Earlier last week, Ubisoft resurrected the long dormant PR machine for their forthcoming I Am Alive. For those who might not be aware, the game has been in what seems like development hell for a few years now. I remember first reading about in the print version of Game Informer magazine in mid- to late-2008. Since then, I've been following the news and updates about it getting disappointed when it was reported to be delayed or shelved, and getting excited again when Ubi confirms, or at least hints, that it is still on its way.
Make a mental note of everything that stood out about that video. Keep it in mind while you watch this next video which was first revealed at Gamescom 2011 and has only been circulated to the public a few days ago:
What are the differences between those two videos? Set aside the obvious disparity between the quality of the animation rendering. Yes, the old one does not have any gameplay footage, but what else? The first thing that struck me when I saw the new trailer was that the designers had completely overhauled the look of the main character. And I didn't like it.
The old protagonist was a modern young man, not particularly handsome, making his way in the big city. He is probably slogging his way up the corporate ladder; he is obviously doing well enough to buy his daily cup of national chain coffee, and rubbing elbows with the older, bigger shots with more expensive suits. However, he carries himself with not the greatest posture or gait, and he looks like he's not very anxious to head upstairs to begin work. And when the earthquake hits, all he has to help him along the way are the clothes on his back and the briefcase slung across his shoulders. And let's face it, it's not easy to mobilize yourself for survival wearing a button-down shirt, nice slacks, and dress shoes.
The new protagonist is someone we've seen before. He has automatic free-running skills and his outfit lends itself very nicely to jumping, rolling, and climbing. He's got a nice pair of gloves to protect his hands, his clothing is loose-fitting, and his backpack is tough and rugged, designed to get a little beat up. The game lost a lot of appeal to me when I saw this new guy, because not only have I seen this before, everything that made the original character so interesting and his story so compelling is gone.
As a brief primer on the basics of character design for video games and animation, a rule of thumb is that a character should have a distinguished silhouette
Even if you can't identify all of these characters, you probably recognize them anyway. And there are no other characters in the world who look like them. The new protagonist of I Am Alive does not have a distinguished, or even an interesting silhouette. And as such, the game looks less interesting. Having said that, the old design didn't have much going for it by way of a compelling silhouette, but at least, it wasn't the kind of outfit you would expect someone in that sort of a video game situation to be wearing. It was the design of a character who was thrown into an extraordinary circumstance and had to make the best of it with his extremely limited resources. It is a huge struggle for him to make his way because not only is he ill-equipped to make it in this new world both in his dearth of equipment and his lack of skills and knowledge, he is horribly uncomfortable with every step he takes because of the clothes he happened to be wearing at the time. He is like a sailor who has been shipwrecked at sea, whereas the new protagonist is like Richard Branson trying to row across an ocean for fun.
Does that mean the the game is going to be a worse product or less interesting to play? It probably will be in some parts where the player is required to free run his/her way along some puzzling routes for the Nth time in a video game. Does it speak to the importance of character design? We'll see when the game finally hits and what the reviewing community and gamers have to say about it. But there is no way to know what would have happened if Ubisoft had stuck with the original character model. I have a feeling though, that the transition to the downloadable-only format is going to give gamers the impression that it is not a good enough game to have warranted a retail release. Which is a shame and a topic for another discussion, but it is indicative of the relationship between developers/publishers and gamers. Gamers are less inclined to buy a downloadable game from PSN or XBLA for any number of reasons (lower profile/less exposure, lower production qualities, or they might not consider them "real" games) and as a result the devs and pubs don't usually put their full force behind the product which feeds back into the cycle. There are, of course, various exceptions, but I've digressed far enough already.
Suffice it to say that I think games whose characters have unremarkable design features might not succeed once the final product is released, but that doesn't mean that a well designed character can save a bad or mediocre game. The best designed characters are less important to the quality of the game than they are to the success of the series.
Until next time, happy gaming.
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