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Latest Games Get Emotional - Fallout 3 and Gears 2 Deliver the Tears PDF Print E-mail
Written by alien   
Monday, 17 November 2008 06:08
GOW2 MariaWhile gamers are passionate about games and downright fanatical about their favorites, very rarely does a game provide content that makes you feel anything beyond the exhilaration of fragging the opponent. Lately however, we have seen games up the ante and actually provide moments in the game that make you feel genuine emotion. We'll use two examples from two of the hottest and latest games on the market - Fallout 3 and Gears of War 2 - to show you what they to drive the emotional level to a solid 10.

* Warning - this contains major spoilers and supporting video *


Fallout 3 is a huge open-world RPG that tries and succeeds on many levels. In particular, the game has a cohesive storyline that takes you from birth (and in some cases) to death. In between you learn a bit about your past, who your parents are and what they cared about. One thing that is driven home many times is how much your mother loved you. While in many cases the characters are wooden, Liam Neeson does a credible job as your father and even squeezes out more emotion than George Lucas would have allowed him in a Star Wars movie. Take a look at the video to see what we are talking about.



Perhaps this hit us harder because we're living with a 6 month old monster now or it's just that potent; the unconditional love and excitement from your barely seen mother is palpable. Just the line "she was so excited to meet you" really grabbed us because she didn't and that is about as sad as you can get. All of her hopes and dreams for you and your life together were dashed in an instant. It's funny but in our experience a child is the one thing in life that beats expectations. Whatever you thought before the baby is born, and that pretty much encapsulates their entire life, just doesn't compare to when you actually meet your little guy. The thought that your character's mother died before realizing this is incredibly poignant and Bethesda does a great job portraying this in the game through the Q&A with NPCs.

Gears of War 2 also has its moments, starting with Tai's release. This sets the stage and proves the game is more mature than Gears 1 and can deliver an emotional punch. The real show stopper though is when Dom finally gets to Maria.



This scene is well acted by the characters and the dialog and music bring it all together in what has to be one of the most poignant and emotional scenes we have ever seen in a video game. Dom sees Maria as she was and always will be in his heart. The fact that we see her as she really is doesn't stop him from remembering the beautiful woman she was and his realization that things will never be that way again is deeply emotional. This was the reason he was fighting as he has made clear many times over the course of the two games - she was his life.

Again, as you get older you realize that along with the happiness that comes with love, the fear of losing it is when you know it's real and you will do anything to protect the people you care about. Dom was unable to protect Maria, no matter how hard he tried or how many Locust he killed. This truly is epic fail and a tragedy that can be seen and more importantly felt as you watch it play out on the screen. In the end, Dom did what he felt was right and it seemed clear that Maria was gone forever - all he had left were his beautiful memories of her. The husk that was in his arms was not his wife but an empty vessel that was suffering. He did what he could, he ended the creatures agony by providing it with the only gift he could - rest.

As the gaming population continues to grow up we expect games to provide these sort of movie moments more often and we look forward to it because it allows us to really feel a part of the game and not just a gamer running from one objective to another.


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aces_and_eights said:

aces_and_eights
 ...
I didn't get any real emotion out of Fallout but I agree that GOW2 did do a good job and making you feel something. It was definitely sad when Maria came out of the pod, you knew something wasn't right. Well done CliffyB.
 
November 17, 2008
Votes: +0

orbit23 said:

orbit23
 ...
You old guys...babies! Ha, nah, Gears was well done and you felt bad for the big guy. I don't know that I agree about shooting her. I think the music was the real emotion driver here, it was perfectly done in that scene.
 
November 17, 2008
Votes: +0

jack said:

jack
 ...
I have a kid and I know this feeling well. I was surprised that they even included subject matter like this in Fallout 3 but it was refreshing to see it and I thought the voice acting made up for the poor facial work on the characters in. As for Gears 2, it was very sad and well done again. I didn't expect it but even watching the video was still powerful.
 
November 17, 2008
Votes: +0

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