Video games in media (Purpose expanded)

I will start by breaking down the categories I touched upon in my purpose and provide examples to hopefully better explain what I mean.


There are several categories that the elements of games can be broken down into (though these are not the only ones)

Story:


Almost every video game contain a narrative or story. While not every one is written meticulously well, there are the type of games that the main focus and reason for playing is the story. These usually manage to draw you in with complex plots and unexpected twists, elegant writing styles and representations that go deeper than what a glance might allow you to see.


The story elements of these types of games can sometimes end up being like a cross between a book and a movie - since most games are significantly longer than movies and the story is written like a book - in many cases like movies they also use real actors.


Examples of games that deeply develop this element are games like the Metal Gear series, the Final Fantasy series (though later iterations of this particular franchise are poorly written in my opinion), Heavy Rain, System Shock and BioShock, and the Half-Life series.


Music:


Music and a soundtrack are part of every game, like movies. For some games this is played on the safe side, and music that sounds "cool" is made, but for other games they hire composers to compliment the style of the game and add to the atmosphere. These types of games use music to change the mood and emotions of the player as he/she is playing through the game. It is quite hard to describe this with words alone so I will provide examples to go along with them (with what games they are from and what genre they fill):

Warning: While you might not care for any of the music you hear below, think of it more as situational pieces, instead of just a song to listen to.


Game: Unreal
Genre: Action/Adventure FPS
Composer: Alexander Brandon
Year: 1998

Unreal was an FPS game that came out in the late 90s with an emphasis on creating an alien world that would suck you in. To do this, they tried to make the world as visually stunning as they could while using music to pull you in.

Take this song for example (you can read this as it plays if you want): This plays as you are leaving a crashed ship - you come outside to see 2 suns in the sky and a moon, with greenish-blue clouds, and a giant cliff going down for miles into a river - the other side houses the side of a mountain with an enormous waterfall pouring down into the river, and the landscape is littered with strange alien plants.

Game: Diablo
Genre:  Survival Horror Hack-and-Slash RPG

Composer: Matt Uelmen

Year: 1996

Diablo was the first of it's kind - most RPGs were turned based - but Diablo was the first to do everything real-time from an isometric view. The game itself was composed of traveling from a town into a cathedral that extends ever so deeply into the ground until you hit Hell. The Music was the strongest aspect of the game to me. In my opinion, it is a prime example as to how excellent composition of music can add so much atmosphere to something.

It is hard to make a game scary that isn't just a "jump" scare, but the sounds combined with this music made this game's environment one scary-ass place to be. It didn't have to make you jump, it just filled you full of dread instead.

Some of the best use of acoustic guitar I've ever heard in my opinion - A not-so-devilish sounding track, but still depressing. (if you don't like guitar be warned)

Game: Quake
Genre:  Action/Horror FPS

Composer: Trent Reznor

Year: 1996

Kind of an interesting fact, but the guy who composed the music for the social network, also made the music and sound effects for ID software's Quake, which came out in 1996.

Another entry which borrows heavily from the horror genre, the music is highly atmospheric composed by Trent Reznor, and compliments the design choices made in the game - the setting was a sort of dark gothic/fantasy hybrid, with much medieval-inspired architecture (with some hi-tech sci-fi thrown in) and creature designs based on H.P. Lovecraft.

Game: HeXen II
Genre:  Action/Puzzle solving FPS/RPG hybrid

Composer: Kevin Schilder

Year: 1997

This one is a bit more upbeat then Diablo and Quake - while i wouldn't say "light hearted", it's definitely not scary like the other two.

Has a very fitting medieval style to it, which is part of the setting that the game takes place in.

Atmosphere:

This one's a little different from most, as not every game does it well. Atmosphere is how all the elements of  a game combine to pull you into the world it has created. Usually the games with the most atmosphere are games that use a lot of horror elements, because they want to make you feel like you are actually there to scare you more easily. This can be anything from the believability of the sound design, to the music, to the game's graphical style (like the games above).

There are two main ways of going about making a game atmospheric, one is to make the game look and feel as realistic as possible - to try and emulate real life, while the other is to create a game that completely forgoes normal design to make something that is "otherworldly" - though certain things such as the mechanics of player movement and what he can do are still grounded in reality.



Examples of Atmospheric designs:



A screenshot of Hexen 2 - the player in a cathedral

A shot of Diablo - showing a dark Catacomb and demons swarming to the player

Unreal - A watchtower with strangely colored clouds in the backdrop

Quake 1 - A hi-tech environment (with updated graphics)

Quake 1 - Overlooking a medieval-esque Castle entrance with a dark purple sky


Gameplay:Arguably the most important aspect of a video game, the gameplay can be what makes or breaks a game. It is what makes games entertaining, and seperates them from movies and books, or from that static piece of art you have on your wall.

Gameplay usually consists of two main elements. In most games these are the combat, and the puzzles. Implementation of combat can range from simple turn based fights, almost like chess, to real time confrontations that simulate real life experiences, usually against a number of opponents. The puzzle aspects are very broad, and can encompass combat as well.

They can be puzzles in the traditional sense, such as finding missing pieces to a machine or keys to a door, or platforming - or rather, jumping puzzles - where the player must navigate without falling - or even the combat can contain puzzles, such as enemies that require different tactics to defeat them.

Usually, games hailed as great games strike a good balance between the two elements and it creates good pacing for a game, or rather the combat and puzzle elements seem to be toned down and up at the right times, sort of like the balance between story and action in a movie.