Emotion in Games

The game Fahrenheit drew me in so much that when the plot twisted i was actually angered at how different the game had become from the opening levels.

I rememebr a scene where your just sitting in your apartment waiting for the police and you have a bit of time to just chill out and play some guitar, i remember sitting there just smiling as i heard this great music.

Then went out and bought the theory of a deadman album :)
 
sharpygsxr said:
The game Fahrenheit drew me in so much that when the plot twisted i was actually angered at how different the game had become from the opening levels.

I rememebr a scene where your just sitting in your apartment waiting for the police and you have a bit of time to just chill out and play some guitar, i remember sitting there just smiling as i heard this great music.

Then went out and bought the theory of a deadman album :)
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Hah! That song also got me into Theory of a Deadman :D

Very cool game :)
 
well i dont know about multiplayer, multiplayer is most of the time if it is fps its all about skill. if its about mmo its about lvl or items, but if its single player look in to. final fantasy 7 ,grant thief auto series, call of duty series, half life series , tomb rader series, and fallout series.
 
If a game has a really good story then you're likely to be more emotionally invested in it. However, I guess too much gameplay in between important plot points (like cutscenes) can kinda ruin the flow of the story. It sucks if you end up more focussed on getting the stupid level done - during those periods you practically forget there's an actual story. I suppose it depends on the type of game though - FPS's are naturally gonna have more gameplay than, say, a point-and-click adventure...

I'd say cinematic quality of the game is also an important factor. Half-life 2 is a pretty interesting example of a game that uses cinematic-style sequences, within the actual gameplay itself, instead of cutscenes - that is really effective! You get the best of both worlds (the cutscene and the immersiveness of the gameplay). However, I suppose how those scenes play out emotionally can be affected by how well you play through them.
 
r44b said:
3:
A final Question id like to ask, is do you feel that single player games draw you into a story/environment/situation more than or better than multiplayer games?
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Single-player tends to get you into the story if done well, both RPG's because they're rather story-orientated and games that just have a really strong story element, eg. Half Life. The end of EP2 still has a pretty big impact, and knowing what's about to happen only makes it worse. The end of COD4 is pretty similar, in that you're helpless to do anything in the situation, only you get your chance later. I still love that moment.

Mass Effect comes to mind just for having some seriously nasty choices. The Virmire decision actually had me so indecisive I had to put the controller down and really think about it, try and justify the gut instinct to save your character's relationship interest... Probably the most difficult in-game decision i've been faced with yet.

Multiplayer tends to be more about the situation. Its all about the people on your team, trying to work with them and keep them alive. More so if it's your mates. Saving someone's ass with a well-aimed shot is a great feeling. Story never really seems to be important in MP, even in co-op.
 
Never felt any emotion towards a game, max payne had the most emotional gameplay, but it still was'nt enough. Actually i lie, i feel great rage towards games i cannot win at :p
 
Emotional highlights for me have been:

Silent Hill 2 - Not only did that game scare the pants off me throughout, but James' predicament really got to me. Everything he was feeling and going through emotionally was entirely plausible, and in that sense it was extremely realistic. The game was also not scared to push some boundaries to really get its message across, such as the Pyramid Head rape scene. It all came together so well.

FF10 - I'd only played FF7 before this, and not completed it. FF10 seemed to be set out in such a beautiful and philosophical way. I'd borrowed it from a friend, need to play it again so I can realise exactly how it got to me.

Farcry 2 - Although they missed out on so many opportunities with such a brilliant concept, the ending was quite emotional. I wonder if I had to force myself to really get in to it, but the Jackal's voice-acting was brilliant. His animations were also superbly done, and it really felt like we'd finally had to come to an ultimatum and pay for our sins. The setting, although as I said not exploited enough, still added to this feeling of ultra-realism: I was so happy to have finally found out what the Jackal was willing to do for these people and the creators got the atmosphere spot on. The south-African voice acting was genuine and slick.

Left 4 Dead at the moment is some of the most intense gaming I've played for ages. A few friends and I did Blood Harvest on advanced the other night, and we all had our hearts racing at the end. We had to put some real thought in to a good tactic, and when one finally worked (mine damnit!) we almost didn't know what to do! It was a mad rush for the escape and I was 5hp off getting killed as I'd run outside in joy only to be met by a hundreds of zombies. There is a real joy for me in co-op gaming, and I'm glad a lot of developers are going that way at the moment.
 
Totally agree with VaderDSL, Deus Ex will always remain in my biological computerised memory, probably for the rest of my life. I really felt I was J C Denton (whilst playing it). I like most genres of games but FPS with RPG always grab me the most. There are a few FPS only title exceptions that go against the grain, like F.E.A.R - awesome, best FPS I ever played. Fallout 3 - lovin' it. Random non-scripted encounters simply allow for more emersive gameplay and because of the FPS element there is a short learning curve when you begin to play.
 
the best one for me has been Company of Heroes. the first level at the beach landing where you select your squad and run them up the beach to get to the cliffs. what really got me was that out of the 5 guys you can select, maybe 3 or 4 would get killed and 1 would reach the cliff. so you'd try again and the same thing would happen, or maybe they'd all get killed and none would make it, so you'd go again and again to get the amount you needed to the cliffs. but this actually happened in real life - the futility of it, the incredibly high chance of death, the amount of waste - it really got to me!

on a similar note, in the first CoD at the start of the Russian missions, where you go across the river in the boat and it gets bombed, you struggle out of the boat and try and get a weapon, and the guy tells you to keep moving or he'll shoot you! again the ridiculousness of the whole thing - there's machine guns mowing everyone down and you've nothing to fight with. helplessness, disbelief, anger - all sorts.

the only other one was bioshock where you get saved by all the little sisters and the consequences of sucking out their brains becomes apparent. i felt momentarily bad.
 
Not sure if you can call this character development as it refers to a whole ships rather than a single character but the strugle opposing the crew of the Mothership in the original Homeworld almost had me in tears at the end. The composition of brilliantly made movies, excellent gameplay and music cherry-picked by the gods made for a very very entertaining game.
 
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