design / research
serial consign
free running in the digital city
I just caught wind of an forthcoming game with a new take on the "open city" concept that has been explored in several titles over the last few years. Mirror's Edge is an Xbox 360 game that is currently under development by DICE in Stockholm. The narrative revolves around Faith, a nimble traceur in a predictably totalitarian, ultra-sterile futuristic cityscape. Faith, a parkour courier, has been charged with delivering some extremely valuable information - so valuable in fact that she finds herself relentlessly pursued through the city by ruthless government agents.
Sweep aside all the plot junk and you are left with the potential for an exciting new simulation of the city as an elaborate playground. What immediately caught my attention about these preliminary screenshots is manner in which architectural elements are demarcated. As per her training in "the art of displacement" Faith possess an innate ability for reading the geometry of her surroundings and this translates into a playing field where the objects, surfaces and assemblies that comprise the city are colour coded according to accessibility. When considered in this manner, the city becomes a giant text and, fittingly, play revolves around spatial problem solving and wayfinding rather than trigger finger virtuosity. [see my previous post Ways of Seeing Digital Space for more thoughts on provocative representations of space in gaming]
We've all seen the kinetic insanity of free running in films like District 13 and the opening sequence of Casino Royale (or more authentically via homebrew video documentation). How will playing through sequences like this change our thinking about urban space in gaming?
The web is currently buzzing with posts on Mirror's Edge as it just made a big splash at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I learned about the game by way of Jim Rossignol at Rock, Paper, Shotgun where Jim has been doing some great writing on "open world" gameplay with a focus on urban space. A recent post of his on the forthcoming Prototype name-checks Assassin's Creed and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction as titles to examine above and beyond the influential Grand Theft Auto Series - the widely anticipated fourth installment of which is due in two months.
If you're interested in learning more about key titles in Open World gaming, Gamasutra compiled a comprehensive list of games last fall, and buried deep in the archives of City of Sound you'll find Los Angeles: Grand Theft Reality, Dan Hill's 2004 examination of the sprawling simulation of LA authored by Rockstar Games.
another open world...
Hi Greg,
Another open-world game to check out in this vein is Crackdown for the 360. This was kind of a sleeper hit last year, but had some really compelling ideas going for it, with a GTA-meets-The-Matrix take on sandbox gaming. It features some parkour-influenced city exploration as well, although mixed with Neo-style jumps that allow you to cross three city blocks in a single bound. Plus, as a "super agent," there's the added fun of carrying a car to the top of a skyscraper and then driving it from rooftop to rooftop.
As you play, your character becomes stronger and more agile, allowing you to lift bigger objects, jump higher, run faster, etc., challenging you to scale higher and more inaccessible locations in search of various goodies. The mobility it offers to explore the world really makes GTA look dull in comparison (though the two games are obviously utterly different in premise). It looks to me like Prototype borrows heavily from Crackdown's design.
In any case, I'm really interested in Mirror's Edge too. Both for the exploration component, and the bold use of first person perspective!
Cheers,
-Mike
Crackdown
Hey Mike,
Thanks for the tip! I'm always about six months behind current titles, so I'm just loafing my way through Assassin's Creed.. I'll keep an eye out for Crackdown though. :)