Evolving Game Trailers

Watching the trailer for Alan Wake, I nearly forgot the footage was for a game.

It’s certainly a far cry from earlier trailers, and this isn’t the only recent video game to take a more cinematic approach in its presentation. It’s good to see quality trailers for equally quality games.

Let’s just hope they’re marketed as seriously when they’re finally released, as this could bring a lot more hardcore gamers to the table.

While it doesn’t show much gameplay, gorgeous visuals, engaging music, and an impressive storyline make this preview stand out. Whereas other game trailers show main characters butchering hordes of enemies to generate interest, the atmosphere and plot take center stage in Alan Wake. It’s refreshing to see things slow down, steeping the action in a plot, even if it’s only for a few moments.

Heavy Rain had another noteworthy trailer. It shares a lot in common with Alan Wake’s, providing a sound basis for the storyline before proceeding with the gun-pointin’ and brawlin’. Notice how seriously the developers treat themselves when their names appear onscreen. It’s as if they’ve transcended the earthly rabble of most video games and are nestled on a cinematic plane in artsy wonderland, and it’s by no means a bad thing.

If there are any people out there — hey there, Roger Ebert — who think games are incapable of tackling serious subject matter, here’s your answer. This is where we are in 2009, so give the industry another few years and you can only imagine what crazy places we’ll be in and what those trailers will look like.

Other titles should follow suit, making their own presentations just as mature as these ones. I definitely enjoy watching non-gameplay videos in which the main character kicks a whole lotta ass, but still, it gets old quickly. When it comes down to it, all those trailers are exactly the same.

I have no doubts that God of War III will be an incredible game, and I know Kratos is a surface-level kinda guy who lends himself well to this kind of trailer. It’s also satisfying to see him in all his violent glory. But videos like these don’t offer much. We already know Kratos is hardcore. In addition seeing him wreck armies of the undead, it’d be great to find out why he’s killing giants while on top of another giant.

In sum, the trailers for Alan Wake and Heavy Rain are more mature because the games they promote are subtler and more pensive than most others on the market. Not every game is cut out for a trailer like theirs, but if all developers took their stories just as seriously, their games have more substance, and that would equate to better trailers.

The evolving game trailer is a sign of the evolving video game. Having serious trailers is one way to draw in the people who think games are only for middle-aged, geeky men. That way, those unfortunate souls can experience the greatness of video games alongside the rest of us.

That’s as long as companies don’t bomb the seriousness when they present games to the general public. Only the most hardcore gamers would buy the Legend of Zelda after watching this crap: