My Next Video (Patrons Only / January 2017)

Wow, it's been an incredibly busy month for me. I've been putting in very long hours and worked through a whole weekend at my real job, coupled with an illness I recently recovered from (which inhibited my use of a microphone). This has been a rough few weeks for me in terms of content creation.

I do have a new video in the works however, and my plan is to put it live this weekend (should the stars align). The topic is an older game that has a special place in my heart: The Wheel of Time, the 1999  first person shooter based on Robert Jordan's series of novels of the same name.

I apologize for the radio silence of the past couple weeks, and as a partial compensation, I am posting the first two sections of the video script here, if you're curious about what's going to be in it.

Thanks for your patience, and I hope to talk to you all soon on my next livestream!

Intro

Magic, monsters and the eternal struggle of light over dark. Robert Jordan’s revered series of novels--The Wheel of Time--explore an interesting and unique universe which has been tragically underexposed in the visual and interactive media. 

Though there have been rumors and failed attempts to bring it to the silver and the smaller screen, and murmurs of an attempt at an Obsidian-developed MMO, they haven’t yet born fruit since their appearance.

Let’s then turn our clocks back to 1999 and re-experience The Wheel of Time PC game, one of the few visual adaptations of the series. Despite the concerning decision to make it a first person shooter, rather than an adventure or role-playing game, this fairly under-the-radar release garnered a modest following, of which a small but dedicated fanbase remains to this day over 17 years later. Despite being technically overshadowed by more modern titles, it boasts an interesting spin on the genre and offered some of the most impressive architecture and art direction any Unreal Engine 1 game had to offer.

As you might expect from an adaptation of one of the longest and verbose fantasy series available, the game has more of a focus on story and setting than most other shooters of the nineties. I remember reading magazine articles before its release, and it also sounded like a very innovative and imaginative shooter, especially its touted multiplayer features, which I will cover later.

So what exactly does this archaic fantasy shooter bring to the table? Let’s take a look.

Setting & Storytelling

In The Wheel of Time, you play Elayna, who is part of the Aes Sedai, a special society of channelers of the One Power (the magic force native to the series). In this era of the setting, the Aes Sedai are all female, as all male channelers were cursed long ago with inevitable insanity by the Dark One.

Elayna is unique in that though she is learned in the One Power and lore, for some reason she is unable to channel, unlike the other sisters of the White Tower. This proves to be an interesting twist and arc in the storyline, but also serves as a foundation of the gameplay mechanics. Elayna must collect and wield Ter’Angreal, special artifacts which allow her to channel the One Power even though she can not naturally do so otherwise.

At the beginning of the game, Elayna is attacked in her office by a mysterious assassin who was looking for an unknown artifact, but she is strangely spared his full wrath. The leader of the Aes Sedai in the White Tower (the Amyrlin) later sends her out to pursue the assailant, and is given Ter’Angreal to supplant her lack of natural power.

As the story unfolds, she is able to wield more and more powerful Ter’Angreal, and discovers more about the plots and mysteries surrounding the events taking place in the game’s storyline -- the secrets about her own powers and part in the world, and the dark forces that threaten it.

Jordan’s imaginative setting may have been a bit undersold in this game, and as some longtime fans of the novels have pointed out, the game does take some liberties with its source material. But through voiceovers before each chapter, dialogue through many of the missions themselves, and then-impressive pre-rendered cutscenes in-between, the game is successful in creating interest in the series of novels that inspire it. Although it may not live up to the best story writing and delivery of contemporary games, I found it to be a unique storyline and more than enough to keep the single player mode going for its duration. 

[Continued in full script]