Aaron Caraway

April 12th, 2016 saw the release of Ratchet & Clank on PS4, part of a now 14-year old video game franchise held exclusively on Playstation consoles.

The latest installment in the Ratchet & Clank series is a video game adaptation of the animated movie of the same name, which is an alternative re-telling of the original 2002 title on Playstation 2, conveniently also titled Ratchet & Clank. “The Game based on the Movie based on the Game”, as developer Insomniac Games describes it.

Ratchet & Clank (2016) tells the story of Ratchets joining the Galactic Rangers and saving the galaxy from evil Chairman Drek with a small robot named Clank, originally a warbot in Dreks army but much smaller and less intimidating than intended thanks to some defect. Players explore several alien worlds in their quest to defeat the Blarg (ruled by Chairman Drek of Drek Industries), using various (one such example being the Groovitron, which forces any enemy in the area to dance – another is the Pixelizer, a shotgun which transforms enemies into low-resolution retro versions of themselves) to progress.

Much of the game hearkens back to the original 2002 release, although Insomniac Games does take the opportunity to call attention to other titles in the franchise through popular guns and artwork in the extras menu. The game also uses some scenes directly from the upcoming film.

Ratchet & Clank (2016) is available at any major electronics retailer for 40 dollars exclusively on Playstation 4 consoles. The Ratchet & Clank movie opens in theaters April 29th.

Aaron Caraway

“YOU DIED.” The phrase is boldface, red text, center screen and demands attention. This is the tagline of the Soulsborne series – spanning five separate entries and an updated re-release of one – and has been since 2009 for good reason. Following the success of series progenitor Demons Souls, the first entry in the Dark Souls trilogy released in 2011, and I’ve followed the train of death and despair ever since. There’s a reason this series has such a loyal following, and developer From Software proved you could summarize the reason in two words only – “YOU DIED.”

If that describes the sort of experience that will have you beating your head against a wall in frustration to you, you’re not far off. Recently released Dark Souls III represents the challenges awaiting series newcomers and series veterans alike – you are Unkindled, and tasked with ushering the Lords of Cinder back to their thrones so that you might fuel the First Flame once again before the Age of Dark begins. Much like other games in the Soulsborne series, this is about all the context you get for your adventure – more on that later. I bring this up to highlight that it is the gameplay, not the narrative, that takes center stage.

Dark Souls III‘s gameplay format, like entries before it, is of a “level-boss” format – players will explore area after area, conquering enemies and traps to reach the end. Should you fall at any point in this journey, well, “YOU DIED.” That statement takes all the more meaning when you realize that your souls – the all-encompassing resource for game progression, from leveling your characters stats to upgrading their weapons and purchasing new gear – are no longer on your person, instead left at the spot of your demise. Fail to reclaim them before you fall again, and they – along with whatever progress you made since leveling or upgrading weaponry – will be gone forever. The only things left will be your will to continue forward after such a frustrating setback, and your experience with the game and its obstacles that you have already acquired. This is what has separated the newcomer from the veteran since the release of Dark Souls II – once you’re used to the tricks up From Softwares sleeve, you’re far less likely to fall victim to them. The same holds true for Dark Souls III – I found myself having little trouble with the areas themselves and more with the clash in gameplay mechanics – again, more on that later.

What never quite translates from gameplay in one entry to another is the boss encounters, and Dark Souls III shines just as brightly here as its predecessors. At the end of each area of enemies, traps and moody atmospheres lies a boss that will not hesitate to put you in the ground every single time. What further elevates them past the likes of their predecessors is that now, every boss has two phases, sometimes beginning partway through their health bar or at the depletion of their first one. The level of depth it adds to these encounters is enthralling – managing your supply of Estus Flasks, the main and oftentimes only source of healing in the game, becomes crucial. The more you can save in Phase 1, the better your chances of skating through by the skin of your teeth during Phase 2.

It deserves mention, of course, that you need not face these dangers alone. You’re free to call allies to aid you and with the inclusion of a password system first introduced in Bloodborne, these can now be your friends! Their supply of Estus may be limited and their health scaled down, but the extra pair of hands can mean the difference between life and death for many. Of course, this is not without its drawbacks – more people fighting a boss means its health increases to match, so one unlucky hit and a player may find himself fighting a battle alone meant for two. In addition, to send for such aid, you must be Embered, a state in Dark Souls III that considerably boosts your HP but opens you up to invasions by other players, regardless of it you have souls in the level or if there is anyone available to help you through the world. Believe me, they could care less.

The character you play can also mean as much as who you play with. To begin, the potential for building a play style you enjoy is vast – you can wield heavy weapons, armor and shields, go lightweight with quick-hitting weapons, cast spells of various types such as Sorceries, Miracles and Pyromancies or, if you choose, some combination of these aspects. You are only limited by your progression through the game, and what stats you level – do I get the stats to wield the shield along side my great sword, or the stats to cast that powerful spell I found? The choice is yours, and it means far more than it should, by Dark Souls standards. Released before Dark Souls III, Bloodborne was a spiritual successor to the series – welcomed by the Soulsborne community, it favored fast-paced, skill-based gameplay in a Lovecraftian setting, in contrast to the patience driven fantasy world of the Dark Souls games. Dark Souls III attempted to merge the two styles, with little success. The game is highly enjoyable, sure, but also unreasonably frustrating at times, when the game pits the standard style of play of patience and learning for your survival against the high-speed encounters of Bloodborne. Time and time again, I found myself frustrated with certain bosses and encounters simply because I couldn’t keep up. Although the ability to respect your character can be unlocked early on, it can’t get you back the materials you used to upgrade your weapons of choice, and feeling that spending unnecessary time farming these items and the souls to level was actually a viable course of action spoke to me, as I know from past experience with the Dark Souls games that no such changes could actually improve my performance within the game.

The payoff for clearing these encounters, however, was something that the Soulsborne series strives to do – highlight achievement, and produce a strong catharsis from clearing such a mighty hurdle, no matter its validity. It’s a drug present in both gameplay and narrative, where the distinct lack of direct storytelling has fostered an entire community of players pouring through item descriptions, exploring areas, taking notes and comparing them with fellow lore-seekers, ultimately to themselves paint the world they play in. It is a process of finding oneself, through challenge after challenge, that ultimately shaped the franchise to its current state.This, I find, is the greatest thing about Dark Souls III. It is a sterling example of the creative process, one that pushes players to improve and developers to improve right along side them. It will be flawed, whether inherently or inconsequentially, but it has never stopped, and will never stop, keeping players coming back for more. In the all-too-grim words of Dark Souls III NPC Eygon, “Enough death to leave you broken, time after time.”

Broken in, sure, but who’s counting?

Developer: From Software

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Platform(s): PC, Xbox One, PS4

Release Date: April 12th, 2016

Aaron Caraway

About 16 years of experience playing video games has impressed upon me that there is always an elephant in the room –  video games are often not the preferred entertainment medium among the groups of people I have grown up alongside and interacted with my whole life. To many, gaming is simply a flash game on a school computer or the next big mobile game on smartphones (titles previously the preferred mobile game were Flappy Bird and Angry Birds). However, video games exist to scratch an itch that no other medium – not books, comic books or movies or TV — can ever treat. Video games, through their union of graphics and narrative, and their myriad gameplay styles which impact our perception of genres of mainstream entertainment, are truly the only all-purpose entertainment medium.

Video games have held my interest not necessarily from a historical standpoint but for how that can potentially reach any extreme in an entertainment spectrum between graphics and narrative, two pivotal elements of almost any work of art. Every mainstream work of entertainment exists somewhere along this spectrum: comic books are a marriage of the two, using descriptive artwork alongside dialogue and monologue to convey the characters and scenarios depicted on the page. Books, obviously, lie on the extreme narrative end of this spectrum, conveying every aspect of the work through careful use of words. They aim to not only present the conversations between characters but the actions between characters and their surroundings, giving the reader a mental picture of what is going on in any particular scene without any visual reference. Movies and TV shows can reach a middle ground between graphics and narrative but tend to appeal to the graphics end of the spectrum through film and editing techniques – the intention is often to elevate the narrative beyond what is said or seen onscreen.

Where video games fall on this spectrum depends largely on the developer, but like comic books, each title is a marriage of these two factors. The unique part, however, is that video games are meant to be interacted with by a person, called the ‘player’. Indeed, video games enter a realm untouched by any other medium by virtue of being something the person experiencing it can touch and often times affect. Because of this, neither aspect can dominate the other – the most captivating narratives in video games take place within a world the player can explore and come to understand outside of the exposition and plot points. Likewise, while a game can offer a rich, vibrant world to explore, there is still a narrative – a ‘point’, if you will – to the world around you.

Much as in any other medium, video games are often classified by genre, but unlike any other medium, as these games are meant to be interacted with by a player, the style of gameplay is another classification of the video game medium. Action Adventure, Horror, Comedy, Drama, Mystery – these words alone could describe any piece within a given medium. Just as The Boy is a horror movie, the Resident Evil series (a zombie-apocalypse style tale depicting the outbreak of a virus which heavily mutates the affected population) are all horror games. The Avengers series of movies and the Uncharted series (depicting treasure hunter Nathan Drake on his quests to pursue ancient legends, such as the Lost City of El Dorado) could both be described as Action.

With video games, however, the type of gameplay affects the player’s perception of that genre greatly. A couple of prominent examples of gameplay types are the Fighting Game, the Shooter, and the RPG. Let’s examine these through the lens of the horror genre: A fighting game typically pits two players against each other, or a player against a bot. The Mortal Kombat series (depicting to-the-death struggles between various worlds) could be considered a Horror Fighting Game – the playable characters often look suitably gruesome and scary, using attacks that would be gory in nature like ripping limbs off or incinerating their opponent.

Shooter gameplay can come in two forms – First Person Shooter (FPS) or Third Person Shooter (TPS.) A ‘Horror’ FPS (such as the Left 4 Dead games, which follows a group of 4 characters as they try to survive the zombie apocalypse) would convey to the player, by virtue of the camera being where the characters’ head should be, that they are for all intents and purposes the character. Because of this, particularly scary segments solicit a much stronger response emotionally – when a monster jumps out to attack, they appear to be attacking you – as if they invaded your physical space. A Horror TPS (such as the Resident Evil series), however, would not solicit anywhere near as strong a response. In a TPS, the camera is placed behind your character, usually to either side. That same monster that jumped out to attack you before now appears to be attacking your character, and while the sense of urgency to defeat this creature may remain, you are confident that you are not in danger.

Finally, a RPG – or Role Playing Game – has the potential to offer the most freeform gameplay of all styles. The idea behind these types of games is that at least partially, the character you play is one of your own design – RPGs attempt, in various ways, to make the experience as freeform as possible, allowing you to create your character’s appearance, personality and skill set with your weapons of choice, which may also have been made or customized by you. In a ‘Horror’ RPG such as Bloodborne (an eerily Lovecraftian tale of a nameless persons struggle to cure themselves of a disease plaguing the now-overrun city of Yharnam), and in this same situation where a monster jumps out to attack you, the player would have various methods of dealing with this monster. They may prefer to be up close and personal, carrying the biggest instruments of destruction at their disposal. They may choose to be highly defensive and outlast this monster. They may choose to lure it into a trap, or deal with it from range. Should the opportunity present itself, particularly clever players may find ways to avoid this monster entirely. If the distinction between genres of entertainment due to various gameplay styles is understood from these examples alone, then consider that this is only from one genre and three of the most mainstream gameplay styles used today – taking into account the other genres of entertainment and the myriad of gameplay styles not covered in this piece (and especially taking into account the developers’ takes on these genres, birthing what could be considered a new form of previously understood styles of gameplay), the possibilities are almost endless.

If my decade-and a half interest with video games has taught me anything, it’s that while they are often not the source of entertainment for the public as they are for me, video games afford me the pleasure of visiting worlds and engaging in them in such a way that is impossible in reality. Many may call this ‘escapism’ – this notion that I, and by extension all gamers, choose to play these games and visit these worlds in an effort to leave our own. To those people, I say this: If only it were that simple. If only I simply wished to go to these incredible worlds people dared to create, and leave this one behind. The truth is, however, that I fancy the thought of being a traveler of sorts far more than having travelled – my love for this all-purpose entertainment medium, that which can not be measured simply by graphics and narrative or quantified by their gameplay styles, means that I cannot simply go to some new world and leave well enough alone. I’ve spent 16 years happily exploring works of fiction that we’ll never see happen in reality quite the same way, and that means that I’ve got many stories to tell. For those of you not convinced, enjoy your time on this earth, with people you love and things you like. I’ll be exploring Fallout 4’s Commonwealth, or preparing for my journey into Dark Souls III’s Lothric. If I’ve been able to pique your interest any, feel free to join me.