As the new year took its first few steps and the hangover diminished, I felt the traditional need to reflect with my long-suffering, non-gamer girlfriend upon the titles I’d most enjoyed in 2007. After some non-directional rambling I was able to narrow it down to a particularly uncontroversial three: Call of Duty 4, BioShock and The Orange Box (game collection or otherwise). Several weeks later I stumbled upon an epiphany, a missing link between these games. They were all first-person games with mute protagonists. That may not sound like much of a discovery to you, but it explained exactly why I had enjoyed these games more than any other in the past year.

Take BioShock, a game so immersive and creepy that the previously-mentioned game-avoiding girlfriend watched me play almost every minute of it, pillow clutched firmly to her chest. Both our jaws dropped when the major twist was revealed, and minutes later I’d saved the game, turned off the PC and had quietly made myself a Marmite sandwich to try and pacify my growing anger. The drama and emotion of that scene is comparable to the stand-out scenes in Half-Life 2: Episode 2 and Call of Duty 4.

The thing that distinguishes games from other forms of media is interactivity, and having a silent character whose eyes you always see out of allows for that to be exploited. If BioShock had been a third-person game with cut-scenes and dialogue I think I would not have felt such strong emotions. By using a first-person muted perspective and encouraging me to rely on Atlus, a constant voice that advised my character, the game was able to create a direct one-way relationship. This was achieved similarly in Half-Life 2 by pairing me up with the likeable and non-useless Alyx (Capcom take note), and a sense of companionship and potential love interest was fostered. Admittedly it felt unrealistic sometimes when I could offer no answer to the questions of “Right, Gordon?”. However, when Alyx’s father told me that he couldn’t be prouder if I were his own son during the closing minutes of Episode 2¸ I’ll unashamedly admit that I felt a swelling of (undeserved) pride and achievement. Seconds later I witnessed one of the most powerful game endings ever made. The importance of it all being seen through my character’s eyes cannot be ignored.

Whilst games like Assassin’s Creed and Heavenly Sword have comparable gameplay with epic cut-scenes, well-written dialogue and protagonists with obvious personality, they’ll never fully achieve what BioShock did by distancing us from becoming the main character.  That’s not to say third-person characters with voices can’t work for storytelling – take the Metal Gear Solid and Final Fantasy games. But I think so many developers are missing an opportunity by dismissing the idea of a silent protagonist. The video game industry keeps trying to find its own voice, to distinguish itself from television, movies and books. It would do well for developers to take even more notice of the Half-Life series, because a Half-Life movie would never be able to capture the experience of being everyone’s favourite mute with a crowbar. It should still get made though. Just saying.

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