[This article is packed with spoilers from the end of Watchmen, MGS4, Shadow of the Colossus, Braid, half-Life 2, and Final Fantasy VII. If you want to read this article without spoilers look away when you see the bold titles of these said titles.]



I was thinking last night about how Alan Moore would not have anything to do with the Watchmen movie because the comic did things that could not be reproduced in any other medium. I agree with him. The movie was not able to pull off a lot of the things that the Novel did. *SPOILERS*The abstractness of the Squid and the butchering of Dr. Manhattan's reflection scene on Mars*END SPOILERS* (I know you may disagree with these but save that for another time and arguement). I thought about how every medium of story telling art has its own unique way of portraying a story that no other medium can pull off.

Movies have the advantage of wonderful actors and directors that allow characters to be brought to life in a way that Novels and Graphic Novels cannot. Movies also have music on its side where as books do not.

Graphic novels have the advantage of being able to tell a text driven story without descriptive writing. The characters emotions and settings are told through the artists' drawings. Like in Watchmen, it can also combine other unconventional means of telling it's story like through unspoken parallels like the Smiley Face and The Black Freighter.

Novels have an advantage with the ability to go into great detail about anything and everything. This is because it is the Novels job to explain everything in text. Also, with novels, the settings are always perfect. Everything visual wise is left up to the reader. The voices are always spot on as well thanks to that being left up to the reader.

Then we come to video games.

Video Games are graced with the most amazing resources at it's disposal. Music, visuals, acting, the limit-cap of the imagination being abolished thanks to its technology- It can even use text inserts to enhance the mood of the story. There is one thing that developers are failing in though.

Finding it's own unique way of story telling that no other medium can accomplish.

What is the one thing that video games allow us to do that none of those other entertainment medias can? Interact. Not just interact. Control. We control the avatars that drive the story. I am not saying that every developer has failed in the respect. I am just saying that as a whole I don't believe that developers are paying the much needed attention to the fact that we control the character. To illustrate what kind of interactive story telling I am talking about, here are some examples:

MGS4: The Microwave sequence. While it does have cut-scenes intertwined with it, they are there to serve a purpose. That purpose being why you are in control of a dying Snake. You are actually physically a part of the story. You are having to physically control your character through an extremely emotional part of the game. This was also accomplished in MGS1 with the torture sequence, and in a few other spots throughout the MGS series. Just to a lesser dramatic extent. Oh wait, I'm sorry. The end of MGS3. Pressing the square button had never had a more powerful effect on me. I half expected it to happen again when Snake had the gun in his mouth at the end of 4.

Shadow of the Colossus: At the end of SotC you are faced with a player controlled struggle to try and reach the person you fought so hard for throughout the game. Even with the character in your control you realize that it was in vain in the end.

Braid At the end of this game you are faced with a situation where you are forced to rewind the game and watch your goal of "The Princess" slip away from you. You have to control it. You make it happen.

Half-Life 2 The whole game. Every inch of storytelling is done with you in complete control of your character. At the end of Episode 2 you are forced to watch an important character die in front of you. Let me say that once more. Die in front of you. Usually if someone dies you see them die in a cut scene. At that point it's "Aw, how sad for those characters" You may even cry, and that's fine. But when it happens in front of your own eyes it becomes much more personal. That is player controlled story-telling.

Imagine if Final Fantasy VII was to be remade and Aeris' death scene was much more emotional by making you have to walk Cloud to the pool of water to release her into its depths. It would tug at the heart strings of people who didn't even care before.

I am sure that more developers have accomplished this that I am not thinking of right now. But I still feel like the industry as a whole are not expecting it from its games. I expect it. Just as I expect movies to deliver solid acting and atmosphere. I demand books to be wrote with a sense of purpose. I am not saying kill the "cut-scene". I am merely stating what videogames have over the other guys and that I feel like every game that is trying to tell a supposedly good story should utilize the fact that we could be in control.