It gets worse later (spoilers)

[rorychief]

I would have to agree that Half-Life 2 getting worse later if only for one moment late in the story that completely ruins any sort of character that Gordon Freeman ever had.

I am an unapologetic obsessive fanboy for HL2. I have played the game dozens of times and never had a problem with this. You are 100% right though. I guess I'd seen and forgiven how absurd and illogical it was because (like most plot holes in anything) it moved the plot along. I'd always thought 'well of course now is when Gordon lets himself be captured because he wants to be brought before Breen for the final confrontation, how else would it happen.'
But of course, if Gordon knew about his protagonist powers and had no reason to fear being held prisoner till execution, why not hand himself over to the first metro cop he saw. Surely the shortest route to the top of the citadel is in custody. Let himself be brought to Breen, let deus ex machina disrupt his guards/restraints as he seems to rely on happening, and proceed to beat Breen to death in his office. Its just where the games narrative wants you to go next. it doesn't always have to make sense, but I know what you mean, Gordon could easily have been captured without making it so avoidably his own stupid fault.

 

[vid87]

I'll say this more as a "wasn't worth the agony" scenario more than the game itself getting progressively worse:

I've played Bubsy 3D...and beaten it...100%. The whole thing is actually playable but it's not exactly fun. The normal ending strands Bubsy on an asteroid as aliens invade Earth. Ok, I think, I'll get all the McGuffins. The "real" ending strands Bubsy BACK IN TIME as aliens invade Earth. Yes, making the effort to play this crappy game in its entirety leaves you more screwed over than if you finished normally. I'd say it definitely gets worse.

 

[chiggerwood]

Max Payne 3. Hell it starts out bad, with Max's constant pissing and moaning that he's worthless and washed up. Despite the fact the guy just cleared out a room of guys half his age, despite saving most of the family from overwhelming odds, and from there it just goes into parody territory with May Payne killing military, and still moaning that he's worthless. And ya know after taking down TWO mafias and a police precinct BY HIMSELF, the mafia still fuck with the guy. You think there would've been a big meeting between all the mafioso that went something like,

Don 1: OK Max Payne's utterly destroyed two families. I say we leave him alone no matter what, and if one of our retard kids gets himself killed by the guy, then we just apologize to MR. Payne, and see what we can do to not incur his wrath.

Everyone else at the meeting: AGREED!

But NO! One of their retard kids gets killed by the guy and still, despite history saying it's a BAD IDEA they still try to kill the guy and he takes out over half the family in a night! Then there's the reason why Max Payne was hired, which is to take the blame for the murder of THE GUY HE HAS BEEN RISKING HIS LIFE AND KILLING OVER FOR THE PAST HOWEVER LONG, AND HOW THE FUCK WAS THIS SUPPOSED TO WORK? FUUUUUUUCK! I hate this game so much, why didn't the series end with the second one's alternative ending? Oh yeah the fact that Mona Sax is canonically dead is a nice fuck you to anyone that worked for their happy ending in the previous game. This game can rot for all I care. It ruined a franchise, and most of all it just suuuuuuuuuuucked!

 

[rbstewart7263]

Every day I tell myself ill finish persona 4. ever day.

im at that part after

Spoiler

risette is saved and you are waiting to hear about the suspect who may or may not have killed the teacher.

I just cant seem to make myself keep goin.

 

[Dalisclock]

Max Payne 3. Hell it starts out bad, with Max's constant pissing and moaning that he's worthless and washed up. Despite the fact the guy just cleared out a room of guys half his age, despite saving most of the family from overwhelming odds, and from there it just goes into parody territory with May Payne killing military, and still moaning that he's worthless. And ya know after taking down TWO mafias and a police precinct BY HIMSELF, the mafia still fuck with the guy.

The pissing and moaning is what got me the most. I'm fine with Max Payne being noir(it's part of the series) but there's a line between the usual noir detective feel and "my life sucks, everything I do makes things worse, I want to die but somehow I just keep going". Max crosses it in the third game. Max's Apartment in 2 showed he was a sad lonely man with problems(not to mention if you listen to the recording of him calling the phone sex line and creeping out the lady on the other end with "Why do they all die?", because Max apparently confused the phone sex line with the suicide hotline). Max Payne in 3 is pretty much "Max comes home with a bag full of whiskey, drinks it all in one sitting and stumbles around the room until he falls over. No friends, no hobbies, nothing that makes him happy at all". Really, that's what was the worst part for me.

The trope of sending wave after wave of bad guys at someone who killed the last hundred guys doesn't bother me so much because it happens to often, particularly in video games. Hell, the scenario in Mass Effect 2 with all the mercs being hired to "kill archangel" being a recent one. Oh, sure, he killed the last 50 guys in a row that came after him, some of them much better armed and more experienced, but surely you'll be the lucky one, random merc #843.

Hell, in the Anime Berserk, there's a particularly brutal battle where Guts killed 100 mercs by himself in one night, because the bandits just keep coming after him. At one points, the mercs realize this isn't going well for them, say they're not going after this guy anymore, because they don't want to die. Which was refreshing, until they were offered triple pay and decide to continue their suicidal course of action. Because apparently the prospect of more money is more important then the fact money doesn't help you if you're dead.