Here's my first post:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=331015
I'm going through a mini LucasArts adventure game marathon and I'm on Indiana Jones and The Fate of Atlantis. I really haven't gotten too far into it yet, but I think the opening has got to be one of the best designed game openings that I've ever seen.
There's no menu screen.
There's no introductory cutscene.
There's no tutorial.
The screen just starts on the room and suddenly Indiana Jones crashes through a wall as the Indiana Jones theme plays in glorious midi. Indy tells you that he's looking for a statue and without any other instruction, the cursor pops up and you have control of the game.
You slowly move the cursor around and explore the various objects in the game. You click a statue and you fall through a trap door! As the screen transitions to the next scene, credits are displayed on the screen just like in an Indy movie. This continues through various screens, introducing you to the basic game controls and the plot of the game (those evil Nazis are at it again!), playing out like the beginning of any of the Indiana Jones movies.
What's doubly genius is that these screens are all "safe" screens in that you can't die and you can take as much time as you want, so the only way you might get stuck is if you don't know how to use a mouse or you can't read English.
I don't know if you're supposed to read the manual first or if games back then didn't feel a need to hold your hand, but imagine if a shooter like Halo 3 dropped you right in the middle of a firefight the moment you started the game. You don't even see a menu to start the game or a cutscene to set up the context. It'd be such a great way to put you in the moment right at the start without giving you a moment to breathe.
I wonder, have there been any other games that just started with gameplay and no other introduction? Or is Fate of Atlantis unique in this regard?
Edit for clarification: I'm trying to think of, to borrow N'Gai Croal's term, the "game telling" version of this concept. Where you immediately start with gameplay and it is only later that the game mechanics/controls are introduced to you.
Heavenly Sword and it seems like the X-men 2 game would be other examples.
And this lead to a discussion of what the term actually meant... and, sure, if you're talking about convention "literary" stories, I definitely agree. But at some point, rightwhen the thread died, I came up with this:
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=12377731&postcount=118
I still believe this and I think it's a pretty interesting way to introduce someone to a game, given that most games begin with a start menu then slowly ramp you up with the gameplay and the controls.
That's fine, but I guess I'm in the camp that believes gameplay/the ludic experience is itself a narrative mode, that learning a game and how to play a game is as much the narrative experience as the traditional elements such as the names of the characters or the plot.
Maybe I'm up my own ass (probably am), but I think most games, when teaching gameplay and controls, follow some form of Freytag's triangle - from the slow build/introduction (tutorial, first few levels) to the climax (the first time where you have learned enough about the rules of the game to put all the pieces together to defeat a boss or pass a level) to the denoument (where you are familiar with the rules so that you don't need to think about what you are doing).
I dunno. Maybe Braid has been fucking with my brain and making me over think things that I shouldn't think about.
Of course, there are the Castlevania and Metroid games , but that's not quite the same as simply throwing you in and then going back to develop your personal "ludic" narrative. The most important aspect would be the "cold open" that takes you into a game experience without any set up, menu screen or otherwise.
Assassin's Creed was close, but I think it fell into the Metroid camp more than say the Heavenly Sword camp.
Anyway, back to the grind.
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