While the newly released Spec Ops: The Line
may not be perfect, it has received a lot of positive feedback from reviewers (myself included) for some of the risks it took and how well they paid off. The game pushes a lot of boundaries for the shooter genre, as well as video games in general. This past week the game has had me thinking about the future of video games and I think some of the industries biggest future shifts in design focus can be seen in this game. So without further ado, here is a list of the four things that Spec Ops does that I think are the future of gaming.
1. Non- Binary Moral Choices
We have seen it time and time again, most recently and notably in the Mass Effect trilogy. Games are offering us the opportunity to not only follow a set path, but to choose how we want things to play out. These choices usually boil down to take the blue path to do the right thing, take the red path to be a badass. Games will usually reward sticking with one of these directions, punishing or limiting rewards to those who stick down the middle route. In mass effect, you can only use the more advanced dialogue options to convince people and get the best story options if you stick with Paragon (good) or Renegade (evil). Where Spec Ops is differerent is that it is one of the few games that feature non- binary moral choices. You don't get a good and a bad choice, you don't get rewarded or punished by the game for those choices and the game doesn't make any judgement of you for what you choose. The choices you make are tough and the consequences of those actions are completely on you. You are the one who has to live with the choices you make, both within the game and after you walk away. Another good example of non- binary moral choices currently unfolding is the episodic downloadable The Walking Dead games. Both of these games don't have a set of choices that will make everything turn out okay, they force you to limit the damage that is done and I feel that these kind of moral choices carry far more weight and are much more powerful when handed to the player. Click "next" below to read the next entry...