Gamernode: Features - Surrealism: A Fork In The Road

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Lastly, there are games that provide a realistic visual presentation, while maintaining a fantasy setting. Games like this, such as The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, rarely cause a stir at all, as the images are completely offset by the absolutely imaginary backdrop. If we are to examine the biggest "stir" of the modern games era, we must look no further than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas - a game that caused more uproar than many of us would care to see in this industry. Furthermore, if we classify it in our grid of realism and fantasy, it falls squarely in the category of realistic theme and visual style. It is no wonder it was such a victim of assault by much of the uninformed, controversy-hungry media.

The final issue with maintaining realism in games is the limiting factor it places upon gameplay opportunities. There is far less one can do if completely bound by the restrictions of reality. A completely realistic game will never embrace the joys of casting a lightning spell on an unfortunate foe, nor will it see a man scale a building in short-order, using nothing more than his body and his insane acrobatic talents. As a matter-of-fact, if I really wanted to be a stickler, a realistic game could never have "health packs" that instantly healed the protagonist, nor could that particular character be shot more than once or twice before dying. After being killed, of course, the game would be over. This is realism. There are no extra lives.

Ok, so that is a bit extreme, but still, the point is that realism is limiting. A fantasy world allows for a poetic license of sorts, with which a game designer is free to grant abilities to his characters, and create items and situations that couldn't possibly exist in the real world. This adds a certain feeling to these surreal games that a realistic game could never offer. It is a feeling of discovery that applies not simply to what is around the corner, selected from a definite set of possible elements, but one that applies to the very fabric of the game world -- what exists in this realm of infinite possibilities.

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