I want to collect some of the titles that made an impression on me as not games. Titles -often videogames- that were remarkable because of other reasons than their game design. This doesn't mean that they were poorly designed games. Just that they had something more, something other, that I found more memorable and inspiring. I'll try to explain what that something was.
This is an ongoing post. I'll add to this over time.
But feel free to comment and make suggestions.
Or add your own titles.Ceremony of InnocenceCeremony of Innocence is one of the best examples of the "games for grown-ups" that were made in the 1990s. These "games" were simply called CD Roms, after their medium. And sadly, their production was stopped when the World Wide Web took off and removed the need for CD Roms. Since then, it's been a struggle to get back to that level of maturity and artistic quality in games.
Ceremony of Innocence was created by Alex Mayhew in Peter Gabriel's Realword studio. It was based on an experimental novel by Nick Bantock. But the CD Rom is far more interesting than the book, in my opinion. It immerses you in the mysterious romantic correspondence between two people who don't know each other. It's one of very few interactive pieces that actually deals with falling in love.
Doom 2Doom 2 was a revelation for me because I felt completely immersed in its environment. The gameplay was simple enough (or I was young enough to tolerate it) to allow me to explore the abandoned scientific complex infested with alien monsters. I'm still not entirely sure why Doom 2 was so much more successful than many of its far more realistic looking successors.
In part it may have been its tongue-in-check humour that washed away any issues of suspension of disbelief. The kitschy MIDI rock music was also very memorable.
Tomb Raider 1I remember being amazed by how smart the camera was in Tomb Raider. To a large extent, Tomb Raider felt like a realization of the promise made by Doom 2. Instead of representing a three-dimensional environment through symbolic elements, Tomb Raider simply presented a view of a world that really existed.
As opposed to its many sequels, Tomb Raider 1 focussed largely on exploration and adventure. It was just you, all alone, in forgotten landscapes and abandoned ruins. Occasionally you met an animal. The encounters with humans (almost always gun fights) were the only blemishes on an otherwise spotless experience.
IcoIco must have been the first game, and still one of very few, where you could release the controller and still feel part of the world. The bond between you and the main character, Ico, mirrored by his bond with his companion Yorda, felt very strong. Playing Ico was a deeply emotional experience. I really cared for the little guy. And I was fascinated by Yorda's autonomy. The experience felt more like a collaboration, a conversation, an understanding between player and game than a manipulation of the game by a player.
Half Life 2 - first chapterI was over military shooter games by the time Half Life 2 was published. But we had a friend at Valve who gave us a free copy and I felt I owed it to him to play it. I was immensely surprised and delighted playing through the first chapter of Half Life 2. Valve had succeeded in painting a living world that I could step into and feel a part of. The fascinating narrative elements of the alien invasion and the beauty of the environments were more than enough to satisfy me. To see such splendour degrade into a banal shooter and then later into a utter horror (when they forced me to hurl living bodies through space) must have been one of my greatest disappointments in gaming. I
reviewed it back then (and got seriously flamed for it).
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