Filed under: Video Games | Tags: battletoads, checkpoints, el shaddai, final fantasy IX, final fantasy VII, gaming, grandia II, moogles, r-type, save points, uncharted 3, video games
“I miss in old school games how when you died you had to go right back to the beginning (and do it all over again).”– Kevin Portelli, gamer, audio engineer
We’ve come a long way in gaming conventions. From regenerative health, to auto save, to the complete elimination of the HUD, someone who time traveled from the 80s or even as late as the 90s would probably be floored by what gaming has become. There’s even a genre known as “Interactive Art” that gets thrown out as a label for groundbreaking games like “Flower,” “Heavy Rain,” and “Auditorium HD;” games that transcend exactly what “entertainment” means. What I’m here to discuss today though is the evolution/concept of a “checkpoint.” As I was growing up, playing games like Final Fantasy VII, Grandia II, and even Battletoads or Power Rangers: the First Movie, proposed difficult challenges not only in the gameplay, but also in where you would respawn if you died. As my quote in italics suggests, most older games said, “Start back at beginning if you wanna screw things up and die.” For the RPG fans, dying meant going back to a (usually) unfair save point. So there were definitely points where you’d pump in an hour of gaming, die mercilessly and have to re-do those 60 minutes you just accomplished (or didn’t accomplish, technically). When I was younger this was certainly frustrating, but I put up with it. I found a way to just… soldier on and not let it ruin the game for me. However, as gaming has evolved and Save points/checkpoints have become more frequent (and fair), I find myself unwilling to put up with the shenanigans of older titles. For instance, I’m playing through Final Fantasy IX, and for every time that I die stupidly after playing for 30 minutes, I just can’t find the strength to relive those 30 minutes I already spent. It’s almost like the value I place on time and my life is greater, now that I’m older, and that certainly correlates to how I view my games and the way they treat me.
Games I blazed through this Summer: Metal Gear Solid 4, El Shaddai, Catherine, Uncharted 3. I beat El Shaddai in record time actually. Do you know why? Because every time I died I would float back into existence almost exactly where I fell off the edge or got the crap knocked out of me. While an argument can be made that there’s no challenge in that, I fully disagree. The reason why I died is because the boss or enemy or obstacles in the level decided to be a bitch and conquer me. Why should I be punished ten fold for dying when all I want to do is get back in the fight and kill the bastard that’s besting me? Recently I beat Ace Combat: Assault Horizon. When facing off to Markov, the main baddie, I received no greater satisfaction that having him blow me to bits and being able to jump back in immediately and try my hand and blowing up his cockpit. Even look at Catherine– a ridiculously hard puzzle game. I pushed on famously though because the checkpoints were always fair– I never got sent back so far that I lost heart and gave up– and with a game like Catherine, it’s extremely easy to lose steam. But this is exactly why these games were successful in my mind: their checkpoints. The adrenaline never stops because I never failed an objective and became disheartened– I merely was able to add more fuel to the fire and dive right back into the action to reach my goal.
There’s really not much of a higher calling to this post: merely an interesting examination I stumbled upon. Just by improving the checkpoints in video games, I feel the industry is creating a more intense experience. That’s why gaming is turning more and more into a niche genre. My father can’t operate Uncharted 3 or Battlefield 3. His head might explode if he tried playing a fully engaged round of “Conquest” in the “Oman Gulf.” But he did play Asteroids and even R-Type. Because that shit was simple. When you died you went back to the beginning and the controls were simple enough that a) you could play at any point and know what was going on and b) the repetitiveness allowed you to learn each level. But examining something like Battlefield where online play is so important: the only thing you can get comfortable with is the map; because you’re never going to have the same experience twice. And more than that, you have to learn each class, customize each class, learn how to use various vehicles, gadgets, etc. etc.– the list goes on and on. When you die? You respawn in 3 seconds and get right back in, trying to find the dick who shot you dead. Your team can be on the other end of obliteration, but each time you respawn you’re filled with a sense of hope like, “I’m not gonna run on that mine this time, this time I’m going to bust out my frag and– oh. That was a sniper.” Now imagine this: you had a perfect round in Uncharted. You’re near the end of 3, in the desert trying to be a two man army with Sully. You hid perfectly on that rock, rolled over and grabbed the RPG, took out turret number one, shot that guy with a pistol who’s about to chuck a grenade, found a sniper, took out turret guy number two, picked up an M9 and rocked a slew of guys while you took cover, and then threw two perfectly placed grenades to blow up turret number 3. And that was all just wave number 1. If you had to re-do all that shit because you died during wave 2 of the enemies, how much more frustrating would the Uncharted series be? (And trust me, it’s already difficult enough as it is making it checkpoint to checkpoint). In R-Type you just had to dodge some enemies and shoot them down; maybe you powered up your gun. Sure, probably just as difficult and generally intense– but it’s truly on a different level. The immersion with which games operate these days is striking and if checkpoints were still bringing us back to the beginning, I bet less games would be finished. You have to put in a lot of work to achieve something in most great games, and nobody wants to ace a section only to re-do it.
What’s wonderful, too, is that this isn’t a petition: games do have good checkpoints nowadays. Gaming is one of the rare industries that loves to make improvements. From graphics, to control maps, to the soundtracks, to enemy diversity, to even how a gun fires, game companies are always looking to evolve the experience. Some people still cling to the games of yesteryear, harping endlessly on how older shit’s better– but you’ll always have those people who are suckers for nostalgia and those handful who also do just truly like the experience better in older games. But from a technical standpoint games are only getting better and better each year. And so long as I don’t have to waste my time re-doing scenes I’ve mastered, I’ll continue to complete those games, seeing their stories to the end. But I do wonder if I’ll do much time traveling and see myself through to the end of such classics like Final Fantasy IX. Because I have to be honest: I think I’m done playing 25 hour games that actually have an extra ten hours of loss and regret tacked on.
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