Mars: War Logs Brings the Resistance Back to RPGs

In case you care to read a new article on Mars: War Logs but overdosed on reviews, you might want to check out this editorial on the title from Rowan Kaiser, on Joystiq, which argues that the game “brings back” the resistance narrative to RPGs. Here’s a snip:

The resistance story works so well in role-playing games because the aspects of game progression align with story progression. First, resources need to be scarce. An RPG where you join the army and immediately receive a quality weapon and armor would make item progression either slow or illogical. In a resistance story, it makes sense that the characters involved use whatever makeshift items were available to succeed.

Mars: War Logs’ main character, Roy, doesn’t even begin the game with a knife. He picks up a random long tube. After a few hours, he can maybe upgrade that tube to an animal bone or a lead pipe. Weapons and armor (composed primarily of padded clothing) can be upgraded with the scraps of metal and leather found around the camp. This is an extreme form of item progression, but it’s also a very effective one. Struggling to find a slightly better weapon feels right given the structure and story of the game. Crafting is not exactly my favorite RPG component in general, but here it feels like exactly the sort of thing Roy would need to do to survive and resist.

Character progression benefits from resistance stories as well. The real-world concept of human improvement is usually abstracted into leveling or skill improvements in RPGs, and that can occasionally feel ridiculous. But in the desperate situations that ordinary people are thrust into if they join a rebellion, they’ll either see their skills and abilities rapidly increase, or they’ll probably end up dead. Mars: War Logs is actually relatively limited in such character improvements you can improve perks and abilities, however, there are no attribute stats but as with the items, the progression seems to match how the game should work. After half a dozen fights, you’ll be dodging enemies and throwing sand in their eyes more competently than when you started.