A Tale To Tell

Searching for a story worth following in the myriad of titles that cram the shelves of my local GameStop sometimes makes me feel as if I’m in the midst of an Australian walkabout, staggering through the vast wasteland of the outback, hoping that the shimmer on the horizon is an oasis that will sustain me for the next long, parched trek. More often than not, it’s just another mirage, a hint at a story of substance that falls apart into dust as I take a closer look. For someone who hungers for that narrative as I do, it can be all too easy to despair. But just as I teeter on the verge of surrender, hope emerges.

2009 emerged as one of the best years for gaming in this already stellar decade. With dozens of titles clamoring for my attention, there was no shortage of delectable digital morsels. That being said, the games last year that truly amazed me were the ones that set aside storytelling for other goals. Beatles: Rock Band and Left 4 Dead 2 sucked me in and devoured entire chunks of my weekly routine. I enjoyed Sims 3 to an almost embarrassing extent. (There are few moments more humbling than realizing your level of excitement at the addition of a basement tool has exceeded any sense of proportion. Yes, I am ashamed of this.) Even games like Torchlight and Batman: Arkham Asylum drew me in not due to the storytelling, but because of the gameplay itself. In fact, I recently bemoaned the concern that storytelling in video games was doomed to find its own path.

As soon as the words finished leaving my mouth, Bioware and 2K Marin showed up, slapped me in the face, and ordered me to plop my skeptical tail down on the magic carpet. Ears open and mouth shut, children; shut up and pay attention. It’s storytime.

Mass Effect 2 and Bioshock 2 both had me worried. Both early 2010 entries, their conspicuous absence from the holiday 2009 lineup gave me a queasy feeling in my stomach. But instead of being unpolished entries that missed the overcrowded boat, these two games set a standard for excellence and narrative brilliance that will be phenomenally tough for other games this year to even match, let alone exceed. Both titles succeeded where so many others fail with one simple approach: they refused to bend.

While both ME2 and Bioshock 2 present the idea of an open world, this is a thinly veiled attempt. Each step you take in your own direction is gently but firmly nudged back onto the path that the developers want. Sure, you can wait to talk to the Illusive Man until you’re damned good and ready, but if you wait too long, he’ll pop up in front of you like the Martin Sheen of viagra ads. You take those Big Daddies on in any order you like, it’s completely your choice. That being said, you aren’t leaving until you do exactly what we say.

This is not a complaint. Far from it. The biggest obstacle that I feel games have to truly epic storytelling is the player’s ability to wrench the narrative off path.  While it’s great for gameplay to do whatever the hell you want, it’s murder on a story of any level of complexity. By keeping you on the yellow brick road they’ve laid, 2k Marin and Bioware can ensure that you end up happy and singing in the Emerald City, not begging some hobo living under Munchkin Village for directions.

I know that stories like Mass Effect 2 are the exception, rather than fact. I know that it will be a long while before I’m drawn in as much as I was in the passageways and creaking rooms of Rapture. But that’s okay. I’m sitting at this oasis right now, drinking my fill. It may be a long trip to the next one, but this is worth the wait.