Michael Leask

Considering last week’s question, I decided to give this a try with video games. This is a tricky question to answer. I was born in the early 80s and have played many video games across various genres and on multiple consoles. What do I consider impact? Games that have influenced me to create my own games, ones that have directed my fictional writing, or games where I need to be ‘involved’ in their world—absorbing every other instance of their cannon story that I could, from graphic to literature novels?

If I were to use the quick response method and name the first games that come to mind, it would be Mass Effect, Halo, and StarCraft. Each of these games are a series, and I think it’s really the series that stands out most for me.

I’m not dismissing Mario Bros., Sonic, Metroid, Zelda, Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Dead Space, Chrono Trigger, or Final Fantasy. Those games were important and had a profound impact on me—especially the horror games I played when I was 16 and older—influencing my ability to create stories or video game ideas. These games hold a special place in my heart and likely in the hearts of all of us. They’re classics.

Mass Effect, Halo, and StarCraft stand out to me as games that drew me into their worlds through the art of storytelling and their engaging game mechanics. The gameplay made every decision I made with the controller feel like it would impact the lives of these characters, making my choices weigh heavily on me. It could also be that I am an empathetic person, like most people. Yet, as I played the games, I forgot I was playing them and became invested in the characters’ livelihoods.

Who could forget the hours of discussion with Mordin in Mass Effect 2 on the ethics and morality of the genophage decision, only to see his decision to help end it in Mass Effect 3! I played Halo 3 many times, and I forget which playthrough I finally heard Master Chief tell a joke. It was dry humour but great. And no matter how I tried, I could never save Kerrigan, and I felt sad for all the marines, zerglings, and Protoss I sent to their deaths.

The game mechanics also made the game’s levels and situations engaging and addictive to complete. I played Mass Effect before Dragon Age and enjoyed the dialogue wheel. The idea behind the enemies in Halo made for a challenging game right from the start, and the improved mechanics in Starcraft 2 matched the storyplay to give emphasis on time and objectives per level rather than army building.

In the Halo story, with the first trilogy, we have been at war with the Covenant for a generation, and we are losing. We find the Halo ring, and if the Covenant activate it, humanity is doomed. The world-building in this game was impressive. For 500 years, we hadn’t encountered sentient life, and then we did. We were at war for a generation and losing until the Pillar of Autumn, with the Master Chief, found the Halo. An ancient but advanced ring whose circumference and surface area were large enough to support a world. It harboured a new, horrible enemy that could wipe out humanity and the Covenant.

These are the stories and games that have stuck with me, and I replay them over and over again because they were so well done. It’s easy to say all games should attain this greatness, but it’s another to pull it off. However, they are the pillars that we continually strive to build.