Reviling rodentsInterface
wfmag.cc \ 21 The behaviour of the rats is
exaggerated by what Dedeine refers
to as “an alchemical imbalance”.
This familiarity and insight into the rats cast
them in a completely new light – they become
living inhabitants, victims of the city in much the
same way as any other, exultant in pleasure,
and despairing in pain. It is the counterpoint to
A Plague Tale’s depiction – a rat as a thinking,
feeling, individual creature, defined by more than
just hunger. It is also a far cry from Vermintide’s
anthropomorphic depiction of rats as a vehicle
for the negative characteristics of humanity.
“This is our baggage, not theirs,” Monforton
explains. “At most, rats are reactive to humans
and how we choose to live. They follow us
wherever we go, whether into cities or across
oceans. They are associated with the death
and decay that humans create, and so rats are
burdened with our own guilt-ridden symbolism.”
In more ways than one, they are our victims,
and in terms of design, it’s easy to see why
they infest our games. Rats are enemies
of convenience. As De Geer explains:
“The Skaven gave us a great
opportunity to push as many
enemies as we could on screen
at the same time.” Dedeine
echoes this same thought:
“It was the easy part. You can
find an algorithm on the
internet, and very quickly,
you can see lots of rats.”
Both Vermintide and A Plague
Tale: Innocence use rats and their
associations to create uniquely
visceral experiences, filling players
with horror and disgust. But sometimes it can
also be good to look out beyond the revulsion,
beyond the plague, the blood, and the hunger,
to appreciate the reality of a living creature,
which has inspired so much in gaming.more rats will appear, and the more the plague
will spread. It’s easy to see Dishonored’s rats as
evil at first, but in revealing that the Lord Regent
displaced them and brought them to the city,
we realise they’re merely an unsuspecting aspect
of his evil schemes.
This changing perspective becomes its most
interesting in Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, a
game which allows you, through dark magic, to
hear rats speak. Hazel Monforton was a narrative
designer on the game, and wrote many of
these ‘rat-whispers’. “We all deeply
loved the idea of hearing the rats’
inner thoughts for the first
time in the series,” Monforton
explains. “They want to live,
to be safe, to be fed, to have
sex, to take care of their
children. They have emotions,
and relationships, and even an
oral history.” One of the most
powerful parts of this animal
perspective is that they speak in the
voice of a young girl, Deirdre, protagonist
Billie Lurk’s childhood sweetheart. “The voice
stresses that the rats are very small, very weak,
and very childlike themselves. They come from
a hostile environment that is stacked against
them,” Monforton says. “In particular, the blood-
curdling scream when the rats are harmed or
frightened is very affecting. I know some fans
reloaded earlier saves after doing that because
they felt so guilty.” Billie Lurk also represents a
unique perspective to empathise with the rats.
“She is from the street and the city in a way that
Corvo and Emily are not,” Monforton explains.
“She grew up in poverty, watched the rich destroy
her life and loved ones, became a killer on behalf
of others, and lived in the abandoned, filthy,
and secret places of both Dunwall and Karnaca.
The rats are a smaller reflection of Billie’s same
themes. Their lives are intimately intertwined.” Anders De Geer talks
with a profound love of
Warhammer Fantasy,
evident in Vermintide’s
lore-inspired game design. David Dedeine speaks about
game design like alchemy,
reflecting a creative
process which seems to
have relied more on instinct
than exact science. Hazel Monforton, having
written a thesis on collective
violence in 20th-century
literature, truly understands
the victims of Dishonored.“The
voice says
the rats are
small, weak,
and childlike
themselves”wfmag.cc \ 21