Ever wondered what video games and classical myths had in common? No, just me? You mean to say that I’m the only one that stays awake at night contemplating the similarities of the stories found in modern games and those of classical mythology, especially Greek and Roman? You’re probably more likely wondering why the hell I am even talking about this rather vague subject. Well, here’s a little backstory.
While I was in Florida with my folks, my brother and I replayed “Saints Row: The Third” which is basically a game that is an open-world action adventure game similar to the "Grand Theft Auto" series, but takes a more whacky approach to the whole thing. Probably still thinking what the hell does this have to do with it? Anyway, after getting back from Florida, I got my hands on a copy of “Ryse: Son of Rome,” a hack and slash game set during the Roman era. It was at that point that I began noticing some of the similarities of this game, and well, almost any game that has nothing to do with sports, movie spinoffs or simulations. The protagonists are always epic.
Now, what do I mean by that? Well, let’s break it down here real quick, what do all Mythological heroes have in common? They all have a strong ties with destiny as though it were divine will, which it being a myth like Hercules, Gilgamesh or Beowulf odds are there is some higher power involved. On top of all that, most if not all mythological heroes are blessed with the ability to perform great feats, whether it’s their wits, strengths, agility or the fact that they have divine aid. Finally, they are tasked with accomplishing a seemingly insurmountable mission, whether it's conquering an impenetrable city, slaying a demon and his mother or diving to the depths of the ocean for immortality. So, for anyone that games, I’m pretty sure there are a plethora of characters that come into your mind.
In my opinion, of all the characters that exemplify this the most in modern gaming would probably be the Master Chief/John117 from the “Halo” franchise. This man literally has all the fittings of a mythological hero. The Chief is a character that from the very first game of the series is tasked with the helping save humanity from losing a war of extinction. To that end, he is augmented to be stronger, faster, more intelligent and the list goes on than any other human so he could accomplish that.
So it should come to no surprise that three games later, he not only accomplishes his task of saving humanity, but also the entire galaxy from extinction from a completely different threat. Of course, there is a planet’s worth of blood shed along the way to accomplish this task (something I forgot to mention about most classic mythological heroes is that they know how to stack bodies), but the job is done and the galaxy mourns the “loss” of its savior at the end of “Halo 3." However, you could probably reference any other franchise or game and start plugging in this formula for a mythological hero, and at the end of the day, you will end up with the same conclusion.
Now that you are done proving my theory, you might be asking, why this? Well let’s face it, if the player's character wasn’t a walking epiphany of badassery, whether it’s the Dragonborn from “Skyrim” Samus from “Metroid” or even the Boss from “Saints Row,” we’d end up with a very crappy, uninteresting story. That is human history though, as one of my professor’s famously put it, we’ve been telling the same three stories for millennia (the Flood, survival, the Iliad, human conflict and the Odyssey, a great journey) or we’ve been mixing those three to create our tales. After about five years of pondering that thought, I’ve come to agree with that notion, and now it’s almost a game to find out which of the original three tales any piece of modern storytelling resembles the closest.
