Time (And Cover) Heals All Wounds

Doctors, their employed for the national health service to provide impartial transparency and care. Conducting attentive diagnosis to our presented afflictions and deliberating the best possible recourse to aid us in our recovery with astute observations, delicate prods to sensitive areas (not there) prudent queries that could propose a theory to your contracted ailment, whilst maintaining courteous professionalism and fortified acknowledgement that their composed temperament alleviates our speculative assertions that often  bound our neurosis. Through the frugality of their diplomatic assessments and simplified explanations; the clarifying knowledge acts as a placebo to assure our anxious minds. Of course this is a fictitious account of general practitioners and is evidently a decorative protraction, functioning as a fastidious introduction to what is intended to be a site dedicated to gaming (I’ll get there). The medical occupation is replete with significant, perhaps contentious doctorates. For instance: Dr Doolittle, Dr No, Dr Hibbert, Dr Emmett Brown, Doctor Octopus, Dr Who, Dr Quinn, Quincy, Dr House, “Doctor Doctor I feel like a pair of curtains?!” “Then pull yourself together man!” And Dr Evil. But I hasten to add that none of the above practitioners–regardless of the legitimacy of their medically acclimated credentials or fictional status–would ever be required in the regenerative world of gaming.

“Ugh, nearly….d..e..a..d.. Oh, it’s fine now, I’ve sat down.”

You see their existence would be muted by the ethereal availability to regenerate health by simply adopting the fetal position! I remember being petrified in Resident Evil when the celestial light began to abate, your down to your last clip of ammunition and your health is visibly diminished, indicated by the EKG juddering erratically on-screen as well as your accompanying, lethargic physicality and limp. Any surplus pharmaceuticals or medicinal subsidies have all been depleted by your exposed retaliations to contentious hostility. Your clandestine servitude merely delays your prospective intention. You throw flippant disregard for your hermetic reprieve and bravely assert your apprehensive acclamation….before being torn by the jagged ivory’s of a cannibalistic cop and mutilated canine as they begin to digest your mutilated carcass. This was the issue presented by games before the sedation of difficulty. Every mistake felt punctuated, every rash decision was punishable and the retention of your excess supplies was augmented by your deteriorating health.

“Me? I’m just shopping for you know vegetables, baked beans and sharp implements.”

Imagine the consulting physician that agent 47 would talk to? “Hmm? Deep lacerations to your abdomen, a severed vertebra, shattered pelvis, extensive blood stains on your suit and broad cranial damage to a head currently detached from your body. Ok, take two of these, some bed rest and conceal yourself behind a conspicuously placed crate”. Its become customary to recover from grievously inflicted wounds sustained under intense conflicts, which never really conform with the volatile nature of the situations. Even the sporadic power ups that provide temporary immunity or replenishment for your endured pains have been negated. We become so dependant on the rejuvenating principle of elapsed time rather than our own attenuated proficiency, which seems contradictory that stationary seclusion emits such redemptive vigour. If you’re in an intense conflict with a battalion of aggressors surrounding you, as you clutch your revolver with furtive aggression; how intense can that be if you know that immobility will sustain your immunised vitality?

The level of complex architecture that resonates so profoundly in modern gaming is a contributing factor, and its syndication has certainly been of beneficiary aid to me, almost coercing me to utilise more methodical means of progression. But it isn’t always coherent, often diminishing the intensity of the situation which invariably undermines the conversely prodigious events simulated. I  also suspect that when enquiring about a consultancy with your GP, Lara Croft wouldn’t be impeded by a monotonous assistant enveloped in more cosmetics than Ronald McDonald, cordially asking “is your illness serious?”. If I Knew That, I Wouldn’t be phoning you!

Do games rely on the safety of cover and regeneration too much? Let me know what you think. Cheers.