"In the End, man is not entirely guilty - he did not start history. Nor is he wholly innocent - he continues it."
- Albert Camus
I just started playing Remember Me tonight, it's essentially so far (about 1 hour in) a linear story, pretty much an unfolding playable movie. But the world is gorgeous, the music is sharp and heightening, and thus far I feel reasonably connected to the characters. I think it's a little sad because as I look at every facet of the game so far, I can appreciate the amount of time, effort and energy that went into making it. But I also know that in general gamers will not gravitate towards this type of title, even if they do, it will be hard fought to win over any type of accolades or attention.
The console cycle is dying out, and titles like these, are sadly being overshadowed by the coming 'new technology'. These new and ingenious intellectual properties are waiting to be developed further, explored upon, refined upon. And tragically I wonder how long of a life after this they will ever have. They came out too late, as the systems we know are eking out a last breath, they are fading away in the face of the new, the shinier, the fancier, with prettier pictures and more detail.
But isn't a good story, well a good story? We don't begrudge shakespeare because the words he used before were 'archaic'. When will we, as gamers, mature enough to appreciate these stories, regardless of the technology they are on. We already are nostalgic for a simpler, more refined, more minimalist time. Certainly we agree upon a great many of the 'classics' which had less than a tenth of the raw 'detail' content as games today. But so many of the games today seem lifeless when it comes to their storytelling. They seem flat, rely on ourselves as gamers to make our own narrative. So when a game comes out that has a strong backbone of a story, we often decry it as too linear, too pointed, too single directional. But I don't feel that way with Remember Me. Instead I just enjoy it, as I would a movie, or a television show. I'm along for the ride, but it demands a certain amount of reflexes and thought from me as well.
It'll be interesting to grow up in this next cycle of games. Where will our creativity, our appreciation, and importantly our audiences take us?
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