Every self-respecting fantasy title - role-playing, action, strategy or otherwise - needs an ancient civilization, be it a tribe of living gods, a sentient machine republic or those bloody road-destroying, settler-ambushing Egyptians.
For years, I've attributed this common theme to the need to invest the universe with temporal depth, buttressing its bright, breezy surface with age-old secrets, forbidden knowledge you'll gradually uncover as proceedings, um, proceed.
This weekend's first go at From Dust, the first proper god sim on Xbox 360, suggests a different interpretation. Games like Mass Effect and Halo need ancient civilizations because games like Mass Effect and Halo need potentially universe-ending screw-ups for dramatic purposes, and if there's one thing you can count on an ancient civilization to do, it's screw up so horrifically the rest of global and/or galactic history becomes an exercise in damage control. Short of a crisis? Phone your ancestors. SPEAK LOUDLY AND CLEARLY, and wear a helmet.
This has resulted in, among other things, a desert that's secretly an ocean. On arriving, I was lulled by the panorama of sweeping dunes, and set about colonising the place in cheerful anticipation of absolutely no unpleasant surprises whatsoever. 10 minutes later, a dozen inexhaustible, ineptly buried water sources had transformed half the map into Pirates of the Caribbean. Yay for procedural water physics! Boo for oxygen-breathing lifeforms!
Having watched my flock disappear down nature's toilet, I paused to reflect on a few better-known examples of ancient racedom, and the rose-tinted scales fell from my eyes. Consider the Dwemer, ladies and gentlemen, the long-extinct/vanished dwarves or "deep elves" whose cities and temples pack Skyrim's underbelly. They were a disaster, albeit one whose effects are (or at least - touch wood - seem to be) limited to the Dwemer themselves.
Mass Effect's Protheans are easier to forgive. Their sins are ones of omission - omitting, that is, to mention that the large, well-accoutred space station on the galaxy's south-western rim is, in fact, a portal to death by giant mechanical squid. You could argue that the Protheans performed better here than the civilizations that preceded them - they did let Shepard know in the end, albeit not soon enough to stave off a Reaper attack on the Citadel. I say don't count your Krogans. We're not out of the Thresher Nest yet. And other Mass-Effect-3-related proverbs.
12 comments so far...
MrCoolJoeCool on 9 Jan '12 said:
All of those races died because they didn't understand the size of the threat & didn't unite like the humans always do in enough time.
Plamsa wing on 9 Jan '12 said:
Don't forget guys that the Protheans aren't the only species that were bent over a barrel by the Reapers. I'd sure love to know more about Klencory and it's beings of light in ME3.
BomBom on 10 Jan '12 said:
Also protheans failed, because most of their race on outer systems was already under Reaper control(indoctrination), and they were being sent allover prothean Empire, as "Trojan horses", Also protheans didn't fail as Reapers intended, what they did was they sent a message to secret facilities telling them to lock down and wait till the end of Reaper invasion, and we get to find out more in ME3, and then we can start to debate if they failed or not.
Alaric14 on 10 Jan '12 said:
I think the ominously-titled "Ones Who Came Before" from the Assassin's Creed universe deserve the award for Biggest Ancient Cock-Up ahead of Mass Effect's numerous failed ancient races (Protheans excluded for having the good sense to send future generations a message in a bottle - well done, chaps.).
Having all the technology they did, Those Who Came Before never thought to turn their eyes skywards and examine the solar activity. Result? The Earth's magnetic sphere is reversed and catastrophic civilisational failure ensues.
Oh, but at least they managed to safeguard devices that could make people into mindless slaves and give the wielders god-like power. Kudos.
CunningSmile on 10 Jan '12 said:
But they did have some truly funky hats, so they surely get points for that?
Alaric14 on 10 Jan '12 said:
Their hats were indeed funky, yet the Protheans taste in garden ornaments was funkier still, so the balance is maintained.
Decent_Jam on 11 Jan '12 said:
Is hat funky-ness inversely proportional to intelligence then?
CunningSmile on 12 Jan '12 said:
I think hat funky-ness is more a sign of a corrupt and decadent society that will collapse under it's own weight.
Take Star Wars: In the prequels all the senators are wandering around in really silly head pieces or hair do's. The one exception is Palpatine, and he manages to pretty much single handedly conquer the galaxy. In New Hope and Empire the Imperials all wear nice sensible military hats and manage to rule the galaxy, holding at bay Leia's side buns, but by Return of the Jedi Leia has a much more sensible style, while the guys in the Emperor's throne room are now sporting silly hats. Who wins?
Trust me, sooner or later all geopolitics comes down to hats.
OXM ETboy on 12 Jan '12 said:
Tinfoil variety included?
Bezza89 on 12 Jan '12 said:
lol are you mad cunning? Those hats in a new hope were insane snow shovels... on the deathstar I suppose... which did blow up. You might be on to something .
Alaric14 on 12 Jan '12 said:
Want a gaming example of why Cunning's hat theory is accurate?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/736-Lost-Odyssey
CunningSmile on 13 Jan '12 said:
Those hats were awesome!!! No wonder they all died out