By now, you might’ve noticed a rather state-of-the-art piece of footage from GDC called Kara. Created by Quantic Dream, this demonstration shows off a new dimension of power that can be tapped out of a Playstation 3. If you haven’t seen it, don’t worry, we’ll add it in this piece. It is said that the technical presentation isn’t tampered material and is running in full on the Playstation 3.

I'll just leave this here.

The clip stars an android called Kara being assembled and tested before shipping off to customers. The premise isn’t much more different from other futuristic settings: Kara is an immensely highly advanced piece of technology that can do anything from speaking 300 languages to making appointments and watching the kids. Naturally, as she is an attractive and lifelike piece of machinery, her opening statement also immediately clarifies that she is fit as a fully capable and willing intimate partner. However, product testing goes awry once a glitch in the system occurs. You really need to see it before we continue, so you can witness this emotion first hand. If you haven’t yet, do so now; we’ll wait.

Seen it? That’s some powerful stuff, right? And we’re not just talking about the overwhelming technical features of the demonstration. The moving moment of Kara’s awareness is probably something that will get carried into gaming history. Her immediate assessment of being alive is beautifully portrayed. It’s hard to convey non-verbal emotions, but the moment where her childlike sense of wonder captures that she can walk and is thus alive gets shown without words or exaggerated gestures. The demonstration makes it clear through its unrivaled realism. And while this is only a demonstration, it’s such a powerful presentation that making a full title from this would fit perfectly. We’re already hooked on the concept; Quantic Dream might as well follow up on it. We’ve assessed the main reasons for the future conception of the game adaptation for Kara.

A new standard

This is the obvious argument. The tech demo is made first and foremost to show just what the Playstation 3 is capable of. From the start, the picture perfect facial tones, shadow reflections, soft skin movements, rough and even fine motor skills display real-time realism the likes of which we haven’t experienced before. This could be presented in a full title that would even surpass L.A. Noire’s stunning new features. Gaming technology is always striving for new, more accurate depictions of reality; Kara could be the new standard for this. The surrounding lighting, mechanics and smooth animations suggest that this could get designed into all parts of the game and not just the character models.

Still, it’s the lifelike character designs that are the main focus here. Getting to experience this semi-human entity would definitely create a high level of immersion, due to its vivid nature alone. Kara’s facial features and textures are almost to a point that of genuine humans, right up to the pores. When she moves, her entire body flexes itself without hampering joint hitches or limitations. Even her eyeballs glimmer with moisture from their corners and their movement causes her eyelids to follow suit organically. Finally, her voice acting gets lip synced flawlessly and even zooming in fully doesn’t show noticeable flaws. This could quite directly have us hanging at her every word; as camera positions concentrate on the dialogue at hand. If a captivating character helps secure a moving experience, then Kara is well on her way of doing that with this tech demo alone.

Instant connection

This leads us to our next point: We already care-a for Kara; even though it’s not pronounced the same. In just a few minutes, Quantic Dream has given us an introduction to the entity of Kara, made us know what she’s about and then connected us to her persona. Using the powerful technology, it captured in essence who the character behind the animation is and covertly attached its strings in our psyche. Before long, we start emulating her emotions as they happen on-screen. When she smiles, we smile; when she enquires, we listen and so on. In less than five minutes we are hooked on the concept of Kara and her experience in this fresh new world.

Even before her verbal manifestation, the demonstration tells us through her corporal expressions when something starts going wrong. As it becomes clear what her purpose in existence is, her enthusiasm turns to a more closed and worrying position. This quickly culminates into the powerful climax of her desperate struggle for survival. Kara is sentient; alive even. And so are we, through her. As soon as this becomes apparent, our empathic association makes it clear that we’re feeling the same things.

Furthermore, upon her reassembly, this reaches a new level of attachment. Once she gets in line and questionably looks at her placement, we start inquiring within. What will happen to Kara? Where will she go? Is she going to find a place in the world? Is she going to be exploited? What dilemmas will she face now that she’s sentient? Fill in questions here to your liking. A dozen similar queries immediately arise. We want, nay need to know what’s going to happen to Kara. Quantic Dream hooked us and now they just have to complete the activity.

Movie-based games

This inquiry leads us to our final argument. We want to observe what tribulations Kara will face in her lifetime. Now, we don’t advocate movie-like experiences a lot. In fact, David Jaffe recently had similar thoughts that playing a movie with limited resources, instead of actively playing a game, might not be the medium gaming is meant for. Yet, this is a solid exception for two reasons.

First off, the vulnerable position Kara is in makes us want to know what happens to her. Even if we can help shape the story, the main position here is seeing how the story progresses, not playing Kara: the character. Part of our connection towards Kara is the helplessness we feel. Regardless of intentions, parts of why we feel invested is because we want to step into play but can’t. Taking that away would also break a part of what makes this feeling special. The more we as a person get involved, the less it becomes about Kara’s fate.

Secondly, Quantic Dream is the flag bearer for movie-based games. When you think of a similar title, you’ll instantly think of either Fahrenheit or Heavy Rain. Both are made by this developer. Director David Cage has always been clear about his filmmaking aspirations. In fact, he often gets critiqued for coming down on traditional game development.

Regardless, Quantic Dream knows how to create a game with a cinematic experience like no other and this is exactly what Kara needs. More so, their games keep player input minimal at all times, through mechanics like timed events. It’s unilaterally the same and never changes to make us feel like we’re less in control than we should be. This one time, not having a lot of control would benefit the experience we could get from having a game centered on Kara.

But more importantly than all of this, we just want to know what’s going to happen next with our android. We’re engrossed in her story and need clarity. We need Kara: The Game!

Daav Valentaten, NoobFeed. (@Daavpuke)