by Marty Dodge


As a fiction writer of some experience, I have been pondering the question of plot in action games ever since I began reviewing computer games. Is it possible to have a good action game that includes a good plot? Or is plot merely something needed in an RPG or graphic adventure? I am sure when you finish reading this piece some of you may be rather annoyed, especially those of you in the industry. In short in recent years action computer games have gone the way of the action movie, reliance on special effects/graphics at the expense of the plot. Who needs a story when you got the Ohh-Ahh factor!

The most obvious case of this is Quake III:Arena, where id Software has admitted that plot and solo play don’t matter and just gone for the deathmatch and graphics frag fest. Truth be told Quake and Quake II never had much of a plot anyhow, solo play was merely an add-on to the multiplayer aspects of the game. Some of the TCs for Quake one went some way in adding a bit of a plot, the best of which was the Malice TC. Even Duke Nukem really did not have a plot, in this game humour supplanted it, albeit successfully. For the Mac at least, the last game to have a real plot was the Marathon series, the hints on the mini screens in the game actually mattered to those who wish to complete the game without a walk-through.

Myth/Myth II were a let down for me, one of the biggest reasons for me, is like in Quake, the solo play was decidedly boring. One felt almost as if one was a spectator watching the events unfold and occasionally giving advice on how things were to come to pass. I suspect that Bungie will go the way of Quake with Myth III and merely make it a multiplayer game with no solo play. In Bungie’s defence however Oni seems to show promise as an action game with a plot. Hopefully it will impress where the terribly disappointing Dark Vengeance was a let down. DV is an amazing looking game but almost universally it was panned by the reviewers for having a weak see through plot. Granted the terrible script of the voice-over did not help one bit.

For me at least, although linear in play, the most interesting game script in a while was that of Klingon Honor Guard, a great deal of effort was made to make you feel as if were a Klingon recruit attempting to rescue the honour of the Emperor. Seeing your mentor giving you instructions as an RMV is neat and makes a great effort to keep you involved and interested. I played it all the way to the end and was disappointed when I reached the end of the game.
This is the reason why we play games is it not? Granted it is nice to have games that are no brainers to help relieve your frustrations , Carmageddon is the best example of this sort of brain dead fun. The reason it is such fun is probably why the game and the recent follow-up caused so much controversy in the UK and Germany. Running over pedestrians and destroying fellow motorists should not be fun but in Carmageddon makes it that way with humour so lacking in the other recent game to cause an uproar, Postal. The Zombie patch is pathetic, all it does is replaces the blood of the pedestrians with green goo, and of course the patch is easily changeable if one has access to the internet.

Of course it may be that the action games with plot just don’t make it to the Mac for the most part. It may be too much plot hurts the PC game sales, I don’t know. The most interesting new titles on the PC are Messiah, SIN and Rainbow Six (which is coming to the Mac.) Messiah has enough plot as to have cause some controversy in its depiction of religious imagery. The Unreal engine seems to be producing some plot driven games, Werewolf: The Apocalypse looks as if it has some promise in this area. Unreal while an amazing game, has little or no plot.

One would be amiss if I did not ask a question. Is it possible to have multi-linear rich storied first person shoot em up? Is it possible to have lots of action, graphics and an engaging plot? There may be some limit technologically to this, or perhaps it has just not been tried. Multiple level ending would be a good start, several 1ss person games have tried this with the secret level exit. The only problem with this is that one is really only adding another level in the linear gameplay and it does not really affect the ending of the game, just the amount of neat toys one has, like in Duke Nukem.

Ultimately the problem of lack of story in action games maybe entirely our (the consumers fault), as it is in the movies. If you want a blockbuster put in lots of babes, big guns and bombastic effects. Would an action game with a strong plot and multiple possibilities for advancement sell that well on the Mac. I believe it would, but would any manufacturer risk such a venture on the Mac without launching it for the PC first?

Storyline and non-linear gameplay seems to something that will forever be stuck in the world of RPG, sims and Myst-like games. Bring on the graphic artists and stuff the writers seems to be the order of the day…pity really.