Redfall, Cyberpunk and Potential

 The promise unspoken

What is the one thing worse than a steaming pile of irredeemable Saints Row 2022? Any game that is just as decrepit but had at one time the potential to be something more than it ended up being. I mean that's the one thing constantly hanging over the heads of the young, isn't it? The 'potential' of what they could be coming up against whatever way they've disappointed their elders today- those who live their own disappointing realities vicariously through the admonishment of the next generation on. But I am slipping wildly off track for the moment, let me refocus. Every game started with a great dream of what could be, and most every one that made it to market fell somewhat short of that promise. That's just the natural consequence of designing anything, afterall. But the dream of the creator is an unattainable high, it is the game's job to create the dream of the consumers- but that doesn't make that pinnacle any easier to hit, oh no! And the consequence for missing that peak is certainly a hell of a lot louder.

We talk about games that are fantastic all the time, and whisper curses at the worst of the worst that sully our memories to even linger; but it's only sadness that tinges the disappointments. Sighed wisps of cheers never voiced, praises never lifted and hearts never soared. We can almost see, behind the cobwebs of reality, the ideal that was promised, or which we conjured in our minds- and like a floating knife it's handle seems so real to clutch- only to prove intangible. The failure of a game is something that will forever hang over it like a cloud. The terrible could never have made it in the first place, pretending otherwise was delusional from the start; but we have expectations of our hero companies. We believe in Dice, in Arkane, in CDPR, such that the output regularly just seems to boggle the mind with how wrong it all is. No one can quite make sense of ruined potential.

Battlefield 2042 is perhaps a prime example of this idea being that it was not only going to be the next title to carry on the storied Battlefield legacy, but it was also tying into one of the most cult classic entries in the franchise that hadn't even gotten lip service in years by that point- Battlefield 2242. A sci-fi style Battlefield game like no other since, invoking that name was a signal to the player base that this game was going to go back to what made the franchise great. Complex maps, in depth progression and grand scale conflict. And of course the result was a half-finished battlefield title with blandly designed maps, an ill-fitting 'operative' player system reminiscent of COD Warzone and a whole heap of bugs and disappointment. After whipping the fanbase up into an absolute frenzy, this was about the worst case scenario for everyone involved- not least of all through Dice who shattered the last vestiges of hope that non-diehards had in their bodies. 

And in a somewhat similar vein we have old faithful in the Cyberpunk 2077 debacle. What can I say that you don't already know? This game promised to be Deus Ex stretched out into an open world, with all that immersive sim goodness on a grand scale. Branching narrative, interactive city space, progressively updated multiplayer- Cyberpunk 2077 wanted to be everything at once. Or more specifically, it wanted to be the GTA that even Rockstar couldn't make. And it wasn't that. The game is good, and I think the writing and performances are excellent, but the world lacked any of that immersive interactivity which was promised, the multiplayer was cancelled and the narrative branches were cut off the tree. For everything the team promised this game would be, repeatedly up until the final few weeks before launch, Cyberpunk will live on as a disappointment of cataclysmic proportions.

Which brings us back around to Redfall. Whilst not in itself a very fascinating concept, Arkane are a studio renowned for their complex and thoughtful approach to design when it comes to the games that they make and the worlds that they build. Whether it's robust gameplay systems or sprawling multi-faceted level design, Arkane are typically a developer you can rely on to put out quality games that will appeal to the immersive sim lover out there to some level. Even at their most dubious, such as Deathloop, it's more the direction of the game that rubbed me and some others the wrong way, not the quality of the game in of itself. That same gratis cannot be extended towards Redfall, however, for it's utterly unambitious and generic presentation that rivals Ubisoft in it's contrived nature. There's nothing of the creative flair to design that made Arkane famous here, and consequently nothing of the studio's soul and reputation. It's actually something of a wonder that a game like this could even have been made in the modern year.

Oh, but did I even mention 'Mass Effect Andromeda'? Yeah I'm going back to the past now with a game that tried to revive the legacy of the relatively recently concluded Mass Effect trilogy. As I always insist, I think Mass Effect Andromeda played it far too soon to follow up on what ME3 set-up, and that was somewhat clear in a game that neither matched nor pressed above the scope of the previous title. What was a sprawling galaxy spanning adventure was condensed into a narrow lens with barren worlds and a scant few alien species to get involved with. The narrative branches were lacking, the gameplay fell for the trap of making 'adaptable classes' which basically just melded every playstyle into on amorphous blob. Andromeda has glimmers of Mass Effect's glory in it's body, and the ambition of what they wanted to do seems to have run aground with the time available and the size of the team who worked on it. A sad disappointment, that one.

You see, potential is a swirling pool of feasibility muddied by a veil of dreams and expectation. Oftentimes the very concept of which can be the tool of disillusionment that taints what we expect and sullies the product. I think that objectively, Fable III is a pretty decent game with some solid gameplay ideas, like 2 and 1 before it. But like 2 and 1, Fable III had the spectre of expectation built up be the words of Peter Molyneux ruining each experience before they begun. I think Fable III suffered from those promises going unanswered for so long that fans just rallied up to take it out on an alright game like that one, lambasting it for potential that the game could never honestly have achieved, because of the illusions created by another. The same could be said for 'Dragon Age: Inquisition', which was sold as a successor to 'Origins' but ended up being more similar to Mass Effect in it's style and presentation. Not bad, just not what was promised.

Meeting potential is as much an art of wrestling with the audience as it wrestling with oneself, because the very idea of 'potential' is as ethereal as a dream. You can't realistically compare one piece of art with the success and achievement of another and insist that someone should be able to create something just as important or exciting because that standard has been proven as possible. Art is twisting and shifting and implacable; if you try and limit it down to definitive values then you suck all the life out of the craft and end up being Ubisoft. And no one wants more Ubisoft's in the world. (I shudder at the thought.) Still, it is the very inner force of 'potential' that drives us to be the best that we feel we can be so as to not waste what is said to be at our very fingertips. My lesson? Be guided by potential, not battered by it's heft.