First Nations to South Park get into games

This week, we see how a video game can be ruined by how it depicts women. Another, a great game, stars a First Nations protagonist. Not to be outdone is a game designed to punish players because they like it. And the South Park kids get into games in a big way.

Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes
(Konami; PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One; rated mature)
Many changes to Metal Gear Solid are introduced in Ground Zeroes, the prologue to the upcoming but undated The Phantom Pain. It sports an open-world setting to explore, for one. The main mission and five side missions all take place in the 1970s on an American military base on the tip of Cuba. Except for an intro and finale, there are no cinematics to interrupt players. Combat is free-flowing and easier, making it an option to stealth alone. Even the casting of Kiefer Sutherland succeeds, as his voice work is reserved and less cartoony. What hasn’t changed is the violence visited upon the female characters. I can appreciate violence in video games, especially in franchises such as this that have an appropriate context. But the movie sequence that concludes Ground Zeroes is unnecessarily blatant, graphic, and torturous. There’s no need for it, and I was, frankly, disgusted. For all the talk about the $35 Ground Zeroes being brief—a speed run can take as little as 10 minutes and the primary mission won’t take more than two hours—the twisted cruelty to women that is both implied and displayed in this game is a far greater transgression.

Infamous: Second Son
(Sony; PS4; rated teen)
Despite the title, this is the third game in the action franchise from Seattle’s Sucker Punch Productions. Some seven years have passed since the incidents in the last game, and the government is imprisoning citizens who have superpowers. New protagonist Delsin Rowe is a member of the Akomish First Nation, a fictitious tribe from the Pacific Northwest. He’s every bit the arrogant, rebellious teenager who discovers he’s special and has to determine how to use his newfound powers. This is where the game’s binary morality system comes into play. Whether you choose to be a hero or a jerk is up to you, but once you’ve picked a path, stick to it. The flair with which Delsin can traverse the landscape is perfect because the parkour-based movement is smooth and simple. Delsin’s powers are wide-ranging and interesting. Early on, you have powers based on smoke and neon, but there are plenty more to discover, and they can be upgraded by collecting shards and blast cores. Infamous: Second Son makes good use of the PS4 hardware to deliver a polished and pretty game. Seattle, in particular, has never looked so good.

Dark Souls II
(Namco Bandai; PS3, Windows, Xbox 360; rated teen)
In the introduction cinematic to Dark Souls II, your avatar steps willingly into a vortex, plummeting down into a void. The act has an air of accep-tance, and you must take that same spirit into the game. You’ve chosen to play it, after all. There’s a greater sense of anxiety in this game, the third in the series, in which players become an undead character trying to restore their humanity by collecting souls. The game plays much the same as its predecessor, although the artificial intelligence has been improved so enemies are smarter (they will play dead, for example). It was designed in the spirit of video games; trial and error—playing the game, in other words—is how players figure out what to do. Almost as interesting are the messages left by other players, which are a mix of cryptic, helpful, and hilarious. Dark Souls II is a game in which you learn by dying—over and over. If you ever complete it, you will truly be able to say that you “beat” the game.

South Park: The Stick of Truth
(Ubisoft; PS3, Windows, Xbox 360; rated mature)
There is no adaptation more faithful to its source material than The Stick of Truth. This video game is essentially an extended episode of the South Park cartoon in which you play as the new kid in town. As with any role-playing game, you start by picking your character’s class: fighter, mage, thief, or Jew. Just like the television show, The Stick of Truth is unflinching, offensive, and hilarious. Also like the TV show, while the game’s graphics might look like they’re for children, the content isn’t. And it’s not really for casual players, either. The Stick of Truth is a full-fledged role-playing game. The turn-based combat requires precise timing for success. South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone had complete creative control over the game and, as they do with their television show, did all the writing and voice work, resulting in spot-on characterizations. By maintaining the skewering spirit, The Stick of Truth will be appreciated by fans of the show, even if it remains something of a mystery to the uninitiated.