PC Games Aren't Given the Credit Due Them

by Kris Wolfe 

Wow, I saw Daggerfall mentioned on this website. I didn't think anyone but me and my friend had heard of it. Well, it is an oddly fun game, but I do not think many people here would appreciate it. That got me thinking about PC RPGs, and people's general disinterest in them. I have a few reasons I think people might not like PC RPGs as much (other that the fact that they don't know much about them).

Firstly, I'll point out that first person perspectives are really annoyng in RPGs. And secondly (and more importantly)--People who hate SaGa Frontier (and I know there are a lot of you) hate it because it is non-linear; you just wander aimlessly and hope you do the right thing when you have to. Many PC RPGs have this factor (Daggerfall and D&D being topmost in my mind here). but not all of them!

What about King's Quest and Space Quest?! These are never mentioned anywhere! I say they are RPGs, not strategy games--they had characters, stories, puzzles--I mean, it says QUEST right there in the title! Just because they're computer games doesn't make them not RPGs... Some of the best RPGs ever made were Sam and Max Hit the Road, the Secret of Monkey Island, and Quest For Glory. All the games I just mentioned are great, actually, and they have cool story lines, neat characters, and are lots and lots of fun. They are all wickedly funny--where else do you talk to yuppette bigfoots, have to steal the bathroom key from a gas station, make an android explode by putting a banana up her, er, tailpipe, have the option of licking the ground (and being told what a SMART person you must be for doing it!), drug poodles (and get a NO ANIMALS HARMED disclaimer), or fight Moe, Larry and Curly by dropping a chandelier on them in a medieval bandit hideout? What console game lets you be an interstellar janitor or garbage man, or forces you to learn a list of nasty insults to use in swordfights? Have you ever been allowed in a console game to tell the bad guy that you're going to defeat him with your spear and magic helmet? Probably not.

PC games have great things about them other than humour though--things that many people would die for on console games--things like completly spoken dialogue (which is not badly or cheezily done!), good graphics (many of these games are older but still look great--check out Sam and Max--awesome), have huge worlds, tons of things to do in these worlds, and have good stories in them. They have twisty plots and lots of puzzles to solve and people to talk to. Sometimes there is a love story or friendship formed.

And yet people don't care, even though these are some of the many things they whine to the video game companies for. They ignore the fact that games they might like are RIGHT THERE, just because they think ALL PC RPG games must be non-linear level-building D&D dungeon-walking demon-fighting boredom. I admit that there are fewer games with teams and lots of characters, and fewer games that focus heavily on the character to drive the game; it's true that these RPGs are a little low on plot sometimes and rely more on puzzles or side quests to propel them, but there are console system RPGs that don't do these things either which are well-received. Not every RPG out for the Playstation has a complicated story like FFVII or Tactics, but people don't condemn the whole system because of that. Furthermore, the PC games keep things that some console games lack, such as the ability to really control and have fun with the one character you get to play with, or the chance to really explore the fantastic world the designers created. Different options and slightly different types of RPGs, but still RPGs and still a lot of fun. People shouldn't be so narrow-minded in their definitions, limiting the genre only to what they like. Variety is something you'll definitly find in PC games.

I love my PSX and my SNES and my Genesis and even my Sega CD, but I also know that my PC games are just as good as any games on the other platforms.

I like the fact that in Quest For Glory, you can be a thief, fighter or magician and the puzzles need to be solved using your specific skills; I like the way you can practice climbing trees and walls to improve your climbing skills; I like the way night comes and you feel tired if you've been up for too long, or the way you get hungry sometimes. I like the fact that you can get a job cleaning stables if you want money. It's like real life, only fun.

In Sam and Max, I like the world you're in, the great voice-acting, the awesome animation, the hilarious premise and the ridiculous things you have to do at times. I like the fact that you can take time off and go highway surfing or play dress-up with the characters. I really like the cool old police car you get to drive.

In King's Quest, the stories are really good (if sort of medieval Englandy) and in Space Quest, the stories are also pretty good, even if they are really twisted, and they're funny. The graphics in the latest incarnations of these games are great too, and so are the voices, usually.

These are all things people would worship about these games if they were for a gaming system, but since they're just for the boring old computer, they get ignored for some reason. I really think everyone should step back and really take a look at some of the awesome RPGs that come out on the computer every year. Most of the games I mentioned have several sequels (King's Quest is up to, I think, 7 or 8) and they are extremly popular with the computer crowd; and yet so few other people have heard of these games, and these games are so good!

In closing just remember this: in PC RPGs you also generally have the most ways to die! And many times you can die in a fun and creative way! You can smoke psychedelic weed too many times, be eaten by a hole in the wall, be cut up into little pieces by lasers, be melted, be captured stealing from the sheriff's house (he's got NICE stuff), be eaten by the shark circling in the castle moat, dehydrate in the desert, get electrocuted in the sewer, drown in the ocean (if you are dumb enough to go into it), get swatted while you are accidentally a fly, breathe poisonous gas, or be danced to death by fairies. I think more RPGs should have good death scenes. In Popful Mail, for the Sega CD (yeah, I know I'm the only one who had this) when you die, the 3 characters each have a few different things to say when you die playing as them, like, "I think I wet myself," or "Mommy..."

Save often, and dying a lot can be an integral part of your RPGing experience on the computer!