We get to the top of the stairs and start walking down the hall. Silence echoes as we pass an open door where lights are on but no one is home. Stopping at an open window Jason climbs up and out as Marie and I keep a look out. A moment later Jason steps out through a nearby door and we are in. Up the ladder we go and out into the fresh summer air.
We are on top of the Human Ecology Building on Michigan State’s Campus. The roof sits six stores above the ground, is only flat in the one section, where we are at, but that section has battlements around the edges. Which, needless to say, makes for an excellent roof to take in the view.
I have always enjoyed being on roofs. Any time my dad had the ladder out around the house I wanted to shimmy up to our roof. It must be the height, but perhaps it is having the sky above me. That’s a key differences in what makes a roof a roof. Taking in the view from inside a skyscraper verses atop its roof is very different, like standing on a mountain instead of gazing at a picture. Roofs are terrain in this respect, land open to the sky. Windows are just glorified holes in the side of a hill.
However, roofs are not open terrain. Jason, Marie and I had to sneak onto the roof of the Human Ecology building. There were two locked doors barring access and the shear fact that those doors could be opened easily if one was on the roof (which is why Jason had to climb out the window) says that the building’s architect did not wish anyone to be trapped on the roof. Human occupancy on a roof should be limited and fleeting. Large machinery, communication equipment, ugly cements, rocks, tars and shingles are placed on flat top roofs, only a repairman should see such things. Vaulted roofs on personal dwellings are dangerous to walk on and typically used to accent the property. All these features point to the fact that roof terrain should be controlled, hidden or serve merely as aesthetic. But not so in games.
Perhaps you have noticed, open world games are thriving on rooftops. Assassin’s Creed, Infamous, Mirror’s Edge and Prototype have each utilized rooftops as terrain. That is unrestricted terrain, roofs are appropriated as playgrounds. Players move freely and experience the game’s action atop the skyline. Certainly there is a street level down below the cityscape, most of the games have indoor areas as well, but the roofs are where players are drawn.
One would have to assume that the reason for this love affair with roofs is due to the taboo nature the roof has within our culture. General access roofs are rare. In de Certeau terms, those with strategic authority wish to keep us everyday citizens from tactically using roof space. No wonder our media are filled with rooftop chase, fight or love scenes. Those are so rare in real life that we must imagine what they would be like in our entertainment escapes.
So how are roofs imagined in open world games? While attempting to find literature that specifically talked about rooftops, or heights in general, I came across a quote in an unlikely, but welcomed, text that may help answer that question. One avenue I took in my search was the notion of having the high ground in combat situations. Descending while fighting is preferred to ascending while fighting, starting at a greater height compared to one’s opponent increases the chances of victory. Additionally, each open world game relies on combat in some respect so a combat relation to terrain is fitting. This led me to my shelf looking for The Art of War and while there are quotes stating the “High Ground” concept it was another quote about terrain that caught my eye:
“By terrain I mean distances, whether the ground is traversed with ease or difficulty, whether it is open or constricted, and the chances of life and death.” (Sun Tzu, The Art of War, trans. Samuel Griffith, 1963)
Traversability, openness, and endangerment, as to describe terrain, are three ways of describing how roofs are used in games.
Traversability
Each of the four open worlds I mentioned rely on speed and freedom of movement. Mirror’s edge is the most obvious example given that it is described as a “First-person Running” game. Racing to the end of the level, jumping over obstacles with ease and taking alternate routes all add to the traversability of the rooftop environment in Mirror’s Edge. Prototype is the other obvious example, Alex (the protagonist) has the ability to run up buildings, jump long distances and glide from skyscraper to skyscraper. In both Prototype and Mirror’s Edge the purpose of the roof is to provide an avenue, a corridor, for players to move.
Infamous and Assassin’s Creed take a different approach to roofs, one that is more strategic. Both games employ a parkour system which players use to climb up structures. While this makes it easy for players to climb up buildings in order to access any roof, getting to the roof quickly is another matter. For example, in both games the player can be knocked off a building by projectile fire if an enemy is in pursuit. Yet, in some cases there are quick access points to the roof, such as ladders in Assassin’s Creed. Once atop a roof the games turn into something similar to Mirror’s Edge or Prototype, though the speed is toned down. True, a player can gain upgrades in Infamous which allow them to glide through the air for short bursts or glide across telephone wires but before that time, as in Assassin’s Creed too, it is less about pure speed and more about maneuverability. Nonetheless, whether the focus is on speed or maneuverability, the rooftops are extremely traversable.
Openness
Three of the games, excluding Assassin’s Creed, have in-door levels. In these spaces I personally felt confined; the spaces are big enough to maneuver but still limiting. At these times the gameplay mimicked the feeling of being in an arena instead of upon an expansive terrain. Prototype players have to enter military bases from time to time where they are restricted to a, roughly, two store room. With the intense combat that can occur in Prototype it wasn’t hard to become surrounded by enemies in these areas, especially in the early parts of the game. Infamous and Mirror’s Edge interior areas instead felt like linear paths; where as on the roofs you felt free, in doors the player is told “you must go this way.”
On the roofs though, freedom reigns supreme. Along with speed and maneuverability, roofs gave a greater sense of having more choice in how to approach gameplay. Determining how to get from A to B, which missions to take, and the means to accomplish those missions all give a sense of agency to the player. Though the roofs are still contained at times. Mirror’s Edge, while I have been lumping it with open world games it normally would not be considered as such, is still a linear game, the finish line is always given to the player. Assassin’s Creed and Infamous restrict access to certain portions of the cityscape and only become truly open about mid-way through the game. But otherwise, the game space atop the city feels open and free, one that can be entered and exited at any time and in any way.
Endangerment
Of course danger exists among the rooftops. Whether it be archer’s in Assassin’s Creed, snipers in Infamous or Mirror’s Edge, or Helicopters in Prototype, the player needs to watch their back on the roof. Combat is supposed to start on the roof and descend to the ground. Infamous and Prototype give players abilities that rely on getting above a target in order to launch surprise attacks. Players in Assassin’s Creed are pushed to take out the archer’s that line the roofs before they move to the street level. Mirror’s Edge does not even have a street level, falling off the roof equals death, so combat starts there and stays there.
In contrast, on the street combat becomes close quarters. Players can be swarmed when fighting at ground level, having to fight their way out. In Assassin’s Creed this is dangerous, being an assassin the player is suppose to hit and run, not stand and fight. Infamous and Prototype turn into a brawler when not fighting on the roofs. Melee and “Area of Effect” attacks are extremely effective, and a little button mashing is required. But combat always returns to the rooftops.
There are defiant distinctions between the rooftop and street level combat but roofs always represent the high ground. As the rule says, fight from the high ground, and when on the street guess what the player does not have, a strategic position. Basically, this means that while fighting in the streets the player has to deal with the enemies around them and the enemies on the roof. This is why combat returns to the roof because eventually the player must always deal with the enemies that have the higher ground. Thus shifting between the roof and street level is of extreme importance but a shift that adds dimension to these games.
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Roofs are terrain in these respects, or at least they are in games. In an age when it is exciting and risqué to have a party on the roof or install a rooftop eco-friendly garden to combat global warming, games are giving players the experience of traversing roofs in the same way one would explore urban streets or even the wild hinterlands beyond. Certainly the increased popularity of other concepts like the open world game genre and parkour has exacerbated rooftop gameplay too. Combining all of these factors allow us as players to take part in a taboo adventure of running across rooftops while we have probably never even been on the roof of the building we are sitting in at this moment. Perhaps if we were rich men we would build a home with an open roof for us to play or even fiddle upon (I had to reference the play somewhere), but for now we will have to stick with the virtual ones.
