Glaring plot holes in games

[Zaik]

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).

That's easy. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman. Gordon Freeman.

If you look at it like Gordon Freeman, it all makes sense.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

*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.

Um, actually, they didn't. That's why it's such a surprise that he shoots them. It comes out of nowhere, and it's the first indication given that he's evil. He could have just destroyed the hard drive, and no one would have known about his involvement. And even if TF141 ARE loose ends, then why didn't he just use his OTHER secret black ops group(the guys you spend time killing for the rest of the game) to do all his dirty work? Then he wouldn't have to worry about it.

 

[Vanaron]

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

Thought about that one myself. I agree its a very minor thing but something that sticks out. Only thing I can think of is that they came out with them right before he got himself BLOWED UP!

Well, things don't go from "not invented" to "standard issue" in just two years. As a specter it is possible she knew about them before they became public knowledge. Hell, she may have help test them.

Ok, but can you explain the presence of weapons with Thermal clips and Security mechs on Jacob's loyalty mission? Both of those technologies were supposed to have come about because of the Geth attacks on the Citadel...

But the ship has crashed 10 years ago... Whaaaaaaa???

That always bothered me.

Edit: On further research, Mechs were an available technology when the Hugo Gernsback crashed, they just fell in disuse. The battle on the Citadel only made them fall back into use, but the thermal clip thing remains...

 

[RichardThompson]

How hell is Jak Mar in Jak 3, when Mar is the long-dead builder of the city? I suppose it's possible that Damos just named Jak after Mar, but the game implies that Jak is Mar, the builder of the very city he's in. It might also be possible that he went back in time to build the city. But for a game with an otherwise awesome plot, it sure did fall with that one revelation.

I think it implies that he's a descendant of Mar, but I can see where the confusion could arise and in fairness it was vague to that respect. I'm still confused about how Krew reproduced, because of his daughter Rayn in Jak X.

 

[Cogwheel]

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

Actually, in Arcanum, there's a story sequence where a party member dies.


You can go on without them, or use the Raise Dead spell/technological equivalent. Which you decide to do actually changes a fair bit.

 

[Wertbag]

One that always annoyed me was the newer GTA games. The reason given for your character doing a lot of the crimes was for the money. Nico was happy to kill, steal and risk his own life as long as the mafia paid well. But the game gave so many side quests and other business options that your character could be filthy rich and still saying "oh poor me if only I could make more".

 

[Bobbity]

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

Yeah, this got me too. I know that they put it in so as to cast doubt on Ethan, and make us all wary of him, but they never explained to my satisfaction why he was having these black outs and waking up carrying origami figures. In fact, I don't think the game even attempted to explain that one.

It was a fantastic game otherwise, though.

 

[Project_Xii]

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

Probably the #1 biggest Plot Hole of any game i've ever played. And since they've scrapped the episodes, we'll probably never know.

 

[Kingjackl]

In GTAIV, Niko spends a lot of time whining about how he has no ambition or skill apart from killing, and also shows a lot of remorse for his actions. The thing is, there are so many oppurtunities in the game for him to simply give up on his life of crime (particularly after the bank robbery mission), yet he still keeps going back to the Pegorinos and the McReary's for more work.

Yeah, I know that wouldn't make for a fun game, but it did annoy me.

 

[Balls Mandingo]

Why does the main character in every horror game INSIST on splitting up the moment they find someone else who isn't a monster/insane/useless? I mean I understand the reasons from a gameplay standpoint since isolation builds tension but from a logical standpoint wouldn't you tie every able bodied and mentally sound person you could find to the belt loops in your pants?

In the Half-Life series, why does Alyx seem so comfortable flirting with Gordon when it's established that there's roughly a 20 year age gap between them. Okay sure he was put in a time stasis thingy but she doesn't know that

In Starcraft 2 why doesn't anyone ATTEMPT to get Tychus out of the suit? They established earlier on that they were aware he was being coerced into cooperation by the Moebius Foundation and his suit came with a kill switch on his nervous system, but couldn't they have done SOMETHING?

In F.E.A.R. after Alma does her little explodey trick on a couple of people, why doesn't the main character turn around and go "there's a ghost ***** with explodey powers, I'm not going in there"?

 

[Balls Mandingo]

Why do they even bother trying to make Alex Mercer (Prototype) into a somewhat decent character? He occasionally spouts out bits of dialogue hinting at his possible mental conflictions over making the right choice, all the while mowing down streets full of civilians in a tank

 

[Jonabob87]

Biggest one to piss me off was Fallout 3: The Pitt DLC. So the only way to restore the steel mill is to use slave labour, then they put in a sub plot about how all the workers in this place were getting replaced by robots.
and yes the robots were operational, but you can only use them as cannon fodder for the trogs. In case you wanted to say, Well maybe these people wouldn't know, the leader of the pitt is ex Brotherhood of Steel, those guys tasked with recovering pre-war tech.
it just upset me that there was a perfect everyone wins scenario and you have to ignore it because the developers didn't think about things.

BINGO! Fallout 3 had some doozies. They finally fixed the biggie at the end though, with the option of having your helper start the device. I always wondered why I couldn't send Fawkes, a highly irradiated Super-Mutant or the radiation-proof robot RL-3 into the danger zone, thus risking no one's life and making everybody happy... And why the Enclave could target the Brotherhood's robot Liberty Prime with a pinpoint missile attack to take him out the battle, but not a much larger stationary target like, oh say the Brotherhood home base at the Pentagon?

Also a fave- Bioshock 1 or 2, if Adam is so horribly bad because excessive use of it warps people into crazy freako "sploicers", why do you use it willy-nilly all game with no ill effects?

And one more classic- FF7, all game they whine about MAKO being so horrible, destroying the planet etc etc, but we kept on using it, abusing the hell out of some of it in every fight, through the entire game...

I can explain the FF7 one. Materia is condensed MAKO, but it also occurs naturally. It doesn't have the same effect as normal MAKO on the human body.

What was destroying the planet was the removal of MAKO from the lifestream by Shinra.

 

[Heroic One]

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

 

[theriddlen]

Mass Effect 2:
Commander, let's take the shuttle to your next destination and get everyone who can fight on board! It's can't be a bad idea, it's not like we're integrating Normandy with the most advanced technology in galaxy, that want's to kill us! How possibly could this end bad?

 

[TheDandyHighwayman]

in RPGs etc, potions... if you got your arm chopped off, surely a potion won't make it better, on a similar note, Max Payne... if I took that many painkillers my health wouldn't be full.. I'd have either ODed or I would be high as a kite

 

[ksn0va]

Old Sully shooting Rebecca in DR2. He shoots her point blank them mouths off to the three left long enough to get distracted!

 

[Monoclebear]

It's called having a deep and glaring hatred for every FPS in the world...when life hands you as much crap as I've taken from 7 years of losses then you'll feel about like me. Believe me, if I was trolling, I could do MUCH better than that.

I have to go with the Brutal Legend part where Eddie turns into a demon...first time everyone freaks out but the second? Not really...just regular day at work.

Wait wait wait.

You're a good video game troll because your life is hard?

Yeah, he is the internet batman.

 

[Kashrlyyk]

Traps in Tomb Raider in areas which were heavily used when the ancient race wasn't extinct yet, like hallways.