“The only failing in the otherwise truly excellent Modern Warfare 2 was that the story felt quite old-school”
David Braben has kick-started his new column in Develop by exploring the current state of game narrative.
The Develop Legend Award winner opened his account by opining that narrative could turn out to define the current generation of software, and is therefore “a foolhardy thing to ignore.”
Briefly fixing the discussion on Infinity Ward’s Modern Warfare 2, Braben revealed high praise for the game in all aspects save for one, wittily observing: “There might as well have been a lava level, for all that the story mattered to me”.
Said Braben: “My point is when we look back at it from the future – when the combat is no longer best in class – it will feel dull, like those almost storyless cowboy films of the '50s (not featuring John Wayne), shown endlessly on TV in the early ‘70s, but that have thankfully now been forgotten.”
He added that talented storytelling is coming ever more to the fore in the game sector, citing Fallout 3, Mass Effect and Dragon Age: Origins as great examples of non-linear storytelling.
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Elsewhere in the column – which you can read in full here – Braben made it abundantly clear that he loves Star Wars and Sci-fi movies.
When Peter Molyneux says that traditional story telling in games is dead (BAFTA Annual Games Lecture), we should listen. Episode and and DLC content being the future, doesn't this set Infinity Ward / Activision as a market leader by default, having the biggest user base and best combat simulation. If the whole story is told in the main release, how can spin off merchandise like comics, anime, etc. be implemented. Having visited Infinity Ward recently, I can attest to how hard they are working on follow on content. Even authors of fictional books, don't tell the whole story in one go, e.g. Harry Potter...
I really don't agree whatsoever - perhaps my take on the story was different to Mr Braben's here, but in my playthrough I was positively sucked into the story every step of the way through MW2. The backstabbing, the teamwork, the narration, the voice-acting, the storyline developments made throughout... There are a lot of things that could have easily spoilt MW2, perhaps a gentle nod towards Braben's own vapourware "The Outsider" could suggest why developing more "dynamic" storylines has its own negative effect on development, let alone gameplay.
i have played and completed the game and i was disappointed with the ending but it did possibly leave an opening for the theard game to come in and leave off where this finnished.
So I nether agree or disagree.
