Here begins my voiceover script!
Film Noir developed as a movement in the 1940’s. Since its inception, Noir films have been a major influence on other pieces of media including tv series (clip of Fargo), comic books (Edgy batman comic image), and even musical albums (Lana Del Rey music video clip). However, up until recently I hadn’t ever really considered the residual effects Film Noir might have on video games. While scrolling through the Steam store I stumbled across a game tagged “Noir” amongst other features like “RPG” and “Strategy.” I was intrigued and wanted to learn why it had been labelled this way, but the Steam store doesn’t over any explanation or flavor text for their various tags. They’re usually just short tidbits that give you an overview of the type gameplay, story elements, or art style a video game contains. So, what has Steam decided classifies a game as “Noir?” Is it something in the story, the aesthetics, or even the gameplay? I set out to find the answer and decided to choose some of the top selling games under the Steam tag—along with a game suggested by my classmates—to analyze in my search.
But before I get to the games, it might help to talk a little bit more about Noir and why it likely can’t be tacked onto a game without creating a bit of confusion. Films Noir, the influences on these games, are a group of texts that lack a classifying feature. As Professor James Naremore argues, there’s no “one thing” that a classifies a film as a Film Noir and there’s no one thing that all Noir films have in common (12). This makes Noir a murky category for definition, especially within an unexplained Steam tag. However, there are some elements that scholars argue are central to film noir that may help in pin down what Steam is classifying as “Noir.” These include narrative themes like Existentialism and Despair, Fatal Women, and Corruption in the City. They also include aesthetic choices in lighting and a use of expressionist images. These are the main aspects of Noir that I’ll be looking at when determining what elements of Noir these video games are channeling. Now, onto the games!
First on the highest selling list is Disco Elysium, a game produced by developers ZA/UM. In Disco Elysium you play as a detective tasked with solving a string of gruesome murders in the fictional city of Revachol. Notice I didn’t include the detective’s name. That’s because upon immediately loading in, the game reveals that your character is an amnesiac who can’t remember what his name, and your choices will determine what he calls himself for the rest of the game. This moment is just one display of this abundance of seemingly random choices that will impact your personal story. Because your character is literally a blank slate, your choices and interactions with other characters will determine who he becomes. For example, Laura Dale at Polygon managed to have her character believe he was actually a rock star in hiding. She writes about this, stating,
Despite all signs to the contrary, he decided that if he went out and sang for a crowd, they would all be in awe of his talent and he would be whisked off to a well-deserved life of luxury. After going on a multipart quest to find a tape with a ballad on it, practice it alone in my room, and convince a man at the bar to let me sing it at karaoke night, I fail a roll to keep my nerve.
My reward is watching my character spend nearly three full minutes warbling that ballad out of tune. I wasn’t upset; I laughed and smiled, soaking in my failure. I was a mess, but I was owning it (Dale).
The sheer amount of choice this game displays quickly reveals that there are many ways to play your character in terms of their morality. They can be an honest gumshoe trying to crack this case for the good of all, a morally grey opportunist who’s only invested for the thrills, or a vindictive bully who seeks to belittle and control others. This variance in character aligns greatly with existentialist theory, one of the main themes of noir. Robert G. Porfirio describes existentialist theory as placing an “emphasis on man’s contingency in a world where there are no transcendental moral values or absolutes, a world devoid of any meaning but the one he creates himself” (Porfirio 81). This idea of man created meaning is displayed extremely prominently in Disco Elysium in regard to the amnesiac hero figuring out his own character and moralityjustas it is in Films Noir such as Somewhere In The Night. Somewhere In the Night is a Noir Film that follows an amnesiac who returns home from WWII only to get sucked into a murder mystery as he attempts to rediscover his identity. The influence of Film Noir on this game is obvious in its link to themes of existentialism and grey areas of morality. As for a game that links directly to noir through aesthetics, both in terms of lighting and expressionist images, we need look no further than Telltale’s The Wolf Among Us.
The Wolf Among Us was recommended to me with great praise from a few of my classmates. In my research for this video, I got the chance to see where that praise was coming from—and I very much agree with it. The game’s story takes place in a world where fairy tale characters live among us disguised in glamours that make them appear human. These characters are known as “Fables” and make up their own society as they eke out a living in a crushing, corrupt urban environment of Fabletown. The player takes control of Bigby Wolf, the town’s sheriff, as he works with local bureaucrat Snow White to investigate a woman’s murder and free the Fables from the hooks of the infamous crime boss The Crooked Man. The way the characters are lit in this game is a love letter to the Film Noir style of low-key lighting. Authors Place and Peterson describe this style of lighting as when “the ratio of key to fill light is great, creating areas of high contrast and rich, dark shadows” (66). This type of dramatic lighting is seen constantly in how the characters are framed. Even during scenes that take place in the day, characters will trail inky black shadows behind and their faces will be lined with dramatic shadow. This type of lighting reveals how Film Noir stands to influence video games through aesthetics.
However, both Disco Elsyium and The Wolf Among are games on the noir tag that could be argued to contain influences of both noir themes and aesthetics. The game also contains titles like Tangle Tower, a cheery ride through a murder investigation bathed in cartoon graphics and pastels. The aesthetics here aren’t noir, but the themes of the story seem to be. Then there are games like The Shrouded Isle, a political simulator that follows the player’s crazed machinations as a deranged cult leader through an area map shrouded in darkness and sharply defined characters. The themes of Film Noir are necessarily represented here while the noir aesthetics are present. Because of this, I would have to conclude that the games sorted under “Noir” on steam likely contain influence of the themes or the aesthetics of film noir. If you’re looking for an excellent noir game to pick up and brood through, I’d recommend Disco Elysium or The Wolf Among Us. They’re amazing games that truly capture the best of how video games have responded to Film Noir’s influence on other forms of media.
Annotated Bibliography
Dale, Laura. “Disco Elysium Review: Become a Hot Mess in a Ridiculous Adventure.” Polygon, 5 Nov. 2019, http://www.polygon.com/reviews/2019/11/5/20948146/disco-elysium-review-pc.
- I acquired this source through the Polygon website. I think it will be useful in getting someone else’s experience with Disco Elysium and its themes of existentialism.
Naremore, James. “The History of An Idea.” More Than Night: Film Noir in Its Contexts, U of California P, 1998.
- This reading came from class. I think it is useful in saying how Film Noir isn’t an easy genre, so it makes sense that Steam can’t just look at one thing and say “all the games that have this are noir.”
Place, Janey, and Lowell Peterson. “Some visual motifs of Film Noir.” Film Noir Reader, edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini, Hal Leonard Corporation, 1996, pp. 65-75.
- This reading came from class. I think it will be useful in discussing the aesthetics of noir films and how they’re lit.
Porfirio, Robert. “No Way Out: Existential Motifs in Film Noir.” The Philosophy of Film Noir, UP of Kentucky, 2007.
- This reading came from class. I think it is useful in explaining themes of existentialism in noir.
Somewhere In The Night. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 20th Century Fox, 1946.
- This film is available for free on Youtube. I think it will be useful since the story in it pretty closely mirrors the base story of Disco Elysium.
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