Over the summer of 2023, my cousin moved back home, and with him came his PlayStation 4. He was kind enough to let me borrow it for the summer; it is safe to say I spent most of my summer playing it.
I played both “Hogwarts Legacy” and Insomniac’s “Spider-Man,” and I could not get enough, so much so that, when I returned his console to him, I was admittedly a bit sad. Luckily for me, my parents were incredibly gracious this Christmas and gifted my sister and I a PlayStation 5 which came with the newly released “Spider-Man 2.” I proceeded to complete that game over the course of winter break.
Through this immersion into the world of video games, I quickly learned just how unique the experience of storytelling is in their medium. I saw just how brilliant the stories can be in video games, specifically in their length, their ability to make one empathize with the characters and their immersive factor.
To begin with the games’ length, the three games that I have played on the PlayStation consoles have been no less than 25 hours in length total. Movies are typically around two to two and a half hours, TV shows are typically around ten and books can vary in length depending on the page count, but the typical amount of time to finish a standard 400 page book is around eight hours. This means that video games are over double the amount of time of other popular mediums of storytelling, therefore allotting the story within the game not only more time to develop, but also more time to branch off into interesting and important side-quests.
For “Hogwarts Legacy” in particular, the amount of the plot that unfolds is almost unbelievable. The main story is interesting, but there are many side characters with stories that are just as intriguing. The side characters’ stories all contribute to the main story in some way, leading the player to feel like they are discovering the story all on their own. Without this extended length of time, the video game medium would not be able to include these fascinating elements to the story, therefore not permitting the story to truly flourish as well as it could have.
Secondly, the ability to be the main character in a story allows for so much more empathy and emotional ties to be made between the player and the characters. In both the two “Spider-Man” games and “Hogwarts Legacy,” I became extremely attached to the characters I embodied because I was spending so much time controlling them. I felt as if we were going through the journey together as opposed to me watching them or reading about them going through their own voyage separate from me. This connection to the story and characters themselves is such a wonderful escape from the real world or personal issues and it allows the story to truly sink its claws into the person playing the game, making the experience that much better.
Finally, the immersive factor of video games is unlike that of any other medium. Through controlling the characters themselves, players are permitted to explore every inch of the world that they want, discovering everything from the tiniest details to the largest facets. This once again allows the players to feel attached to what they are doing as well as grow more and more hungry to uncover and unlock as many hidden gems as they can. In “Hogwarts Legacy” specifically, players are permitted to explore all of Hogwarts school, as well as Hogsmeade, the Forbidden Forest and all along the coast of the area. This, for many people, is a childhood dream, and the fact that they can explore it all themselves with no regulations on when and where they are supposed to go, the enjoyability of the experience goes way up.
Overall, video games are not only a brilliant way to tell stories, but a highly impressive art form. The amount of work and dedication that goes into these games, not only from the animators, but also from the writers, the story-makers, the marketing teams and the IT workers, truly takes a village. They are lengthy, emotional, immersive pieces of art that allow communities of people to gather and go on a journey unique to each individual. As a story lover myself, I cannot think of anything more ideal than that.
