RANT 4.0 – Game or interactive fiction?

I just finished my first run through Beyond and I can say I loved every bit of it. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll try to go for the platinum, even if I’m usually no trophy hunter (by the way, what’s going on with yourgamerscards.net ?!?). Beyond is a true David Cage’s product, but it looks and feels better than his previous games.

So why ranting today?

Well, after finishing the game, it just so happened that I started reading a preview on a PS3 magazine. As usual, the story merges with myth, with the author of the article totally inventing part of the story and misleading the reader by jumping to (wrong) conclusion or, worse, making absurd speculations.

The article was indeed written BEFORE the game came out, with only partial information at hand, so some speculations are feasible and understandable, yet …. can you at least state it? Can you make it clear which part of it is actually game (maybe because you have seen it in a demo) and which is YOUR conjecture?

But this rant has really been written for another reason. As you might well know, Davide Cage has devoted his entire career in the attempt of merging movies and games in order to give the player the most immersive experience possible. Despite the fact that this is no easy task, David took on his mission very seriously and all his products show the constant progress he (and his team) has achieved. Nonetheless, even today, the internet is literally broken in a “religious war” where the “gamers faction” as opposed to the one who believes this is just an interactive fiction with a B-movie plot and no replay value at all.

WHAT THE HELL! Are you guys serious? Every day I hear people complaining that the game industry shows no innovation, that producers only go for the easy buck with games that are often no more than old stuff with new wrapping, that games have lost their capability of telling a story and they are just too expensive to be worthy.

Well, my opinion is that David’s games ARE a different genre of its own. They are games but they are also movies; they have a good story and, just like real life, they sometimes have frantic moments and some other times are sad, or boring, or move you to tears.

So … game or interactive fictions? My answer is: who cares? I played the game and I will play it again. If you don’t like it, just don’t buy it!