In any typical review, there are parameters for which you can always evaluate a particular game. The main pillars of any review are gameplay, music, history and graphics. In the picture, you can measure the number of landfills, the quality of textures and stylization, to make out variability and diversity in music, to study the depth and characters in history, and gameplay mechanics to evaluate from the standpoint of freshness, originality and reientuity. But in this system of assessments, sometimes, the fifth element appears, which is quite difficult to evaluate and this … Souliness.

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And I wanted to figure out what is such a "sincerity"? Why is one game called soulless and empty, while in others they find this very properties. What should be the game to be called "a game with a soul"?

First you need to decide, what is a game without a soul? And the first Internet commentator will answer you that this is any conveyor project that is designed for a mass player and is created exclusively for making money. As an example, you will be given a dozen AAA projects or mobile online games, the purpose of which is the maximum pumping from a gamer of money for lootboxes, skins and any microtransactions. In such issues, commentators are as one ever in their opinion, but are they right? About it a little later.

But what is a spiritual game, to explain much more difficult. To attribute the game to this category, it must have certain properties that can conditionally be divided into two categories: objective and subjective.

To objective criteria, we can attribute well -defined specifications that can create an area of ​​sincerity. This is the plot, which includes history, characters and ENT. This is music. And this is of course – the atmosphere.

For example, the game can have a very soulful plot capable of hooking and giving food for reflection, an unusual story with bright characters or scenes that fight according to our emotions. “These are twists”, well -registered heroes and villains, an unusual ENT, as well as skillful manipulation of our mood and empathy, all these elements may well give a sense of soulfulness and are able to make the player believe in what is happening on the screen. Therefore, it is not surprising that games with bright stories are the Last of Us, The Walking Dead from Telltale or To the Moon fall into the category of sincere. Or as an option, the Mass Effect trilogy, where many people love to remember their partners and NPC, which makes this cosmoore completely sincere. Yes, even banal quests, the level of “kill 10 rats in this basement”, if they are made well, they can give you a whole bouquet of emotions. I could recall for the thousandth time a quest branch with a bloody baron in a third witcher or fascinating stories of a shopkeeper from The Messenger. In general, everything that in the game resonates with our thoughts and is given to us with emotions, can give rise to the effect of sincerity.

But let’s not forget about music. For many, it is she who creates all the magic. Personally, I immediately come to my mind notes of incredible music by Jeremy Soul, air motifs from Journey or many beautiful compositions of the most diverse indie, in genres from elementary chipteum, to a penetrating emboss and orchestral epic. Music that not only complements the game, but combines with what is happening on the screen and ideally, causing the effect of goosebumps on the skin. After all, it is such music that can be perceived by us as mental. As I previously stated, the game is a whole work and music causes a sense of soulfulness when all the components of the game work together. There are of course exceptions from this rule, but they are exceptions. Therefore, a good and magical melody is able to give a sense of soulfulness, especially if the player is ready to listen to it even separately from the game itself.

You can simply turn on and the abyss ..

But the atmosphere in games is a very extensible concept and requiring a large separate analysis. It is difficult to measure, calculate or insert into some framework. The correct atmosphere of the game appears only when all the mechanisms work harmoniously and nothing destroys the effect of immersion. The atmosphere can be directly dependent on music, game sounds and effects, pictures, stories, Laura and others, at first glance of insignificant elements, such as an interface or a gaming environment. But it is precisely such strokes that form the overall picture. Why Chrono Trigger has become a cult game? Not only because it is a beautiful jrpg, with unusual characters and plot. All in Chrono Trigger, from music and dialogues, from a pixel map and a combat system, creates an incredible atmosphere of adventure that just works. Which in turn turns Chrono Trigger from just a magnificent game – into cult. It also happens that the game has the same indescribable atmosphere and a depth that can immerse us in the gameplay and give a sense of immersion. Regardless of the genre, whether it is a gloomy horror or summer adventure, the atmosphere directly affects the sense of soulfulness. Again, about atmosphere and what you create, you need to do a separate analysis. But if briefly, Atmosphericity is what contributes to a deeper immersion in the game, by creating a mood and how this mood is transmitted to the player. An ideal example for me is Journey and Firewatch, two different games, but with a very bright-exposed atmosphere, something grandiose and exalted in Journey and something simple and landed in Firewatch, while transferred through a beautiful visual style. It would seem that this condition is very easy to destroy, for example, an ore-irratian dissonance or intra-game bugs. But the paradox is that the game can work poorly and be funny, but still create an atmosphere area. For example, the Stalker has not been embarrassed and broken on the release, in which there were no many chips that the developers promised, became a cult game, at the expense of the very atmosphere, post-Soviet gloomy reality, with abandans and wastelands.

Collection of https://lasvegasenvivocasino.co.uk/games/ stalker jokes

But everything is not so simple if such parameters as history, characters, music or atmosphere can still be described somehow, then the second large category that includes subjective things to describe much more complicated. And let’s call her "Personal perception ".

For us there are a value of the work, including the games to which we want to return. And returning, we open more and more faces in them, especially if the work is deeper than it seems at first glance. After all, playing and plunging into this process, we get a new individual experience.

If the game resonates, and with our internal state, with our thoughts and ideas, with our inner attitude. At the same time, he answers some of our questions, gives new and fresh impressions, allows us to read something between the lines and leaves an unusual, bright and fresh aftertaste, well, and ideally gives us such an experience that we have never experienced. Then this particular game we really will remember. It will be imprinted in our memory and sometimes will pop up in our thoughts as a bright flash, because it was able to give us real emotions. And it is precisely such a game that will receive a mental status from us. But how this very resonance happens?

I well remember how the third witcher came out in May 2015. And I can talk about the plot for an infinitely long time, about the characters, about the sid-quest, about the world, about the music of this masterpiece. How the game fell into my mood and in that not the best period of my life, it became a real outlet, opening for me a huge and magnificent world full of adventure. But I remembered one thing especially clearly and this is the first small location of the White Garden. As in real life, May is the time to flower apple trees. Not far from my house was a huge flowering apple garden. And I went for a walk and look at how the wind walks between the branches, and the flowers in the garden slowly crumble to the ground, lusting it with a carpet of white petals. This condition was comparable to Zen, causing me a feeling of peace and tranquility. That’s how the game was cut with me. And now every time I see blooming apple trees, in my thoughts the same atmosphere of the White Garden from the Third Witcher arises, returning me in those days when I tried to overcome myself and find answers to my questions.

What is it talking about? That often “sincerity” in games can be directly related to events in our real life, with our memories, especially with memories from childhood and youth, when everything is new and previously unprecedented, our brain was perceived most vividly. For many, whole stories are connected with this. Когда простая игра стала страницей из прошлого, связующим звеном с той ушедшей реальностью и с теми днями которые больше не вернуть. For example, someone remembers his first cartridge or disk that a close and dear person gave him and now this game is associated only with him. Or he remembers how on a frosty evening or a bright summer day, he returned from the local market, pressing a box with a long -awaited game to his chest, in a languid expectation to discover a new world full of impressions. Someone recalls his friends, whom he had not seen for a very long time, as he played with them in this game and the road to him for the reason that he is associated with them, because in those days he will no longer return. Perhaps a simple video game helped to survive some difficult period in life, in which I just wanted to run away from reality and game escapism became a saving decision. Everyone has its own reason and its own personal story, in which the atmosphere of soulfulness is born.

And maybe this is just another story from the past. For example, how NPC stuck in textures during an important mission. Or as a player got lost, but a simple accident helped him go further. Or maybe it was a very complex boss, but tactics and tricks helped to win. In general, it can be any story based on personal experience. After all, all these small details can make the game “sincere” for a particular player, since it was precisely to him an incomparable and unique experience. So let’s return to the very beginning to the same conveyor games. That is, if the game is able to give a person pleasure, the same unforgettable fan and unique situations and stories are able to give, such a game will become sincere for him, regardless of how conveyor or soulless it is for other players. This is the unique property of "sincerity".

The concept of "sincerity" and "nostalgia" are often very strong. Yes, so hard that this person is still good or bad game, interesting or not, those emotions that she delivered to him in a certain period of her life are important. Our brain loves to smooth out corners, tries to eliminate the negative and leave only good in memory. And that means a mediocre game, if it has become a vivid event in our past, it will be remembered especially clearly. And such a game, with the most likelihood, a person will call "sincere". This criterion of subjective sincerity is very individual. After all, the fact that one person will cause a smile and nostalgia for the other will not cause anything. As I mentioned earlier, the very concept of “sincerity” is what is directly related to our personal perception. People do not always remember everything clearly, our memory is selective and our real memories are often overlap with a powerful stream of emotions. This is how nostalgia works. We remember our emotions, but often not what exactly caused them.

And the developers understand the whole power of nostalgia and sincerity well and actively flirt with these phenomena. For example, recently I came across a Tunic game and this is a real recognition of love for the classic adventures of Zelda. The game skillfully copies a lot of things from the classics. Moreover, the authors tried to destroy the 4th wall a little, creating an entire game mechanics on this. The fact is that most inscriptions in the game are written in an incomprehensible language and the player is not quite clear where to go. But in the course of passage, you constantly come across a piece of the intra-game manual, which is made in the most real form factor of the book, which used to be placed in the game cartridges. And you as a player, you need to constantly look for answers to your questions in this manual. And often you can see in the manual and inscriptions made by a pen, like the previous owner of the game, tries to help you with passage and gives advice. In theory, this should cause a powerful nostalgic effect for those players who spent all his childhood behind the classic adventures of the Link and the physical gaming manual leafed through the same way. But we, like players of the post-Soviet space, are unlikely to come across you, and at the same time … The game still causes the very feeling of soulfulness. Thanks to music, atmosphere and many classical techniques that we met in other games, which in turn were inspired by games about Zelda. It turns out such a recursion.

But what this sincerity affects and why it is so important? Souliness directly affects your personal perception, and this means that this game you will remember after years. It is such projects that receive a second life, they are supported by fans, continuing to release modifications, improve graphics and the ability to launch these games on the modern gland. It is these games that are waiting, creating petitions to companies, in the hope that they will release a remake or continuation. And it is precisely such games that are inspired. The game exists as long as there are loving fans around it, ready to keep this game and tell the next generation of players about it.

Souliness-it is impossible to measure or drive into some framework, but from all of the above, one can draw an affirmative conclusion that sincerity is about our personal experiences and sensations. When you wander around the White Garden and see how flowering apple trees sway, when a cheerful stalker tells another joke around the fire and prepares to go into the zone when Joel presses the frightened Ellie and a long way home is almost completed. When you are almost killed, but was able to fill up the hated boss in Soul-Like. When you download on a true horse on an empty but atmospheric world. When on a distant planet you observe the end of the world and wait for everything to start again. When your emotions, experience and experiences resonate with what the game gives you, all this gives rise to the effect of sincerity. And this is one of the reasons why we love video games.

The best comments

Honestly, I did not understand a little, the blog seems to begin with the question “what does the expression“ game with the soul ”mean in reviews?", And ended with thoughts about nostalgia and life situations. Of course, I don’t know what commentators who write “there are no souls in conveyors”, but I can assume that there is an author’s idea here. That is, a conveyor, this is a game made in market patterns, where each decision is made not by a “burning idea by a guy”, but by a manager. And the manager is a person who operates only with numbers and statistics. Game A had quests for the murder of wild boars, it is popular? So we will also have a quest for killing boar. And if the whole game is built like this, then yes, this project does not have a soul. But if you see in the project, for example, the topic that was clearly interesting to the scriptwriter and he is trying to convey it to you, where every detail of the seemingly optional location has been furnished with love and attention to the smallest details, where even the most banal quest with the killing of boars has a certain plot/gemple value, then they have already put it about such a game and they say “developers” This game is a soul, this game with the soul ".

Music from Doom Soul? She is definitely not bad (we do not take into account people who do not tolerate this), she is definitely not a conveyor, Mr. Gordon, I think I definitely put it into this soul, but call it sincere … hmm, here rather the word "steep" is more suitable.

I liked the comment somewhere on YouTube: "This is violence in musical guise".

Wow, he intended and brewed everything in one boiler, starting with the fact that he declared the music “objective” and ending with the fact that the player’s nostalgic feelings and not related to the game from his personal life began to plunge to the sincerity of the game.

The author of the "spiritual" games began with Sonya First) And I have with Dendy)

And the love of games is compatible with professionalism? For example, it seems to me that Shovel Knight is a spiritual game, but after reading the development history, it turns out that the guys initially wanted to make a nostalgic platformer, it was a goal. It was not a dream project, but a purely professional approach with an sight on the franchise. But in the end, the game is one of the few such a plan that it does not just exploit nostalgia, but takes retro mechanics, combines them and develops from, creating a pleasant mix.

About music fat plus. Musical taste is, obviously not objective. You can also add a simple question to the piggy bank. Music from Doom Soul? She is definitely not bad (we do not take into account people who do not tolerate this), she is definitely not a conveyor, Mr. Gordon, I think I definitely put it into this soul, but call it sincere … hmm, here rather the word "steep" is more suitable.

I take off my hat before this commentator.

No, maybe I don’t understand, but as for me, “games with the soul”, these are games that made good because of love for them.