Glaring plot holes in games

[Blue_vision]

Playing Just Cause 2 right now (which might not be supposed to make that much sense either,) I'd really like to wonder what Panay wants to do after nuking some of the biggest world powers.

Dude...


...if you're playing Just Cause 2 for the STORY, you're doing it wrong.

Pretty much, which is why I qualified that example doesn't really count.

Though it does raise an interesting situation...

 

[ResidentialEvil]

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

I was waiting for someone to say Resident Evil. That story is such a mess of retcons and later games at least seeming to contradict earlier games, it's not funny. Not all that people call "plot holes" are actually that, and I'm glad someone addressed that too many people call bad story writing "plot holes".

Anyway, the most massive one to me in Resident Evil is the Plot Device Wesker Virus. Here they are trying to come up with the perfect virus; the T-Virus obviously has bad results, then the G-Virus which has pretty bad results, later the Veronica virus, etc. These viruses are big deals with entire games devoted to them, and they took years of development. But oh...to survive the mansion explosion (obviously a retcon because they realized they screwed up killing off Wesker in both scenarios in RE) Birkin whips out a handy dandy virus he gives Wesker that just happens to bring him back to life and give him super human strength and speed and absolutely no loss of his human mind. GIVE ME A BREAK! So a throwaway 2 line plot device virus is pretty much perfect and we learn jack squat about it, but they run around Raccoon City and later over parts of the world to get viruses that are FAR inferior.

I can buy Wesker wouldn't want to give out his virus since he's become a god basically, but I simply cannot buy that a scientist who was obsessed with the G-Virus which caused MASSIVE mutations and left the host non-human anymore could build such a perfected virus on the side with pretty much no indication that he really gave a crap. Bull Capcom....Bull.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

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.

While Roach and Ghost are being killed, you can hear Price over the radio yelling to them that they shouldn't trust Shepard, and that he was behind everything. TF141 did figure it out, but only just a second too late. Also, Shepard couldn't be sure they hadn't seen anything in the safe house that might compromise his plan, or that they had made a copy of the data. As for why Shepard would do it himself, the game makes it clear that he isn't the type to let others do all of his dirty work. Heck, the very first mission of the game has him fighting on the front line of a battle, despite being a general.

I might as well take the time to answer some other MW2 "plot holes" people are finding.

1. Pvt. Allen infiltrating Makarov's group and then being killed was part of Shepard's plan. He was planted for the express purpose of leaving an American body at the site of the attack. Shepard had no intention of bringing down Makarov until he was no longer useful, and likewise Makarov had no problem working with Shepard if he got to start a war that killed Americans, who he blamed for Zakhaev's death.

2. Shepard wanted to start a war in order to gain public and government support for the U.S. Military, and to secure a place in history as a war hero. The nuclear attack in CoD 4 had destroyed U.S. morale, turned the public opinion sharply against any sort of military expenditure or involvement, and left Shepard's name forever remembered as "That guy who got 40,000 people killed in a single attack". So he started a war with Russia, with the plan of winning and becoming a hero.

 

[Not G. Ivingname]

Literally the entire plot to Sonic 06.

If you managed to drag your way through, you know what I am talking about.

 

[Defense]

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?

It's a popular belief that you don't actually die when your HP hits zero, your party member just faints. If the whole party faints then I guess the animals have a meal.

 

[_Cake_]

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.

This actually gets adressed at some point

Spoiler

(they also need the blood of a archdemon for their super happy luck juice. They lost that when Loghain marked the Grey Wardens as traitors)

In Dragon Age awakening, you actually get to make more Grey Wardens

Riordan has it, that's how he can offers to do the joining.

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.

Riordan has the blood and offers to do the joining after you have won the landsmeet, so you are in control with the support of the people at that point. Yes you would lose some people to the joining, but you would lose a lot more lives if the last few remaining wardens died and no one there could finish the job untill reinforcments came.

 

[Nostalgia Ripoff]

Spoiler: Red Dead Spoiler

John Marston steps out of a barn to meet his death at the hands of a bunch of lawmen at the end of the game, despite having multiple fire bottles and sticks of dynamite in his possession. With the building/roof climbing skills he displayed in previous quests, he could have easily just climbed up to the hay loft of the barn and taken out all of his attackers with a single throw. Then maybe we wouldn't feel totally gypped at having spent the entire game trying to reunite with the family and getting all of five minutes with them before being shot to a bloody pulp.

Or, Hell, he could have just shot them all. It's not like he's never faced uneven odds before... his whole character is built around his ability to take out ridiculously large hordes of armed men without a suffering scratch.

Spoiler

John did want to be with his family again. However, he also wanted his family to be safe. The U.S. Army was after him. It would be wiser to give them what they want than to put those you care about in danger.

 

[toastmaster2k8]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

I know right? He blamed his pissed offness to when al-esad nuked the troops in Cod4. and he said " and the world just f***ing watched" umm, how did the world know he had a nuke and how the hell were they to do about? say "swiper no nuking!"

 

[Trivun]

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

Explained in the books. It wasn't strictly speaking a 'blind' jump, as Cortana used a loophole in the Cole Protocol to make a jump that was still away from the Inner Colonies (so following the rules), but based her 'randomized' jump vector on co-ordinates she translated from Forerunner relics found on Sigma Octanus IV by the Spartans (the site of their, and Jacob Keyes', last battle before the fall of Reach). Those co-ordinates, which only Cortana (and later Doctor Halsey) knew about, led the Autumn to Halo. Cortana didn't even know there would be anything there, it was basically curiosity on her part and the idea that the Covenant were after something there (given their interest in the Sigma Octanus IV relic), which coincidentally happened to be true.

The humans, of course, put it all down to sheer dumb luck (well, your mileage may vary on the 'luck' part), which is also a fairly good and sensible possibility for gamers to use if they don't know the backstory, if a little unlikely.

 

[McNinja]

snip

Pretty much all of Borderlands.

Well, okay, it was just a shit 'story' to begin with. But the biggest plot hole I felt was the fact that they gave all four characters a backstory as to why they came to Pandora in the first place. Then the second that weird blue AI lady starts telling them they should find the vault, they completely give up on their personal reasons for being here and go on this stupid treasure hunt.

The backstory for each character kinda establishes that they have personal reasons to be here, not the Vault, but that becomes irrelevant at the very start and they immediately become drone-like Vault hunters for literally no reason beyond some weird lady telling them they should.

The funny thing is I had no idea about the characters backstory until quite a while after I beat the game and two DLC packs. I just accpeted the Vault-hunter stuff at face value, meaning I thought it was mediocre but trudged through it because me+my friend at 1 am = hilarious commentary.

 

[Trivun]

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.

Ummmmmm, no, the humans didn't know about it. Only Cortana did. And that's explained in the books, as being stuff she was able to translate using Covenant technology from the Forerunner glyphs found on a relic on Sigma Octanus IV by John (the MC), during his last battle before the fall of Reach. The only human who knew anything about the translation of the relic was Doctor Halsey, and she only found out later, when she also had access to Ackerson's notes (including his S-III files), the relic under CASTLE Base, and presumably whatever was still secure under Visegrad after Professor Sorvad was killed...

 

[Troublesome Lagomorph]

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.

Ummmmmm, no, the humans didn't know about it. Only Cortana did. And that's explained in the books, as being stuff she was able to translate using Covenant technology from the Forerunner glyphs found on a relic on Sigma Octanus IV by John (the MC), during his last battle before the fall of Reach. The only human who knew anything about the translation of the relic was Doctor Halsey, and she only found out later, when she also had access to Ackerson's notes (including his S-III files), the relic under CASTLE Base, and presumably whatever was still secure under Visegrad after Professor Sorvad was killed...

*gets books*
*blows 4 years worth of dust off of*
Well I'll be damned...

 

[Carlston]

Why could you phoenix down dead FF7 party member but when flower girl got stabbed Cloud just drowns her...

 

[spacecowboy86]

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.)

Playing Just Cause 2 right now (which might not be supposed to make that much sense either,) I'd really like to wonder what Panay wants to do after nuking some of the biggest world powers.

huh... never really thought about that either. Maybe he could... eat a cake?
but in all seriousness thinking about it now, I think the idea was that he would destabilize the other nations and, because of the oil fields panau would also lead the world economically, causing his very small nation with a suprisingly large military force to become... the leading country I guess? wow even if thats the plan it wasn't set up well...


OT:Why was it so easy for Joker to escape in Arkham Asylum? I mean all it took was one kick to the nuts and strangling someone with hand cuffs. If you're dealing with an insane, malicous, killer, clown inmate, you never, ever, ever put him in a situation where he can kick or punch someone, especially when he's famous for just that, killing/attacking people.

 

[DSK-]

Yes, I have one that made me go HERP DERP.

Spoiler

Legion states that Shepard met Sovereign at Ilos - when in fact he met Sovereign at Virmire

That's not a plot hole. That's a typo. Some of these fictional name's are hard to remember you know?

That's still no excuse! bad Grizzler! bad!

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

How come this guy:

is so fast? Hedgehogs are not speedy creatures.

A gaping plot hole that just makes the entire game unbelieveable.

 

[Irriduccibilli]

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

I was wondering more why they changed their weapons so they are using thermal clips instead of having unlimited ammo like in ME1

 

[Gormers1]

And the best (or worst) one is

Spoiler: Metroid: Other M

The game totally dropping the subplot about the traitor in the team.

I may be misremembering, but wasn't it explained as something the ai made up in order to fool you?

But that game is interesting regarding this topic, because on the surface, the game is bursting with plot holes. However, if you piece it together, its all carefully thought through in order to teach us about how samus is a submissive... well.. this is a very interesting read if youre interested:
http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html
Its actually kind of scary and really sad.

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.

Indeed. It caused me to facepalm at Bungie so bad...

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

Im glad Im not the only one that found that part of the game really confusing.

 

[Xaositect]

Mordins magical seeker appearing from nowhere with no explanation is a big one.

Also, while not plot holes, they are bonehead plot devices that showed the writers just didnt give a shit with Mass Effect 2 how EVERYONE on the team boards the shuttle for a mission that DOESNT FUCKING EXIST.

Oh yeah, and someone tell Bioware killing Shepard in a pathetic attempt at drama only to say "and they brought him back" isnt good enough.

Its Mass Effect.

I need FUCKING EXPLANATIONS. That is what the codex is for. I seem to recall a vague hint of nanomachines being involved along with cybernetics, but generally it was just completely lazy cock brained bullshit.

And that game is winning awards for storytelling. And it starts with "you died, but then you came back".

I wouldnt expect shit like that in the worst kind of mary sue fanfiction.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

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?

-SNIP-

They're characters and what they say explain it TO ME, your mileage may vary.

And the enclave WAS planning to hit the citadel, god knows what they were waiting for, but they were ready to flatten the wasteland and start again

"They were planning to..." this is called a convenient plot device. Why they didn't just blow the brotherhood off the map to begin with is the issue. I'm not sure what you're saying by "my mileage" but it sounds somewhat insulting and uncalled for... either way, the reasoning was pretty flimsy, especially when they're basically saying "Well, you have to do it, cause otherwise you're a big chicken" just didn't cut it for me. They'll knowingly sentence you to death, an unecesarry death, one either one could easily prevent with NO HARM WHATSOEVER to themselves... just doesn't work. Fawkes was supposed to be a morally conscious and responsible person, RL-3 a soldier in your employ, either one just saying "tough, you have to do it" is a plot hole, forcing the player to do something to fit the story the writers want.