Thursday 8 November, 2018

My final play session went for about an hour and twenty minutes. I was able to finish the game and find most of the story pieces spread throughout the areas. In the end, I chose to save Ali over Hossein, simply for the reason that up to that point I had been trying to move Ali toward a better less violent path. Unfortunately, he still dies in the end, but in my mind as more of a sympathetic character than he may have otherwise been. I was genuinely surprised by the reveal of Hossein as a conspirator against Reza, and even though abrupt, I felt the ending was still satisfying enough and certainly left it open for a sequel. Many people in America, myself included, didn’t really learn much about these events in high school and it seems the game did a good job at displaying the various forces involved in the revolution. It is good to see games used as a medium for historical fiction and documentary style pieces, as the interactive aspects of games seem to lend themselves well to the genre. Even though it seems from my quick google searches that only the choice of who to save affects the ending, the developers still made the choices feel meaningful, and I feel like they still are. Even if the game doesn’t directly change with many choices, the character of Reza certainly does. As a game that is based on relationships that a character has to his country and those around him, the character that develops in Reza, whether he be a pacifist, a violent rebel, or a religious zealot, very much changes the experience of the player. The game may not give you a bunch of endings based on what you choose to do, but if you were to view each playthrough as its own movie you wouldn’t say they told the same story. As a final note, I will say that the animations and art in general needed work in some places, but the voice actors performances did a good job overcoming the issues with awkward movement.

There are some interesting themes throughout these logs such as the theme of making decisions based off of limited information, which was probably a similar case to many of the Iranians living in this time, as well as the game making choice feel relevant to the player even when it doesn’t change the final outcome of the game. Additionally, your comments on the interactivity of games being a good medium for historical fiction and documentaries has some interesting places to explore in how games allow people to make choices and empathize with people from a different time and place than their own. There’s a lot of good reflection here to take inspiration from when making an ethical statement or ethical question for the thesis of your OPA. Good stuff!