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What happened to you, The Apocalypse? You used to be so fresh and fun. You'd tear everything I knew and loved to pieces and rearrange it into some hideous tapestry of my greatest fears, and I'd be like “Oh, you. You're such a prankster.” Or you'd spew zombies into all kinds of zany places (The mall! The circus! Outer space!), and I'd beat them to death while screaming and crying. We had such good times. Now, though, it's old hat. Your abandoned landscapes – once ripe with the pungent odor of adventure – have grown gray and same-y. I used to mow down your menagerie of mutants, robots, and zombies with all the glee of a Hollywood director at a Beloved (And Infinitely Ruinable) Childhood Memories convention, but now each one is just another bump in the road.
We've grown apart, is what I'm saying. But that doesn't mean we can't have a horrifying, dystopic future together. A couple recent games have given me hope that this whole “fiery end to all normal life” thing isn't just a passing fad.
It all started with a recent oft-repeated quote from id Software's Tim Willits. Addressing the issue of precisely why fans won't mind RAGE's vehicle-heavy shift away from id's typical fare, he said, "I think that they will find that it's a refreshing change from anything we've done in the past, and honestly I think that people have modern combat fatigue." Which is certainly a valid point.
Pay attention to comment threads involving his game, though, and you'll unearth a second ticking time bomb nearly as large as the first. “It looks just like Borderlands!” Commenters clamor. “It's so generic! Why not just say it's a Fallout spin-off and be done with it?” In truth, they're going a bit overboard. From what I've seen, RAGE's world isn't just some crummy carbon copy.
It does, however, adhere to a fairly specific set of tropes, and gamers seem to be suffering from “You've seen one Wasteland, you've seen 'em all” syndrome as a result. Willits, then, can go on about modern combat fatigue all he wants. If he doesn't watch it, though, post-apocalypse fatigue is going to creep up behind him and plant a live grenade in his pocket.
Fortunately, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic games don't have to go down this road. Developers are poking and prodding the bear trap that is misplaced priorities, but they haven't stepped in it yet. See, if you ask me, apocalypse-focused titles aren't about the setting. I can take or leave your sprawling sea of sand and ill-advised punk hairdoos. Yes, Mad Max was great and all, but there's only so much you can do with flat, nuked-to-nothingness landscapes and towns constructed from rusty sheet metal and some particularly determined pieces of string before players start to seek out greener pastures.
So, if the setting's not the main attraction, then what is? Well, if you ask me, it's a certain vibe – this feeling of separation from a world that once was mixed with a bitter longing for that which you'll never see again. So basically, it's a fantasy of freedom from the daily grind of work and toil – a sweeping and immediate change to the rules of day-to-day life – but with a hint of “you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone” mixed in. Old versus new. Your boring 9-to-5 versus a bitchin' car-battery-powered electro sword that kills between five and nine zombies in a single swing. Old, however, is comfortable and safe. A brave new world full of terrifying new creatures, though? Not so much.
Comments are closed on this article
Trooper_One
August 29, 2011 at 12:57pm
Can you people stop whining about "I'm getting tired of this or that theme"?!?
First it was Orcs and Elves, then it was WW2, Modern Warfare, then Zombie, now everything apocalyptic.
I don't know, I enjoyed each and everyone of these games and if the next game is WWII (or apocalypse) - so be it! As long as it is good, I'll evaluate the game for what it is.
Do you people have any idea how hard it is to develop a game?!?
If you whiners are so good a creativity, then make a game yourself and show off what you got!
Edwincnelson
August 27, 2011 at 9:35am
For me Rage feels like it's copying some of the things I liked least about Fallout 3 and FNV. Seriously, people have been living here for a hundred years but no one picks the trash up off the ground? WE can maintain these vehicles, but no one has uncovered the secret formula for asphalt and fixed up these roads? I'm going to play it but I have a feeling Deus Ex is going to keep me more entertained.
Gameraddikted
August 25, 2011 at 11:27am
At first glance I was one of those commentors saying to myself, "wow this looks a lot like fallout" but then, luckily, I had the pleasure of playing it at Quakcon 2011. I must say that I was compltely wrong. Yes it is post-apocalyptic, a FPS/RPG hybrid but other than that similarity it has a totally different feel and when I played it although a little confusing picking it up mid-game, it did not remind me of Fallout at all. Defintely worth picking up a copy or at the very least renting.
kris79
August 25, 2011 at 7:25am
Very nice reading. Nathan's got the knack for narrative. I'll have to go check these games out for myself...
stradric
August 25, 2011 at 7:18am
What I like about dystopic games are, as you said, juxtaposing the glory of what once was with the misery of the present (which is the future). Also, the survival aspect. Post-apocalyptic worlds also offer an easy way for the hero to make a name for him/herself so it becomes much more plausable.
Rage definitely draws Fallout and Borderlands comparisons for good reason. There's even an Enclave-like faction. I was never impressed with Fallout's shooter mechanic (beyond VATS), but enjoyed the world. Borderlands was the opposite. It was a decent shooter (but awful driving) in a boring world. Rage seems to reconcile those two games by being an interesting shooter with interesting vehicle gameplay in an interesting world. Only time will tell if it's actually any good. It's been a while since I played anything good from id.
andrewc513
August 24, 2011 at 3:40pm
Not really. There are an infinite number of different apocalypse stories available, because it's the future we're talking about. That's an infinite playground, and it's up to the devs to take advantage of that. On the flipside, there's only so many ways you can do a good World War 2 game. And that genre's been burned out and then some.
Ridnarhtim
August 25, 2011 at 4:14am
Darksiders is a post-apocalyptic game; one with ruined cities and fire, green landscapes, sunken buildings, an old cathedral, a graveyard, a not-so-exciting desert and many more. There's no reason it has to all be brown.
yammerpickle2
August 24, 2011 at 3:32pm
I loved Unreal Tournament, and Unreal Tournament 2004. Unreal 3 just didn't do it for me. The dark and dirty palette was used on too many maps, all that technology for a game that to me was not significantly more visually appealing. I wish Rage success, and maybe game play is far enough away from the gritty shooter that is old and tired that it will succeed. Six years have allowed too many other gritty shooters to jade the consumer.
I hope developers are looking at indie games for inspiration, but with the high cost of development few are going to take risks beyond tried and true sequels.
TommM
August 24, 2011 at 4:05pm
Really? Wow - I'm an Unreal series junkie and absolutely loved 3. Especially many of the player designed maps which some were frankly, incredible. I honestly don't know why everyone is so jacked up about TF2 (is it the hats??) when UT3 is such a superior game.
naxself
August 24, 2011 at 2:59pm
I'm glad someone is challenging game designers to move beyond normal tropes. Well done, Nathan.
TommM
August 24, 2011 at 2:19pm
Agreed - that was an excellent article! Right on the money. And thanks for the tips on the two games - I will most certainly be checking them out.
acidic
August 24, 2011 at 2:20pm
enslaved on xbox 360 was a great game. only tried bastion trial. it seems ok but the narrator would get old really fast. anyways ive submitted this story to maximumpc to see if they could find out more. i contacted 2 locale gamestops and neither could "confirm nor deny" if its true. so it being gamestop thats probably a 100000% yes.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2011/08/report-gamestop-opening-deus-ex-copies-removing-free-game-code.ars
Peanut Fox
August 24, 2011 at 8:47pm
Actually the narrator doesn't get old. At least not in the first play through. He very rarely says the same thing twice. I can count the instances where I've run into it.
Rcapps
August 24, 2011 at 1:39pm
Awesome article. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I've actually never heard or saw Enslaved or Bastion. After reading this article it has peaked my interest. Hmmm I think I'll be buying a couple of new games.
