Comedy in Games

If you look deeply into the video game world, you will notice that there aren’t exactly many video games that are exclusively designed (either through gameplay or writing) to make you laugh.

There are fewer games out there that are considered good comedies as well. For every Portal 1&2, there are a few dozen Sacred 3 or Hellpies. Why is that?

I think it is a mixture of how games are designed, in terms of length and gameplay mechanics, and the usual problem one has in the industry when it comes to writing. It’s going to be uneven.

So let’s talk about the gameplay mechanics and length. These will be in the broad strokes keep in mind cause I just wanna talk about what I think are some of the drawbacks of the medium of comedy.

Video games, especially in the AAA space, tend to be long open-world fests with billions of little things to do. The problem with the open-world format is that it is almost impossible to keep hold of the pacing- the most important ingredient of comedy. It’s a reason why horror games are rarely open-world. You have to keep the player scared and you can’t do that easily with horror. It’s even more difficult for comedy as you have to set up the joke, then deliver the punchline. How on earth can you do that in an open-world environment devoid of pacing?

I don’t think I have the answer to this question, as it doesn’t seem to have been tried all that much. The few times one could say it has been done in say Borderlands or Forspoken, it tends to be just quips or Joss Whedon Dialogue.

Sometimes you might have some slapstick, like Saints Row 4, Stickfight: The Game, or Goat Simulator, the latter fully revolves around the abuse of physics or wacky props like the dildo bat (mine was candy striped). Saints Row 4 allows for flagrant abuse of the physics outside of the main story missions, which allows for more complexity in the humor, typically satires and parodies of major video games and movies, ranging from Deep Impact to Metal Gear Solid.

I think Saints Row 4 allows for a happy middle-ground between the mindless but never the less hilarious slapstick but provides enough variety in its comedy with focused parody for the player. This prevents the comedy from getting old and keeps the reader entertained for longer.

Stickfight: The Videogame doesn’t have a strong narrative or intelligent satire to back up the comedy. But it uses silly slapstick in short gaming bursts to great effect. Neither I nor my friends have ever been in a Stickfight: The Game session and not been laughing our asses off.

Goat Simulator however relies on memes and wacky illogical situations, which certainly are funny and amusing. For a while at least, but when everything is at 11 all the time, the 11 becomes the new normal.

This is a problem with horror and comedy games, there has to be something to cool the player down, or otherwise, the laughs will wither away and the player is left with an obnoxious sense of annoyance, as the jokes keep coming but they never laugh.

Sacred 3 is one of the worst examples of this in action. The quips keep on coming along with mountains of sass to the point when you want to rip the character's throats out and hear them gurgle their last sassy words in agony. There is nothing else to the comedy in Sacred 3 asides from the quips, the Dross Whedon dialogue grats on you like a cheese grater, and you crave the sweet release of your ears and hearing.

Borderlands 1&2 has a similar problem to both Goat Simulator and Sacred 3, while not as bad as the latter. Everyone is quipping all the time and everything is at max silliness. I think the main difference between Borderlands and Sacred 3 is that the writing is slightly better, and the voice acting is more enjoyable in spite of the Dross Whedon dialogue. It also stands out against Goat Simulator regarding plot, be it that Borderlands 1&2 has one. It has stakes and characters doing things as opposed to wacky things occurring for no reason.

It does pale in comparison to Saints Row 4 of course, as Borderlands lacks the satire or charm of the former. The comedy in Borderlands is way more shallow than in Saints Row 4 because Borderlands is more interested in quipping than saying something about games or art.

Now, you don’t have to always be satirizing something, sometimes you can just be witty. This is rarer in video games but not impossible.

Portal 1&2 is one of the best examples of comedy in video games, the gameplay isn’t terribly deep but extremely engaging. The gameplay engages you but the writing makes it memorable. GLaDOS is a brutally funny antagonist, insulting you with the dry caustic wit Handsome Jack could only dream of. Portal 1&2 never ceases to make me laugh because of the stellar writing and voice acting. The gameplay doesn’t distract from the comedy but enhances it, allowing for some mundanity to contrast the wackiness. The fact that Chell never talks or reacts also works in Portal’s favor, as she becomes the player avatar grounding the player with some semblance of sanity, the emotionless contrast to the animated (vocally) GLaDOS.

However, Portal is somewhat of a rarity, The Stanley Parable has a similar vibe but ultimately, most games tend to follow something closer to the Borderlands/Saints Row 4. Normally comedy is regulated to the side, providing relief to the drama but never the main focus.

And it’s a shame, Games when done well can be excellent interactive comedies, and it could be explored more in games. Let’s try and do more, and maybe Saints Row 4 and Portal will have more competition to fight against.

Cheers for reading.

Please consider reading Black Masquerade: The third entry in the Eight Nightmares Collection, now available at selected retailers.

Acknowledgments

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