Earning your ending

MGS Torture sequence

When I played Metal Gear Solid way back when, I came to the torture sequence and hesitated as to whether I would give in or fight my way through. If you somehow missed out on MGS, there was a sequence about half-way through the game that Solid Snake - the character you play as - was captured and, subsequently, tortured. You had the choice as to whether you would endure the torture or just give Revolver Ocelot what he wanted. Or maybe he warns you that Meryl will be killed, I can't remember.

Being the softie I am, I fought my way through.

But rather than just moving my cursor over "I want to endure torture" and being done, you actually have to earn your bragging rights. This is accomplished via rapid button presses, a feat only possible if you've played certain other games; or if you have the ability to move two separate fingers alternately in rapid succession.

This decision actually effects what ending you see and, as I stated earlier (if my memory serves correctly), whether Meryl lives or not. See, you've actually made a choice by working for it - not something you do very often in games.

But why not?

I don't have an answer, but I will say that I wish more game developers took this approach to choice in games. Sure, Mass Effect gave you constant choices that affected this outcome or that, but in the end you moved your cursor over your choice, then either fought it out or payed some money or something else. I'm not saying Mass Effect did it "wrong" but I wish that there could have been more to it than cursor movement. Also, I absolutely loved Mass Effect, easily one my favorite RPG's.

Disagree? Agree?

Your thoughts or comments are greatly appreciated.

(4)

Steve Nyktas

May 13, 2009

This is a brilliant sequence, and I agree - it's a type that we haven't seen enough. I can imagine a number of scenarios where something like this could be implemented, like in a first person shooter where you choose to fight off waves of enemies or retreat. Hopefully we'll see more things like this in the future.

Brett Bates

I get what you're saying with that Metal Gear scene, but I think it works for a very specific reason: what you're doing is mimicking what's going on in the game. Snake is struggling, you're struggling -- you can completely identify with Snake. But most games throw in Quick Time Events just so there's some sort of interactivity during key narrative points, and they fail because what you're doing with your controller is meaningless to the action on screen. What does it matter if I press the square button to dodge a boss in an RE:5 cutscene? That's not even the button I'd use to dodge in game! The QTE simply becomes a chore, a little bit of Simon Says to get through before getting back to the real meat of the game.

Chris Cosmo Ross

Yeah, you're definitely right. I'm sure it sounds easy to come up with interesting ways of interacting with choices in game, but it is probably much more difficult than I can imagine.

Thanks for comments, guys!

Raymond Fernandes

May 20, 2009

I remember that scene and it was classic. It went beyond what it needed to be in a game which, for better or worse, went that extra bit often.

As for QTE moments in games, I find that they work against themselves. In the Force Unleashed and the God of War series, they usually would happen during or at the end of boss fights as the payoff for winning but, instead of watching a flashy cut scene and enjoy it for what it is. I end up paying attention to the button sequence just to get through it and almost completely miss the scene. The sad fact is that these are two games were it's passable. There are others where it's awful.