One thing I rarely get from games these days is a sense of satisfaction upon completion. The closest thing I can think of is the feeling you get after finishing a really good novel. You shut the book, sit back and just let it soak in. The original Fallout and Planescape: Torment were two games that I can immediately recall as having this effect; Mafia and Deus Ex are another two, although perhaps for different reasons.
With Fallout and Planescape, the comparison to a good novel is perhaps obvious. Both have fairly epic plots, with fantastic characters (especially Planescape) and most of all, both were jam packed with text. (That you had to read. Like a book). However, with Mafia and Deus Ex, the comparison is perhaps a bit less obvious. As the last mission is completed, the final boss destroyed, the princess rescued and the credits roll, these games really felt complete. You were done. You still wanted more, but the game was done, everything was wrapped up and you had to shut the door on the beautiful, detailed worlds created by the author/dev team.
Increasingly, I find that upon finishing a game, I often feel relief, indifference or occasionally frustration, but rarely that elusive sense of contentment. So what's happened?
On the one hand, all game mechanics everntually boil down to the same set of actions, repeated over and over in order to drive the story along. I recently completed BioShock. It was excellent, and the city of Rapture was a thing of beauty. A wonderfully realised underwater post-war dystopia, completely unique to anything else out there in games today. The story was also fantastic and the use of audio logs to drip feed you information about the horrors that had occurred kept pushing you to explore the nightmare of Rapture further. However, towards the end of the game, I found myself looking forward to finishing it. It's a bit like checking your watch in the cinema, even though you're really enjoying the film. Shooting up labs and whatnot, looting all the boxes and corpses and killing Big Daddies. It had become too formulaic. Perhaps my videogame OCD (must... search... every... CRATE!) didn't help (and I definitely should have turned the Vita-Chambers off), but when it came to the final boss, I was slightly relieved to be finishing*.
But is the problem with the length of games? Call Of Duty 4 was non-stop action, but felt like it was over as soon as the opening title screen had faded. It was annoying that it finished so quickly, but at the same time, it left you desperate for more. Both BioShock and CoD4 were excellent games, and neither suffered because of their length. I just wish there were more games that sucked you in and didn't let go until the very end. Maybe I just don't have the attention span I used to, but I think that really, all game mechanics have a finite lifespan (apart from TF2 apparently).
Also, I'd argue that these days, games are less about being a complete package, and more about kicking off franchises and flogging downloadable content. With development costs spiralling into the trillions of pounds these days, its not surprising that publishers and developers are looking at generating the most income possible out of their products. However, at times I feel that their games are suffering because of this. The most obvious example I can think of here is Mirror's Edge. I really fell in love with this game because of the art direction, but it was nice to see an FPS doing something different by barely concentrating on combat and making it all about movement and escape (took me back to Jet Set Radio on the Dreamcast). However, fun as it was, this game was short. Really short. The ending clearly paved the way for a sequel (development of which seems to be in question after the first game failed to sell as well as expected), and it's kinda annoying to be sold the first episode of something, rather than the complete project.
No doubt if Mirror's Edge had been much longer, I'd be whining about how I got bored of it towards the end, but I really wish developers would focus on producing a good game first, and kicking off a money-spinning franchise after. In fact, this is what Irrational seem to have done with BioShock after it proved a surprise hit. The first game really has no need for a sequel plot-wise, but I'm very much looking forward to a chance to return to Rapture.
As for DLC, don't get me fucking started. That's a whole post full of ranting and bad language right there. It is pretty frustrating to finish a game, uninstall it and stick it back on the shelf, only for the dev team release a new level a couple of months later. I'm usually keen for new content, but it's unlikely that I'll be bothered to reinstall a game and try and get back into it for a couple of extra hours fun, especially not when the DLC pack costs £5 to download. I just don't like the idea of content being deliberately held back for release as DLC, and it seems that this will increasingly be the case.
So what am I trying to say here? That games these days aren't any good? Pfft! Rubbish. I've just finished Mass Effect 2, and this was a game that left me feeling completely content. Despite the fact that it commits all the crimes I've listed above (part of a franchise, open-ended, DLC on the way) BioWare have created such a finely detailed universe that it feels sad to leave it, whilst at the same time, this chapter in the Mass Effect story seems complete. I'm actually looking forward to the DLC (although that will probably change once the prices are announced), and I can't wait for Part 3, which is apparently due out early 2011. With Mass Effect 2, Bioware have created a rich, detailed universe and set out a well-told story in it. Just like Mafia and Planescape: Torment, you're sad to close the book on these worlds, but also glad to have enjoyed the ride.
*I feel I should just point out here that BioShock is indeed thoroughly enjoyable and well worth your time and money. Although it might sound like I'm moaning about it, this was a fairly minor complaint, and one that I feel applies to games in general rather than BioShock specifically. Go play it!
