Like a Fine Red Wine

The next couple of posts (hopefully just 2, but we'll see) are going to delve into my nerdier side. Hopefully I'm not disappointing many of you, but I, Sam Ghormley, am something of a geek. It's something I've come to terms with and am able to live with so pity me not. On with the Freak Show...

I bought my new computer with a few things in mind. The basic reason was one of regular functionality. I use a lot of word processing things, some music software, as a media player, for my digital camera, set up this blog, etc. But none of those things justify the kind of rig I put together. I set up my computer so that it would be a high horsepower gaming machine because I do some of that every now and again. The first game to truly test the system? Doom 3.

I'd been anticipating D3 for quite awhile. I've loved just about everything the id company has put out over the years and was disappointed when D3 came out and my old computer wasn't powerful enough to run it. Finally, I've had a chance to play it. Don't you hate high hopes?

Overall a very disappointing game. For those of you unfamiliar with the Doom franchise, the game revolves around a single marine armed with shotguns and plasma rifles, etc. who runs around mars and kills zombies and demons. All this from the first person perspective. This was the first really popular game of this now overdone genre. It was an enormous hit and basically made modern gaming into what it is today. Now in its third installment, it looks better than ever. Lighting and shadow effects generate a much creepier atmosphere, enemies look downright sinister, and the whole game plays like a horror movie what with creatures jumping out of shadows, hearing grunts and groans offscreen, and on and on. Technically, the game is superb.

It's the gameplay that brings everything down. It's really kind of a one trick pony. After a couple of levels, you figure out when the computer is going to ambush you, the numbers and types of monsters the program uses, and the exact tactics you'll need to win. After that it just becomes like a rat running a maze looking for cheese. Then, whenever the screen goes red the Pavlovian response goes something like this:

---
Switch to Shotgun, close on imp, strafe to avoid fireball, pointblank shotgun blast, 180 turn to look for other imp (if yes repeat, if no continue), listen for large monster (if yes switch to rocket launcher, if no end), fire rockets at monster, end

collect all ammo, health, armor and continue maze
---

It's exciting the first 3 or 4 times you do it. Then, strictly routine.

So after a couple days of that, I was a little turned off of video games until something made me think of X-COM. Oh yeah, X-COM. After some searching I found a free copy available for download. Lucky me.

X-COM is a game about 12 years old that is still one of the most impressive strategy games I have ever played. The basic idea is that you are in charge of a worldwide defense organization designed to intercept and kill any aliens landing on earth. The thing is, the strategies, tactics, politics, and everything are just so deep. You start with a blank globe. Where do you put your first base? How many soldiers are you going to hire? Are you going to keep scientists and engineers on staff? Remember, everything you build and every person you hire has a salary/maintenance fee associated with them, and money DOES NOT grow on trees. In fact it is quite scarce. All that and more, just on the global scale. Whenever aliens arrive, you have to go after them in a dizzying array of possible encounters. Here are 3 recent situations I had that show the breadth of what's possible.

Scenario 1: A small UFO was detected on the ground near Pennsylvania. I scrambled my strike vehicle with an 8 man team and arrived on site at night. The touchdown site was a townsquare with several structures nearby. I broke my team into 2 squads and secured the buildings losing only one man during a sweep of a warehouse. Just when I thought everything was clear and we were ready to attack the UFO itself, my second team started taking fire from a sniper. No one had line of sight and the other squad was too far away to flank the position so it was a dangerous game of moving from cover to cover until one of my scouts found the snipers position, then the heavy weapons specialist was able to take out the nest with a couple of well placed rounds.

Scenario 2: A larger UFO was detected flying around the Alaska coastline. I scrambled my fighter craft, engaged the UFO and forced it to make a crash landing. I then sent out my strike vehicle, this time with a more experienced 12 man team. The touchdown site was farmland. I broke my team into 3 squads, sent the first team to secure the barn, the second to make a sweep of the fields and house, and used the last to assault the UFO directly. The first two teams secured the area well and the last team was in position outside the two doors of the UFO's command deck. I know the aliens are in there and they know I'm right outside. I know the second I open that door there's going to be a plasma gun aimed straight at whoever's head I send in first. The squad of 4 is as follows: An experienced sergeant, a heavy weapons specialist with a few missions under his belt, a promising new sharp shooter, and a brand new rookie. Hmmm...Rookie, move out and draw fire. The rookie makes a run for it, gets shot at, but amazingly enough survives. This gives time for my heavy weapons guy to come in and shoot the distracted aliens in the back while my sniper follows closely behind and dusts up the remaining survivors.

Scenario 3: A South American town is being terrorized by a large group of aliens. I scramble my same 12 man squad and land in the middle of town. There are at least a couple of aliens in sight to begin with and the first guy off the ship does not make it to cover in time. The next 3-4 off establish a decent perimeter while everyone else tries to clear the landing zone. We continue to draw heavy fire and are penned in on all sides. Before we're able to break formation an alien launches an explosive device into our perimeter and kills half my men. War is hell.

That's just 3 scenarios. It's a randomized game so there are literally thousands of possibilities. After every single battle, you salvage what you can, study the aliens, their weapons, their ships, and anything else you can get your hands on. You still have to pay your bills, you have to keep recruiting and replacing soldiers, you have to keep building new bases depending on where aliens are acting up the most, and more. The game is brilliant. 12 years old and still able to captivate in a way that Doom 3 just wishes it could.

Of course there are good and bad games in every genre and in every time period, but it seems that the focus as of late has become less on how to make your bad guys act realistically threatening and has moved toward how to make your bad guys look realistically threatening. It just seems that by now someone should have figured out how to do both.