恶灵都市
Omikron:
The Nomad Soul

Quantic Dream, 1999
Windows 和 Dreamcast

Quantic Dream, 1999
Windows and Dreamcast

如今,诸如《幻象杀手(Fahrenheit, 2005)》、《暴雨(Heavy Rain, 2010)》、《超凡双生(Beyond: Two Souls, 2013)》这样的“互动电影”早已与 David Cage 以及 Quantic Dream games 这俩名字牢牢绑定在一起。这类风格的游戏注重叙事和剧情,以至几乎没有可玩性可言,最后仅局限于快速反应事件(QTE)以及类似的细微操作。

可惜,实际上 David Cage 最好的游戏作品恰恰是与其后来作品大相径庭的处女作《恶灵都市(Omikron: The Nomad Soul)》,这款游戏极具野心地融入了多种玩法,不失大胆却又存在瑕疵短板。

《恶灵都市》故事伊始,某位警员打破了第四面墙[1] 求助于玩家。他便是凯尔(Kay’l),他请求玩家让你的灵魂通过电脑操控他的身体,助他拯救反乌托邦城市欧米克龙(Omikron)。

一经同意(同意又何妨呢?),你便会进入凯尔的身体中,然后被传送到一个幽邃的小巷中直面突然袭来的恶魔。从刚刚的袭击中侥幸生还后,你要做的便是弄清到底发生了什么事。

The names of David Cage and Quantic Dream games nowadays are deeply tied to “cinematic experiences” – games like Fahrenheit (2005), Heavy Rain (2010) and Beyond: Two Souls (2013), a style of game so heavily focused on storytelling that the gameplay almost vanishes, being mostly limited to QTEs and similarly discreet player inputs.

A shame, really, for what's arguably David Cage's finest offering lies in the exact opposite direction – in his very first game, Omikron: The Nomad Soul. An extremely ambitious amalgamation of several different gameplay modes, it's a title as bold as it's flawed.

Omikron begins with a police officer shattering the fourth wall and addressing the player directly. He is Kay'l, and he begs for help, asking you to send your soul through the computer to take over his body and help him save the dystopian city of Omikron.

As soon as you agree (because why not?), you enter the body of Kay'l and are transported to a dark alley – then instantly attacked by a demon. Barely surviving the assault, it's your task to figure out what the hell is going on around here.

David Bowie 和 Reeves Gabrels 为《恶灵都市》创作了原声带,后来又将其中一些歌曲收录到 Bowie 1999 年的专辑《Hours…》中。

David Bowie and Reeves Gabrels composed Omikron's soundtrack, then later included some of the tracks in Bowie's 1999 album “Hours...”.

欧米克龙城被划分为几个封闭的区域,但每个区域都非常宽阔并且到处都有可供探索的地点。

The city of Omikron is divided into gated districts, but each area is large and full of locations to explore.

走出幽巷,玩家便会尽览欧米克龙的赛博朋克风采——巨大且开放的都市,可出入的店铺与公寓,可驾驶车辆乃至出租车。这要一切都早于《莎木(Shenmue)》数月,比《侠盗猎车手 3(GTA III,Grand Theft Auto III)》提前整整两年。

当玩家尝试接受并熟悉这个世界时,游戏开始播放片头字幕,视角跟随镜头穿梭于高楼大厦间,随之而来的是 David Bowie 那惊奇的歌声。而这精彩的配乐也只是他和 Reeves Gabrels 为游戏所创作的冰山一角。

到目前为止已经可见作者是何等地雄心勃勃,实则远不止如此。《恶灵都市》起初就像一款 3D 冒险游戏,你可以在城市中四处闲逛,去参观一下自己的公寓或去其他地方寻找有用的线索,并试图理清事情的来龙去脉。

在与居民交流、收集道具并解决一系列谜题后,你可能会被人叫去调查一桩超市劫案。一旦踏入现场,游戏就会立刻切换成第一人称射击模式,你会发现突然增加了很多种武器、医疗道具,并出现了小地图。

玩家一路突破劫匪封锁最终来到 BOSS 面前,玩家会被缴械,游戏突然变成了类似《街头霸王(Street Fighter)》的格斗游戏,连招等该有的要素都有。

如果战斗太吃力的话,可以在家里进行提升训练,在竞技场战斗或购买药物来增加角色属性。此外,游戏最初关于“灵魂转移”的设定并未草率舍弃,后面你可以让自己的灵魂在城中二十多个角色间转移切换,而且每个角色都有专属的属性、道具(例如公寓的钥匙)以及专长。

比方说,赛博佣兵乔治 722(Jorg 722)在战斗方面更具优势,而凯尔却可以自由出入警局。游戏内还试图营造一些现实中的道德困境,比如,即便你的灵魂占据了凯尔身体,但和他的女友做爱真的就正确吗?

Stepping out of the alley, players are met by the cyberpunk vision of Omikron – a large, open city, complete with apartments and stores you can enter, driveable cars and even taxis – all this months before Shenmue and two years before GTA III.

As players try to take this all in, the opening credits begin to play, the camera travelling around the city, accompanied by David Bowie's eerie singing – a small taste of the excellent soundtrack he and Reeves Gabrels composed for the game.

While this all sounds ambitious enough already, Omikron goes much deeper. At first it plays like a 3D adventure game – you walk around the city, visiting your apartment and other locations in search for clues, trying to understand what's going on.

You'll talk to people, collect several items and solve a few puzzles. Then you'll be called to investigate a robbery in a supermarket, and, as soon as you enter it, the game shifts into a first-person shooter, with several weapon types, medpacks and a mini-map.

As you make your way through the robbers, you finally reach their boss – who disarms you, the game suddenly changing into a Street Fighter-like hand-to-hand fighting game, with combos and everything.

If fighting is too difficult, you can train at home, fight in arenas or buy potions to increase your stats. Moreover, the game's initial “soul transfer” isn't just a silly throwaway. You'll later unlock the ability to freely transfer you soul into the body of over 20 characters across the city, each with their own stats, items (such as their apartment keys) and usefulness.

For example, cyborg mercenary Jorg 722 might be great for combat sections, but only Kay'l can freely walk around the police station. The game also attempts some moral dilemmas: as a soul in the body of Kay'l, is it right for you to have sex with his girlfriend?

__________

1 译者注:第四面墙,Fourth Wall,戏剧术语,指一面在传统三壁镜框式舞台中虚构的“墙”,用以划分观众所在的现实与剧中事物的界限。所谓的打破第四面墙,即通过某种手段模糊甚至消除该界限。该种表现手法也经常运用于游戏媒体中。

GameDB 相关游戏: 恶灵都市

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