Computer Game Comparison

Back in the day there were many countless games that were very fun and popular for its time such as Pong, to Pitfall, down to Pac-Man, and so on. Today I would like to make a close comparison between two games, one of those games being a blast from the past and the other one being a more modernized version. The two comparisons are between Zork a text adventure game, published by Infocom and Activision in 1977, and Beyond: Two Souls (aka just Beyond) an interactive drama action-adventure game, published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2013. Both games fall under the genre of an adventure or being an adventurer, meaning having to go on a quest and going through challenges/ obstacles to proceed to the main goal. The comparison between the two is quite the same and may have their differences in the sense of one being an older model than the other.

Gameplay

Zork: The controls are quite simple for there are no controls! The way you actually control your character is by text. The story and journey is written out in text form, there are no visuals as to where you’re going/ what you’re doing. Everything and I mean everything is written out; the only way to play this game is by use of imagination and typing in your next move. An example would be how you start the game; you begin with standing in a field facing west of a boarded up white house, from there you type in a command (look, take, examine, hit, etc.) to give to your imaginary character, to help you move along with your quest while interacting with different objects, characters, and obstacles. I believe there are no actual “solid” rules except to type in words that the computer can understand or accept. The goal is to return from the "Great Underground Empire" alive with all the treasures you’ve collected along the way, and finally inheriting the title of Dungeon Master.

Beyond Two Souls: Requires controlling/guiding a girl name Jodie Holmes and Aiden (an entity that has no body) while interacting with other objects/ characters throughout the game. You control the two main characters or play multiplayer (second player plays as Aiden) with a controller (joysticks to move around) and while doing so there are a lot of situations where you need to make dialog (text based) decisions, your choices then will affect the way the game’s story will go. For example Jodie at one point is homeless and other people want to talk to her, so at this moment a bunch of timed texts pop out on your screen and give you different choices to choose from with your controller/buttons, if you don’t hurry and choose then the game automatically chooses for you so decide quickly and wisely. There are no main goals for the fact being that Beyond has multiple endings giving it different plots revealed depending on the choices the player makes. The main rule being to make quick choices before the game picks it out for you.

Zork & Beyond Two Souls: The two games have obstacles and challenges that seem very similar to one another, ignoring the graphics point of view from the games. Zork uses resources to fight off enemies and solve certain puzzles as to Beyond has resources to use in the game and Jodie uses Aiden as a resource also. For example Jodie can use a guitar (when she was homeless) to play music to get some money for food, later she breaks in a mini market to steal food and uses Aiden to break into the store cameras/ doors. The challenge is breaking into the store/ not getting caught and the obstacle being the security cameras. Zork has a scene where you find a Lamp and sword, later on using the lamp to shine the way into a dark stairway and the sword being able to help kill a troll to clear the way. The challenge is finding a way out and the obstacle was the troll standing in your way. Both games here show the resemblance how a true adventure game is played.

Immersion:

Zork: In the game Zork there isn’t any audio, art, major story or characters. The game’s setting is in the ruins of an ancient empire lying far underground that gives you a sense of danger and mystery. The kind of ruins that makes you want to discover wealth and riches while going through dangerous passage ways.

Beyond Two Souls: The story goes that Jodie Holmes was separated from her mom at birth and was raised on a fictional “United States Department of Paranormal Activity” base. Reason being so is because of her connection and ability to communicate with her psychic entity named Aiden (no one can see him except Jodie). The story itself makes you feel like a young child that had to grow up fast, growing up in different homes, with no family and a lot of tough love (kind of like me and growing up in different foster homes). I felt like I was able to relate to this game a lot (besides the telekinetic entity), this girl had a lot of sadness growing up and when she finally found herself/ figured out her life, she had a huge weight lifted off her shoulders, where she finally found her peace. The audio and graphics were amazing for the fact being that the main characters were played by real famous actors such as Ellen Page (Jodie) and Willem Dafoe (Dr. Nathan Dawkins). The music made you feel different moods from sadness, anger, happiness, and the graphics were as though it was an actual movie you were part of or watching.

Zork & Beyond Two Souls: Both games probably don’t have the same kind of theme but they did make you feel like an adventurer that’s looking for something whether it’s gold or yourself. Zork and Beyond both had a sense of danger lurking everywhere and not having that trust in anything/anyone.

Play Value

Zork: What causes a player to get so hooked onto the game is trying to figure out the puzzles and locations while you use your imagination. The suspense of the unknown, not knowing what’s going to happen next on the choices you make. The feeling of threat or danger on every corner is what makes a player type out their decision super-fast as though their life is on the line. For example the scene where you push a blue button and a leaky pipe starts to pour out water that is rising to your knees and is constantly continuing to rise, which then makes you want to type for your life!

Beyond Two Souls: This game is an addiction to play for its challenging decisions and threat. When you make choices from dialog/ actions, the game feels like it turns into a movie than a game after a while, making you feel like you’re actually the character in the game and you want no harm to happen to Jodie. The harmony of whether you want to be good/evil revolves around your choices and comes together perfectly with the ending story.

Zork & Beyond: Both games were very suspenseful and get gamers very into the game for being about decision making and adventurous to the player.

Conclusion

In conclusion I decided to compare Zork and Beyond to show how older model games can be molded into a new modern version. Both games can relate a lot by their text decisions in a more modernized way. I’m pretty sure if Zork were to ever be remade that it could possible turn out a lot like Beyond. If I had to choose between both games it would be Beyond: Two Souls, I love this game so much for that fact being that I never know what kind of ending I will have. The endings to Beyond will always be a surprise and knowing that it has multiple endings makes me want to play the game more and more. Zork was a great game too, I’m sure that people back in the day felt the same way as I do with Beyond. They both show a lot of great similarities despite one being from 1977 with no graphics and the other being 36 years older with cinematic HD picture. Even though I love Beyond: Two Souls, I still hope that one day someone can remake Zork, who knows maybe I can take on that task one day and make it very revolutionary.