Ludonarrative Dissonance

      To write about a game that successfully marries it’s mechanics and narrative in the way that Hocking described as the ‘Citizen Kane’ of games, you would have to think about how the narrative and gameplay interact with the protagonist. And one of the games that really does this well - although there are some slightly off areas, is the ‘Tomb Raider’ reboot.

      The game starts off with your ship crashing, and finding yourself washed up on a beach, only to be abducted. You must then use your intelligence as a budding archaeologist and explorer to get yourself out of the mountain of shit that you’ve found yourself in, though it isn’t without hardship. The first sequence of the game follows the iconic Lara Croft as a girl wearing a woman’s body. Someone who is completely inexperienced, but who very quickly learns that the world - especially the area that you have found yourself in - is incredibly unforgiving, and within the first hour of gameplay you can see how the trials and tribulations of the expedition quite literally forge the iconic character of Lara Croft into the ‘badass’ that most people will associate with the character.

      It is this connection, the gradual escalation in terms of what you as the player are asked to do which dispels the notion that there is an ‘uncanny valley’, a discord between the narrative of the game and the gameplay itself.