moment is like a painting, expertly framed and lit" I could not agree with this more, the reviewer is not exaggerating. To make it even more engaging, the music matches what the player is doing at the time, whether they're soaring across a bridge, gliding across a desert, sliding down a long hill of sand. These changes of music are seamless with one another, one piece doesn't just stop and another one immediately starts they gradually fade to the other one. This helps in keeping the constant stream of emotions more natural, I guess that's the right way to put it I dunno.

Damn I just looked back at what I wrote so far and what I've done is basically just a review on Journey and why I like it. I haven't really talked properly about how each of the aspects I've mentioned apply to Video gaming as a whole...oh cock. Well the main reason I chose Journey to look at is that I feel it strips gaming down to its bare bones showing how important each of the aspects can be providing a creative emotional experience. Every game has it's own artistic flair which can be dissected and if done so it can really show the artistic variety present in video games (do you mind if I use 'artistic' twice in the same sentence?).  The realistic visual style of the COD games (Which I'm not a fan of by the way) gives a sense of being in an urban warzone. The cartoony style of Team Fortress 2 reflects the silly fun of multiplayer.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (I think)

Team Fortress 2

Metal Gear Solid has music that seems to constantly provide tension when playing, a complete contrast to Journey's soothing sounds. In fact the Metal Gear games can be a good example to compare Journey with as their aspects really do contrast with Journey but still present a fantastic artistic vision. The gameplay for instance having to sneak around without getting seen is immensly tense, completely at the other end of the scale when compared to Journey. That's not a scale of artistic value by the way, more like a scale of what emotions you feel during the game.

 

5:40 onwards, hear the how music helps bring tension

to the stealthy gameplay, a perfect combination

 

The music here is more peaceful and less claustrophobic

than MGS2, it gives a sort of psychedelic sense of exploration

Also note the seamless change of music at 07:55

                 
Well that's all I have to say for the moment, I should reread what I've wrote again looking for spelling and grammar errors but I can't be arsed to do that now

My favourite moment in gaming

My blog Posts about Video Gaming:

Visual Novels - Katawa Shoujo
PC vs Consoles
Motion controllers and motion sensing
Heavy Rain and QTEs