* An analysis of the ending of Red Dead Redemption, strong spoiler warning *
Finally, Rockstar have come up with a game that wants us to be good. Playing as a reformed outlaw in a graphically gorgeous title combining almost every aspect of the Wild West we’ve come to recognise through films, TV shows and folklore, the most surprising quality of Red Dead Redemption – even more impressive than the amazing attention to detail – is the enforced morality and, in line with the game’s title and its central theme, redeeming qualities of the main character. John Marston, contrary to those previous incarnations of Grand Theft Auto and other Rockstar Games’ antiheroes, is not seeking success and wealth through crime; he is aspiring to be good for the betterment of himself and his family.
As in previous open-world games the players themselves are free to do as they wish, inevitably leading to a sandbox environment of carnage and chaos as the he/she sees fit. In Red Dead, the option to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ is presented – do you capture criminals alive to collect bounty rewards and shoot the weapons out of people’s hands instead of killing them, or decide to go renegade by robbing the innocent and, as an homage to the classic Western cliche of moustached villainy, tie a woman up and place her on railroad tracks? Despite your decisions in these situations and regardless of your own personal play-style, the most striking thing about the main story missions is how Marston always, from the start of the game to the finish, chooses the honourable route.
Blackmailed into hunting down his former brothers-in-arms by a pair of lawmen who have his wife and son held captive, Marston is sent out on a quest to essentially rid the land of the last surviving remnants of his own criminal past as the violent era of the American Old West comes to an abrupt end. Marston chooses to deal with hostile situations by speaking with restraint and politeness instead of pulling out his gun, and his actions throughout the story are often heroic, albeit through unavoidably violent means. So outside of the story missions when players may utilise their freedom to go out and commit evil deeds should they wish, it all seems a little inconsistent – hypocritical even – when compared with the predetermined intentions of the character during the game’s cutscenes that drive the plot forward.
* Spoilers from this point on *
By the end when the violent and bloody missions are seemingly over and the police allow Marston to be reunited with his family, the game gets you to play through mundane chores tending to his farm, herding cattle, and spending quality time with the wife, Abigail, and estranged teenage son, Jack, who is more interested in reading than holding a weapon. It is quite the contrast to the majority of the game and, accompanied with a chillingly ominous score that haunts these segments, there is a feeling of impending doom: that this peacefulness is too good to be true.
It is no real surprise then when the lawmen return to betray and murder Marston and his family; on the contrary there is a sense that this is a true calling. A life as a simple rancher is not something John can adapt to, regardless of his intentions, and there is an acknowledgment at this stage of Red Dead that not only can this videogame character never escape his outlaw past, nor can the player escape from the violent dynamics of the game by which they are now well-accustomed to. John is deadly, remarkably efficient in killing those coming for his family – his prior sins have ensured that he is in his element when with a gun in his hand.
Marston manages to send his wife and son away on a horse with tears in his eyes and, having said his goodbyes and surrounded by the army and the police with no chance of survival, realises the price of true redemption – not for himself, but for his family – before taking a deep breath and accepting his fate. But the real tragedy of this finale is that, when his death should have marked the end of the Marston family’s affiliation with its dark past, it is actually through his passing that the once-innocent Jack seeks his own revenge, now controlled by the player 3 years later in the game. Violence begets violence and the son follows in the father’s footsteps; exactly the sort of future John Marston had tried to protect Jack from.
The feeling of surprise and shock when playing as Jack deliberately merges the player’s experience with this new character: Who am I? What do I do now? Not only has the player lost all their invested emotional connection with John, but so has Jack. And it surely says something of the impact and tragedy of the story’s conclusion that, when assuming the role of the son, I immediately travelled across town to hunt down the policeman who ordered the execution – a bonus mission in the game – and going on a random rampage against the law looking for revenge instead of redemption, a pointless, empty lust for blood so commonly found in the genre which conflicted with and was completely contrary to the values John Marston had strived for and realised through his sacrifice. The Wild West was dying, and so too was that young Jack’s apparent incorruptibility.
For all its technical qualities in creating a believable world outside of the player’s influence and overlooking the flaws – namely the many unnecessary, superfluous supporting characters and, especially, the disappointing and drawn out missions towards the end involving Marston’s former gang leader - Red Dead impresses most in its subtle morality tale behind the familiar GTA-template, told through an excellently-realised and ultimately sad journey that lives up to the game’s tagline, ”Outlaws to the end”.
Okay then. Here’s my two cents on this whole lack of R18+ classification in Australia and, since it’s the popular topic at the moment and will doubtless prove even more controversial once the game is officially released, the Modern Warfare 2 airport stage. Warning: long rant ahead.
The Australian Classification Board – Censorship and Banning
I, like most other Aussie gamers, was upset when the zombie-killing game Left 4 Dead 2 was banned. Indeed the ratings system here is backwards, yes it’s outdated, but the real key issue we have with it is that it is a hypocritical decision because the original game, containing practically everything the sequel has been banned for, came out without a hitch. After an unsuccessful appeal by Valve, the makers of the game, the title was modified and passed the ratings system with the highest MA15+ age gate, however if the Classification Board – or just South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson – is going to insist on there being no R18+ rating for videogames then so be it, the arguments against the lack of the classification (which cannot be granted without the agreement of all state and Commonwealth attorney generals) will continue, but the least one could ask for is that consistency is shown in the meantime.
It’s these double standards that have many gamers foaming at the mouth; Fallout 3 was initially banned because of the game’s drug references but not because of the violence and gore which included features such as the Bloody Mess perk which increased the violence and, should the player utilise the abilities granted to him/her, pick up decapitated heads and place them, say, on dinner plates. Rather ludicrously, once the drugs in the game were renamed to no longer reflect their real-life counterparts (i.e. Morphine changed to Med-X), even though their properties and effects within the game were still the same, it made it past the ratings system with no further problems.
My own personal dilemma is that I really enjoyed Fallout 3, and yet I absolutely acknowledge that if I had young children then I would never, ever, want them to play through it; blowing people’s heads off through VATS or having them explode their enemies into a red mist. So that’s where choice comes in: once over the age of 18, they would have every legal right to watch an R rated film because the rating system’s purpose of existence is to appropriately screen material from the underaged public. But for the Board to completely take away the choice of purchasing games in their full uncensored form is akin to a condescending pat on the head of all those gamers over 18 years of age, essentially claiming that we are incapable of telling the difference between fact and fiction, even though we are trusted to be able to with film.
Violence and drugs aside, it was the immersive experience of Fallout 3 that stood out along with the game world’s system of moral code and consequence which made it such a powerful medium of escapism from ‘the real world’. Arguably the violence within the game, while gory and excessive to the point of ridiculousness, may have been relevant to the post-apocalyptic, fictional world of the Capital Wasteland, much like how the Mad Max movies (an inspiration of the series) and many other film worlds have been depicted. It was portrayed in such a way in order to capture the lawlessness of a world stripped down to its base survival instincts, and presented via a biting satire of 1950s Americana in a fantasy setting tinged with black humour.
To some extent however, I do have to ask myself whether the experience could have been as memorable and as fun without the weapons and the violence and the excessive gore and drug use… who knows? But the main thing about Fallout 3 as a game was that there was a deeper role for the player, built around a gameplay system where terrible things could be done, including the murder of civilians, should the player choose to do so. Similarly with the Grand Theft Auto* series – to speak in film terms, essentially the videogame equivalent of an overblown mockumentary on modern American society – the ultimate decision as to how to approach the game was up to the player and direct consequences would occur as a result. Games have come a long way since the days of linear plots and distinct fixed boundaries as to what the player could and could not do, but the whole concept of choice – the lack of it through real-life censorship and banning as well as in-game options – is still a divisive topic. Yes, violence has been around long before videogames, but sadly the industry’s argument for “games as art” has not been done any favours by those titles that have deliberately sought the controversy.
* (Interestingly with GTA IV, the Classification Board had initially banned its sale before a modified version adhering to an MA15+ rating was accepted for release. The changes? You could still kill people by shooting them or running them down in a car but no pools of blood would appear afterwards beneath their corpses. You could still hire prostitutes and engage in sexual acts in vehicles but you could only see the car rock up and down with a fixed camera angle as opposed to a controllable one, which somehow makes it all okay. Furthermore, the downloadable episode The Lost and Damned featured the completely uncensored content above and still somehow made it past review – if the Board is going to enforce censorship of material, it could at least do so with common sense and, again, consistency.)
Inspired by snuff films and containing just about the same amount of substance, I managed to get my hands on the first Manhunt via a friend who bought a copy before the decision was made to retrospectively ban it several months after its release, and I have to say I was utterly disturbed by its violence. It was a glorification reaching a level of vile desensitisation, and with no reason or purpose in the game apart from achieving, again, the most graphic kill animations possible. The gameplay mechanics were solid from a functional point of view, but Manhunt was pointlessly sadistic in every other respect. The worst thing about it and particularly the likes of baseless games such as Soldier of Fortune, Postal, and going back as far as the controversy Mortal Kombat courted and thrived off, is that they give game critics the ammunition they need to pigeon-hole videogames as a medium to such an extent that knee-jerk reactions without proper context (or even playthroughs) are far too common, ala the ridiculous furore with Fox News’ infamous take on Mass Effect, completely ignoring the qualities of games that promote moral thought and decision making in the midst of strenuous situations, along with the impact on the player’s conscience. These snuff games do nothing but take morality out of the equation altogether, fully warranting their bans and sullying the image of videogames in the eyes of the government and the mass media.
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The Modern Warfare 2 Airport Level Controversy (Spoilers)
It had been strongly hinted at in the trailers, but until the footage leaked onto the internet (for the short period before it was removed) no one was at all prepared for the fact that the airport level of Modern Warfare 2 had players engage in the act of killing civilians from the terrorist’s point of view. It must be noted that the stage is entirely skippable and features constant warning messages of disturbing content, but in these cases it helps to take a step back to think about the ramifications and purpose of such an inclusion before making an uninformed decision and leaping for the panic button.
Curiously in terms of Australian banning, the game received an MA15+ rating from the Classification Board months ago and is still scheduled for its original worldwide November release date just over a week away - despite how, as stated in its report, “civilians are shot with blood burst bullet wounds; civilian corpses are strewn across the airport floor, often in stylised pools of blood; injured civilians crawl away with lengthy blood trails behind them,” but because “no post mortem damage can be inflicted on victims and, in other missions in the game, killing a civilian results in mission failure,” the violence in this context is okay. Which makes one wonder why killing zombies in Left 4 Dead 2, hardly realistic targets, is not.
In all honesty I appreciate Infinity Ward taking a huge gamble here with the level; so long as that, in whatever manner this airport stage does play out and in the full scheme of things, it does not trivialise terrorism and the fact that innocent lives have long been lost as a result of it. And judging by the aims of Modern Warfare 1 in showing the horrors and loss of war – and even just trusting in the developer to display basic human sensibilities of what constitutes good taste – I predict that it absolutely will not.
I fully expect it to turn out to be an utterly devastating and tragic moment in the game – it appeared as if the level was the finale to the first chapter where you play as an undercover CIA officer who has infiltrated the group but is powerless to the events of the massacre (which has unfortunately lost its shock value having been spoiled) – carrying with it a deep emotional resonance with the player. An impact never before seen in gaming albeit a talking point for years to come.
The quote from the president of the Australian Council on Children and the Media is:
“The consequences of terrorism are just abhorrent in our community and yet here we are with a product that’s meant to be passed off as a leisure time activity, actually promoting what most world leaders speak out publicly against” – which completely misses the point and provides a good insight into how games are seen in this country. It is obvious that the developer’s aim here is to ensure that people will not enjoy playing through the stage, contrary to the entire point of playing a game in the first place which, considering the Classification Board’s approval of its release, indicates an agreement in the purpose of this level.
Indeed, if we are shocked to the core as we ought to be, Modern Warfare 2 could prove to be a positive step towards the further exploration of videogames in testing the potentials of its own medium; using its uniquely identifying feature – being in control – to create a palpable sense of morality and enforcing the shocking and disturbing consequences of the player’s actions in a digital representation of the real world. In other words, a significant advancement from games being constantly referred to by others as a mere “leisure time activity,” and meant for those with easily-influenced minds without the ability to discern from what is right and wrong, as opposed to more “serious” art forms. Sadly, Atkinson continues to argue otherwise whilst at the same time enforcing inconsistency, saying that “Expecting game designers to be responsible by not glorifying terrorism will always lead to disappointment,” and yet still granting its unedited release as an MA15+ title.
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Close
The major problem in Australia, if it isn’t already plainly obvious, is that games are not taken seriously. The argument against the incongruent rating system is that it is somehow okay when other mediums such as films depict graphic violence and disturbing content matter when there is indeed an R18+ rating to advise the public of the content, but as soon as such material is in the hands gamers the rules immediately change. The conundrum? Games are dismissed as child’s play; mindless folly and embarrassing source of silly, meaningless “entertainment” incapable of achieving irony or bringing a proper discussion to the table. So when the odd title does come along, trying to add a conscience and tackle the bigger and more controversial issues – much like what any art form aims to do – out comes the stigma of videogames where the accusations of “glorification of violence” pour forth from the media, completely misunderstood and hastily judged before anyone has even had a chance to experience it for themselves.
Not everyone will get the point, of course. There will no doubt be videos posted on Youtube after Modern Warfare 2 comes out of players deliberately and happily killing civilians without the slightest regard to what Infinity Ward are trying, optimistically, to achieve. But just like the Paul Verhoeven films Robocop, Total Recall, and Starship Troopers and Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Inglourious Basterds, etc attempted to challenge one’s sensibilities – to move the viewer out of their comfort zones – the critical response manifested in conflicting forms: face value (senseless violence) versus subtext (parody and satire of violence), all dependent on how one interpreted what they saw. Videogames obviously differ from film in that films take their audience on a fixed rollercoaster ride whilst games tend to offer a plot-driven ride whilst also allowing player control in their progression, but because of a selective and inconsistent R18+ classification system we Australians are given access to the former but often denied the chance of interpretation for the latter.
In taking risks with its content, hopefully time will show that Infinity Ward made a brave choice in an attempt to create a new level of emotion and deeper understanding of real life cruelties via the videogame effect. But maybe the world, and especially Australia, just isn’t ready for the medium of gaming to do tongue-in-cheek or convey poignancy, irony, or a realistic videogame representation of the world because it is, apparently, too real for gamers to be able to tell the difference, regardless of their age.
Upon its release I am confident that Modern Warfare 2 will shock and disgust within a proper narrative and context, because it’s these feelings – a sense of guilt conflicting against and challenging the actions of the player in that scenario – that will really help gaming achieve the same emotional connection of other art forms, and hopefully the industry’s attempts at doing so are analysed appropriately by the public and the powers that be. Even if it is only by those who really get it… which doesn’t look like it will include the Australian Classifications Board nor Michael Atkinson anytime soon.
Art imitating life imitating art. No sooner has The Lost and Damned DLC been released that GTA IV has come to Australia; and this time I’m not talking about game release dates.
Witnesses have up to this point neither confirmed or denied rumours that Niko Bellic and/or Johnny Klebitz were at the scene
According to news sources:
“There’s been a major escalation in Sydney’s bikie gang war with the bashing death of a man at Sydney’s domestic airport in front of horrified bystanders yesterday.
Four men aged between 21 and 25 have been charged with affray over the incident and more charges are expected to follow. Police say the attack appeared to be planned and it’s raised questions about the level of security at Sydney Airport.
…
Police believe the violence erupted between members of the Hells Angels and Comancheros biker gangs after senior figures from both gangs flew on the same flight between Melbourne and Sydney.
…
The murder follows a series of tit-for-tat shootings involving two other rival bikie gangs - the latest just yesterday - that has left Sydney’s suburban streets living in fear.”
The victim died of severe head injuries after being bashed by the metal poles propping up the queues.
So then: a bikie war, an apparent assassination of a rival leader in broad daylight at a public place, a death via bludgeoning, the CCTV footage has done a runner. Doesn’t this all sound so very familiar? The only thing missing is that little jingle that plays alongside the words ‘MISSION COMPLETE – $10, 000′. However unlike GTA the bad guys got caught. So let this be a very important lesson to us all: always print out your tickets before your flight for a quicker check-in.
Another underrated Rockstar game, The Warriors was of course based on the 1979 cult film classic by Walter Hill adapted from the novel by Sol Yurick. I must admit that prior to playing the game I had NO knowledge of the existence of such a film, so I decided to borrow it from a friend and was left a little disappointed to be honest. It was not until I played the game AND THEN watched the film though (and then played the game and watched the movie again…) that I fully realised just how bloody good it was.
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The story took place in a surreal New York city run by hundreds of gangs, 9 representatives of which were chosen to attend a meeting held by the charismatic Cyrus – leader of The Gramercy Riffs, the most powerful gang in the state. The agenda was for all the gangs in the city to set aside their petty turf disputes in favour of creating ONE gang to rule them all, one gang to bind them, one gang to bring them all and in…oops wrong movie. As the cheers rained in after an inspirational speech, Cyrus was cruelly and cowardly assassinated by Luther, leader of The Rogues, who then frames the Warriors for the murder. A long way from their home territory and with every gang after them, the group had to find a way back to Coney Island.
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What was really special about the game was that not only did you play through the events of the movie as seen in other movie games, oh no, you also got to see what happened BEFORE the events in the film – levels consisted of taking charge of different combinations of Warriors to find out how they joined the gang in the first place, and also the events leading up to that fateful meeting. This fleshed out the characters incredibly, particular those who hardly got any screen time or only had a few lines in the film (such as Cleon, my favourite character all thanks to the game). Rockstar even managed to get most of the real actors back to voice their characters again for the game (they even got the lady who played the DJ in the film back to do intros for every level, which was a great touch), and hence it added tremendously to the authenticity and presentation of the title*. In addition, some of the gangs featured in the film similarly only got seconds of exposure (like The Boppers, who only bopped their way in about 5 seconds of the film’s intro) whereas in the game they were given so much more life and longevity. And who could ever forget THE BASEBALL FURIES, very possibly the COOLEST fictional gang there ever was, a real heavy outfit. * Nearly all of the main actors reprised their roles for the game bar one major omission being David Patrick Kelly, who played Luther in the film. Interesting fact, or at least a fact I find interesting: he was also played the character of Sulley who Schwarzenegger killed in Commando by getting dropped off a cliff in that classic “But Matrix you promised you’d kill me last”….”I LIED” scene. Someone else replaced him and just about managed to pull off that annoying whiny voice.
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A major appeal of the film for those hardcore fans were the characters. With unique personalities in the film ranging from Rembrandt the graffiti artist’s youthful shyness to Ajax’s pure bad-assedness, the game expanded upon this and then some. Rembrandt was the best at graffiti’ing (how do you spell this verb?) over rival gang tags on walls (one of the many side quests you could do, ala GTA San Andreas), Ajax was the hardest hitter etc. Here is a very brief summary of the characters and their finishing moves…please note that finishing moves differed according to whether you had your enemy standing or pinned to the ground – here are the memorable ones though.
Cleon: The leader (Warlord) of The Warriors who gets killed in the first ten minutes of the film. Umm, spoilers? He’s my favourite because he had that cool leopard skin patterned hat thing. Finishing move: Double footed stomp to the chest, plus twist.
Swan: Warchief, second-in-command and played by Michael Beck who then went on to ’star’ in Xanadu. Finishing move: Back-crack on the knee.
Ajax: The soldier, a real heavy mother. Arrogant, sexist, foul-mouthed, genuinely dislikeable and BY FAR the coolest character. Played by James Remar who I used to truly hate because he killed White Fang’s mother in the Disney movie of the same name. Umm..spoilers? In the film he looks about 18 years old, strange. Finishing move: Multiple hits to the face. Hard.
Fox: Scout and memory man. Had a white man afro and very weird voice too, just check out when he says “Ajax lighten up” in the film. It changed somewhat when they re-recorded the dialogue for the game. Finishing move: Can’t remember sorry.
Cochise: The stylish soldier of the middle who dressed in a Native American style. Finishing move: Back-crack and face hit.
Snowball: The music man. Hardly says a word in the film, but just stands there looking hardcore. Finishing move: Elbow to the gut followed by a foot stomp to the head.
Cowboy: Rock-solid supporting player. In other words the guy who wore the cowboy hat and got beaten up by the Baseball Furies and need Ajax to bail his arse out. Finishing move: Sorry I can’t remember this either.
Vermin: The bear, carries the tokens and the bread. He was probably the funniest member of the gang given the way he acted, his comical face, and chest hair. Finishing move: Nudda. I really need to play this game again.
Rembrandt: The writer, he lets people know that the Warriors were here. The youngest member of the group who could even attack by spraying paint into enemies’ eyes. He had an afro to put Fox to shame. Finishing move: Probably the funniest of the lot, a crazily animated drop elbow to the head.
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Controlled from a third person perspective as we’ve come to expect from Rockstar, you got to play as all the key gang members one at a time while the AI controlled the others. Holding the R shoulder button allowed you to issue Warchief Commands such as “Wreck em all!”, “Watch my back!”, and “Mayhem!!”, and you can probably guess what those did. Objects in the environments could be picked up and used as weapons, such as a glass bottle or brick to the face. On this note, while it is an incredibly violent game it was done in a way such that it was SO over the top that you couldn’t help but laugh…some of the “Rage” finishing moves were simply SO violent (as mentioned above) and hence hilarious. Probably the craziest move in the game though is smashing enemies heads onto walls, which then left a massive blood stain hehehe huh huh…ah, you just need to have played it. And no, the violence has not badly influenced me in any way. I just stand my ground ready to jap any boppers if it comes down to that.
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In terms of movie tie-ins I’d go as far as to say that The Warriors is one of the best there is, definitely because of the way it expands the universe and makes you more attached to the characters. For instance after playing as Ajax for so long, when it comes to the scene where he got arrested and even though you KNEW it was coming, I really did wish I could help break him out and change the film’s plot somewhat. Damn wimp cops. This game influenced me so much that I even created a Facebook Group for it: The Warriors Appreciation Society (with plenty of swearing, as was appropriate). If you have FB and are a fan of the film and game, then join! It only has, err, 15 members, pretty much all of which are my friends. “Do you SEE what you get when you mess with The Internet?!” I have totally neglected to mention multiplayer mode here where you could play through the story mode of this game cooperatively, not to mention the incredible battle options there were, so just GET THIS GAME if you haven’t already AND watch the movie. If you get half as into it as I did, you will be repeating this process many many times. F***** A. James Remar FTW!!!
