I have a terrible attention span when it comes to story-based games these days. There are so many great games that have gone by the wayside thanks to my lack of willing to get engrossed in drawn-out storylines, I feel like I’m doing myself a disservice. Actually that last sentence isn’t true at all, I have all the want in the world to get caught up in a story, I just tend not to for some reason. For someone who lists games such as The Secret Of Monkey Island and others of that ilk in his “favourite ever” list, it’s quite an odd thing.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve found myself looking for a new game to get lost in and decided “right, that’s it, I’m getting into a decent RPG/Adventure”. I’ll find something, buy it and initially plough some serious time into it, but ultimately I tend to get bored and lose interest farily quickly. It’s not just a ambivolence toward a specific genre or series either, even the likes of Zelda and Final Fantasy have fallen foul of my fickle brain. I thought Oblivion might be the game to change things with its first-person viewpoint and combat, and more open-ended nature, but sure enough it’s yet another game I’ve not really scratched the surface of.
I recently dug The Legend Of Zelda: Twilight Princess out with steely determination to actually finish it. I checked my save game file only to find I hadn’t played it in over a year! For a game of that quality it’s appalling really. I have since invested some more hours into it and really enjoyed it, no game does a dungeon like a Zelda game, but even so I still couldn’t really tell you what’s going on in the game. Maybe it’s just a result of the dis-jointed way I play it, after all, a year is a long time to take a break in a story. I’m not sure that’s it though, I think the problem is that I try to ‘play’ the game more than to take time out to absorb the story and world. I guess I’m inherently very impatient. Then again maybe I’m just sick of Fantasy or Post-Apocolyptic Future styled games? The last game to make me really take notice of the setting and appreciate it was Bioshock with its Steampunkish, Art Deco, submarine settings. That’s another game I’ve not finished by the way. I really ought to, it’s fantastic.
I picked up Fable II a short while ago as I liked the look of the original, it seemed much more action-oriented. I’ve been playing it and enjoying it, but I’ve still started forcing myself to play it, rather than finding myself desperate to get back into it. I played for a couple of hours last night and absolutely loved it, but I still only have a very slender grip on what the hell’s going on (in the game, smart arses!). I know roughly though, which is good for me, and I’ve seen a few videos of what high-end characters can progress to which is driving me on a little. Maybe seeing it through to completion will spur me on to do the same again in the future. Before that though, Mirror’s Edge next week! If only I could post videos here – do yourself a favour and head to youtube and do a quick search for the game, I’m sure that there are some of you who would enjoy it as much as me. Not that I’ll really know what’s going on in the game of course…. ;).
Aha, success! Mirror’s Edge people….