Heyo once again people of the internet, TKH here. So first off I must once again apologise for the lack of posts lately. But I do want to try to get regular posts up, though those of you who have followed this blog since it began will probably be rolling your eyes with skepticism. But alas, I shall do my best to keep content on this blog coming. The usual World of Tanks tank reviews are planned to begin again soon, with possibly some Hearthstone card reviews starting as well and of course other gaming related things.
So today I thought I'd have a little talk about a gaming series that is probably one of my favorite in gaming, especially the PS2 titles of the franchise. It is called Ace Combat, a series where essentially the player controls aircraft and destroys enemy targets. The series has been mostly set in a fictional world, Strangereal, which has it's own history, law and politics. One of the reasons this series has captivated me as much as it has I think is the amount of depth it has despite (in essence) being an arcade flight simulator gaming series.
It also isn't afraid to show just how awful war is for all involved. One mission in particular which comes to mind is the 11th mission in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, where your mission is to protect allied(coalition of multiple countries in the game) bombers as they perform a bombing mission on a enemy (Belka) industrial city. Firstly the name of the mission is "The Inferno", something which destroys everything in its path and scars what it destroys for a very long time. The operation name is "Operation Cannibal", once again another heavily negative word, something which betrays it's own, is a savage and inhumane.
As the player starts the mission the first thing that one notices is how dark the scene is, as the mission takes place during the night. This gives a very dark setting for the mission, only emphasizing the sadness and chaos war brings. The only light is from the target city, which as your wingman Larry "Solo Wing Pixy" Foulke puts it is a "burning city", as the allied bombers having already started their bomb runs on the city. The next thing is the music, which is extremely dark stuff. During the first half of the track you can almost hear the corruption and darkness filling the track. Then the track takes on a different tune, as it fills with sadness and loss of hope as the city before you is bombed into submission. The scale of the bombing is only made worse when the player hears that it was supposed to be a "strategic bombing" mission, essentially meaning that the targets were meant to be bombed with precision to avoid civilian causalities. Instead, the allied bombers start carpet bombing the city instead, not caring whether civilian building are hit as well.
Then comes what I think is the factor which completes the darkness which this mission is designed to show. The name of the city is "Hoffnung", which I thought didn't mean anything when I first saw it. But then after realizing how dark and depressing the mission is, I thought to look it up and see if perhaps it actually means something. As it turns out the word is actually a German one, and translated into English it means "Hope". So effectively what your allied bombers are doing is carpet bombing hope. This feeling of anger at what is going on is only made worse when the enemy decide to burn the city as they retreat, to leave nothing for the allies. The line which the player hears which seals the feeling in this mission is this, "Abandon Hoffnung", or abandon hope. The events of this mission are so impactful that (spoiler alert if you want to play the game and not have any story ruined) your wingman (Larry Foulke) decides to defect to a organisation called A World With No Boundaries, as he feels that the political games which are being played to gain control of resources by the allied countries after the chaos and ruin which has occurred is wrong.
Larry defects in the next mission, one where the Belkans decide to drop seven nuclear bombs on their own cities in South Belka, claiming that North Belka is the "true homeland" of the nation. Really this move was most likely made to make sure that when the allies took South Belka (something which was only a matter of time away from happening), they were left with nothing. The nukes are actually dropped as the mission is happening. As it happens the effects of them are felt by the player, with communications being damaged and the player being attacked by a squadron of enemy fighters after the confusion of the nukes has occurred. Once the nukes are dropped the music which had been playing up to that point of the mission stops, only emphasizing the loneliness and silence the nukes bring.
The examples of how much impact the events of the Ace Combat series has had goes on, but I feel it is quite astonishing how a game series with such a simple premise can be so in depth and hard hitting. Keeping in mind as well that the Belkan War game talked about here is about ten years old now, showing that even a decade ago (and older) games could have big messages to show to their audiences. Gaming may seem like something which is childish and meaningless to some, but there many examples of when games can have as much (if not more on occasion) of a fleshed out and powerful story behind them than even the best movies, TV shows and (I'd go as far as to say) books.
So that is the post for today, thanks to those of you who read through the whole thing and I hope you enjoyed it.
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