Mini-Article: A new genre of gaming

Every time an appropriate movie comes out, a game developer makes a video game adaption of it. In fact, sometimes the movie doesn't even have to be a good fit for a game conversion and it'll still be made (See: Alvin and the Chipmunks). But what if we were to take a different look at movie games? What if, instead of your standard platformer or FPS adaptions, we instead had...


...interactive movies? I know, you're probably thinking "This is the same as a normal movie game!". But hear me out. For this example, I'll be using the movie Cloverfield (As seen above). This movie follows the story of a group of young twenty-somethings as a horrific monster attacks their home town of New York. We follow them throughout their insane ordeal had when trying to escape from this unknown threat.

What if, in the interactive movie, we didn't follow them, but instead became them? We would take on the role of Rob, the movie's unofficial star, as he runs through the streets of Manhattan. And that's it, really. Other than that, this would be exactly like the movie, but we're the main character. Every second of gameplay would be through his eyes. We'd control him, of course, but there'd be no additional fight scenes or anything like that. Everything that happened in the movie happens here, and nothing more.

Sure, you're thinking "Well, why not just buy the DVD?". Well, really, there's no reason to buy either one over the other. It's all based on preference. People can watch the story unfold, or take part in it. It would be exactly as I said: An interactive movie.

Actually, that's not entirely true. There would be a few minor changes. For one, we could walk around and inspect things that in the movie was never even glanced at. We could talk to the other terrified people of New York, seeing if we can get any idea about what this monster is. We could even run off course a bit and scout out the area. But mostly, things would be exactly as they were in the film.

Okay, this may sound a little boring and unappealing to the masses, but hey, didn't Brain Age sound the same way at first? That's because this wouldn't exactly be aimed at us core gamers. It would be more for those who want to get a little more out of their movies without doing too much work or learning too many things. It would also be for those who want to feel the thrill of running from some unknown being, something I'd love to experience (Not for real, of course!).

I guess it's somewhat difficult to express my ideas in words. Just imagine any old movie, but instead of watching it, you're in it. But it's different from a traditional game adaption. But it's sort of the same! AUGH! This is so hard to explain... I hope you get the basic idea.

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The Duck Has Spoken.