Video Game Retrospective - The Operative: No One Lives Forever

I've been feeling nostalgic, and have been interested in revisiting at a sadly overlooked gem from 2000; The Operative: No One Lives Forever, a first-person shooter with a strong "Swinging Sixties" aesthetic developed by Monolith Productions.

You assume the role of Cate Archer, an operative for a spy agency known as UNITY. A former cat burglar and UNITY's first female operative, Cate has been relegated to the mundane assignments. However, an apparent leak within UNITY has resulted in the systematic elimination of many field agents. Thus, Cate is reluctantly given several high profile missions, bringing her into conflict with a mysterious terrorist organisation called HARM and one of their world domination schemes.

Gameplay is your typical first-person shooter action, but there is an emphasis on stealth (on some missions this is mandatory). In fact, stealth is encouraged because it exposes the player to some finely-crafted conversations between the guards. The casual dialogue paints your enemies as "punch clock" villains who are just doing their jobs and have lives outside their professional ones. One of my favourite conversations is a guard lamenting the fact that he's missing The Man From U.N.C.L.E when he's on duty, and his friend starts a chat about their favourite contemporary thrillers on TV. Shows like Mission: Impossible, The Saint, The Avengers (the Emma Peel one, not the Marvel one), the then-recent finale of The Fugitive, and the recently-advertised The Prisoner.

It's the game's humour which made it stand out. As well as the aforementioned chats, there's optional intelligence items which further emphasise the "punch-clock" aspects of professional villainy. Or there's the code phrases disguised as bad pickup lines and Cate's snarky response, after which her contacts are always apologetic about using the phrases. A lot of the story revolves around Cate dealing with a lot of casual sexism (particularly from her handler, Mr Smith), but it's nice to see that many of UNITY's informants don't share Smith's attitude.

I love the array of characters too. Cate has a strong student-mentor relationship with Bruno Lawrie, UNITY's past-his-prime top agent who recruited her many years ago. There's also an array of colourful villains. The most memorable of these is Magnus Armstrong, a violent Glaswegian demolitions expert who captures Cate on several occasions but refuses to kill a fellow Scot without a fair fight.

The game was followed by a sequel, A Spy in HARM's Way. That's also a good game, but with a slightly different sense of humour. There was also an interquel called Contract Jack, in which you play as a freelance hitman working for HARM. I haven't played that one, but I've heard it wasn't very good and prompted Monolith to discontinue the franchise.

Writing this, I have to lament the fact that you can't get these games because of a copyright issue. Monolith was acquired by Warner Bros Interactive. The publisher, Fox Interactive, was acquired by Vivendi, which merged with Activision to form Activision Blizzard. And nobody knows who owns the rights to the game, so there's been no re-release. It's not even on Steam or Good Old Games. I think that's tragic, because it's a great game.

I hope this can be sorted soon.

Until then, happy writing.

Franchise Reviews - Back to the Future - Wrap Up

Looking over the Back to the Future films, I'd say it remains a pretty solid trilogy, even if the second and third films feel closer to each other than the first.

Something I do realise is that Marty doesn't really develop over the first film, but it's his parents who get the bulk of the character development, and it's a pretty fine development so it's not an issue. His fear of perceived cowardice introduced in the second film could have been tacked on in response to this.

Each film has plenty of jeopardy, but things always seem to work out in the end.  This actually gets mentioned in the third film, with Marty asking "Why do we have to cut these things so damn close?" Despite that, I still love the tension in the scenes.

All in all, they're all films I can watch any time.

And before I go, I'd like to share this video of Tom Wilson, who wrote a song about questions he's often asked about his role in the films:

Happy writing.

Franchise Reviews - Back to the Future Part III

I think most people would have made up their minds about Back to the Future Part III after seeing the trailer for it at the end of Part II. Any longtime readers of this blog know that I love westerns, so I definitely made up my mind.

Picking up where we left off, Marty McFly and Doc Brown had returned to 1955 to destroy a sports almanac so Biff couldn't use it to become Donald Trump a despotic billionaire. Although their mission is successful, Marty becomes stranded in 1955 after the DeLorean is struck by lightning, sending Doc back to the Hill Valley of 1885. He arranges for a letter to be delivered to Marty, stating that he is content to stay in the past and work as a blacksmith, but provides instructions so the younger Doc Brown can repair the DeLorean and allow Marty to return to 1985.

Unfortunately, plans in this series have a tendency to get complicated. While Marty and the younger Doc are recovering the DeLorean from an abandoned mine near an old cemetery, they discover Doc Brown's grave. Seven days after he wrote his letter to Marty, Doc was shot in the back by Buford Tannen, a notorious gunman and Biff's ancestor.

Although he was given strict instructions to go straight back to 1985 and destroy the time machine, Marty decides to back to 1885 and save Doc. Unfortunately, he rips the DeLorean's fuel line, meaning they can't accelerate to the 88 miles per hour needed to time travel. Worse, he falls afoul of Buford Tannen and ends up getting challenged to a showdown. He also meets his own ancestors, Seamus and Maggie McFly.

A lot of people weren't keen on the changed setting, but I'm fine with it. While I wasn't keen on Marty's change of character in the previous film (which they keep here), I'm glad that they try and develop that. It's also nice to see the film explore Doc Brown a little more, when he talks about his background and love of Jules Verne. He even becomes romantically involved with the local schoolteacher, Clara Clayton, although that does have ramifications: He initially saves her life by stopping a runaway buckboard from going into Shonash Ravine, which both Doc and Marty know as Clayton Ravine (indicating that she was originally destined to fall in). When Marty returns to 1985, it's been renamed Eastwood Ravine (yes, Marty went under the name "Clint Eastwood").

I think my favourite moment is a brief one, the day after Marty was challenged by Doc Brown. He'd taken a picture of Doc's tombstone in 1955, but now his name is blank. However, he's being measured for a new coffin, indicating that it could soon be his grave rather than Doc Brown's. He immediately says "Great Scott!" (Doc's catchphrase), while Doc replies "I know, this is heavy." (Marty's usual catchphrase)

Overall, I think this is still a good film. The action and the humour are still on top, and it wraps things up nicely.

Wait a minute, do ZZ Top have a time machine as well?

Franchise Reviews - Back to the Future Part II

You'd think a story as tightly-written as Back to the Future wouldn't leave much space for a sequel, let alone two. But they still went for it.

Back to the Future Part II picks up immediately where the previous film left off. Marty is back in 1985, and his adventure in the past has had an effect on his family: His father's now a self-confident and successful science fiction author; his mother is physically active; even Biff is nicer, running his own auto detailing business.

As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc shows up and takes them both to the Hill Valley of 2015 to stop their future son from getting involved in a robbery with Biff's grandson Griff, setting off a chain of events which would bring down his entire family. The plan is successful, but Marty ends up buying an almanac of sports statistics with the intention of betting on the results in his own time. When Doc lectures him, Jennifer is mistaken for her 2015 self by the police and taken to her futuristic home. While Doc and Marty try and get her back, Biff borrows the DeLorean to give the almanac to his younger self in 1955.

When Marty and Doc return to 1985, they find that Hill Valley has become a lawless dystopia where Biff is a corrupt billionaire and married to Marty's mother. In order to restore the previous timeline, they go back to 1955 to recover the almanac. However, it's the same night that Marty went back to 1985, so they also have to take care not to interfere with those events and create a time paradox.

Once again, the film shows the tight writing of the previous one. Although I wish we had more of the stuff 2015 boasted in 2019, instead of the alternate 1985 which the film seemed to more accurately predict.

However, there is one glaring issue in this film; Marty doesn't like being called chicken, which results in him being goaded into fights or shady business deals. It's something which wasn't addressed in the previous film. In fact, it almost contrasts the Marty of the previous film. He'd been rejected at a school dance audition, and Jennifer was persuading him to send a tape to a record company. My best guess is that he's picked up more courage since his trip to the past, becoming more comfortable with his newly improved family. Nonetheless, it still detracts from what is otherwise a great film.

Also, that kid in the diner is Elijah Wood.

Franchise Reviews - Back to the Future

Time to look at the first film in the franchise, Back to the Future. We have a film which combines science fiction, comedy, action, and coming-of-age.

Michael J. Fox plays Marty McFly, a teenager living a somewhat bleak life in the town of Hill Valley in 1985. His father George (played by Crispin Glover), is timid and meek, constantly bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen (Played by Thomas F. Wilson). His mother Lorraine (played by Leah Thompson) is an overweight alcoholic. Marty himself is struggling in high school, but his supportive girlfriend Jennifer (played in this film by Claudia Wells) encourages him to follow his dreams to become a rock star.

Christopher Lloyd plays Marty's best friend Dr Emmett "Doc" Brown, a mad scientist who has recently unveiled a new invention; a time machine built out of a DeLorean. During the demonstration in a shopping mall car park, the pair are accosted by Libyan terrorists, whom the Doc conned into acquiring the plutonium needed to power the time machine. After the Doc is gunned down, Marty tries to escape in the DeLorean and accidentally triggers the time machine, leaving him stranded in the Hill Valley of 1955 without the plutonium needed to make a return trip. He encounters a teenage George being bullied by a teenage Biff, and stops him from being hit by a car being driven by Lorraine's father. Which prompts Lorraine to become infatuated with him.

Marty eventually finds the younger Doc Brown, and convinces him that he's from the future. They devise a plan to get Marty back by powering the time machine with a bolt of lightning set to strike the clock tower in the town square. Unfortunately, Marty's saving of George has jeopardised his own existence, so he has to get his parents together. That, in turn, results in him repeatedly antagonising Biff.

You'd think that Marty trying to get back to his own time would be a simple enough story without the need to incorporate the other plot threads. However, they've managed to produce one of the most tightly-written scripts I can think of. Every minor detail or conversation in the film is important. For example, Marty is walking through the square with Jennifer when they encounter a campaign to not repair Hill Valley's clock tower after it was struck by lightning in 1955. Marty uses the flyer he's given to determine when he and the younger Doc Brown can use a bolt of lightning to power the DeLorean.

Even the minor details come back full circle. Marty watches the time machine's demonstration at the Twin Pines shopping mall. Doc explains that the farmer who used to own the land wanted to grow pine trees. When Marty goes to 1955, he runs over one of the pine trees while escaping from the shotgun-wielding farmer who mistook him for an alien. When he returns to 1985, the mall is now called "Lone Pine".

I love the comedy in this film too. One of my favourite moments involves Marty convincing George to ask Lorraine out. When George initially refuses, Marty poses as an alien using his radiation suit and a Van Halen tape. And speaking of music, Alan Silvestri's score compliments the film nicely.

Sorry, I've not really reviewed this film but rather gushed about it. It's a classic, and since I'm reviewing all the films, I felt obliged to do a piece on this one. It never struck me as a film that needed sequels. But I'll talk about the first of those tomorrow.

Franchise Reviews - The Back to the Future Trilogy

Great Scott! I've finished my first year!

I've handed in all my first year assignments, so now I'm looking for ways to pass the time over the third term. I've got a novelette that's probably due for another revision, and I'm also looking at making a pirate-themed setting for the new edition of the Savage Worlds roleplaying system.

But I also might do a bit of blogging. It's a bank holiday weekend, and I figured I'd do another Franchise Review series, since I haven't done one of those for a while. And I found the Back to the Future trilogy on Netflix.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be looking at the cinematic adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown, wherever (or perhaps whenever) they may be.

#NaPoWriMo: Final Thoughts

Well, I've done it. I managed to write a poem every day for National Poetry Writing Month. As I predicted, writing a poem every day for a month offered more flexibility than National Novel Writing Month did.

I started writing poetry last year for a few Twitter prompts, and have also had university assignments which have involved writing both strict form and free verse poems. I tried both over the course of the month.

Of course, choosing what form to write in can be a pain. With strict form, you have a structure to work with, but you can't always convey as much emotion when trying to fit the poem to the form. For example, I tried writing a ballade, but struggled to fit the form and published something else instead. With free verse, you can dedicate more time to emotion. However, it's very easy for the poem to become structured, even if it doesn't follow a strict form. I made fun of this in my final piece, discussing the advantages and disadvantages while switching between strict form (specifically ballad and terza rima) and free form.

There's also the issue of content. With thirty days' worth of poems, I tried to find different things to write about. Some of my earlier works had been re-workings of poems I'd written previously, either from Facebook prompts or homework tasks. In fact, I read out my first two pieces at an open mic night at the beginning of the month. That was fun.

A lot of my work ended up being what I'd like to describe as "rhythmic rants", but I suppose that gave me a lot to work with.

All in all, it was a lot of fun. I might try it again next year, I might not. Depends on how I feel.

Happy writing.