Trying to shoot enemies in my twenties – Why I prefer story-driven games over shooters

Shooting this guy is NOT an easy feat…

Ever since the worldwide Corona-virus lockdown has isolated us in our apartments, the means of entertaining ourselves have been scarce. The options are either watching Netflix or YouTube (or even regular TV for the Corona updates) or playing games, which I’ve been opting for lately. I bought the highly praised Resident Evil 2 (or RE2) to try out, since I’m a huge fan of horror games. Little did I know, RE2 is actually an action-driven game with only little horror sprinkled on top. It also revolves heavily around puzzle-solving and to my dismay, shooting zombies. I must confess, I’m terrible at shooting anything, especially in stress. Playing RE2 turned out to be a great chore, and I was having a hard time playing it. Eventually, I begged my little brother to complete the boss fights for me, as I watched in awe how great he was at beating them. This made me realize why I prefer story-driven games over shooters. But it made me also wonder, why am I bad at shooters in the first place?

Growing up, I wasn’t much of a player myself, but I loved to watch others play. My brother played Crash Bandicoot games and a plethora of action and adventure games on our PlayStation 2 console, and I assumed the viewer’s or rather, the guide’s role during “our” gaming sessions. I would shout out instructions and direct my brother in searching clues or attacking enemies. Nevertheless, I was terrified of actually playing the games myself because I didn’t want to make mistakes. I also loved to research games on the internet: I would know almost everything about a certain game without ever playing it only by reading Wikipedia or online forums. It is safe to say that I have had very little actual experience of playing games since childhood, but I’ve always had a huge curiosity of the medium.

I fell in love with story-driven games in high school playing Until Dawn and Life is Strange. I appreciated the fact that in these types of games, you’re forgiven for screwing up and the game continues, whereas in a more linear game enemies can become a hurdle to advance in the game. Essentially, it’s a preference issue: some like the challenge of shooting enemies, like my brother, whereas some like to experience the story and the opportunity on impact on it, like myself. I’ve only recently come to realize that I prefer to enjoy the story and not to worry too much about my playing skills. At the end of the day, games are meant to be enjoyed, not to be dwelled upon.

It is also essential to recognize that there is a plethora of genres under gaming and being skilled at one genre doesn’t make you a better or a worse gamer than anyone else. It all comes down to what the player enjoys. I now realize that I shouldn’t be too hard on myself not to be able to target zombies accurately or figuring out puzzles successfully. The main question is: Did I enjoy RE2? And the answer is, unfortunately, no. I did not. But it isn’t the end of the world. I can always try to better myself on RE2 or move on to the next game.

Source:

Screenshot is from Resident Evil 2s official website: http://www.residentevil2.com/uk/media.php.

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