DiCE Realizes Women Can Kick Ass in Video Games, Too

The past week has been utterly dominated by nerds. First, Comic Con in San Diego, and then E3, the yearly hajj for game developers and hardcore gamers. While I am merely a casual gamer myself, I have been following news about the new EA game, Mirror's Edge, for some time now, mostly because my husband won't shut up about it.

The game is intriguing to me on many levels. Digital Solutions CE (DiCE), makers of the Battlefield series, apparently grew bored of games with big men shooting the crap out of each other, and sought to develop a first person action game virtually without guns, and with a female lead. And it looks cool as hell, y'all.

The game's main character is a courier named Faith who navigates through a Big-Brotheresque city using parkour, or free-running, techniques, on a mission to save her sister from the evil government. While the game does feature guns, your character doesn't have one of her own. She can obtain firearms by disarming her enemies, but since Faith's agility and speed are hindered by carrying guns, which are only good until the magazine runs out,the gameplay favors disarming enemies and relying on fighting techniques that don't require bullets. In fact, developers say it is possible to play the entire game without ever discharging a firearm.

But, more intriguing, is the character herself and her style of movement. It's rare to have a heroine in a video game, so the feminist in me is squeeing. And the acrobatics are artfully rendered, all the while using an engine for the game that virtually eliminates the motion sickness that first-person games can create. The in-game footage from E3 pretty much has me geeking out up to 11.

Too bad that I immediately got a bad taste in my mouth reading about a stupid bullshit game like SCEA's Fat Princess. Concept? Your princess has been kidnapped. (oo, edgy!) And you have to save her. (Novel!) But the bad news is...she's SUPER FAT NOW! HAHAHA! You need a whole army to get that fat bitch out of there! Heelarious! Oh, and you can gorge her some more on cakes so the other dudes can't steal her back!

Ow. My sides.

So, DiCE, I salute you for "putting the person" back in first person action games, and making a kick-ass woman the subject of a game when, all too often, the woman in a game is only the objective or an object. As for you, SCEA? You get a one-way trip aboard the Fail Boat.

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Comments

[MWAS]

It's about damn time a) we get a heroine in a game that isn't pink b)we can learn to fight crime without shooting a million rounds in 60 seconds. Bravo!

[jane]

I've always thought that the female market for video games is probably huge and largely untapped. This game seems like a step in the right direction.

[Amy]

Tweeted this review for ya! Awesome! I haven't gamed since the days of Myst because I had kids shortly thereafter and cherished every moment I had to sleep. But now the kids are older and close to gaming ages themselves. Shall I lead them down that dark pathway. Maybe with the help of Faith...

[Amalah]

Thoroughly geeking out over here.

[makyo]

the best part is that since it's true first person gameplay, what you see of the character is mostly feet, arms, etc. much better than games like tomb raider, which are *supposedly* all girl power blah blah but are really an excuse to show how "omg hot" lara croft is.

[Snarky Amber]

Good point, Mayko! But I do like that in the cut-scene footage of Faith I've seen, she is wearing a fairly modest tank and cargos and doesn't have your typical porn-star boobs like everyone's favorite DD-cup-having, British heiress/adventurer.

[Bride of the Snark]

I am unbelievably excited about this game. Amber is right, I won't shut up about it.

[WendyB]

Defintely looking forward to this although I definitely still have days when first person games make me dizzy. I grew up playing PC games and still do for the most part today, with the exception of the Wii which I think is it's own category for now. Let my geek flag fly!

[Amber Gail]

D2, The Longest Journey, Dreamfall, and Eternal Darkness to name a few. It's not THAT rare to have women leads in video games.

[sra]

@Amber Gail: seriously? I would say it's pretty darn rare, and rarer still that it's done well.

I've been really impressed with the trailers for Mirror's Edge. I'm not usually into first person etcs, but I love the look of the environment they've created and the potential for gun-free play.