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AG Theme Of The Week #10 - Realism

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Lady Kestrel - 27 July 2017 11:33 AM

I’ve rarely had trouble suspending my disbelief when playing a game, so realism has never been a big issue for me.  First person games, such as Riven and Riddle of the Sphinx, are still among the most realistic games for me, even with their slide show navigation.  RealMyst, with its 3D movement, is probably the most realistic environment, despite the fact that it’s a fantasy world filled with puzzles.  I felt like I was there, and can remember my panic when I accidently made the lights go out in the compass room inside the ship.  If the story engages me, I’m there.

Well said Lady K! I’ve always felt more immerged playing first person games. Seems more realistic to me as if I’m actually there.

     

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One criterion that is missing is subject matter. All the examples in the OP have supernatural themes. Even Riven and Riddle of the Sphinx have things like teleportation and Egyptian curses. I think AGs could do better in this area. I would like to see more “true to life” adventure games and less fantasy.

     
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cyfoyjvx - 28 July 2017 12:46 AM

One criterion that is missing is subject matter. All the examples in the OP have supernatural themes. Even Riven and Riddle of the Sphinx have things like teleportation and Egyptian curses. I think AGs could do better in this area. I would like to see more “true to life” adventure games and less fantasy.

I was thinking about having a similar paragraph, where I talk about games that have “close to real life” context and mention titles like Carol Reed for example. But I would have basically made my point in a single sentence (just like my Graphics section). So I focused the theme towards illusion of realism and immersion, which I personally find more interesting and challenging. A game revolving around a natural and non-fantasy story doesn’t guarantee that it would feel real. But I get your point. I’m sick of games overusing the same themes (like LOTR type of fantasy or the detective with supernatural skills).

P.S. I see nothing supernatural in Full Throttle and Resonance Wink

     

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badlemon - 28 July 2017 02:01 AM

I’m sick of games overusing the same themes (like LOTR type of fantasy or the detective with supernatural skills).

I’d love to find a real adventure game (not an RPG or hybrid) with “LOTR type” fantasy.
The most recent one I’ve heard of is the “Warcraft Adventures” game that was never published.
I’m not talking about King’s Quest clones that I consider comedy and not “LOTR type.”

The most common themes I’ve seen in adventure games lately are post-apocalyptic/dystopian, comedy/cartoon, horror, attempts at “realism,” and psychological.

I mostly agree with Lady K about “realism” in graphics. I can get used to low resolution graphics to the point I don’t notice them. 1st vs 3rd person doesn’t matter much either. But there are other things that destroy immersion and kick me out of the gameworld—pop-ups announcing some “achievement” or other, or telling me what I have to do next. So low resolution games from the 1990’s may end up being more immersive than modern games with high resolution graphics, simply because they don’t keep throwing up messages to remind me I’m only playing a game.

     
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Sir Beardalot - 27 July 2017 10:03 PM
Lady Kestrel - 27 July 2017 11:33 AM

I’ve rarely had trouble suspending my disbelief when playing a game, so realism has never been a big issue for me.  First person games, such as Riven and Riddle of the Sphinx, are still among the most realistic games for me, even with their slide show navigation.  RealMyst, with its 3D movement, is probably the most realistic environment, despite the fact that it’s a fantasy world filled with puzzles.  I felt like I was there, and can remember my panic when I accidently made the lights go out in the compass room inside the ship.  If the story engages me, I’m there.

Well said Lady K! I’ve always felt more immerged playing first person games. Seems more realistic to me as if I’m actually there.

Like Lady Kestrel I’ve rarely had trouble suspending my disbelief when playing a game as for me as long as the story is engaging, regardless of whether it’s 1st or 3rd person, whatever the state of graphical presentation or the presence of voice-acting or not etc, the game world for me can be ‘realistic’.
I do tend to favour 3rd person perspective but don’t disagree that 1st person can in some ways immerse you more & 2 games that come to mind that transport you into a more ‘physical’ realistic world are Yoomurjak’s Ring & Contradiction.      Smile

     
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chrissie - 29 July 2017 02:51 PM
Sir Beardalot - 27 July 2017 10:03 PM
Lady Kestrel - 27 July 2017 11:33 AM

I’ve rarely had trouble suspending my disbelief when playing a game, so realism has never been a big issue for me.  First person games, such as Riven and Riddle of the Sphinx, are still among the most realistic games for me, even with their slide show navigation.  RealMyst, with its 3D movement, is probably the most realistic environment, despite the fact that it’s a fantasy world filled with puzzles.  I felt like I was there, and can remember my panic when I accidently made the lights go out in the compass room inside the ship.  If the story engages me, I’m there.

Well said Lady K! I’ve always felt more immerged playing first person games. Seems more realistic to me as if I’m actually there.

Like Lady Kestrel I’ve rarely had trouble suspending my disbelief when playing a game as for me as long as the story is engaging, regardless of whether it’s 1st or 3rd person

This is curious thing, is it not? The phenomenon of 1st and 3rd person being equally realistic - considering that in “real life” one does not walk around with an avatar in direct sight, controlling (or seeming to control) their actions.

Maybe there is some major aspect of realism in games that is not concerned with correlating with non-simulatory experience.

     
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I think a good word for what you’re describing is “verisimilitude.” It’s not so much about realism in the sense of simulation, but in the sense that the game doesn’t break your illusion that this is a coherent reality to which logic applies and that it responds to the player.

To go really old-school, I think the Mercenary series deserves a nod here. They were among the first 3D open-world games, following Elite, and the first that let you actually get out of your ship and interact like a human. They had very simple graphics (wireframes in the first, flat polys in the later games), but they let you go wherever you could get to, allowed for a wide-range of player expression, including vastly different paths and puzzle solutions, and a story that reacted to those choices. I don’t think they were thought of as “adventure games” at the time, but I’m pretty sure they would be today.

Here’s the first few minutes, you can see what a mind-blowing game it was for the time:

After that, the games that did it most for me were the early immersive sim rpgs like Ultima Underworld and System Shock. They gave a lot of freedom for player experession that made their worlds feel more real. A little later Outcast came along with its beautiful 3D open world and blew them away.

As far as newer adventure stuff, Obduction and Gone Home did a good job of letting me go where I wanted and making the world feel real and lived-in. Obduction didn’t let me pick up a lot of things I wanted to, though.

You mentioned it in your article, so I want to say that while I did like the game, Wilson’s Heart was pretty bad at this. It had a ton of atmosphere and a fantastic world, but there was a persistent sense that you could only interact with what the game wanted you to interact with, and only go where the game wanted you to go. Despite the novel VR thing, old-school adventure logic applied in a lot of ways.

As far as pure adventures go, Lone Echo does this better than any game I’ve ever played, particularly in the first half of the game. It’s grounded, near-future sci-fi, there are a lot of little details, and anything that feels like you should be able to pick it up, you can. Even the puzzles felt “realistic” like things I might have to do in that world (mostly fixing stuff that broke). It’s open-world, you can go wherever you please. You can tell the devs really strived hard to set up this believable world that felt real.

     
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SoccerDude28 - 27 July 2017 01:49 PM

One final thought. Realism, whether it be realistic AI, engaging graphics, open world, etc… costs A LOT of money and our genre is a very niche genre, so I do not see that ever happening in the near future.

I don’t know about that. Gaming is getting broader and there’s more room for adventures in the mainstream market than before. Obduction and Vanishing of Ethan Carter were big multi-million dollar effort that managed to be successful. Lone Echo is a straight up AAA game with 60-person team and an eight-figure budget, and it’s a pure adventure with basically no action elements at all (to my very pleasant surprise).

While I don’t think we’re going to see a resurgence of games with 10 verbs and inventory combinations, I think there’s definitely more interest in games that are about exploration and interaction rather than action.

     
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Great article badlemon, worthy of a standalone write-up!

1. Graphics - I like realism in graphics as much as I do like a cartoon style. Broken Sword is a nice example where the two styles collide. FMV is, obviously, a “peak” of realism, and since Phantasmagoria had experimented with pre-rendered backgrounds, and Gabriel Knight 2 with digitized locations, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more of a full FMV games - like Contradiction, which showed that it can be put together brilliantly in a coherent game.

Future Games also had a nice production of a “realistic” style, most notable in Alter Ego:


2. Freedom - Obviously, it comes as a “natural” ingredient in RPG games, and in adventures I care for “small things” like - plenty of inventory stuff, so you have “illusion of freedom” that you have many options at your disposal; many locations to visit at once (Monkey Island 2, after the story gets going); plenty of puzzles to solve, not in a “serial” order, and so on. Al Emmo is an ideal example in which the designer can create a “breathing” world that feels real with plenty of possible actions and responses. When the designer takes care to put different comment on “Sky”, on every new screen, I sense that the “freedom” has been achieved.

There’s a vast unexplored “land” where adventures can come closer to RPG freedom and maintain the focus on story/puzzles (like the before mentioned Outcast), and it shouldn’t be restricted only to the similar graphics engine, and the way you move around (like Dreamfall). Plenty of puzzles, inventory, locations, options, paths… is what really matters when it comes to adventure genre “freedom”.

Of course, I should note that “freedom” is not always necessary for a good game. But, Tales of Monkey Island is a kind of game where freedom was too much restricted, and it came as a drastic change to the “epic” and “open-world” feel of the series (especially the first two games).


3. Puzzle Design - freedom and “realism” can be achieved in several ways: like I said in the previous paragraph, if you give player plenty of items that’s a great start for the illusion of freedom, even when you don’t have to use all of the items, and if some serve only as a red-herrings. Plenty of puzzles to solve at once is another way to achieve “breathing” world.

One aspect where I expect more games to step in is a multiple puzzle solutions - the option to solve the same puzzle in several ways. A player doesn’t have to be aware of the fact that he solved it in only one of the several ways, but it guarantees that more players will reach the solution in a logical way, and they will feel satisfied about it, the game will feel “real” to them. A game can, in that way, create “matrix” of puzzles, where everyone can have his own path of puzzles until the end of the game.


4. Story and atmosphere - several good points were already made - it’s quite rare to see a 100% realistic game (I always thought it would be good idea to create “Sims” kinda of game, where you would do everyday stuff, go shopping, go to work, drive and sleep… but I realize now that it would be the most boring game Grin ), but it’s not really necessary in adventure game. It was a good point that someone said how Full Throttle is “realistic”, because really - the game only “plays” with advanced technology (hoover cars), and the fact that there was an apocalypse at some point (pretty realistic, the way we’re treating Earth right now Sarcastic ).

     

Recently finished: Four Last Things 4/5, Edna & Harvey: The Breakout 5/5, Chains of Satinav 3,95/5, A Vampyre Story 88, Sam Peters 3/5, Broken Sword 1 4,5/5, Broken Sword 2 4,3/5, Broken Sword 3 85, Broken Sword 5 81, Gray Matter 4/5\nCurrently playing: Broken Sword 4, Keepsake (Let\‘s Play), Callahan\‘s Crosstime Saloon (post-Community Playthrough)\nLooking forward to: A Playwright’s Tale

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Frogacuda - 30 July 2017 09:53 AM

To go really old-school, I think the Mercenary series deserves a nod here. They were among the first 3D open-world games, following Elite, and the first that let you actually get out of your ship and interact like a human. They had very simple graphics (wireframes in the first, flat polys in the later games), but they let you go wherever you could get to, allowed for a wide-range of player expression, including vastly different paths and puzzle solutions, and a story that reacted to those choices. I don’t think they were thought of as “adventure games” at the time, but I’m pretty sure they would be today.

Here’s the first few minutes, you can see what a mind-blowing game it was for the time:

 

Damn, this surely looks like the grand grand father of No Man’s Land Smile Pretty revolutionary, indeed.

Frogacuda - 30 July 2017 09:53 AM

You mentioned it in your article, so I want to say that while I did like the game, Wilson’s Heart was pretty bad at this. It had a ton of atmosphere and a fantastic world, but there was a persistent sense that you could only interact with what the game wanted you to interact with, and only go where the game wanted you to go. Despite the novel VR thing, old-school adventure logic applied in a lot of ways.

I’m really interested to hear some good examples of VR adventure games done right.

Thanks for the write-up, Diego. More or less we’re on the same page here. Maybe I just forgot to sum up my overall expectation of a realistic game, having in mind all the ingredients such as freedom, c&c, puzzle design, atmosphere etc. In the end what matters to me is a game that is logically responding to all my actions, no matter if the setting and the graphics aren’t resembling our real world.

Frogacuda - 30 July 2017 09:53 AM

I think a good word for what you’re describing is “verisimilitude.” It’s not so much about realism in the sense of simulation, but in the sense that the game doesn’t break your illusion that this is a coherent reality to which logic applies and that it responds to the player.

^This

This could mean a lot, and thus the size of this theme. Smile

 

     

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