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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019-2023): A Narrative Analysis

February 3, 2024November 25, 2024Posted in ArticlesTagged 141, Barry Sloane, Call Of Duty, Campaign, Coalition, Design, Farah, Games, gaming, Ghost, Graves, Konni, Makarov, Modern Warfare, Online, Open Combat Zone, Price, reviews, Story, Trilogy, Video Games, Warzone, WritingLeave a comment

I always have a sense of excitement and trepidation when picking up a new Call of Duty game.

I don’t play online shooters so I know I’m not the target audience who love their team deathmatches and their Battle Royale modes, rather I drop my cash for the story.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare sparked an interest in this sometimes-maligned side of CoD with its depiction of stealthy SAS toughs behind enemy lines as well as the big bombastic spectacles of an invading US force.

When Modern Warfare got rebooted in 2019 I picked it up to see what new narrative threads had been added. I wasn’t too bowled over (you can read more here), but I was interested to see where the franchise went next.

And so a few days ago I played through all of the new Modern Warfare games to get a full overview of the for a deep dive analysis.

“Bravo Six Going Dark” – The Modern Warfare Reboot Trilogy: An Analysis

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is one of the best paced games in the history of gaming.

Its sense of timing and when to ratchet up tension is perfect displayed by its two playable factions, the SAS and the US Marines.

The SAS sneak and use subterfuge while the US Marines use every weapon known to man to obliterate their enemy.

It is a balancing masterclass of the scalpel and the sledgehammer.

CoDs from World at War through MW2, Black Ops, MW3, and beyond dialled back the scalpel in for more sledgehammers, until 2019 when the first of the MW reboot released.

This game is 90% scalpel, a complete reverse of the previous CoDs and in retrospect quite refreshing.

Super sneaky “tactical” games had been popular in the years preceding CoD4, mainly helmed by the Rainbow Six series and it seemed that the new CoD was going to take more of a stealthy approach to a first-person shooter.

This is exemplified by the most well-known mission from MW 2019, “Clean House”. The player works as part of the SAS and clearing out a terrorist cell that has set up shop in a town house in north London.

Bathed in the green light of night vision with hardly any musical notation, the mission is tense, with many tight corners, hidden terrorists and tough calls needing to be made on the use of lethal force.

_{A night-time raid on a house in Camden Town is tense and thrilling, with tight corners and hidden enemies. (Source: callofduty.fandom.com)}

The coin-flip of rules of engagement and civilian presence is highlighted quite a lot in the game, with “Embedded” and “The Embassy” asking the player to leave unarmed civilians to be hanged or shot and “Old Comrades” putting the player on the other side and threatening a terrorist’s family with a gun.

These missions show the new face for the story in relation to the hot contemporary political topics of the time. CoD4 visually referenced the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and CoD 2019 takes similar inspiration with terrorist attacks in highly populated areas, siege events like Benghazi and female-led resistance forces.

Speaking of which, the character of Farah who is the head the resistance of Urzikstan (the fictional Black Sea country and centre of conflict) is very welcome in a game series that does not have much space for female roles. She speaks both English and Arabic, and its refreshing to have entire sections with subtitles, again, something that until recently wasn’t widely accepted in gaming.

Players experience a lot of key moments with Farah and her brother Hadir, with a memorable missions including the two as children and having to use improvised weaponry like scissors to defend themselves from invading Russian forces, or being waterboarded when they are taken prisoner.

The rest of the cast are also good characters, with CIA instrument “Alex” being entrenched with Farah and the rebels, his handler Laswell (another female character and one in authority), and then the two British lads, Kyle “Gaz” Garrick and Captain Price. All the actors put in stellar performances.

_{From L to R: “Alex”, Price, Gaz, and Farah, the main characters of Modern Warfare (2019). I was happy to see all of these characters returns across the trilogy. (Source: metro.co.uk)}

However, the reasoning behind Gaz and Price being involved in the story is an annoying stretch. Price is with the SAS and Gaz is part of the CTSFO but then the CIA spook Laswell can just call up and get him to seemingly abandon his post to hunt down a terrorist leader.

It’s a weird exceptionalism that was pervasive towards the end of the previous MW trilogy, of Price playing four-dimensional chess with his enemy and being excused because he is the only man capable of averting world destruction.

Price even says that to Gaz towards the end of MW 2019. Gaz is frustrated by the rules of engagement in the CTFSO and so Price recruits him for his taskforce. But when Prices threatens and unarmed woman and child as “leverage” over a terrorist, he moralises it to Gaz, saying,

“End of the day somebody has to make the enemy scared of the dark. We get dirty and the world stays clean.”

Price talks about the blood on his hands and lines in the sand and it feels like it’s going to crescendo with a message, a personal story of violence and limits to rationalise his view, but it’s left as it is and ends more as an encouragement rather than an indictment of morally grey warfighters.

_{In “Hometown” a seven-year-old Farah has to defend herself from Russian troops, but doesn’t have the physical strength to pull the trigger. (Source: callofduty.fandom.com)}

The game ends on a sledgehammer peak with all the characters joining forces and sieging a Georgian chemical plant and taking back Farah’s homeland from the invaders.

It’s notable also for the death of “Alex”, who doesn’t go out in a blaze of glory, firing his weapon with one hand and killing several enemies, but instead with a smile and a “yes ma’am”.

The bombs the team places are damaged and someone has to stay behind to detonate them. Farah is ready to sacrifice herself to her cause, but “Alex” tells her someone still needs to deal with the rogue Russian General Barkov and that should be her task.

“Alex” says, “I’ve been on assignment my whole life. This…is one I believe in.” While he is dedicated to the fight, he can’t win the war for her. It has to be Farah to free her country from Barkov and in the end she “orders” him to blow up the plant while she defeats the general.

It’s a great moment of small heroics and knowing where one is placed in the grand scheme of the world and the only downside is that “Alex” is a warm and calming presence in a game of dark and cold look through inhumanity.

_{“Alex” and Farah’s connection is one of the lighter points of the story and something rarely seen in shooters, let alone a CoD game. (Source: YouTube: BabyZone)}

So the world is saved, Urzikstan is freed, and Price talks with Laswell about a new taskforce with some choice friends from the SAS. He names himself, Gaz, Soap, and Ghost as his core team and gives them the name 141.

Obviously being a reboot there were going to be some mentions of characters, places, events and reworks.

Garrick being revealed as Gaz was nice and lends a smidge of diversity to the core characters, but apart from that there wasn’t any big or well-reasoned connections to the original.

Sgt. Griggs returns in a blink-and-you-miss it role in “Hunting Party”. General Shepherd, Zakhaev, Pripyat, and Al-Asad all get name dropped in the end credit scenes.

The most egregious references for me were of memes from the original Modern Warfare.

The line “check your corners” in CoD4 became an internet joke due to the way Price performs and repeats it in the level “Crew Expendable”.

The line is used again by Price in the reboot during a terrorist attack in “Picadilly” and would fit the moment…expect it has over a decade’s worth of meme-baggage attached to the phrase.

The same happens in the mission “Highway of Death”, where while testing a high-powered rifle the player is asked to shoot a piece of fruit.

When a shot is landed a friendly NPC says, “His fruit-killing skills are remarkable.” Again, it could fit the scene, but just pulls me out of the moment.

But with that final note, let’s move onto Modern Warfare II.

For the following, MW2 will refer to the 2009 game and MWII will refer to the 2022 game.

_{From L to R; Alejandro, Soap, Ghost, Price, and Gaz, the leads of MWII and TF141. (Source: callofduty.com)}

Modern Warfare II follows in its namesake’s tradition of being bigger, bolder, and brasher than its predecessor, dialling in a few more sledgehammers but having them disguised as scalpels.

Like the original MW2, the story in the previous game is mostly left in the past, with only passing references to the Al-Qatala (AQ) terrorist organisation and Urzikstan. Instead MWII carves out its own special forces story and to most intents and purposes it succeeds…just.

Just like MW 2019, it has a great collection of characters who perform the hell out of the script, with interesting locations and missions.

Mexican Special Forces characters Alejandro and Rodolfo are cool additions to the multi-culti team of 141 and add the sense that global terror can lay anywhere (with a large dose of dialogue in Mexican Spanish with subtitles).

Ghost and Soap join the gang, with a fun buddy-cop dynamic between the two adding a great dose of levity throughout the game. Farah returns for a fun vehicle-based mission, and Gaz and Price seem to have grown further than a simple mentor/mentee connection. Everyone gets more to play with and there is a real sense of teamwork and camaraderie between the factions.

We also get a clearer introduction to another player in the MW series, Shadow Company and its leader, Commander Graves.

Shadow Company always struck me as an curveball inclusion in the old Modern Warfare series, but that was before I understood what PMCs were and what they did.

Still, it was unclear what Shadow Company’s role was in relation to Shepherd in the original, but in the reboot I think their uneasy quasi-affiliation with TF141 is an interesting comment on the nature of a modern war setting.

_{Graves is charismatic and calculating, always with a smirk on his face. No wonder he became a villain. (Source: rumble.com)}

Like the original MW2, the story of MWII focuses on the power vacuums left after Western aggression and what fresh horrors arise when left unchecked.

The stealthy aspect is back with the majority of missions featuring silencers and night-time settings.

Some standout set-pieces including infiltrating an Amsterdam harbour through water, avoiding enemy patrols in Mexico during a rainstorm, or breaking into a cartel lord’s mansion for a face-to-face confrontation.

Every other mission feels new for the series with dialogue sequences, improvised weapons, swimming, climbing, and rappelling, and rarely are they one-and-dones, trotted out for a single sequence and then dropped like previous titles.

Instead most missions layer these aspects atop one another, leading to a more versatile play session.

The references to previous games are a 50/50 split on how they land. Two missions highlight it perfectly. First is the mission “Recon by Fire”. Taking notes from what is considered to be the best mission in CoD history, “All Ghillied Up”, “Recon by Fire” is a sniping/stealth mission on a remote island.

Price and Gaz are in Ghillie Suits, they have their long range silenced rifles, and they are heavily out-gunned by the occupying force, just needing to get to their objective with as few casualties as possible.

It even remakes the hiding-in-the-grass-as-enemies-pass scene from CoD4, with Price voicing a one-to-one recreation of MacMillan’s lines. And it just doesn’t work for me.

Part of “All Ghillied Up”’s charm was its tension. You had to use stealth and tactics because you were extremely outgunned. When the tanks rumble past as you hide in the tall grass, it’s meant to make you feel small and powerless.

In “Recon by Fire”, no tanks roll past, just a squad walks around you. A squad that two minutes later I could take out with my rifle with no issues.

The game goes semi-open world with how to approach its objectives and how to shoot, giving the complete opposite of having to be stealthy and tactical because at some point the bullets have to start flying.

_{A lot of the news posts and videos name “Recon by Fire” as “All Ghillied Up 2”. Nearly twenty years on it is still the high point of Modern Warfare. (Source: sportskeeda.com)}

Contrast this with “Dark Water”, a double mission where the player first has to infiltrate an oil rig hosting missiles and then a container ship close by which has the launch capabilities. It is a direct reference to “Crew Expendable” and “The Only Easy Day…Was Yesterday” from the first two MW games respectively.

But while it recreates similar settings, it has the player do different tasks. On the rig it’s a search and destroy rather than a rescue, leading to different tactics. On the ship, the cargo containers are sliding around, creating hazards and blockages for the player.

That isn’t to say that MWII is just a greatest hits of previous levels. One levels that I feel is unique is “Borderline”, with Mexican Special Forces leads Alejandro and Rodolfo seeing an Iranian major smuggled over the US border wall and following him over despite knowing they are breaking the rules of engagement.

The mission is a suspenseful evening chase through the backyards of a sleepy border town, with short but punchy engagements and civilians getting mixed up in the action.

Several times the civilians will threaten and attack Alejandro and Rodolfo as the two follow their target. The NPCs hold baseball bats or reach for guns with the player instructed to “de-escalate” the situation…by aiming their gun at the other person.

It’s a little shocking at the start but questions start to arise as soon as it appears. Alejandro and Rodolfo break into these peoples’ houses to follow their target. They could easily call out that they are Special Forces to pre-emptively de-escalate the situation and move on as quickly as possible.

In later levels the game uses a wide branching dialogue system so the thought could be why not use it here to verbally de-escalate? Instead the only option is to threaten anyone who gets in the way.

Branching dialogue is used a lot in “Recon by Fire” between Gaz, Price, and Laswell and it’s delightfully charming and light banter, something I wish the game had more of.

_{“Borderline”‘s pacing and escalation of combat encounters are good, with spikes of controlled gunfire punctuating the tense atmosphere. (Source: medium.com)}

But a final point I want to make is that while we have these great set pieces and characters…yet there is an underlying hardline conspiratorial edge to the story.

While the Americans in MW 2019 annoyed me for their frat-boy egos and Captain Price unnerved me with his “Hard Times Deserve Strong Men”-esque speech, MWII ties together both Middle Eastern terrorist organisations and the Iranian Military with Mexican cartels and traffickers.

It sounds like the most buzzworthy radical viewpoints born out of too much Fox News and a Tom Clancy marathon. They even try to rationalise it when Alejandro says, “terrorists don’t cross the southern border”, only for Laswell to reply, “They know that and we know that and that’s exactly why they are going to do it.”

There are multiple conversations between Gaz and Price and Alejandro with the rest of 141 about how the relationship between Iran and the cartels work, but most of it comes down to “money” or nebulous “power”, without any further dissection of the topic.

While the original MW trilogy could never be thought of as critical of American military might or nuanced with geo-political matters, it never got deep into outright paranoia over the enemy.

All the previous Russian baddies were labelled as “Ultranationalists” to differentiate them from the state and people of Russia. In MWII it seems as if the baddies are a cabal of different groups all bent on weakening the West.

As usual with MW sequels, there are several twists and turns on loyalties and alliances throughout the campaign. While I saw breadcrumbs to a final surprise, in the end I was preparing for a curveball that never came.

There are subtle references that the Mexican army have taken over cartel business, or that fan-favourite Ghost was taking orders not from 141 but General Shepherd and Shadow Company and it felt like there would be one final twist on who can we trust.

But no, MWII ended rather like how MW2 ended, with Shadow and Shepherd pushed to the sides so that the stage was free for series baddy Vladimir Makarov to take centre stage in time for Modern Warfare III.

_{The great moustachioed one returns, with new actor Barry Sloane giving Price both warmer tones and darker shades. (Source: news.blizzard.com)}

Modern Warfare III released only one year after MWII with a development time of only sixteen months.

It was an incredibly rushed development schedule and I do not want to pour scorn on the developers, artists, writers, producers, QA, sound, and anyone else who helped make these games.

It seems every aspect of the game from campaign to multiplayer has already been criticised for its lower quality, but I wanted to make a mention of it before I got to my position first.

Because the game does have some excellent moments, including its opening.

We start literally and metaphorically in the dark, with only a submarine’s sonar blips for a soundscape. We see soldiers in wetsuits preparing for a stealthy mission, swimming through the darkness and surfacing outside a island prison fortress.

The missions title “Operation 627” indicates that this will be a breakout mission, referencing MW2’s famous “The Gulag”.

As the team ascends the fortress walls and picks off lone guards, they all speak with British or American accents. They use slang words commonly used by Price and Gaz. Their use of weapons and tech indicates they are highly trained.

A diversionary explosion allows the soldiers to slip into the prison, where they then descend, taking out guards along the way and freeing prisoners as an extra layer of chaos for their escape. The intruders reach their end goal, freeing a prisoner in solitary confinement, who turns out to be Vladimir Makarov.

The whole operation was a bait-and-switch, giving the impression of a 141 mission but instead conducted by Makarov’s private military.

_{Makarov was front and centre for a lot of the promotion, being almost a deuteragonist of the Modern Warfare brand. (Source: pixground.com)}

It’s a cool opening, heavily-scripted as the start of most CoDs are, and it has a great contrast of both scalpel and sledgehammer woven throughout. While some may call it a cheap switch trick, I think it’s a short yet strong opening to pump players ups and get them into the action.

We’ve had Russian characters speaking English before (one of the most infamous lines from CoD is “No Russian”) and the 627 is more a wink and a nod to players who remember.

Makarov’s return was inevitable, yet it seems to have fallen rather flat in comparison to the original.

While Makarov was also first introduced at the beginning of MW2, I think players saw him as a “bogeyman”, always being just one step ahead of the player, in our minds but never in our crosshairs.

This was strengthened by “No Russian”. Having Makarov next to you gave him a sense of permanence. In MWIII, I feel he has a cutscene quality, always somewhere but never a strong presence.

While names in a reboot will always bring a form of background knowledge, Makarov’s credentials in MW2 were strengthened by his association with original MW baddy Imran Zakhaev.

Here, he’s just a guy who wants to watch the world burn. But maybe the vague impulses of Makarov will come clearer later in the game. So let’s move onto the next mission, “Previous Cargo.”

We welcome the return of Farah…and then blink and scratch our heads at the return of “Alex” and Commander Graves, both apparently alive and well after their supposed explosive ends in MW and MWII respectively.

When I saw “Alex” and Graves return I had to search if I had missed a cutscene or a line of dialogue that indicated they had escaped alive in either campaign.

Sure the player never sees a definitive end of the two characters, but “Alex” being alive negates his character development in MW, and Graves being alive and then also a “friendly” hurts the Shadow Company arc of MWII.

I think this is what people refer to when they criticise the game, the fact that two dead characters, one from nearly five years ago, just pop up without a hint of how they survived.

Farah’s mission twists unexpectedly with the arrival of the “Konni” group attacking Farah’s militia and stealing missiles. While Konni haven’t been mentioned by name before in the series, they did feature in one mission in MWII, and are Makarov’s private army.

I’ll forgive the name not being dropped previously. Game scripts get cut and shuffled around numerous times so it could have been a point that was announced earlier that didn’t make the final cut.

I do actually like the background we get on Konni being a private military army with an aim to bring glory back to Russia.

_{“Timing…is everything.” A lot of the cutscenes in MWIII focus on Makarov and his Konni soldiers, fleshing out the organisation. (Source: dotesports.com)}

Makarov’s abilities in MW2 and MW3 were always a bit tenuous, committing a terrorist attack and framing the USA, that works. But then the logical leap to Russia invading the USA, then Makarov somehow orchestrating an invasion all of Europe as well. It just stretched plausibility on how logistically it all works.

Having Makarov’s soldiers be a private military group with a stated goal of restoring a nation’s glory, and have funding and resources for their “missions”, it works better than what in the original seemed to be a single terrorist cell conducting World War Three.

Konni steal missiles that the USA had been giving Farah to use if her country was ever invaded again with their next target being a chemical plant in Russia. 141 deploy but arrive too late to stop Konni from taking them.

Some of the chemicals get leaked and Price nearly succumbs to the gas, falling unconscious once he gets outside. It’s interesting to see the lead character and face of the franchise be put into a situation like that but as Price is a superhero he just sleeps it off on the helicopter ride out.

In the helicopter ride the team discuss what type of gas was being stored there and Gaz mentions that it is, “remnants of Barkov’s program.”

The rogue Russian general that invaded Urzikstan in MW 2019 and the invasion and chemical weapons are mentioned a lot in MWIII, which makes me think that this story might have started as a direct sequel instead of MWII.

I have no inside knowledge on the development of the story but just the connections made with MW 2019 and the return of “Alex” and Farah outside of cameos that were completely absent in MWII make me suspect they could have been plot points that just got shuffled into the sequel.

_{“Alex”‘s appearance gets little explanation (apart from him now having a prosthetic leg) and has only one in-level appearance in the story. (Source: theloadout.com)}

So with both Farah’s missiles and the late general’s chemical weapons, Makarov combines the two and plans to launch from a disused Soviet bunker, and Price and team along with Farah go to stop, but only succeed stopping one missile, which hits Russia.

The whole mission is a reversal of “Ultimatum” from the original MW, of missiles being launched from disused Soviet bunkers.

In the original MW the launch was during gameplay while here it is in a cutscene. It would have been nice with today’s graphics to see such a jaw-dropping sight in-game, but it’s a small thing in the grand scheme of things.

Since the missile that was fired originally belonged to Farah’s group, the world starts to believe that they are committing terrorists acts on Russia. Makarov then sets up another terrorist act, one which looked to be familiar…

Of course the sight of Makarov in an airport, in front of departure boards sent anyone with memory of “No Russian” reeling. Of all the missions to recreate, that one? Well no, not quite.

Again, reboots play with names and iconography and “No Russian” will go down as one of the most infamous missions to ever be in CoD, and the new mission, “Passenger” does try and hit the same note, but with less of an interactive component.

Playing as a retired member of Farah’s female militia, Konni members kidnap the player mid-flight and straps a bomb to her chest, allowing her to take the fall for their plans. There are moments of fighting against air marshals and Konni members, but for only a few minutes.

The missions ends with Konni and Makarov escaping via parachute, and pushing the player character back into the passenger area. While the character pleads with other passengers to help them disarm the bomb, instead the other passengers attack and subdue her, with the bomb exploding and the plane crashing in the wild.

_{As with “Recon by Fire” and “All Ghillied Up”, “Passenger” is referred to as “No Russian 2.0”. (Source: dotesports.com)}

With two terrorists attacks to their name, Farah knows the world is about to turn on her militia and country, and so head to the crash site first to delete any data that would incriminate her forces. She does so…and then it never comes up again.

It’s a bit odd that this thread just ends, instead of Makarov having maybe some backups or other events ready to go, instead betting all is hopes of these two events. The story feels like it has three ending peaks…and its actual ending isn’t any of those peaks, but we’ll get to that later.

With 141 and now the US military on the hunt for Makarov, the team once again join forces with General Shepherd and Graves’ Shadow Company and Price tells the story of his first meeting with Makarov.

Cue flashback sequence, where 141 are responding to a terrorist attack in the fictional city of Verdansk, with Makarov having two locations which may have bombs in them but only enough time to stop one. It’s a classic Dark Knight villain plan and it’s a cool mission, fighting Konni troops in a football stadium filled with fleeing civilians.

It culminates with Soap and Price seeing for the first time Makarov in the flesh, arresting him and exfiltrating, only for it to be revealed Makarov planned another decoy, detonating bombs in a different location.

_{Makarov attempts to flee in an ambulance, a nod to the ending of MW2‘s “No Russian”. (Source: gameranx.com)}

Makarov sneers at the team as their helicopter flies away and tries to goad Soap into shooting him, but they instead let him go to prison, hence his breakout.

Okay, so we get the reveal of why Makarov was in prison, it works, I get it. But the arrest of Makarov doesn’t really fits with the characters of the reboot.

As mentioned before, Price has threatened innocent civilians with a gun and in the original has beaten targets to a pulp. Later he will carry out an illegal assassination in the seat of military power in Washington USA. But here…he leaves Makarov to face his crimes.

Also Makarov seems overly evil. Sure, he’s a terrorist, but I feel Makarov from the original was always a bit cowardly, never fighting his battles, always fleeing or getting others to do his bidding, which gave him some texture. Here he is right in the action and begging 141 to kill him so they are reduced to his level.

Again, this feels like a direct sequel and a wow pop ending for CoD, of getting Makarov but failing the mission, of his indirect win over 141 (ya know, the second in a trilogy always being the darkest thematically), and his cryptic threat of seeing Soap again at a later date.

Back in the present, Konni are about to detonate a bomb in London, and obviously the four Brits that compose 141 are not about to let anything happen to their home turf.

The team fight their way to the bomb site, where Soap and Price work together to try and detonate the bombs…when Makarov appears out of nowhere and shoots Soap in the head, killing him.

Lots has been said about the scene, about the casual way Soap, THE original playable character in CoD4 and a figurehead of the Modern Warfare brand, is offed without a big show, just during an incoherent scuffle and then boom…yeah it does kind of sting.

Soap does die in the original trilogy in MW3. Players help carry a wounded Soap through an entire level and then see Price break down into sobs and screams as his friend takes his last breath and all in-game as well.

It’s then followed up with another iconic scene, “Why in bloody hell does Makarov know you?”, creating a bookend to the character across the trilogy.

_{Soap’s death in the original MW trilogy was drawn out for extended pathos. In the reboot, I wish we had got to spend more time with the man. (Source: callofduty.fandom.com)}

And then MWIII ends. The three remaining 141 boys scatter Soap’s ashes, Graves and Shepherd escape their comeuppance at the Supreme Court so Price kills the latter.

Makarov escapes to fight another day…which I guess makes this trilogy analysis a bit underwhelming, as it’ll be another untold amount of games until the one-man war between Price and Makarov ends.

***

I’ve had a whole lot of feelings across this trilogy.

When I first saw the announcement trailer with Price and the name Modern Warfare being used, I thought it was a purely cynical release.

CoD had been struggling in the years before the MW reboot.

2016’s Infinite Warfare’s trailer had at one point the second most-disliked video on YouTube. CoD4’s remaster, releasing at the same time, was only available via Infinite Warfare’s collector’s edition.

2017’s WWII was seen as a naked attempt to course correct from the increasingly future-based combat, and then Black Ops 4 didn’t even have a single player story mode.

So it seemed to me and many people that 2019’s offering was going to play it safe, a nice jaunt down memory lane with Captain Price and be nothing more. And while I had issues with MW 2019, I was interested in seeing where it went afterwards.

Not to mention, in 2020 there was Black Ops: Cold War, one of the best first-person shooter campaigns of its generation, which also took a series which was skewed to sledgehammers and did the same 90% scalpel reverse to tremendous results.

_{Everything in Cold War, from its characters, to its pacing, twists, and even how it ties back to the original game make it one of the best CoD campaigns to date. (Source: news.xbox.com)}

MWII‘s story and new additions have grown on me the more I played it with time, and I wished that it had carried over a few more points into MWIII.

Speaking of which, MWIII isn’t bad. And I get the story is probably the thing which takes lowest priority in comparison to multiplayer and Warzone. Not to mention the incredibly rushed development time probably wasn’t the best place to write in.

But with Makarov only really coming into the trilogy in the final game, coasting on his reputation from the original, and then fleeing the scene just before the end credits, the death of Soap, and the muddy nature of continuity, I just have to say I’ve lost my spark of interest for now.

Give it some time and a proper development schedule and I’m sure it can come back to greatness. I think that’s a wish we can all get behind.

_{Banner Photo Source: twitter.com}

Bully – Discovering a Classic

December 22, 2023August 20, 2025Posted in ArticlesTagged Anniversary, Bully, Canis Canim Edit, Design, Games, gaming, Grand Theft Auto, GTA, GTA 6, Jimmy Hopkins, Rockstar, Rockstar Games, San Andreas, School], Story, VI, Vice City, Video Games, Writing1 Comment

I’ve recently been doing a backlog binge of older open-world games I never got to play the first time around.

Titles have included the Guy Ritchie-inspired The Getaway, which simulates ten square miles of London for its story. Another is Mafia, which uses its city more for immersion into its 1930s world than for regular open-world hi-jinks.

The other old open-world game that I’ve been playing and has captured my heart is the infamous Bully.

Bully (also known as Canis Canim Edit) is such an unique game, even among Grand Theft Auto clones.

Despite releasing originally on the sixth generation PlayStation 2 and then re-released on the seventh, eighth, and now ninth console generation, the game never got a sequel, which I feel is a terrible pity.

I wanted to write about my experiences playing, because Bully deserves to be experienced, even so long after its time in the spotlight.

Dog Eat Dog – Why I Love Bully

Bully was developed by Rockstar Vancouver, a Canadian offshoot of the “Rockstar” brand, known for Grand Theft Auto.

While Rockstar North developed GTA, other studios effectively built GTA clones. Rockstar San Diego created Red Dead Redemption in 2010, and in 2006 Vancouver created Bully.

It’s both amusing and interesting to see GTA, the ultimate adults-only game, have to fit the mould of a schoolboy simulator.

Each new scenario took me by surprise as Bully would put its own spin on the standard GTA tropes.

The missions, vehicles, characters, authority, Bully has all the ingredients for GTA but they are tweaked just a little to accommodate both the cast and the age rating (Bully was released as a 15+ rather than the 18+ of GTA).

Things like spray-painting offensive words onto walls, riding a BMX into town to go to the carnival, Halloween pranks, Christmas snowball fights, Sports Days, it creates a charming atmosphere of being made for rebellious teens who aren’t allowed GTA, but doesn’t patronise the player either.

And while some games could lose shine as more time is spent in them, this charm of “new-yet-familiar” kept me coming back to Bully, both for the boarding school role-play and simulation, as well as the wilder moments that it invents for the story.

_{Hiding from the prefects after dropping a firecracker down the toilet…again. (Source: rockstargames.com)}

Bully does actually play a lot like a roleplaying game with its school timetable. There are six classes; Chemistry, English, Art, Gym, Shop, and Photography.

While some main missions require a particular level (the second half of the game focuses a lot on photography), a player can easily play truant and miss out on classes all together, with no real consequences unless they are caught.

However these classes give you different abilities once you pass. Chemistry allows for restocks of the player’s arsenal (all schoolboy things like firecrackers, bags of marbles, and stink bombs among others).

Art allows the player to kiss girls and boys for a health boost, and Shop lets the player upgrade their BMX, one of the better ways to get around the world.

The game also works on a yearly calendar, starting with the beginning of school term in September and finishing sometime in the summer. This allows for standout missions around Halloween and Christmas, but it’s more than just one-off episodes.

Being set in New England, the seasonal change is dramatic. At the start of the game, the leaves are coloured anywhere from red to yellow and occasionally fall from the trees alongside the odd the rain shower.

In the third chapter winter has come to Bullworth, with the cast now sporting big coats, hats, and gloves. The trees are leafless and it gets darker earlier. New props such as snowmen, snowballs, and shovelling snow as a detention are only available in this season.

Once the snow is gone and the trees sprout their new leaves, the rain continues to pour until the final chapter where the sun comes out and signals the start of an endless summer.

_{Climbing a tree and raining down chaos with your slingshot…a true schoolboy experience. (rockstargames.com).}

Bully doesn’t have the most expansive of world compared with stablemates Vice City and San Andreas, but I think it is far more detailed that either of those games.

The school on its own is rather impressive with dorms, a library, gym, locker rooms, football stadium, basketball court, swimming pool, frat house, auto repair shop, and observatory.

Then the main building also houses the headteacher’s office, cafeteria, and the four classrooms, all of which are open and explorable in the game.

The town of Bullworth is split into four distinct areas. Old Bullworth Vale is for the preppy students and faculty members, with mansions overlooking the water and lighthouse.

Bullworth Town is a major shopping district where the Geeks hang out in the comic book store. New Coventry is an run-down urban estate for the Greasers, and finally Blue Skies is a trailer and industrial park where the Townies stay.

On top of the four neighbourhoods Bully also has a map full of extra locations that are used for maybe one mission or are just window-dressing, but give an extra flavour to the world.

Things like the Happy Volts Asylum, a fully working train yard, The Bullworth Dam, a church and graveyard with a preaching vicar, abandoned tenements, Billy Crane’s Travelling Carnival, and the half-sunken pirate ship next to of one of the many islands off the coast, each one gives a little extra spice or history to Bullworth and makes the city fun to explore.

_{Bullworth Academy is only one part of the map, but could easily be its own game. (rockstargames.com).}

Bully does suffer from the same strong neighbourhood lines that were in Vice City and San Andreas, where distinct seams were visible between say the shopping district and the industrial estate, but it’s forgiven for its age.

And despite its small size, I think it feels richer, mainly due to the level of detail that could be afforded a smaller world.

One thing I do enjoy about the game being a small map is that I get to see the same characters again and again wandering around Bullworth.

While in GTA and Red Dead you do see a few of the same faces in the gang hideouts or the saloon, they soon became background characters to the main character’s individual pursuit, only to be interacted with in cutscenes.

With Bully, I always felt this growing sense of getting to know characters, even if there isn’t much outside of a simple positive/negative comment that I can throw out at them.

It perfectly mirrors being a new kid at school, slowing getting to know people as they pass by in the corridor or school grounds, some saying hello or others stopping you with a quest, some that don’t have any greater role in the game or cutscenes that just being a recognisable face in the crowd.

_{School’s out…but sliding down the handrail will still get you into trouble. (Source: rockstargames.com)}

And after a while it’s fun to pass through the school and be able to recognise people; Gloria the kleptomaniac, Mandy/Pinky/Angie/Christy of the cheerleading squad, Algie the nerd, Russell the slow-witted but beefy tank, and Pete, the only sensible and rational character in the entire game.

But as the location is a school, it’s not just school kids walking around. Teachers walk around from class to class, giving a real sense of a school working to a timetable, rather than just cycling through character and animation loops.

And Jimmy Hopkins, the playable lead, seems alright. He does act like a proto-form of a GTA character; he’s brash, confrontational, with streaks of sadism and misogyny, but I’ll excuse it due to him literally being a fifteen year old child.

While Jimmy is definitely ruthless, he is also shown to comfort other characters when they are feeling down and being heroic in other instances like putting out fires in the school.

Jimmy is actually quite interesting as a Rockstar lead, mainly due to his ambivalence to the entire school system. When he first arrives at Bullworth, Jimmy doesn’t look to take over and become its leader. He just wants to get through with the least amount of hassle and then leave.

It’s only to get back at the sociopathic schoolmate and current school ruler Gary that spurs Jimmy forward. The plot is relatively simple in its driving force, but once again it’s the surrounding essence that makes it shine.

The fact that Jimmy has to defeat all the head of the school gangs before ruling the school, how the different cliques vie for control and actually fight in the corridors and grounds, and how most the cast that give missions act like adults in a GTA game when none of them are older than sixteen is endearing.

It reminds me of games like Yakuza or films like Brick, where young characters have latched onto what they thinks makes someone “cool”, where in reality they are just massive dorks acting like their are in their own personal movie, with Jimmy being one of the only “straight men” in the game.

_{Every character in the game takes themselves way too seriously and it makes for some of Rockstar’s funniest work. (Source: rockstargames.com)}

Like I said right at the start of this piece, the theme of Bully is its strongest suit, but that’s not to diminish its other qualities. It’s a classic sixth generation console game, with a strikingly detailed world, a strong and hilarious story, and a great mix of action, exploration, and set pieces.

So if you’re waiting with anxious breath for GTA VI and wanting something to hit that Rockstar itch, or you are just looking for a open-world game that has a different pace and flavour, I think Bully might just be the thing for you. And hey, maybe one day we’ll get a sequel…

_{Banner Photo Source: rockpapershotgun.com.}

Star Wars: The Fighting Game

October 22, 2023September 3, 2024Posted in ArticlesTagged Design, Duel, Duel Mode, Episode 3, Episode III, Film, Games, Jedi, Lightsaber, Prequel, Quantic Dream, Respawn, Revenge of the Sith, Sith, Star Wars, tomclement1, Ubisoft, Versus, Video Games, WritingLeave a comment

I am a big fighting game fan.

One-on-one combat is such a thrilling experience, knowing that through reading your opponent you clutch a win or deliver a flawless victory…it can’t be topped.

I’ve dabbled in all types of fighting games; the traditional martial arts of Street Fighter, Tekken, and Virtua Fighter, to the sword fights of Soul Calibur, and the magical fantasy of Fantasy Strike.

My first proper fighting game though has been a single release, never got a sequel or a re-release, but is still one of the most fun games I played as a child. It is the movie tie-in game for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith.

The mid-2000s were a goldmine for licensed games, being some of most fondly remembered gems of their generation.

Spiderman 2 from 2004 brought physics-based web-swinging into gaming.

King Kong brought one of the best first-person immersive survival games ever.

And X Men Origins: Wolverine brought a level of gore and violence hardly seen in any previous or following incarnation of the character.

And then on top of those greats, Star Wars comes out with one of the best sword-fighting simulations of all time. So today I want to talk about it.

An Elegant Weapon, A More Civilised Age – Star Wars and Lightsaber Duels

Episode III is for the majority of the time a brawling game. Playing as either Anakin Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi, you fight droids, clones, and a few low-level Jedi through the locations of the film.

But every so often, these two will enter a duel with other fighters such as Count Dooku, General Grievous, Mace Windu, other Jedi Masters, and eventually each other in spectacular one-on-one fights.

Alongside the game’s storyline, you can participate in one-on-one fights either against an AI opponent, or in couch co-op.

While you only start out with Anakin and Obi-Wan and one location (the Jedi Temple), with each duel in the game’s storyline unlocks a character and the location.

By the final credits there are nine fighters to choose from: Anakin, Obi-Wan, Count Dooku, Mace Windu, General Grevious, Jedi Masters Cin Drallig and Serra Keto, and finally Ben Kenobi and Darth Vader from Episode IV.

_{The duellists that you can choose from. For mirror matches each character has an alternate skin. (Source: Youtube – mrnygren2)}

While it would have been easy to give all of these characters the same general moves and only a few signature moves, each one plays totally differently, giving players a proper choice in regards to playstyle.

Anakin is fast and powerful whereas Obi-Wan is slower but has the better defensive option. Count Dooku is based more on parries and thrusts, similar to a fencer.

Mace Windu is slower but has good reach and strong attacks, while General Grievous can overwhelm opponents with his four lightsabers and get a few cheap shots in with his concealed blaster.

Non-canon Jedi Serra Keto and Cin Drallig (the latter being SW combat choreographer Nic Gillard, his name reversed) are two unique styles, with Keto employing two lightsabers and multiple acrobatic moves, and Drallig being able to literally blur himself during combat.

And finally, Darth Vader is the strongest but one of the slowest fighters in the game, and Ben sacrifices some speed with stronger attacks and Force powers.

_{One of the strongest characters versus the best defensive option…who will win? (Source: Youtube – CJR Gaming)}

The combat is similar to your standard string-based fighting game like Tekken or Guilty Gear, meaning that inputting the attack buttons in specific orders will net you different attacks and sequences. As I said previously, each string gives a unique animation, which elevates the game higher than a standard movie tie-in.

Attacks are broken into light and heavy varieties, but what gives Star Wars a bit of flair is the Force, which adds a whole new system of control and power into the combat.

Despite eight of the nine characters being able to use the Force, it’s actually the thing which is most standardised across the fighters.

Every fighter has two variants of Force Push, one as a general move any objects around you, but then a more controlled version where they pick up a singular object and throw it, which can also be used on opponents.

All fighters can throw their lightsaber like a boomerang and can even heal themselves using the Force. The only main difference is the Force Stun (for the Jedi) and Force Lightning (for the Sith).

Force Stun…well, stuns the player, leaving them vulnerable for a few seconds to be attacked or for the opponent to heal, whereas Force Lightning is purely offensive, draining the health of the opponent. It’s an interesting trade off, going with a more offensive option or one that can be both offensive or defensive.

Anakin in the Duel Mode actually changes between the two as you progress in the story mode, using Force Stun until he falls to the Dark Side, where he will then start using Force Lightning.

_{Serra Keto is unqiue for her two lightsabers and her slow but unblockable Force-infused attacks. (Source: Youtube – RGLD Gamer)}

General Grevious is the only outlier being a non-Force User, but he gets some additional help, with a rapid fire blaster replacing his Force Push and a charged-up shot replacing Force Lightning. His signature four-armed attack takes the spot over the Saber Throw.

The stages are all taken from the story mode, being unlocked at the same time as the other characters.

Since they are all focussed on Episode III, the locations span space-stations, landing platforms, the Jedi Temple, and the impressive vistas of both the sinkholes of Utapau and the volcanic rivers of Mustafar.

The locations in the game are broken up by area into smaller chunks as well. Take Mustafar for instance.

The first section is the landing platform that Anakin and Obi-Wan first clash sabers. It’s a wide area with several explosive crates to throw at your opponent.

The second area is the control room, with command tables splitting the room, allowing a player to be out of range of lightsaber attacks, and either regain some health or use a long range attack to keep their opponent back.

Out from the control room onto the third section, the balcony. It’s cramped and linear, the complete opposite of where the fight started. To add even more to the mix, the explosive crates are back, but since the area is so small any explosion could impact you as well.

Dropping down from the balcony onto the “Control Arm”, again a linear section, but extremely long, not the cramped quarters of the balcony.

And while there are no more explosive canisters, the control arm is constantly getting rained down on by lava, stopping players from either retreating or advancing, having to riskily jump towards their opponent or wait until the magma has cooled.

Finally, the fight culminates on the Lava Platform, the smallest map in the game, barely big enough for the two fighters to deliver their most devastating moves.

That’s just one planet and it gives such a variety of locations that either compliment or hinder certain styles of combat, with every other location also containing environmental hazards, barriers, or extremely linear or cramped fighting halls.

_{Darth Vader unleashes force lightning on his former master on Mustafar. (Source: ign.com)}

In research for this piece I wanted to look at other players and see how they related to the game and found a small but thriving community that still plays the game competitively today.

Using a PlayStation 2 emulator, players have been continually hosting tournaments even up until a few months ago, with rulesets to keep things interesting (the main ones being no Force Heal and no Mustafar Lava Platform stage).

The fighting game tech has gotten so meta that players will use a particular save state that allows them to choose Anakin with Force Stun instead of Force Lightning.

It’s amazing to watch, with clutch matches and spectacular finishes, and the added bonus that it is a Star Wars game, with the characters, fighting styles, weapons, locations, and music that we all know and love.

***

When I wrote about my brief but fun time playing Star Wars Ep. I Racer recently, I lamented the lack of Star Wars games in recent memory. Since that post the only new game was Jedi Survivor, the sequel to 2019’s Fallen Order.

There has been a brief upsurge in announcements, with names such as Quantic Dream, Zynga, Ubisoft, and Skydance all developing some sort of game and a wide range of genres including strategy and interactive drama.

And while there were Star Wars games dedicated to duelling before (Masters of Teräs Käsi for PS1) and after (The Clone Wars – Lightsaber Duels for the Wii) neither have had the impact and staying power of Episode III.

Just like with Ep.I Racer, you can see the outline of a game that would sell great today. Having duellists from all three eras, different and expansive locations, selectable force powers and fighting styles, customisable lightsabers, and of course online play. But sadly I think the time has passed.

In my research I found several players reminiscing on playing the duel mode and wishing for more. Even I bought the game nearly fifteen years after it released because I hadn’t found anything that simulated lightsaber combat so well.

It was the duelling game that did Star Wars well, and it deserves to be remembered and played to this day.

_{Banner Photo Source: moddb.com}

Learning to Drive a Formula 1 Car

September 6, 2023January 2, 2024Posted in ArticlesTagged 2022, 2023, Car, Design, Drive to Survive, EA, EA Sports, F1, Ferrari, Formula 1, Games, Haas, Mercedes, Netflix, Online, Racecar, Racing, Red Bull, Sports, tomclement1, Video Games, WritingLeave a comment

Formula 1: Drive to Survive, ridiculous subtitle aside, brought millions of new fans to F1, myself included.

The now multi-season Netflix series is sometimes mocked for its hyping of minor incidents and selective storytelling, but it is a thrilling look into the high speed and high drama that comes with the sport.

So naturally, I went and bought an F1 game.

Surviving the Drive – What 1000+ Hours with Guenther Steiner Looks Like

Racing games have always been a part of my gaming life.

I distinctly remember some of the first games I ever played were Gran Turismo 2 and Lego Racers on a PlayStation 1 (quite the opposite ends of the spectrum I must admit).

On the Nintendo 64, my days were spent switching from Mario Kart to Star Wars: Pod Racer (which recently got a remaster, which I thoroughly enjoyed).

As I graduated up to an Xbox 360 I had stints in Forza, Split/Second: Velocity and Pure.

And even amongst the PlayStation 4, I dabbled in Steep and the Crash Team Racing remaster.

So I had a background in racing from all genres and was looking for something to scratch that itch once more. And originally, I wasn’t going to go for F1.

I wanted the high speed and the iconic tracks, and I originally was going to go for the Wipeout Collection for PS4. I had played Wipeout before and had fun zooming around the courses and firing off rockets at other players.

But there was one thing missing that I was really yearning for…characters and a story.

Drive to Survive does an amazing job of creating a storyline each episode, focussing on different drivers, teams, and race courses, weaving them together into a satisfying narrative.

That’s what I was looking for in my racing game, a constant and emergent story that would develop as I would play.

_{Another weekend, another race. Slowly building up a story with your wins, losses, and everything in between.} _{(Source: twinfinite.net)}

Pod Racer and Split/Second had something similar with its ever-growing cast of characters that you could choose from, with drivers having ‘favourite’ courses, but aside from their vehicle stats there wasn’t much to separate them from each other.

While I am bringing my knowledge from DtS with me, we as players get to see every driver multiple times in a single session. Through free practice, qualifying, then the starting grid where everyone’s faces are front and centre, and then finally seeing their abbreviated names on top of their cars, you get the sense that these are actual drivers, rather than just a name.

Depending on what car you are in and where you are on the grid, you will see the same names popping up around you, developing mini-rivalries as the races go on. People that I would support when watching races I became bitter enemies as they overtook me, and for the rest of the race I would be determined to beat them.

On top of these self-made rivalries, the game at certain points (in the guise of journalistic interviews) asks who you consider to be your rival. Points are given after every race, which your rival also gets.

Finishing on the podium obviously nets you more points, but also driving penalty free, getting the fastest lap in free practice, and so on allows you or your rival to advance quicker. It creates tense moments where you might not have the pace on track to beat them, but you can make up lost points in the aggregate. It’s a simple yet effective and I always had a thrill trying to beat my rivals.

_{Your rivals and your teammate for the season. Those two aren’t always mutually exclusive. (Source: total-motorpsort.com)}

And beating them is quite hard. Accessibility is low on the game’s priorities, meaning you need to tweak and tinker to find the perfect set up. You have only just customised your driver avatar and chosen your team when the game throws a spreadsheet nightmare in your face of settings.

To be fair to the developers, nearly EVERYTHING is customisable.

Not just the aggressiveness of the other drivers, but the surface type, car damage, the damage rate, tyre temperature, pit lane entrance, pit lane exit…and that’s just the simulation settings.

In Assists, there is steering and braking assists, anti-lock brakes and traction control, along with a whole myriad of changes. You can even adjust the dynamic racing line (where the game tells you where to brake and how hard), either in 3D or 2D, and having it only appear in the corners.

I admit I was a little daunted at first, so I set most things on and brought the difficulty down to “Easy” and entered Bahrain. I ended up winning by a good thirty seconds and knew I had to switch to a harder difficulty.

_{Notice the menu in the right corner, allowing for car customisations during the race. (Source: operationsports.com)}

While other racing games I was always wanting to finish in 1st place, here I was fine with not always winning each race, partly because of the car I chose. Being a DtS fan, I went with the underdog, Haas.

The cars work on a tier system; the Red Bull and Ferraris can take corners better and reach faster speeds respectively, whereas teams like Williams and Haas usually fight for the bottom of the points, if not the bottom of the leaderboard.

But that comes at a cost. In Haas, the only requirement in the race is to beat my teammate. In Red Bull or Mercedes, they will expect a high points finish, with demotion or firing if you can’t deliver the team requirements.

But even in a slower, lesser powered car like Haas, the circuits are the main draw, and they are amazing.

These tracks are iconic, some having been used for over one hundred years for races, but each one does feel distinctly different, leading to a thrilling challenge each time the next race weekend comes around.

The game follows the actual race calendar of the season, starting in Bahrain and ending in Abu Dhabi. And while Bahrain is listed as “Easy” in the course selection, the second track, Jeddah, is listed as “Hard”.

_{The Las Vegas course, new for 2023 and known for being one of the harder courses. (Source: insider-gaming.com)}

The game boots you from one end of the difficulty ranking to the other (including “Very Easy” and “Very Hard”), requiring even more time spent in the settings to make certain races bearable. I had to turn off damage completely at Monaco otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to finish the race!

But while the tracks can sometimes be intimidating, the game actually gives the player plenty of chances to get used to the next race.

First comes the Pirelli Hot Lap, a small challenge that actually takes place each race weekend. Using a souped-up sports car rather than an formula car, the challenge will be something like get the highest speed in one particular section of the course or pass through every gate within the time limit. It’s still low stakes, but it gets the player used to some of the corners.

Next comes free practice, allowing teams to test out certain builds or styles, seeing which gets them the best times. Then after is qualifying, and then finally the race. Depending on the length of the session, free practice and qualifying can be up to an hour.

And while there are mini-challenges to work on in practice such as driving to conserve fuel or tire management, it all serves in learning the corners and straights, until you feel ready enough to go for the race.

_{The game is gorgeous to look at, especially during night races. (Source: racefans.net)}

And racing has me hooked. Driving a car that can reaches nearly two hundred miles an hour on a straight, sliding round corners with ease, fighting for places amongst the grid, it just has a magical quality that can’t be matched.

Also, no need to worry if you crash, spin out, or even just take the corner a little off the line, the game has a very nifty instant replay editor, going back to around the last five or so seconds, allowing you to start again from anywhere within that five seconds so you can try that corner again and again until you get it right.

I will admit I am a frequent user of the instant replay, but nothing does beat getting around the course or that one tricky corner without using it, leaving that section of the course with a giant smile on my face.

And then you get used to the track, you remember the sequence of corners, what comes next, enjoying certain parts of the track, dreading others…and then it’s done and onto the next one.

It’s thrilling yet fleeting, ever-changing yet the same, and that’s why I’ve fallen in love with F1 22 and will continue long after my first season is over.

_{Banner Photo Source: motorsport.com}

Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst and Queer Coding

June 1, 2023November 2, 2023Posted in ArticlesTagged Beatrix Bloch, Catalyst, Coding, Design, DICE, Feminism, Freerunning, Games, Glass, LGBT, Mirror's Edge, Online, Parkour, Queer, Video Games, WritingLeave a comment

Despite coming out over fourteen years ago, Mirror’s Edge is still fondly remembered for both its amazing art direction and its superb gameplay.

While the concept of free running had been bubbling up under the surface of popular culture (highlighted in 2006’s Casino Royale, and reaching the gaming sphere in 2007 with Assassin’s Creed), no game had before (and in my opinion, since) made first-person free running a resounding success.

Fondness and fidelity kept it spinning in disc trays and hard drives, with lead character Faith Connors becoming instantly iconic, despite the story being quite sparse.

Eight years after the original, a sequel/reboot, Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst, was released. Keeping Faith and the “City of Glass”, it expanded upon the world and backstories of the characters, while maintaining focus on free running across the rooftops of a near-future city.

It’s one of these new characters I wanted to focus in on, one that got very little in terms of story and screen time, yet has left a lasting impression on me, all due to their interaction with Faith.

While never explicitly said in the games, many fans of the games have questioned Faith’s sexuality. Some claim she is gay, some say asexual, and others say she’s straight, all with their various evidence for their opinion.

While I could be swayed in any which way, there is this one character, one interaction of less than a minute and a half, that pushes me toward one direction. I like this scene, for all its coded phrases and hints, and that’s why I wanted to analyse it.

So, let me introduce you to Beatrix Bloch.

Exit Strategy – Faith, Beatrix Bloch, and Queer Coding

Players first knowledge of Beatrix Bloch is quite a sudden appearance.

Catalyst has various side missions for the players to complete, mostly given by characters Faith has already interacted with, like free running mentor Birdman or whiz-kid hacker Plastic. This is also how Beatrix Bloch enters the story, but not connected to any other character or mission; she calls out to Faith directly.

This is interesting for two reasons. First, Faith is quite a solitary character. She has rivalries and a few friends, but no one really close. Even Plastic, who Faith puts her…well, faith in several times during the game, they aren’t the best of friends.

Second, Faith is part of the underground resistance, whereas Beatrix is part of the hiCaste; the ruling elite of the city, putting these two characters at opposite ends of both the social and economical spectrum.

So for this woman to be able to call up Faith especially and exposing herself to an illegal underground network and banishment from the elite, she must be quite the character.

_{A striking presence…despite only being on screen for less than a minute. (Source: Youtube, ChriSEfron)}

Upon reaching Beatrix’s apartment in the more affluent part of the city, a pop-up appears, giving players a little more backstory into Beatrix and Faith’s friendship. The transcript reads as follows;

“You met BEATRIX BLOCH briefly shortly before your capture two years ago and the two of you had a short, but honest conversation. She might be HICASTE, but there is something you can relate into in her. Now she needs your help with something, thought whatever a woman like her might need help with is beyond you.”

This prior meeting takes place in the associated comic book, where the two women met in a nightclub, and Beatrix told Faith how she was envious of the runners’ freedom, and wishing she didn’t have to follow the rules dictated by her caste, even who she wanted to marry. She even says she would trade places with Faith in an instant.

However, even though there is a lot to unpack there, I’m deciding to focus on the game, so we can discard the comic story from the discussion.

Even without the prior knowledge of the comic interaction, the mission’s briefing asks several questions.

How did these two characters, of completely different social standings, come together? What does Faith relate to in her, something that she sees reflected? How are they on first name terms after one meeting two years ago?

It speaks to something hidden; this is a society based around surveillance and security, yet these two made a connection that transcends that perceived threat, something that bonds them together on a more emotional level, something that Beatrix would risk to contact Faith, and Faith would risk capture to answer.

_{Beatrix Bloch as she appears in the prequel comic, Exordium. (Source: mirrorsedge.fandom.com)}

The mission starts with Faith calling out to Beatrix. Beatrix is standing on her balcony, looking out over the city. It could be a peaceful moment, a place of tranquility, watching the hustle and bustle from on high.

Faith’s first comment; “I honestly never expected to see you again.”

It’s a small line and one that can be imbued with so much meaning. It’s to the point, no false niceties or societal “how-do-you-do’s”, but straight towards the sentimental quality we all have within us.

It’s something that only people with an intense connection could make, not something you say to someone you met for less than five minutes in a night club…not matter how honest the conversation was.

Faith’s delivery also has subtleties to give meaning. Throughout the rest of the game Faith speaks with a strong tone. Even in moments of great anger or sadness, she delivers she lines with stoicism and usually a commanding presence.

Here with Beatrix, Faith’s line delivery is notably softer, with even a slight quaver at the beginning of the sentence, as if daring herself to continue.

Beatrix’s responds with a reminder of when the two spoke last time, even asking what happened to Faith after their meeting (Faith went to prison for two years). Again, asking someone who you barely know about why they haven’t kept in contact is deeply personal and can be imbued with all sorts of meaning.

_{The “City of Glass”; a place where a board of directors control everything…even who you marry. (Source: YouTube, Foxy4)}

After a few more pleasantries between the two, Faith asks what made Beatrix reach out to her.

Beatrix drops a big bombshell, she’s recently gotten married, although within the same sentence defines it as a “corporate union”. Faith asks if she had any say with the marriage, Beatrix dismisses it as a “board decision”.

Despite being an heiress to a major logistical firm, Beatrix is still having to be ‘sold off’ to a man, one who is in an even higher social circle than her. She is not allowed to strike out on her own, but instead reduced to a gilded cage.

And the ones making that decision; old-money elders who are in charge of the City of Glass, i.e. those who don’t want any change to the status quo, like say, someone have a non-normative (aka, non-heterosexual) relationship and denying the creation of heirs to the corporations (since the hiCaste would not use surrogates, wanting to keep bloodlines ‘pure’).

_{Faith risks arrest to reach Beatrix and complete her mission. (Source: giga.de)}

Faith is outraged at the notion of marriage solely as a corporate decision, but Beatrix seems resigned to the fact, saying it’s now her “reality” and that she is, “…OK with it, duty and all…”

The mention of “duty” is an interesting one, not something one who is her own heiress would say, reinforcing the fact that it is other forces that are bringing this marriage together.

But “duty” doesn’t correlate with societal demands, it recalls more familial pressure. I can almost picture the scene, of Beatrix’s family explaining that she needs to carry on the Bloch legacy.

While it’s not mentioned in the game, it can be inferred that women, like everything else in the City of Glass, are treated like property, and by the fact Beatrix and her husband are part of the hiCaste system, that only pure offspring between the two would be heirs to their respective empire.

So Beatrix resigns herself to be married to a man, one who has the exact same level of apathy toward the marriage as she, reduced to providing the next generation of hiCaste people.

As the conversation between Faith and Beatrix continues, Beatrix reveals her new husband is violent, liking to “…argue with his fists.” Faith offers to break his wrists. Beatrix says it’s tempting, a slight smile on her face, but declines.

_{Faith leads a lonely lifestyle with only a few genuine connections. Is Beatrix one of them? (Source: steam.com)}

Beatrix cannot simply annul the marriage though, she needs something stronger to present the board of directors, and she thinks she has a lead.

Beatrix knows her husband is sleeping with another woman, and so needs recordings of the two secretly meeting. This is where Faith comes in.

Beatrix presents a few listening devices and Faith immediately pockets them, saying she’ll help Beatrix. Again, a single five minute conversation, between a runner and a hiCaste, and Faith is willing to jump in without any hesitation…

As a final note before Faith heads out, Beatrix lightly touches Faith’s arm while thanking her. Throughout the game Faith talks with several characters, and only a few does she let touch her.

She visibly steps back when she reunites with Runner leader Noah (the two later hug). Later when Noah dies, Faith doesn’t hold Noah’s corpse or be close to him, only touching his arm and chest to try and wake him up.

In other scenes, Faith only lightly taps Birdman on the shoulder when he gives her his first dash, and she completely blanks Icarus when he offers his hand later in the game.

So it means something when Faith allows someone to touch her, and means an extra note that it is soft, not a steady handshake of a corporate board member, or a shoulder bump of a runner, it’s more intimate than that.

_{Faith interacts with several characters in Catalyst, but none like Beatrix. (Source: wallpaperflare.com)}

After Faith leaves the level proceeds, with Beatrix giving directions to the places for the listening devices and Plastic hijacking the call to inform Faith of the increased security presence. Once Faith has placed all the bugs she hopes Beatrix gets what she needs and Beatrix responds with thanks.

And that’s it. No final note in a later level, no other radio transmission letting us know whether Beatrix was successful and what she plans to do after getting her divorce.

Conclusion

I find it both odd and amusing that this conversation and this character have stuck with me for so long.

I’ve been trying to understand why and I think it comes down to the light touch of it all. In the end, Faith (and Beatrix) don’t need to be identified as gay by the creators and it doesn’t really matter if they are. This entire dissection is purely speculation.

But in that speculation is a kernel of…something. LGBT characters and themes have reached wide prominence in the AAA sphere, and speculation of characters’ sexuality runs through nearly every genre, from Leon Kennedy in Resident Evil 4, to Rhys Strongfork in Borderlands 3, and Lara Croft in the most recent Tomb Raider reboot trilogy.

I feel Mirror’s Edge: Catalyst plays it delicately; it can be inferred and isn’t queer baiting with “almosts” and “what-ifs”, but if someone wanted to pick up on the threads, it can be seen.

In comparison to a character sexuality being directly stated in-game or other media (which has its place and I wholeheartedly support), here the light touch allows the right amount of colour and shade into Faith and Beatrix’s lives.

It makes space for other games to make off-hand comments about same-sex partners and coded references to non-heteronormative relationships (in itself a step towards normalisation) while not overshadowing the game or the mission with a heavy-handed “this character is gay” statement.

So while I can totally understand fans of Mirror’s Edge to go either way on this subject, I will hold up the coding and subtle references between Faith and Beatrix to be a strong standard for threading LGBT themes into characters and games and I would be interested in seeing more.

Banner Photo Source: wallpapercrafter.com

Why You Should Play – The Pillars of the Earth

September 5, 2022January 9, 2023Posted in Video GamesTagged Book, Click, Daedlic, Design, Games, Ken Follett, Narrative, Online, Pillars of the Earth, Point, point and click, Story, tomclement1, Video Games, WritingLeave a comment

As the Playstation 5 and Xbox Series X finally cement their place as ‘current-gen’, we should take a look back at some of the games that defined the eighth generation of consoles.

We’ve seen multiplayer greats like Call of Duty and Battlefield reinvent themselves with both the old and the new (WW1 for Battlefield and CoD with Modern Warfare).

We’ve watched CD Projekt RED go from critical darling with The Witcher III: Wild Hunt to an out-and-out failure with Cyberpunk 2077.

And narrative behemoths have graced our screens like Red Dead Redemption 2 as well as smaller indie hits such as Firewatch and What Remains of Edith Finch.

Today I wanted to talk about one of my favourite games from the last generation and hopefully turn a few players onto the gem that is The Pillars of the Earth.

Based on a 1000+ page historical novel by Ken Follett and set over forty years in 12th century England, The Pillars of the Earth is about three characters, Phillip, a monk, Jack, an outcast, and Aliena, a former noblewoman.

The story sees the three cross paths as they try to grow their town of Kingsbridge, fend off rival noble families and vengeful bishops, and build a cathedral the likes the world has never seen before.

_{Jack and Aliena meet when both are still children and we get to see them change with age and experience. It’s an interesting scenario that hasn’t been explored much in gaming. (Source: amazon.de).}

It’s not the first book to be translated to gaming. The most famous examples are the aforementioned The Witcher and the excellent Metro series.

But in comparison to those two franchises, The Pillars of the Earth doesn’t sound like it would be a blood-pumping adventure full of swords and shields. It’s a historical novel, not fantasy, so there are no mages or sorcerers to liven up the mostly downbeat and dark mood.

But it’s the moments where the characters cross paths, the battle of wits and scriptures, and the twists and turns as the lead characters sow the wind and reap the whirlwind that make The Pillars of the Earth one of the best narrative games of its generation, and why I want to talk about today.

By God and the Devil – Why The Pillars of the Earth is Great

The Pillars of the Earth is one of those games where everything perfectly comes together to build something remarkable. The artwork, the music, the 40+ hours of performance, and the story, each one is a singular piece that makes the whole that much more enjoyable.

The game is a point-and-click adventure that uses a large canvas as the background, scrolling left and right when the player character moves. The scaling is incredible, with entire cathedrals, estates, and even towns explorable, but still retaining exquisite details.

Due to the ‘static’ backgrounds, the game camera works almost like a film camera, highlighting points it wants to draw attention to but without taking control away from the player. This allows the player to feel like they are naturally discovering each location and the secrets they hold.

One repeated location, the crypt at the bottom of the cathedral, is one of my favourite spots in the entire game just from its atmosphere. The use of light and darkness in this one small room is played with so well that it can evoke fear or fascination, just with a simple change of lighting.

_{The crypt merges from dark and disturbing to a place of comfort and solitude, all through the lighting and camera focus of the stage. (Source: mathlidesound.de)}

Part of the excellent atmosphere comes from the music by Tilo Alpermann. Since the game is primarily about religion, the majority of the music is ecclesiastical, mixing male choirs with strings and woodwind instruments with heavy brass approaching in Book 2 and 3. However, it’s in the less traditional aspects where the music shines.

Tracks like ‘Hell’, which incorporates faint chimes and cymbals into its rolling strings, or ‘Bishop Waleran’s Wrath’ which uses an electric guitar for its main beat and what sounds like reversed strings or brass on the second beat give this strange sense of foreboding, of power beyond the characters we control.

_{The tracks ‘Hell’ and ‘He That Committeth Sin’ blend in one of the darkest and disturbing moments of Book Two. (Source: gamingcypher.com)}

While I love the graphics and the soundtrack, the story is the high-point of the game for me, and anyone wanting to experience a deeply engaging and philosophical narrative from the last generation should seek it out.

Set over three ‘books’, each with seven chapters, the story is expansive and slow-build, moving at an almost glacial pace at the start to set the major conflicts, but also the tone of those chapters.

Even the main menu helps establish the feeling of each book. Book One is dark and cold, with many thinking the Devil walks amongst them. Book Two is lighter, showing the characters and their town starting the rebuild. Book Three is shrouded in dust and debris as chaos reigns down once again. It’s a masterclass in simple yet effective narrative design.

_{The start of Book Three: “Eye of the Storm”, sees death and war come to England, with the landscape in every chapter shrouded in dark fog. (Source: cosmocover.com)}

The game switches perspectives throughout, from Phillip, to Jack, then to Aliena, and back again, each character adding a tiny piece of the narrative puzzle until it all comes together for the final couple of chapters of each book.

You could in fact play each book as a standalone story as they build, climax, and resolve like a standard plot structure, but the fun is watching characters in Chapter Twenty-one reference decisions you made in Chapter Four.

At the end of every chapter you get a itemised list of what you did, what actions you took and who you spoke with. A lot of nouveau point-and-clicks like Detroit: Become Human, Life Is Strange, and Telltale’s The Walking Dead have these similar lists.

With The Pillars of the Earth there isn’t always the reference to something that didn’t happen like other games, it’s solely on what did happen, which I feel make it seem more personal, rather than a somewhat A/B approach to narrative.

The main gameplay loop is through dialogue, with your words and tone carving a pathway through the story. While it does have set story beats throughout, there are small paths of deviation that lead to gigantic turns later on, sometimes even in a different ‘book’, so far removed that you might have even forgot what your previous actions were.

_{Dialogue choices and quick-time-events from the main crux of the gameplay loop, yet from simple premises your choices can destroy families, lead countries to war, and even cause the optional deaths of central characters. (Source: daedlic.com)}

While the story is mainly character-based, a major point that dragged me into wanting to see the next chapter are the themes the narrative plays with. Ideas like religion and devotion, sin and violence, even love and sex are explored deeply in The Pillars of the Earth.

Each book features powerful moments that make the story come alive with meaning and emotion. Scenes where characters find or lose their faith while others see the Divine and the Devil amongst them are seared into my mind due to the way they shake the very foundations of the cast, and how there hasn’t been many games that tried to do something similar.

The game also spans the entire development of a romantic relationship, from shy smiles and holding hands to spending passionate nights together (this game actually has my favourite sex scene in all of gaming), and eventually settling down and starting a family, something that up until recently games haven’t tried to depict with any meaningful, long-term effects.

_{The water mill, where Jack and Aliena’s romance begins to flourish. (Source: steampowered.com)}

It’s a mature story, not with depictions of violence and nudity but with its ideas and implications, and that’s why I absolutely loved every moment.

I hope that this short post has teased your appetite to experience this incredible game. The Pillars of the Earth was an absolute delight and I can’t wait to dive back in again to one of the best games of the last generation.

_{Banner Photo Source: iphonelife.com}

The Best Levels from the Entire Hitman Series

May 24, 2022January 9, 2023Posted in Video GamesTagged 47, Best Levels, Design, Games, Hitman, Hitman 2016, Hitman 3, Io Interactive, Online, Project 007, Providence, Ranked, Series, tomclement1, Video GamesLeave a comment

I recently finished Hitman 3 and absolutely loved it. The game, no, the entire World of Assassination trilogy, starting in 2016, has been one of the greatest gaming experiences I have ever had.

IO Interactive really pulled out all the stops for this trilogy, with stunning locations, unique scenarios, and one of the most personal and human stories in the AAA gaming scene. The reboot, which is now over five years old, still looks beautiful even when running off an ageing PS4.

Today I wanted to talk more about the locations Agent 47 visits in his grand tours around the world. The series is known for creating some of the most breath-taking and intricate levels in gaming, so I wanted to rank the best locations from every single game, starting with Codename 47 from 2000 up until the most recent game from 2021. Let’s start!

Hitman: Codename 47 – “Traditions of the Trade”

Despite being over twenty years old, the original Hitman has one of the best levels the series has ever devised, containing a perfect blend of location and eliminations.

“Traditions of the Trade” sees 47 head to the Hotel Galar in Budapest (based on the famous Hotel Gellért) to take out Austrian terrorists Frantz and Fritz Fuchs and collect a chemical bomb Frantz has planted in the hotel.

The level is absolutely stunning, giving the players an entire hotel to explore. In comparison to the other levels in the original Hitman, this one values player freedom and non-linear gameplay as the highest priority. There are zero waypoints to your targets, but the game gives you clues to where to start searching.

For example, what would be the first thing to do in a hotel? Maybe check-in at the front desk. When you sign the guest book, you see one of the target’s room numbers. It’s so simple but perfectly logical, and the entire series has made a habit of including details like these.

The hotel is a nice and calm setting, you’re not immediately being hunted or needing to be stealthy. But that doesn’t mean the level is easy to beat. Security is tight (the hotel is about to host the UN, hence the threat of a terrorist event) so players have to work within the limitations set.

Metal detectors are placed at the entrance of the hotel, meaning you can’t bring any weapons with you. That’s something quite revolutionary for the series, you can complete the level without firing a single shot.

Some unique kills and scenarios (staples of the series) are present here, such as trapping Fritz in a sauna and turning up the heat, and jumping from balcony to balcony to reached Frantz’s bathroom, the only place he isn’t surrounded by guards.

Despite its simple premise, “Traditions of the Trade” is a quintessential Hitman level, with it being the template for many locations throughout the series.

_{“Traditions of the Trade” is so iconic it was remastered for the 2004 game, Hitman: Contracts, almost unchanged in terms of gameplay. (Source: hitman.fandom.com)}

Hitman 2: Silent Assassin – “The Jacuzzi Job”

A short level, but a fun one due to the location alone. “The Jacuzzi Job” is the final section of three missions that see 47 head to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, chasing a hacker who has stolen a valuable missile software programme.

I absolutely love this set of missions purely due to the setting, the Petronas Towers, which at the time were the tallest structures in the world. And while the first mission set in the towers takes 47 to the basement, “The Jacuzzi Job” takes place in the penthouse suite.

To reach his target, 47 first has to traverse the roof of the skybridge between the two structures, before using a window-cleaning platform to reach what is, essentially, the top of the world. Taking place during a horrendous thunder storm, with rain lashing down the windows, the location is dark and creepy.

47 must make his way through a series of work offices before the penthouse, with the soft glow of the computers casting shadows across the smart yet mundane work spaces. This is then contrasted with the penthouse suite with its dark-red lighting fixtures, ostentatious architecture, and tacky signs of luxury.

The target, Charlie Sidjan, is surrounded by his female bodyguards (you could call them is ‘Angels’?), chilling in the jacuzzi as the level implies.

To not arouse suspicion from the authorities following Sidjan’s death, 47 has to make his hit look like a robbery gone wrong by stealing some tasteless yet expensive art. It’s an interesting inversion of the standard Hitman trope of being a ‘silent assassin’, leaving no evidence you were even there, making it stand out amongst the rest of the series.

_{Charlie with his ‘Angels’, with 47 waiting for the right moment to strike. (Source: hitman.fandom.com)}

Hitman: Contracts – “The Meat King’s Party”

Hitman: Contracts took a series already known for its dark tone and turned it up to eleven. While some fans think the mission “Beldingford Manor” is the better level, I think the “The Meat King’s Party” is the more iconic.

Set in Romania, 47 is tasked with killing slaughterhouse entrepreneur Campbell Sturrock, and his lawyer, Andrei Puscus.

Sturrock was accused of kidnapping the daughter of an ICA cilent (the International Contracts Agency, 47’s employers), but because of legal technicalities and a few bribes, Sturrock got away scott-free. 47 infiltrates the celebratory freedom party being hosted at one of Sturrock’s slaughterhouses to rescue the daughter and eliminate his targets.

The party is absolutely wild. A BDSM-inspired rave with leather-clad guests fuelled by opium pipes and dancing to a dark techno beat, strobe lights dancing off the clinical white walls and machinery, the location alone would be enough to grant its place on this list.

The main target is another highlight. Campbell Sturrock is absolutely grotesque. Morbidly obese, unable to leave his bed due to his size, and eating entire roast chickens with his hands, he is disgusting and vulgar, and one of the stand out targets of the entire series.

But the detail that makes “The Meat King’s Party” stick in the mind is The Girl. Kidnapped by Campbell before being handed over to his psychotic brother Malcolm, 47 finds the girl hanging upside down, her eyes gouged out and her severed arm on the floor under her. Car tree air fresheners hang from the ceiling with her. To one side is a shrine of sorts, and to another is a gramophone playing Paul Anka’s “Put Your Head On My Shoulder”.

And the most chilling part…despite Malcolm being the girl’s killer, Diana, 47’s handler, tells him the mission hasn’t changed. To get the perfect rating, Malcolm must survive. Even in Hitman’s twisted world, sometimes the bad guys still escape justice.

_{47 collecting ‘evidence’ of The Girl, truly ones of the most chilling moments in a series known for its dark tone. (Source: YouTube, Willzyyy)}

Hitman: Blood Money – “A House of Cards”

Hitman: Blood Money is widely considered to be the best game of the series. With improved AI, greater flexibility with kills, and a story that takes 47 all across America, it is still the benchmark for every subsequent game to compare itself against.

With levels such as “A Dance With The Devil” (a Heaven/Hell themed party filled with rival assassins) “Curtains Down” (killing the lead tenor during an opera house rehearsal) or “Amendment XXV” (killing the US Vice-President INSIDE the White House), it takes something special to stand out in Blood Money. For me, “A House of Cards” reaches that peak.

Set in a giant, Arabic-inspired hotel and casino, “A House of Cards” has three targets for 47 to eliminate, each one working on a different schedule, but crossing paths at set times. It creates a tense atmosphere when trying to juggle all the moving parts and manipulating events, making it that much more rewarding when the plan goes right.

It’s also remarkable how many ways you can take out your targets; catching them alone in their hotel suite, sniping them from the roof, strangling them in the elevator shaft, or even impersonating one of the targets and heading to a secret meeting with the others. With everywhere from the casino floor to the penthouse suites being available, it is truly one of the greatest of Blood Money’s stellar levels.

_{The Shamal Hotel & Casino sets the stage for one of the most intricate and layered missions in all of Hitman. (Source: hitman.fandom.com)}

Hitman: Absolution – “Attack of the Saints”

While Absolution is seen as a lesser game in comparison to its franchise, it still has a few stand-out levels.

Some favorites include “Run For Your Life”, with 47 on the run from the police, ending with him having to wait in a crowded metro station without being spotted, hiding amongst the civilians, before slipping away onto an incoming train.

Another is “One of a Kind”, where 47 visits his blind tailor, Tommy Clemenza, to fix him a new suit. It’s a small level, but adds so much to 47 and his world.

But the one I chose for this list is the big one, “Attack of the Saints”. First seen in a promotional teaser trailer, the Saints are a team of female assassins who are dressed in BDSM-inspired nun outfits. It’s a little out-there, but it fits into the grindhouse aesthetic Absolution goes with.

The Saints hunt 47 down to a seedy motel he’s laying low in, and proceed to blow up the entire complex. It’s the first time 47 has ever been caught completely off-guard, dressed in nothing but a skimpy bathrobe and having none of his gear, as the Saints close in to make sure the job is done.

The setting of the motel and surrounding landscape including Tiki bars, a mini-golf course, and cornfields, are the perfect variety of locations, giving us everything from tight hallways to open plains. The cornfield especially, it’s so much fun stalking through the long grass, silently taking out one Saint after another, with bonus points for dressing up as a scarecrow in the cornfield and hanging from his post.

It’s one of the few levels in Absolution that reaches to Blood Money’s success, giving us a variety of targets spread across the map and lets us get on with it, taking them out how we see fit. The Saints are touted as the best agents below 47 and are all heavily armed, so it does feel suitably badass to see 47 take down the people gunning for his job as top of the ICA.

_{The Saints in their debut appearance, the E3 ‘Attack of the Saints’ trailer, gearing up to take down 47. (Source: gamezone.de)}

Hitman (2016) – “World of Tomorrow”

To anyone that has played through Hitman (2016) the choice of this level is no surprise and for good reason. The second level of the World of Assassination trilogy takes 47 to Sapienza, a small fishing town in Italy, which hides a dark secret.

While the first mission of the reboot, “The Showstopper” (set in Paris), was an excellent first step for the game, “World of Tomorrow” was the perfect follow-up. The location is amazing; a beautiful sea-side town, complete with cafes, winding narrow streets, and even beaches.

The targets, two bio-engineers, are housed in an impressive manor built amongst ancient castle ruins, with spectacular gardens and walkways and even an observatory dome complete with giant telescope.

But the location that makes “World of Tomorrow” such a memorable level is the almost sci-fi chemical weapons laboratory underneath the small town. Hitman has always had a little dash of sci-fi (I mean, 47 is a result of a Cold War cloning experiment), but this feels like something straight out of a James Bond film (funnily enough, IOI are now working on a 007 game, which I have previously written about).

Along with the two targets, 47 is tasked with destroying the virus they had been working on. It’s always fun when the levels ask us to do more than just kill targets, such as crack safes or even destroying organs ready for transplant surgery. What’s even better, there is more than one way to destroy the virus, one remotely and one more up-close and personal, catering to different play styles.

Player freedom is at an all-time high in “World of Tomorrow”, with several ways of killing the targets, anything from shooting down a plane using a cannon (from the castle walls), to using an explosive golf ball when a target practices their drive.

The location, tied with the signature eliminations, makes it one of the best levels the series has to offer.

_{Death and destruction are always an inch away in Sapienza, where 47 hunts down the greatest minds of their generation. (Source: hitman.fandom.com)}

Hitman 2 (2018) – “The Ark Society”

Hitman 2 expanded on its predecessor’s work with more intricate level design, distinctive scenarios for each location, and more unique ways to eliminate a target.

Levels such as “The Finish Line”, set at a Miami racing event (with one target driving their prototype vehicle), “Chasing a Ghost”, set in the Mumbai slums (where 47 has to deduce who one of his targets is), and “The Last Resort”, set in the Maldives (with targets hiring you mid-mission to enact their own schemes) are absolutely stunning and worthy of taking 2nd place on this list. But for me, the top place has to go to “The Ark Society”.

Set on a remote North Atlantic island off the coast of Scotland, “The Ark Society” is mesmerising as a location. The main complex is a medieval castle with burial sites, chapels, and a maze of sewer tunnels underneath, yet has a giant glass meeting box perched atop the keep, a dash of modernity clashing with the ancient.

The Ark Society are a collection of wealthy elites, plotting how they will survive the apocalypse, designing remote cities to flee to, researching new ways to extend their lives, and checking out the newest and most lucrative tech companies to invest in.

And because it’s a party, everyone is donned in formal wear and domino masks, aside from the higher level members, who have ceremonial robes.

It’s all pomp and circus, pageantry and playing at running the world, yet it is the perfect hunting ground for 47.

The two targets, the leaders of The Ark Society, are twin sisters coming from a nouveau riche family. To prove they belong with the old money members, they enact crazy schemes like placing themselves inside a phoenix effigy or putting prospective members through a polygraph test and electroshock torture.

The great twist on this level is the VIP, The Constant. 47 wants to extract him for later interrogation, but the twins are under strict orders that if The Constant becomes compromised then they have authority to use a “kill switch”. Inside The Constant’s head is a poison chip, and each twin has a detonator on them to use at any point. Before 47 can secure The Constant, he needs to be in possession of both switches.

It’s a cool theme, taking away a small amount of freedom to make players feel tense, having to ‘protect’ someone from the other targets has been done before but not to this extreme.

“The Ark Society” is an amazing level and the perfect crescendo to Hitman 2.

_{The blend of the old and the new makes The Isle of Sgàil one of the most memorable and unique locations of the entire series. (Source: hitman.fandom.com)}

Hitman 3 – “Apex Predator”

Some fans of Hitman 3 will say that “Death In The Family” is the best mission of the game. It’s a good candidate; set in an old country manor in Dartmoor, England, and featuring a Knives Out-inspired murder mystery that the player can solve…but for me “Apex Predator” takes the top honour.

The set up; 47 is on the run from his own people and the shadowy Providence faction. It’s not the first time that 47 has been hunted, but after being possibly betrayed by his long-time handler and friend, Diana, 47 is at rock-bottom. He plans to meet his only other contact, Olivia, in Berlin, but just as he zeroes in on her location she tells him to abort their mission.

47’s employer, the ICA, has found the duo, with agents having orders to shoot on sight. Olivia is ready to cut and run, but 47 calmly tells her to keep her head down, signing off with, “I’ll take care of this.”

“Apex Predator” has one of the best locations of the entire series. IO Interactive love setting missions in clubs. We’ve had “The Meat King’s Party” in Contracts, “A Dance With The Devil” in Blood Money, and “Hunter and Hunted” in Absolution.

“Apex Predator” builds upon Blood Money‘s club setting, even keeping the Hell motif, with the name of the nightclub being Club Hölle, and expanding the rival agents from two in Blood Money to twelve in Hitman 3.

Set in a disused nuclear power plant and based on the infamous and iconic Berghain nightclub, it is disorientating and imposing. Between the three separate dance floors, coat rooms, smoking areas, juice bars, back rooms filled with gun-toting bikers, and even the DJ booth, it is an excellent sandbox for the player.

The best part though, the player has no idea who the enemy agents are. Disguised amongst the party goers, club security, bar staff, and more, it is a real unique and discomforting experience, not knowing if the next person you bump into is one of your hunters.

As the level goes on, 47 gets hold of an earpiece and listens in on the handler controlling the operation and the cocky agents who don’t realise they are in way over their heads.

As 47 picks off each agent, the handler, Jiao, becomes more and more panicked, eventually calling off the mission once enough agents are dispatched. If the player manages to kill all twelve, Jiao remarks, “Expertly done, 47. Expertly fucking done.”

It’s a small moment, but paired with 47’s line, “I’ll take care of this”, it elevates the level into iconic territory. Despite being hunted by some of the ICA’s most accomplished and battle-hardened assets, 47 is…well, the apex predator.

The variety of kills is astonishing, with everything from dropping lighting fixtures onto the dance floor, to arranging a closed door meeting with several assassins, where 47 reveals his identity before getting into a raging gun fight.

The location, paired with the excellent set up and loop of hunting and being hunted, make it quite possibly my favourite level of the entire series.

_{Death awaits 47 on the dance floor of Club Hölle, the main location of “Apex Predator”. Source: pcgamer.com.}

_{Banner Photo Source: playstationlifestyle.com}

Assassin’s Creed: Liberation – Discovering a Classic

December 15, 2021December 19, 2024Posted in ArticlesTagged Assassin, Assassins Creed, Aveline, Best Assassin, Black Flag, Connor Kenway, Design, Games, III, Kenway, Kenway Saga, Liberation, New Orleans, Online, PS Vita, PS4, Remastered, tomclement1, Video Games, Writing, Xbox OneLeave a comment

I’ve just finished playing Assassin’s Creed: Liberation, originally a PlayStation Vita exclusive, now bundled with the recent Assassin’s Creed III remaster.

It feels refreshing and fun to go back to a game that uses the old AC formula, but with a new location, story and character.

And even after a short time playing it, Liberation is probably one of my favourite AC games, easily passing III and Black Flag in my ranking of the series.

So I thought a little breakdown of what I loved about it, and hoped to spread the good word to some AC fans that may want to return to something with a classic feel.

Ragin’ Cajun: Why I love Assassin’s Creed: Liberation

Scope

As mentioned previously, AC: Liberation was originally released on the PS Vita in 2012, to tie-in with the mainline entry ACIII. With the smaller hardware, reductions were needed to be made, but every change seems to benefit the game.

Instead of an intensely expansive world, Ubiosft Sofia (creators of the Prince of Persia HD release as well as the AC spinoff, Rogue) decided to keep things small and contained.

New Orleans and the Bayou, the two main areas of the game, are comparable to AC2’s Florence or Venice than the sprawling maps in ACIII (here is a forum thread of players calculating the size of the cities).

Smaller design leads to more intimate and detailed sections of the map, and allows players to get quickly attuned to their surroundings.

The churches of New Orleans, with their towering spires, become waypoints, allowing players to orient themselves to the location without having to pull the map out every few seconds.

It’s similar to the original Assassin’s Creed in that regard; a small contained map with distinct areas and easily identifiable landmarks. It helps the city feel rich and unique, directly because it is smaller.

This direction of scope is even found in the story and characters. While ACIII spends almost five whole sequences setting up the tragic backstory and family dynamic of its lead, Liberation does it in less than thirty seconds, with only around ten lines of dialogue.

It’s a masterstroke of character and lore-building and gets you right into the story. So let’s talk about that next.

_{Despite its smaller scale, New Orleans feels as detailed, polished, and} _{“living” as later games in the series. (Source: ign.com)}

2. The Story

Written by veteran narrative designers Richard Faresee (who worked on Revelations and III) and Jill Murray (who worked on Black Flag, its expansion Freedom Cry, and recently Shadow of the Tomb Raider), Liberation is one of the more unique narratives of the AC franchise, with it winning the Writer’s Guild of America Award for game writing for 2012.

After the Ezio Trilogy, Assassin’s Creed started to play with the formula for its stories. During AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations, the Templars were moustache-twirling bad guys worthy of a Saturday morning cartoon.

From ACIII to Unity, the mood shifted to portraying the Templars and Assassins as two side of the same coin, with more in common than what separates them.

Liberation follows this theme, but takes it even further, having a fun meta narrative within the story. Liberation is in fact a game created by Abstergo Entertainment, a video game branch of the Templar company, wanting to push their propaganda onto the public.

Your game signal is ‘hacked’ by an Assassin, who tells you the Templars are hiding the truth. The Templars doctor the events to suit their purposes, so you have to hunt down a ‘glitch’ known as ‘Citizen E’, who then reveals the truth behind each edited scene.

It’s a cool idea, echoing the interrogations and glitches from the first Assassin’s Creed, of a world beyond the one we are perceiving, of secrets and subterfuge that some of the other games have lacked (looking at you, Unity, where nearly every NPC knew who the Assassins were).

_{The ‘Citizen E’ missions add an air of mystery and suspicion to the narrative, making the player question Aveline, her allies, and her enemies. (Source: assassinscreedwiki.com)}

The “Full Synchronisation” elements (where players can complete extra challenges during missions) are well thought out and aren’t just added difficulty. Ever since the concept was introduced in Brotherhood, I’ve felt that this was the most ‘game-y’ aspect of the series and didn’t fit either with the mission or the previous freedom of gameplay choice.

Here the Full Syncs add to the narrative, giving hints to the main character, Aveline’s, backstory. For example, the first assassination of the game (and possibly Aveline’s first assassination) isn’t with a hidden blade but with a musket stolen from an enemy.

It’s such a small detail but adds a ton of information to Aveline’s first recorded kill just by what weapon was used.

The story, like all ACs, twists and turns, threading the role of women, race, and indigenous people, something powerful and note-worthy in a major franchise like AC.

Another franchise staple, the First Civilisation, is present, but it isn’t treated with the same world-shattering aspects like previous games.

It’s a small thing in the grand scheme of the game (and has a nice twist at the end), so I’m happy that this series thread is kept to the background.

_{Liberation takes short detours to Chitzen Itza and Mexico, adding First Civilization temples and items, and uses them as standout platforming sequences (Source: assassinscreed.fandom.com)}

But the high point of the story is it never loses sight of its lead. The story is squarely on the Assassin, Aveline de Grandpré. We see her triumphs and defeats, and turning from naive freedom fighter, into stalwart Assassin, and finally someone who can see from all sides, and carves out a path of her own.

Speaking of which…

3. Aveline

Aveline is such a cool character. While it would take another three years until a female protagonist became a lead character (Evie Frye sharing with her brother Jacob in Syndicate), Aveline is no slouch when it comes to characterisation.

Aveline is constantly torn between two worlds, playing all sides, creating an interesting dynamic not only in story but also gameplay.

The most on-the-nose is her status in New Orleans. Born to a white wealthy merchant and a slave mother, Aveline has known both the stuffy aristocratic life afforded to her by her father, but also the hardships of slave life, even having nightmares of being snatched with her mother by traders right off the street.

Throughout the game Aveline switches outfits, from her Assassin ‘robes’ to ball gowns to slave attire, each one with their own abilities and quirks.

Her Assassin outfit is the one suited for combat, allowing for all her weapons and tactics, and also shows some cool details on her personality. For instance, instead of the trademark hood, Aveline uses a tricorn hat, allowing her braided hair to flow freely.

It’s a small detail but something that gives her an edge, of defining herself by her own skills and attire, not standing by the tradition of the Assassins.

When in her ‘lady’ outfit, Aveline can ‘charm’ guards away from their post and has lower notoriety, but is only limited to her hidden blade and can’t freerun.

When dressed as a slave, Aveline also only has her hidden blade, but can blend with other slaves and free-run, while gaining higher notoriety when doing ‘high profile’ actions.

While incredibly gendered, it adds a small layer of choice and tactics to the game, using Aveline’s duality as part of gameplay, with Aveline even altering her speech when wearing different outfits. It’s a great mechanical example of one of the tenets of the creed, “hide in plain sight”.

_{Aveline uses a variety of disguises to achieve her goals. I love this aspect and wish it would make a return in the series. (Source: siliconera.com)}

Storywise, Aveline’s status as an Assassin also rides the dual aspect. Neither her father or mother are Assassins, a far cry from the rest of the series where it is usually a family tradition.

She may be inexperienced, but Aveline has already earned her hidden blades, allowing the narrative to skip the ‘origin’ story and get right into the main events without showing us her discovering the Brotherhood.

The only person who ‘knows’ about her rooftop exploits is Gérald, an employee of Aveline’s father, who holds down Aveline’s base of operations in New Orleans. Gérald gives Aveline information and equipment and knows of the Assassin/Templar conflict, but he is not immersed in the Assassin life.

Aveline is alone in her pursuit, not chasing down her family’s murderers or looking to gain back her family’s honour like other AC leads, but just watching over New Orleans, leaving only when needs must.

She helps free slaves and guides them to the bayou, she disrupts over-zealous colonial rulers and greedy merchants, and kills any Templar that sets foot in her town.

^{Late in the game Aveline leaves New Orleans for Boston to hunt down a spy and enlists Connor Kenway’s aid. They fight side-by-side in a knockout cameo sequence (Source: assassinscreed.wikia.com)}

Aveline’s actions sometimes bring her into conflict with her mentor as she goes against Assassin dogma, not in a ‘trying-to-be-edgy/I-don’t-play-by-the-rules’ way, but as Aveline’s internal struggle with the tenets of the Creed and wanting to act.

It’s such a departure from the rest of the series, but every other attempt at ideas like this in later games has come across as being contrarian for the sake of it (mostly in AC: Unity).

While Aveline is cool and calm under pressure, smart and resourceful, she isn’t afraid to lose her temper or her composure.

There are several stand-out scenes near the end of the game which top any other moment in the series with their levels of emotion, pathos, and engagement.

One other major section that helps build Aveline’s character is…

4. The Combat

Liberation uses the same combat as ACIII and Black Flag, but has its own quirks that for me add to Aveline’s characterisation and to the game as a whole.

Aveline has the regular assortment of swords, daggers, hidden blades, and accessories, but the animations and their usage are so powerful.

Take the sword for instance. While other Assassins are usually hacking and slashing (such as Connor), Aveline’s sword-work is based more on cut and thrusts, disengages and parries.

It’s more intricate and indicates some formal training, indicative of her childhood in one of the more affluent families of New Orleans.

Her short blade is at the complete opposite end of the social scale. In the first mission of the game Aveline frees a slave and then fights off the enraged owner with his own sugarcane machete.

In another slave encampment, she wrestles away a slaver’s whip before turning it on him, and uses it to hang her enemies from tree branches.

It’s a powerful image of a young black woman using the tools of her oppressors against them, similar to Lincoln Clay’s rampages in Mafia III, a game which similarly stars a bi-racial main character fighting against the systemic racial prejudice of the time, also set in Louisiana.

_{Aveline strangling an enemy with her whip, getting ready to equip her machete to deliver the killing blow (Source: gamerstemple.net)}

In the same camp where Aveline gains the whip, she builds her own hidden blades. Pickpocketing materials from around the camp; a small plank of wood here, a kitchen knife there, and finally a few soldier’s belts, Aveline lashes them all together to re-arm herself.

It’s a cool moment after a long section of having to work around enemies rather than face them head-on, now being able to break free and take on the rulers of the camp.

For many missions Aveline has to use her fists, which adds another layer to her characterisation. It’s mentioned in dialogue and appears in-game when she wears the slave disguise, Aveline is attacked by thugs that roam New Orleans.

In direct opposition to her bladework, Aveline’s hand-to-hand combat is brutal and lacks formal training. She swings wide haymakers, incorporates stomps and flying knees, it is the exact type of combat I would expect someone who had to fend for themselves on the street would have.

And since the game is based off the updated ACIII engine, there is less of the stop/start counter combat from the earlier AC games.

_{Aveline has all the tools of the trade at her disposal and can easily go toe-to-toe with any Templar that gets in her way. (Source: spieltipps.de)}

Conclusion

I did’t have much hope for Liberation when I first booted it up.

I wasn’t a major fan of either ACIII or Black Flag when I first played them, only really feeling the series had won me back when I played Syndicate.

And as the game was a PlayStation Vita exclusive when it first came out, it gave the impression Liberation was an also-ran, a stop-gap that played safe and didn’t offer anything of value.

But I gave it a chance and found myself relaxing into it, feeling comfortable in my controls and abilities, challenged by new locales and events and spirited away by an unspoiled story, but having a sense of familiarity, old yet new.

It’s been almost five years since AC has leapt from action-adventure to the RPG crowd, and I don’t fault it. Sale numbers and audience reception to Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla have been phenomenal.

But if you a looking for a change of pace, a palette cleanser between the big, bombastic games, something that tells a small story in a larger frame, or is just a nice reminder of a time and gameplay styling that has been absent, then AC Liberation might just be right for you.

It’s been a pleasure to play as Aveline, and my only wish is that I wanted more.

_{Banner Photo Source: gamestar.de}

Assassin’s Creed, Evie Frye, and Older Female Characters in Games

October 9, 2021January 9, 2023Posted in ArticlesTagged Assassins Creed, Design, Female Character, feminist, Games, gaming, Online, Sexism, Star Wars, Story, strong, Video Games, Writing1 Comment

I recently finished Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate’s Jack The Ripper downloadable add-on. It was a fun little side story featuring some stand out moments and mechanics, but what really sucked me into the story was the change to the playable character, Evie Frye.

Evie and her twin brother Jacob, the two playable characters in Syndicate, are in their mid-to-late twenties during the course of the main story. The Jack the Ripper DLC is set twenty years after the conclusion of the Fryes’ narrative, making the twins both over forty in the game. Jacob is missing from the story, having being kidnapped by Jack, meaning the entire narrative is played from Evie’s point of view.

And that struck me as something quite unique. When was the last time I had played as a female character over forty years old? Heck, when had I ever played as a female character that made a point of them being over thirty?

The gaming landscape is becoming more diverse with each game that comes out. Characters that are male or female (or in some cases neither), black, brown, or white-skinned, and LGBT+ are increasingly common on our screens. The only outlier is age, I can’t remember a playable character with graying hair or a few wrinkles.

Well, apart from male characters.

Some of the biggest characters in gaming are men in their later years, such as Ezio Auditore in Assassin’s Creed and Sam Fisher from Splinter Cell/Rainbow Six (around fifty years old), Max Payne in Max Payne 3 (forty-eight years old), Joel from The Last of Us (late forties), Geralt in The Witcher (late forties), and Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 4 (who even though is canonically forty-two years old, looks closer to eighty), yet I couldn’t think of a single female character that could fit the same age bracket.

So I went for a look.

More than a Number? – A Search for Older Female Characters

First, some people might take umbrage at my liberal use of the phrase ‘older female characters’. One person’s idea of old might be another’s thought of coming into the best years of their life. I’m going to use the phrase ‘older female characters’ just as a catch-all term, but I’m trying to match male for female characters, like the male characters listed before.

And secondly, this is only for PLAYABLE characters.

The first older female character that came to mind was Iden Verso, the lead character of EA’s Star Wars: Battlefront II. Iden is a member of Inferno Squad, the special forces of the Sith Empire, and her story plays out from the end of Return of the Jedi, as she slowly changes sides from the Empire to the Rebels.

Iden’s story comes to close a few months after the destruction of the second Death Star when she is still in her thirties, but the rest of her story continues in a downloadable epilogue, dubbed Resurrection. Here, Iden, now with graying hair, brings herself back into the fight against the First Order. However, these final levels amount to three playable sections out of thirteen overall levels.

_{Iden as she appears in SW: Resurrection. Iden was one of the only older female characters I could remember playing (source: reddit.com).}

Evie and Iden are of the same cloth; the most elite warriors of their day, brought out of retirement to bring the fight to enemies once again (funnily enough they almost mirror each other, being brought away from familial duties by the disappearance/death of a loved one, to do battle against a former friend turned enemy).

And after Iden and Evie, I had to do a deep dive to find some more older female characters, which was much harder to do that I previously thought it would be.

First was Selene, the main character of the recent sci-fi-Souls-like Returnal. Selene is middle-aged in the game, but is just as smart, capable, and agile as any of the thousands of playable white men in her same age category. Without giving much away, Returnal is all about the passage of time, and so an older character with skills and knowledge that a younger person does not possess factors in pretty well.

Another character is the ‘Crime Granny’, Helen Dashwood, from Watch Dogs: Legion. This character, despite being nearly eighty years old, became the stand-out character of the E3 Reveal Trailer, and when she became freely playable in-game, we found she was just as capable as any of the other resistance fighters. However, Helen must come with a caveat; she is an optional character to play as, as all characters in Legion are, and so doesn’t carry the same weight as Evie, Iden, or Selene.

_{Helen fights to free London and isn’t afraid to pull out the big guns to get the job done (source: tweaktown.com).}

Rainbow Six: Siege has twenty-five out of its sixty-one operators identifying as female. Most of these characters are actually in their thirties, with only a few outliers in their late twenties. The oldest is the Peruvian operator Amaru, who is forty-eight, but the oldest male operator is Zero (Sam Fisher under a different codename), who is sixty-three in the game.

One place I didn’t think would have older female characters were fighting games. While all fighting games have at least one old man archetype (usually doing some powerful ancient martial art), I didn’t realise that Chun-Li from Street Fighter is fifty-three in the most recent game. The same goes for Sonya Blade from Mortal Kombat, who in MK11 is now well into her fifties. But while these are both kicakss older characters, would we ever see Chun-Li reach the same age as Gen, one of the older men of Street Fighter, who is believed to be in his seventies?

***

So from everything above you could say there are quite a few older female characters. But all of these characters come with asterisks; most are character selections, or if they are the main character then they are relegated to a downloadable extra or an epilogue. Why is that? Why have older female characters not taken centre stage like older males?

Plausibility is out of the window. Iden and Evie are raised from birth to be fighters. Selene is an accomplished astronaut. Helen is a retired police engineer. All of Rainbow’s operators are hand-picked due to their combat skills. Chun-Li and Sonya have dedicated themselves to perfecting martial arts. Each of these women have learnt the skills to be competent and capable video game protagonists.

Is is just…the ‘M’ word? Possibly. But I would also posit that age factors into that discussion as well, as a younger woman on the cover is an easier sell than an old-age pensioner in the same position.

But then I have to think, are people coming to these games for the female characters, and not say the frenetic multiplayer, or the fact it’s another Souls-like game, or high review scores, or the myriad reasons that people chose to play their games?

Again, possibly. But somewhere there is someone playing the game because there is a woman in the main role. Anecdotal evidence aside…it’s me. I was drawn to Evie Frye for being the first female Assassin in the series, in the same way as I’m drawn to Kassandra and female Eivor. And upon learning that Evie was approaching middle-age in Jack the Ripper, I was hooked.

_{Time has changed Evie, both inside and out, and it was cool to see how she had developed into a different role and personality (source: steamcommunity.com).}

An older character can give us something unique, bringing up questions that have rarely been explored in gaming like ageing and the concept of change. Losing skills that were once easy, a defiance against advanced/unemotional responses in war and peace…or even just to see a character grow and mould over time.

Not to mention, women are going to have different responses and issues to grapple with than their male counterparts, would this not also be something new and interesting for the industry to show?

And even if a game doesn’t tackle personal drama and age is relegated to cosmetics, just making the character look older would be something special.

I want to see Lara Croft raiding tombs in her 50s.

I want to see Chun-Li with graying hair still being able to go toe-to-toe with Ryu.

I want to see Ellie in TLoU3 be older than Joel was in TLoU2.

It’s possible and there is no real reason why it can’t be so.

***

_{Banner Photo Source: steamcommunity.com (User: EndsWithABulletOnline)}

Tomb Raider’s Unified Timeline: Explained

August 8, 2021January 30, 2022Posted in ArticlesTagged 25 Years, Anniversary, Celebration, Classic, Core Design, Crystal Dynamics, Design, Eidos Montreal, Games, Keeley Hawes, Lara Croft, New, New Game, Online, Reloaded, Square Enix, Survivor, timeline, Tomb Raider, tomclement1, Unified, Video Games2 Comments

2021 marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Tomb Raider franchise.

While there is no new game on the horizon, Crystal Dynamics, the main studio that has been creating Tomb Raider since 2006, did announce something big, something to change the landscape of the franchise.

Up until now there have been three separate timelines of Lara Croft; the original Core Design era, the first reboot by Crystal Dynamics (often referred to as LAU, the letters of the three games of said reboot), and most recently the trilogy known as the Survivor timeline, starting with TR: 2013.

While these separate timelines have had crossover characters and reimagined scenes, they are mostly thought of as three interpretations of the character…until now.

In a video celebrating the anniversary, it was revealed that whenever the new game will be revealed, it will incorporate every single Tomb Raider game before it, creating the newly-dubbed Unified timeline.

While the Unified timeline has been announced, there have been zero hints as the chronology or where the series will pick up afterwards. But as someone has more than a passing interest in the last twenty-five years of Tomb Raider, I thought I would give a go at laying out a possible timeline, trying to knit it all together in one continuous line with as little breaks as possible.

Oh, and I would just like to say I called the Unified timeline two years ago when I wrote a post outlining what I would want to see in the next Tomb Raider game (in Section Four).

Tempus Fugit – Tomb Raider’s Unified Timeline (in what I have to admit amounts to fan-fiction)

Early Lara

We start with the plane crash over the Himalayas. This was the backstory for Lara in both Classic and LAU timelines, with the only differences being age of Lara (21 in the original, 8 in LAU) and Lara’s mother, Amelia being present in the latter.

I think the new series will keep the LAU ideas but age Lara up, maybe into her early teens. This allows them to neatly tie up the mother/father storylines of the new games into the Classic games.

Trekking through the snow after the disappearance of her mother, Lara finds a need to be on the edge of life (as laid out in the Classic timeline), and she starts to head to all sorts of places with her father, Richard Croft, alongside his friends Conrad Roth, Werner Von Croy and Charles Kane.

One of the expeditions is a fateful trip to the Angkor Wat in Cambodia with only Werner and Lara present (as seen in Tomb Raider IV). Werner is injured by a trap Lara told him about but he dismissed as ‘hocus-pocus’, and as the tomb starts to collapse, Lara escapes, leaving Werner behind.

A search and rescue is ordered (maybe even led by Roth and Papa Croft) but they find Werner has already escaped using the magical artefact, the Iris (that Werner was searching for in Cambodia in TR4, and which it is shown has teleportation powers in Tomb Raider: Chronicles). Despite escaping, Werner now has a permanent limp (even being wheelchair bound for a while) and has a grudge against Lara for leaving him.

Richard Croft is unsure of putting his daughter in danger and tries to stamp out her need to experience the wild, sending her to Ireland with the butler Winston. Lara still manages to get into scrapes as she explores the haunted Black Isle (as seen by the Ireland levels in Tomb Raider: Chronicles).

Richard Croft is now invested in the mysterious and magical, inspired by Werner’s experience with the Iris. He starts neglecting Lara to do more search into immortality and items to bring back the dead, or finding where his wife vanished. This leads Lara to become increasingly reliant on Conrad Roth.

Roth, seeing that Lara will continue to travel the world, starts to train her in some skills like trekking, rock climbing, and even archery.

At around this time, Richard Croft exits the story. In the Survivor timeline he is murdered in his office, but I believe they will have him disappear while working in the field (as seen in the LAU timeline).

This leads into…

First Expeditions

There’s no getting around it, the Survivor games are seen as Lara’s introduction to being the ‘Tomb Raider’ so this bit has to go first.

Everything in the 2013 reboot, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, as well as little bit of the comics happens in the Unified timeline. Roth goes with Lara, hoping to mentor her better than Werner all of those years ago.

The only caveat I will make is that by the end of Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Trinity, the nefarious organisation that Lara has been battling with since the reboot began (and was instrumental in the death of her father) are wiped out, or are brought down enough that they will never return.

With the death of many of their high-ranking operatives at her hands, Trinity goes away, and Lara starts to enjoy life again, even starting to do some archeology (ya know, the thing she got a degree in).

She leads an archeological dig to Paraiso in Peru, but soon tragedy strikes when the dig site is attacked by a monstrous shadow being (as seen in TR: Legend, the first of the LAU games) and kills nearly everyone else on the dig.

After all these expeditions and seeing the countless deaths of her friends and colleagues, Lara decides it is time to head out into the world alone. She also vows to keep as many powerful artefacts in her possession, lest Trinity or another similar force gets their hands on them first.

Seasoned Raider

As time has gone on, Lara has encountered many treasure hunters and explorers, searching for the same artefacts as she does.

Some notable ones are Pierre Dupont and Larson Conway (from the Classic series) and Carter Bell (from the side game Temple of Osiris and the comic books) as well as her old mentor Werner Von Croy.

As seen in Tomb Raider: Chronicles (and the first expedition of Lara being alone) she battles against Pierre and Larson for the Philospher’s Stone. She meets them again later when Lara is hired by Jacqueline Natla to find the pieces of the mythical Scion and uncovers the remains of Atlantis (as seen in TR1/Anniversary).

Next, Tomb Raider II, sending Lara all the way from Venice, to the Indian Ocean, Tibet and finally China.

Soon after she heads to Russia after hearing about an underwater reconnaissance for a mysterious artefact. She calls one of her father’s old friends, Charles Kane, for assistance, due to his knowledge of countries that used to be behind the Iron Curtain (as seen in Chronicles and referenced in Anniversary).

When Kane tells her she will be going up against the Russia mob, Lara replies, “Dealt with mafiaoso before, unpleasant memories,” showing that this section happens after TR2.

After Russia, Lara learns that Werner Von Croy has been doing tests on the Iris that he escaped with in Cambodia.

From the cutscene at the beginning of TR4, Lara knows that this artefact is dangerous, so breaks into Von Croy’s HQ in New York (as seen in Chronicles) and steals the Iris (as the Iris can be seen in Lara’s treasure vault in TR3, showing she came into possession before the events of TR3).

Lara stealing the Iris widens the rift between Werner and Lara, but also ends Lara’s insistence on being alone during her expeditions. To break into Von Croy’s building, she needs help from a man called Zip, a former employee of Von Croy’s.

Using his knowledge of the building was instrumental for Lara, and so she hires him as a general tech advisor and aide. While she is out in the field, he stays behind at Croft Manor.

Before fully hiring him though, she has one last trip by herself in the form of Tomb Raider III. It is here though where she realises that she’ll need some extra help.

The amount of high-tech security she had to bypass in TRIII, not to mention the many hours of research to find her next destination have obviously taken a toll on Lara. She wants to be out in the world, not be in her manor doing thousands of hours of research.

So, alongside hiring Zip as her tech expert, she also hires Alistair, an old history colleague who helps research the places she needs to go to find her next artefact.

This leads into the Legend storyline, which then leads into Underworld (part of the LAU timeline). In Underworld Croft Manor is destroyed, Alistair is killed, and Lara does battle with Natla for the final time.

Lara once again is reminded that everyone around her is unsafe because of her, and so she severs ties with Zip, with only Winston staying with her.

Final Years (Death and Resurrection)

Leaving Winston to manage the rebuilding of Croft Manor, Lara heads back out into the world, alone, and into the story of The Last Revelation.

Learning that Von Croy is doing an excavation in Egypt for the fabled Tomb of Set, Lara sets out to beat him to the punch and steal whatever artefacts are buried in the tomb.

She does so, and inadvertently unlocks the Egyptian god of chaos from his prison. So begins a race against time between her and Von Croy, with him unaware of the larger implications of Set coming to destroy the world.

Von Croy is possessed by Set, but Lara manages to seal the evil god away beneath the Pyramids of Giza. As she exits the tomb, she sees Von Croy standing before her. The tomb starts to collapse and Von Croy offers his hand, seeing Lara in the same position as he was all those years ago.

Lara is still unsure whether Von Croy is under the influence of Set though, and so sadly falls into the tomb, presumed to be dead (all seen in TR4).

A memorial service is held for her (as seen at the beginning of Chronicles) at the recently rebuilt Croft Manor. While everyone else left her for dead, Von Croy is busy digging through the pyramid, eventually finding her.

It’s never actually explained how long Lara is buried underneath the pyramid for, but for the Unified Timeline, I’m going to say it was anywhere from a couple of weeks to a full month, with Lara barely surviving.

Having been buried alive, Lara is no longer the seasoned raider she once was. This can be seen in the next and final game in the Unified Timeline, Angel of Darkness. She does not have the strength, stamina, or reserve she was once known for, now she is cold, ruthless, and angry.

At the end of the game, where she once again saves the world but at the cost of Von Croy and her new friend Kurtis, she walks off into the darkness…

Where to go now?

Let’s do a bit of a time scale. TR 2013 to Shadow is approximately five years. That puts Lara at 26 years old.

After a few more years of archeology with groups, ending with the massacre at Paraiso, Lara is now into her thirties.

Everything from Paraiso to the destruction of Croft Manor is would estimate to be another five to six years, meaning Lara starts her trip in Egypt at around 35 years old.

After the events of The Last Revelation, she takes a few years before Angel of Darkness starts. So in my approximation of the Unified timeline, Lara is nearing her forties.

I think this is where the Unified timeline will pick up. Keeley Hawes (voice actress for Lara during the LAU reboot and the ‘Lara Croft’ spin offs games) is returning to the series for the new Tomb Raider: Reloaded mobile game.

Could this mean she is coming back for the mainline series? It would fit age-wise, with Lara and Keeley Hawes being within the same range.

I also think the Angel of Darkness ending leaves the door open to a new game. I don’t think Crystal Dynamics will make a sequel to Angel of Darkness (two were planned, but when AoD was a commercial and critical failure, all future sequels were scrapped), but they might take aspects of the Lara we last saw in that game.

Lara was a lot colder in AoD than she had been before, jaded by her experiences and not being able to climb and jump as well as she used to. I’m not saying the next game has to be about building Lara up again into the Tomb Raider, but maybe showing a harder, colder edge.

But then we also have all the returning characters from all the timelines; Jonah, Zip, Charles Kane maybe, Winston obviously. These character will allow our heroine to take a breather, to smile, to be happy. That would be the best compromise between Core and Crystal’s two sides of Lara.

Fans should rejoice. Everyone is getting their Lara back. And I for one can’t wait to she where she takes us next.

_{Banner Photo Source: “Evolution of Tomb Raider (Lara Croft) 1996 – 2014” by blazeofmind.}