Week 8 - storyline in games

Normally I play games for the storyline, but if I want to experience something fun and exciting, I would probably go for a good beat-’em-up game like Tekken 5 or Mortal Kombat, or a puzzle game like Portal.

Another game I enjoy is Dynasty Warriors. Koei based the Dynasty Warriors series on real historical events, a clever way to tell a great storyline from all the different playable characters’ point of view, and at the same time give players a fun and adventurous way of learning history of the Three Kingdoms in 3rd Century China! My favourite game at the moment is “Romance of the Three Kingdoms XI” by the same company. It is similar to the Dynasty Warrior games, however it is an exciting turn-based strategy game. And of course, being a strategy game, you have complete control over your people and your cities, allowing you to take control of your own events in parallel with the historical events during the game. Now I find this extremely interesting, weird and rather shocking sometimes because it means that I can change history… (in the game only of course)! It’s so strange thinking that had I not executed this one general, he would never have introduced the other general, which would NEVER have led to this famous battle of whatever, or had I released those prisoners AFTER whichever important events, would the historical events after that ever happen? The “storyline” and the way it lets you choose your paths in this game really makes me wonder… History is full of big “WHAT IF”s, and this game really makes me think.

I was pretty shocked when I executed an extremely righteous general (on the enemy side) and kicked the Emperor off the throne to crown myself, thus ending an entire dynasty and starting a new one of my own…















Right, enough fangirling from me…

In general, if the game has a storyline, then it should be strong and engaging, with interesting characters, preferably a loveable one! If I dislike the characters then I probably would not enjoy the storyline as much. I would like the characters to be intelligent and be involved in a complex and intelligent storyline with interesting twists. To me, a great storyline also evokes a lot of emotion to make me feel like I am completely part of it myself. A good example is Final Fantasy VII.