Nonlinear storytelling is the art of creating one story from many points of view and stories. This is an interesting art form that is being pushed more and more in the media world. Each story has its own unique voice. If you listen to it, it will be different. And not just different from what you would normally hear.
One of the most common storytelling models is one that is linear. This works well for movies and books or, for that matter, TV shows. Linear storytelling allows you to be able to focus on a single point in the story. But it can be difficult for the audience to experience any kind of depth. So, if the main character is on the run, we might want to tell a different story about him, or give him a new set of motivations every time we hear him.
Nonlinear storytelling is much like linear storytelling, except instead of telling a single point in the story, we tell a story through a series of disconnected parts. In nonlinear storytelling, the storyteller is free to tell the same story from different locations in the same sequence. This allows us to tell the story of Colt and his pursuit of Visionaries in any way we like.
The best thing about running nonlinear is that we can run it over and over and over again and still end up with something new to tell. We’re not limited to one set of motives, objectives, and goals. It’s always up to us how to tell the story.
To be fair to Arkane, the nonlinear storytelling part of Deathloop gives us more freedom to do the same thing again and again. The fact that there are multiple levels of the story is a nice touch too.
Speaking of story, the game also has a story mode. You can play as Colt or the Visionaries. Each of the characters has their own distinct personality. The Visionaries are very mysterious. They are all connected to each other in some way.
“The game is about playing the character to their strengths,” says Arkane’s head of storytelling, Tim Schafer. “You can play the character at your own pace, but you’re encouraged to just play the game how you like it.
Thats a good idea. I mean sure, if your character is a total jerk, its cool to be a jerk, but I really like that it is a game that does not allow the player to just go around and do whatever they want. Instead, it allows them to play the game in a certain way and see how it affects the story.
The game is in a very linear fashion. The player has a certain goal and you have to accomplish it. If you just choose to do something, its completely doable. But if you are determined to do it, its very likely you will succeed.
This is a great example of how a game can be made to be nonlinear and still be interesting. Nonlinear storytelling is where you take a simple idea like a person doing something a certain way and have it be something that is really, really different and still be interesting.
