The abduction of Europe

“She”, the last film, Spike Jounzi, was so analyzed as well as a person’s relationship with a computer will change in the coming years that she received an Oscar for the script, and her forecasts have already begun to come true. For example, the emergence of an operating system with artificial intelligence and a fervent voice Scarlett Johansson will become possible after the iron begins to be assembled on the basis of membrane . And this event, according to HP , is no longer around the corner. And the games described in the film - traveling already intercept the initiative from traditional adventures . Between these related ones, it would seem, a huge abyss lies with concepts. The adventure in games is always excitement, struggle, movement and adrenaline. Traveling in games is the experience of contemplation, enjoyment of beauty and gaining peace.

In the film, the hero of Joaquin Phoenix thoughtfully wanders along a distant virtual planet to realize how lonely he is in his real, but paused life.

In the game DEAR Esther user travels around the island, as if Shakespeare’s stained from the “storm”, and reads sad letters. Esther died in a car accident, the author of the messages - a husband that did not come to terms with the loss. When the sunbeam reads the last letter, the player will find himself on the edge of the abyss and will have to decide - take a step forward or backward.

In the recent game Lifeless Planet American astronaut is on a planet colonized by the missing Soviet expedition. The less oxygen in its cylinder, the more what is happening begins to resemble the "Solaris" Lema.

The user's task in the Swedish game Year Walk - spend the night in the forest on the eve of Christmas to find out the future. The night will not be lungs: a huge white horse in a frock coat will rise from the ice stream, the dolls hanging on the trees will swing, and the souls of dead children will pay in more often.

And there have been a great many such strange games in recent years: Limbo about the adventures of the child in purgatory; Journey about an almost biblical campaign through the desert; The Path about a red cap with mental disorders; The Novelist about the writer in crisis; Kentucy Route Zero about the courier who fell into the world of David Lynch. While expensive adventure games have mastered the drama of Hollywood blockbusters ( Last of US , Beond : Two Souls ) and smart television series ( Wolf Among US , Walking Dead : The Game , coming Game of Thrones ), complex "book" stories have become the lot of small games. From traditional electronic entertainments, they are distinguished by an important property: they have almost no “mechanics” - jumps, shooting, puzzles, dialogs. Only stories. And maximum a couple of buttons for action.

There are no Russian heroes in this war: the authors describe the First World War as a tragedy in a large European family and they are in no hurry to call us.

As a result, the content of games-travels is no longer raising questions from anyone. Another thing begins to worry: can the games tell complex stories, while remaining with themselves - shooters, arcades, puzzles? Dedicated to the centenary of the First World Waliant project Hearts : The Great War passed through the minefield of history to firmly answer: "Yes."

While in Austria-Hungary, the Archduke Ferdinand is mourned, and in the Russian Empire they are preparing for war, the Germans are urgently expelled from France. Among them is the village guy Karl, who recently became a father. Upon arrival in Germany, he is mobilized to the front. Frenchman Emil, the elderly father -in -law of the hero, also gets a summons. There is only one Marie in the village - a young mother with a baby in her arms and an uncleaning harvest. Her husband and father are on opposite sides of the front. Already these three destinies are enough to tell a grandiose story, but the authors enter into the plot of several more heroes: the American volunteer Freddy, who was fighting in a foreign legion, the Belgian sister of mercy Anna and the nameless dog-sanitar. The dog initially serves the Germans, but quickly turns into a citizen of the world, helping Emil, then Anna, then Freddy. There are no Russian heroes in this war: the authors describe the First World War as a tragedy in a large European family and they are in no hurry to call us. And Freddie try not to notice the same. Even a British pilot did not reach the wake in old Europe - although they initially promised the players such a character. Which is even strange, because the anthem of the fallen heroes " o valiant Hearts ” , lent to the name to the project, wrote the Englishman John Arkhrat.

The game consists of four acts, and lasts at eight hours. This time is enough to remind the user about all the battles of the First World War, in which machine guns and chemical weapons debuted, creeping and flying equipment, prolonged positional confrontations and trench diseases. Humanism is not the most suitable characteristic for bloodshed, but about the First World War we can say that it dehumanized the rules of fighting, making the machine extermination of people possible. Heroes Valiant Hearts pass through each episode of this disaster. Receive injuries. Captive. Suffer from typhoid. Dip the wounded legs. Lie down under the tanks. They are experiencing gas attacks. Winter in the trenches. The end of the world (even the Old World - for sure) is either brightened up, or aggravated by sentimental household scenes. Marie sends Emil a photograph with her grandson, but the hero is captured by the Germans. Carl finds it there - and for the first time in a long time he sees the image of a grown son.

At the same time, all the incredible stories taking place with the four and the dog are based on real letters from the front. Valiant Hearts , like the best strategies and role-playing games of the 90s, is equipped with a weighty encyclopedia, structurally reminiscent of the books from the Cycle of "The Pereniona". From it you can learn a lot of interesting things - for example, that the first world was the last war of banners. Or what for all her time the soldiers sent and received 10,000,000,000 cards. Letters in Valiant satchel There are plenty of hearts , and all of them are carefully translated into Russian. Polyphony reigns on the battlefield: every soldier speaks his own language, explaining with the user with the help of icon-lubricants.

In any other game, we would have killed the Germans in the blink of an eye. And here we cook them sausages, ringing with shackles.

Games with a single hero are accustomed to comfort: even if he dies, the episode will begin again, and so-to the victory. Valiant Hearts with her five charming heroes and bloody realism resembles the “game of thrones”: you are waiting for irreversible death here at any moment. Which of the characters will survive, however, the question is not the main. It is much more interesting to find out which of them will be the first to kill. Valiant Hearts for a long time and fundamentally holds players from bloodshed. Old Emil, having been injured in the first battle, loses consciousness. Freddy, left without weapons, fights with the Germans on his fists. Grenades have to be thrown often, but the enemy manages to run away. At the same time, the allies die hundreds, and the heroes kill so often that you replay some episodes a hundred times. But Valiant Hearts stubbornly does not allow to take revenge.

Instead of murders in a military game, we are offered to do curious puzzles and nervous acrobatics - to undermine bridges, to cleanse, bandage the wounded, give commands to the dog, run under bullets and even cook a stew to the enemy, being captured. The latter is unheard of humiliation: in any other game, we would have killed the Germans in the blink of an eye. And here we cook them sausages, ringing with shackles.

As a result for Valiant Hearts , although it has all the attributes of the adventure game, is completely unable to choose an analogue within the industry. This is a game about the war, but it repeats like a mantra: "Do not shoot." This is a game about heroes, but their heroism lies in the rejection of violence - the main driver of computer entertainment. But comparisons with books and cinema begs by themselves. The scale of events strives, no matter how loud it sounds, to the “war and the world” and “life and fate”. Naive humanism refers to the film of 2005 “Happy Christmas” about the short New Year's Earth of the French, Germans and the British. Its original name is “Joyeux No purpose” . "New Game" in French- " N Ouveau J EU" . Finally, the visual range of Valiant Hearts forces Mouse to recall - a graphic novel awarded the Holocaust, which depict Jews with mice, and the Germans - cats. The game is also similar to a comic book, but a cheerful drawing in it only emphasizes the horror of war, and a monotonous animation is its routine. All metaphors of this sensitive game in the heat of battles can not be noticed. For example, all Valiant heroes Hearts hidden eyes. A cap crawled onto someone, someone's hidden glasses. Someone looks at the floor all the time.

More recently, computer games were the last media, from which you could expect such surprises.