I saw something in a comment thread today, and it made me a little bit cross. Not cross in a reply-to-the-comment sort of way, just in a blog-that-the-guy-will-never-read sort of way.
As most gamers are want to do, I frequent The Escapist during my jaunts into the Internet. One of the videos in there was the reveal trailer for the Gunsmith mode which will be included in Ghost Recon: Future Soldier. If you haven't seen this then I suggest you look up this trailer and the E3 demonstration. To say it made me excited about how the Kinect can be used for things beyond dancing games would be an understatement. I was practically foaming at the mouth, and I've never even played a Ghost Recon game (the image of someone who has watching this trailer then collapsing in frantic ecstasy comes to mind, which dampens the experience somewhat).
The comment thread contained an entry which described the Gunsmith mode as "a gimmick". I had initially mixed feelings about this, which have gradually moved closer to the negative. For those who don't know and didn't go to Google when I suggested it, Gunsmith will be the bit of Future Soldier where the player can customise their weapons, down to the smallest component - from barrels to gas parts. The controls are really cool-looking as I see it: the game uses a Kinect to allow the player to disassemble weapons, view and switch out parts, and test the weapon on a shooting range using hand signals and voice commands. From the look of demos it amounts to the level of the computer from Star Trek - you can even ask the game to optimise your weapon for a particular purpose e.g. long range, damage output etc. The use of technology looks damn impressive and if it works out then it'll set a new standard for controls in a shooter.
And then some jackass calls it a gimmick. This sort of language is starting to grate on me a little. Yes, there are some features to game which are just gimmicks, tacked-on extras to make a game look original with minimal effort. For example, the gimmick to Madworld was the fact that it was a violent adult game on the Wii (if it had been on any other console, it would have slipped way under the radar). However, some new and different game features are genuinely going for innovation, but get thrown in with the turkeys, and it gets on my wick.
It seems to be that many will only accept a game as at all original if it's damn near 100% new. Take Little Big Planet, for example. That game was applauded for being new, and rightly so; it was unlike anything on the market at that time. It's player-created-content focus was fresh and original.
Future Soldier isn't going that far (only so much you can do with a sequel), but I think that the developers deserve praise for really trying here. It's unfair for people to write Gunsmith off as a gimmick at this stage, especially considering the precedent for mistakes that word has: the motion controls in the Wii were called a gimmick way back when, but it ended up starting the biggest revolution in gaming hardware since the DualShock (which I imagine received similar jeers prior to its release).
I'll of course withhold full judgement until release day, but if Gunsmith works out well then the guys at Ubisoft should get major kudos. It's a sad fact that contemporary games show such a lack of creative vision, we should have more appreciation for when someone actually puts the effort in. The Kinect has such potential as a piece of hardware, and it's been squandered for the most part by developers (by the look of the current range of titles, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Kinect was a dance-mat). Ubisoft are trying to put it to good use (as are others, it should be pointed out - the coming year or so will really show us whether or not the Kinect can be used properly), so I say cut 'em some slack you guys. Innovation looks to be on their minds, and innovation is our watchword. Recognise it when it's there.
Now, if the game does turn out to be a samey shooter and that Gunsmith is in fact a useless tack-on, then fair play to you. Just do me a favour and save if for the release. I like to live in hope for the future.
Comments down below :)
Ghost Recon: Future Soldier is the property of Ubisoft.
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