Leveling Down

Mass Effect 2 – an RPG with a shooter soul, or the other way around?

We live in an interesting time for games. In the not too distant past, gaming genres were clearly delineated: you’d play Doom to get your first-person shooting on, Starcraft to focus on real-time strategy, platformers like Super Mario Brothers 3 for throw your controller out the window experiences, and the turn based Final Fantasy role playing series for some heavy stories and to prove that “video games can make grown men cry”. But then, a funny thing happened on the way to the 21st century…

In the present gaming world, formerly clear cut lines delineating genres have begun to blur, and overall this has resulted in deeper, more enjoyable experiences for gamers. Take Modern Warfare 2, for example. With the amount of customization available to an individual player in multiplayer, people have compared the game to a role playing game, or even a MMO. This has served to make the game incredibly addictive and enjoyable: you keep fighting to ding that next level (and gain a corresponding “loot” drop). Moreover, since there are so many customization options, you find players of different “classes” forming squads in an effort to dominate their opponents.

Meanwhile, role-playing games have edged in the other direction. Mass Effect 2 is essentially a 3rd-person shooter whose role playing is focused in the dialogue and story choices a player makes. The Final Fantasy series has moved away from turn-based comment and has its battles in real time. The biggest series to remain true to traditional RPG trappings is DragonQuest, which is so old school that its ninth iteration was a Nintendo DS exclusive. Even platformers have had their share of genre-bleed (see: Henry Hatsworth and the Puzzling Adventure).

It’s pretty awesome that this evolution in gaming has occurred. It has provided gaming experiences that couldn’t be accomplished when developers stayed locked in to one game type. What does that mean for the future? I think tried and true franchises will continue to survive if they don’t keep up with the “evolution”. But gradually, even the big guns might get left by the wayside. Take the Halo series as an example. When ODST came up, sure, it was on a short development cycle, but I’m sure Bungie was hoping that it would reinvigorate the Halo multiplayer community again, and to some extent it did. But if Bungie doesn’t design some sort of leveling system akin to Modern Warfare 2 in Halo: Reach, I don’t know if I’ll still be interested.

That’s what I love about video games: developers are forced to “out-innovate” each other, and I’m sure we’ll see other great leaps forward in gaming evolution soon. And since we, the consumers, determine the weakest link, I’m confident that this will lead to the survival of the fittest game innovations. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have some more action-game-with-classes-and-dialogue to play.

Be Sociable, Share!

•