"Story can only ruin a game for those people who care about story, so it's a conditional answer. For instance, Gears of War. It contains atrocious, offensive violations of story basics. Yet it doesn't seem to ruin it for many, many people. It's literally the worst writing in games, but seems to have no ill effects."
So said Chuck Beaver. Best known in the gaming industry as the story producer for Dead Space. And apparently it's causes a wee stir. Or made Cliffy B upset.
Most importantly, what's my view? I think this statement is most definitely true for the first Gears of War game. The story was bat-shit insanely loose with no fricken clear direction. To this day I still have no idea why General Raam was on that train with the so called Lightmass Bomb. Was he there to stop the bomb or kill our heroes Or both? I have no idea but he was a memorable boss ending for what it was worth. Gears 1 only became a great game because of it's look, feel, game play and full on multiplayer.
Check Beavers comment is perhaps less true for game's 2 and 3. Game 2 was mildly crazy but then again I have no idea why we had to go inside a giant worm or some secret lab who's real context in the Gears saga was never rely explained well enough in game.
I felt Gears 3 had a clear and direct purpose: find Adam Fenix and save the day.
Beaver was clearly having a discussion about qaulity writing and took the time to think back on the Dead Space story as well: "We knew so little about story back then, and overruled our writers on a lot. Dead Space was just a simple haunted house story that we later pasted a personal aspect on top of - a lost girlfriend who is really dead. Dead Space 2 was a huge challenge. All these elements from the original game that were poorly thought through, like the Marker Lore, Necro ecology, etc., had to move coherently forward into the next narrative. The first story we had was a wreck of unrelated events and broken structure, so we cut our teeth getting that into shape, and didn't fully make it. Plus, we got lost a bit in complicated lore and plot elements that didn't come through. And don't even get me started on the final boss sequence that they put in without me in the meeting! That was fun."
But despite this Chuck has said that his original offending words had been taken out of context. He's issued this drippy statement as a result (and following the removal of the actual issue from the EA site).
"I just wanted to jump in and clarify some of my comments that were taken out of context about Gears of War. First, let me say that I'm a huge fan. It is an epic franchise that has trail-blazed more than a few industry-leading player experiences and mechanics. It is deservedly recognized as a top-tier title. Its success as a property is evidenced by its giant sales and rabid fan base. The industry is far better for Epic's contribution, and we all owe a great deal of inspiration to their work."
So there we go, we can all go back to being friends?
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