Vol.
2, Issue 1
November 16, 1999
Pixel
Obscura:
The Metropolis Haunted by Speed
by
Josh Vasquez
The
multi-storey car parks - the top decks are empty in the evening
-J.G.
Ballard
he
art of subtlety is one of dissection. It is the killing blow delivered
when no one is watching, a strike under which the blood not only
blossoms but runs in augural patterns. Like dissection, subtlety
is a learning tool. You cut something up to watch the gears
spinning, to observe what is otherwise an intensely private ritual
made up of little movements that seem to hint at the secrets of
an otherwise infinite universe. The subtle art is the alchemical
one, an appreciation of hidden truths waiting to be revealed by
the manipulation of oracular elements. Little mysteries are perhaps
the greatest ones for they are forever pointing fingers down roads
that only lead to other roads, a beautifully untranslatable text
of intersections.
Sadly,
subtlety is lacking in most traditional art forms, let alone in
the hyperbolically grotesque melodramas of the vast majority of
video game cinematics. Its because of this lack, however,
that deviations stand out with such vehemence. Often these singular
pieces are paired with non-narrative games as if the demands of
story and coherence along a linear trajectory cripple the delicate
touch. A narrative has to be maintained some how, and the inherently
limited nature of video game cinematics too often results in a
colorful procession of stick figures endlessly tortured by cliché.
The non-narrative game is liberated from any plot considerations,
allowed to roam into more esoteric territory.
It could
be that because there is no overarching story anything
that these games do comes across as surreal and pleasantly free
of an agenda (pure expression for its own sake) and while this
may be true, the accomplishment is not diminished. Abstract art,
though abstract, can still be judged, although admittedly by a
different set of criteria. The same can be said for these non-narrative
games. In some ways non-narrative subtlety, the ability to create
a story where before there was none, is more impressive than working
in the traditional forms of myth making. The cinematics of Wipeout
3, a new racing game from the people at Psygnosis, walk the
fine line between the formal control of the coldly beautiful,
detached image and the subtle exploration of a mysterious narrative...and
they do so brilliantly.
The first
image is that of a stylized child, a figure built
of blue, red and white lines whose middle section revolves with
a hospitalic regularity. Next a sign appears celebrating the
designers republic followed by a metallic hued title: Intro
Sequence = Start...and then the scene shifts.