Cliches in Video Games...

[TheIceface]

Enemies Wearing Gas Masks

This one annoys me, especially when it's completely irrelevent, it just makes them look like they are into S&M back at HQ or something.

Its not just gas masks, its anything that obstructs the full view of the face. The reason developers do this is because it makes it easier to kill the enemies if they are nameless and faceless.

If you had to go around killing enemies that looked exactly like your allies you may have a moral problem with that. It makes them look like real people and not targets. Its all a mental thing.

 

[Frybird]

While certainly painful and probably deadly, short exposure to fire, electricity, radioactivity or energy beams rearly leads to instant death, no matter how much you are exposed to.

Not that it matters much, but i often noticed how the game needs to drain your HP Bar before you die, even if you are jumping naked into a planetary destruction doom-beam.

Also, the more than convenient placed ammo in First Person Shooters. After all, in the future, it's not a medical bay without plasma ammunition scattered on the floor

 

[Lord Krunk]

http://jollyjack.deviantart.com/art/How-to-play-Halo-70943470

Says it all, really.

 

[TheIceface]

While certainly painful and probably deadly, short exposure to fire, electricity, radioactivity or energy beams rearly leads to instant death, no matter how much you are exposed to.

... And then theres Half Life 1 where if you jump into a beam or fall to far your body explodes into a bunch of bloody pieces the instant you touch the beam/floor.

 

[Copter400]

I was about to say aiming for the head to kill zombies, but that's more of an important guideline than a cliche. It is zombies in general that are cliche.

 

[Frybird]

While certainly painful and probably deadly, short exposure to fire, electricity, radioactivity or energy beams rarely leads to instant death, no matter how much you are exposed to.

... And then theres Half Life 1 where if you jump into a beam or fall to far your body explodes into a bunch of bloody pieces the instant you touch the beam/floor.

Of course there are exceptions, thats because i added "rarely".

And sometimes there is an exception to the rule when you are falling down from great heights (although that may have something to do with splash damage, wich is, like big explosions, generally instant deadly)

 

[irrelevantnugget]

Invincible Trees

How do you know they're trees if you can't see them?

 

[poleboy]

Its not just gas masks, its anything that obstructs the full view of the face. The reason developers do this is because it makes it easier to kill the enemies if they are nameless and faceless.

Well, I could see other reasons as well. First of all, it saves time and money to have the same texture on every enemy's face instead of fully animated realistic faces. Secondly, it adds MYSTERY!
Not really, but it does make you wonder what's under the mask. Is it really a human? Using HL2 as an example, it is suggested that the combine soldiers are some sort of genetically modified human, but you never get to see what's under the mask.
It's the classic trick of making things scarier by not showing them, only suggesting them.

 

[Zombie_King]

Most cliches don't bother me. The only two that do get under my skin are starting the game with only a melee weapon (Halflife is the most current offender, Farcry being the first to break away from this trend) and the point all FPS games have where all your weapons are lost or disabled and either you have to re-collect all of them (Doom3) or you are stuck with a one trick pony "superweapon" (Halflife, Pariah).

I don't like when you get a bunch of cool weapons at the beginning of the game (I mean start off with them) and nothing really important to do with them, and then you're left penniless in a gutter somewhere. I don't mind starting off with a melee weapon, but if I also don't start off with at least a pistol, I want one soon. But most of you got it covered anyways. I wanna add anyone like Master Cheif, i.e. that guy from Crysis (I will not Google his name, and will never ever ever ever ever buy that game ever), Marcus Fenix grom GeoW, the soldiers from Haze (except not really)...and so on.

 

[Drbog]

In my opinion mute CAN be good look at HL2 what would it be like if Gorden ran around screaming he's being chased by a man in a bussiness suit?

 

[Bowstring]

I don't mind the protagonist being mute, personally. I guess it all boils down to personal preference.

Although I will say that it works well in some games, but in others I've also liked the presence of a voiced protagonist. Prey is a good example of this, and it allowed me to connect to the main character on a more personal level, and immersed me further into the experience.

 

[Shadow Tyrant]

If you had to go around killing enemies that looked exactly like your allies you may have a moral problem with that. It makes them look like real people and not targets. Its all a mental thing.

It's also a lot easier to design one or two gas masks and just mass-produce them than it is to make 500 or so unique faces.

 

[TheIceface]

Invincible Trees

How do you know they're trees if you can't see them?

I can't tell if you're serious or not, either way, I'm busting a gut over here.

 

[Ultrajoe]

If games didn't have cliches they would be rubbish.

i agree with this man, give him a cookie.

Things are popular for a reason.

 

[Erana]

One word:
Navi.

Two games are enough to make that the most annoying trend in video gaming.

 

[Frosk]

Invincible Trees

How do you know they're trees if you can't see them?

I can't tell if you're serious or not, either way, I'm busting a gut over here.

I was thinking the same thing Ice.

 

[PedroSteckecilo]

Red Barrels/Boxes or other obviously explosive items that are always scattered all over the place. These villains are certainly effective at setting up explosives well positioned to take out their own troops.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

the simpsons game has a bunch of game cliches you can collect throughout the game and the last one is a cliche for collecting all the cliches

 

[josh797]

this is all good and fun, and these cliches are fun to rip on, but we all know that we need them. like if everyone died from one or two bullets and then you lose, game over, you cant play anymore, would anyone play it? i mean sweriously? we need these cliches, and as someone above me pointed out, they are popular for a reason.

 

[Imitation Saccharin]

Random Encounters.
Look. I am trying to figure out this rock puzzle. I don't have a lot of money, power, or life. I can't afford to die. So please. For the love of god. FUCK OF GOLBAT!

Star Trek Disease
You have been severly wounded. You're bleeding out a lung, and will be dead in 60 seconds. You need to get to the console, and activate the medical driod. Don't worry though, the bloodloss apparently hits a bottleneck because you experience no symtoms except on the exact final second of the countdown when you just drop dead.

Sniper RIfles and Shotguns
10,000 years of advancement, hovertanks and personal shields, space colonies and plasma weapons. But these two guns still look exactly the same. They're like the old faithful of space opera.

Insane Adventure-Game Logic
Best summed up by old man murphy
-http://www.oldmanmurray.com/features/77.html

Problem with locked door syndrome is if there aren't locked doors, I usually end up getting lost or going back on myself until I realise that there's too many corpses for it to be correct

One day you'll be clicking through a game, just flying along and then suddenly realize "I have no idea where I am". And on this day, you won't be annoyed. Because you have all the tools the game has given you to play with, and know that you can have fun anywhere in this virtual world. And you won't hate being lost.
From then on you'll be completely unable to enjoy Half Life 2, but sacrifices must be made.

"The problem with sandboxes is they don't require scripting. The problem with scripting is you can't script how long someone enjoys head-butting Terminators for"
-Ben Stewart