Realism: Above and Beyond the Half-Life's Realistic World

The paper was originally a midterm assignment of Games 101 class at NYU

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          Ever since Nvidia Turing was announced back in 2018, ray tracing has been the talk of the town. It is an advanced rendering technique and attempts to emulate the way light and shadows work in real life. It is probably one of the most significant graphics upgrades that we have seen in the gaming landscape in years, allowing the player to step into an epic immersive world. But the enthusiasm for creating a realistic experience concerns me. Why do we have a burning desire to make firm connections between the virtual world and reality?

          To wipe out the confusion, I looked back on games from early times. In the 1990s, there were few fancy hardware and software that could bless designers and developers with a chance to build a remarkably detailed digital world like today. Various games at that time used other approaches to earn shock and awe from the player. Valve's first-person shooter Half-Life is one of those pioneers. The limited pixels and polygons did not restrict the scope of this game. Instead, it went above and beyond the realistic simulation and achieved what in other traditional media would call realism. My goal in this paper is to identify the core aspects of realism and explore Half-Life as a case study example of realism in gaming.

The Origins of Realism

Games are not the first media that coin the term of realism. The idea has long rooted in the arts. In literature, realism is the “faithful representation of reality ... especially the representation of middle-class life”, and “complex ethical choices are often the subject” (Campbell, “Realism in American Literature, 1860-1890”). Following this interpretation, Victor Hugo's novel Les Misérables is one example of literary realism. Realism, dobbed “neorealism” in the cinema, is “a technique to approximate the basic phenomenological qualities of the real world” (Bazin 104). And “phenomenological qualities” means the dirty details, hopeful desires, and abysmal defeats in life. In this way, dark comedy Fargo enfolds realism by juxtaposes two images of pathetic and ironic family life in the criminal underworld.

          Literary realism and cinematic realism share two main features. First, it contains a naturalistic depiction of reality, convincing the audience that the world is still grounded in the real world. Les Misérables and Fargo have fictional characters and stories, but both have connections to our reality. Published in 1862, Les Misérables referenced what were already historic events say the French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon. Fargo, on the other hand, sourced from several real incidents: a kidnapping in Minnesota, and a woodchipper murder in Connecticut.

          But more importantly, realism appears in the form of social critique and thoughtful insight into our life and world. Les Misérables reflects the lower class who still have little voice in society and Fargo digs into the seedy underworld of the lawless and corrupt. Realism is not merely the literal or visual representation of reality. If they were the same, we would no longer need a novel or a film to sense realism, for we can directly see, smell, hear and feel the physical world by ourselves without external media. Fredric Jameson articulated this distinction between reality and realism well in his 1992 essay The Existence of Italy: If realism validates its claim to being a correct or true representation of the world, it thereby ceases to be an aesthetic mode of representation and falls out of art altogether (Jameson 158). Because games also pursue aesthetic goals, I suggest we take references from the traditional theories to identify realism in games and think of realism as one approach to fuel aesthetics in interactive media.

Realistic Games versus Realist Games

Game scholars have made progress with the research on realism in gaming. Following Jameson's argument, Alexander R. Galloway defines two terms in game studies to mark the difference. He uses “realistic-ness” to describe the realistic representation in games and defines “realist games” as those games that reflect critically on the minutia of everyday life, replete as it is with struggle, personal drama, and injustice (Galloway, “Social Realism in Gaming”). In this way, ray tracing leads to a high level of realistic-ness, but the increasing graphical sophistication alone does not breath life into realism. The more realistic-ness takes hold in gaming without organic and meaningful play, the closer a game will be to modeling or simulation. To implement realism in gaming, one must think about aesthetic experiences other than visual enjoyment.

          Therefore, it is possible to divide games into two piles. One that has some level of realistic-ness, and another that is entirely fantastical with none bond to reality. Then in the first pile, some games deliver social, political or cultural messages through realistic-ness and become realist games. While others remain realistic and do not emerge any deeper and further meaning. So, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a realist game because its detailed Western adventure world chronicles the inevitable collapse of the Wild West era kicking against the slow march of civilization and industrialization (Reilly, “Read Dead Redemption 2 Review”). FIFA 19, on the other hand, is a realistic game about football competitions because the 3D models of famous football stars signal nothing more than accuracy in 3D modeling. Hollow Knight, a platformer set in an imaginary insect kingdom, is one vivid illustration of fantastical games.

Realism in Half-Life

The technology was rudimentary back in the 1990s. It was challenging for designers to explore 3D modeling and light rendering, not to mention create meaning throug them. Some games took a bold step onto the path where their predecessors had not yet explored, and Half-Life was one of them. That is to say, realism in gaming.

          According to the rules of realism, the game should feature realistic-ness. Half-Life creates the illusion of reality in worldbuilding. It begins with Freeman's commute via a tram. As he arrives late to work, a public service announcement calmly intones the time and temperature, and he is subjected to a series of ominous scenes at Black Mesa that foreshadow the events of Half-Life. Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux give us a vivid description of the opening chapter in their Ebook Metagaming:

A security guard banging on a tunnel door, white-coated scientists scuttling along rusted catwalks, a concrete pipe swinging at the end of a chain, a nuclear missile in mid-transport to some unknown launch site, autonomous quadrupedal robots performing industrial labor (and sometimes blocking the tram), a black Apache helicopter on a landing pad in the New Mexican landscape (Boluk and LeMieux, “Metagaming: Two”).

          These details are the spark that lightens the realistic-ness of the Black Mesa compound. It represents a research institution that could exist and function in the real world despite the game's science fiction setting. But the polygons and textures of the Black Mesa are as believable as the medieval caves and dungeons in Quake, the models of scientists and security guards are as realistic as those special agents in GoldenEye 007. What differs and matters is the narrative embedded in the Black Mesa, which is the catalysts for realism.

          Half-Life tells a realist story. First, it has an iconic protagonist who is different from other shooters. Twenty-seven years old with a Ph.D. in theoretical physics from MIT, Freeman represents a civilian, while an online survey shows that military and related backgrounds dominate in avatars of first-person shooters (Hitchens, “A Survey of First-person Shooters and their Avatars”). Freeman is not an indifferent hero killing whatever is moving in the background. Instead, he does what average people like us would do when facing an emergency. He runs away from aliens and keeps a distance from danger. To emphasize his ordinary personality, Freeman is equipped with no firearms when he encounters his first enemies. And the first weapon he finds in Black Mesa is a crowbar. What's more, there are many scripted events where Freeman can do nothing but watch the tragic death of his colleagues. He is a mirror that reflects the vulnerability and incapability of ordinary people.

          The twist in the middle adds up the realism in the storyline. In previous chapters, the game implies that the military is coming to rescue the people trapped in the facility. A security guard at the office complex tells Freeman the exciting news and scientists are running towards topside for military protection. But the hope evaporates when Freeman witnesses a marine killing a scientist, so he has no choice but aims at soldiers. The dramatic plot delivers a serious message. The military is a symbol of high authority, and their hostile reactions to scientists represent the indifference of the high authority when attempting to keep a media circus from the beginning. And Freeman's counterattack expresses the public's opposition to cover-ups and conspiracies.

          Hence the player experiences more than the sensation and challenge of eliminating enemies in Half-Life. There are also personal dramas, moral and ethical quandaries, and examination of society. The release of Half-Life in 1998 stimulated the industry to up their game in a serious way. Nowadays, realism is not fresh or uncommon in games.

Conclusion

Realism is built on the blueprint of realistic representation of our reality, but it doesn't stop there. It goes above and beyond the realistic-ness. Originated in literature and images (painting, photography, film), now realism finds a new place in games. Half-Life shows that designers can deliver their social, political and cultural messages through the realistic virtual world as writers or directors do in their works. In this way, realism in gaming is one ingredient of aesthetic experiences for the player.

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Bazin, André. What Is Cinema? : Volume II. University of California Press, 2004.

Fargo. Directed by Joel Coen, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment and Working Title Films, 1996.

GoldenEye 007. Rare, Nintendo, 1997.

Half-Life. Valve, Sierra Studios, 1998.

Hollow Knight. Team Cherry, 2017.

Hugo, Victor. Les Misérables. Belgium, Albert Lacroix, 1862.

Jameson, Fredric. Signatures of the Visible. Routledge, 1992.

Quake. id Software, GT Interactive, 1996.

Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar Studios, Rockstar Games, 2018.