The Warp Pipe - 09/11/08
By Matt K - Sun Nov 9, 2008 8:54am
This week’s edition of The Warp Pipe includes Rainbow Six, Metal Gear Solid, Fallout 2, Pokemon Red/Blue and Grim Fandango.
Looking down the list of eligible games for this feature, one can’t help but wonder if we’ll ever have another year like 1998. With escalating budgets, focus on casual audiences and the growing gap between Japan and the West, it’s unlikely we will, but never say never. Many would argue that 2004 exceeded 1998, with many awesome games released throughout the year (and accusations of rose tinting); had Resident Evil 4 not slipped into January 2005, I think I’d be inclined to agree with them. On the other hand, 2004 was pretty heavily reliant on sequels to games which were released in 1998.The Tin Anniversaries – Part II
) Timing your assaults is the key to not dying quickly and painfully |
Red Storm Entertainment was set up by Tom Clancy and Doug Littlejohns to handle multimedia projects based on the former’s best-selling works. After the release of Tom Clancy’s Politika, the group had started work on a first person shooter focusing around counter-terrorism. Coincidentally, Clancy happened to be writing a book on the subject at the time, so the two projects came together as Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six.
Rainbow Six puts you in command of a counter-terrorist unit called RAINBOW. The unit is comprised of elite soldiers from the NATO member countries and led by Ding Chavez. The game begins with you taking the RAINBOW team through a series of seemingly unrelated terrorist actions. Of course, they turn out to be connected to a larger threat, which Ding and his boys have to take out as well.
At the time of release, tactical shooters were virtually unheard of. Rainbow Six was demanding of players, requiring them to carefully plan their missions (or take the default plan if they were lazy) and stick then stick closely to those plans – a single mistake could result in the mission being compromised. The action was highly realistic; players could not risk all out assaults as they would be lucky to survive more than two hits – and the terrorists were pretty good shots. The mix of these two elements resulted in a very tense, enthralling gameplay experience.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six was Red Storm’s first big hit. It was followed by an expansion, Eagle Watch, in January 1999, and ports hit the Mac, PlayStation and Nintendo 64 later that year, and a Dreamcast version followed in 2000. The first full sequel, Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear hit shelves in September 1999, and was also very successful. Ubisoft bought Red Storm in 2000, and further expanded the Tom Clancy range with Ghost Recon and Splinter Cell. The original Rainbow Six is still pretty enjoyable today. Once you get past the dated graphics, you’ll find a kind of depth that has been lost in Ubisoft’s sequels, which have abandoned the heavy handed tactical planning approach for a more straightforward, console friendly shooter type of game – arguably a sign of the times and the shift towards consoles.
) Solid Snake, not being very stealthy |
There’s not a whole lot left for me to say about Metal Gear Solid that wasn’t covered in The Warp Pipe’s Metal Gear Retrospective back in June, but what the hey. Hideo Kojima decided to revive the Metal Gear series, despite the relative lack of success of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, which was virtually unknown outside of Japan. In doing so, they set a new standard for production values in a video game, embracing the blockbuster action stylings of Hollywood and applying them to a video game. A fantastic (if far-fetched) story, amazing visuals, brilliant voice acting and great gameplay were all brought together in one product. The visuals may have suffered over time, and the frame rate is a bit sluggish, but Metal Gear Solid really holds up well when played today.
Metal Gear Solid was a runaway success for Konami, with over 6 million copies sold. An add-on pack Metal Gear Solid: VR/Special Missions followed in 1999, along with a port of Metal Gear Solid: Integral (which combined both the game and add-on) to Windows in 2000. The game was remade as Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes by Silicon Knights in conjunction with Konami for the GameCube in 2004. The series has become Konami’s most lucrative asset in recent years, with every one of its sequels going multi-platinum. While Metal Gear Solid 5 is currently in the planning stages, Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is said to be the last game to star Solid Snake and to feature the involvement of series creator Hideo Kojima and lead artist Yoji Shinkawa.
) Why use a gun when you can use a spear |
Fallout was not a particularly big hit for Interplay in 1997, but they decided to forge on with a sequel. Most of the Fallout team at Black Isle Studios commenced work on the game. Once the basic groundwork for Fallout 2 was set, core members of the original team - Tim Cain (producer/designer/lead programmer), Leonard Boyarsky (art director/designer) and Jason Anderson (lead artist/designer) left to form Troika games.
Players start their quest in the village of Arroyo, established by the original Vault Dweller after being cast out of Vault 13 in the original game. The village is in trouble after many years of sustained drought, and the player, considered to be the Chosen One being the direct descendent of the Vault Dweller, is charged with finding a Garden of Eden Creation kit. The G.E.C.K. is said to be able to create a liveable environment out of the harshest wasteland.
Fallout 2 is a much larger game than the original, with a grander scope, more players, more guns and more quests. It’s also a darn sight harder than the first game too, with a noticeable increase in enemy encounters and fights. The game is generally darker in tone, but never resists an opportunity to make the player laugh with a ridiculous amount of strange encounters and pop culture references. As good as Fallout 2 is, it’s notoriously glitchy; some player created mods iron a few of these problems out, but it’s nearly impossible to get through the game without having a bug pop up and destroy something. Player mods actually make the game much more approachable in the current day, with bug fixes, resolution increases and other minor changes.
Like the original, Fallout 2 was not a runaway success, but it did find an audience. As a result, Interplay was not in a hurry to commit resources to a sequel. They eventually decided to expand the Fallout line with spinoffs, the well-received Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel, developed by Australian studio Micro Forte (now BigWorld) in conjunction with 14 Degrees East, and the woeful Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel developed internally. Sometime between the release of the two spin-offs, Black Isle Studios commenced work on Van Buren, which was intended to be Fallout 3. However, Van Buren was cancelled after Interplay’s financial situation became dire enough to force the layoffs of all employees, and sale of major IP.
The Fallout series lives on at Bethesda Softworks, who just recently released their first title in the series, Fallout 3. Bethesda has licensed the rights to a Fallout MMO back to Interplay, who appears to be rising from the ashes to resume game development, even going so far as to recruit members of the original Fallout team to work on the proposed MMO. Whether they will actually secure the funding to develop the game remains to be seen.
) Simple, but highly addictive |
Pokémon puts you in the role of a young boy who decides to become a Pokémon trainer after being rescued from wild Pokémon by famous researcher Professor Oak. After being awarded with one of three starter Pokémon, the player wanders around Kanto capturing Pokémon to build up his team in order to take on gym leaders at each town for the badges necessary to challenge the Elite Four to become the Champion. Along the way you’ll encounter your rival, Professor Oak’s grandson, and cross paths with the devious Team Rocket.
Based on the standard J-RPG mould, Pokémon focuses mainly on capturing and training your team of Pokémon, building their stats up through gaining experience from turn-based battles with other trainers. Each Pokémon belongs to a specific type, such as water, grass, air, ground, fire and so on, which dictates its attack types and strengths/weaknesses against other Pokémon types. The aim of the game is to become champion of the Kanto region, and then capture all 151 Pokémon. Neither the Red nor Blue game contains the entire roster, so players must seek out another who owns the other version of the game and fight and trade with each other over the Game Boy link cable in order to get access to the other creatures.
Pocket Monsters Red and Green took Japan by storm in 1996, becoming the country’s all time top selling video game (combined sales) and singlehandedly reviving interest in Nintendo’s popular but stagnant Game Boy. Pokémon (as it became known) was an unexpected success for Nintendo and creator Satoshi Tajiri. It was over two and a half years before Nintendo released the games in the West, where the success was unexpectedly replicated. To date, the original three Pokémon games have sold over 20 million units.
Nintendo followed up the release of Red and Green with a Blue version, which was selected instead of Green for release outside of Japan. Another version, Pokémon Yellow: Special Pikachu Edition, which was aligned more closely to the anime series, was released in 1999. Pokémon Red and Green were remade for the Game Boy Advance in 2004, released as Pokémon Fire Red and Leaf Green. The original package also included a wireless adaptor, so players could trade without the need for a link cable. The Pokémon series continues to be Nintendo’s strongest asset, having sold over 175 million games to date, and spawning many other cross media products, including a long-running anime series, multiple movies, toys, books, clothes and so on.
) Tim Schafer has rotten luck |
Grim Fandango takes place in an Aztec-influenced Land of the Dead. The Department of Death employs travel agents which must guide recently departed souls from the mortal world to the Land of the Dead, and determine their method of travel to the Ninth Underworld. Good souls receive passage on the “Number Nine”, a train which cuts the journey from four years to a number of minutes. Everyone else has to go on foot. Players control Manuel “Manny” Calavera, one of the Department of Death’s travel agents.
Manny, tired of having to deal with the riff-raff that have to take the four year journey on foot, steals a client from co-worker Domino Hurley; Mercedes “Meche” Colomar. Meche has led a pure life, and Manny believes she is guaranteed a spot on the Number Nine. The Deparment’s computer believes differently, assigning Meche the four year journey, leading Manny to suspect that something in the Department of Death is amiss.
Grim Fandango is deeply rooted in film noir style, featuring a darker plot than some of LucasArts’ other outings. It was LucasArts’ first 3D adventure game, with the SCUMM engine dropped in favour of the new GrimE engine, based in turn on the Sith engine that powered Jedi Knight. The game is split into four chapters, one year apart. There’s a rich cast of characters, many humorous moments and a fantastic soundtrack which incorporates folk, jazz and swing music, among others. The game is pretty playable today, thanks largely to a budget priced, XP-compatible re-release from 2006.
By the time Grim Fandango was released in 1998, the adventure game genre was in serious decline. LucasArts had pinned its hopes on Grim Fandango as the title to revive the genre, but its delay into the holiday season along with indifference to the once-popular genre resulted in its downfall. Grim Fandango received unanimously popular reviews, but performed poorly at retail, leading to LucasArts departure from adventure games. Lead designer Tim Schafer and much of the Grim Fandango team left the company to form Double Fine Productions, whose first title Psychonauts suffered a similar response.
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