When a great-looking video game imitates a real life place, how close do the two get?
Compare the downtown Manhattan of Crysis 2 to the real thing and you’ll see what happens when just one real intersection, where State St meets Bridge St down in the financial district, becomes a video game battlefield.
The real intersection needs to accommodate foot and car traffic and allow the businesses of business and tourism to get done. The video game version needs to allow room for the player’s super-soldier to plunge into a shoot-out. But the video game version is walled off to prevent wandering and filled with more trees, trucks and even a statue-turned-memorial, all serving both as barriers behind which to hide in a gunfight as well as visual indicators that we are in a damaged place that we hopefully will care about.
(For one more comparison between reaity and the NYC of Crysis 2, check out the video game’s addition of a certain skyscraper to New York’s skyline.)
Leave a Reply