Let’s go for gaming memories in March 2016, 2011, 2006 and 2001.
You are reading What We Played, a monthly column where we remember which games came out exactly five, ten, fifteen and twenty years ago. In the March issue, we do ten headshots to defeat a single enemy on the streets of winter New York, get out of rags to riches amid Kirkwall’s political intrigues, scamper all over Cyrodiil, scattering monsters from Oblivion, and crushing headless jocks in the scenery Ancient Egypt.
5 years ago – Tom Clancy’s The Division
The Division has a great world and mechanics well tuned: shootouts are fun and require you to work as a team at least a little. Another thing is that the structure of the open world is not very sensible – you will forget about typical tasks and some coercion with side assignments in the endgame, and the maximum that you can do in the game, besides high-level tasks and PvP, is to walk around insanely beautiful New York and turn your head.
10 Years Ago – Dragon Age II
In the expanded and epic first part, you could go around the whole country and visit dozens of dissimilar places and situations. But DA2 after it caused genuine claustrophobia: the plot, albeit stretched for a whole decade, was enclosed in a single city, the protagonist from the chosen savior of the world was downgraded to an ordinary mercenary, and locations from detailed spacious maps were compressed to a dozen stuffy corridors, according to who had to run back and forth throughout the game.
The twisted scenario and the atypically mundane fantasy drama, for which Origins was so fond, in the conditions of the condensed narrative of DA2 only became richer. Instead of galloping across Europe and presenting the player with a bunch of new characters in every next episode of the adventure, Bioware’s writers were able to focus on developing the characters and problems of a dozen key characters – and thus taking the narrative to the next level. Unlike the dwarves of Orzammar or the elves of the Brecilian forest, who fled into the background immediately after completing their quest chains in the original, the main characters of Dragon Age II remained in focus throughout the game, and Varric, Isabela, Fenris and the rest of Hawk’s companions received much more. screen time and storytelling significance than the Origins companions. In terms of charisma and level of elaboration, they completely bypassed most of their predecessors from the first part – and this is largely due to the laconic plot, which focused on the personal problems of several people (and non-people) instead of again spreading the key conflict to the whole world and hundreds of destinies affected by him at the same time.
There is no need to look for the reasons for the depressing technical state of the game for a long time: Dragon Age 2 was made for only a year and a half, so all forces were clearly thrown into the plot and characters. Actually, this is what helps the game out: heartbreaking stories and battles are played out in nondescript repetitive scenery, the consequences of which you will have to disentangle until the very end.
15 Years Ago – The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion
What’s funny is that even in terms of plot, Oblivion and DA2 have approximately the same significance: despite their intermediate position, both became a springboard for key plot events that radically turned the course of the history of their universes. But if some fans turn up their noses from the second Dragon Age to this day, then Oblivion over the years, on the contrary, only increased its importance, moving from the category of “not bad, but it could have been better” to the status of an unambiguous legend.
Oblivion rehabilitated all these shortcomings, of course, its plot. Apart from the already mentioned global events that influenced the entire TES universe, it lingered in history as the most lore-rich part of the series. And the usual quests did not hit the face in the mud: not only could new adventures be found on every corner, but they still did not slip into the classic “go-fetch-kill”, which is often sinned by voluminous role-playing. On the contrary: even the most banal, seemingly, tasks could turn into unpredictable chains of events that stretched across the entire map and made you forget about the main plot for a long time.
And yet another merit of Oblivion, which can be difficult to discern from a distance of a decade and a half, is how much more accessible to beginners it made the CRPG genre. If the previous parts of TES relied much more heavily on conventional D&D table mechanics, Oblivion made the action faster, simpler and more understandable (although this, of course, had its own critics). In addition, for the first time in the history of the series, elements appeared there, without which it is now difficult to imagine any role-playing game in the open world: for example, quest markers and quick teleportation points.
Well, the most beautiful thing about Oblivion is the settlements. Imperial City, like most capitals, is overwhelming with its size, scope, statism. The provincial towns scattered all over the map, on the contrary, attract. Each of them has its own layout, its own unique architectural style and its own cozy places. Yes, this will probably sound pretentious and funny, but any settlement in Oblivion has a unique soul, there are secrets and legends. And, traveling the world, sometimes you start to feel like a real tourist who, once in a new city, opens his mouth, wanders its streets for a long time and takes screenshots and photographs.
20 Years Ago – Serious Sam: The First Encounter
And twenty years this month hit the Serious (or, as some guardians of the correct locations insist, Cool) Sam – the shameless, but therefore no less bloodthirsty clone of Duke Nukem. In 2001, an unknown Croatian studio Croteam, which until then only made football simulators, introduced to the world not only him, but also a whole subgenre of arcade FPS: shooters where at least a somewhat coherent plot, any puzzles and even doors between levels disappear to give way to non-stop and maximum dynamic carnage.
There was no question of any deep tactics: mobs were released on the hero in such numbers that there was no need to think – just run back from the bullets and water the big man with lead or rocket salvos in response, until you mow down everyone to the last. And then – half a minute’s respite, while you run to the next room, and all over again.
The fact that Serious Sam is the bloodiest game of all times and peoples does not require proof. Absolutely crazy gameplay, tons of meat and multi-barrel grinders for any choice. When the developers from Croteam announced to the whole world that they were doing 3D Action, no one took them seriously. But after the release, no one recalled their previous doubts – everyone was chained to monitors and chopped one portion of meat after another into cabbage. The word “meat” before “Sam” meant nothing at all what it means now, after “Sam.” No one has ever brought the gameplay to SUCH meat, and the gamer to such a sincere, childish, meaty delight from monster carcasses scattering to bloody shreds. What else do you need to be happy? Yes, except that there are more cartridges …
What did you play in March five, ten, fifteen and twenty years ago? Be sure to let us know in the comments.
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