A slight breeze hits me as I exit the vessel and I let the rain drop onto my face for a few seconds. It is a welcome change after breathing recycled air for several days, it tends to taste funny after a while. The docking bay was situated on one of the taller buildings and it took me quite some time to get to street level. I didn’t mind, I got a good look at the city on my way down. it was raining again, it always seems to rain when I come here.
It was raining again...
The street was fairly empty, a few people were walking around ignoring the rain as if it were nothing and the cars moved at an equally lazy pace. I could see the commodity exchange and the end of the street, but that would have to wait. I had a contact waiting for me at the bar and I wasnt going to be late. Neon signs and Holograms invited me for drinks and promise of exotic dancers. As I moved towards the enterance I checked my clock to see what tim……. “what the..!? 22:37? I have school tomorrow! I gotta go to bed!” I shut off the game, cursing myself several seconds later for forgetting to save and hit the sack.
Have you ever had this? I have, on several occasions I might add.
Immersion is quite a powerful tool and it’s secrets remain very sought-after by game developers to this date. In case you were unaware, Immersion is the state of consciousness where an immersant’s awareness of physical self is diminished or lost by being surrounded in an engrossing total environment; often artificial… *cough* In layman’s terms, when a game drags you in so far you feel like you’re actually in there, shooting monsters, commanding armies or grooming ponies.
There are several games which I distinctly rememeber that had that effect on me. These games made me forget all and everything around me, they pulled me into their world and would not let me out until dinner time. Now it could be that since I was at a younger age, the effect of immersion is a lot stronger as the only thing you have to worry about at the age of 8-13 is whether there’s any ice cream left in the freezer and if Ninja Turtles is on tonight. I’d like to tell you how I felt when I played these games and why those games created that feeling so strongly. For today I picked one of my classics for the PC:
Wing Commander: Privateer.
The Wing Commander space combat simulator series hails from the 199o’s and provided some of the best space opera storytelling and gameplay found on pc. The Wing Commander games focused primarily on linear storytelling and mission structures, that is untill they released Wing Commander Privateer.
Suddenly I was given a small vessel, a few credits and the overall message to “go nuts” in a living, breathing universe. Want to blow stuff up? become a pirate. Want to trade and dominate the market? become a merchant. Want to blow stuff up and get paid for it? become a mercenary. The game offered me freedom I did not yet experience in any other game that I had played before. I could fly around in my ship, get lost in space and encounter other tradesmen or get blow to smithereens by everyone else. But the best part for me, was the ability to land on planets and space stations. I was amazed at the variations of places this universe would take me. The cold steel decks of mining colonies, the colourful and crowded promenades of pleasure planets, Massive space capitals, military bases you name it. It really felt like I was going somewhere.
The solid comfort of a Meteorite Mining Base.
Now keep in mind, this was before the day’s of MMO and sandbox games and while there were games out there that offered similar situations, the whole presentation of the game made it complete for me. Space is very interesting to a little boy at the age of ten, and Privateer allowed me to indulge on my space faring needs, spiralling my imagination to distant planets and galaxies.
The Wing Commander universe was already an established.. eh.. universe and as a fan of the series the familiarity of terms, enemies and Designs really helped in making the world feel convincing.
The game used big sprites to render ships, planets and space stations. Fly up to close to these and your retinas would be scorched by the size of those pixels, but back then it was pretty impressive. You could see the ships from almost any angle and asteroids rotated ominously toward your cramped cockpit, ready to crush you into the dark cold void. In game communication with other pilots and even enemies allowed you to smack talk before blasting someone to bits or barter your way out of an attack from pirates.
Great shot kid, now don't get cocky.
But the best part of the graphics was probably all the pre-rendered stuff. Whether you were landing on a planet, travelling through hyperspace or just simply standing on a promenade, you were treated to a short animated clip showing your actions in a cool cinematic presentation.
Blasting off a refinery into the void.
The locations themselves were looping animations that I could stare at for hours, cars driving by, people faffing about, ships flying taking off in the distance, it felt really alive and convincing. All this was further enforced by the great atmospheric adlib music, although nowadays it sounds a bit like a drowning synthesizer, but when I hear those tunes again i’m right back there on New Constantinople.
Wing Commander Privateer remains one of my all time favorites and made me a big fan of the Space Trading and Combat genre. I tend to fire up the game every now and again and it holds up surprisingly well. unfortunately nowadays the genre has kind of died out, sure there are a few titles here and there but none combine that perfect blend of arcade action and merchantile gameplay as Wing Commander Privateer, that drew me in so long ago.
Pretty immersive article
Good read, too bad I never played the games.
Well written. I was too busy with X-wing and Rebel Assault to pay attention to this game. I think I remember the graphics being to ‘bulky’ for my taste, or perhaps I was just too used to the sleek experience of X-wing! I might have missed out on the free gameplay though.
Aaah Xwing, that one’s on the list too!