Gameplay as Aesthetic

Because games have been so limited in their scope (exempting the few forays into uncharted territory every year), there is a propensity to borrow.

The borrowing is only part of the parcel; the symptom runs deeper than this shared mechanic. Examine, for a moment, the mechanics of Epic's Gears of War. Gears has that aesthetic quality, that mysterious elixir that compels. It is a game about war and combat, with curious levels of depth beneath its aesthetic. Yet the most compelling aspect of Gears is the marriage of its gameplay aesthetic and the universe as a whole.

It is a game that punishes the player for running and gunning the style of Halo, but rewards for the chess-like measure and countermeasure of moving between cover. The roadie run ability evokes shades of Jean Pierre Melville's most intimate tracking shots, pulling the gamer into a dialogue with the visual language of the game's events with great detail and success.

This aesthetic and gameplay could be explored and discussed at length. The chief concern of this discourse, for now, will direct its attention to borrowing. The reason that Gears is part and parcel with its universe, uniting both aesthetic and gameplay, is because it was designed as such. Yet, examine a game like Drake's Fortune or Metal Gear Solid 4. Both of these games borrowed the mechanics of Gears, either in small part or large part.

Is the eponymous character of Drake's a marine in a world that is dominated by war? Conversely, the world of Solid Snake, in MGS 4, does bear some similarity to the world of Gears. This highlights a point of discussion, as we seek to define a broader language for games and interactive play. A type of gameplay may be borrowed, augmented, or transmuted, if it fits the form and narrative. It is no secret that the mechanics of Metal Gear Solid 4 benefited greatly from the inclusion of the Gears influence.

Now we may turn our focus to other games. The Force Unleashed may be described as a standard 'hack 'n slash' game, with 'magic' abilities. However, one must examine the point of this game, as displayed in the title. Force Unleashed. Those words connotate Yoda's words (part of Star Wars canon) in the Empire Strikes Back: 'my ally is the Force...and a powerful ally it is.' The trailers and promotional material for this game highlight the Force, the very life-breath of the game's universe, being taken to the limit.

In order to deliver on this promise, one must devise a way to tell this story that reflects this rather large theme. The use of the Force should be as integrated into the game as Gears' own roadie run and cover mechanics. However, the Force Unleashed borrows heavily from preexisting and codified concepts in its 'genre' (action-adventure), with button combos and 'magic attacks.' The Force, which is the life-breath of this game and its reason above all, falls short and is shackled by a resource measurement.

These concepts - the life bar and resource bar, and the combo based hack and slash - are holdovers from a previous era in which the technology had to be stretched in a way that could not a) tell the story in a cohesive form and aesthetic of gameplay and b) match the realism of a moving visual world.

One may argue that the Force Unleashed suffered from this viewpoint.

The game, frustrating in its mechanical execution, exacerbates the pain of playing by dwelling utterly meaningless sections of gameplay. Never, while I am Starkiller, do I feel as if I am the envoy of the Force, the sieve through which this incredible universe-constructing power flows. It is a failure of form, purported by its borrowing from previous material.

The gameplay as aesthetic, if it does exist, is quite poor. this is akin to a movie being told in a visual way that is completely unstimulating and does not engage the viewer.

By focusing on the formal elements of gameplay mechanics and design, and paying close attention to the marriage between the aforementioned and the aesthetic of the universe, we may come closer to the holy grail we've been chasing for forty years.