Let’s talk about explosions – specifically digital explosions and their evolution.
Modern day games and the upcoming next generation of consoles have impressive technological capabilities, with the Xbox Series X supporting 12 teraflops of power and running up to 120 FPS. Artificial characters and worlds appear photorealistic as of 2020, and we currently have a fantastic Half-Life game only playable in VR. Another incredible advancement – virtual reality systems such as Oculus, HTC Vive or PSVR are growing in popularity and demand as all aspects of game development feasibly blend with gameplay and storytelling.
The video game industry is growing exponentially, which is why I wanted to take a moment to analyze a rather trivial topic within this broader spectrum. Explosions. They’re cool, they’re grandiose, they’re spontaneous, yet often scripted, and give insight on the graphical capabilities of a particular console generation. From the genre-defining Grand Theft Auto III to the upcoming Destroy All Humans! Remake for current generation consoles, explosions have evolved to something greater than poor SFX and pixelated images. Explosions now, well, look like explosions.
As a 23-year-old, my earliest days with gaming circulated around the Nintendo Gamecube and Sony’s Playstation. Looking back at that time period, it’s incredible to notice the technological advancements of not only this industry, but cinema as well. My very first game was Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee – a below average, 3D arena fighter with mechanics about as deep as a puddle. It offered several memorable monsters from the Godzilla cinematic universe, pitted against each other in an ironically small arena. The player could spam punches and kicks, as well as shoot projectiles in the form of Godzilla’s fire breath or other character-specific abilities. The cityscape environment is usually obliterated by the time the fight is over, with nothing left but rubble, smoke, and distant screams. The explosions left a lot to be desired for as they were accompanied by underwhelming sounds and visuals.
Destroy All Humans! then released for the original Xbox and the Playstation 2 in 2005. It was an alien invasion sandbox with cheeky humor, probing technology, and a well-realized 1950s setting. In anticipation for the remake’s upcoming July 2020 release, I went back to the original – which is now offered through June’s free Games with Gold on Xbox – to analyze what exactly made it so memorable. The story is funny, irreverent, and often triggering for modern political correctness, and the gameplay was innovative, albeit clunky. Crypto-137 has the tools to create utter chaos at his disposal, including the ability to fly in his saucer. While Crypto can shoot vehicles to their explosive breaking points, he can only level buildings from inside his flying saucer. The physics engine allows for some hilarious ragdoll moments for both NPCs and vehicles, but explosions tend to look muddled and hollow with not much impact. When cars explode, there isn’t a huge area of effect around it, leaving some NPCs that most certainly should have been vaporized, completely unscathed. When leveling a building by firing your powerful laser beam from the saucer, buildings display a meter before simply melting to a pile of rubble.
The remake features revamped graphics and gameplay mechanics that leave more of an impact than the original. Buildings at the center of your laser beam now burst into flames from their windows, until literally exploding into wooden shrapnel. Fire now builds up from the base of the building to the top, ending in a massive ball of flames. The physics engine is just as ridiculous and exaggerated as the original, but the environment now seems to fully react to your ensued chaos.
Many games feature some incredible explosive moments, but Grand Theft Auto remains one of the few series to seemingly push the technological boundaries of video games. The third installment sparked a media witch hunt as the game featured severe and “realistic” violence, in which multiple sources claimed it to incite real world brutality. Grand Theft Auto IV released in 2007, and to this day includes some of the most realistic physics and explosions in any game at the time. I remember specifically trying to ram my vehicle into a gas pipe just so I could experience the fireworks. It’s spontaneous and scripted, yet innately realistic and powerful, as one explosion could lead to another. The screen shakes and balls of flame fill the sky – a sight I personally had not experienced in any other video game.
The Crackdown series is another open-world sandbox that promotes chaos, in the hands of a super cop fighting against gangs and even zombies in the sequel. Explosions are intense and often non-scripted. The area of effect here is more widespread, as an explosion from what seems like a safe distance away could send you flying in the opposite direction. The much delayed and poorly received Crackdown 3, in its earlier stages of development, featured an ambitious cloud destruction system where essentially every building can be destroyed from the ground up. IGN uploaded an exclusive Gamescom 2015 gameplay preview with the creative director, who went on to explain how the destruction system has moved from the campaign over to the multiplayer. The campaign would no longer include the destructive physics system that they had been teasing since the reveal. Four years later and one helluva rocky development cycle, Crackdown 3 released in February 2019, proving first hand that delays don’t always work towards the benefit of a game. The destruction in the multiplayer portion was impressive, but the scale was so much smaller than what was originally promised that the community quickly fell off. Not to mention the fact that it all took place within this alternate cyber universe instead of in the typical city setting of the series.
Electronic Arts and DICE are experts in presentation. Star Wars Battlefront and the Battlefield series feature some of the most impressive visuals seen in any video game. Abrasive business practices and an overall ignorance to fan desires has ultimately brought about a rather poor outlook on their public image and release expectations, but it’s difficult to deny the sheer power of their Frostbite engine. Play any modern Battlefield game and try to convince me that it’s devoid of any genuine moment of fun. Battles often get chaotic with the various weaponry and vehicles at your disposal, as well as the incredible destruction physics. There have been countless moments where I’ve found myself trapped within a building taking heavy enemy fire, seeking any sort of escape route. Bullets whizz through windows and wooden doors, and a tank or C4 explosive could easily level the entire building, revealing your location instantly. It’s this feature that helps differentiate the Battlefield IP from that of Call of Duty and others in the genre, and one that was refined greatly in Bad Company 2.
Finally, developers like Naughty Dog continue to push the limits of our current technology with the recent installments of Uncharted 4 and The Last of Us Part II. Their motion capture accessibility seemingly blurs the line between what is real and what is digital.
It’s quite obvious to see the progression of this industry through small graphical details like explosions. Video game storytelling in addition to graphics has also developed significantly, with some developers delivering experiences similar to something you’d see in a movie theater. The modding community deserves some recognition, as many talented individuals have greatly improved game experiences. Before the one-thousandth re-release of Skyrim, modders had developed better graphical textures and even improved the lighting to bring life back into a game that was released in 2011. Video games are becoming much more impactful with the yearly technological growth and behind-the-scenes talent on display, but this rapid advancement also highlights user criticism stemming from modern standards set high from popular developers like Rockstar or Naughty Dog.
