Task 10

Gordon Freeman and Max Payne

Let's look at characters today! Not least because I've been told to.

According to a post on Gamasutra, which I can no longer find as its iron fortress doors have closed on me, and the guardsman is demanding login information, characters can be placed in one of two groups. You have the Avatars, and you have the Actors.

Avatars are characters that really represent you, the payer ingame. Generally speaking, they have no individual personality, tastes or any other defining feelings that might contradict with the player's. Apart from their physical form and appearance and in most cases, their name, they are an empty shell which you inhabit while playing the game, in order to interact with the environment. In this example, the avatar would be Gordon Freeman. Gordon's a silent protagonist, and also a theoretical physicist, suggesting he managed to dodge out of any presentations at university. As punishment, he was sent to work at Black Mesa, and that job is his reason for being in the game's setting. Beyond this, his personality is never explored. He might be the nicest fellow in the world, or he might be a true b'stard. It depends on what the player is. All we know is that he hits headcrabs with crowbars.

Then there's the Actor, the type of character who by his very purpose is more interesting - that'll be Max Payne then. A complete contradiction when juxtaposed with Mr. Freeman, Max Payne is the narrator of the game (I can only speak of the first game here). He tells the story in its entirety, ingame as well as in the comic book scenes - except when the other characters speak. Throughout the course of the game, we get to know who Max is, why he's standing on Aesir's headquarters with a sniper rifle, surrounded by police, and how he can take so many painkillers at once and not have a cognative shutdown. Well actually we never learn that last part. It's probably because he's hardcore. After all he does say things like "I would have laughed, if I could have remembered how."

Actors have their own personalites, experiences and reasons for doing what they do. The player controls them, but that's where the connection ends. In some cases, the actor's personality might conflict with the player, for example if you were playing a game where the main character's name was Arrogancy B'Stard and specialized in whacking children with sticks, some people might not want to play. I type this knowing full well that the majority would.

I like actor characters, because they're so much more interesting than someone who can't do anything except shoot who you tell them to. In some games an actor protagonist is just not necessary, such as in Half-Life where a complex main character would be a bit pointless really. However for a game such as Max Payne, which is told exactly like a comic book, the protagonist is easily the most important character, because everything revolves around him and his actions.

All I ask in a story is that it's interesting. Interesting is a concept that seems to be getting a bit lost these days (Along with its friend, Originality), and it's most likely a relative thing anyway; it comes easier to some than others. It's just very easy for levels/scenes to drag, and there's a difference between a moment of calm in the storyline and just plain boredom. Half-Life 2's a prime example of what I mean - it's not exactly story based, but it should have had good rhythm to keep it going. Instead, I felt that parts of the game just went on and on, often being really repetetive before moving onto something else (One of the final scenes, insurgent fighting outside the cidadel was a bore for me). When I finished it, I was still pleased - there was obviously a lot of work gone in, and overall it was very pleasant indeed. It was worth playing just to see the citadel at the end, which was stunning.

I'm ending this entry with a little apology. A few weeks ago, upon buying Quake 4, I said it'll be forgotten. Well, Quake 4, I won't forget you. I started it up again after a couple of weeks' hiatus, and I have to say, the sheer level of effort and imagination gone into the setting, the evil nasty half-machine, half-human Strogg's homeworld has amazed me and captured my imagination. It's violent, gory, and just plain horrible, but the worst point of all is that in it's own way, it's actually belivable.

If you'll excuse two minor spoilers, there are two scenes in particular which really stood out amongst the slightly repetetive shooting (Though the setting made up for it): In one scene, you're captured by your enemies, and sent to a 'medical facility' to be converted into a Strogg. You are tied down to a kind of moving stretcher on a rail, and sent through this product-line-style facility, with another captured soldier in the stretcher going along in front of you. You can also see your torso, arms and legs. What happens to you is really, really nasty, including seeing your legs being sawn off before your eyes by a blood-crusted circular saw. Ouch.

Another superb scene is when the humans all figure out that one quintessential building that houses the key to destroying the whole Strogg race and they decide to launch you in an assault pod from a space ship into the base. You go through the whole process of being put into the launch tunnel, then fired out, before soaring through the atmosphere into an incoming barrage of fire. The base nears, and you hit the wall, breaking through into it. But you don't stop. In fact you keep going, and going, and going, through room after room, crashing into delicate equipment, smashing machinery, crushing enemies in the blink of an eye, causing a massive burning trail behind you, and eventually, eventually, after clocking up an infinite repair bill, you come to a stop, as deep inside the facility as you want to be. Genius.

I've never seen that done before, so well done Raven, for the originality! Huzzah!