Roleplays Role in Gaming.
I’m a massive fan of roleplay games. There’s something distinctly ethereal about sloughing off the skin of your average life and becoming a destined force for good or even evil, if that’s what keep your barge afloat.
At the end of a hard day working, I like to switch on Mass Effect 2 and save the Galaxy from total obliteration. Or hop into Azeroth with millions of others and slay monsters and demons- both I can do with a mug of tea in my hand, being the quintessential English rose that I am!
Yet roleplay gaming (or RPG’s as they are colloquially known) has gotten a bit of a bad schtick in recent times. Go on, envision if you will what the word “roleplay” paints in your mind. Go beyond fishnet stockings and clear plastic mules and I’m willing to bet that you think of an overweight man with a Star Wars t-shirt playing Dungeons and Dragons and making a living from his mother’s basement.
This is not the case at all! So if you’re ready, let me take you on a journey on some of the best existing roleplay games! I’m hoping you’ll be pleasantly surprised and possibly may even consider picking up the controller to play one!
BIOSHOCK:
Set in a dystopian underwater society in an alternate history 1960, the game places the player in the role of an unknown at first plane crash survivor, who must explore and uncover the history of the underwater city of Rapture, surviving attacks from the severely mutated and deranged citizens as you do so! You might be surprised that the game follows a strict morality based storyline, while the Ayn Rand inspired back story lends an eerie overall tone to an already seriously spooky survival horror game!
In fact the game has proved so popular it spawned the successful sequel Bioshock 2 that roughly follows on from the first game, this time placing the player as a Big Daddy- a man who has had his internal organs and skin grafted into an atmospheric diving suit and is sworn to protect the Little Sister (a mind altered small girl with a taste for ADAM, the biological substance that keeps Rapture alive) he has been paired with, yet is unable to locate her.
With games like these, it’s sometimes more about what you don’t see that immerses you into the game. The soundtrack is cinematic and lends a wonderful overall tone to both games, with screeching violins quietly playing in the background, quickly brought up and teetering you over the edge with a small slew of violins joining in to create what seems like an entire orchestra booming behind you. Simply put- this game is magnificent in ALL ways!
(To be followed on by Bioshock: Infinite: TBC 2012)
FALLOUT 3:
Yet again set in an alternate timeline in a dystopian environment (see a recurring theme at all?), although this time it’s a dystopian FUTURE environment. This game is a little more hands on in term of the roleplay elements- you can choose your clothes, buy a house, interact with those who live in the Fallout Universe and explore a wealthy map with lots to divulge.
The soundtrack to Fallout 3 is an eerie 50’s radiostation, of which about 16 songs play on a loop interspersed by a maniacal DJ. This 50’s soundtrack to me, plays so beautifully with the general maiming and gorefest you can expect with this game, and I admit to buying a few of the tunes off iTunes after they became embedded in my brain!
My favourite part in this game, was stumbling across a small town inhabited by 2 families with a grisly past. As I delved further into their lives, I stumbled across a locked door which I obviously picked to get into. In doing so, the mothers and fathers of the village ran over to me, axes held high as I quivered with a shotgun. I shot the buggers on the spot, and looted their corpses, because that’s just what you do in these sorts of situations when their children are watching. I talked to the children, now under the care of their grandparent. That locked door? Full of human meat- the victims of the townsfolk “generosity”. Delightfully Wickerman, and certainly did not disappoint!
This is the sort of random encounter you begin to become bewildered and excited by in the Fallout universe and is the exact reason why I can’t wait for more sheer madness in the upcoming sequel!
I’d say Fallout 3 is a good RPG for beginners, due to the ease of use and the immersive personality the game lends to you, the gamer. It’s quite wordy (nowhere near the wordiness of the Mass Effect franchise!) so if wordy isn’t your bag, definitely not for you. However, if reading isn’t something you enjoy I doubt any RPG would be suitable for you!
(To be followed on by Fallout: New Vegas: October 22nd 2010)
DRAGON AGE- ORIGINS:
Set in the mythical realm of Ferelden, you choose what race, class and stats (ie, rogue, warrior or mage…) you which to take on. In doing so, you’ll sculpt out a basic shell for your character, upon which interaction with your “crew” will flesh this out. You find yourself dropped in a period of civil strife and will have to build an army in order to stop the Dark Spawn, a particularly nasty set of baddies intent on blighting the face of the planet as with all good roleplay stories.
It’s no small wonder the game has achieved such critical success, the dialogue is simply superb unlike in The Elder Scroll series whereupon sometimes you may find it easier to eat your console. My particular favourite pieces of dialogue occur between Alistair and Morrigan as they squabble, and Zevran and his horrible cheesy rogue ways. The humour is not to be sniffed at- in fact if anything it endears you to your team, enabling you to care about them and empathise when dealing with their personal missions. In respect to this, Mass Effect 2 could have used some help, because I only found myself endeared to Thane… And that’s only because lizards are pettable!
(To be followed on by Dragon Age 2: March 2011)
MASS EFFECT 1&2
The Mass Effect series plays a bit like your typical space docudrama. You take on the role of Commander Shepherd (male or female!), a soldier starting off in The Alliance and bid upon to do your duty for your people. A Bioware classic, you should roughly expect the same sort of goings on as the Dragon Age series, with a completely different action element which lends itself from shooter classics Halo and Call of Duty.
Out of the 2, Mass Effect 2 is my favourite, even if the Galaxy does seem to have a LOT of crates dotted carelessly around warehouses with dynamite. Conversations are more fluid than in the first, and the ability to choose your path of Paragon or Renegade is greatly expanded upon. The thing that I marvelled upon in the 2nd game, was that it took my choices made in the 1st game, and used these to expand upon the experience you were given. For instance, a member of my team has been sacrificed to save us, and this was mentioned not only once in the 2nd game but two or three times- all by different characters and all asking why, how and how I felt about doing it.
Simply Sublime!
If you’ve heard of this series, no doubt it was for the now infamous lesbian sex scene, but don’t get too excited. You don’t see anything.
The only complaint I have ever heard about this game was the lengthiness of some conversations. If reading REALLY isn’t something you enjoy, then this game sadly is not for you. If however you’ve ever daydreamed about saving your planet, grabbing some hot arse and going in guns blazing- do not miss this game!
(To be followed on by Mass Effect 3: TBC 2011/12)
Well there you have some of my favourite RPG’s! If you’ve made it this far, then congratulations! I hope I’ll have persuaded you to try out at least one of these games! The world of roleplay games is a fun adventure, so why not join in on the fun?
