By Varun Menon
The story beneath
So there I was, playing Skyrim SE. It’s been over 600 hours since i started playing it. I’ve had my fair share of frustrations, being more than a decade old, glitches all around the world, lots to complain. To you, my readers, the reason i spent over 600 hours in this, is how beautiful the game is.
The landscape is jagged, and the game wants you to walk around it, listen to the wind blowing, the occasional chatter from npc’s having conversation with each other. Wolves barking around, the sound of river flowing, occasional clashes of swords, sounds of mysterious spells being cast, it’s an illusion and imitation of a world, less peaceful, certainly more magical than ours.
As a starting point, a good ambiance starts with a game imitating how you would experience their world, in-game. This is the magic of ambience, and how to experience a story without words.
Sound that lingers
Let’s revisit our wonderful world of Skyrim, again. The quest marker indicates quite a steep climb, from the village of Ivarstead to the High Hrothgar, a secluded monastery in the highest mountain in the entirety in Skyrim. The Jarl (or the local ruler) calls it an honor, to climb seven thousand steps to the top and answer the call of the greybeards, the most respected and the most secluded group of monks, that are ready to mentor you to be the legendary Dragonborn you were destined to be.
You hear the rustling of your armor, the occasional wind gusts flowing outwards, cackling of foxes, and some wolves, not happy with your presence, you go on, there are 10 etched tablets throughout your journey towards the top, each of them telling a story of Skyrim, the war between the brave nords and the dragons that once reigned them, the story of the hero that founded the High Hrothgar.
As you reach the monastery, bruised but somehow made it, winning a valiant battle against a troll, everything clicks.
I see two moons, Secunda and Masser, Soaring in the night. The Night sky, lit up with Aurora Borealis, the vast expanse of Skyrim from the top, cities and districts lit up, recognizable from afar, while the horns and the strings from the soundtrack Far Horizon plays in the background, as if the game is recognizing you effort, and wants you to see Skyrim.
Well the world certainly does not have breathtaking orchestra playing in the background, atleast to me, the sound design of a game invites you, familiarizing with the real worlds aspects, then the medieval fantasy settings. It holds your hand, slowly unraveling the world in front of you, and finally, in a key point of the game, it shows you the full picture. Sounds let you sense things around more than what your eyes can perceive. Good game design, whether simple or complex, often conveys its world first through sound.
Visual atmosphere
Let’s tackle visual atmosphere with another well received and critically acclaimed title, Dark Souls
Dark Souls, unlike Skyrim is a dark fantasy title, the game portrays a ruined world, result of the world plunged in the undead curse, its citizen, lifeless and hollow, attacking every intruders on sight. There is, however a beautiful and tragic story underneath the world, both figuratively and literally.
This place is New Londo Ruins. If i were to describe it, it looks wet, dingy, moldy and mossy. Upon further inspection, you notice that these building are not built around the water source, incomplete ruined flooded building indicate that the city was submerged underwater. There are several things to note here, the city is devoid of sunlight. there is clear sign of civilization existing once.
Its denizens, now vengeful specters, roam around the new Londo Ruins. We get to learn that this city was sunken underwater. This is a very small example as to create a visual atmosphere saying a story, personally, going more in-depth would lead me to spoil some jaw dropping sequences of Dark Souls one, hence this very short description of what actually happened to the city on New Londo. The absences of sun indicates the city is cut off from the divinity and blessing of god, and the more you look into the water, the depths inside are darker than normal, indicating that the city was submerged to contain something so powerful, that the only way to contain it is to drown and entire settlement and the innocent people within it too.
Interactive ambience
Let’s go time travel to a more familiar world, 1980’s Japan, with the world of Yakuza series, specifically Yakuza 0. While the entire game plays like a crime drama soap opera, one particular interaction in game plays an amazing example for interactive ambience
Long story short, as a part of the story, you work for a real estate tycoon, and said tycoon helps you to open your own real estate business. In a real diplomatic sense, and the work yakuza, you buy out properties in Kamurocho, capture them, fight the real estate owners that have their own stakes in it. When i say fight, its fist on, brutal primal punches in the rib, kick in the head and forehead in the knees fight.
After you own some businesses you become a boss like figure, and one such interaction involves a random busboy or a greeter bowing down in respect when you walk around their own establishment, and the hand you out a lighter like you’re a mob boss for the cigarette you just randomly decide to smoke This interaction never happens if you don’t go out of your way to complete the real estate missions, which are completely obligatory, This interaction also shows that the protagonist, Kiryu Kazuma is an old school protagonist as the devs portray him like one, roaming around beating thugs, smoking cigarettes and the story explores this stereotype even more.
Be a part of the immersion.
Next game you play, take a breath, watch the surroundings, listen to the birds chirping, grass rustling or winds blowing. Believe me or not, aside from these three examples, multiplayer games like CS:GO, PU:BG, Battlefield, Valorant etc even the shooters where story is secondary and often outside the games, they have a beautiful story to tell, the maps are more than just layout to avoid fighting covers but, pay attention to the building, why the entire town is empty, the warm buzzing of the sun, the bullets flying around in distance, it tells a story. Story oriented games get to work on this more, so if you enjoy getting lost in a game, i highly recommend the games i set as an example here. Thank you for reaching till the end! share your thoughts here and let me know what is your “that” movement where you have to pause and stay still to just marvel at what the game offered to you!