Comments on: Thinking Further on Isolation in Video Games

By: Garrett Martin

Garrett Martin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 15:56:00 +0000

Well, the feeling of being completely alone in a devastated and almost entirely hostile foreign country was definitely intentional, but I’m not sure about the awkwardness of the interactions. The only thing you have in common with your “buddies” is that you’re all perfectly capable of killing any number of dudes, and you never hang out with them outside of doing that very thing. So even when I was with my “friends” I still felt totally out of sorts. It provoked the same kind of existential crisis I feel when I go to a show alone, but with more guns.

By: brilliam

brilliam — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 20:12:49 +0000

@tiff totally true about BioShock bieng another fantastic example. I REALLY want to know what that mac game is, let me know if you remember!

@Garrett, I have heard such things about Far Cry2– do you think that the isolation is purposeful, or the opposite of the intended effect? Either way, it sounds amazing.

@Mitch, great call on ICO/SotC. I can’t believe I forgot to mention them.

By: Mitch Krpata

Mitch Krpata — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 15:14:59 +0000

This is the primary reason why ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are both so successful, I think. In both games, the devs put you in these massive worlds that were nearly empty. That’s why it was so easy to get attached to Yorda and Agro.

And to second Garrett, the scale of the Far Cry 2 map was also key to its success. The firefights were intense, but once they were over you had this overwhelming sense of silence and isolation — one of the ways the game was able to make a point about violence being silly and self-defeating, while still basing most of its gameplay on AWESOME VIOLENCE.

By: Garrett Martin

Garrett Martin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:23:40 +0000

The first two Metroid Prime games kept Samus in complete isolation, but the third introduced a generic space admiral and a flotilla of vaguely familiar spaceships. You don’t stay in constant contact with them, though, and after a few hours Samus is all on her lonesome again.

There’s also emotional isolation, of course. Far Cry 2 has its vaunted buddy system, but interaction is so sparse and stilted (which makes sense, considering they’re tough-guy mercenary types with no previous ties) that it only heightens the sense of distance and dislocation.

By: .tiff

.tiff — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:12:11 +0000

Your observation about Dead Space (which I think doubly applies to BioShock) is something I hadn’t considered while playing it. There was some adventure game I played on the mac a long time ago that had a similar theme, but terrified me when I was younger since the only sounds you hear was the empty space ship, your own footsteps, and the eventual terrifying cry of a monster or something. The only human contact you had was finding DNA samples of deceased crew members. Pretty creepy.

Anyway, I think that the Myst games do this terrifically well, or at least the first one. Despite the fact that there was very little negative consequence in the game, I had no idea what to expect as a kid and had to play with my Dad in the room otherwise I’d get scared. I think isolation is a great theme to explore through the gaming medium, although I think it’s becoming less common of a theme as these developers try to make their games a more ‘cinematic’ experience.