Bags! Or, well, what do you call them – backpacks, inventories? Aren’t they the same thing? You know, something you put your stuff in. And where would we be without them? Can you imagine not hefting a sack of axes and swords and suits of armour into town to sell to the improbably rich local merchant? No. Can you imagine not having a bouquet of freshly picked flowers in your bag, or slab upon slab of dripping wet meat? No! It’s ridiculous – we can’t not have bags.
We’ve been picking stuff up in games for years – as far back as the point-and-click dinosaurs of the 1990s. We’d collect all kinds of junk, then mash it together in some way to create something new to help us solve a puzzle. I really liked Manny Calavera’s inventory in Grim Fandango, which was effectively a capacious inside tuxedo pocket. He’d suavely reach in and produce object after object, one after another. How’s that for style?
But where did he keep it all? Where do any of the characters keep it all? Heck, in The Elder Scrolls games, you don’t even seem to have a bag, so where are you putting all – down your ? I don’t think so – think of the chafe! Brings a whole new meaning to the word ringmail.
Anyway! Enough of that because I’ll probably get fired. Here’s to magic, invisible bags!
Is there a more iconic backpack than Lara Croft’s? Box design, leather body, leather straps. Bold. And it also doesn’t seem to get in the way when she’s rolling around dusty tomb floors. It’s really been cleverly designed for the job! Quite lucky she came across it, really! There was even a special sequence in Tomb Raider 4 to show her first picking it up. Doesn’t check inside for spiders, though, does she?
In recent years, the backpack seems to have been quietly phased out. Lara now shows the equipment she’s carrying around on her back, like the bow, which she kills dozens and dozens of people with, the maniac. But still the bag remains forever linked with the character.