Last year, Jonathan Blow’s artistic masterpiece “Braid” not only blew critics away as a puzzle game, it also put forth a stunning example for video games as art. And not just art, but good art.
The “games as art” debate has been somewhat popular in recent years, with even movie critic Roger Ebert weighing in on the issue. He does not believe video games will ever be as artistically worthy as movies or books, which caused quite a stir with gamers and game developers.
Although it’s easy for the mention of video games to make you think of Mario jumping on goombas or Master Chief shooting down aliens, a lot of new games have taken a much more serious, even deep approach to interactive entertainment. It may just be an approach to a more thought-provoking story, such as “Bioshock’s” philosophically charged narrative, or it may be something more.
With a stunning art design, fantastic soundtrack and compelling puzzles involving time manipulation, “Braid” was an instant indie darling and performed well in terms of sales. But one thing that really keeps people talking about it today is the story. Like any great work of art, you can spend a great deal of time talking about its elements, its metaphors and what it all means.
Through hints embedded in the story and the gameplay itself, “Braid” can be seen on many levels, from a simple story about a doomed relationship to a dire warning about nuclear weapons.
Great, artistic, independent games can be found for the PC and Mac if you really look, but they’re often small and unpublished products. Now, more games are trying to replicate what “Braid” did, with varying results.
Microsoft’s “Xbox Live Arcade” has been a surprisingly strong source for such games, with the recent releases of “Lucidity” and “Axel & Pixel.” Unlike “Braid,” which was produced by just one man, these are slightly more corporate endeavors, with “Lucidity” being put out by LucasArts and “Axel & Pixel” published by 2K Games.
But what is it that these games are doing to try to seem “artsy,” and are they succeeding?
The most obvious elements where these games diverge from the norm are visual styles. “Braid’s” landscapes have a very hand-painted sort of feel. “Lucidity” uses a style that tries to evoke a sense of both dream-like art and a children’s book, complete with drawings that are supposed to be from the child protagonist Sofi. “Axel & Pixel” uses a mix of photographs and hand-drawn art.
The games all use instrumental soundtracks, and I would say all of them succeed at their goal. In the case of “Braid,” the creator purposefully chose music that was “organic and complex,” and the music influenced the background art.
But visuals and sounds are things that could be found in any movie or cartoon. If we’re really going to look at video games as an artistic medium, we should look at what sets them apart: gameplay.
Again, “Braid” succeeded here, with truly engaging gameplay that was not only fun, it really made you think to solve some puzzles. It was also fairly unique, with no game before or after being exactly like it.
“Lucidity,” unfortunately, seems to be everything except an extremely compelling game. It has the great art, story and design, but it’s not terribly fun to play. The game is played almost like Tetris, with random pieces given to you in order to get through a level.
Unfortunately, this makes the game more hectic than soothing, which seems to contradict the mood the game tries to set.
“Axel & Pixel” is better, with non-rushed puzzles that you find yourself wanting to solve. But in some ways it lacks truly unique gameplay elements, and parts of the game feel more like a hidden item photo hunt than an adventure game.
Nevertheless, I would still say all of these games are definitely art –— the latter two games are just art that could be better. Bad art can still be art, and neither of the games are bad anyway.
I have to say I’m extremely compelled by this movement of more artsy games, and downloadable services are a great way of providing them. With the small, downloadable format all three of these games have taken, the developer gets lower development costs and the consumer gets a potentially great game for $10 to $20.
You may be satisfied with just playing “Rock Band” and “Madden,” just as you may be satisfied seeing “Transformers” and “Ice Age.” But for those of you who want more, there’s the “Citizen Kanes” and “Braids” out there. Games can be great works of art, and I hope more games show that in the future.
Be the first to comment on this article!