Gameplay more important than story, says Deus Ex scribe

Like its predecessors, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a game that places heavy emphasis on its cyberpunk narrative.

But somewhat surprisingly, Mary DeMarle, narrative designer at Eidos Montreal, believes it is gameplay, rather than story, that is of the utmost importance.

“Obviously as someone who creates stories in games, I think story is very important,” DeMarle told VideoGamer.com. “When I get the question, ‘What’s more important – gameplay or story?’ my answer, surprisingly, is the gameplay. When you’re playing a game, the gameplay is creating that story, and the experience that’s coming out of it is the gameplay. If we tend to think of them as two separate elements, we’re never going to succeed.

“If [the narrative] is making use of the gameplay, and recognising gameplay as one of the elements for conveying the story, then you build a really powerful experience. The story gives you an emotional attachment, a reason to understand your motive, and it allows you to immerse yourself in this thing that’s not a part of your life. It really captures your imagination. “

DeMarle also believes that advances in gaming hardware are helping writers to create better plot-driven experiences.

“Games have always been a very technology-driven industry, and as we start to come to grasp and understand the technology – even though the technology keeps changing – we’re starting to recognise how we can incorporate that or use that to better portray the stories.

“We’re developing as an industry and as medium, and as we develop we’re starting to really get into understanding how to better tell stories in games.”

DeMarle was speaking to VideoGamer the day after our first hands-on with Human Revolution. You can read our impressions here.