They say it’s always darkest before the dawn…

Yet for others, it remains perpetual fucking midnight

As I continue to trek through the misery and mire of Expedition 33 (E33), it must not be understated the importance the game puts on the valuable beauty of impermanence, in not taking for granted what is here today, and gone tomorrow…

E33 makes room for some levity of course, as breathing room is needed, not just in giving the players a break from some of the heavier lifting emotional labor one must endure during cutscenes, but also to help contrast the light with the darkness, to allow each one to empower the other. Aside from being an excellent way to enhance the value of any artistry involved, this approach has the silver lining effect of giving me more to write about outside of a spoiler heavy narrative, mostly due to the amount of light which must contrast the darkness, which is definitely a big part of E33’s draw, so many of the story beats are best left mysterious to anyone who hasn’t taken the dive yet. E33 may represent one of the best “go in blind” plays in recent memories, and I think puts up a good fight, at least in the modern era of gaming, to vie for top spot, too.

The last couple of days saw me writing articles addressing some of the minigames I’ve discovered in E33 thus far, in all of their tawdry quirkiness. Of the two. The Obstacle Course (OC) was the least soul-wrenching of the two, with the other, the one that I playfully bestowed the nom de guerre “Jank Ball” to, is laughably obtuse, in how the game functions overall, and is an ideal example of the anti-quality of life mini-game, in willfully turning its back on making any element of its game user friendly on any conceivable level. This is in the vein of the old school, of course, as many old arcade titles are stubborn in the same way, which makes sense for the time and place they came out. Context is always key, and games that are most suited for the arcade, will always have players grasping at straws to “make ends meat” of the almighty gameplay loop, which prompts me to recall my article referencing to the legendary “30 seconds of fun”, a quote of note from Halo developer Jaime Griesemer, and his dictation on what it takes to make a fun game. While that has just sparked an intense interest in me of writing about context in game design, the “language of play”, and a retrospective on that 30 seconds of fun in a broader scope, I may yet have to tuck those away for a rainy day, as I imagine it would get me too far afield of discussing more of the ins and out of what makes E33 go tick tock.

Anyone who has been reading Active Time Event for long enough, knows most articles I write tend to oscillate from a personal confessional booth of conceptual worth, to the deconstruction of game design and player tendencies, wrapped up in some well needed philosophy. I think this is mostly due to the notion that so much of the world we experience is colored in by our own perceptions, objectivity almost becomes a theoretical motion to dismiss opinion, usually for some ulterior motive of sorts. That is why understanding the mind that understands the concept, helps to underline the reality of both, and grants a richer tapestry of which to marvel at, in considering the beauty of the value present at hand. I’ve also grown quite fond of the Socratic Method, and creating that realm of endless engagement of curiosity through conversation. Even when I write, there remains a back and forth of sorts between the reader and I, even if we don’t directly speak to each other. A metaphysical volley and granted merits shared betwixt the two parties atmospherically present, but never quite inhabiting the same space at the same time, in a literal sense, but the thought of the other always remains, which shines light on the idea of the collaborative effort involved with the creation of culture and refinement of humanity at large.

That thought was a bit of an aside, though I think it does relate to the human elements that help persist and make gorgeous the softer and harsher sides of E33, which as mentioned before hand, any key elements of story I will avoid talking about. With that aside, it seems a crying shame not to touch on the vibes of E33 at least somewhat, as the game has quite an emotional depth, at least, by my reckoning. Which is saying something, to move me to speak upon it…not that I am some heartless fiend or emotionless golem that rampages hither and thither throughout the gaming landscape, the thrill of battle being the only thing on my mind, but I am very much into video games as a medium due to their interactive element, so for me, design always comes first.

The thing about design is that it is normally cold and mechanical, generally predicated on logic and cause and effect, so the investigations therein, act as if more or less virtual experiments to run data on, to see how that world works, and sometimes, even how to break that particular reality in question, given the right circumstances. That doesn’t mean design can’t have emotion, as I think the mechanical paired with the artistic is what makes video games so unique, and with the right elements of story, character, writing, atmosphere, one can have emotionally driven design methodology, though there is a whole lot of context involved with that proposition that goes into consideration of just how all of that ends up “working”, in a sense, and represents a far more complicated affair, when deeply intertwined with each other.

Even E33 is aware of this, as there is what I would posit as a decent line of distinction drawn between the story beats and the gameplay elements, which does more or less boil down to being out in the field vs being at camp. The cinematics of course waste no time in laying it on hard and heavy, in detailing one or more of the characters traumas, crushed hopes, haunted dreams of days of old…the game has a mindful pacing about it, never feeling like it is too melodramatic for its own good, nor taking a hard left turn and crashing straight into the tonal whiplash wall of misguided intent…

Goodness gracious, look at that, already at a thousand words. I had something totally different in mind for this article, but looks like this ended up being one of those moments talking shop was enough to pass the time in a fetching manner.

Till tomorrow, then.

-Pashford