A Story Unique to You- Nonlinearity in Games

Do you ever remember trying something and being displeased with what happened the first time? Maybe you were motivated to try a second time and get a better result? Like a maze, if you hit a dead end, your mind tells you to drag your pencil's eraser or your quarreling kids to the previous fork and trying a new path. Eventually, you reach the exit of the maze. Likewise, in a few video games, there are several ways of doing things. There are several ways of accomplishing your goal or several endings that you can achieve. In this blog post, I am taking a look at Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 and how they are nonlinear. Two things should go without saying: There will be violence/profanity in some of the featured videos and there will be spoilers in this post.

Nothing left to spoil here!

In Call of Duty Black Ops 2, Treyarch (the developers) experimented with their story.A father (past timeline) and his son (future timeline) have to deal with the same terrorist (yes, the same person who haunts the father also tortures the son). This installment decided to let players have choices, which played into later scenarios. In one of the future missions, a stakeout heads south and the player's team engages in a car chase, which ends out in a poor driver burning half of their comrade's face, and a later mission alters unimportant dialogue. Luckily, this is just a warning to players that how they play does make a difference. There are many more important changes that will lead to a bad ending. In a later chapter, the player is caught attempting to infiltrate "Cordis Die" the villain's terrorist group. The terrorist tests the player's loyalty by making them shoot a friend or giving an attempt to kill the villain. The latter will leave you with one less bodyguard for a later mission, which can instantly derail any hopes of a good ending. Treyarch decided to be forgiving and if a player makes a royal mess,  the player could "rewind" their story and redo bad choices. Unfortunately, this meant that rewinding to an early point means the player has to trudge through all subsequent levels again. Despite there being several endings, only one is considered canon, or the parts of the story accepted as the general truth and to be used as a foundation for later expansion.

These spoilers you will regret seeing

In Grand Theft Auto V, the missions are often non-linear, and add greater depth to the plot (there are going to be some big spoilers here). I have made a list of the several ways this happens:

• Heists are truly big examples of non-linearity. Players will have to make preparations such as choosing crew members, whose skill levels are level with their requested fee. A choice between gameplans will provide two completely unique scenes for the job. Sloppy heist performance can result in players coming out with less than expected. Successful crew members will gain more experience for later heists and don't demand higher cuts, useful for players looking to be frugal.
• When players are driving during missions (from one location to another), they can choose to stay on the recommended path (which is always a legal and safe path), or attempt to take a shortcut resulting in death (and restarting a potentially lengthy drive) or police interference (putting the mission on hold until the character shakes the cops off).
• While off of missions, characters can attempt to improve their statistics for future and make later events easier.
• At the end of the game, players are forced to either kill one of their friends or make a final stand to the government. Killing an ally at this point is considered permanent, and to get them back, players have to delete their save files and restart the entire game. Choosing to make a final stand will leave all characters open for play, but it does involve at least 30 minutes worth of play time.
• After the credits finish, players are treated to a free report from the in-game shrink. This is to show players how they ended out playing the game and pointing out details such as hobbies and how many "strangers and freaks" players helped out. 

These are not the only ways a game can be nonlinear. In other games, there are endings considered non-canon (not official). These typically are referred to as joke endings (not even close to being official). These are typically hidden as rewards for laziness (can occur literally seconds after choosing your name in Metal Saga) or as a reward for taking the time to do everything a game has to offer (Silent Hill 2 rewarding players with comic relief for finding all endings). Games such as Mirror's Edge encourage players for taking the road less traveled by a collectible or a cryptic message. "Super Mario" games usually let players handle (non-boss) missions in any order and even avoid unwanted missions. Rollercoaster Tycoon tells players to just achieve one large goal over a large deal of time. Even the simple concept of trial and error can make a game nonlinear (just in the sense that you are not repeating the same exact method over and over again).

Think of the last game you played where you had no major influence on the story. Most games are just about complete the grocery list and leave the area and get the exact same ending as everyone else will. There is no spice to life. No reason to replay. A game which is nonlinear always feels inviting. Your curiosity provokes you to try more. A linear game tells you a story and takes away free will. A nonlinear game gives you a true experience and feels interactive. However you define a nonlinear game, just remember to make it your story.

-Game on 

Jacob Bacci