As expected, I found the second week of Deus Ex to be a lot more relaxing than the first week. I had a better feel for the game and my character had a full inventory; this meant that my brain could stop seeing potential disaster every time I failed to be perfect at something and start letting me enjoy going through the levels, letting me appreciate the environments and world-building.
What I wasn’t expecting: the plot started to get more interesting. It turns out that your brother is on the side of the terrorists, that the big military government organization you’re part of isn’t always on the side of the angels. (Big surprise, I know.) I liked the way this was revealed, with you making it through a terrorist base only to discover at the end that your targeting icons were green instead of red, and then to learn that the reason is that your brother has asked the “enemy” forces to stand down.
I didn’t so much like the way you were forced to join the NSF almost immediately after that: I trust my brother more than my former coworkers, but at that point in the game the NSF and UNATCO looked like two organizations that had dubious motives and were both way too violent for my tastes. (At least in the real world, in the game I hand out bullets like party favors. Um, like arsenic-laced party favors?). So I’d really rather have some time to sort this out, instead of being forced to quickly and affirmatively choose to throw in my lot with the NSF. Still, better that than a game in which you stay with UNATCO the whole time; and my subsequent misgivings about the situations where I was encouraged to kill UNATCO troops (i.e. my former coworkers) are something I’m not used to experiencing in a game.
Another change that I wasn’t expecting: I believe (though I could be wrong) that the frequency/density of hostiles in levels is decreasing. In the first week, my favorite part of the game was the UNATCO HQ, where you could wander around a reasonably rich environment without worrying about hostiles at all. In this week, the MJ12 prison had some number of hostiles, but there weren’t very many of them, and they came in small groups, giving a very similar effect: I could spend most of my time just sticking my nose in places.
Hmm, that’s actually something worth thinking about: what is the purpose of enemies in narrative games? I’m pretty sure they have some purpose; I also suspect that a lot of narrative games could have a lot fewer enemy encounters without their narrative structure losing anything. I’ll have to think about that one. (The joys of twittering while blogging: before finishing this, Matthew Gallant pointed me at this Man Bytes Blog post.)
(A similar point, which I hope I will find time to expand into a blog post soon: what is the point of failing songs in Rock Band? I was playing in world tour mode with Miranda today; I generally enjoy the game more when I’m playing in expert mode, but if I do so and we run into one of the wrong two (or three or five) songs, then I won’t be able to make it through the song, which is no fun for either of us. And I’m not sure there’s a good reason for me to have to make the choice of less enjoyment versus failure in that context.)
I continue to be pleased with the VGC’s choice of second game, and in particular I’m very impressed by the quality of discussion in the forums. I’m very curious what next week’s play will bring.
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This manner of discussion was one that helped spur me into starting my own blog. When my friend Cap’n Perkins and I were initially discussing the enemies in Oblivion, we were marking how different games provide varied challenges in their enemies. The model he was facing was providing him more reward in satisfaction than others by making him feel he had accomplished something.
Deus Ex does not have the same feel in its AI/enemies, though it does provide an interesting nuance on the second type of gameplay we identified, which is that of an enemy that isn’t necessarily overwhelming you, but they do have a certain advantage over you for some time (we also concluded that this one normally came hand in hand with the cannon fodder idea of enemies who were there as marking posts until the next more difficult challenge).
So, the purpose of enemies? In most forms of narrative there does exist some form of conflict, and since we rarely deal with the internal or social aspects of conflict in games that one can find in other narratives, it tends to be outward representations of this to move the plot forward. However, because of the interactive element, this means it is in direct opposition to the character’s goals. In a book, I just read through the conflict, in a game I have to take arms against it.
I also am very pleased at the discussion happening in the forums. Seeing that the chapter I just finished (the NSF Airfield) has over 100 posts in it is definitely something that makes me groan when I start reading through them, and then something from which I have to tear myself away to post my own thoughts before I forget them in the concepts through which I find myself gleefully swimming.
9/14/2008 @ 9:35 pm
I think the enemies in Deus Ex have a very important narrative purpose. They force you to seriously consider how to approach any given situation and put a human face on the political struggle, emphasizing that the true cost of these sorts of schemes is the little guy, the grunts, and the innocents.
9/15/2008 @ 3:09 am
Yeah, that’s a good point: if I’m going to complain about enemies in a narrative game, Deus Ex is the wrong example to use. Or at least not the best example: I still suspect that the enemies could be thinned out further, but at least it’s not like, say, Eternal Sonata, where I got nothing from the vast majority of enemy encounters.
9/15/2008 @ 7:03 pm