Another Mans’ Poison

Ico and SotC are two of the most delightful videogames of our time. I find it difficult to understand players who fail to appreciate the lure of either. There are few games which are as deep, emotional, human or beautiful, but as sales figures show not everyone agrees with this position.

As a child of the Seventies I was brought up on a staple diet of incredibly poor graphics yet extremely enjoyable games. The constant yearning for better visuals meant that many of the simple games were blessed with my own imagination to fill in the blanks left by the limitations of the gaming hardware at the time. I figure that this period in my gaming life gave me a valuable insight into why a game is enjoyable. Games such as Atik Atak or Imagine were very playable but lacked visual substance and although I wanted the visuals to improve I was rarely dissatisfied with a game.

Later in my gaming journey as the hardware became more capable, graphics have been given a more pronounced position within the design process. This design ethic leaves games feeling quite cold and empty and the novelty of the pretty pictures quickly wears off. Playing a modern frag-fest such as Gears of War for instance is a very thrilling ride, the graphics are top drawer and the game is playable, but after a few hours of play, after the billionth bullet fired I am so bored of shooting the enemy that I wish for an early gruesome death and experiment with new ways of dying before switching the game off.

Both Ico and SotC have meaningful narratives and both are visually stunning without making the aesthetics a priority. This is rare in today’s’ high definition society and is something which is desperately missing from many modern games. There are some exceptions to this; Farenheit is one highlight of recent times where the visuals are functional but the game-play is designed to encourage the player to make decisions about the development of the plot. I really appreciate games which I can really get my teeth into or games which think ‘outside-of-the-box’ or challenge modern game design to become something more than a visual feast.

The Last Guardian will become a true classic if it retains the same design code that Ico or SotC possess. As the game is on a next generation console its visuals will surely be incredible, but the narrative and game-play should be equally accomplished elevating the game beyond the melee of bump mapped moronic titles which unfortunately occupy the vast majority of the game industries sales. At least I can be relatively sure that Team ICOs’ games will continue to be produced, due in no small part to their critical acclaim, even if the majority of gamers are too shallow to understand such delights of modern design.