Personalisation and customization seems to be becoming increasingly important in recent years. Modern gamers are beginning to truly value the ability to roleplay, either as themselves or someone exotic. It's got to such a point that game publishers are gearing their entire monetisation schemes towards cosmetics rewards, fully aware of how important they are for gamers, whilst downplaying the whole movement publicly. You know things are serious when huge multimillion dollar companies are trying to control and market it. But I'm not here today to talk about general cosmetics, but something small, minimalist even, I'm talking about the customization that is applied to the humble gun. (Or sword.)
Weapons are, in many ways, your closest confidants in many action-based video games. Families die, friends move on, but your weapon will stick with you through thick and thin and expect nothing in return. (Except maybe a repair every now and then) With this in mind, it makes sense that gamers find themselves getting attached to their inanimate tools of destruction and seek to personalize them. Make them look as special as they feel in our hearts. This can include recolouring them, adding attachments, changing the name, tying a little ribbon around the barrel, sleeping with it at night- (Okay, let's not go quite that far.)
Weapon customization systems are borne from the same vat of philosophy that ushered the concept of mod support into the world. When you allow players to express their creativity on a digital canvas, they automatically feel more connected to that game world as they have expended a part of themselves into it. With cosmetic gun skins and attachments, developers can allow players to have a little taste of shaping the world they are living in. You may think I'm making this sound more magical than it is, but I assure you that it is the little things that make a game click; gun customization may be a little thing, but it counts for a whole lot.
Today I'm going to pick out and go over some of my favourite weapon customization systems from the games that I play. Do note, that I only count weapon systems that visually effect the look of the weapon because, in this day and age, for a AAA studio to provide a system that offers anything less (as they frequently do) is pretty darn lackluster. Also, I've tried to pick out systems that go beyond useful, stat effect, upgrades and allow for meaningless visual overhauls. Because it's mechanics like those that really show off a developers dedication to the 'little details'.
First let me start by covering, or should I say 'recovering', (Wait, no, that means something else) the game that I played not too recently: 'Ghost Recon: Breakpoint'. Just to recap, Ghost Recon is a game series under the Tom Clancy umbrella, and so focuses on highly accurate American military strategy and terminology. In such an environment, it is easy to see how naturally weapon's maintenance and modifications can become a part of that game world. The two recent games in particular, Breakpoint and Wildlands, focus on a small, self perpetuating, unit; so non-standard issue weapon decals fit in a bit more. (What Uncle Sam doesn't find out about ain't gonna hurt him, am I right?)
Wildlands and Breakpoint both feature a dedicated screen towards weapon modification that is known as 'the Gunsmith'. From that menu, weapons can be taken apart and fiddled with in as much detail as Ubisoft could get away with without boring people. That means that you can rip out the magazines, change the stock, re-lengthen the barrel, switch sights and slap on an under barrel of your choosing. All very practical upgrades that are probably military approved. Of course, then you get the ability to paint each independent component in whatever garish colour you please. A rainbow gun is possible and very much encouraged. Legendary weapons even came with their own ridiculous skin out of the box so that your enemies could know the doom they have incurred at a glance. Oh, how they trembled in fear when they saw my 'London Calling' sniper with it's Union Jack painted on the side. (Truly the stuff of nightmares!)
One popular action-game developer has been getting into the weapon customization trend lately. In both of their last two games, Rockstar have implemented some form of gun tinkering to degrees both rudimentary and... slightly more indepth. Both Grand Theft Auto V and Red Redemption 2 seem like perfect worlds to accommodate such options too. GTA's Los Santos serves as a mirror to the superficiality of modern society, hence it's basis on Los Angeles and Hollywood. GTA is all about vanity and shallowness, just blown to it's absolute extremes, so it definitely fits for the psychotic citizens of LS to be running around with brightly coloured 'individualised' guns. RDR's 2's 5 states, on the other hand, is a haven of lawlessness that hearkens back to the classic spaghetti westerns. (And surpasses them on many aspects.) Honestly, I can imagine Sam and Dan watching the gun store scene from 'The good, the bad and the ugly' and thinking "We need that!"
In Grand Theft Auto, you can mosey into any licensed gunnery in Los Santos to trick out you gun. The selection is very simple however, no attachments, no upgrades, just a full spray paint. They didn't even start adding fun patterns until a few years down the line (and exclusively through GTA Online.) You could see that the customization focus was more on the cars and clothing. In Red Dead, however, one needs only to drive down to their local gun store and they'll find a whole host of options. Actual practical upgrades are still pretty slim pickings, but cosmetic customization runs deep. You can alter the grain of the wood, the material of the metal, add a leather sheath, slap on a scope and even carve in an engraving. Anything you need to make that gun your own.
On the RPG side, one company has seen the light of cosmetic enhancements in recent years, and that company would be Bethesda. Although Fallout 4 might have been lacking in some of the fundamental faux-social aspects that makes a authentic RPG world, they made up for it when it came to weapon mods. Fallout's world is the perfect environment for weapon mods, also, considering the whole 'cobbled together' aesthetic that it exudes. Those who have to scavenge in order to survive the harsh realities of the wasteland probably wouldn't think twice about getting creative with their weapons, and in Fallout 4 it finally showed.
Another RPG developer that stepped into the weapon customization ring is the once-famed company: Bioware. Back in the day, Bioware wowed us with cleverly written and presented narratives, endearing characters and rich, infinitely explorable, worlds. Recent years have seen them lose a lot of key members of staff, including writers, so they have had to find other aspects of RPG to make their niche. (They're still working on that. But they'll get there. Eventually.) Once such aspect that received attention around the time of 'Dragon's Age: Inquistion' is the weapon crafting system. A robust gear creation system that was lifted, almost in it's entirety, for 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'.
In 'Inquistion', the titular Inquisitor is expected to source all of his/her own materials in order to put their gear together, (Despite being lord-commander of an army of crusade-hungry zealots) but being the source guy does mean that you get final say when it comes to looks. As you put every weapon together from scratch, Bioware decided to implement a module system in which you stuck together a pommel, haft and blade to create a weapon that looked exactly how you wanted. (A great idea for a game world that has a history for being lacking in exciting art design.) Also, you could name the final weapon. (Yay!) Mass Effect: Andromeda's version wasn't quite as module, put you could still design each weapon to function in whatever way was most useful. Unfortunately, I didn't have any spare images of such a gun, so you get an image displaying the range of visual character customization. (Again, don't have cornrows. Only in video games.)
So far I have covered a whole lot of games in which the inclusion of weapon customization seems to fit, heck, they almost feel like natural inclusions. However, if one game has to take the award for most unnecessary, but appreciated, weapon personalisation system, it's 'Metal Gear Solid V: Phantom Pain'. MGS is a series that follows military fiction, similar to Tom Clancy, but they merely use that as a vehicle to tackle various social-political issues in crazy, over the top situations. A lot of the time the rampant use of violence to solve problems is reflected to be an ineffectual solution; sometimes tainting the situation, or the person, more than it ultimately solved anything. So with that in mind, why would they dedicate an entire system to the beautification of one the symbols of warfare: the gun? If I were to guess, Konami made them, but at least the old Kojima Productions didn't half-ass it.
In 'Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker' Snake made use of his paramilitary army to develop tools for the field. Again, Snake has to provide the resources and plans, but with some of space age tech that the guys at MSF put together, you can forgive the legwork. (Although I can't fathom why they needed blueprints, experience and manpower to craft a cardboard box with a picture of a Japanese Gravure Idol plastered to one side.) 'Phantom Pain' expanded upon this by allowing the players to unlock a 'workbench' mode within the R&D department. From here you had the ability to throw on attachments and spray paints with enough versatility to rival Ghost Recon. (Maybe that was the intention.)
I should probably wrap this up before I end up on some government watchlist for 'people who write about guns excessively'. (I'm already on enough of their watchlists as it is.) I've just always loved games that allow you to take things and make them your own, and what else is more important than your trusty firearm. Moving into the future, I expect customization options to become more and more infrequent. (Or should I say, 'free' customization options.) I noted how Breakpoint is already selling gun paints in their store for in-game currency, although I'll bet that they lock some behind some premium currency once the full game launches. It is disappointing to see something so fun cut up and sold at a premium, but I suppose that is the way that all cool things end of going eventually. I guess it's a reality we're just going to have to start accepting. They just better not start charging me for red dot sights or we're going start having real problems!
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