Glaring plot holes in games

[GodofCider]

Somebody (I think it was Cortana or guilty spark) says flat out "you ARE forerunner", and all the humans, and no one else. can activate the forerunner tech. All this pionts to the fact that humans are decendantys of the forerunner.

No, humans aren't forerunner. Though they are the inheritors of their rolls, and arguably technology as well. As the forerunner discovered humanity upon Earth and went to great lengths to preserve it.

Amusingly this event also coincides with our own history when humanity was reduced to a very small population early on.

Pure chance, huh? So of the literally (number so big that not only does it not have a specific word, but it may as well be Infinity) points in space that you could reach if you made a Blind Jump into deep space. They just so happened to arrive at Halo; in spite of literally a 1 in INFINITY probability? And if the coordinates were pre-entered, why not go to another UNSC naval installation, where you would be able to get some backup or shake off your pursuers?
It's not really a plot "hole", so much as it is a (retarded) plot "device".

You did NOT just pull a: number so large it's impossible to happen despite the fact that it happened(even though it wasn't chance); borderline creationist right there.

 

[Vanaron]

For the sake of clarity I'm just going to say that almost all of Mass Effect 2 is a plot hole.

You know that you not liking the story doesn't count as a plot hole, right?

The only actual plot hole I've ever found on ME2 was the Hugo Gernsback/Thermal clip thingie...

 

[Devias-]

Mine has to be Dragon Age (I LOVE the game but this has always bugged me).

They only give you the option of joining one person, why just him? Like if you need a warden to kill the archdemon, you only have two wardens, and you know how to make more. THEN FUCKING MAKE MORE! Gha... stupid... sorry.

There are several problems with this plan.

1. After the events at Ostagar, Loghain branded the Grey Wardens traitors and did not hesitate to spread the word.

2. The process of the Joining Ritual includes drinking Darkspawn blood, not just anybody is going to volunteer for that. Especially not when the majority thinks that the Grey Wardens are traitors.

3. Even if you do find someone willing to join the Wardens and help them in their cause, you have to be sure that they are able to fight, not simply commoners.

Unless you mean the period when Loghain lost to you and gave up, then the only problem would be:

4. They might not survive the process.

 

[BstrdChris]

In Heavy Rain, why did Ethan keep having those random blackouts and why did he have an origami figure?

Spoiler

When Ethan was hit by the car he was put into a coma and from that point on he started having delusions and black outs as a result of the coma and the fact that he lost his son.

As for the origmai figures, that's most likely Scott following him and placing them there. Which would make sense as he knew who Ethan was and what he was doing all the time.

there were other scenes cut from the game, they were just left as unexplained... every time that Ethan blacked out, he would float around an upside-down, submerged house... it would end when you found the Origami killer's next victim. they were sharing a psychic link, but they dropped the whole plotline fairly last minute...

 

[baddude1337]

One I can think of is Killzone 2 is when one of your team mates die by being shot as a result of the, but in terms of the rest of it it makes no sense. They could of just used that zapper thing on him that seems to magically make everything better, even after getting a grenade to the face.

 

[Xanadu84]

_> ....Why did I massacre civilians in a Russian airport in MW2? I mean, everyone knew that Makarov was a terrorist. If America could get someone close to him, surely they knew were he was and could just barge in there and arrest him... Or, just have you kill him right there. It wouldn't have been that hard.
Quite frankly I was one of the ones offended by this bit because there was no point to it and it was just IW seeing what they could get away with.

If they killed or arrested him right there, they can pat themselves on the back and feel like they did something important when the rest of his organization declares him a martyr and launch a few biological weapons on major US cities. If they gain his trust and are fully accepted into his organization, they can take down the entire organization and prevent countless deaths. Right choice or not, there was legitimate logic behind it. Listen to the introduction to "No Russian".

Ok. I just re-watched that cutscene. Yeah, rumours of nuclear-grade weapons.

Bull-fucking-shit. There is still SO much wrong here. If the government raided Makarov's base, they would have been able to secure the weapons and neutralise any threat, or prevent any launch and if they had the weapons somewhere else, it wouldn't be that hard for the US to find out where from the stuff at Makarov's base. Probably the worst part is that by having Allen tattle on Makarov is that, due to legal system stuff, the whole world would know that the US government had one of their agents purposely take part in a massacre of Russian civilians. Russia invading America would have been a definite possibility after that little bit of info got out. Why would the US risk another World War here? Roughly the same, if not more, people would have died.

Obviously, since the plan didn't work, it was a bad call. However, it is not a plot hole. Infiltration of the operation over taking down a figurehead is perfectly reasonable goal. You say that they could have just seized the rest of the weapons, but the point is they couldn't be sure WHERE those weapons where, or if information on where other weapons were could be obtained, or used before some weaponized plague hit the streets of New York. Maybe it's a sensationalized interpretation of gathering intelligence, but MW2 IS sensationalized for dramatic purposes. If you disagree with the decision, fine, and if you think that the plan went poorly then everyone will disagree, but untill you realize that Makarov is pulling the strings of a very complicated pupet the whole time, the decision to go through with the terrorist attack to keep the undercover agents cover is a perfectly rational one. It makes even more sense when you allow for the necessary dramatic conventions of a story.

 

[Ironman126]

anc[is]How Shepard knows about thermal clips after being dead for 2 years. They were invented while s/he was dead. Tiny one, but still there

Dude, i was thinking the exact same thing!

I'm gonna go ahead and say that Cerberus probably implanted something in his brain that informed him of them.

That could be true. There was mention of neural implants, if i recall correctly.

 

[mrdude2010]

How did the Pillar of Autumn find Halo if they made a 'blind' jump? Though i think it may have been explained somewhere...

according to cortana (in the novels anyway), it wasn't a "blind" jump, she used some coordinates she had intercepted from a covenant transmission on cote d'azure (sp) or had scanned from the rock they found there or something

on that note, why the hell was the pillar of autumn ever on reach during Halo: Reach, that makes no sense at all, especially since they are clearly noted as being in space and called back to reach when the battle starts (i know the game dev should have ultimate authority over the content, but the book was released in like 2005 it would be nice to see a little continuity for the overly dedicated fan's sake)

also, you can survive a maximum of like 20 minutes at the end of the game, is that reallly going to make a reasonable difference in the overall effort to launch the pillar of autumn? (assuming it's presence isn't bullshit in the first place) ground troops can't do much against a spaceship, so i mean really? is your sacrifice at all called for? you would probably be much more use to humanity as a living member of the armed forces.

also, team noble's existence is kinda pulled straight out of bungie's rear end... i much rather would've followed some squad of spartan II's fighting for the generators and running other various guerilla tactics against insurmountable odds, then at least the final stand would make sense

 

[Wicky_42]

In Prototype if Alex Mercer isn't Alex Mercer but the virus reincarnating as Alex Mercer *cough* how does it not remember being a virus. It explains that Alex doesn't remember who he is because of the aforementioned mess. But wouldn't it know it's not Alex then?

Also in Call of duty 4 You rescue Nikoli in like mission 2 and he says "Have the American's started their attack yet?...Americans are making mistake they will never take Al Asad alive." Like he was implying he knew about the nuke. But then Captain Price admitting that the Americans don't attack for several more hours doesn't radio that golden piece of info in.

The Americans did know about the Nuke, they just didnt find it in time.

The biggest plot hole in COD 4 is,

"How the feck did the SAS get on the plane in Mile High Club? And why wait after it took off to storm the bastard?"

Oh, that one's easy - Stealth plane insertion; how else does one get onboard a commercial airliner in flight? I'm pretty sure I've seen it done in at least 2 films. Also explains why a fully loaded combat team went unnoticed whilst the terrorists were clearing everyone out.

Oh, and isn't it a training mission anyhow? Or something?

 

[soren7550]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

As Shepherd said himself "That's one less loose end to finish off"

Task Force 141 did what he wanted them to do, so he no longer required their services. Also, over at the Airplane Boneyard in Afghanistan, Price and Soap found out he was a traitor and were relaying the information to Roach & Ghost (although they were too late). Shepherd didn't want to risk the chance of them either finding out his role in the shooting at Zakahav International Airport and he believed that they learned something about his involvement while they were at the Safe House.

So, the general of the US army wanted to start a war with Russia by getting one of the TF 141 members blamed for the shooting? Resulting in America being invaded?

"ALL ACCORDING TO PLAN," Shepherd chuckles to himself, as thousands of Americans are killed and the white house falls to Russians.

So what exactly was his role in the shooting, then?

Simply put, Shepherd was *pissed* that no one seemed to care about the 50,000 Marines killed in CoD4, which he put down as a lack of patriotism. Now, how can he get revenge for those killed and bring back patriotism? Start a war with Russia, who are essentially the reason why the Marines died. But how to do this? Easy: get into cahoots with a Russian terrorist, get him to attack Russians and make it look as if it was an American attack. Throw in an American for good measure. Have Russian terrorist kill the American so that blame on America can be pinned down easier.
An angry Russia now attacks the US for revenge against the attack on the airport, America now declares war on Russia. Angry Americans pissed about the invasion and attack on D.C. enlist in the military in a spur of patriotic duty. Shepherd become hero to boot due to him 'seeing this happening'.

All he now has to do is cut out the loose ends, which I've already explained.

 

[soren7550]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

As Shepherd said himself "That's one less loose end to finish off"

Task Force 141 did what he wanted them to do, so he no longer required their services. Also, over at the Airplane Boneyard in Afghanistan, Price and Soap found out he was a traitor and were relaying the information to Roach & Ghost (although they were too late). Shepherd didn't want to risk the chance of them either finding out his role in the shooting at Zakahav International Airport and he believed that they learned something about his involvement while they were at the Safe House.

Now, for me, it's two words: Black Ops.
Need I say more?

Where the only plot holes in Blops really only the guns?

The guns were a big reason why, but there's a shit ton of plot holes & historical inaccuracies.
- Vorkuta riot happened more than 10 years prior to when it happened in game & was shut down before the game starts (if I recall correctly)
- Weaver (the guy with one eye I hope) being able to sat in service even though during the 60s, something like that would get you thrown out of service
- The numbers stating being right where Mason remembered it being, many years after he was on it (it's a fuckin' boat, they can move!)
- Mason's ever changing accent
- The whole mind control crap

I really wish I could remember more of what the hell happened so - wait, why would I wish that? The single player was god awful stupid.

 

[Korten12]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

As Shepherd said himself "That's one less loose end to finish off"

Task Force 141 did what he wanted them to do, so he no longer required their services. Also, over at the Airplane Boneyard in Afghanistan, Price and Soap found out he was a traitor and were relaying the information to Roach & Ghost (although they were too late). Shepherd didn't want to risk the chance of them either finding out his role in the shooting at Zakahav International Airport and he believed that they learned something about his involvement while they were at the Safe House.

Now, for me, it's two words: Black Ops.
Need I say more?

Where the only plot holes in Blops really only the guns?

The guns were a big reason why, but there's a shit ton of plot holes & historical inaccuracies.
- Vorkuta riot happened more than 10 years prior to when it happened in game & was shut down before the game starts (if I recall correctly)
- Weaver (the guy with one eye I hope) being able to sat in service even though during the 60s, something like that would get you thrown out of service
- The numbers stating being right where Mason remembered it being, many years after he was on it (it's a fuckin' boat, they can move!)
- Mason's ever changing accent
- The whole mind control crap

I really wish I could remember more of what the hell happened so - wait, why would I wish that? The single player was god awful stupid.

2. Its a game, that less of a plot hole and just for a character design, the game doens't have to be 100% realisitc like everyone says it tries to be.
3. The boat wasn't in the same place it was when you first saw it.
4. Wait what?
5. Again, its not 100% realistic, last time I checked, they never strived for realism and plus its a video game.

As for the first one, I can't really say.

 

[MrGalactus]

Every Resident Evil. Every time someone does anything, something else is contradicted.

EDIT: I got another one. In Assassin's Creed, why the FUCK would Altair have to cut his finger off? What monumental idiot wouldn't point out the possibility of putting it BEHIND the third finger rather than THROUGH it? Stupid assassin arse holes, Altair doesn't know what he's playing at, the silly nonce.

As for the Assassins Creed one, The cutting off of a finger was supposed to symbolise commitment, that if you wanted in, you had to make a physical sacrifice in order to prove that you were serious. That may not be exactly it, but it's along those lines, it kind of get explained better in Assassins Creed 2 at some point but I haven't played that in a while so I forget.

In AssassyCree 2 someone's brain turns on and they put the blade where it should've been in the first place.
No idea why I got so worked up about that!
Although it is stupid.

 

[Worgen]

Most of MW2. Rushed campaign, tacked on, etc.

How did the Pillar of Autumn find Halo if they made a 'blind' jump? Though i think it may have been explained somewhere...

It was. In The Fall of Reach. Wasn't blind. They decided to plug in coords from a Forerunner artifact they had because they knew it would take them far, far away from Human Space.

in halo reach it sounds more like cortana is actualy a forerunner ai that we just found cause humans are too stupid to be able to do shit (sounds like the spartan armor was also based on forerunner tech)

Yeah... that kinda [TOTALLY] contradicted the books.

it contradicts the plot of the other games also since if she was a forerunner ai then she would know about the rings so instead of being suprised by them she would have been guiding humans to them but keeping them secret for some stupid reason, not to mention that in halo reach they refer to her as some kind of super weapon and sure shes helpful but she still dosnt really do anything

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I'm pretty sure that the neurotoxin flooder mechanism was a total black comedy joke (i.e. it's not really a plot hole because it's not supposed to make sense.)

Okay, perhaps that was a bad example. But here's another: In Half-Life 2 (or pretty much any game where rag-tag rebels overthrow an evil government) what are they going to do after overthrowing the regime? Do they have any alternative lined up? After all, evil order is better than no order at all (and yes, that is highly debatable, but this thread isn't the place for that).

Ghandi once asserted that (I'm paraphrasing) a bad Indian government was better than a great British government. Moreover, in HL2, the stakes were higher than petty ideals like "freedom" and "democracy" (or whatever flavor of revolution you happen to like); the species itself was at stake (If you recall, humanity was unable to procreate for some reason).

As far as plot holes go, I'd say Modern Warfare 2 is an excellent example. I won't go into a lengthy analysis here but suffice it to say that the ability for the plot to begin at all was predicated upon the notion that achieving complete strategic surprise was a thing a major world power could do when planning a conventional assault that required crossing thousands of miles (this would require far more than a conveniently timed interruption of command and control moments before the invasion began and would have to include hiding the movements of thousands of troops, necessary supplies, vehicles and the like all of which are things that major world powers keep close track of in their rivals) followed by the presumption that the US was somehow incapable of launching a retaliatory strategic strike (i.e. the nuclear option) for unspecified reasons (The entire cold war was spent figuring out ways to ensure the nuclear option was always on the table no matter how bad things got. This is the reason (for example) ballistic missile submarines exist). Beyond that, the invasion itself consisted of an airborne insertion into complex terrain. Significant heavy support was required to spend hours in flight to and from a home station (that is, air support) where local US support was conveniently located. As a result, the russian effort had a supply line thousands of miles long with no access to any line of communication save air and even then said LOC was relegated to "shoving things out of the back of an aircraft in flight" which dramatically limits what one can send as a supply. The short version is the plot is predicated on a nonsensical scenario and the main "threat" is little more than Russia sending tens of thousands of airborne troops to their death. To put it another way, the attack required nonsense to work in the first place and once they achieved this once in a civilization stroke of luck they proceeded to choose a method of invasion with the very lowest probability of success.

There are a dozen better plans for conquest of the US that begin with an airborne invasion. But none of these have the nation's capital as the key battleground. It doesn't make Russia look like a threat, it makes them look like a bunch of gibbering morons.

 

[timeadept]

How about most RPGs, in which magic, curative items and skills don't work outside of combat sequences?

Good point... why the hell can't i use my revive skill on this person? I mean my party takes grievous injuries/dies on a regular basis and then pop right up again with a little spent mana/pp/phoenix down/take your pick/whatever. But it's a plot hole that needs to be filled creatively because many times you're just meant to gloss over this part as a mechanic. But it REALLY needs to be filled properly...

 

[Zannkimaru]

FF7, pheonix down, Aerith/Aeris. Ok seriously my characters have died a ton of times and i can use this handy item to bring them back to life except for when it's plot based? Actually why can't i use these items to bring back anyone else that's died?

 

[Fidelias]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

Because they knew that he(Shepherd) was behind the entire conflict with Russia. Roach and Ghost ( and the rest of TF-141 were loose ends, and he needed to be sure that there were No Loose Ends.

But they were just soldiers. Actually, they were soldiers that weren't even following orders. They also hadn't pieced any of it together until after their men started dying. They weren't a threat until Sheperd started killing. Just doesn't make any sense.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Neverwinter Nights 2 has quite a lot.

For example: If the gargoyles were watching you during the OC how did no one actually see them? You had Bishop who was suppose to notice everything. Elanee who would have sensed something. Ammon who is extremely paranoid, not to mention the KC, who can be all of those combined.

Why is the sword so damn weak? You'd think a legendary sword would pack more punch...

Why did they close down Blacklake?

Spoiler

If demons did it, shouldn't they have been able to teleport in and out? How did the gith get into the city? Why, at the trial, didn't anyone bring up the fact that the PC was a paladin and thus would have fallen if he truly would have slaughtered a village? Or were I a drow, have worse odds because you know that drow are bloodthirsty?

So many questions...

I didn't think that more spoiler tags were needed but I will add them if necessary.

The sword was weak? It was a 1d8 + 3 (sufficient to harm just about anything in D&D. In the hardest fights of all the computer D&D games you might need a +4 (and at one point in Baldur's Gate 2 you need a +5). The base damage was simply a function of the rules (a long sword does a base 1d8 damage. All of them.) Beyond that it granted powers like "form a shield around the user that deals 3d8 damage every round for five rounds" or another which grants the user the equivalent to a high level magic missile attack (except things that stop magic missiles won't stop this particular attack!). And that's overlooking things like a health bonus that was equivalent to more than two additional levels of the flimsy classes and enormous boosts to various base stats along with protections against all sorts of nasty effects. The thing was, by far the best item in the game.

Just look at these stats:

Material: Metal (Alchemical Silver)
Cast Spell: Spell-Like Abilities [2 Charges/Use]
On Hit Cast Spell: Unique Power (OnHit) [Level 25]
Cast Spell: Sword Forms [2 Uses/Day]
Keen
Damage Bonus: Slashing [1d12]
Damage Bonus vs. Racial Type: Outsider [1d12]
Immunity: Miscellaneous: Mind-Affecting Spells
Immunity: Miscellaneous: Paralysis

Against an outsider, the sword does 1d8 + 2d12 damage per attack. A level 20 fighter (for example) can deliver nearly a half dozen attacks per round. It makes the user immune to paralysis, charm, dominate (etc). It hits for full damage in the face of most forms of damage reduction (material and keen property). Yes, it's only a +3

 

[darth.pixie]

snip

This is the MoTB one, not the OC one and for that even my regular sword worked better.

As for the one you mentioned, yes it was great, but ultimately I had crafted much better ones. I was dual wielding and did more damage with my regular stuff.

At that point in the game, you can dual weild greatswords(If you're a human, for example). I was expecting more useful stuff rather than paralysis or mind affecting since there were other items for that. It was good, yes. Very good. A game-breaker, possibly. But it didn't really explain the undefeated legend of Gith considering that there are more powerful items in the Planes.