GameBlurg

Originally uploaded by Balakov

(Originally posted June 25, 2008)

The Citizen Kane (1941) comparisons to famous videogames in the gaming industry are understandable. The movie industry’s most notable and recognizable masterpiece is Citizen Kane. It was a landmark for film production in terms of technicality, narratives and visual storytelling; a milestone that “rewrote the rules of Hollywood cinema”. Its tale was captivating, and filled with characters who collectively shared the professional ability to physically represent a narrative. Kane’s entrance into the movie world was during the industry’s young age in parallel to Metal Gear Solid 4’s (MGS4) arrival into the pubescent videogaming universe. The anxiety and anticipation for the ‘game of all games’ builds steadily. With Metal Gear Solid 4’s recent release, the cinematic potential shown reawakens the hope of the gaming world’s Citizen Kane back to life once more, cultivating discussions and arguments among the blogosphere.

If you are not familiar with Citizen Kane, then I’ll indulge you with a bit of movie history. Originally distributed May of 1941, Citizen Kane is widely considered to be the most important motion picture in cinematic history. There are many opinionated and antagonistic perspectives on the movie’s story, pace, etc., but the indubitable contributions Citizen Kane made to the movie industry during the time of its release amassed many technological breakthroughs (although some will argue that various milestones are ‘borrowed’ from other earlier films during the time). Film techniques such as unconventional lighting, elaborate camera movements, ‘flashbacks/flashforwards’ and the incorporation of non-linear storytelling were few of many innovations that Citizen Kane introduced to the production of motion pictures. Essentially, without these techniques, the exhibition of a story encapsulated in a visual representation (in this case, a movie) would form a lack of understanding from audience members who are ignorant to the story at first glance. In a breath, Citizen Kane is “a visual masterpiece,” some many say.

Citizen Kane is widely applauded amongst critics and film enthusiasts alike for its visual acceleration in movies, and it’s contribution towards the advancement film industry, all in one entity. This brings us to Metal Gear Solid 4, which is a videogame. The core of games in general lies with the player’s ability to control an avatar on the screen that visually represents the input of the individual playing the game, which is the basis of our medium and the distinctive element that detaches the participants from the shackles of disengagement. As with Kane, there were considerably two main contributions that it has made towards its medium: important technological advances and an idolized story. Likewise, if Metal Gear Solid 4 is to the videogame industry as Citizen Kane is to the film industry, it should be held accountable for contributing similar milestones.

From a standpoint of analyzing the features in MGS4 and implementing them into other games as Kane’s elements were placed into other movies, Metal Gear Solid 4 has a created few, but nothing notably groundbreaking that exceeds the thoughts of gamers within the constraints of its appropriate genre (stealth-action games). MGS4 provides various idiosyncrasies that were proficiently implemented into the game: Solid Snake’s physicality affects player movement when Snake’s age slows player movement, ‘OctoCamo’ (Snake’s camouflage has the ability to adapt to immediate surroundings/terrain), the physical usage of cover/reconnaissance via drum roll/cardboard box, the large scope of the battlegrounds and the live battles of opposing troops inside of the magnitute of those large battlefields. The listed features are important to genre and the style of gameplay, but its basic problems (poor artificial intelligence, emphasis on a poor implementation of a faulty close quarter combat (CQC) system, awkward gunplay) have been experimented skillfully on smaller scales with an abundant amount of success throught the execution. The feeble prosecution of the basic elements necessary to create a physical, believable relationship between a player and artificial militia in MGS4 would be as if the acting was faulty in Citizen Kane. Thus, Citizen Kane was consistently adequate in its basic features, while Metal Gear Solid 4, is not.

Although Metal Gear Solid 4 suffers from its technical blunders (Citizen Kane doesn’t have any glaring difficulties to speak of), MGS4, like Kane, does indeed have an extensive story. A positive factor in creating videogames is that a creator’s may utilize the medium to tell stories, without the clutches of short (1-2 hours) showtimes. The time between the content and the player is abundant, plain and simple. There only lies one, simple problem: you must consistently entertain the player. It has been expressed, blatantly, that MGS4 doesn’t do so. Metal Gear Solid 4’s style of storytelling is lumbbering and methodical, at times, considered confusing and mundane. Viewing the comparative situation, the dialog and diction used throughout Citizen Kane was unique and contained a cast that communicate amongst each other to realistically represent the dialog in the story. Metal Gear Solid 4, on the other hand, is a dreary visual documentary, sprinkled sporadically with objective briefings and soliloquies that excessively preaches information to the player with small clairty and a knack for bordem. At times, the characters do not communicate, and in response, they begin to exchange countless minutes of elapsing back stories. While MGS4’s characters are interesting, the fault begins to emerge whenever they interact with one another and they proceed to feed monologues to one another.

The topic missing from a vast majority of arguments that drag the comparison helplessly through the mud is that while Citizen Kane’s content “agrees with its medium”, Metal Gear Solid 4 ignores its own medium, videogames, and merely borrows visual techniques from other sources. There’s so much excitement built around the comparison between Metal Gear Solid 4/Citizen Kane because it provides the potential, at face value, to become a cult classic. We all want it, and all of the whining and complaints are mere suggestions to bring about such a proposed and hypothetical masterpiece. I love and admire the scope of Kojima’s tale, detest the poor execution, but I ultimately respect the ambition, which is what warrants the Kane comparisons in the first place. To jump as high as the creator of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Hideo Kojima, and company has in an attempt to create such a masterpiece, deserves an applaud for effort, but acquires a less form of admiration when implemented into the final product.

As it is, the comparison of games and movies is awkwardly flawed (we awkwardly combine every game into one category when considering the best of the bunch). Compare the storytelling of Citizen Kane to the storytelling in Tetris to collect some sort of parallel to implicate the importance of both products to their respective mediums and as expected, you’ll obtain nothing but migraines and a quick temper. Obviously gameplay and storytelling are different, in most cases (arthouse games, anyone?). Regardless, in terms of storytelling in general, the medium used to do so (movies, music, games) is merely a tool utilized to establish a narrative. Every medium shares a common goal in their storytelling: to create and share an experience that evokes excitement amongst an external audience. Metal Gear Solid 4’s proficiency in cultivating such experiences ultimately pales in comparison to Citizen Kane’s ability to produce a remarkable visual experience. In short, we (gamers), as an industry, are getting close to receiving our Citizen Kane. Pushing the envelope and creating an ambitious project like MGS4 should be encouraged. Unfortunately, Metal Gear Solid 4, while flawed, is a valiant, but misguided look in the right direction for game developers as a whole. In retrospect, Metal Gear Solid 4 is kind of like that homeless guy, trying to buy a mansion, wandering from car to car, offering to clean windshields just for a couple of bucks: big dreams, being sought after by one, drunken step at a time.