One of video games’ greatest strengths lies in their ability to offer escape from a life which for so many, regrettably, is less enjoyable than fiction. Imagination is allowed to run entirely unhinged as the dreams of designers goes digital, and we lucky folk, blessed to live at a time when such possibilities are open to us, are invited along for the ride.
Beyond the special sort of people who revel in the intricate, inexplicable mundanity of building and rather tediously maintaining factories and zoos with a mouse and keyboard rather than a hard hat and, er, whatever it is zookeepers wear (you know who you are), we often pick up a controller to expand our horizons, not replicate them. It’s why so many people think Shenmue, as perfect a replication of the tedium of day-to-day as imaginable, is eye-wateringly dull.
But they’re wrong. Real life – and the history of real life – is as intimately fascinating as any spacey shooty world thrown up by the AAA Corporation. You just need to know where to look.
Thankfully, these developers did – even if they did take a few liberties here and there.
