Stereo

I can’t decide on one game to write about.
So I’ll just write about two of them. They’re completely different from eachother. One is a single-player, story-based RPG, where you’re able to continue playing at your own pace. The other is a multiplayer-oriented FPS, fast-paced and with no focus on the story at all.

I’m talking about Dragon Age: Origins and Left 4 Dead 2.

Dragon Age

In Dragon Age I’m a warrior, or a mage, or a rogue, whatever I want to be. Every choice I make has consequences. Everything I do matter and effectively decide what the outcome will be. This is a real RPG, where you get dialogue options that affect both the conversation and your surroundings.

I often say that J-RPGs aren’t real RPGs. This is why. In c-RPGs you actually role-play. You create a character and engage in the plot, making decisions, playing your part in the story. J-RPGs are usually nothing but adventure games with statistics.

Leveling up does not make a game an RPG.

That’s why I love Dragon Age. It’s a REAL RPG in an age where every game pretends to be RPGs, but they’re really FPS- or hack’n'slash- or adventure games, with a leveling system thrown in it. But a leveling system is in no way the essential part of an RPG. You don’t need levels or statistics to make an RPG. You need role playing elements.

And Dragon Age IS role playing. Dragon Age takes three steps back, towards Baldur’s Gate, and ten steps forward, towards the future of Role Playing Games.

Dragon Age is not only one of the games of the year. It’s one of the best games ever.

Left 4 Dead 2

I loved the original Left 4 Dead. It was a fast-paced co-operative multiplayer-game where it was impossible to survive alone. The game basically cut off everything unnecessary and concentrated on the core of the game-play, making small improvements until their efforts resulted in a, relatively small, but beatiful shining diamond.

That’s why I was a bit dissapointed with all the added content in Left 4 Dead 2. But as soon as I started the game and the hordes of zombies tried to overwhelm me, I instantly forgave Valve for all their decisions. When you’re standing in a mob of hundreds and hundreds of zombies, hacking through them with katanas or chainsaws, blasting away their brains with shotguns and rifles, nothing else matters. You know your friends got your back, and you’ve got theirs. Your brain is actually getting high from the flow of adrenaline, and when the last zombie’s brain lands on the floor next to your right foot, you realize you’ve been holding your breath all this time.

I could write about the game’s different modes. I could write about the beatiful graphics. I could write about the characters and their constant, fun comments. But in the end, what makes this game so special and so precious and good, is that it doesn’t compromize at all. It wants to deliver an awesome co-operative game based on a zombie apocalyps. And it does. Nothing else matters.

And that’s the point. Nothing else matters. It’s just you, your weapons and your friends.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5