2112. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? Initially, I wrote the 12 years in the title as an estimate, but after rifling through some old memories and subsequently trawling through family photos from 2008 and 2009 for confirmation, I think I might’ve hit the nail on the head (even if I hadn’t, I would still keep it, because I like the palindrome).
It’s weird to think that I turned 21 today. Look, nothing really changes here when you hit “the age of independence” – I already have my driver’s licence, I have been legally allowed to drink for the last three years (although being allowed to do something new does not generally make me suddenly want to do it), and it’s not like I’m unceremoniously going to be forced out of the house to fend for myself just because I’ve “come of age” (I’ll be keeping my guard up in the coming weeks though, just in case) – but it just feels crazy to think that I’ve been alive for more than two decades.
I figured a good way to celebrate these 21 years would be to go through some of my earliest gaming experiences (ignoring the educational games I played when I was two years old), and to show off some the games that sowed the seeds of a love for – and fascination with – video games that is still growing to this day. Whether or not you are a “gamer”, or even like video games at all, I hope that, if you take the time to read this, you will have some idea of why I love them as much as I do.
Without further ado, let’s get into it!
The Lost Vikings (Silicon Synapse, 1992)
My dad had a bunch of DOS games from this era on his computer, but out of all of those, I think Vikings is the one I played the most. You take control of three Vikings: Baleog the Fierce, Eric the Swift, and Olaf the Stout. The game allows you to switch between them at will, which you need to do continuously in order to solve puzzles and reach the end of each level.
One night, while asleep in their huts, an alien spaceship abducts our three heroes (it’s the 90’s, what were you expecting?), and so the rest of the game is spent travelling through space and time with only one goal in mind: to escape the alien overlord who captured the trio, and to eventually return home to their village and families. The game never took itself too seriously and had a great sense of humour; to this day I can still recall some of the banter between the three protagonists as they travelled between worlds.
There are very few modern games in the vein of Vikings, with the Trine series being the closest thing to a proper continuation of the series that we’ll ever get.
Pitfall: The Mayan adventure (Activision, 1994)
Pitfall sparked my love for action-adventure games. We only had the demo version, so until recently I was only able to play the very first level, but that didn’t stop me from spending hours running about in the South American jungle, using my slingshot to fling stones at annoying monkeys and deadly snakes, and eventually facing off against a bloodthirsty leopard at the end. The game’s soundtrack is still great by modern standards, and the pixel art was really excellently done. Seriously – have a look at the game in action!
Splinter Cell: Chaos theory (Ubisoft, 2005)
Widely regarded as one of the best stealth games ever made, Chaos Theory was my first foray into this genre, and is one of my favourite games ever.
While it might not have the most interesting story, Michael Ironside does deliver an iconic and memorable performance as the main character, CIA spy Sam Fisher. The Splinter Cell series revolutionized stealth games with a clever use of lighting, and more importantly, shadows – as long as you remained quiet and stuck to the dark corners of an area, you could pass through entire levels like a ghost. The levels consisted of sprawling complexes and multi-story buildings, often providing players multiple paths through an area, depending on their skill and preferences.
The game had a scoring system that rewards you for passing enemies while remaining undetected, and more importantly, for not killing anyone. I used to spend hours sneaking around on the various levels trying to figure out guard patrol patterns and timing my movements perfectly in an attempt to get the highest possible ranking for each level.
Shortly after completing this game for the first time, I played the rest of the series as well. I can honestly say that the Splinter Cell franchise is one of my favourite game series of all time.
Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 (Ubisoft, 2008)
This is one of the first military shooters I ever played. The game had really fun gameplay, combining the standard first-person shooter elements with the cover-based shooting mechanics from third-person action games. Playing as the leader of a small counter-terrorist unit, you and your squad must work your way through many of the various clubs, hotels, conference venues and rooftops of Las Vegas. I played through the Campaign two or three times, but my fondest memories come from the Multiplayer mode, which we played at every single LAN party I went to.
The game offers a huge swathe of customization options, ranging from the colour of each individual piece of armour and equipment, to the type of shades your character wears. There were many different weapons and gadgets to choose from as well, so you could really make the main character your own.
Going back to it now, the gameplay feels a little dated, but it’s still fun to hop in occasionally for a solo Terrorist Hunt on any one of the games many maps.
Crysis (Crytek, 2007)
Notorious among gamers and PC enthusiasts for its hardware-melting graphics, a large part of this game still holds up graphically 13 years after its release. Recently, Crytek teased a remaster of the original game, which will be taking advantage of the latest technology, and probably melt a whole new generation of computers.
Thanks to your prototype Nanosuit, you are essentially a super-hero with military training, with the suit giving you enhanced strength, speed, and armour, and even allowing you to turn invisible for a limited time. At first it seems to be a simple rescue mission, but it becomes a fight for survival when you discover that an alien species is attempting to eradicate everything on the island. This game has some of the most fun and satisfying combat I’ve ever experienced, and I still occasionally play it to this day.
LEGO Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy (Traveller’s Tales, 2006)
Years before I watched my first Star Wars movie, I experienced a large part of the Original Trilogy through this game. I played it at a friend’s house, who had the game on his PlayStation 2. This was the first LEGO game I ever played, and since then I’ve gone back and played nearly all of them to completion. This was my first proper co-op experience, and it showed me that games can also be enjoyed together. I still come back to this game every now and then.
The game does a tremendous job of telling the story without a single line of dialogue, and the developers used this opportunity to add in many great gags that could only work in a LEGO game. There are very few films/franchises with tie-in video games that can compare to the LEGO games made by Traveller’s Tales.
Ratchet & Clank (Insomniac, 2002)
Oh boy, now this is a special one. I have so many vivid memories of playing this on my uncle’s PlayStation 2 whenever we visited his house, and in the intervening years, I have beat this game multiple times. This game sparked my love for 3D platformers and gave me a new appreciation for Science Fiction stories about galactic adventures.
You play Ratchet, a cat-like creature called a “Lombax”. Early in the game you meet a small robot called “Clank” – an extremely intelligent and courageous android that acts as your companion throughout the rest of your journey. Clank can be upgraded with several abilities to aid in your traversal of the massive levels, including a Helipack, which allows you to jump higher and further, and a propeller, which allows you to swim faster and even sim upstream against strong underwater currents.
The game offers you a huge arsenal of weapons with which to eliminate your enemies, but my favourite weapon/tool will always be the OmniWrench, a huge wrench that functions similarly to Marvel Comics’ version of Mjolnir, Thor’s hammer – This wrench can be thrown at enemies from a distance, and it will automatically return to your hand.
And that’s about it! If you made it this far, congratulations! I hope you enjoyed reading this, and maybe even learnt something new! You may have noticed that I mentioned still playing many of these games nowadays, and I would encourage you track some of these down if any of them sound interesting to you.
Thanks for reading. Stay awesome!
– I
Ian's Blogging 