There have been times in my early adult life where I would have been proud to discover a game while trawling through the internet which wasn’t for sale by one of the big name publishers but now I’m not sure what to think when it comes down to indie games. I suppose this feeling I’m trying bring to life is that the stereotypical argument about Indie games being more creative than mainstream games doesn’t really exist.
Since XBL and the PSN opened its doors, arcade and indie games have had more universal exposure to potentially thousands of customers which wasn’t the case back in the day and certainly a far cry from what PC game developers had to deal with before Steam. On my shelf just a few cases away from Half-Life 2 sits an original cased copy of Uplink. A game which rapidly became infamous on word of mouth alone, Introversion Software is probably one of the most well known underdog stories in PC gaming circa 2001.
Their original title of Uplink was a suspense thriller as your character undertook some moral choice decisions which would either end with the internet’s destruction or salvation. Since Uplink Introversion have released Darwinia, Defcon and Multiwinia but I can’t say that all of them have been such a groundbreaking success as Uplink although I hold Defcon as one of the most simplistic and challenging RTS titles I own and while Introversions success has cooled off they are not out for the count yet.
Uplink was a basic game, there were no 3D graphics and there were only a few audio tracks but I still hold it as one of my best games of all time because it opened my eyes to the idea that games didn’t need to be published by big name developers and publishers to be great. Although now I’m not too sure, as people still tell me that indie games have more creativity in their game development process than developers tied down to a big name publisher who always want the same thing over and over again and to an extent I agree with that. However I’m not sure other developer’s creativity is less innovative just because they are tied down to big name publishers.
Take that monstrosity of a first person shooter Modern Warfare 2, the sixth Call of Duty game released by Activision but only the second made by Infinity Ward. FPS games have evolved within their closed boxes of creativity over the years to try and bring something fresh to the table every time a game was released to try and corner the market. Since I’m really unable to collate my thoughts on every game into a sentence structure I thought I’d throw a few of the innovative gameplay mechanics into a list that stood out in my mind, feel free to agree or disagree with these, after all everyone takes a separate experience from each game and I’ve not played every game on the planet.
- The wall running in Aliens vs Predator, being able to climb any surface gave a new sense of ‘freedom’ and exploration.
- The motion sensor in Aliens vs Predator, creating fear and suspense with very little effort.
- Drivable vehicles in Battlefield. (I’m certain until Bad Company this was all that kept people coming back.)
- Being able to switch to 3rd Person view in Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight.
- The mixing of FPS and RPG elements from System Shock and Deus Ex.
- Explosive storytelling and wild settings for Half-Life.
- The Half-Life 2 engine.
- The visceral action and horror of Condemned.
- The ability to ‘quick kill’ in melee from CoD4 (It might have been created before this game but I can’t think of another example).
- The AC130 mission in CoD4.
These are a few examples that in my mind stick out as innovations in the fps genre and while not all of them were fantastical successes, most of them where. Although I didn’t mention possibly the biggest one in recent times;
- CoD4’s Multiplayer.
Call of Duty 4’s multiplayer was a fantastic mix of a levelling system combined with a fantastic combat shooter. While the game wasn’t as tactical as other first person shooters like Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Vegas or GRAW series it was still one of the most accessible multiplayer shooters to date. If you racked up the kills you gained killstreak awards in various forms to help you dominate the game if you were any good at it and now with Modern Warfare 2 we have a more refined multiplayer as it is arguably bigger than the single player experience. Again you have the levelling up system, unlocking new guns as you go but now as you complete challenges you are awarded with badges and emblems to customise your badge. Not only that but you are able to customise your killstreaks allowing greater freedom in the ways for people to kill each other, including being able to drop airstrikes, summon various helicopters, sit as a gunner in an AC130 or call in supply packages.
This customisable freedom may only be a small notion to some of you but it is one of the biggest innovations in fps multiplayer gaming and it has proven successful. Now you may have gathered from that last paragraph that I might be somewhat biased due to my liking of MW2 and I would have to agree with you but I don’t have to agree with the general consensus that indie games are more creative because they aren’t. While yes some of them are using new gameplay techniques to create interesting puzzles a lot of them are still just taken what has been successful and modifying the aesthetics.
Take P.B Winterbottom for example, I was quite looking forward to it until I found myself playing a game so much like Braid I couldn’t enjoy it. (For the record, I didn’t like Braid.) This unquestioned notion that indie games (and to some extent game mods) are more creative than industry created games is hogwash. Just because they have more ‘freedom’ doesn’t make their creativity any more creative than those who are working for developers owned by big name companies, because if I’m honest I find that those who work hard to make something new and innovative within the confines of what they are being told to make have to be more creative in their game development.
As a side note, I’m a major strategy fan and the fact that Homeworld was a space based RTS in literal space, BLEW MY MIND.
