Some video games have compelling characters, great stories, and epic plot twists.
Others…
don't, leaving us with more disappointment and questions than answers.
Sure, every great game may have a few, small storytelling inconsistencies, but others are
just plain inexcusable.
Here are a few the worst of the worst.
And be warned, spoilers ahead.
Final Fantasy VII
It's safe to assume Final Fantasy VII is most fans' favorite game in the series.
But one question has nagged even casual players for ages: why didn't someone just use a Phoenix
Down on Aeris after she's killed by Sephiroth?
It's an item that literally brings someone back to life, and they're used hundreds of
times throughout the series…
so why not Aeris?
Why not now?
Some might argue that Phoenix Downs can only revive characters who are just NEAR death
— but let's really think about this.
Your heroes get pounded by boulders, burned with fire magic, sliced with fridge-sized
swords, and eradicated by giant saw-boned eels.
Is getting stabbed by Sephiroth's sword somehow worse than all that?
Apparently.
But no one knows why.
Heavy Rain
Quantic Dreams' cinematic interactive drama Heavy Rain is a unique experience, with a
great story and a twist nobody saw coming.
That said, it's also full of plot holes, including one very major one we can't simply ignore.
Early in the game, we learn that central protagonist Ethan Mars has blackouts following the death
of one of his sons.
He wakes up in seemingly random locations, soaking wet, holding origami figures.
That sounds like pretty bad news when there's an "Origami Killer" on the loose.
Does Ethan has some kind of split personality serial killer disorder?
The problem is, after we learn what's really going on, and who the Killer really is, Ethan's
blackouts and handfuls of origami are never explained.
They just occur to distract and confuse the player, and we never get to find out why,
making them seem like a pretty lame and obvious attempt at throwing us off the trail.
Metroid
A classic Nintendo franchise, Metroid's premise is awesome: you're a lady in a badass robotic
suit that kills aliens.
What's not to like?
There is one problem, though.
For a game series that prides itself on continuity and realism, we've killed the dinosaur space
pirate Ridley a few too many times.
Even the most adept Metroid scholars have a hard time explaining the constant reappearances
of Ridley, one of the series' most notorious bosses.
Those who've played every Metroid game may be forgiven for thinking that they've killed
Ridley almost a dozen times in Metroid, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime 3, and
Metroid Fusion.
Apparently, the guy just didn't die in all of those cases, and has been cloned multiple
times.
At least that's how Nintendo makes sense of it all.
But maybe it's time to let poor Ridley rest in peace.
Fallout 3
There's nothing quite like a massive plot hole after a 60-plus hour trek through post-apocalyptic
nuclear wastelands.
At the end of Fallout 3, you're presented with a choice: either you or your companion
have to enter an irradiated chamber.
But either way, somebody's going to get a lethal dose of X-rays, and it's not going
to be pretty.
Those players rolling with the super mutant companion Fawkes, however, were left wondering
why we couldn't send him into the chamber.
You know, considering he's immune to radiation.
It would basically be a leisurely stroll for Fawkes, so why won't he just do what any normal
mutant would do?
Short answer: the game's developer, Bethesda, decided to make Fawkes a super mutant jerk.
"Uhhhhh, I'm sorry my companion but, uh, no."
He refuses to enter the chamber, going on about how he doesn't want to rob us of our
destiny and offering other bogus reasons, none of which excuse the fact that he's immune
to radiation.
Bethesda eventually fixed the weird choice with the Broken Steel add-on, but for fans,
the damage was done, and we were sent off with a big ol' Fawkes you.
Red Dead Redemption
The open-world action-adventure Red Dead Redemption is a master-class in game making, and easily
the best Western-themed video game ever made, but it also illustrates the fact that no game
is perfect.
And there's one significant plot hole which really made players scratch their ten-gallon
hats in bewilderment.
Everyone was bummed out when John Marston died at the end of the main story.
Luckily, his son Jack shows up to save the day three years later, doling out some revenge
and being an all-around badass — just like his father.
The problem is, this turn of events poses one major question: how in tarnation did book-readin'
intellectual Jack Marston turn into a gunslinger on par with his dad in only three years?
Marston Senior surely cultivated that precision aim and those legendary skills after a lifetime
of being an outlaw, in addition to all the shenanigans we actually have control over.
We have to assume that Jack, presumably still in his late teens, acquires every one of his
father's talents, without his father to teach him, in just three short years.
We're calling bullchips on this one.
Crysis 2
In the first Crysis, we learn the hard way that a race of invading aliens can actually
absorb nuclear energy — like the kind that comes from nuclear weapons — which makes
them more powerful than ever.
Who knew, right?
So when it came time for the sequel, one might've assume there'd be no nuking of aliens.
Defying all logic and common sense, the military in Crysis 2 orders a nuclear strike on New
York City in an attempt at eradicating the same alien threat, basically pretending the
first game never happened.
It's not even a minor oversight; the latter portion of the second game is based entirely
around nuking New York City with alien-fortifying bombs.
You're basically dropping vitamins on them.
You'd think a failed nuking of an energy-absorbing alien race wouldn't be something the military
would forget — but apparently in Crysis 2, that file got lost somewhere.
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