DO ACTION HEROES MAKE GOOD VIDEOGAME CHARACTERS?
Do action heroes make good videogame characters?
The answer to this question might seem to be unequivocally ‘yes’. After all, when you are playing a videogame what you are physically doing is pushing buttons. Therefore, the kind of experience that most easily maps onto gameplay are those situations in which reflexes take over. And, as action heroes find themselves having to deal with such situations all the time, one might assume that film characters such as these make for particularly good videogame personalities.
Moreover, one can see how certain set pieces in a typical action movie would translate into videogame genres. The car chase scenes in a James Bond movie could be turned into Need For Speed-style racing games. The gunplay of Rambo and the fighting in Die Hard could be reproduced in a Call of Duty-style shooter or a Double Dragon-style brawler.
Lastly, there actually have been some pretty fine videogames based on action heroes, so that pretty much proves that action heroes make good videogame characters.
But, not so fast. I believe there is a particular trait of action heroes that makes them less than ideal as videogame characters. And it is this: They tend to be so professional at what they do that almost nothing is difficult for them.
Think of Batman, for example. Bruce Wayne’s alter ego is a genius who can crack the most devious of puzzles. He has superb martial arts skills and when it comes to being stealthy he can count himself among the finest. In almost all situations, Batman is completely on top of things, totally able to handle whatever he faces without having to even break a sweat.
This trait run contrary to how videogame designers think the gameplay should feel. Because, whereas Batman or James Bond don’t normally find things difficult, videogame designers think gameplay should be challenging. Even if you choose to play a game on the easiest difficulty, there are likely to be situations in which you just can’t get past sections of gameplay without having to retry multiple times.
Now, for sake of compelling narrative the action hero will typically find him or herself in a situation where all seems lost and they face defeat. Had Superman been truly indestructible it would have made for a less interesting movie, so he had to have at least one weakness (kryptonite) that his nemesis could use against him.
One might argue, then, that there should be no problem if videogame versions of action heroes sometimes face seemingly insurmountable challenges too. And that’s true, but the problem is, under the less than brilliant gaming skills of someone like myself, action heroes have all kinds of problems that would never arise in the movies.
Can you imagine, for example, a scene in a Batman film where the Dark Knight has to drive his bat mobile over rooftops, leaping gaps along the way, and then he misjudges the jump and sends his car falling into the garbage- not just once but multiple times? Maybe in some silly parody of the Batman films that might happen but no way would the real batman ever make a silly mistake like that. No, he would perform those stunts perfectly first time every time.
Or how about this: A situation in which Batman arrives at the bad guy’s lair and then cannot figure out how he is supposed to get inside, so he wanders around without a clue before giving up and Googling ‘how do I get inside ACE chemical plant?’. Again, that would never happen to the real Batman but situations just like these were a regular part of my gameplay experience in Arkham Knight.
Another way in which action movies tend to be unlike videogames can be found in how the opening scene of such a movie is often among the most dramatic and exciting parts of the film. This is certainly true of James Bond films, which typically open with some incredible stunt that probably won’t be surpassed by anything else in the entire story. But how do videogames typically start? Nice and gently, with a training section intended to teach you the basics before letting you dodge incoming traffic in your Aston Martin while firing your Walther PPK at goons. “Ok James, use R stick to look up”...
Actually this was one instance in which Arkham Knight worked well. Because this was the third instalment in Rocksteady’s Batman series (I think there was one other Batman game within this universe that Rocksteady were not directly responsible for) and most players had probably already played the other games and learned the basics, Arkham Knight just let you get on with it. There I was patrolling the streets, listening out for opera music (the calling card of a serial killer who was displaying victims like trophies) or watching out for smoke caused by fires set by the arsonist Firefly, and beating up multiple thugs along the way, and it felt totally like being Batman.
But even this game had to throw in training missions. So, Arkham City is threatening to tear itself apart. Scarecrow is manufacturing a toxin with the intent on blanketing the city in a gas that will drive everybody insane with fear, Two-Face’s gang is robbing the banks, Deathstroke is commanding a militia who have taken over the streets, but Batman doesn’t have time to deal with any of that now because he has a virtual reality car combat game he needs to play first. Yeah. That’s not really Batman is it?
So in conclusion, action heroes may seem to be well-suited as videogame characters, but the fact that they hardly ever find anything difficult is contrary to the way game developers build games to be challenging.