Let's talk about... (video games)

I want to make this clear, the best part of Not a hero is it's trailer. Not a hero is a video game, with a minimal and quirky story line about a man in a bunny costume running for office (BUNNYLORD). What is nice about the game is that it satires politicians and democracy, for in is a rather common platform for a politician to be tough on crime. Not a hero takes that a into the realm ludicrous by being elected by killing the leaders of crime syndicalists, and hordes of generic hooligans. That being said modern politics can arguably be messy and inefficient. Realpolitik? Who cares, the game play is the important part. The only actions you can do is shoot, slide, use an item, move left, or move right. These controls are relatively simplistic, so the emphasis is on timing, and knowing the details of each individual level. So in practice you memorize a sequence of actions you need to do to beat the level, and then you run through the level over and over until you beat the level, no doubt by perfecting your sequence. In this way the game play feels a little like Dance Dance Revolution for your fingers, but what is nice about this is that there are different characters with different game play styles, for most levels creating multiple ways to succeed at the same level. Actually beating the level is not to challenging, but each level has challenges that go along with the level, when a particular challenge is traverse a third of the level in a minute, that is when perfect memorization and execution is required. The only other notable thing about the game is its wacky humor, that most shows through Bunnylord monologue that has a few key words that randomized, and the effect is much like a mad limbs story. Personally I do think "amazeballs" needs to be found more in my day to day vernacular.

As a whole I am rather content with the game. It might not be amazeballs, but the game plays as a simplified cover based shooter, different power ups and character kept the game from getting stale. The trailer for the game has a higher level of intensity than the game itself has, it has over the top humor, the game itself has more quirky and random humor. This difference in tone is the only element of the game that personally disappointed me. That being said, over sexualized Spanish man named Jesus, you are my favorite.

Sander Cohen Conundrum: Art in Bioshock

I'm sorry, but this post is going to be on Bioshock again. While I think that I written more than enough on the subject there are still some points that I personally have not touched on yet that I would very much like to, take for example my favorite moment from the game. You as the player are a bad ass at this point in the game you. There is a shortage of ammo, but every weapon except one is available to you at this point. The horror element of the game is completely gone, and now the concern is the most efficient way of disposing of enemies, and you as the player are getting good at it too. So you are feel as you open the doors into another apartment building, there is music playing reminiscent of Frank Sinatra's style of sing. As you see a couple of enemies, splicers they are called in the game, that are unaware of you. This is where my experience with the game becomes unique, not wanting to take any chances with the situation, I loaded up a heat seeking rocket and shot a single round into the pair, and got the satisfaction of seeing them flying. Almost the "enormity" of what I just did hit me, like I said earlier the game has conditioned me to be as efficient as possible when dealing with enemies, for they were dangerous and could attack me ruthlessly. These two were different to though, while they would certainly have attacked me if I had caught their attention, they were not looking for me the player, they were dancing. These two individuals found a way to enjoy the apocalypses, which is a feat no other character in the game achieves, and I as the player killed them on instinct. That is good video game design, hats off to the developers. The point I really want to consider is art within Rapture, and I brought up that game play not just because it was my favorite moments within the game but it is one of the few examples of art with in the game. For context, Raptures draw was no government interference in business, not moral limitations, and lastly no censorship for the artist. This aspect of Rapture would be under discussed if it wasn't for the fact that there is literally no art in Rapture, okay that is an exaggeration... if you want to make the argument that Bioshock as a video game is art you can do that, but that is irrelevant to the point. Other than that there is exactly two times art is directly brought up in the game, which is at first underwhelming. To start lets talk about Sander Cohen, probably the fourth most important character in the game. Cohen is meant to represent the height of artistic achievement in Rapture, but he is also the culmination of emotions in rapture. The other main characters are objectivists, but Sander Cohen represents an emotional response to watching Raptures decline. This decline causes Cohen great personal pain, as best demonstrated by his poem The Wild Bunny. The poem is about how Cohen wants to "take off the ears" (his trade mark is a mask of the rabbit) but he is unable too. Taken literally this is a poem about how Cohen can not stop being a performer, wanting his work to be appreciated always trying to express his passion. From a more abstract perspective this poem also relates to how Cohen is trapped in Rapture, it is the combination having artistic passion and begin unable to express it that causes pain. Cohen is still very capable artistically, while unstable we as players are shown this in Cohen's masterpiece as music number on the piano. Cohen also forces the player to kill his four disciples that have betrayed or disappointed him in various ways, and attached the proceeding pictures to dead bodies. The player is being forced to contribute in Cohen's artistic passion, letting a connection be built in the turn out of that piece whether or not the player likes that. Killing the disciples lets Sander Cohen move on from the past and accept the present reality. This is shown in the way he is the only major villain that you do not need to kill. That apartment with the dancing couple I described earlier was Cohen's apartment, and if you don't kill him, he does and spend the rest of the game in his room on the second floor decorated by rabbit masks. Notice though that even if Cohen survives then the couple is still there dancing, Ryan's idealism gets corrupted and dies with him, Suchong (a premier scientist) and if disregard for morals die. Even Frank Fontaine dies when he stops harnessing the will of the people and just relies on his supernatural powers. Yet emotion and the drive to create something beautiful live in Cohen, and the dancing couple, even though their idea of beauty might have been warped as the city they lived in started to decay. There is not a single painting in the Rapture of Bioshock, signifying how beauty has been destroyed and irrelevant to the majority of people, but the desire lives on. This is a big departure from Bioshocks criticism of objectivism, which makes its inclusion into the game even more relevant.