Right now, a lot of stuff is happening in the game industry. E3 just finished, the next generation is on the horizon, and Microsoft just did a 180 on their Xbox One policies. But, as all these advancements are happening, our games should be advancing as well. There needs to be some more complexity in them, more drama, and in general just be more mature in order to really start advancing the storytelling medium. This blog will detail spoilers from The Last of Us, so *SPOILER ALERT*.
Recently, several games have come out that deal with some mature and heavy themes and tell a complex, adult story. These stories often prove to be the best ones in the industry, as shown with Bioshock, Red Dead Redemption, and the Mass Effect series. I'm only going to highlight The Last of Us and Bioshock Infinite in this blog, but they are not the only ones that have dared to go in this direction. There are even some Zelda games that have gone this route (most notably Majora's Mask), which are oftentimes seen as childish and playful games.
There's nothing wrong with a game choosing a light-hearted story and mood to accompany it, or a game that doesn't take itself too seriously. Mario games are consistently excellent, and there is no trace of adult themes really present at all in the entire Mario series. One of my favorite games of all time, Uncharted 2, has a summer blockbuster vibe to it, but is still able to delve into a fantastic story. I'm fine with video games taking these approaches, but if the storytelling is to advance in the medium, it has to grow up. Let's begin, shall we?
I recently finished The Last of Us (by recently, I literally mean yesterday) and it is an incredible game that deserves every bit of praise given to it. It's also incredibly heavy, and some things in it are frighteningly real circumstances. The journey across the country for Joel and Ellie is one that is completely unforgettable, and filled with moments that seem way ahead of it's time for where the industry is at now. It's unflinchingly violent and brutal, with peoples brains getting blown apart by a revolver blast and bludgeoning people to death with pipes that have scissors attached to them. But by mature, I don't mean over-the-top violence, or vulgar language (though there's plenty of that too). In this case, I mean the loss of hope and will to live, which are uncomfortable truths that we try to turn away from in our daily lives.
There's one point that was actually shown at last year's E3 demo of TLoU where Joel and Ellie stumble across a dead couple in a bathtub. Ellie asks if they were infected and killed themselves because of that, but Joel explains that it was probably because there was no reason for them to live anymore. This idea gets backed up later, when you're with another pair of survivors. One of them gets infected, and his brother has to kill him. He then horrifyingly commits suicide in front of your eyes, because that's the world established in this game, where there is no hope left. The game isn't mature for the sake of being mature, though; it tells an incredible journey of survival and hope, and because it goes into these territories the story is all the better for it. The heavy themes benefit the game in a way that any other mood could not have.
Another recent game that goes into uncomfortable subject matter and truths we don't want to accept is Bioshock Infinite. While on the surface, it doesn't appear as though these oppressive themes will be brought up, but because it's a Bioshock game, you could probably guess they will. While vastly different from TLoU, Infinite still backs up the sense of games growing up and being better for it.
The world of Columbia seems like an idyllic city, leisurely floating above the clouds without a care in the world. But, beneath that peaceful exterior is an interior filled with hardships, racism, and fear of new ideas. In the working district of Finkton, Jeremiah Fink, a wealthy businessman, runs a corrupt business where African-American's are forced to work all day and night with limited pay and horrible working conditions (basically, it's a corporate slavery). It's an awful picture of what's going on in places like China, where workers are submitted to basically being slaves to the corporation they work for. Racism runs prevalent throughout Columbia, with posters constantly reminding you to "Keep Columbia Pure" and to not trust any foreign ideas or people. As Booker DeWitt, you represent all the things it seems Columbia is trying to fight against: freedom, change, acceptance, etc. It's a society that hates everything besides itself, and wants to keep it that way. I applaud Irrational for putting these unwanted ideas prevalent in this fictional society, because the United States used to be the same exact way in these ideas, with labor towns, racism, and xenophobia.
Bioshock Infinite and The Last of Us are some of the most mature games I've ever played, and they're also some of the best. They truly use the ESRB rating they're given to the fullest extent, and hopefully their example will be followed by many games to come. I'm fine with the Saints Rows and the Devil May Cry's and the games that are more light-hearted, but for the industry to truly advance in storytelling, our games need to grow up.
Any other ideas for an example of maturity advancing the medium? Post it in the comments!