Spider-Man: Miles Morales and TLOU Part 2 have great video game museums

Most video games are built like museums – inside the menus and in addition to the stories, there are collections of items and knowledge. Rather than housing a world of information in large historic buildings, these museums are based on codes. Each is an abstract retelling of the player’s journey to date. This “museum” looks different in any game; for Red Dead Redemption 2, the game’s memories and history are stored in a notepad to be flipped through. Inside Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Ubisoft has stored its knowledge on the menu screens that unlock new information every time the protagonist encounters a new character. Even the achievements or trophies of a game can be considered elements in these museums – notes on the journey through these digital spaces.

Sometimes the video game museum is more literal, as in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which has a real museum to house the things players collect. Information about discoveries and life on any particular island is stored in these individual museums; it is both goal setting and memory maintenance. There are many other recent examples, as others have noted – the small museum of items in Hades, a collection of ancient artifacts in a classic museum in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, the PlayStation history museum in Astro’s Playroom. Each of these video games includes a “museum” in the literal sense, but it also serves as a museum on a more abstract macro level.

An animal crossing character standing under a dinosaur bone statue

“There is something interesting that so many games – and this is also true for The Last of Us – have a museum within the user interface,” Naughty Dog creative director Neil Druckmann told Polygon. “You can inspect these artifacts, items and character models. And this is the type of museum. I think there is something inborn, us accumulating and collecting items and being nostalgic about them – our own history and memories. “

The video games themselves are goal-oriented. There is always something to do or unlock, and players expect not only a reward, but a record – a reflection of that virtual achievement and the time spent on it. Museums do this, but they register something much bigger: life on Earth, experienced from a narrow human perspective. Enter a museum of any kind and you will be presented with a collection of art or artifacts that tell a story – about the evolution of life, about the history of human civilization, about our collective intellectual and artistic achievements.

[Ed. note: This article includes spoilers for both The Last of Us Part 2 and Spider-Man: Miles Morales.]

The idea of a video game being designed as a museum for itself feel like a big thought in the shower, but it also looks very suitable. For example, The last of us Part 2 it is a museum of the player’s achievements, but also a game that has a museum and an aquarium inside which the main characters visit and explore. Video game designers continue to return to the museum as an interesting space to place integral moments in the history of a game, because these spaces reflect the central concept of video games.

“We take advantage of our experiences of going to museums and there is often a sense of wonder – imagination and learning – but sometimes there is also a feeling of chills when you see all these stuffed animals and cavemen,” said Druckmann. “Then, there are only entry-level design things, like how we can play with lighting and shapes, obscuring what’s around every corner.

The museum’s design can inspire how a player progresses in it, and it can also set the mood the developer is looking for.

Ellie from The Last Of Us Part 2 in a top in a museum looking at the planets

“When you are entering the museum for the first time [in The Last of Us Part 2], it’s very open – you almost see all the screens, ”said Druckmann. “And then, as you get to the other area where you want to increase the chill, we start using all the light and the ways the monitors are located. This creates a different feeling, because you can’t see well. “

Inside the museum, in addition to the overgrown world, Ellie and Joel are able to embrace awe and wonder as they explore the space without a single threat – until such time as, perhaps, there is one. Ellie and Joel interact with the museum in a way that is almost an aspiration, despite the ruin on the outside: they get into a spaceship and pretend they really flew away.

The science museum in Spider man: Miles Morales it is likewise an echo of the history and themes of the game – both the past and the future are represented by the different states in which the museum is found, both primitive and in ruins. The player finds the museum at two different points: one, in a flashback during which Miles and his best friend Phin (who later becomes Tinkerer) celebrate their award-winning science fair project, and another, when Miles and Phin ( like Spider-Man and Tinkerer, respectively) face off in their last battle.

“The museum tells us what it could have been: two brilliant children admiring exhibitions and daydreaming about their future, before it collapsed,” Insomniac Games forward writer Mary Kenney told Polygon.

miles and phil looking at a science exhibition in a museum

It is a representation of Miles and Phin’s scientific experience, of course, but the name also implies the corporate influence that Oscorp (and others!) Have on this version of New York City. During the flashback sequence, Miles and Phin try to visit their exhibition at the science fair at the museum, but are rejected because they have no tickets. It is a moment that, in its simplicity, says a lot about where these two high school students fit into this world owned by Roxxon and Oscorp. It says a lot that the museum as an institution will “accept” students into its world and gain from its talents, but it has failed to include them in the most literal sense – they shouldn’t need tickets to see their own work.

Like Miles, I can interact with most exhibits, each with a narration that explains the science and technology behind the glass. The world’s scientific achievements are presented as innovation – but, as players, we also know a little more about Oscorp, and we know that their research is not always as innocent as it seems. This colored my perception of the museum in a sinister way, as different scenes unfolded in space.

The museum’s first flashback was a moment of silence before the action intensified again, similar to The Last of Us Part 2museum scene from. None of these sequences really reflects the nature of the collection, but they touch the past in a way that mimics the setting itself, as well as the general themes of the story. Inside The Last of Us Part 2 and Spider-Man: Miles Morales, the museum’s scenes address childhood and loss – often for a violent and catastrophic world. Again, it all works because video games it is museums, and the museums in these games are reflections of the games in which they participate.

This whole idea is not new, of course. Game museums have been a big part of the Uncharted series and are in many other major franchises, from The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim for BioShock 2. But the plethora of museums at games last year still stood out. Perhaps because museums around the world were closing their doors to the public due to the coronavirus pandemic.

That was when the museum executives reversed the script, so to speak. Video game developers used museums to invoke and display meanings, but museums used video games to create new experiences in a digital space. And then video games and museums became even more interconnected, as museums entered virtual worlds, whether creating and cataloging a collection of historic aprons, building art installations or loading an entire art collection for players to easily add to the game.

We see video games reflected in museums and museums reflected in video games because the format fits together, taking advantage of the satisfaction of the collection, information and nostalgia. It makes sense for a game to leverage that feeling, which is why museum levels are so good to play. Video games have long sought inspiration and design in museums, and it is fascinating to see museums now learning from games.

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