Fetish decor

I get home tonight, and I just can't quite bring myself to launch games called 'Swat 4' and 'Act of War: Direct Action'. Leaving the house puts some perspective on things, and upon returning to my room late on a Friday or Saturday night I'm finding myself more and more averted to all these games. It's not games in general, I'd just love to be playing something truely original and with some real substance. What about double clicking on the executable for "Wuthering Heights"? Wouldn't that rock? Looking at Kathy's scribbled drawings by candle light, when suddenly her ghost raps on the grimey pane above the bed, begging you through the bars to let her in?

I know there are dozens of reasons why Wuthering Heights wouldn't work as a game, it's just and example. But that scene could work, it could be drawn out and emotive, with bump mapped detail on Kathy's face in the window, illuminated in flashes by the lightning storm. Basically, as we all know, there are very few moments in games that conjure *any* emotion in the player.

I was struck yesterday by an unexpected example of cinematic integrity in an unlikely source: ironically, Swat 4.

I'd never played any of the Swat games, but I installed this one on the LAN to have a look at. Rob and I pored over the controls and load outs for a while, then tried the first map in Co op mode. We walked up the steps of a tired looking bungalow, melting Hallowe'en lantern grinning mirthlessly by the porch. A plan was arranged for the entry of the front door - grenades were chosen, positions arranged. A couple of minutes of debating past before we were ready to pick the lock and execute our method. Nothing. bin bags lined the walls, broken bikes and stained fittings, a few closed doors, the place looked normal enough. A lamp over-turned - nothing drastic. We cautiously proceeded to the nearest door and executed a less elaborate manouver. Still, nothing.

We moved through the house like this for several minutes, our torches flashing over darkened bathrooms, locking on un-opened doors. An ambient soundtrack crept in, a melancholy, minimalist tone, contributing further to our unease at seeing no one around. Getting impatient, we half stumbled through a basement doorway into a dark, open study. Coating every inch of the walls were newspaper cuttings, layered at angles onto the woodwork behind. My flashlight caught a glimpse of the headline 'brutal killing discovered'. There were more, but there wasn't time for that. We edged in, what was it we were dealing with here? It remained unclear for only a moment longer. The next opening revealed a large man with a shotgun, a girl tied to the floor wearing half a theatrical mask, and stranger fetish decor.

That moment, the careful exploration of a sad, neglected dwelling, and the climax of the discovery of the fetish room (less the actual encounter, the suspense was dissipated) was an intruging gaming moment. What made it all the more so was the elaborate teamwork and tactical thinking necessary to proceed through the level. The language we found ourselves using to coordinate movements.