A Twist in the Tale

By Lewis Denby

With a few noble exceptions, I’ve never been a fan of epic, sprawling, hundred-hour long games.  For a while, I put it down to my hideous attention span.  It’s the same across all the media I consume: if a film doesn’t grab me within minutes, if a book doesn’t captivate me within pages, I generally switch off.

So, I assumed, this would be the reason I’m drawn to certain shorter, snappier games.  But as I began to think more about the subject, something didn’t quite add up.  There have been plenty of occasions where a slow start has led to something truly remarkable.  Indeed, they seem to be among my most adores titles: Deus Ex’s opening mission was somewhat uninteresting, and - more recently - Red Faction: Guerrilla only reached its exciting potential a number of hours in.

So why am I drawn to games that make an impression within such a short time frame?  I considered an obvious example: Portal.  At just a few hours long, it’s clearly designed to be consumed in a single sitting.  For the first two hours or so, it’s an inventive, entertaining puzzle game.  Then, in one moment, everything changes. It twists into something sinister and remarkable.  And, well.  There’s the answer.

//The great escape
Navigating your way through a maze of military turrets, you find refuge behind a gap in the wall.  In this room, tucked away out of sight, you learn the hideous reality of GLaDOS and the Aperture Science set-up.  The cake, which you’ve been promised from the outset, is a lie.  People are desperately trying to escape.  People are dying.

Without much warning, save for the bizarre split personality of your automated guide, Portal becomes an escape story; a mad dash for any available exit, a way to escape the clutches of your wretched antagonist.  Portal shines not because of its innovative mechanics, excellent though they are, but due to its utter defiance of any expectations you had of it.  It leads you happily in the obvious direction, then derails entirely.

This would be absolutely impossible in a longer game.  Players would grow tired of the formula, assuming it wouldn’t change, and wander off to do something else.  There are plenty of people who simply do not have the time or patience to sit through lengthy releases, no matter how outstanding or ambitious they are.  If you’re creating an epic game, you need to show it at its finest early on - and you need to do something special to keep people riveted.

But even something like BioShock, heralded for its big reveal, isn’t really defined by that crowning moment, and doesn’t change substantially after it.  Games like Portal are rare, imaginitive, risky gems - titles that only succeed due to the single-session play time required.

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