Time to Visit Yokosuka - Game Invaders: The Theory and Understanding of Computer Games - page 122

Figure 9.1 Activity profi le for Shenmue on the Dreamcast. (See color insert.)

genre switching, which moves you to beat -' em - up or driving or a whole host of
Quick Time Events (QTEs): Resident Evil also uses the latter, as we saw in Chapter
6. When you are going about town you cannot be aggressive. Later in the game we
have to go to work and we are suddenly playing a driver — a forklift - truck - driver , to
be exact. We gain agency typical of the driving genre at the expense of that offered
by the adventure.
The lower-medium scoring activities, physical contact, exploring, on foot, skill
enhancement, story, and defending, follow a similar pattern. We have physical
contact and skill enhancement for the beat -' em - up sequences and communicating
and trading for the predominant adventure / RPG sequences. In the adventure mode
in particular there are lots and lots of things to do. Apart from exploring and talking
to people, we have examining and purchasing inanimate objects; interacting with
active objects such as doors, telephones, game consoles, and so on; buying food for
and feeding a lost kitten; martial arts training; QTEs; watching cut scenes; and much
more. The score of 4 for story supports this.
Finally, there are fi ve activities scoring 2 that fi ll out the profi le: collecting items,
consuming, cut scenes, maneuvering, and traveling; all of which support the pre-
dominant adventure / RPG mode.
In fact, watching cut scenes is a very important part of the gameplay of Shenmue
and we are often presented with this most passive of all activity types. We basically
sit back and watch for seconds and even minutes at a time. There are no levels as
such in Shenmue. The further aspects of the game open up when we have gathered
enough information and defeated the requisite baddies in battle. Cut scenes come
along depending on the point we have reached in progressing through the game, and