I was looking through screenshots and videos of the new Mario Kart 8 DLC today, getting my socks totally knocked off, when I stopped to think about what it was that was impressing me so much, particularly with the track Ribbon Road. It's got some nice colors and art, sure, and the graphics are impressive, yes, but what truly sets it above and beyond most of the other tracks is that it has an unexpectedly strong sense of place. Check it out:
It's wild! After watching a video of the whole track (click here) I was really taken aback by all of the thoughtful little details placed around. It creates an immensely believable sense of place. Really, quite a few of Mario Kart 8's tracks excel at this (Shy Guy Falls) but Ribbon Road looks like something above and beyond. It reminds of me of that idyllic playroom from Toy Story 3.
Either way, I was amazed that I was so sucked into the settings of a cart racer. Totally unexpected! So it got me thinking about other games that have really impressed me with their sense of place, and why. I'll give two other examples.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (with mods)
This seems like an obvious choice but I'm actually not talking about the main quest or the meat of the gameplay here, but rather the spontaneous and reactive bits of the gameworld.
Long after the hack, slash, loot gameplay got old and I got tired of the bad writing I found a lot of value in Skyrim as a world simulator. I never thought of it that way until I came across as mod called Alternate Start that gives you a bevy of places to start the game without having to deal with being the dragonborn and all of that. I found myself naturally roleplaying as these characters, acting within their limitations and trying to find ways to survive.
I'll describe one example. I played as a pauper alcoholic, an old man, whose only objective was to get drunk. I got a solid few hours of entertainment out of poking at the game world through this character's eyes. I wanted alcohol but I had no money. Clearly I had to either steal alcohol or money. Killing folks wasn't an option as I had no weapons, couldn't pay the fines and would lose in a fight against even common guards, plus my character wasn't out to hurt people, just get fucked up. I pickpocketed for a while before eventually being driven out of town. I managed to make it to the next town after outrunning some hostile wildlife where the cycle began anew. From what I remember I finally had to resort to punching someone in the bar, which escalated into a full on brawl and I had to go on the run into the wilderness only to get killed by a bear or something. It was a while ago.
In short, Skyrim gave me a strong sense of place because I was able to engage with the environment on a much smaller scale than being a god and SAVING THE WORLD. Instead I was just a pickpocket, or a hunter who went out every day looking for hides. It felt more like a real place instead of a generic fantasy killfloor.
L.A. Noire
Yes, I know this is a strange choice so give me a chance to qualify it.
I don't really consider L.A. Noire a good game. It's frustrating, it's repetitive, a lot of the gameplay elements are half baked (the driving) and the story derails in the last third. Still, I have very fond memories of part of my time with the game.
For just a few hours in the middle of the game, after I got to know the characters but before the repetition and frustration set in there was a real sense of believability. Sure, it was an illusion - there really was no interactivity at all in the world of L.A. Noire if you wandered even slightly off of the narrative path - but for just a few hours the illusion totally worked for me. Most of the game was talking to and empathizing with the world rather than shooting at it, and piecing through evidence at a crime scene and seeing hints of the lives of the victims felt distinctly human.
This was further helped by the beautifully rich setting of 1940s Los Angeles and the game's obsessive recreation of the look, sound and feel of that place. The streets, the buildings, the people were all believable. For those few blissful middle hours I really felt like I was a detective in the 40s. It was great.
Then you get further into the game and it becomes obvious how the game works and you see how every case unfolds the same etc etc - the criticism of the game has been done over and over again so I'll keep it out of this post.
So, what creates a sense of place?
First, the term itself. A sense of place. I view it as different than immersion because there are games I consider to be very immersive that didn't have a strong sense of place. Take Amnesia: The Dark Descent, for instance. That game was immersive as hell and really made me aware of my character's mortality ... but I really didn't find the castle it took place in that interesting and it wasn't an interesting setting to either take in or interact with. Gone Home could almost qualify, but it became apparent pretty early on what the limits of their budget were and the house felt more like a game level (or CS:GO map) than, you know, a house.
It's also not just a matter of great art. Super Mario Galaxy 2 has some absolutely stellar art and music and the game, one of my favorites of all time, totally sucked me in. Yet it doesn't bother establishing a sense of place. In fact, it does so even less than the other 3D Marios. Some of the few levels that did (Clockwork Ruins, for instance) were amongst my favorites.
Clearly it's not a particular setting, and things don't need to be realistic - I mean, my examples here are a cart racer, a fantasy game and a detective thriller. I did find some common elements, though:
+Strong art design and graphics. It's easy to see how this is important to creating a strong sense of place.
+Can do more in the world than just shoot at it. Even if you're prescribed just a few methods of interaction by the game I find the sense of place to be much stronger when it's not a backdrop for slaughter. That's why I didn't include BioShock: Infinite - while the first hour or so just oozes atmosphere and almost, almost makes Columbia believable
that sense of place mostly evaporates once you're killing waves of clones.
+Unobtrusive HUD. Nothing like a HUD to get between you and your game. Notice all three examples have minimal HUDs or can have their HUDs turned off. Even MK8 has a wonderfully minimal HUD.
So what games have given you a strong sense of place? And what went into that feeling?
Post explanations! And screenshots, if you can.
It's wild! After watching a video of the whole track (click here) I was really taken aback by all of the thoughtful little details placed around. It creates an immensely believable sense of place. Really, quite a few of Mario Kart 8's tracks excel at this (Shy Guy Falls) but Ribbon Road looks like something above and beyond. It reminds of me of that idyllic playroom from Toy Story 3.
Either way, I was amazed that I was so sucked into the settings of a cart racer. Totally unexpected! So it got me thinking about other games that have really impressed me with their sense of place, and why. I'll give two other examples.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (with mods)
This seems like an obvious choice but I'm actually not talking about the main quest or the meat of the gameplay here, but rather the spontaneous and reactive bits of the gameworld.
Long after the hack, slash, loot gameplay got old and I got tired of the bad writing I found a lot of value in Skyrim as a world simulator. I never thought of it that way until I came across as mod called Alternate Start that gives you a bevy of places to start the game without having to deal with being the dragonborn and all of that. I found myself naturally roleplaying as these characters, acting within their limitations and trying to find ways to survive.
I'll describe one example. I played as a pauper alcoholic, an old man, whose only objective was to get drunk. I got a solid few hours of entertainment out of poking at the game world through this character's eyes. I wanted alcohol but I had no money. Clearly I had to either steal alcohol or money. Killing folks wasn't an option as I had no weapons, couldn't pay the fines and would lose in a fight against even common guards, plus my character wasn't out to hurt people, just get fucked up. I pickpocketed for a while before eventually being driven out of town. I managed to make it to the next town after outrunning some hostile wildlife where the cycle began anew. From what I remember I finally had to resort to punching someone in the bar, which escalated into a full on brawl and I had to go on the run into the wilderness only to get killed by a bear or something. It was a while ago.
In short, Skyrim gave me a strong sense of place because I was able to engage with the environment on a much smaller scale than being a god and SAVING THE WORLD. Instead I was just a pickpocket, or a hunter who went out every day looking for hides. It felt more like a real place instead of a generic fantasy killfloor.
L.A. Noire
Yes, I know this is a strange choice so give me a chance to qualify it.
I don't really consider L.A. Noire a good game. It's frustrating, it's repetitive, a lot of the gameplay elements are half baked (the driving) and the story derails in the last third. Still, I have very fond memories of part of my time with the game.
For just a few hours in the middle of the game, after I got to know the characters but before the repetition and frustration set in there was a real sense of believability. Sure, it was an illusion - there really was no interactivity at all in the world of L.A. Noire if you wandered even slightly off of the narrative path - but for just a few hours the illusion totally worked for me. Most of the game was talking to and empathizing with the world rather than shooting at it, and piecing through evidence at a crime scene and seeing hints of the lives of the victims felt distinctly human.
This was further helped by the beautifully rich setting of 1940s Los Angeles and the game's obsessive recreation of the look, sound and feel of that place. The streets, the buildings, the people were all believable. For those few blissful middle hours I really felt like I was a detective in the 40s. It was great.
Then you get further into the game and it becomes obvious how the game works and you see how every case unfolds the same etc etc - the criticism of the game has been done over and over again so I'll keep it out of this post.
So, what creates a sense of place?
First, the term itself. A sense of place. I view it as different than immersion because there are games I consider to be very immersive that didn't have a strong sense of place. Take Amnesia: The Dark Descent, for instance. That game was immersive as hell and really made me aware of my character's mortality ... but I really didn't find the castle it took place in that interesting and it wasn't an interesting setting to either take in or interact with. Gone Home could almost qualify, but it became apparent pretty early on what the limits of their budget were and the house felt more like a game level (or CS:GO map) than, you know, a house.
It's also not just a matter of great art. Super Mario Galaxy 2 has some absolutely stellar art and music and the game, one of my favorites of all time, totally sucked me in. Yet it doesn't bother establishing a sense of place. In fact, it does so even less than the other 3D Marios. Some of the few levels that did (Clockwork Ruins, for instance) were amongst my favorites.
Clearly it's not a particular setting, and things don't need to be realistic - I mean, my examples here are a cart racer, a fantasy game and a detective thriller. I did find some common elements, though:
+Strong art design and graphics. It's easy to see how this is important to creating a strong sense of place.
+Can do more in the world than just shoot at it. Even if you're prescribed just a few methods of interaction by the game I find the sense of place to be much stronger when it's not a backdrop for slaughter. That's why I didn't include BioShock: Infinite - while the first hour or so just oozes atmosphere and almost, almost makes Columbia believable
(maybe if the people weren't so wooden...)
+Unobtrusive HUD. Nothing like a HUD to get between you and your game. Notice all three examples have minimal HUDs or can have their HUDs turned off. Even MK8 has a wonderfully minimal HUD.
So what games have given you a strong sense of place? And what went into that feeling?
Post explanations! And screenshots, if you can.
