Genre(s): Simulation, action
Credits: Shock Value, 2005
Alright, enough with the philosophy and the fancy words. I have decided to put away my inner pretentious scholastic, the voice you usually see in my other reviews where I try to juggle mumbo-jumbo about "aesthetics," "narrative," and other design terms. Besides, I'm just a gamer anyway, hardly an industry pro. Besides, at the end of the day, all we want our games to be is—fun! Am I right? So today's review will cover a game that's not intellectual, not Bohemian-fartsy, and a complete virgin when it comes to the grand humanist game of meanings, motifs and metaphors.
Behold the Interactive Buddy! Call it a voodoo doll, a sock puppet, merely one of your many minions, an experimentation in indie programming, or whatever you will, and so let it be done. Completely plotless and storyless. However, it still might have a narrative as one could debate whether its omnipotent player is intended to explore the consequences of 'godmodding'—SHH! Get back in my head and stay there you nerd!
As I was saying, upon this creature you may exact all the pent-up rage you experienced when you couldn't conquer Madagascar, or bestow all the spoilery affections your mysterious benefactor from the Bazaar gave you. However you choose to happily abuse your charge, she/he/it will give you free money with which you can purchase a variety of fun items (hoses, molotov cocktails, and radios to name a few), different avatars (mostly controversial politicians and celebrities), and various game options/settings (NES simulation movement, as well as access to the scripting engine so you can get in on the nitty gritty action yourself). Few things are more frightening than a gaping Bill Gates screaming, "I'll send my little nerdlings after you!" upon detonating him, followed by a cordial "Here's some money for your trouble."
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| The buddy won't drop you any cash from dancing to the radio beats, but it'll sure be pretty happy. |
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| Bill Gates + missiles = yeah. Also, you are positively reinforced with more money for your acts of—er, God?—compared to harmless activities like tickling and tossing baseballs. |
Although there's no soundtrack beyond the universal-sample-library sound effects, if there ever was it would consists of Daft Punk's "Technologic" on endless loop with different lyrics in mind that fit my every action: name it, leave it, love it, hate it, hold it, swing it, punch, tickle it, play it, bounce it, rock it, chase it, shoot it, burn it, water-down it, buy it, cry it, laugh it, dye it, learn it, use it, shift, upgrade it....
We could, of course, contend that the buddy, despite its AI status, deserves as much recognition as the player. That the buddy, perhaps, is really a meta—SHH! Stop being politically correct! And that maybe there's a hidden ethics discuss—!!!
But wait, you don't understand! I speak for the themes! Okay, just this once. There's an underlying theme, a piece of the design puzzle that we could uncover here, and settle an important question once and for all about this game's inherent nature, as well as for all design! And that question is thusly: what is the player's relationship to the character(s) in a game? We most often discuss this relationship as the player-character ("PC"), but in cases like this one, the Pandemic games, and even more classic examples like the Myst series, the player can be a god, an off-screen and generically unidentified stranger, or an observer or reader. In the Interactive Buddy, it's easy to automatically assume that we are pretending to be gods, and that's what I've been telling you, so that's what you should believe. Or are you? What if you're somehow, through a mysterious dark designer's secret, actually an observer? What if this is all in your head, and you are the victim of your own circumstances? What if—!?
And this is why you were in the asylum to begin with. Nerd.
Just take my word for it; the Interactive Buddy is one harmless fun little experiment you won't regret wasting your work-week minutes on. No mind-boggling abstractions with which to bother your brain cells. If there was ever a game to earn the "Most Pointless Award," it would be the one without any sharp angles or different dimensional sides to explore. It would be this one.
Next time: Most games have stories, but what about a game that's about a story? Don't worry, I promise to lay off on the meta.
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