The innocence of gaming

You know, I've been wanting to discuss a certain state of gaming, that exists within both the history of the medium, as well as the individuals that play them. Sort of that "fall of innocence" type of arc, where being new to something meant nothing but discovery and joy in the nostalgic mind of your memory, but now you've got higher standards and stuff of that sort. I think one of the best ways to describe it, was in fact through... well, more Turok talk. I was looking back on the original Turok remaster community on steam, and stumbled into a fascinating comic vs game magazine page on the subject of the game.

Now Turok in itself is a pretty fine example of innocence from a game time and design standpoint. Being one of the first 3D shooters, as well as one on consoles, the game designed itself weirdly just as much as a platformer. You ran around, collecting keys, making these odd daring jumps, all while firing up some crazy weapons in a crazy world where dinos, robots, alien gorillas, cyborgs, and poachers can co-exist in the same level, and the 2nd to last boss is a cyborg T-rex. There's absolutely no depth to the story or goals, it's just going level to level picking up keys, collecting weapon parts, and blowing stuff up. What really caught my eye though was how they discuss tips and weird habits you can do in the gameplay. We're talking about killing a Purrlin with 140 knife stabs, playing the game with a steering wheel controller, or going "ancient warrior" mode and the best way to take enemies down with strictly a bow and knife. This isn't necessarily gone from the present, as we as players and a community love to talk about weird and creative ideas. There are people out there right now beating Dark Souls with their guitar hero controller, or practicing a run specific to a character's armor set in the game. People have made up their own weird roleplay style within skyrim, and have tried turning it into a fantasy adventure simulation of sorts. However, I feel its grown uncommon, and it's especially odd to see a developer themselves encourage this type of attitude in an otherwise open game.

However, how much do we appreciate games like this today as well? The games were from a simpler time, when they had less features and to a point almost drove the player creatively. What enemies can I get away with just knifing? What if I turn on cheat codes, and play the whole game with the spirit mode power-up active? Things like that, and apparently it was even common to the point of the developer encouraging it. Heck in some ways, I'd even say the simplicity is a part of what makes the game awesome. Not every game needs an XP system, stealth, or flashy take-downs. Hell this game even has mandatory secondary fire, meaning you can't switch to conserve dragon's breath shotgun ability. Yet I've weirdly grown to appreciate it, because rather than never using that ammo, I find myself more often just saying "fuck it, they'll replenish it faster this way anyways, let's just enjoy the auto-shotgun some more". Meanwhile in Turok 2, it's less predictable, and the option to conserve is taken more heavily. Plus there's just no normal automatic shotgun, so I just don't use the explosive rounds as much. However if you read what people say, most unanimously agree that this game remade and remastered was not worth the asking price of $20. How come? Well, it's just limited compared to everything given. We're kind of spoiled with modern gaming, and honestly to answer my own question, I think many of us don't appreciate this stuff as much as we could. I'm not applying that as a full blanket statement, because I know there's those die-hard "everything was better back then" guys, who will still religiously pick up these games and map out every damn secret, every little niche detail, and could chart out hitpoints of gun to enemy type on a chart (even testing Acclaim's Purrlin statement). Those guys definitely exist, but so to do the guys like me that have to shove themselves into a corner and condition themselves to embrace the game, to see it as anything more than a small budget game in today's market.

I'm not here to nag on anyone though, just reflecting. I think it's important that we take the time to step back and think of the games out there that still try some simpler and interesting things, but of course within good reason. I'm kind of confused how we got to a point where people complain at the idea of a $40-$60 3D platformer, when they were the bread and butter of massive worlds, and in-depth content. Still for whatever reason, we're at that point, and I think it's worth a quick and admittedly somewhat confused article to make note of that. To go and try and find a passion in the simple again, to try and challenge yourself to become truly immersed in the mundane, and to try not to take even the simpler games for granted. I'm not saying you should be willing to pay $60 for a sidescroller, or even $20 for Turok, but that if you do enjoy them... well, try to look beneat the surface. Turok doesn't have to just be a game about running around collecting keys, shooting things, and getting to the end. Think about it for a second. You're a native american character with super weapons up against cyborg dinosuars. Clearly you can get a little creative and interested in that, so that you're not just boringly trudging from A to B as if you had to hurry for a review. Stop and appreciate stuff like that a little. Maybe take the time to enjoy gliding around in Yooka-laylee when it's out, or try a knife run in Turok, or try that old glitch out in Super Mario Bros rather than just watching it on youtube. Try to occasionally get into that mindset again, of the very first time a video game caught you, and sucked you in, and you could just go on and on about it like everything was a brand new discovery. Easier said than done, but... eh, doesn't hurt to try a little.

Thankfully some indies still design games with this childishly creative mindset