Angry Gaming 01.13.08: Cheap Knockoffs

Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 01.14.2008

Put down that controller! That popular, all-new game you’re playing could really just be a cheap imitation of what has come before.

Welcome to Angry Gaming, the Lancer Evolution X that passes the gaming industry's Nissan Skyline GT-R and costs thousands of dollars less. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I am fast becoming the victim of gimmick theft. As the Offspring said, it's cool to hate.


Cheap Knockoffs

Marilyn Manson once said that a problem with growing in popularity is that the earlier fans of one's work tend to resent the newer fans, as opposed to encouraging them into the fold. The same can be said of cult film lovers resenting a favorite movie being accepted into the mainstream, and even hardcore gamers resenting the female gamers and Madden NFL players who are becoming a more common occurrence these days.

When we appreciate a work of art, but the rest of the world doesn't, there is a special feeling of pride that goes along with it. As the Insane Clown Posse sort of put it, the song that your favorite underground garage band plays is your song, but the song that plays on the radio ten times a day is everyone's song. It is the sad fate of all mainstream art to face resentment from the fans that helped it become popular in the first place; and then the accusations of "selling out" start to fly.

With gamers, things are a little bit different. It's rare to hear veteran Halo players whining and moaning about all these new fangled changes to their beloved needler guns, or to see rants about how Call of Duty 4 nothing more than a Counter-Strike rip off. Generally, the more games of the same genre we get, the happier we are. This is partially due to the fact that die hard gamers aren't much for complaining (hence the whole reason why I started this column in the first place) and partially due to the fact that there are only so many developers available for the 3 major brand consoles and PC platforms of the world. In the gaming industry, imitation is the sincerest for of flattery. Well…sort of.

Imitation is also what happens when game designers feel they didn't get paid enough for their role in last year's platinum hit, and split off to build their own company. Imitation is what happens when one game company realizes their competitors aren't going to have a sequel to that same platinum hit for a good number of years, and they cash in on the demand left by a much wanting public. Imitation can come from improving on and already great product, or by mocking it and claiming superiority. One thing is certain though. In the gaming industry, imitation runs rampant.

So imagine how annoyed we veteran gamers get when we hear that Assassin's Creed will feature all new moves and maneuvers that Prince of Persia just happens to have had for years. Imagine how frustrating it is to hear that The Darkness allows you to use the same demonic powers Darkwatch did, but aren't fresh enough in fans' minds to remember? Long winded speeches about how great these "new" games are irk some of us to no end, but we keep silent about it so as not to spoil everyone's fun. Besides, no one plays those old games enough anyway.

Well it's time for a lesson in the old school! Here are three of today's latest games, and the classic titles they happen to be cheap knockoffs of. Enjoy the dose of reality!


Crysis – Aliens VS Humans in Predator Costumes



An elite Special Forces team has been sent into a jungle to rescue hostages. They are dispatched by chopper and sent to take on an enemy in a foreign land. While they are there, someone turns invisible, and one by one they are picked off. Bodies are found hanging upside down, dripping blood with skin missing and looks of horror on their faces. Then the creature hunting them finally makes an appearance.

Have I just described the opening stages of Crysis the PC game with system requirements so high it makes alienware owners weep, or was I talking about the movie Predator? You can't possibly know, because both are so closely related to each other it's ridiculous. The difference is that in Predator, the enemy has the advantage of invisibility and super powers. In Crysis, you do.

Oh yeah, and one took place in South America, the other in North Korea.



Crysis is a first person shooter that features a special suit for its main protagonist to wear. This suit gives our hero, Nomad, all sorts of powers including super strength, super shielding, super speed, and invisibility. These of course are all the same special abilities of the creature in the Predator movies, comics, and first person shooter games. So does this mean that Crytek, the makers of Crysis, are a bunch of no talent rip off artists that can't come up with an original idea to save their lives? Eh…not quite.

It is no coincidence that Crysis was released around the same time as the latest appearance of the Predator creature on the silver screen in Aliens VS Predator: Requiem. On a brief side note, I still haven't seen that movie thanks to all the holiday rush around big screen theaters, but I digress. The fact is that while the character of the Predator may still be a marketable resource even today, he hasn't made an appearance in the video game circuit for some time.

The Predator's last gaming appearance was in Predator for the playstation 2, a quirky game that wasn't all that good. Prior to that, players enjoyed the Predator's ability to jump super high and cloak into invisibility in Aliens VS Predator 2, a first person shooter for the PC. That game was amazing. It also hasn't had an imitator in over five years.

Despite the positive public reaction to more and more Predator based first person shooters, no developers have answered the demand for more. Even game studios looking to cash in on the recent appearance of the Predator in the movies have been silent, and its no wonder that someone came along and basically remade a suit of Predator armor for humans and slapped a new logo on it. Kudos to Crytek for satiating fan's desires to cloak and fire automatic weapons at the same time.


Hellgate: London – Just Make Another Diablo Already!



Whenever someone talks to me about Blizzard game studios, I can't help but laugh. I laugh when fans tell me they loved games like Starcraft and can't wait for the sequel. I laugh when I hear stories about how yet another developer has left Blizzard and gone off to form their own company, essentially making the same game they did before but somehow better. And I laugh when fans view these newer productions as anything more than the knockoffs they are.

Case in point, Hellgate: London. Though originally marketed as some sort of horrific massively multiplayer online RPG, the only thing this title actually borrows from the MMO genre is the monthly multiplayer service fee. From the programming to the art to the storyline, this game is Diablo through and through, but with first person 3D viewing options.

The story isn't too deep at all. Hell has come to Earth, mankind huddles together cowering in fear with the exception of a few heroes trained in certain classes. These are the Templar (fighters), the Cabalists (mages), and the Hunters (rogues). Where oh where have we seen three character classes challenging the dark forces in various dungeons and hellish gateways before? If you said Diablo II, you need to work on your history a bit. Still, good guess, you're only off by 1.



The thing that is so annoying about Hellgate is that absolutely nothing has changed from Diablo itself. The characters all have the exact same powers and abilities, just rearranged amongst each other. Instead of paladins using auras, the barbarian type class does now, and Necromancers are given the ability to use relatively decent weapons for a change. Even the item of "Wirt's Leg" from the Diablo series has been replaced with "Wort's Leg", and already there are rumors of a secret cow level in the game.

The folks at Flagship studios basically split off from Blizzard, remade Diablo, added a 3D camera and set it in the future then charged $10 a month for it. And while games like Dungeon Siege have already rehashed the Diablo formula, they have at least given players a different game premise. None of these studios would have to remake anything if Blizzard would just make a Diablo sequel already, but we all know Blizzard's development schedule equates to that of snails racing through molasses. For anyone who was a hardcore Diablo fan, Hellgate: London is more of an empty retread than a breath of fresh air.


Rock Band – Beatmania Evolution



Ok, we've all heard about the comparisons between Guitar Hero and Rock Band plenty of times, but what even Guitar Hero purists don't realize is just how deep the history behind both of these titles actually runs. Every gamer who first discovers a rhythm or music game seems to believe that game was the first music game available, and disregards everything that came before. The sad thing about this is that the first true music games were actually pretty unheralded and developed cult followings at best.

The first rhythm or music game was, arguably Parappa the Rappa for the playstation, released in 1996. It was good, but for our purposes didn't quite fit the definition of a music game because players didn't necessarily emulate the act of rapping so much as repeated a set sequence. In true music games, players don't know the input sequence required until they are actually playing it. Going by this definition, the first music game was Beatmania from Konami's Bemani studio. Beatmania was basically the same formula that fans know and love for most music games today, except that the controller was not a dance pad or a guitar but DJ's turntable.



Beatmania spawned more popular music games including Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Freaks, and Drummania, all of these also from Konami. Guitar Freaks and Drummania are the obvious predecessors to Guitar Hero and Rock Band respectively. Lastly, Bemani created Karaoke Revolution which was later emulated by Sing Star and again by Rock Band.

What's revolutionary about Rock Band is that it has brought all of Bemani's music games into one package, with the exception of Beatmania and Dance Dance Revolution. That's upsetting, no? Rock bands today use DJ turntables and background dancers all the time, why not expand the series as much as possible? But again I digress. The point is that as amazing as Rock Band may seem to all you metal head game fans out there, you need to realize it all started way back in Japan, on an arcade machine with a turntable on it.


The Anger

So often we stumble blindly on to what we think is a brand new and original idea only to find that it has been done to death already. What is new to us might not necessarily be new to the world, and the louder we brag about how innovative we are the ruder an awakening we are in for. That shouldn't deter anyone from trying to improve on what is already out there though, as you never know when your blatant rip off might just wind up revolutionizing the industry in a whole new way. Until you do, embrace the hatred.