Gears of War's original trilogy, for example, wasn't really relatable according to our real world expectations, but it was grounded in the consistency of its own lore, and the characters were portrayed as authentic to that lore. THAT's what made them relatable from an emotional/utilitarian perspective.
It's how most games used to be.
These days? These days, every Western game is headlined by a loony Liberal with far-Left views espousing talking points from contemporary academic circles and awful cringe-inducing rhetoric from online cesspits like Reddit. There's nothing grounded about these characters, as they inhabit a world that is usually neither threatening nor interesting, and their behaviour is oftentimes distasteful and abhorrent to the degree that I find myself wishing the protagonist dead more often than not over the villain.
This.
Gears of War's original trilogy, for example, wasn't really relatable according to our real world expectations, but it was grounded in the consistency of its own lore, and the characters were portrayed as authentic to that lore. THAT's what made them relatable from an emotional/utilitarian perspective.
It's how most games used to be.
These days? These days, every Western game is headlined by a loony Liberal with far-Left views espousing talking points from contemporary academic circles and awful cringe-inducing rhetoric from online cesspits like Reddit. There's nothing grounded about these characters, as they inhabit a world that is usually neither threatening nor interesting, and their behaviour is oftentimes distasteful and abhorrent to the degree that I find myself wishing the protagonist dead more often than not over the villain.