There's Potential Here: Turok

This is a new series idea I'm trying out I'm calling "There's Potential Here" where I take a game character who has little to no real depth or development to speak of and think of ways they could be reinvented to great success.  This is inspired by recent reboots like Wolfenstien and God of War, but how I'm going to go about it a little differently is by avoiding complete reboots.  I will do my best to incorporate as much of the character's established lore/ personality as possible into the new idea.  Depending on the circumstances, I'm sure I'll have to omit things here and there, but part of the challenge is going to be staying as faithful as possible to any groundwork there is.  Otherwise I could just reboot and reinvent everything to the point where it may as well be a completely new character.  So, if we're all on the same page, let's start with our first subject:

Turok.  Originally the lead character from the graphic novel series Turok, Son of Stone in 1956, after appearing in two previous issues of Four Color Comics in 1954 and 1955, Turok has been around in some form to this day.  He's had multiple comic runs, 4 non-cannon novels, an animated film, and 6 console games.  To make things more complicated, Turok is only the actual name of one character in this series, and is more of a title for 5 other characters in his fiction.  To make things brief we have:

Turok: A native american warrior and main character of the original Dark Horse comic series, Dynamite Entertainment run, and an animated film.

Tal'Set: A Saquin warrior who took over the mantel in 1980 in a new run of comics by Valiant, the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter game on N64, and prequel Turok: Evolution on PS2.

Carl Fireseed: Turok from 1982 - 1997, but not appearing in any games.

Joshua Fireseed: Nephew of Carl and the Turok in the Acclaim run of comics and the second game Turok 2: Seeds of Evil.

Danielle and Joseph Fireseed: Younger siblings of Joshua, and Turoks of Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion.

Joseph Turok: The half-Kiowa soldier from the 2008 Xbox360/PS3 game Turok.

Okay, so we've got the entire lineage of Turok and all his mainline games listed out. And...it's kind of a mess.  We've got multiple comic series and a weird split timeline thing going on with the game series.  Acclaim made a trilogy on N64 with new main character(s) in each installment that have some ties to the expanded universe, and then came back to Tal'Set from the first game for the PS2 prequel game.  After that Propaganda Games ignored everything and made reboot of sorts with their game in 2008.  I say reboot of sorts because it doesn't technically break any cannon, but also doesn't reference anything previously established aside from the most basic things like having dinosaurs and a guy called Turok.  So let's start at the beginning and see just what kind of lore we're dealing with.

Turok, Son of Stone
The origin of Turok is a fairly simple one, but does lay some foundation the future games will draw from.  Before any Europeans had begun colonizing America, Turok and his fellow warrior Andar are out hunting when they discover a cave with a huge amount of bats flying out.  Hoping to find some water, the two venture inside.  After deciding to go further in to find another exit instead of doing the smart thing and just turning around, and even swimming through a portion of an underground river, the two find themselves in a strange valley.  Hungry from all that poor decision making, they try to hunt for food.  Turok hits an animal with an arrow, but they see it snapped up by a dinosaur looking thing.  Freaking out a little, the two try to climb a hill to get their bearings, only to get Flintstoned and realize they're climbing up a brontosaurus.  From there the two's adventures focus on surviving in the Lost Valley (or Lost Land as it will later be called) while trying to find their way back out.  So far so good, right?  Nothing too crazy.

Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. 
Remember, this is an N64 game with, like, two cut-scenes so players would have basically no idea what was going on without reading the manual.  The manual explains that the main character, Tal'Set, is the latest Turok, a title given to the eldest male of each generation.  Whoever holds the title of Turok has the responsibility to defend the barrier between Earth and the Lost Land.  The Lost Land being world where "time has no meaning" and is populated by everything from dinosaurs to aliens.  Still with me?  Good.  Now, the villain of the game is the Campaigner who is attempting to get an an ancient artifact called the Chronoscepter.  The Chronoscepter was apparently so powerful that it was shattered into eight pieces so that it couldn't be used for evil.  So, the Campaigner's plan is to use a focusing array to amplify the Chronoscepter's power and use it to destroy the barriers separating different ages of time.   Apparently this will allow him to rule the universe somehow.  Turok's job is to find the pieces of the Chronoscepter first and stop the Campaigner.  Once he does so, he throws the Chronoscepter into a volcano.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Boom - a new Turok falls out of a portal in the middle of outer space by an alien woman.  You thought the first game had a crazy plot for a game about shooting dinosaurs?  Well strap in because I'm about to throw some weird names at you.  This alien, Adon, also known as the Speaker of Forever Light, tells Turok (this one being Joshua Fireseed for those at home taking notes) that he was summoned by the Elders of the Lost Land called the Lazarus Concordance in order to stop the Primagen.  The Primagen is a super strong alien who was trapped in his own spaceship after he tried to witness the creation of the universe but crashed or something?  It's not exactly clear what happened, only that his attempt to see the big bang created the Lost Land, he's trapped in his wrecked ship, and the Chronoscepter Tal'Set threw into a volcano woke him up. Thankfully someone (I'm assuming the Lazarus Concordance?) created five Energy Totems that keep the Primagen locked in his ship.  But oh no, the Primagen's army is trying to destroy them!  Who will protect them, Turok?  Considering he was yanked out of time and space to do it, it's not like he really had a choice but to defend the totems and kill the Primagen, did he?  But wait, that's not all!  Along the way Turok is occasionally warped into traps set by something called Oblivion where its minions, Flesh Eaters, try to kill him.  After defeating the Primagen, Adon let's us know that Oblivion is still out there...

Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion
Two years after the second game, even more confusing plot repercussions occurred between games.  Apparently when the Primagen's ship was destroyed it caused a chain reaction that "the universe as it existed was completely eradicated."  I guess...let's just not think about that.  Anyway, this also nearly killed Oblivion, which we now learn to be a cosmic creature that existed before the universe was created (again, it's probably better we just nod and move along) and feeds on the living.  How could it feed on the living if it existed before the univ- never mind!  Just keep going.  So, Oblivion only just survived the destruction of the universe and now plots to break through the Netherscape, not to be confused with the Netherrealm, which is what we're calling the thing that stands between the living world and the Lost Land.  Again, what?  Another retcon we're throwing in is that every Turok apparently has had a bag called the Light Burden with shards of pure energy that created the living world, and almost killed Oblivion.  By ending the Turok line, Oblivion will be reborn.  To do this, he has an army of religious worshipers called "The Sons of Darkness."  Finally we get to the actual game where Joshua is back in our world having nightmares about a kid who he needs to protect because he's the last of the Fireseed line.  Somehow he doesn't seem to know who this child he's supposedly related to is, but whatever.  Oblivion's minions teleport into his house at night and attack.  He fights while his brother and sister escape, but blows himself up in the process.  Wow, what a great sendoff to the previous game's protagonist...  Adon shows up again to teleport Joseph and Danielle to meet the Council of Voices.  What happened to the Lazarus Concordance?  Shut up, that's what.  They decide one of the two will be the new Turok and stop Oblivion.  This is where this timeline ends (thankfully).

Turok: Evolution
Here we go, jumping from the N64 to the PS2 generation and back to our old friend Tal'Set.  But wait, is this a reboot or a sequel to the first game?  Before I started this project I thought it was what the kids are calling a "soft reboot" but it turns out to actually be a prequel to the original game.  Great, this timeline wasn't a big enough mess before, was it?  Let's what other nonsense this game can come up with.  We open on a new character named Tarkeen, a seer, who tells us about the Lost Land and how it was constantly being fought over by warlords.  Cut to the old west where Tal'Set and Tobias Buckner fight, with Tal'Set cutting off Tobias' arm.  Then, in classic Turok fashion, a wormhole opens up out of nowhere and sucks them both inside.  Tal'Set is taken in by the River Village people who send him off to Tarkeen, fighting dinosaurs and the main enemy force called the Sleg on the way.  Tarkeen tells him he was the one who brought Tal'Set there in order to break a curse placed on him and become Turok.  Tal'Set is not interested in that, but for some reason gets really mad when he finds out the Sleg attacked the village and captured a bunch of people.  We can glaze over most of the details here, but in short: Buckner appears as a general for the Sleg, Tal'Set rescues people, goes on missions against the Sleg, meets some senators, collapses a city, and eventually faces Buckner and leaves him to be eaten by compies.  After that Tal'Set decides he will be Turok, because why not, but we're also shown Lord Tyrannus sulking in his temple as a teaser for a sequel we never got.  I mean, a sequel to the prequel, not the original game which doesn't have Lord Tyrannus in it.

Turok
Last but (maybe?) not least is the 2008 reboot.  Not only are we jumping consoles again, PS2 era to PS3, but also developers for the first time.  So, what did they decide to do with our beloved Turok?  Well, they named the main character Joseph Turok, not to be confused with Joseph Fireseed who was the Turok in 3, and make him a space marine.  Yep, this is 2008 people, where space marines are second in popularity only to QTEs, waist high cover, and texture pop-in.  Before becoming a space marine, Turok was arrested for some unknown crime while in the military, and was brought into a military unit called Wolf Pack by Roland Kane in exchange for being pardoned.  Kane trained Turok in using a knife and bow, even teaching him a little about his own Kiowa history.  After just one mission with Wolf Pack, Turok abandons the team when he accidentally injures a girl who Cane helps by...shooting her in the head while Turok holds her.  Nice.  So, after apparently suffering zero consequences for abandoning his unit, Turok is put in Whiskey Company and shipped off through space to a new terraformed planet to help capture Kane for war crimes.  Their ship is shot down before it can land and, who would've guessed, there's dinosaurs on that planet!  Turok spends a while grouping up with Whiskey Company, and then they start dying off one at a time in dramatic fashion as they try and escape the planet.  They also learn Kane was doing some bio-weapons stuff on the planet with the animals and toxins, which was why they were sent after him in the first place.  In the end, only Turok and two others make it to a ship and escape.  Oh, and Turok kills Kane too in a...QTE knife fight.  2008, ladies and gentlemen.  And...that's basically it.  Kind of...boring compared to everything else.

Wow, that took longer than expected.  Also, who would've thought a comic about two guys in a valley with dinosaurs in it would lead to such ridiculous plot lines?  With all that history taken care of though, we can now begin looking at how Turok could be brought back.  The way I see it, there's three paths to take.

1. Base it off the original graphic novel and ignore all other cannon.
2. Continue with the N64/Evolution timeline.
3. Continue with the 2008 reboot timeline.

Personally, I think option 1 would be the best.  Don't get me wrong, I've actually come to really appreciate the absurdity of the plots of the N64/ Evolution games, and can even appreciate how the 2008 reboot kind of had some interesting ideas...sort of...okay, that game's entire story was boring, poorly written, and basically a waste all around.  But on a basic level I think the idea of Turok hunting down his mentor who taught him about his heritage and how to survive isn't bad.

So here's what I'm thinking.  We start with Turok teaching a younger Andar how to hunt, similar to the original, also set before colonization, but it's winter this time.  They take shelter in a mountainside cave for the night, and Andar shows Turok the sacred bundle he took from his father, the chief.   The two argue, Turok taking the sacred bundle from him, but are taken by surprise by a bear.  The bear attacks and Turok breaks his spear defending himself.  Defenseless, the bear looks ready to kill Turok when Andar cries out and lunges with his own spear.  The bear isn't much affected by Andar's poor attack, but his scream causes an avalanche that sends the bear running deep into the cave.  The mouth of the cave is completely covered by snow and the two have no choice but to go deeper into the cave, hoping to find an alternative exit before they freeze or starve to death.  They feel fresh, moist, air as they go which is confusing but also promising.  They stop to rest at a junction of many tunnels, but after a short while Turok senses a presence.  Thinking it's the bear, he stands to face it with his tomahawk, but when the bear does show up it just runs by the two.  Confused, the pair then hears the sounds of something approaching.  When lizard-like eyes appear in one of the tunnels ahead and emits a warbling chirp-like growl, Andar flees down one of the tunnels in fear.  Turok chases him, but quickly loses track of him in the labyrinthine cave system.  Pursued by the shadowy creature, which is obvious to us as a dinosaur, Turok continues to flee until the ground below him slopes down and he slides through the dirt, into water, and out the exit of a small waterfall in a cliff face into a small pool below.  He hits his head in under water but manages to crawl to the muddy shore before passing out, hearing approaching voices before everything goes completely black.

Turok is healed by a tribe native to the Lost Land who have been in conflict with a race of humanoid dinosaurs somewhat akin to the enemies from Turok 2 and the Sleg from Evolution.  He regains his strength and learns about all the prehistoric threats in the valley, as well as learning that Andar was spotted as a captive of the dino-huminoids.  The game would then focus on three aspects: Turok finding and rescuing Andar, escaping the Lost Land, and also preventing the dinosaur-hybrid tribe from escaping into the outside world.  Simple? Sure, but the best primary objectives in stories usually tend to be.

But who is this Turok?  If he's not a deep, complex, and engaging character then it all falls apart.  What if Turok was a warrior tasked by Andar's father, the current chief, to train and prepare him to be a brave warrior and return the sacred bundle.  As seen in the beginning, Andar is not particularly brave.  The sacred bundle is a collection of objects the Mandan tribe believed to possess sacred powers, and whoever holds them would be granted those powers by spirits as well.  Only the leader of the tribe is permitted to hold the sacred bundle, so bringing it back is of upmost importance to Turok.  See, Turok is one of the tribes best warriors, which means he has a lot of responsibility to the tribe.  He holds the tribe's, and Andar's, well being above everything else, including himself.  This new tribe he works with is different; putting value in the individual over concepts.  For the first time he is also not the most capable hunter anymore.  He has no idea how to deal with wild dinosaurs or their more evolved counterparts, and is dependent on this new tribe to teach him, but their way of teaching, and overall philosophy, is so different that it frustrates him.  Turok must grow to learn that self-sacrifice isn't the only way to show worth, and sometimes putting himself first is necessary.  He must also grapple with trying to be a mentor to Andar when he himself struggles to know what's right.  Turok knows how to survive better than anyone, and can teach Andar those practical skills, but beyond that he hadn't given anything much thought beyond doing what he was told would benefit the tribe.  Turok could also reflect on his own upbringing, which was to be nothing more than a hunter.

Obviously this is a really general and basic overview for a game's narrative, but I think that's how pitches for games kind of need to be.  Granted that's a very ignorant statement since I know very little about how stories for games are developed.  What I do hear often, though, is that A LOT changes during a game's development, which would obviously have giant ramifications on the story, so getting into a fully detailed, point by point, outline of a narrative would probably end up just having to be redone anyway.  Also, this post has gone on for quite long enough already, wouldn't you say?

Before I end, I'm curious if anyone else has any ideas for how to bring Turok back?  I chose to base the story mostly off the original graphic novel, but I could also see another outrageous melding of pre-history and sci-fi spawning incredible concepts too, probably better than the one I pitched.  I'd love to hear any story/ character ideas this may have inspired.

Do Manga to Anime Adaptations Have the Best Track Record?

Every kind of media has been adapted into at least one other form, if not more, throughout human history.  I suppose it's part of that "wanting what we don't have" mentality.  We take books and turn them into movies, make videogames out of movies, turn games into graphic novels, and any and all variations we can think of.  One thing is never just one thing anymore.  If you want to experience something like Lord of The Rings, you have the books (of which there are now multiple versions), the films both live action and animated, plenty of games across different platforms, plus any others I'm sure I'm missing.  Now, I'm not going to ask why this is because it's kind of obvious.  Money.  The books were popular and sold well, so translating it into other products is a safe way to make more money off the IP thanks to it already being an established seller in the first place.  Like it or not, it's not a mystery and there's not really much that can be done about it.  So rather than waste everyone's time going over that, why not look at the quality of these adaptations?  Which are the best, generally speaking, and how can they improve?  At least, how would they improve in my opinion, but for the most part I think everyone can agree that adaptations largely fall short of their source material.

Let's start with the big one: Film.  Turning things into films seems like the most popular and common way adaptations are done here in the west at least.  I can't think of a single media that hasn't been translated into a film.  Even music has been strung together into narratives like with Across the Universe.  Again, the question of why is obvious and unimportant.  Movies make a lot of money, or at least they used to.  So, quality wise, how do they hold up?  Personally, I think that's too big of a question to give any kind of conclusive statement on as a whole.  Films have been adapting things for longer than I have been alive and I couldn't' possibly have seen even a fraction of them.  I can, however, point out what people have been saying for years regarding film adaptations and expand on that idea.  Usually, not always, a film adaptation is taking from a work that is either longer, more dense, or both than the structure of a traditional film allows.  Even if you know nothing about story structure, and I'm by no means saying I'm any kind of expert, most people have at least heard of the three act structure.  Most narratives follow it, but the medium they're in can drastically change how they look.  A novel of over one hundred thousand words could spend longer than an entire film's run time on the first act alone, not to mention series of books which, each one having three acts but also serving as an individual act in the larger scope of the series.  Games can be even stranger.  They can be written in the three act structure, but player input can extend, contract, and even alter how they play out.  All of this is to overstate the simple notion that films have to cut a lot out from their source material in order to function.  To be fair, that can sometimes be a good thing.  More isn't always better, and trimming unnecessary or extraneous things can make a tighter, more focused story.

By this point no one should be surprised when a book is turned into a film, even a series of films, and find that a lot has been left out.  For some reason people still are and are quick to point out everything missing from the original material, but that's touching on another subject I want to write about later.  The point is, films have to cut.  Okay, so how are films doing with that?  From my perspective, not great.  Games get almost universally butchered in this translation.  Unlike other mediums, for some reason games get translated in a few different ways.  The first is the obvious.  An attempt at telling the game's story in a film.  Makes sense, right?  What's strange are the other ways.  Another tactic is to just take the name of the game, the premise, and maybe a couple characters, but otherwise making a completely original story.  Think the  first Resident Evil film.  They use the name, zombies, and a mansion (for about 10 minutes), but never even comes close to trying to retell any story from the games.  The second is mixing up the story from the game with original plots, or even elements from multiple games, into one.  Again, think later Resident Evil movies where characters from multiple games show up in a weird mashup.  The problem in this case is that no film goes all or nothing in regards to the source material.  They know they can't retell the entire story of a game, even ones with relatively short narratives, in full in the time frame of a single movie, so they seem to go with these half measures that don't satisfy anyone.  Instead, why not just take the name of the game (that's really all studios care about anyway) and create a completely original story within that universe?  As long as it is marketed as such, people who love the game won't feel like the film is betraying the games because it isn't intended to actually be the game.  Not only would it help quell the fans that way, but it would also free the writer and director up to not feel beholden to living up to what the fans expect.  As long as they don't break any of the universe's rules, or create any inconsistencies with the game's story, then they can pretty much tell any story they want.

I bet you didn't expect for this post to go on so long before even mentioning manga and anime based on the title, and to be fair, neither did I.  So, rather than exhausting ourselves going through all the permutations adaptations can have, let's cut to the point.  Are manga to anime adaptations the best?  I'd say yes, but will also admit that I've read very little manga.  However, looking at comparisons and reading/ watching comparisons, I see way more positive than negative impressions.  On a surface level, art style can be matched to be essentially identical to the original drawings, no matter how outlandish or flamboyant, and even specific panels can be recreated.  The iffy area arises when talking about story.  For long running manga, which are very likely to get these kind of adaptations, there often comes a point where the anime will outpace the manga and be faced with a choice.  Either create filler content, where nothing of consequence happens for up to dozens of episodes in order to give the manga a chance to get ahead again so they can resume the story, or just continue the story based on what came before and hope for the best.  Think of shows like Naruto and the original Full Metal Alchemist respectively.  We can't forget that this happens, but at the same time should realize that finished work that gets adapted, or remade like FMA: Brotherhood, are about the best adaptations in terms of sticking as close to the source as possible.

The key, I feel, in why manga to anime does so much better than everything else is not inherently tied to the two mediums being similar.  Sure, that does work to its advantage, but I think the more important aspect is the format.  Shows just have way more freedom than a film to make a faithful adaptation.  We can even look at manga that have gotten both anime and film adaptations and see how the films are universally looked at as weaker.

Saying anime to manga adaptations are the strongest is only an argument I can make because all adaptations are trying to do the same thing in drastically different formats.  If each medium played to their respective strengths then comparisons between an anime, movie, book, game, or whatever wouldn't really be applicable.  Or, you know, we could just create original stories designed to fit in the medium being worked in.  Wouldn't that be crazy?

My personal double edged sword concerning Trophies/ Achievements

In my early days of gaming I never got new games all that often.  In fact, I'm probably able to get about the same amount of games today as I did then.  Typically, I would ask for a game on my birthday and Christmas, with any additional game I got either being a rare treat or something I saved up for myself.  I remember making a manila envelope with a picture of Kingdom Hearts 2 on it that I pre-ordered about 2 years early to put money in to repay my mom.  This meant I would pick what games I got very carefully, trying to make sure it would last me as long as possible because I probably would't get another one for months.  RPGs were a natural choice for me, promising long stories to play through and loads of additional activities.  I'll skip over the story aspect because that in itself could be a post, and probably will be at some point, and focus on that extra content I squeezed from these games.

The first system I really played was the SNES, and the games I had for that system were very sparse in terms of extras once they were beaten.  Granted I started looking for extra sources of fun from those games before beating most of them because I wasn't able to at that age, which sometimes left me replaying just one or two levels over and over again.  Games like Mega Man X and Donkey Kong Country 1 and 2 were great for me, with tons of secrets and optional content to discover.  That carried over into the N64 era where Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Donkey Kong 64 and the like really gave me a lot to explore and do in 3D worlds.  I sometimes even made up my own stories and quests within these games once I was familiar with them enough.  Because I didn't have much experience with the internet yet, if I didn't have the strategy guide, I was on my own in terms of discovery outside of the main quests.  I sometimes stop and am amazed that I, and plenty of other kids, were able to figure out some of these things with no help, although I would probably attribute that more to the amount of time I had to try just about everything rather than being clever or smart.

The PS2 came and gave me the first taste of what would be achievements in the future with games like Kingdom Hearts 1 and 2.  I put at least 100 hours into each of these games, mostly thanks to one simple thing: the journal.  Both games had an in-game journal that tracked everything.  It told you how many collectibles you'd found, how many treasure chests were unopened in each world, how many enemies you hadn't encountered yet, and everything else there was to do in the game.  Now I had direction.  I wasn't just grinding along all the edges of games to see where more content might be, but had a nice list of objectives and goals to keep the game going long after I had completed the story.  I remember vividly going through the synthesis process in KH1 to get the Ultima Weapon and writing down all the materials I needed, going to the computer to look up what enemies dropped them and where to find them, then going back and marking them off one by one.  It probably should've been tedious and boring, but I found it so satisfying to check off my progress and finally complete my goals.  The added bonus was that a lot of games in this time would give you something special for reaching that 100% mark, whether it be a special ending movie, cheats, costumes, or something like that.

When I got a 360 and saw achievements, I kind of ignored them at first.  I was in a more competitive mindset at the time, focusing on one or two games only and was more than content spending all my time in multiplayer matches online.  Over time the games I was decent at started to get old and I was ready to move on from trying to play at anything resembling high level, which left a huge gap for me to fill with new games where I used to just spend on one.  Again, I still couldn't get many games, so I always tried to pick carefully.  That was when the achievement system started to click with me.  I'd get a game, play through it, and then see this list of objectives a lot like how the journals in Kingdom Hearts worked, only they were in every game and all contributed to a cumulative score across each game I played, and could be compared to other people online.

From there my experience with games kind of changed.  I played them for fun still, of course, but once the fun was over I kept playing because I didn't have the option of moving on to a new experience, and achievements (later trophies on PS4) gave me goals to work toward in games I would've otherwise not done.  The difference with trophies and achievements from what I was doing before is two part.  First is that some of these tasks were extrinsically motivated.  I gained nothing but a digital check mark for beating the game only using the starting weapon, for example, and sure, that was satisfying in a different way, but not in the same way as actually getting or doing something new in the game.  It wasn't new content, just new challenges, and sometimes not very fair or fun ones.  The second difference was that I started to feel obligated to get these trophies for games despite the requirements being things I didn't find satisfying at all.  I don't know if it would quite be an addiction, but a compulsion for sure.

For a long time that didn't really matter.  I didn't have the means to play new games so having at least something to do in my old ones was better than nothing.  The problem is now I don't know if I'll be able to break that compulsion if I ever find myself in the position where I don't need to bleed every ounce of content a game has.  I'm often jealous of people who are able to play a game, beat it, and then just move on to the next, and not just because they have the means to, but because I wish my relationship with games was like that.  I wish I could just play for as long as I was having fun and then stop, but I can't.  I'm still glad for these trophy systems existing because I can't, but wonder if they've only ended up doing more harm than good over time.

Not Quite a Review of: A Quiet Place

I have accidentally developed, what I think, is a very advantageous way to go about seeing movies.  It is by no means new, in fact I see people online talk about purposefully doing this same thing, but for me it was just something that sort of happened.  To keep from making it sound like I'm hyping up this "amazing movie watching tip" I'll just get the point and say that it's nothing more than going in as blind as possible.  No trailers, no screenshots, no reviews or previews, and even avoiding knowing the cast if possible.  As I opened with, this came kind of naturally to me after I essentially stopped seeing ads in general.  I don't have cable, block ads online, and don't keep up with pop-culture in general, so I really don't have to do much to avoid knowing about most films coming out.  I also don't see a lot of new films, maybe one or two a year, which makes it even easier.  All that preamble is really just a long winded way of me trying to say, if you haven't heard anything about it, stop reading this and go see A Quiet Place.  As far as I'm concerned, the less you know going in, the better.

Of course I don't expect most people to take my advice, and to an extent a recommendation like that is somewhat useless when I know nothing about you and what you like, or you about me.  So if you need a little bit more than nothing, A Quiet Place is a horror film, but even that label doesn't do the movie justice because the horror elements are really just a device and backdrop for this family and their struggles both internal and external.  If for some reason you absolutely cannot handle tension and moments of fear, I suppose this movie wouldn't be for you but would still strongly suggest giving it a shot.  If you're not looking for a movie that will make you feel things besides happy, the same applies.

A Quiet Place was a surprise in a lot of ways.  For context, all I knew for the week up to the movie coming out was the basic premise.  Some sort of creatures have appeared that kill anyone who makes noise.  That was it...until the morning I was set to go and I accidentally caught sight of a public TV showing a clip from the movie.  I didn't see much, except it would've been nice to not know who was starring in the movie before going in.  Still, considering how much more I probably could've been spoiled about, I consider myself lucky going in knowing only that much.

I'll start with everything I found great.  Number one being how much of the movie was silent and the sparse dialogue.  Speaking is very infrequent, as even a whisper could draw the creatures and lead to death, so spoken lines, and even sound in general throughout the movie, is rare.  That makes the impact that much greater when there is a sound or characters are allowed to speak.  I even loved the focus on sign language, which I am ashamed to say was probably a giant risk in getting the movie funded and made.  It was just so refreshing and different in ways that most western movies don't tend to be, at least ones that get a wide release.

I also loved the beginning.  Everything the viewer needs to know about the world and the dynamic of this family is established without words and sets the tone just right for the remainder of the journey.  The last point kind is a combination of the characters and the acting.  I combine the two because of how incredible I find it to get so attached to these characters, to feel that they're so real, when they rarely (and one never does) speak. The Father in particular gave probably the most believable performance I've seen in a live-action film in years.

Now, the less than great.  I can't start anywhere but the end, because that last one or two seconds just didn't work.  It didn't fit with the themes, tone, character, or anything.  It felt like the ending to a much different, more generic and worse, movie was just tacked on.  It is just one second of inconsistency, but being the last second makes the effect worse, linger as the last image the viewer has of an otherwise amazing experience.

I could nitpick some other things, there is a few minor plot holes here or there, but I don't really see the point in it.  What the movie does with what it has, and more importantly chooses not to use, is amazing in itself, but to come out as such a great movie all around feels even more special.  A Quiet Place is more than the sum of its parts and well worth being the one film I see in theaters this year.

Old Catherine Review

Note: This is an old review the the game Catherine that I wrote for a gaming site a couple years ago.  I'm putting it back up just to have, and also to start back into reviewing games when I can.  By now nothing here is relevant, but maybe some people still haven't heard of this game, or will just find it fun to read. 

Where do you start when explaining a game like Catherine?  The easy way out would be to simply call it a puzzle game, and while that wouldn’t be a lie, the game is much more than that.  Catherine is a game that wants to throw the player into a situation to make them chose how they would react if it was happening to them, and the elements of the game such as the questions you are asked between the puzzle portions, and how you interact with the other characters, determine how the story progresses.  It’s one of, if not the most, original game I have seen come out in recent memory in terms of both game play and story.  The game calls itself “an unconventional romantic horror”, which is probably the best way to describe the genre.  Because it is so unique, it might be a little hard to grasp what the game really is, so we’re going to take it one “block” at a time.  That’s a pun...you’ll get it later.  Strap in, this is going to be a long one.

Let’s begin with the main character, Vincent.  Vincent is a 32 year old office worker who is currently in a 5 year relationship with his girlfriend Katherine (and no, the K is not a typo).  She has begun pressuring him to take their relationship to the next level and get married, but Vincent isn’t too sure about that.  He likes the way his life is, and doesn’t want to change it.  This is just one of the things he discusses with his drinking buddies, who he goes out with every night.  I found Vincent to be a very sympathetic protagonist (ahh big words!).  He is a flawed and conflicted individual who really doesn’t have a clue half the time.  It’s hard to imagine players not feeling for the guy as his life only spirals more and more out of control.  If you compared him to other video game characters, then you might just think he’s sympathetic because he’s sort of an underdog, but if you take him just as a person, then that’s all you’ll find.  Vincent is just a man with flaws that are no different than ones you or I may have.  

The story begins, spoiling as little as possible, with Katherine giving hints to Vincent that they should get married and settle down.  Vincent is resistant, and later goes to the “Stray Sheep” bar with his friends.  After some talking and drinking, (alright, a lot of drinking) his friends go home and leave Vincent to continue drinking alone.  That is until an attractive young woman asks to join him.  This is all Vincent remembers, at first, before entering his nightmare.  When he wakes up the next morning, he finds this new girl named Catherine (What are the odds?) lying next to him in bed.  From there things only seem to get worse for Vincent, such as hearing rumours of how nightmares are killing men who are cheating, as he, or rather you the player, have to decide what he should do about cheating on Katherine.  This is a game that really emphasises its story, and tries to minimize areas where you are doing things unrelated to what is going on.  That being said, if you are not at all interested in the story or characters, there is still fun to be had, but you may feel short changed.  Also, since the game has 8 endings (did I forget to mention that?) there is plenty of incentive to replay it to see what other ways the story can unfold, but aside from upping the difficulty, the puzzles will stay the same. 

Now we reach the game play, which is split into two parts.  The first is when you play as Vincent while he is awake at the bar.  While here, you are encouraged to talk with not only your friends, but all the other patrons, about their problems.  Every once in a while, they will ask you a question where you can pick one of two options as a response, and depending on your response, a little meter will move toward the blue or red side.  Because of the way “karma” bars have been used in games before, you will probably think that the blue side is good, and red is evil or bad, but that isn’t exactly true in Catherine.  Most of the time the questions you are asked have no clear right or wrong answer, but are just meant to try and judge who you are as a person.  Personally, I think two neutral colors should have been used here, just so players wouldn’t be conditioned to think one side is the “bad” side.  In addition to these questions, you will learn about all these other character’s lives, and hear how they all seem to have started having nightmares...interesting.  While you are talking with people in the bar, time is passing, and different people will come and go throughout the night so it is beneficial to stay a while if you want to hear everyone’s story.  Also as time goes on, you will receive text messages, mainly from K/Catherine.  If you chose to respond to their messages, you get to chose between usually 2 or 3 options for each line of text.  Depending on what line you chose to begin the text with, the next lines options will be different, so cycle through them to be sure you are saying what you really want to say.  How you respond will continue to move your “karma” meter.  If talking to the other people in the bar isn’t interesting to you, you can always throw back your glass and hear Vincent do a little monologue about his situation.  After three sips, your glass will empty and you will be given a bit of trivia about whatever you were drinking (obviously).  These bits of info have no in game importance, aside from an achievement to hear them all, but could be cool if you’re into that sort of thing.  You will notice three little beer bottles on the bottom left of the screen filling up each time you finish a drink.  Once all three are full, you are completely drunk, but you could still drink more if you really wanted to...  After becoming fully drunk, Vincent starts walking around in a slow stumble that is pretty funny to see the first time, but there is an even better advantage than seeing him nearly trip over his own feet.  The drunker you become before entering a nightmare, the faster you will move once inside it (Makes sense...right?).  Once you have done as much or as little as you want in the bar, you can chose to leave and return home where the nightmares will begin.  

The nightmares are where the puzzling begins.  Each night Vincent will have to climb a tower of blocks to reach the top, but naturally it’s not as easy as just walking up.  The fact that he is in his underwear, clutching his pillow, and has sheep horns only adds to the nightmarish atmosphere he is in.  The blocks are not positioned to allow you to walk up with no problems, but require you to push and pull them into useable arrangements.  While you are doing this, the lower levels of blocks are falling away, so time is of the essence.  At times, this fear of falling may make you want to act swiftly, but it is all too easy to move the blocks in such a way that you trap yourself.  Also, each night a new block type is introduced that can radically change your current techniques.  It can be something as simple as an immoveable block, or one that shoots spikes up if you stand on it for more than a second.  If you want to survive, you will have to adapt your strategy almost every night.  You may not think it at first, but there are a lot of techniques to learn in order to progress through the game.  For example, gravity doesn’t work the same in the nightmares (as it often doesn’t) so blocks with nothing below them can hover in the air as long as they have another block connected at its edge.  This allows you to effectively push a block off the edge of the one below it to make a stepping block.  Since Vincent can only pull himself up one block at a time, you will be constantly pushing and pulling blocks in new ways to make a staircase to the top.  Aside from just being able to move blocks, Vincent can also hold onto the edge of blocks to shimmy around them.  While this can be used to save you, it can also cause you extreme aggravation and death.  Whenever you are shimmying around the edge of a block on a side that is not facing away from the camera, the controls reverse.  That may not sound too terrible on its own, but when you throw in the fact that you can’t move the camera to see the back side of the blocks, you will effectively be reduced to guessing which direction to press to guide Vincent back into view.  After you reach the top of each block tower, except the last one for each night, you will find yourself on a landing.  Here you get to rest briefly between puzzles, save your game, and talk with the other sheep.  These sheep see themselves as people and everyone else as sheep, so no one knows who the others really are, but as you talk with them you should start to figure out who the sheep are in the real world.  Aside from just conversations, some sheep will show you valuable techniques you can use to climb more efficiently.  Pay attention to these techniques, you will need them.  When you are ready, you can then enter the confessional booth where you will be asked one question.  As I’m sure you could guess, your answer will move your place on the “karma” meter.  I was quite surprised by the number of questions the game has in it.  Even when I died in a stage and had to go back through the same confessional booth, I received a new question.  Not all are great, but some actually require some self reflection and thought, if you want to take it seriously that is.  After you answer, you will be shown a pie chart of what the other players online have answered.  On the last section for each night, Vincent will face a “boss” level.  The basic concept is the same; manipulate the blocks to make a climbable way to the top before the bottom falls out from beneath you, but with the added stress of a hideous monster chasing after you.  These creatures are very reminiscent of things you would see in a silent hill game.  Not only are they big, scary and hell bent on killing you, but they are also based off of the current crisis going on in Vincent’s life.  This can make the boss segments even more intense if you have let yourself become immersed in Vincent’s life.  Each boss will chase you as you climb, so you will have to move faster than you have in the earlier stages unless you want to see Vincent suffer a bloody death, but later bosses will also have special attacks that can knock you off your block, reverse your controls, and more.  These boss levels are incredibly intense, but can also be quite frustrating.  It isn’t frustrating to the point where you will want to give up, but just enough to motivate you to try again and again.  Somehow the game never makes you feel like it’s impossible, but still presents a challenge that you just know you can overcome if you tried again one more time.  When you do make it to the top, and hear Vincent cry out “Yeah, I made it!” while holding his fist in the air as the sounds of a cheering crowd come out of nowhere, you will feel just as much accomplishment as he does.  More than a few times I found myself standing up and mimicking his actions after some of the harder sections.  As an added bonus, after the boss is vanquished, a chorus of “hallelujah” chimes in while your score is tallied. 

Speaking of your score, at the end of each section you are given one of three trophies depending on a few factors.  There are the usual bronze, silver, and gold trophies you can earn, but don’t expect to get many trophies higher than bronze on your first play through.  The first factor in calculating your score on a stage is the difficulty.  I played on normal, and have gotten about half the gold trophies so far, so it isn’t necessary to play on hard to get gold medals.  As you are climbing, you will notice little piles of coins on some blocks.  Collecting these will add 1000 enigma coins to your final score, which is a good amount.  Next, you get coins for how much of the level is still intact when you finish, or in simpler terms, how quickly you completed the level.  The last addition to your score is what is known as your “step counter”.  This meter on the top right will count how many upward steps you take before a little timer runs out.  Continuing to climb before the timer expires resets it, and increases the multiplier for your score.  Not allowing your step counter to drop will drastically increase your score by the end of a stage.  

Whew, now that the basic game play is explained we can talk about some of the extras in Catherine.  The good news about the extras could also be considered the bad news.  It’s all more block puzzles.  This could be great if you are looking for more puzzles after playing through the game, but if you are looking for a little variety, there isn’t very much.  The first little extra that is open to you is the arcade game “Rapunzel” which is located in the “Stray Sheep” bar.  When you first approach it in the game, it will inform you that you only get to play it three times per night (ok, dad), so you will probably have to go back on different days if you want to complete all the levels, and there are a lot.  128 of em.  Yup, go crazy.  There are 64 standard stages that you need to complete in order to unlock the 64 extra stages (if you really want to, that is).  The difference in this little arcade game is that the ground is not falling out from below you, but you do have a limited number of push/pulls you can perform.  The other mode you can play around with is called “Babel”.  There are 4 different Babel stages which require you to get gold medals in the story to unlock.  The modes are called Altar, Menhir, Obelisk, and Axis Mundi and you will need 1, 3, 5, and 9 gold medals to unlock each one respectively.  Each mode is randomly generated block towers, but they each get longer and utilize more of the trap blocks.  If, or rather when, you die in one of these modes, your best height and time will be sent to an online leader board.  There is one definite, glaring flaw with Babel mode.  Despite how far you have gotten in previous attempts, the game will announce “new record!” each and every step you take.  So, you better get used to hearing “new record!” nonstop for a long time if you are planning to reach the top.  These modes can also be played co-operatively, although I found having another player to be more of a hindrance since you cannot stand on the same block, and if one of you drops down on top of the other, you will automatically smack them off the block and down to almost certain death.  That and the fact that it is all too easy for one of you to fall behind and become trapped and if one of you dies, you both lose. 

If multiplayer is what you are looking for, the coliseum mode is probably the best option for you.  It is only unlocked after fully completing the game once.  This mode is a competitive mode where you each try to climb the same tower at the same time, like Babel, but rather than trying to work together (as impossible as that can be) you are encouraged to work against your opponent.  You win this mode by either killing your opponent, or reaching the top first.  Just so there is no confusion, all multiplayer modes in Catherine are local only.  Only the leader boards and graphs utilize your online connection.

Alright, just two more quick points I want to hit before my conclusion, so if you have read this far, just bear with me a little longer.  The first one being graphics.  The in game graphics are decent enough that they won’t distract you, and all the bosses come across as monstrous and scary, but won’t impress you in terms of detail.  The character models, while a bit stiff during cut scenes, still have a lot of expression, at least in Vincent’s case.  The other characters barely seem to change their expressions at all.  Where the game really comes alive is when it changes into anime cut scenes.  These scenes, while unfortunately scarce, are visually appealing and feel very fitting for the genre of the game.  Catherine certainly would have benefited if each cut scene was made this way.  For one thing, while Vincent’s in game model is nearly identical to his anime style; other characters such as Catherine don’t translate as well.  Since Catherine is supposed to be very attractive (to say the least), it is a little disappointing to see how oddly shaped her head looks in game compared to her anime counterpart. 

Before I get into the voice acting, I should confess that I have a strange love for voice acting.  I can’t explain it, but there is something very appealing to me about giving voice to another person, and that is exactly what the voice actors in Catherine have done.  First, I have to give props to Vincent’s voice actor Troy Baker.  He does an excellent job voicing Vincent, and giving him life and personality.  There are a few times I thought Catherine sounded a little too over the top, but otherwise the entire cast gave strong performances, which is somewhat expected from such experienced voice actors.  I won’t gush over this topic any longer because I know it might not be as interesting to everyone else as it is to me.  Bottom line though, the voice acting is solid.  

Whether or not you will enjoy Catherine really depends on if you are ready to play something different from most games being released this generation.  It is uniquely difficult, and at times is fairly thought provoking.  I wish there was a game I could compare it to, or say if you liked this game you will like Catherine, but I just can’t think of one.  Hopefully what I have said here already helped you make up your mind, but if you are still on the fence there are free demos available on both Xbox360 and PS3.  Even after I played the demo, I still wasn’t sure about this game, but picked it up not only because I wanted to support developers who were doing something different, but because I couldn’t really get a grip on what the game really was and was curious to find out.  If you find yourself curious as well, this is a perfect game to try before all the huge winter releases eat all your money.  

-J. Lennox

Close Reading: Red Dead Redemption

A brief synopsis-

“America, 1911, the wild west is dying.”  John Marston, the main character of the game, is a former outlaw trying to move on with his life with his family.  Before the game begins, however, his wife and son are held hostage by the Bureau of Investigation,  promising to reunite them and grant him amnesty for his past crimes if he brings his former gang members to justice.  John sets off to find the three members of the gang he used to run with, traveling all across southern America and Mexico, meeting and getting involved with a host of characters along the way.  

What are the theme(s)?-

I kept the synopsis more brief than usual for two reasons.  The first is that the basics of the story are that simple, even though a lot more depth and complexity is woven in throughout the game.  My second reason is because one theme I want to talk about requires me to spoil the ending to the game and I didn’t want to do that without giving fair warning to anyone who has not finished the main storyline and would rather do that before reading further.  Consider this your warning, as I will assume anyone reading beyond this point has either finished the game or does not mind the end being given away.  

As the title suggests, redemption is a major component in this game, but in some strange ways  John’s idea of redemption after a life as an outlaw, is to settle down and live a simple life.  He is forced to hunt down his former gang members by outside forces, and in a lot of ways doesn’t want to.  The obvious reasons are that his family is being held captive, but also the relationship John had with his gang.  John’s mother died during his birth, and his father died in a barfight early in his life, leaving John to grow up in an orphanage.  He ran away from this life and joined a gang led by a man named Dutch, the same gang he would later be sent to hunt down.  John describes his relationship with his gang as being like a family to him, with Dutch taking on a fatherly role for him.  Dutch taught him how to read, hunt, shoot, and generally survive in the world.  He claims that all the robberies, kidnappings, and raids he committed with his gang were in an attempt to better the world.  In a Robin Hood type fashion, they stole from the rich and gave to the poor.  It was only after being shot and abandoned by his gang during a robbery gone wrong that John decided to give up that way of life.  He respects Dutch even after that point, and openly states that he owes him a lot for everything he did for him.  John isn’t looking for redemption in the capture of his former gang, but in creating a life for his family that doesn’t require them to do what he had to.  

After John finished his job for the bureau, his family was returned to him, but they were not planning on letting a potentially dangerous outlaw like him go free.  After only just starting to get his farm and family back in order, a group of soldiers raided John’s farm.  Knowing what they wanted, he sent his wife and son away, and fought them off as best he could alone, but was overwhelmed and killed.  The story continues years later, following John’s son, Jack.  Jack takes on the responsibility of redeeming his father in the only way he thinks is acceptable.  Unlike his father, for Jack redemption can only be achieved through revenge.  He tracks down the now retired agent who was responsible for putting his father through so much to get his family back only to turn around and kill him after he did what he wanted, and guns him down.  The game ends on this scene with the words REDEMPTION smashing onto the screen.  

How it can be used in education-

Redemption is a word that can mean many different things, especially when considering how one goes about achieving it.  Asking students to define what they consider redemption compared to revenge could lead to some great discussions or paper topics, as there is a lot of grey area there depending on the situation.  At what point, if any, do the two meet?  Who achieved redemption in the story?  John, who wanted to put his past behind him despite being betrayed, or Jack who kills the man who murdered his father despite doing what he asked?  Then there are the questions of how the discussion changes depending on how the player chooses to go about capturing his former gang members, as it is up to the player to decide whether or not John kills or captures them alive.

Red Dead Redemption would be a great supplemental text for a unit going over morality and issues of killing and revenge.  Redemption itself is hardly talked about much as a topic in itself, but could fit perfectly as a mini-unit within a larger one.  

As with every interpretation of a text, this is just my own.  I would love to hear your interpretations if you’ve had the chance to play this game, or your thoughts on it having just heard the little bit I described.  Is there a way you would utilize this game that I overlooked, or a flaw in my examples?  Do you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see written about next?  I would really like to start a dialog down in the comments, so respond however you like.