Editorial Deus Ex, and Why Game Narratives Fail

[VentilatorOfDoom]

Tags: Deus Ex: Human Revolution; Eidos Montreal

<p><a href="http://uk.pc.ign.com/articles/119/1192668p1.html" target="_blank">IGN ponders</a> how <strong>Deus Ex: Human Revolution</strong> lacks a proper story, unlike Halo.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The best storytelling games—Portal, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Enslaved, and Bioshock, to name a few—fulfill these needs so slickly that they cast a spell over us, drawing us through the narrative with a tug far more powerful than the simple fun of their gameplay. The John Marston we see towards the end of Red Dead Redemption is a different man from the Marston we met at the beginning, and because of that development, we care deeply about his fate. The escalating tension we feel as we draw closer to the lair of GLaDOS (a fascinatingly evolving character in her own right) more or less provides a master class in dramatic arc, which is what made Portal so miraculously satisfying. Plenty of other games have Old West gun-play or spatial puzzles, but these titles are genre-transcending classics because they tell us engaging, fully-realized stories.<br /><br />Deus Ex: Human Revolution does none of this. The game's protagonist, a tech-augmented corporate security chief named Adam Jensen, not only remains personally unchanged through the course of the narrative; he even pronounces every one of his lines with the same breathy intensity, no matter if he's speaking with a friend or confronting a super-villain. Leaving aside the stiltedness of Deus Ex's sections of dialogue—jam-packed as they are with bizarre emotional left turns, crazy gesticulating, and wooden voice acting—the overcomplicated narrative line also lacks a sense of propulsion. Human Revolution's "story" is, at heart, a linear and impersonal series of events that fails to build. In other words, it has plenty of plot, meaning that a lot of different things happen over the course of the game, but these assorted incidents just don't add up to much of a story. If anything, Deus Ex's overstuffed plot suffocates its story, smothering all character development and dramatic arc under the giant, overstuffed pillow of its conspiracy-laden narrative agenda.</p>
</blockquote>
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<p>Spotted at: <a href="http://www.gamebanshee.com/news/104683-deus-ex-and-why-game-narratives-fail.html">Gamebanshee</a></p>

 

[Darth Roxor]

The escalating tension we feel as we draw closer to the lair of GLaDOS (a fascinatingly evolving character in her own right) more or less provides a master class in dramatic arc, which is what made Portal so miraculously satisfying.

What in the fucking fuckity FUCK

"LOL CAKE IS A LIE XD" -> "I KILL YOU AND TAKE CAKE XD" = fascinating character evolution

 

[Gord]

My brian hurtz!!!11!1!1

 

[villain of the story]

AMERICA FUCK YEAHR!

 

[Satan]

Yes, of course.

The best storytelling games—Portal, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Enslaved, and Bioshock, to name a few—fulfill these needs so slickly that they cast a spell over us, drawing us through the narrative with a tug far more powerful than the simple fun of their gameplay

Uh... am I the only one who found nothing or nearly nothing that could be considered a story? I mean perhaps Portal 2 has bland, simple story just to make any sense in the game that is all about solving puzzles. It was still vastly inferior to Deus Ex HR. The rest however... they don't have any stories at all (oh, except if we consider laughable failures). Bioshock for example... hurrr durr city under water is gone! wat happend! everyone mad! kill evil dude!

Deus Ex HR has a good story, it has it's downsides, but it's pretty solid. It positively surprised me. I can agree that Adam's voice is weird though.

 

[shihonage]

Can't play Deus Ex because Jensen sounds like someone trying really hard on the toilet. I can't play the game with constant images of toilet in my head. Waste of money that was. No pun intended.

 

[spectre]

If anything, Deus Ex's overstuffed plot suffocates its story, smothering all character development and dramatic arc under the giant, overstuffed pillow of its conspiracy-laden narrative agenda.

I bet the author is proud of this sentence. So many words, thematicallly connected adjectives even, so little substance. I could masturbate furiously to it for a whole hour.

The life of a literature major must be so sad.

 

[DwarvenFood]

So the plot and story are two very different and almost mutually exclusive things.. ah they be butthurt.

 

[SoupNazi]

I'll take shitty VA over yet another dumbfuck mute protagonist anytime.

 

[Demnogonis Saastuttaja]

I'll take shitty VA over yet another dumbfuck mute protagonist anytime.

Well yeah, it's pretty dumb to think the player has easier time identifying with the main character if he's nobody. What the hell. I don't identify with any character unless they're cool and badass. Or fucking lazy and incompetent. Why would you identify with Gordon Freeman? He's just a floating gun and that's it.

 

[Gord]

It's time they recognize games again for what they are: games, in the sense of a separate medium of their own.
Books and esp. movies are something else and games shouldn't try imitate them.

And please Mr. IGNorant, if you throw around examples, at least choose good ones.

The guy who wrote this article would fit right into Bioware though...

 

[Satan]

Can't play Deus Ex because Jensen sounds like someone trying really hard on the toilet. I can't play the game with constant images of toilet in my head. Waste of money that was. No pun intended.

http://youtu.be/mQ_ZTBmKpX8

 

[Angthoron]

So what's the story in Portal again?

What a retarded piece of garbage of an article, and that piece of shit is going to pay him money for that.

Codex! Pay me money! I'll write shitty articles for you!

 

[Inziladun]

Yes, of course.

The best storytelling games—Portal, Uncharted 2, Red Dead Redemption, Enslaved, and Bioshock, to name a few—fulfill these needs so slickly that they cast a spell over us, drawing us through the narrative with a tug far more powerful than the simple fun of their gameplay

Uh... am I the only one who found nothing or nearly nothing that could be considered a story? I mean perhaps Portal 2 has bland, simple story just to make any sense in the game that is all about solving puzzles. It was still vastly inferior to Deus Ex HR. The rest however... they don't have any stories at all (oh, except if we consider laughable failures). Bioshock for example... hurrr durr city under water is gone! wat happend! everyone mad! kill evil dude!

Deus Ex HR has a good story, it has it's downsides, but it's pretty solid. It positively surprised me. I can agree that Adam's voice is weird though.

I wouldn't go that far... I mean, I've only played Portal, Red Dead Redemption and Bioshock on that list, but I'd say Red Dead Redemption actually had a pretty good narrative, but I'd happen to be partial to Westerns and it pretty much plays out like a Clint Eastwood flick which is why I think it works so well.

Couldn't tell you how it compares to Deus Ex HR as I'm just now starting a play through.

 

[Regdar]

The author of this article lost all credibility when he said Glados was "an evolving character".

However, can someone explain to me why his criticism (esp. the VA dept.) of DX:HR is invalid?

 

[Angthoron]

DEHR is basically a by-the-book Cyberpunk story, with an almost by-the-book protagonist.

Jensen's missing a few crippling addictions to make him a true cyberpunk hero. Also, I'm not sure how many (grim future) corporate security agents the writer of the article has met, but I would sort of imagine that a guy doing his job while trying to remain in the shadows most of the time would actually kinda sorta sound like that rather than a hormonal wreck.

Not saying they couldn't have done a better job with the voice, but hey! The stellar Portal didn't have a voiced protagonist at all. Except for all the grunts and groans.

 

[Andrej]

Deus Ex HRs lacked the really good conspiracies from DX1, but other than that the story of flying too close to the sun is great.

 

[Radisshu]

What a shitty fucking article.

 

[Secretninja]

I just finished playing the game and came to the codex to join the discussion and found this....

My brian is borked.

 

[Regdar]

Jensen's missing a few crippling addictions to make him a true cyberpunk hero.

Yeah I always thought he was missing something. And they even made it so he doesn't have to take that drug for his implants. It's implied he drinks and smokes, but all you see is ashtrays and empty bottles.

They should have focused more on Jensen struggling to come to terms with his "enhancements". I mean, having your limbs replaced with unfeeling, cold metal would lead to depression at best, suicide at worst. Even a tough guy like Jensen has the right to be introvert from time to time. Could have been powerful stuff, if it was done right.

 

[Angthoron]

Yeah, I agree. They could've shown conflict between the in-control ex-swat cold badass guy and a man that's lost his limbs and his girlfriend overnight, I mean, fuck.

Then again, I also can't help but sort of like this approach as well. I mean, think about it, nearly all recent films, and many of the recent games have whiny bitches for protagonists. Who's the great hero and uberfriend of Transformers? A whiny bitch. Who's Spiderman? A whiny bitch. Who's Superman? A whiny bitch. Who's Green Lantern? A whiny bitch. Characters in slasher films are whiny bitches, space ships are piloted by whiny bitches, whiny bitches run the military.

So while it wasn't done terribly well, I kinda like how, while obviously having a fuckton of problems, Jensen isn't actually spending his time bitching, but rather doing his fucking job.

Then again, this is why he's not a by-the-book Cyberpunk protagonist, as they're more or less all damaged one way or another, addicts to this and that, and pretty much all of them are whiny bitches that need to be helped by badass cyborgs with a heart of gold (or a secret agenda).

 

[Baddygoal]

The elements above certainly contribute to a great story, but they, in themselves, do not add up to a story. And only stories can bring home the kind of lesson that Deus Ex wants so desperately to teach us.

What we need—what we all crave—are stories that tap into real humanity, stories that drive their ever-developing characters toward climaxes that challenge them as people, providing a resolution that means something. If we ever hope to see the quality of narrative in games improve, it's time to stop pretending that Deus Ex: Human Revolution and others like it fulfill these duties. It's time for games to drop the plots and start telling stories.

Fucking storyfags

 

[Angthoron]

Fucking ignorant storyfags, you mean. A plot is actually an element that's indispensable from a story.

 

[Gylfi.Fenriz.Conquests]

so the lord of the rings sux because there's no story, just situations and lore digressions?

 

[Burning Bridges]

If anything, Deus Ex's overstuffed plot suffocates its story, smothering all character development and dramatic arc under the giant, overstuffed pillow of its conspiracy-laden narrative agenda.

I bet the author is proud of this sentence. So many words, thematicallly connected adjectives even, so little substance. I could masturbate furiously to it for a whole hour.

The life of a literature major must be so sad.

I guess what he was trying to say was "story is trying too hard". Ironically so is he.