Games don't need to focus on comedy to be funny anymore. In gaming's advent, humor only meshed with a few types of games, namely puzzles or point-and-click adventures. As they've matured, their storytelling has become that much more complex and the laughs are able to come more naturally. So how do you embrace that? And what is the "right" way to do comedy in video games?
Modern games tackle humor in a few different ways, to varying levels of success. GTA IV (the only GTA I have any intimate experience with) chose to balance the grim, serious story with an absurd world and a few off-the-wall characters. Having a character like Brucie, an endearingly self-obsessed entrepreneur, worked because you could choose to pay him a visit depending on what kind of story developments you were in the mood for. The numerous radio stations functioned in a similar way, with choice allowing for you to craft your own experience. The game world, on the other hand, sometimes undermined the story. Driving down the street pondering a serious twist in the narrative was not improved by passing a giant America's Next Top Hooker billboard.
Sleeping Dogs took a different approach with it's environments. It created a very accurate (I've heard) representation of Hong Kong, which made for a very compelling game world. I felt like GTA's parody of a world was constantly reminding me it wasn't real, while Sleeping Dogs' world kept pulling me in. Is there a place for comedy in open-world games like this? Maybe, but I wasn't missing it here. The tone was exactly right for the story.
The Last of Us - I know, you thought maybe this is the one gaming article on the internet right now that wouldn't reference The Last Of Us (sorry) - excelled because the writing was aware of the world it was in. It never felt like the writer trying to lighten the mood, it felt like a true effort from the characters. Joel's groans at Ellie's joke book and her reveal that she stole Bill's magazine remain some of my favorite scenes from the game.
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Then there are deliberately wacky games: Portal, Monkey Island, Deadpool, games of that nature. These games are high-risk because if the writing falters for even a few minutes, you've lost the player's interest. It's perhaps even rarer to see this pulled off than a compelling, dramatic story. Games seem to have more trouble with this than other mediums, partly due to their length by comparison. Keeping one experience consistently funny for upwards of eight hours takes a true master to accomplish.
One last game I'd like to mention is Bulletstorm. On the surface, the story and characters look like nothing more than a Gears of War parody, but when you delve into the game further you see it maintains a personality of it's very own. The character's relationships are built around the action in a fitting and entertaining way. A game can't just copy the tropes of action-comedy movies and find narrative success. (Just Cause 2 is an example of this.) Bulletstorm was written in a way that embraced what it was.
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Games can tackle humor in any of these ways and many more, but what cannot be denied is that they can't be written like any other medium and find much success. Just like films and novels require different storytelling techniques, games need the same attention and care. And more and more as time goes on, I see developers figuring out how to give them that.
Are there any - scratch that. I missed a ton of hilarious games in this article! Which do you hate me the most for leaving out?