Inimicus Ex Nihilo

Or how to deteriorate the substance of the antagonist. The phenomenon of enemies appearing out of nowhere in locations and quantities determined by the creator of the scenario has become commonplace, especially in game design. While opponents undoubtedly have to spawn, the way they appear is crucial to the way they are experienced by the player and reader. Making them spawn in seemingly random places and undetermined numbers in plain view is reminiscent of the deus ex machina, the god from the machine. It is extra-diegetic because it slaps us in the face with the fact that there is a power that is external to the narrative it coordinates. Call it scripted events. Whereas careful writing and game design omit this clumsy mechanic and let the enemy emerge from the flow of events, more and more writers appear to make use of it, possibly owing to a lack of imagination.

The Bad Guys

Enemies spawning out of a portal in Halo 5: Guardians as seen in GhostRobo’s playthrough video on Youtube.

The problem with this sort of enemy insertion is not only a narrative one as explained above but one that also tears at the logic of combat. If the enemy can truly appear out of nowhere, what exactly prevents them from spawning en masse right on top of me and wiping me out on the spot? The answer is simple: absolutely nothing. Therefore, the enemy is either stupid for not doing so or he is spawning in the scripted locations for gameplay reasons. Those, however, should remain in the background as much as possible and not be rubbed under our noses as is often the case. The Halo-series has certainly developed this way. While in the original game Halo: Combat Evolved developed by Bungie and its several sequels the enemy was usually already in place or was delivered by dropship, implying an enemy combat infrastructure, the entries made by 343 Industries gave themselves over to the habit of popping enemies onto the battlefield from nowhere. Halo 4 and Halo 5: Guardians are guilty as charged. Especially the final engagement in the latter game largely consists of enemies spawning in waves into a room that has to be defended by the player. Why they don’t spawn all at once at maximum strength right on top of the defenders remains a mystery.

Another series that went down this path is Dragon Age. BioWare started with Dragon Age: Origins, a game where enemies were in place most of the time. Their ongoing presence provided the player with a sense of persistent threat. It also created a sense of accomplishment when that threat was defeated. The player was often tasked with assessing the situation before charging into combat. In the painfully rushed sequel Dragon Age 2, a vast amount of engagements with the enemy consisted of hostiles spawning from all possible directions. It became a grind against incalculable odds, and a sense of laziness in the design persistently nagged at the experience. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the latest game in the series, the player had to regularly close rifts which, as you guessed, spawned new enemies once the present ones were defeated. This is another example where the player is defended by unexplained mechanics. For should the enemy appear at full strength at every rift, the game would certainly be unplayable. The result is an erosion of both the trust in the enemy’s capabilities and in the sense of accomplishment once he has been overcome.

How to do it

There is nothing wrong with the occasional ambush. However, the ambush should not be the core mechanic. An enemy that has tangible limitations, both in regards to numbers and infrastructure, that arise from believable diegetic exposition is more interesting to the problem-solving party. Faceless hordes we knew nothing about the moment before they appeared constitute quite the opposite. Presence gives the enemy identity and intent. This is who they are and that’s why they’re here. From there on, the player has to decide for himself how to be tackle the issue at hand. Sneak past, run past, or engage and neutralize? Examples where this is continuously executed well are stealth-based games and strategy games. The Deus Ex-series has always presented the player with present problem to solve.

A good example of how this can be achieved in literature is Andy Weirs The Martian. Albeit lacking a sentient antagonist, the protagonist’s main enemy is the hostile environment of Mars. The constant threat and known problems the stranded astronaut Mark Watney faces are what make this novel so captivating. It is because the dangers are quantifiable most of the time, while surprises are employed sparingly yet effectively to show the limitations of protagonist who cannot know everything, either. By telling us what’s going on, Andy Weir keeps us fascinated and playing along. Naturally, the amount of planning and research that go into the development of such a story are immense and constitute the diametrical opposite of inimicus ex nihilo.

A bit late to the Save-Mark-Watney Party

The Martian by Andy Weir, Crown Publishing 2011

When a friend of mine first suggested I read Andy Weir’s The Martian and advertised it with the goofiest quotes she could find in the text, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. I did, however, decide to pick it up eventually and make sure I read it before I go see the movie. And it was an interesting read. Other than being quite entertaining and the narrator’s cynically infantile humor catering to my inner 14-year-old, the text mainly impressed me with being a problem-solving novel.

Mark Watney is not a hero. Mark Watney is a goofy botanist stranded on a planet where nothing grows–until potato farm. It is not a story where problems resolve themselves conveniently so the narrative can move forward to the next shallow issue. In fact, the psychology of The Martian is such that the core issues like the obvious lack of resources and the constant need to repurpose equipment do not work as distractions but instead form the operative framework of the story itself. After a few dozen pages I had accepted the hostile situation Watney was in as something he was not getting out of any time soon. Once this was established, the story was set to bloom. It is the contrast between the oppressive premise and the mostly light tone of the text that makes it truly stand out.

The main issue I had with The Martian is rooted in its key logic: If Watney dies, the story is over. Mark Watney essentially is the story. Therefore, and in spite of all problems the likable botanist, physicist, chemist, Robinson Crusoe etc. runs into, it is clear that he must survive until the very end. This is not exclusively bad, but it takes much weight off the text and greatly contributes to its light-hearted nature. While it remains interesting throughout whether or not Watney will survive in the end, the story does converge at all times toward the final rescue attempt.

The movie remains largely faithful to the novel, although it lacks the richness of detail because–obviously–they couldn’t put everything in it, and the text is nothing if not multi-faceted and rich. One major complaint I was made aware of by friends is that those who had seen the movie but not read the book often did not understand what Watney was doing and why. Perhaps a director’s cut would be in order, one that benefits more from the text’s inventiveness. Definitely the greatest crime to movie commits on the novel is the fact that the dialogues were largely defused to make the affair more family friendly. I understand that the objective was to get a PG-13 rating, and that they certainly wouldn’t have gotten away with a lot that Andy Weir wrote, but the sharp edginess of the dialogues and strong language used by the characters does illustrate them better than the adaption achieves to.

If haven’t seen the movie yet–which everyone probably has  and why I’m late to the party–go see it. If you want to go see the movie, read the book first. No discussion. Both are a great experience, but as it often tends to be, you get more out of the movie when you’ve read the book. Should you have seen the movie and liked it, yet for some unfathomable reason not read the book yet, go get it now. It’s a highly entertaining science-fiction story which has been rightfully praised on many accounts.