LO2: Game analysis.

Game title	Tomb Raider	Platform tested:	PS4
Genre What style of game is this? What genre does it belong to? How does it show stylistic conventions of the genre? How does it sit within the genre in comparison to others titles?	Tomb raider is a action adventure game. It is also a third person perspective where you take control of the lead character Lara croft. The game uses a interconnected hub that combines action adventure, exploration and survival mechanics.
Narrative What story is being told through the game? How does the story inform the gameplay? How does the story affect your approach to the characters and your interaction with them? How does the story connect with the target audience?	This game is a prequel to the tomb raider series, the game is about a young Lara who is going on her first expedition on the island of yamatia of the cost of japan. When there, things take a turn for the worst the and now she must fight her way through a cult in order to survive.   This type of the story is different to typical tomb raider storyline, this time the player is made to fee  sorry for Lara as she has to cope with making some tough decsiosns.
Production process How was this game produced? What elements of production are developed specifically to enhance the gameplay? How are elements such as game physics and mechanics managed to enhance gameplay?	The developers of tomb raider  (Crystal Dynamics) was spilt into two teams, the first team focused on the reboot of tomb raider and all of the following sequels and the other teams focused on arcade versions of the game. To enhance the gameplay the developers had used real actors for all of the  characters for the game,  each one had done their piece of acting on a green screen which was then picked up by the computer and then displayed in the game. This explains why the cinematic scenes are so good for tomb raider.
Characterisation How are characters relevant to the target audience? What appeal do the characters have to the target audience? How does the characterisation match the conventions of the genre? How strong do you feel the characters are?	Many people regard Lara croft is the beautiful and intelligent archaeologist and is mainly appealing to the male section of the audience. She is the main reason why many people buy the game. So to ensure that people keep buying the game most of the focus is on her, although all the characters are insanely detailed more of the focus on Lara croft.

Gameplay What challenge is present in the game? How does the level and type of challenge engage the player? What elements of the gameplay are key to the game’s success? How does the gameplay engage with the narrative? How is gameplay consistently evolving to keep the player’s attention?

The main aspect of the game is problem solving, a lot of the time there is no indication of what to do. This encourages the players to explore the land to find things to help him progress. One of the main elements that is key to game’s success is the weapons upgrade, this is because without the upgrades it is impossible to progress and some levels require certain upgraded lessons. The one thing in the game that keeps the player attention is the change in weather, different types of weather has there own dangers.

Platform What platform is this game available for? Is the game more suited to any one of these platforms? How is the game suited to this platform?

The game is available for Xbox 360, Xbox one, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.

 

Game title	Far Cry 4	Platform tested:	PS4
Genre What style of game is this? What genre does it belong to? How does it show stylistic conventions of the genre? How does it sit within the genre in comparison to others titles?	Far cry 4 is an open world action-adventure first person shooter. One of the conventions of the genre that the game shows is that the player can roam around the island and explore the whole area, the area is big enough to occupy the for around 3 hours. Compared to other games in this genre this game sits on the top of the list, to successfully progress through the game the user has to explore the island to look for things materials to help them craft items.
Narrative What story is being told through the game? How does the story inform the gameplay? How does the story affect your approach to the characters and your interaction with them? How does the story connect with the target audience?	This game it about a young man who has come to a small disclosed island near Malaysia to spread his mother’s ashes. When he gets there he is met by the island’s leader who is known for being a ruthless dictator. After being taken to his palace a group called the golden path comes to rescue the main character. It turns out that the golden path are his allies and he must help them take back the island. The story makes you question the morals of the characters that you interact with as everyone has conflicting views on how to deal with the enemy.
Production process How was this game produced? What elements of production are developed specifically to enhance the gameplay? How are elements such as game physics and mechanics managed to enhance gameplay?	The games development was led by Ubisoft Montreal. Addition development was handled by four other in-house Ubisoft studios. The montreal studio worked on the games campaign, the Toronto studio worked on the Shangri-La segments of the campaign, Red storm handled the development of the competitive multiplayer, the Shanghai studio worked on the hunting missions and the Kiev Studio developed the games game’s PC version. To enhance the gameplay the producers of the game had incorporated some of the previous game mechanics which was rally successful with public. By incorporating and expanding upon those ideas they could make Far Cry 4 an evolution of the series.
Characterisation How are characters relevant to the target audience? What appeal do the characters have to the target audience? How does the characterisation match the conventions of the genre? How strong do you feel the characters are?	Many of the characters in the game have intriguing backstories so, to find out more about the characters the player has to explore the land to find out clues about the character. This appeals the people who are into the adventure side of the game as a lot of features are very well hidden on the game. One of the main appeals the characters have to the target audience is the relationship that they with player and how well the relationship copes with the stress of saving their people.

Gameplay What challenge is present in the game? How does the level and type of challenge engage the player? What elements of the gameplay are key to the game’s success? How does the gameplay engage with the narrative? How is gameplay consistently evolving to keep the player’s attention?

The main challenge in the game is the decision making, all of the decisions that you make affects how the story pans out in the future. So when playing the game you have to be careful not to make the game too hard for yourself. This engages the player as there are a number of the scenarios that can play out which can either benefit you or be detrimental to you. To keep the player attention the gameplay does evolve as you progress through the story, the come into contact with bigger and more dangerous animals and you are given new ways to fight enemies. For example you can ride in on an elephant and make a grand entrance or you could use a cheater to distract the enemies while you sneak in

Platform What platform is this game available for? Is the game more suited to any one of these platforms? How is the game suited to this platform?

The game is available for Xbox 360, Xbox one, PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4.