Videogame storytelling can surpass film

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 2 February, 2011

But still a way to go, Deus Ex writers says.

When it comes to storytelling, videogames are considered the poor cousin to film. Indeed some believe videogames will never surpass film when it comes to telling a good tale. But for one videogame writer, this status quo will come to an end sooner rather than later.

That videogame writer is Deus Ex: Human Revolution lead scribe Mary De Marle, who in a new interview with Eurogamer explained the challenges associated with spinning a good videogame yarn.

"There's great potential to go beyond what films can do," she said. "The difference games have versus movies is, when you're playing a game you're an active participant and what's happening to it is happening to you. There's an aspect of it that's so much more personal once you get into it.

"The way we've told stories in the past through film is, the author of the story is in complete control of it and they can craft something that pulls on your heartstrings. They know the craft and they know the way to give information, reveal it, hold stuff back, characterise their characters, and they know they can feed this to you in a way that makes sense, that builds that questioning inside you to say, 'Where's this going? What's happening?' The revelations are very powerful and hit you when they hit you and make you feel an emotional response.

"But games, we have the dilemma that we can't control what the player is looking at and seeing, and we have to find new ways of doing it, and find new tools of storytelling that enable us to have those reactions."

In Scott Steinberg's Game Theory: Ep 3, famous videogame developers reveal their thoughts on the art of videogame storytelling.

"I don't think we've yet mastered the techniques of true interactive storytelling," was Ultima creator Richard Garriot's verdict.

"I mean that not just in dialogue, not just in cutscenes, but really in the entire experience unfolding and how you emotionally become engaged with what's going on."

For De Marle, the answer is simple: writers must work closely with programmers to ensure the creation of a seamless, compelling whole.

"The more we're working on it we're getting better and better at it, but we have to work more closely with the other members of the team. All sides have to understand we are working together to create a powerful emotional experience and there are times that execution is very important and there are times when the gameplay is what's going to have to do it. So, how can we work together to get that?"

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (18) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Lusterpurge #1 1 year ago

    Unless they control the player's every action, the story will be as good or as silly as the player wants it to be. Cutscenes can force players to watch the story but they aren't exactly good gameplay elements.

  • windflaw #2 1 year ago

    "as good... as the player wants it to be" - if that can be achieved, then happy days!

  • Shikasama #3 1 year ago

    If they stopped fannying about with succh high brow ideas as 'interactive storytelling' and instead focused on fundamentals like 'original narrative' and 'decent dialogue' they'd have the battle half won.

  • chrisjm #4 1 year ago

    if i wanted to watch a film i would

  • DuvaDan88 #5 1 year ago

    This guys never played heavy rain epic story and game

  • dsmx #6 1 year ago

    the first game had a a better story than most hollywood films

  • haruvister #7 1 year ago

    Technical narrative, maybe. In terms of characterization and raw human emotion, never.

  • Skurmedel #8 1 year ago

    As much as I like the cutscenes in say, Uncharted, I must say that many games suffer from too much cutscenes or just shit going on around you that has zero interactivity or actual bearing on your play.

  • Mockerre #9 1 year ago

    Well, games like Thief, Myth or Sould Reaver already have great stories. Too bad devs don't invest much $ or time into storytelling.

  • retr0gamer #10 1 year ago

    When you see game like Heavy Rain (a bad episode of Criminal Minds is about as good) and Uncharted 2 winning story of the year awards you have to agree that they aren't quite there yet. There have been a few games like Silent hill 2 or System Shock 2 that are on par with the very best of film but the majority of game stories really are just poor. Some can be poor but well told but it doesn't negate how generic they are. There's too many games trying to copy big budget hollywood films when the interactivity of videogames can add something to the storytelling experience that film and literature can't. It's good to see some indie games exploring this. I don't see the dumb blockbuster storylines of games going away, and to be honest there's nothing wrong with enjoying one, I know I do, but it would be nice to see more big developers take a few more risks. Deadly Premonition blew Heavy Rain out of the water with it's storytelling. I can only imagine how good that game would have been with Heavy Rains budget.

  • DrMGinius #11 1 year ago

    I do not wish interactive storytelling as much as do wish more original settings, better characters...

  • Murton #12 1 year ago

    Modern tech is the problem. There are exceptions of course as in Uncharted and Heavy Rain but as a general rule storytelling as taken a back seat to making the game look good. Graphics, physics, massive explosions, these things are easy to do and make megabucks in the mass market, good storytelling is really rather difficult and while there is a market for it it's far from massive.

    Go back to the golden age of the Megadrive and SNES and early PC (even back to the Amiga if you want) and graphics were more a means to an end, games served a purpose whether it was to tell a story or challenge the player. The mass market didn't exist so you had to cater to a niche to get any sales at all, now that there is a mass market for games niche titles are deemed too much of a risk in favour of yet another shiny or dirt brown havok physics UE3 shooter.

  • FogHeart #13 1 year ago

    Tricky subject. Games are torn between the need to tell a story and the need to give the player control at all times. Cutscenes tend to be irksome because they are, unless placed very carefully, an interruption in the flow of play, like someone poking at your shin occasionally as you walk. So games try to allow the player to interact - keep the player walking and firing - while the dialogue takes place. But this can be just as irksome. I've only just complained about the discrepancy between Isaac's stoic marching through dementia scenes while the dialogue had a very different tone.

    For the life of me I can't see a way to appease both camps. Either the dialogue can't match the events on screen or you interrupt players with cutscenes. If there's a game that handles it like we'd want, tell me what it is!

  • teh_MBK #14 1 year ago

    After watching the True Romance clip above, observing the actions of the actors, it seems to me it might be an idea to get actors involved in animation process, especially during heavy dialogue segments. The way the mafia boy (I know, I should know his name, but I don't. He was in Batman Returns as well.) looks away and down at ~0:57 is just the kind of timely, little expression that makes films more emotionally engaging and make video game animation look static and lifeless, regardless of the random hand waving they add (I'm looking at you The Witcher).

    I'm not talking about making people look real or anything, just the movements. Wall-e is a perfect example (in film) of how non-human/animate objects can show real emotion. A little like the clap-trap character in Borderlands, though this example brings to mind the repetitive animation problem. Just to note, I realise developers can't possibly counter this, especially in free roaming games, due to the expense and time involved in animating characters.

    In terms of story telling, I kind of agree with Lusterpurge in that a player can completely ruin a good story line by tw*ting about, but that's more a case of killing the immersion than anything else. Bugs are good at doing that too.

  • DrStrangelove #15 1 year ago

    The poor cousin of the poor cousin. With the occasional exception like Mass Effect, games do largely a horrible job at telling a story, and fall short even by film standards, which aren't really high in the first place. In most cases, they should just avoid any storytelling at all, except if they really know what they're doing.

  • funkateer #16 1 year ago

    Overall, I don't think games are generally worse than movies at storytelling nowadays. Perhaps we don't have a Casblanca, Blade Runner or any Kubrick equivalent yet, but the best of story driven games are better than most movies.

    I think there are have already been cases of storytelling in videogames that went as deep under my skin as a movie, even if it's often (just) a cutscene. But good cutscenes are a really effective storytelling device in games; they give you time to breathe and at the same time can give your actions depth. Yes, I like cutscenes when used well.

    MGS games are often derided for having too many cutscenes (possibly because especially MGS4 often went really overboard in that regard), but they also really have some truly unique and poignant moments outside of them that are right up there with the better movies.
    For example the battle with Big Boss in MGS3 on the flower field with that music going on and everything, the microwave corridor sequence in MGS4... I'm still looking forward to a new Kojima IP (please don't make another MGS).

    Also, the Blade Runner game still sticks with me for thought-provoking story telling that is right up there with the movie.

    As for Uncharted, as fantastic as it is as a gaming experience, sometimes I have the feeling the story and the gameplay itself are too detached from each other: You have the 'cool and funny adventurous guy' in the cutscenes, and the cold blooded mass murderer in-game. Sure, everybody is shooting at him all the time but something just doesn't add up there. Even if they still made progress with creating a movie-like experience, almost seamlessly mixing cutscenes and gameplay.

  • Duallusion #17 1 year ago

    "The difference games have versus movies is, when you're playing a game you're an active participant"

    I know it's impossible to convey all the differences between these two mediums in a short interview but the implication that you're an "inactive participant" while watching a film (or reading a book, for that matter) is not true. The difference is in levels and ways of activity. One is not superior to the other, just different. Game storytelling can't "surpass" film storytelling just like film storytelling didn't "surpass" theatre or literature.
    Edited by Duallusion at 02/02/11 @ 21:14

  • goatjugsoup #18 1 year ago

    There are some games that I think do very well with interactive story telling such as Heavy Rain
    Then there are others, mostly RPGs that I can think of right now that are great at using a background story i.e. a certain part of that games story will be revealed to the player by straight playing but they can make it better by learning about that games universe's lore by exploring in the game.