Why are there no racing games with stories? No, wait, scratch that, why are there no racing games with good stories? Or at the very least well-told stories?
It is surely not a difficult thing to do. You take the basic game structure from Wing Commander and replace all the space combat with racing cars around tracks and/or city streets. Then you profit. Why has no-one done this?
The few racing games out there that do have storylines of sort are generally half-assed efforts where all the plot is delivered through badly-written text put into the game as an afterthought, or they simply don't carry their potential through far enough.
I can think of a few recent examples. Motorstorm Apocalypse, though I didn't play it, reportedly had a plot of sorts, but it fell into the former category above. Motorstorm Apocalypse, lest you're unfamiliar, had you racing around a city that was blowing up and falling to pieces — surely an ideal situation for a rudimentary Michael Bay-style plot with some characters and shouting. It wouldn't have to be a complex plot, just something to break up the racing with some motivational scenes that gave it some meaning.
Split/Second had a go, too, with its TV show-style presentation, incredible electro-orchestral cinematic soundtrack and episodic structure. It stopped short of actually giving the game's antagonists, the "Elite Racers", any degree of personality (or indeed faces), though it did end on a cliffhanger (which will now never be resolved — thanks a lot, Disney).
Recent Need for Speed games have taken a pop at it too, but tend to lose interest after the introductory sequences. The closest example I've seen to what I'm looking for is Need for Speed The Run, but apparently — again, I haven't played it — neither the racing nor the plot are particularly up to much. (I must say, I am curious to try it, though, purely to see how close they get to what I'm imagining in my head.)
There's also a Japanese eroge called Moero Downhill Night Blaze that reportedly combines a visual novel with racing action, but judging by its required system specifications, I'm not counting on it being an especially spectacular offering on the racing front. (I do intend to play it, though, as the whole series sounds like fun in story terms, even if the racing ends up sucking.)
And then there's Midnight Club Los Angeles, which occasionally has Grand Theft Auto-style cutscenes, but not nearly enough to carry a coherent plot.
I'm honestly bewildered as to why no-one has tried this properly yet. We live in an age where video games are more "cinematic" than ever, and yet the racing game genre is still following the same old conventions it's been using since the PlayStation 1 era — and possibly before. I would pay good money for a racing game with a good, well-written plot — given that I never, ever complete racing games (Split/Second is, to date, the only exception), an unfolding narrative with interesting characters and a degree of overblown drama would be just the incentive I need to up my game and see the experience through to its conclusion.
If I had any clue how to make such a game — or indeed access to a team to make such a game — I would do so in a heartbeat. Sadly, though, I have a sneaking suspicion my desire to see a game like this will remain nothing but a far-off dream.
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ModNation Racers for the PS3 – you'll love it. 😉
Who needs a story when you're racing? I like Gran Turismo because it's all about racing. No plot, no backstories, no lame characters. Just cars and race tracks and your own skills. If you want a story, read a book or watch a movie. Games are for playing.
Thanks for your comment!
There's nothing wrong with games out there that lack backstories and characters — Gran Turismo and its imitators are immensely popular — but you shouldn't dismiss the idea of implementing a story so readily just because it doesn't appeal to you personally. Narrative can be a powerful incentivising force for many people — I'm one of them — so I'm surprised that we don't really see it in the racing genre. Even some puzzle games have plots, for heaven's sake! 🙂
What I'm really advocating is the willingness to experiment with narrative in a format where it's not normally seen, and where there's no real reason for it not to be seen. There are "car movies" — Days of Thunder, Fast and Furious, Smokey and the Bandit, Duel (showing my woeful knowledge of movies here, I know) — so why not apply these principles to games? After all, there are plenty of "action movie"-style games attempting to recreate the Michael Bay experience with guns and explosions, so why not translate that action onto four wheels and a racetrack? I really think it could work, and it doesn't mean the plot-free "pure game" experiences you enjoy have to go away, either. Everybody wins. 🙂
Maybe you should write a plot and send it to a gaming company, or find someone that can develop these sorts of games. You could end up making a ton of money that way and give players what they want in terms of story.
The thought has absolutely crossed my mind on a number of occasions. 🙂
The sort of crossing where you're leaning more and more towards doing it, or the sort of crossing where you wish you had the skill/time/guts to write such a thing as a video game story-line?
Need for speed games have a tradition of having the worst stories ever!
Oh, heavens, yes. At least, mercifully, in most cases those "stories" tend to peter out after the first couple of races or so. The Run is the obvious exception to this, but I haven't played that so can't comment in any great detail.
well I have played it. Better, but dont expect too much!
Tokyo Xtreme Racer had a sorta shot at a storyline, with teams that had text-based personalities… but yeah mainly you just drive in a circle without any plot development. Similar to the NFS games, where you drive in a circle with cutscenes involving Maggie Q but still no plot development.
I remember that! I actually really liked it, for all its repetitiveness. I enjoyed the "battle" system for winning races, but yes, I remember thinking at the time I wished they'd made more of the personalities of the racers. What were the bosses called? The Four Divas? That could have been a great opportunity to infuse the game with some character.
Even a static profile image of the racers would've added a lot more character and personality to them. If they could add story to a match-three gaming mechanic like Bejeweled's (a la Puzzle Quest), then I honestly don't see why they can't do the same with a racer. Surely all that car upgrading can be tied in with an RPG mechanic somehow?
Yup. Exactly what I've been thinking for a long time. There's even a ready-made (and awful) buzzword for that kind of game. It's — wait for it — CaRPG.
I'll get my coat.
Hi Pete! Found you via Freshly Pressed. I will confess to not being a gamer, but oh goodness, your cartoons made me laugh. Dude – I like your style. Looking forward to exploring. Cheers!
Hi! I really wasn't expecting such an influx of people from Freshly Pressed, but it's awesome! Happy to make your acquaintance. Games are a big part of my life, but they're not all I talk about on here, don't worry! In well over a thousand posts, hopefully you'll find something you enjoy 🙂
I'm sure I will! And in the meantime, if you ever record yourself playing "I am the Doctor" from DW, let me know, would you? *swoon*
Great call, I never thought about that. I'm a fan of racing games but as I got older, the story driven games definitely grabbed me more and I fell out-of-sync with racing games. Great article. 🙂
Thanks! 🙂 Happy other people feel the same way — though likewise I'm aware not everyone does!
Haha! A good point! Does Nascar have much of a story? A Nascar race, I mean? Hardly. But men and boys alike still love driving really, really fast. I guess that's why, to game makers, a true storyline doesn't seem necessary…?
Well, there's a big question! Drama is inherent in all forms of sport, both on and off the track/pitch/court/whatever. There's plenty of potential for story even in something like a NASCAR race that essentially involves driving around in circles for several hours. (Apologies if you're a NASCAR fan. I am British; historically, our motorsports enthusiasts have mocked NASCAR for only having corners that go in one direction!) What I mean is: who are the drivers? What are their rivalries? Why are they driving? Is it for personal glory? Is it to make a living? Do they enjoy it?
Sure, answering these questions isn't necessary at all, but it adds a lot more "flavour" to what's going on, and personally speaking I find that much more engaging.
As a good example of narrative being applied to a sports game — soccer, in this case, rather than racing, but the idea would work for racing, too — check out the free Facebook game I AM PLAYR, in which you play the role of a soccer player both on and off the pitch. It's really well done.
Great idea! Ooooh I would play Drive if I could be Ryan Gosling; expert getaway driver. I love feeling like I am playing a movie.
I've never been a use fan of racer games, I find them pretty repdative in most cases (that being said I loved the oldschool burn out games), I play almost any genera and plot isn't usually a huge deal to me but I think if it was possible to make a new racer that didn't have the usally corny underdog ~ new racer story line then I think it would be pretty cool and would defiantly grab my attention, but in my opinion, what do you have to lose if you writ out a basic plot line and send it into a company asking their thoughts? (make sure you can prove your the original writer of said plot line > intellectual property ect) I mean if they ink it's awesome and want to use it, well, YAY! If they hate it and tell you to leave them alone, well…. Don't take it to heart and just send it somewhere else maybe? I think you should do it ^.^ it's better to do and regret then not and wonder what could have happened ^.^
I have yet to play a good racing game with a decent back story. However, I do enjoy Forza and Gran Turismo quite a bit. Im not sure how much I personally would like having a backstory with racing.
It's not something that would appeal to everyone, for sure. I just think it would be interesting. 🙂
The more I have thought about it since my comment the more I think I would enjoy it. Would be a great change
I don't know if anybody asked you this before, but I have you tried Driver San Francisco? It's got a pretty interesting gimmick and it melds well with its crazy premise.
You know, I've brought this topic up before elsewhere and someone else mentioned that game. I really should try it sometime.
I guess people who play racing games are not into story telling.
I mean, they're the same who watch Fast and Furious. So much hate in this message. I'm sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
I'm a motorsport aficionado, with an occasional foray into the world of simulation racing. I'm strongly of the opinion that fact is very much stranger than fiction in the world of motor racing; there are plenty of events which would seem absurd if they were portrayed in a game or a fictional movie, yet actually happened. Some of these are sublime, such as Jackie Stewart's four-minute winning margin in the wet at the Nurburgring in the 1968 German Grand Prix, or Jacky Ickx's victory starting from the back, in an outdated car on his first attempt at the 24 Heures du Mans in 1969 in a race that finished with a sprint race-style duel between a Porsche 908 with worn out brakes and Ickx's underpowered, overweight Ford GT40.
Others are ridiculous, such as the Andrea Moda Formula One team, which purported to be a two-car team, but realistically only provided enough parts for one car – to the point where one of the drivers, Perry McCarthy, suffered a steering column failure through Eau Rouge in Spa-Francorchamps and returned to the pits to find that the engineers had known about it. There's the Monaco Grand Prix in 1982, where Alain Prost crashed into the barriers two laps from the finish with a significant lead, followed by Didier Pironi, who inherited the lead, running out of fuel in the tunnel. Then, Riccardo Patrese, who passed Pironi, spun at the station hairpin and Andrea de Cesaris and Derek Daly, who would have inherited the lead, ran out of fuel. Eventually, Patrese got his car started again and slowly crossed the line, but only after one of the most farcical affairs in the sport's history.
Some moments are heroic, such as Ayrton Senna's victory at Brazil in 1991, nursing a broken gearbox which would only shift into fifth, to the point where he was so exhausted at the end of the race that he couldn't get out of the car by himself. Yet others are tragic, such as the sight of Roger Williamson burning to death in his own car while a single driver, David Purley, screamed at the marshals to do something while he attempted to right the car by himself.
When these moments exist in the reality of motorsport, what story in a game could ever capture the same amount of glory, infamy, pluck and heroism?
You're absolutely right, and the "sim" games cater very well to this sort of drama. There's a certain degree of drama inherent in any sport — so long as you're a fan of said sport in the first place. If, on the other hand, you're someone like me who has an appreciation for screeching round corners sideways in cars but doesn't really have an interest in following motorsport as an actual SPORT, then I think there's scope to try something a bit more imaginative than the usual fare we see in the racing genre.
I'm not saying the narrative-based racer has to be the only means of doing things, not by a long shot! I just want to see developers explore alternative formats a bit more. We'll always have our Forzas and Gran Turismos, I'm sure — I'd just like to see something a bit different. Blur, Split/Second and Ridge Racer Unbounded (and Burnout before that) were a good start in terms of gameplay, but incorporating a narrative is something well worth exploring.
Mario Kart should be the pioneer in story-based racing gaming. Bowser kidnaps Peach and then Mario & Bowser decide that they should race to decide who weds her.
I'm sure it's been considered. 🙂
Clearly there is enough mileage here for a 100 hour epic.
I like stories in games, and you're right, it can be a great motivator, but I think this would be a tough sell. If you're going to have a racing plot, you're going to have to appeal directly to an audience who probably wants some kind of sim where they get to role-play as say, a NASCAR driver or some other very specific thing . . . which is going to be unappealing to people who just want to whip around in a virtual car. It's a lot of work when most people would just jam on the skip cutscene button to get to the next race.
Other than going a GTA route where you're engaged in some kind of illegal street race circuit and you need to earn X amount of money — but you've got to have some sort of climax to the story other than yay, you won 100 races, roll end credits.
Maybe something like a former getaway driver forced into street racing because some gangster kidnapped his kid or something, that's not a bad premise, but how do you have that play out? There needs to be twists and turns and that's tough when the main character is kind of locked in his or her car. Like the above premise, so before every race, as incentive, they show the main character's kid at gunpoint — lose the race, they die. Okay . . . but that's gonna get old after about ten races or so. You'd have to figure out some way to have the main character figure out how to rescue their kid and get back at the gangster in order to have an emotional impact. If you keep winning the bad guy is 'winning' and that's not very satisfying.
There's plenty of premises that could work, I'm sure. It doesn't have to be about professional racing. What the Need for Speed series is doing is ripe for exploring with more detailed plots — who are these drivers that "rule" the various cities? Why should I care about racing them other than for bragging rights? At the other end of the spectrum, you could take something like Split/Second and attach a plotline to that — rather than the "reality show" format that (under)used you could be fleeing some sort of disaster.
…Racing isn't really an epic subject for storytelling. Maybe a comedy might work
Nonsense! You can make a great story out of absolutely anything if you try — and as a previous comment noted (I forget who it was, as I'm on my phone and can't check while writing this — sorry!), there is plenty of drama inherent in racing even without adding specific characters to it. Put some faces to the drivers on the grid and you have the potential for a lot of interesting stuff.
Over the last few years I have played games about a group of schoolkids making a band and touring Japan; a bunch of doctors in a hospital; a lawyer cracking a series of difficult cases; a kid suffering from heart problems having to attend a special school… need I go on? All of these were dramatic, interesting tales in their own way, and proved that games with stories can be about far more than just saving the world or blasting aliens.
Stories are everywhere and in everything; it just takes a skilled storyteller to bring them out.
Interesting thoughts! Definitely going to have a root through this blog at some point 😀 I'm not quite at 1000 posts yet……………