can a character be too powerful to be a game protagonist?

[shootthebandit]

Having watched xmen first class this week and seeing how incredibly badass magneto is I was thinking about the possibility of a magneto game but my thought is that he's just too powerful. Sure it would be fun killing soldiers with their own guns and crushing enemies in rolls of barbed-wire but as a game it would be far too easy. I felt the same with force unleashed, with that level of force powers you were just too powerful for the game to be a challenge

Do you think its possible to have a character TOO powerful or is it just a case of devs not being imaginative with different enemies and challenges

 

[Alien Mole]

The latter, I'm fairly sure. In D&D, a game where the player can build his own character, it's generally still possible to provide a challenge for the player as long as the GM knows what they are capable of. In the worst case said GM can still throw something more powerful than the players could ever be at them.

My point here is that most games will have a much tighter set of rules and options than D&D, and far less player input in how their character operates, so it's always possible to throw something bigger and more powerful than they are at them, because the developer makes the game. It's just a matter of scope. Sure, there might be inflation at some point, but any time before you need to bring in the universe-destroyer-eating abberations that exist in 11 dimensions at once in order to challenge the player, I think it's more a matter of creativity.

The Force Unleashed, for example: if you're trying to bring down someone or something as powerful as The Apprentice, it doesn't make sense to throw just a few guys with guns at them, but entire armies backed by starships could still provide an adequate challenge. I've never played the game, but I understand it consisted mostly of flinging small squads around and ramming force lightning up their bungholes. Of course that won't be enough.

Bottom line: as long as something exists in your world that can, even if only en masse, oppose the protagonist, you're set. If there is no such thing, create it. If you can't create it, yeah, then you might be doing it wrong.

 

[MindBullets]

Considering the possibility of controlling Doctor Manhattan, yes. How you're supposed to control a guy who operates simultaneously throughout the entirety of time is difficult to imagine.

The overpowered thing also applies, with that insta-splat ability he has.

 

[Catchy Slogan]

I guess it depends on the game and if you just want to cause mindless destruction and have fun, ala Prototype, or have more of a challenge put to it.

 

[intheweeds]

-snip-

Bottom line: as long as something exists in your world that can, even if only en masse, oppose the protagonist, you're set. If there is no such thing, create it. If you can't create it, yeah, then you might be doing it wrong.

Agree^

This made me think of Prototype. You are sooo over-powered in that game. Its a people crushing sandbox, its fun and it works.

Edit: Ninja'd

 

[obstructor]

I cannot think of a game at the moment, but yes overpowering a character makes the game very boring.

The proper way to do it is like halo 3 or infamous. Where you are not actually that powerful, but if you are very skilled you will feel like a Jedi-ninja, as you prance about in the middle of large amounts of fire slaughtering all you come against. But you are never actually that strong and will die more than half the time you actually succeed at being pure awesome.

 

[Hungry Donner]

Considering the possibility of controlling Doctor Manhattan, yes. How you're supposed to control a guy who operates simultaneously throughout the entirety of time is difficult to imagine.

That' a very good point.

Generally I don't think a protagonist can be too powerful as the enemies can be ratcheted up as well. I think you eventually get to the point where difficulty requires more than just stronger enemies, you need to go to the realm of puzzles and problems such as dealing with something in a certain amount of time, or with certain restrictions. Mowing down tons of people with Magneto may not be difficult, but trying to accomplish some feat with your powers while being attacked could be a challenge.

For a god-like being like Doctor Manhattan . . . yeah I don't think that would work. Even if you switched genres to "god games" if you really were allowed to do anything there wouldn't be much challenge.

 

[PrinceOfShapeir]

Playing Doctor Manhattan...boy, wouldn't -that- be fun. Gameplay consists of you watching Doctor Manhattan do stuff he has already done/hasn't done yet/is doing right now.

 

[timeadept]

I did not enjoy the new super man movie (can't remember the title but apparently kryptonite grows in water and lex dropped a piece into the ocean or something). My issue is that theres no suspense in the action sequences and no action in the suspense sequences. Superman saves EVERYONE, that's what he does, no one is ever in any real danger when he is around. But superman does have a weakness, and as we all know it's kryptonite. So when he gets exposed to it he becomes weaker than an infant. So theres the villain strutting around a dieing superman and all he had to do was open that lead lined case in his coat pocket.

So yeah, if the protagonist is too strong then the game or movie stops being very interesting. Theres no doubt that they will succeed, it's just a matter of time. (Kinda like warcraft after you win that first encounter with your opponent, that game snowballs like it's nobodies business.)

 

[YawningAngel]

Provided you don't make the player character actually omnipotent (here defined as either unkillable or so able to kill any threat that no such threat is ever of issue), then no. Look at high-level DND campaigns: even though a level 40 whatever can stomp the shit out of effectively unlimited numbers of orcs, you can still provide them a challenge by a) providing better bad guys or b) making them fight lots. After all, being able to kill eight orcs per round is only so useful when there are eight hundred of them and they all have crossbows.

 

[Harkonnen64]

Considering the possibility of controlling Doctor Manhattan, yes. How you're supposed to control a guy who operates simultaneously throughout the entirety of time is difficult to imagine.

The overpowered thing also applies, with that insta-splat ability he has.

True, but those very concerns are brought up within the book/movie itself. It's one of the reasons the Russians hadn't attacked the U.S. and how they won the Vietnam War in that universe. But despite all of that, his backstory and development still makes him a sympathetic character, which is a very hard thing to do when a character is as "overpowered" as he is.

I think that because Alan Moore was able to recognize just how powerful Dr. Manhattan was, he was able to work around it. I think this is a problem with games like, say, Force Unleashed. They make Starkiller next to invincible, which isn't necessarily bad in itself; but then they try to make us sympathetic for him without making him feel the least bit human or tragic, which just doesn't work.

 

[Demonicdan]

As long as you limit the amount of metal objects in "difficult" levels and have telekenetic mutants as enemies it wouldn't be too easy. Being overpowered depends on the strength of the enemies in comparisson to yours.

 

[Azarhac]

Alucard x a billion times, well making him having no levels unlocked could solve that problem but that would be just fucking lame ( oh wait developers have used that trick since the nes-era... )

 

[Toriver]

Actually, Magneto, while not initially selectable, was part of the list of X-men you could use for a Sega Genesis game. He wasn't overpowered in it either.

That was X-Men 2: Clone Wars. He was almost underpowered in that game because he was so big and slow, and his jump was just slowly floating in the air. Sure, he was the only character with projectile weapons as his normal attack, but they were underpowered compared to Gambit's cards or Cyclops' eye beams. The one really cool thing you could do with him was hover in one spot in the air and shoot at things, but that could only get you so far. I only found him to be really useful in a couple of situations.

But anyway, to the OP's point, I do think that for most games, actually, you can make an overpowered protagonist, or at least one with the potential to become overpowered. With the character design systems in many RPGs today, it's almost too easy to do. Or at least, characters can easily reach a level of power to where even the most difficult levels are no longer a challenge. One could see it as a failure in level design, but I think it could just as easily be a flaw in the design of the character as well. You could look at it in two ways, in that situation. If you have a character who can reach a peak in their abilities, but that peak is too powerful for the challenges of the game, I would call that a failure to create challenges tough enough for that character within the game. If the character's potential is truly limitless and can reach a point at which the game is no longer a challenge fairly easily, that's a character design flaw. The character should be able to top out somewhere. Even MMORPGs have some sort of ceiling in order to keep a certain degree of challenge. If you don't put a cap on the character's potential, that's opening up a can of design worms.

 

[Xelt]

As long as you limit the amount of metal objects in "difficult" levels and have telekenetic mutants as enemies it wouldn't be too easy. Being overpowered depends on the strength of the enemies in comparisson to yours.

If theres no metal objects, he'll just rip the metal from inside you out. Like in the film.

 

[OmniscientOstrich]

I'd argue no, since you essentially play as God in the Sims games.

The developers just need to be creative.

This sentiment exactly.

 

[Tanis]

Yes...but sometimes it can be fun.