Can Games Surpass Films? (Stephen Gillespie)

Many people look upon games as the past time of pubescent teenagers in dark rooms scoring numerous headshots followed by even more numerous tea baggings. In many cases this is correct; Halo 3 has sold approximately 5.2 million copies, so can we take gaming as a medium seriously or will it forever be an adolescent hobby?

The direct comparison is of course film, film is a highly respected medium and some consider it an art form, but is it possible for games to gain the prestige of movies, or even surpass them? In many ways I would argue that games have already surpassed movies. You do get games like Halo 3 may be the big fish in the pond, the mindless action game that for many non-gamers causes them to look upon video gaming as a childish hobby, but is this any different from movies? People seem to forget when making this comparison that, like games, not all movies are superb pieces of art. The best selling films are always the mindless action blockbusters, turn your brain off for an hour or two and just ride the roller coaster. The highest grossing films of all time are mostly special effect big budget bonanzas. We see this every year, the summer blockbusters- the highest grossing films of the year- are usually mindless action films. This year we had the perfect example of Transformers 2, which was like a thrill ride which kept painfully crashing. This is the same thing we see every year, the biggest films are the action films just as the big games are the action games.

People don’t seem to realise that like films there is more to games than just the mainstream. Games like movies are just a way of telling a story, and the interactive nature of gaming can make it a more compelling way of doing so. My examples for the games versus movies debate are as follows:
 Metal Gear Solid IV
 Half-Life 2
 Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune
 Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.
These are all looked upon as great games, just in the way that the movies with superbly told stories are looked upon as the great films. The thing which makes these four games special, (and many others) is that they are comparable to films yet manage to surpass them.

Let’s start with Metal Gear Solid IV, the reason for this games inclusion is written right on the back cover, ‘Hollywood-like visuals block buster effects, incredible surround sound and a musical score that push the limits of interactive entertainment.’ This sounds just like the mindless action films of earlier yet this game is held in extremely high regard, gaining perfect scores form prestigious game reviewers. Could this mean that games are just mindless action and this one is the most mindless of all? Of course not, what makes this game superb is the way it tells its story. This game has an unbelievably convoluted story, which twists and turns all over the place. The story itself may sound bad on paper but when you see the way it is told it becomes phenomenal. This is a story which wouldn’t work in a movie, for one it is too long, the average movie is just over an hour and half long, Metal Gear Solid 4 can take about twenty hours. That is a whole lot more, now in long films the story gets lost and you get bored and just wonder why the film is so darn long. In long games you don’t, if they are done well. The advantage games have above movies is obvious, gameplay, interactivity- it always keeps you involved. When watching a movie you see the hero go through all the challenges from afar and at some points you may feel emotionally involved- feel sorrow, empathy, etc- but you are never as involved as you are when playing the hero. When playing the hero every moment you share, this is highlighted in Metal Gear Solid by one moment in particular. There are many great moments in the game but one stands out, as far as interactivity goes and it is the microwave tunnel. It is a scene towards the end of the game, the second to last bit of gameplay, where the ‘hero’ drags his dying body through a tunnel full of radiation. If you see this in a film it can be drawn out and just become too much, you don’t feel connected you just want him to hurry up and get on with it. However when it is you playing this section you feel totally immersed in the character, you want him to get through you are determined, you have spent so long getting this character there that you are not letting him die now. The fact that you have to work towards goals in video games makes them so much more worthwhile when you get there. In a movie the action plays itself, in a game you have to work for it and victory becomes so much sweeter.

Now Metal Gear Solid 4 may sound like it’s full of lots of action, and it is, but there is more to it than just action. You get the great special effects and the cool fighting scenes because you are playing them but you also get the really deep compelling story and neither of these are sacrificed because when you have something with the same scale as a game you do not need too. You couldn’t fit all of this into a film but in a game there is enough room, you can have the greatest special effects and longest most epic battle scenes without sacrificing story or having a film which is way too long, sadly this isn’t achieved very often in film. Metal Gear Solid 4 surpasses films because of the immersive experience, the great story, and the variety but mostly because of the characters. The game is really about the relationships between people and this is done so well, when you feel you are the character it makes emotional scenes between characters even more emotional. The end result is something superb in any aspect that would not work in any other medium.

So what about Half-Life 2? Once more we have more immersion than a film. This is a game that just feels like a film. It’s fast paced and hectic with crazy stuff happening all around you. You’re always on the run and being shot at, that’s cool to watch in films but actually playing it is so much more exciting. The hero of a film will usually always get through, you won’t, and how the next action sequence turns out is all down to you, something you just can’t get in movies. Half-Life 2 basically has many of the same qualities of Metal Gear Solid 4 as far as surpassing movies goes and this is an older game. It may not look as impressive as current games but the effects and facial animation still look amazing. This game may not have the story of MGS4 in my opinion but it is every bit as cinematic. But what makes it really better than a film is the main character. For one he is a scientist, easy to relate with, not some trained mercenary but an everyday man more like you or me (unless you are a mercenary). This helps you to become one with the character, something rarely achieved in films, also the fact you are playing as him from his viewpoint makes it even easier to get lost in his world. So then surely any FPS game would have done as an example, well no; the special thing about Gordon Freeman from Half-Life is he doesn’t talk. At no point do you feel like you are the character until he says something you would never say, it helps maintain the illusion this is you and once more you couldn’t achieve this in a film.

Now Uncharted: Drake’s fortune, it has a good story like the rest (perhaps not quite as good as most) but what makes it really awesome are the characters. This game actually has good acting (something Metal Gear Solid 4 has as well), the characters feel so real but most of all there is a genuine wit found in few other games. This game therefore manages to be funny without sacrificing gameplay, because the gameplay is fantastic. It’s your usual treasure hunting yarn, which is becoming a tired stereotype in movies because it’s always the same thing. They have the treasure, they haven’t- clue, clue, clue, shootout and then they get the treasure. In a film this can become boring and predictable, but in a game like this where everything is action, action and a test of your skill you have to really try to fulfil the stereotype. This makes it less predictable in a certain way and therefore more enjoyable; you get great gameplay and a good fun story, which never becomes boring because the interjecting gameplay is so fun. The kind of gameplay in this just wouldn’t work in a film. Cover based shooting on the grand scale of Uncharted would get boring, but in a game it’s really tense. Uncharted is an example of something you wouldn’t go out of your way for in a film but something that becomes phenomenal in a game.

The last example is perhaps the most convincing one because it is based on a film franchise and manages to further it considerably. I will make it no secret that the Star Wars films are my favourite films but Knights of the Old Republic just one-ups them. You get the great star wars story you expect, it’s playable which makes it more fun, it’s longer which means you get more Star Wars but best of all you get to make moral choices. This is something you could never get in a film, the hero (or villain) does something and you cannot change that. In this game you can personalise your experience, you can do what you would actually do in that situation or act like somebody else. It’s like if in Star Wars Episode IV you were given the choice as Han Solo to go back and help the rebels blow up the death star or not and you were allowed to just go, ‘nah’. This freedom of choice is astonishing, this wouldn’t work in a film because they are not an interactive, but video games are. These game shows once more how games as a whole can surpass films just by letting you interact.

So in my opinion games can surpass films but there is still a long way to go. There are many genres in which games could never surpass films because of the fixation with games being fun, Schindler’s List can be made as a film because it is an experience and is regarded as a work of art. You put this in a game and then you have something horrific and offensive, it’s like the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan, watching it makes you feel like you would never want to go to war, you then don’t feel like ‘oh man lets play that!’ Yes a game would give you a greater experience and show war even more realistically if done right, but who would want to play that. I don’t want to be in a war, it’s one thing watching it because your detached and you can see from a distance the horrors. Being interactive can lift the medium of games above films but sometimes it can bring it straight back down again. But gaming should not be discounted and something childish and it should be as respected as film (certainly some films anyway) because it is surpassing it already and when it matures and gets out of the teenagers bedroom it could maybe get even better.

By Stephen Gillespie
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