+1 (Destiny)

by Kahzgul, Wednesday, January 13, 2016, 19:20 (3476 days ago) @ Korny

This is one of the things that I enjoyed about earlier Call of Duty games, where the perspective jumped around between different characters all doing their own thing, but often tying into each others' stories.

One of the best was in Modern Warfare 2, where you're playing as an American soldier holding off a Russian invasion in Washington D.C. after a helicopter crash. As you're making you last stand, a mysterious bright flash fills the screen. The action cuts to a mission where you play as a member of the British SAS who helps his former commander capture (and launch) a Nuke from a Russian sub. The perspective shifts to an Astronaut who tracks the Nuke across space, and watches it explode over D.C. before being killed by the blast. Then you cut back to the American soldier making his last stand, where it's revealed that the bright flash was the nuke detonating overhead, which fries the invading Russian's vehicles, leveling the playing field for the Americans, and the player then has to fight in the quiet darkness of the black rain caused by the nuke...

Man, that game was fantastic...

That was one of the best storytelling moments in any FPS I've ever played. So awesome the way it all came together. The astronaut especially stood out to me, as he only existed to bear witness, and was simply collateral in the fight. He gave us a whole lot of perspective on both a grand and personal scale. Video games can make these sorts of very powerful personal connections to the storytelling and it mystifies me why so many games just don't even try.

Like in Destiny, where your character is presented not as a special or unique hero but as one of some multitude of free agent special ops types who does stuff that seems like it should be significant but which actually has no effect on the game at all.