Spider-Man: Miles Morales and TLOU Part 2 Have Excellent Video Game Museums

Most video games are built like museums on their own – inside the menus and beyond the stories are collections of artifacts and lore. Instead of housing a world of information in large historic buildings, these museums are code-based. Each is an abstract narrative of the player’s journey so far. This “museum” is different in any given game; for Red Dead Redemption 2, memories and history of the game are stored in a notebook to be leafed through. In Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft has stored its tradition in menu screens that unlock new information every time the protagonist meets a new character. Even the achievements or trophies of a game can be considered as elements of these museums – notes on the journey through these digital spaces.

Sometimes the museum of a video game is more literal, as in Animal Crossing: New horizons, which has a real museum to house the items that players collect. Information about discovery and life on a particular island is kept in these individual museums; it is both goal setting and memory retention. There are many other recent examples, as others have noticed – the small museum of objects in Hell, a collection of ancient objects in a classic museum of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the PlayStation History Museum at Astro Games Room. Each of these video games includes a “museum” in the literal sense of the word, but also serves as a museum on a more abstract and macro level.

“There is something interesting that so many games – and this is also true of The Last of Us – have a museum in the user interface,” Naughty Dog chief creative officer told Polygon. , Neil Druckmann. “You can inspect these artifacts, objects and character models. And that’s sort of the museum. I think there’s something innate about us amassing and collecting things and being nostalgic about them – our own history and our own memories.

Video games themselves are goal-oriented. There is always something to do or unlock, and players expect not only a reward, but a record – a reflection of this virtual achievement and the time spent on it. Museums do this, but record something much larger: life on Earth, experienced from a narrow human perspective. Enter a museum of any type and you’ll be presented with a collection of art or artifacts that tell a story – about the evolution of life, about the history of human civilization, about our collective intellectual and artistic achievements. .

[Ed. note: This article includes spoilers for both The Last of Us Part 2 and Spider-Man: Miles Morales.]

The idea of ​​a video game designed as a museum in its own right feels as a major thought for the shower, but it also seems very appropriate. For example, The last of us Part 2 is a museum of player achievements, but also a game that contains both a museum and an aquarium that the main characters visit and explore. Video game designers keep returning to the museum as an interesting space to place integral moments in a game’s story, as these spaces reflect the basic concept of video games.

“We take advantage of our experiences by going to museums, and there is often a sense of wonder – imagination and learning – but there is also sometimes a feeling of creepy when you see all those stuffed animals and cavemen. Said Druckmann. “Then there are just basic level design elements, like how to play with lighting and shapes, obscuring what’s on every corner.

The design of the museum can inspire the way a player progresses and set the mood the developer is looking for.

“When you first enter the museum [in The Last of Us Part 2], it’s very open – you see almost all the screens, ”Druckmann said. “And then when you get to the other area where you want to increase the creep, we started using all the light and the way the screens are located. It creates a different feeling because you can’t quite see.

Inside the museum, beyond the overgrown world, Ellie and Joel are able to embrace wonder and awe as they explore space without a single threat – until the moment, maybe there is. Ellie and Joel interact with the museum in an almost ambitious way, despite the ruin outside: they enter a spaceship and pretend to fly away.

The science museum of Spider Man: Miles Morales is also an echo of the history and themes of the game – the past and the future are represented by the different states in which the museum is located, both pristine and in ruins. The player encounters the museum at two different times: one, in a flashback in which Miles and his best friend Phin (who would later become the Handyman) celebrate their award-winning science fair project, and another, when Miles and Phin (as Spider-Man and Handyman, respectively) face off in their final battle.

“The museum tells us what could have been: two brilliant kids admiring the exhibits and daydreaming about their future, before it collapsed,” Insomniac Games advanced writer Mary Kenney told Polygon.

It’s representative of Miles and Phin’s scientific expertise, of course, but the name also implies the corporate influence Oscorp (and others!) Have on this version of New York. During the flashback sequence, Miles and Phin try to visit their science fair exhibit at the museum, but are turned away because they don’t have tickets. It’s a moment that, in its simplicity, says a lot about the place of these two high school students in this world belonging to Roxxon and Oscorp. This says a lot that the museum as an institution will ‘accept’ students into its world and benefit from their talents, but will not include them in the most literal sense – they shouldn’t need tickets. to see their own work.

As Miles, I can interact with most of the exhibits, each playing a voiceover that explains the science and technology behind the glass. The scientific achievements of the world are billed as innovation – but as gamers we also know a bit more about Oscorp, and know that its research is not always as innocent as it seems. It colored my perception of the museum in a disturbing way, as different scenes unfolded across the space.

This first museum flashback was a quiet moment before the action resumed, similar to The Last of Us Part 2the museum stage. None of these sequences truly reflect the nature of the collection, but they touch on the past in a way that mimics the setting itself, as well as the general themes of the story. In The Last of Us Part 2 and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the museum’s scenes evoke childhood and loss – often in a violent and catastrophic world. Again, everything works because video games are the museums and the museums of these games reflect the games in which they participate.

This whole idea is not new, of course. In-game museums have been a big part of the Uncharted series, and they’re in many other big franchises, from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim at BioShock 2. But the sheer number of museums dedicated to last year’s games stood out again. Perhaps it was because museums around the world were closing their doors to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That’s when the museum’s executives reversed the scenario, so to speak. Video game developers used museums to invoke and display meaning, but museums have used video games to create new experiences in a digital space. Thus, video games and museums became more and more intertwined, as museums themselves entered virtual worlds, whether by creating and cataloging a collection of historic gowns, building art installations or by downloading a whole collection of dang art for players to easily add to the game.

We see video games reflected in museums and museums reflected in video games because the format fits perfectly, tapping into the satisfaction of collection, information and nostalgia. It makes sense for a game to take advantage of that feeling, and that’s why museum levels are so fun to play. Video games have long been drawn from museums for their inspiration and design, and it’s fascinating to see museums now learning games.