30 Day Video Game Meme Day 12 - Play this game.
So today I answer the twelfth question, what game should everyone play? Well it's interesting because this was one of the questions I pre-scribbled a title down for. I was so certain I had a good answer for this, but a more recent release has blown my mind.
I really should preface this particular rant by talking about one of my favourite game designers, Tetsuya Mizuguchi. Initially working on the iconic Sega franchises Space Channel 5 and Sega Rally before branching off to found his own company Q Entertainment. There's a philosophy that comes out in his games that examines the characteristics of music as a fundamental game mechanism.
This particularly comes out in two puzzle games that he's produced, Meteos for the DS and Lumines for the PSP. Both are clever and inventive puzzle games that are well worth playing. But the way each worked was that music was generative, a backing track would build and ebb to match the tension on the screen. Finding a rhythm in the way you played would build the music up further with samples and sound effects. It is a really effective technique that's well implemented in both, but seems almost childish next to the synesthetic shooters Rez and Child of Eden.
Now what I think is so fantastic about both of these games, and what makes them so important, comes down to some fundamentally core ideals that gaming should be striving towards. To not only better itself as a medium, but to find identity and produce a compelling art. I think that one of the biggest problems that blocked the common acceptance of games as an art is in the way that games mimic what is good about other mediums without celebrating the basic values of gameplay that make a game just that.
What do I mean? I mean a game like The Longest Journey tells a fantasy story as good as any other. Better in fact, I'd put it on the same plinth as I would other fantasy staples such as Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter and Discworld. But it's a point and click adventure game, barely interactive, and basically wouldn't lose anything in translation to another medium. You could write it into a book or comic, film it as a tv series or movie and it would tell the same story just as effectively. Any game that's heavy on text or cutscenes is game that's meaningless in it's art, and any mindless arcade junk game is never going to reflect something meaningful to the player as the best of other mediums. Valve games are pretty exceptional in this sense, perhaps Half Life or the Portal series is the gaming medium's Citizen Kane, Watchmen, Pride and the Prejudice or Breaking Bad. But I think you could make a good movie, write a good book based on either of them and both could be represented just as strongly.
Now Rez is an exceptional game, and basically everything I'm about to say about Child of Eden applies equally. However having the advantage of being a more recent game, Child of Eden surpasses Rez in basically every technical way and in doing so is the better game. You could do worse things than spend an afternoon playing both games however, and Rez has enough fundamental differences that it really should be examined on it's own merits as well.
Child of Eden on the other hand, I don't know where to start describing it. It is a painting on a wall, filled with symbolism and colour and is beautiful to look at. It tells you a story in abstract showing you scenes that celebrate life and happiness. It depicts the journey of someone seeking truth. At one point the game shows us the spark at the heart of human endeavor, and fills us with the hope that we can still better ourselves as a race. And that was probably just my experience of it, someone else could easily read something different into the story. The music is rich and cheerful, it comes from the environment presented and is emphasised by the way you play with it. And at it's heart it is a wonderfully simple rail shooter, on the Kinect it has this brilliant intuitiveness and tactility to it. As a game it is frequently challenging with meaningful content unlocks, additional rich layers of gameplay, score attacks and the simple fact this game is such a joy to play all factor into the re-playability of Child of Eden. This game is so simple anyone could play it having never picked up a game in their life, but the way it challenges the player to better themselves makes this a rich experience at all skill levels. No other game I can think of has this incredible level of gameplay purity. All of these add up to an experience irreducible, an artistic game without peer that could not be replicated in any other medium.
What really astounds me about the game. Just to even try to describe the actual experience of it instead of it's components. There was a moment where I was playing the second level, evolution. I had played the level a couple of times and was by that point quite familiar with the level layout. Then there was this one section where everything just fell into sync. I could hear the enemies in the music before I could see them, reaching out to ensnare each cluster with a definitive swipe. Then on each and every beat, pushing forward that pulse of light that would clear them away in a sparkle of orange and blue. The way this action built up the music and made it swirl about my head. These three sensations in such perfect sync that I could reach out and touch the beat of the music because it was like paint on a canvas. I could hear the colour I could see and feel it between my fingers. It sounds completely nuts, but those few brief moments in this game were so powerful they were like some kind of spiritual epiphany.
But there was just so much more. There was a part in the fourth level where you scan through an interconnected timeline of technological revolutions through human history culminating in the moon landing. I felt a sincere childlike wonder that I always do when I think about science and technology, and I felt as empowered and uplifted as the first time I learned about particle physics or the interconnectedness of Newton's laws of force and motion. It nearly brought me to tears, and then the last level actually managed to. I had heard that Mizuguchi had put the call out for people to send in their "photos of joy" for the climax of the game. After an intense boss-fight that represents an amalgam of all you experienced before it, to then see all of these pictures as you pull them from the Eden database itself was more than I could bear.
It's just one of the most perfect experiences that gaming has to offer. This is the only answer I can think of now if I'm to pick a game that everyone should play.