Emotions from a Game

A good story will often evoke an emotion in its reader, I think. Whether that emotion is happiness, joy, sadness, or anger, that's up to the story, but if played well, it makes a story memorable.

Some say that games aren't art, they don't belong on the same stage as TV or books. I think otherwise. Just as Law & Order could get me all angry that a murderer gets off scott free, so too can a game get me all emotional. I'm going to recount two such times that I felt emotion in a game. Feel free to add your own experiences if you wish. Also, the following will have spoilers for the games Homeworld and Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, so be warned.

...Not Even Beacons...

I wrote previously about the game Homeworld and the emotions it brought up. I'm going to expand upon it here.

In one of the first missions in the game, you return from an attempted hyperspace jump to your home planet of Kharak. As your ship returns and deploys the small fleet you've built, you see things are different. The scaffold that held the mothership is destroyed. And Kharak, that dustball of a planet, your "home," is...is burning.

As you view all of this and hear your Fleet Command talk, Samuel Barber's Agnus Dei plays in the background.

It makes for a powerful scene. Though at first it seems like Fleet Command is rather cold and unemotional, if you listen hard you can hear the emotion. The male voice cracks a few times.



Whenever I hear Agnus Dei now, I get goosebumps.

Farewell, Chopper

The other game, Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, is a flight combat simulator for the Playstation 2. Unlike the previous game, AC5 has your wingmates be "actual" people. They have names, voices, and personality. But the 17th mission, you know them all well. One wingmate, Alvin "Chopper" Davenport, is the "big loudmouth" of your group. He's always got a comeback for anyone, horses around, but is a good guy nevertheless.

In the 17th mission, after a number of hard missions already, you're slated to fly in performance over the capital city in formation for a speech by the vice president. But as you're doing so, enemy fighters suddenly appear. As people are evacuated, you and your three wingmates, horribly outnumbered (and with someone sabotaging help, no less, from coming in), fight off the waves of the enemy.

As you play, it isn't too hard. There aren't a lot of environmental problems, if you stay above the city. But about halfway through, Chopper takes a hit. He's ok, but he needs to land. He tries...and fails. He dies.

At this point, absolute silence comes over. The music stops. No one speaks. There's a lull in the fighting, though it starts up quickly again. You're asked to finish off the remaining fighters. You can hear the chatter from the enemies about the change, and you can hear your wingmate Nagase grunt gasp as she tears the enemy planes apart.

This...there are few times where I have come close to breaking a controller. I was gripping the controller so hard I thought I was about to shatter it.

In the game, you're able to carry an absurd number of missiles (it is a game, after all). My plane at the time could hold up to 90, and I had about 50 left, I guess. I was so angry that I just let loose. By the end of the mission, I had completely emptied my missiles and had even blown apart 6 planes with just the gun my plane had.

But it was a hollow victory. Chopper was dead.

Though I cannot find a video of the crash itself, here is the aftermath.



Silly?

Is it silly to get worked up over a game like that? I say no. It helps immerse you in the game. And that is never, ever a bad thing.