Games that devolved into absurdity.

[lacktheknack]

Fahrenheit kind of goes without saying.

Sort of slow, creeping dread and edge of madness skating becomes SUPER SAIYAN BLAST AIR BATTLE.

Really? COOL!! Now I want to play this game (No, not really).

It's actually worth a playthrough if you don't mind your psychological thriller mystery (where you play both sides, in a brilliant design decision) turning into Grimdark Ren and Stimpy at the end.

 

[FeraIMuse]

I honestly can't believe that Condemned 2: Bloodshot wasn't mentioned, as it seemed to borrow a page.... well, chapter... okay, pretty much the whole *book* that was Indigo Prophecy--Starting with realism, and then going just absolutely BWOOP! BWOOP! BWOOP! SUPER SAIYAN SCREAMING HEAD EXPLODY POWERS! I loved the game up until when it started slipping more and more into the odd.

 

[Flight]

Fahrenheit kind of goes without saying.

Sort of slow, creeping dread and edge of madness skating becomes SUPER SAIYAN BLAST AIR BATTLE.

Also, it's established that the temperate basically drops to a level wherein it's not safe to go outside; so why on EARTH would you undress and *ahem* in a train carriage of all things?

Yeah, there's also that, the unexpected sex scene. Wat.

I was about to comment, but this put it far better than I could. It's a shame, too, because Fahrenheit had so much potential.

 

[xPixelatedx]

If we can use whole franchises, Resident Evil is at the top of my list.

Bad voice acting is one thing, zombies and monsters are even ok. But now we're at the 6th game and the zombies have machine guns and everyone looks and acts like the most generic action heros and explosion, explosion, explosion. Just... NO.

 

[Tohron]

I still haven't forgotten Assassin's Creed 2. I can only picture this meeting taking place in the Ubisoft Doom Fortress of Death[sup]TM[/sup].

"Well, it's time to write the plot of the next AssCreed game. We've decided to utterly destroy the interesting (if imperfectly implemented) ideas of the first one, such as actually utilising our rich historical setting, those neat philosophical principles, and the pleasing parkour-and-murder-simulator gameplay. Instead, we've decided to focus on awful "minigames" (DON'T TELL ME CARNEVAL WASN'T MINIGAMES, BECAUSE IT DEFINITELY WAS), nonsensical plot (*just the sound of my brain crying and swigging from the whiskey bottle*), dreadful, hack writing ("Ezio, you need the Golden Mask because the other masks are numbered and cannot be stolen!" Nobody checks your mask, you're the only one IN a Golden Mask, you STOLE the Mask they said couldn't be stolen, etc. That section was just pure, distilled stupidity.) and terrible tone and pacing ("It's-a-me, Mario!", fist fight with the Pope vs. "I am dark and broody and want vengeance for my murdered family", and on pacing; the "plot" happily grinds to a halt so that you can waste HOURS fixing the awful Thieves' Guild and doing goddamn Carneval.)"

And yet, all my friends preferred AC2 to AC. What an absolute fucking waste of a series.

Incidentally, I never played the later AssCreeds. I hear they did not restore the series to quality.

EDIT: I should point out, it starts OK. Not amazing, but it sets up the initially cool setting and structure pretty well, and the plot is alright for the five minutes it takes before tripping over and tangling itself up in its own nonsense.

You forgot the part where, after cutting a bloody swathe through legions of guards who were just doing their job, he gets to the guy responsible for all the killing, and lets him go. That's like, the exact opposite of what a principled assassin would be doing.

 

[Xariat]

well CoD as a whole is going so far away from realism that if you go back and play CoD1 without knowing that it's CoD you will think its something completely different.

Other than that I can't remember any from the top of my head, maybe perhaps Amnesia: The dark descent. It's pretty slow and creepy up until the point where

Spoiler: minor spoiler? i don't know.

you're captured by the monster thing

after that the game gets a more fast phased gameplay where you run around in a crumbling castle instead of sneaking around terrified. or that's how I played the last few parts of the game at least.

 

[Mr. Omega]

9 hours 9 people 9 doors.

It was still kinda absurd at the start, but by the end it was just completely and utterly balls-out insane. But in a strange meta sort of way. Still a good game.

 

[Octorok]

You forgot the part where, after cutting a bloody swathe through legions of guards who were just doing their job, he gets to the guy responsible for all the killing, and lets him go. That's like, the exact opposite of what a principled assassin would be doing.

This is very true. The character of Ezio is not a "dark yet compelling" one. He is a childish, savage murderer, who continues to kill long after his quest for vengeance is effectively done, and then, in a frankly offensive piece of moral posturing, Ezio decides to "not become as bad as them " (that old bollocks) and not kill someone who might actually deserve it for once.

And yet, he was considered a strong enough character to bear the weight of a trilogy on his shoulders.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

The Saint's Row series. I haven't played the first, but the second game was a little absurd and wacky, but still retained some sense of reality. The third game goes beyond absurdity, into Charlie Sheen territory and never looks back.

I feel like it was always pretty silly, as I recall 1 was pretty damn over the top. That said, I would also describe 3 as entering into "Charlie Sheen territory".



OT: The second I reached the end of title of the post I instantly thought: Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit... It was a pretty cool, somewhat down to earth game (as down to earth as possessed-ancient-Mayan-Ritual-killings get anyway), until it became the Matrix, Terminator, and Independence Day all rolled into one.

Subtle story of human emotions, eh David Cage?

 

[Jason Rayes]

Fahrenheit kind of goes without saying.

Sort of slow, creeping dread and edge of madness skating becomes SUPER SAIYAN BLAST AIR BATTLE.

Also, it's established that the temperate basically drops to a level wherein it's not safe to go outside; so why on EARTH would you undress and *ahem* in a train carriage of all things?

Yeah, there's also that, the unexpected sex scene. Wat.

The abrupt ending was the icing on the "What the fuck?" cake. I actually liked the game but the lack of closure was a bummer and I doubt there will be a sequel.

Edit: I always kind of thought it was odd that the sex scene mini game in this didn't cause anyone to bat an eye, but the whole Hot Coffee thing caused those who blame all the worlds evil on video games to conspire to send Dan and Sam Houser on a one way trip to the heart of the sun.

 

[T'Generalissimo]

You forgot the part where, after cutting a bloody swathe through legions of guards who were just doing their job, he gets to the guy responsible for all the killing, and lets him go. That's like, the exact opposite of what a principled assassin would be doing.

Oh, or the part where Ezio is trailing all of the members of the evil conspiracy of who gives a fuck, which is like 5 or 6 elderly men, staying close so that he can hear the conversation and understand their dark plan, instead of leaping down on them and murdering them all instantly. And then, the perfect topping to this nonsense is that they all manage to escape because Ezio literally wasn't paying attention.

 

[shrekfan246]

Condemned 1. It really devolved fast straight from the beginning to the end. Still a good game, the story was just hilarious though.

I think you mean the sequel. The first one remained fairly well-entrenched in reality even if the whole reveal of the big bad and that final house level were all pretty wacky, but the sequel said "Okay, yeah, you're a superhuman now."

OT: Is Metal Gear Solid disqualified because it never had any pedestal to fall from, and was basically wallowing in absurdity from the beginning of the franchise? I love the series, but there's no denying that it's got quite the interesting idea of pacing and raising the stakes.

Ooh, ooh, how about the final punch-up between Batman and the Joker in Arkham Asylum? That was pretty damn ridiculous.

 

[mysecondlife]

I always found GTA San Andreas to be absurd. You grow up in LA suburb wanting to be a 'gansta' or something. You live your life spraying green paint in certain places. Your gameplay is interrupted as petty rival gangs invade your territory...

Then shit happens and you're suddenly flying military planes, going into rap business or something, and raiding a secret government science lab to steal jetpack or something (can't remember correctly)

Absurd? Pretty much. At least Vice City was somewhat down to earth.

 

[Palademon]

Now, please don't misunderstand me. I have very little in the way of not-praise to say when it comes to the masterpiece that is Shadow of the Colossus. One of the most talked-about and loved games of its time and now, and I love it to bits. Still, it does get a bit...trippy...toward the end, where the main character

Spoiler: Spoiler tag so people do not yell at me but seriously if you have not played this game you should be ashamed

gets possessed by the spirit he was serving and transforms into a hundred-foot-tall horned blue-fire-breathing slow-as-all-hell demon-thing, but then gets vacuumed up into a pool of magic water powered by his own magic sword. This somehow causes the bridge to collapse and his girl(friend?) to come back to life, only to discover that he'd been turned into a baby.

I still don't know what was up with all that, but was nicely emotional and flowed okay with the rest of the game, so I wasn't mad. Great game, one of the oddest, most strangely beautiful endings ever.

Fair enough the end result is a bit weird but there's a reason that

Spoiler

He turned into a colossus. It's the final cherry on the cake of questioning what you're doing since it reverses the roles, showing what it's like to be a hunted monster.
The girlfriend coming back to life shows that even if Dormin, the being you're obeying does become obviously a kind of devil character, he may still not neccesarily be the real monster, since he even fulfilled his promise to wander. The baby thing is kinda abstract, but the baby does have horns, which could lead into the hypothesis of the connections between Shadow of the Colossus and Ico.

 

[alphamalet]

Indigo Prophecy
Silent Hill 1
Silent Hill 3
Metal Gear Solid 2
Condemned
Condemned 2 Bloodshot
Dragon Age II (fuck this game)
Final Fantasy X
Mass Effect 3

 

[In Search of Username]

Fahrenheit, of course. And the Saints Row series - I mean, it was silly from the start, but my god it's fucking ridiculous now. Oh and if you count Undead Nightmare as a canonical part of Red Dead Redemption, well... that escalated quickly. XD Oh, and MGS2 also fits this description, but in the best possible way. The ending to that game was so fucking brilliant, and so nonsensical at the same time.

 

[Blitsie]

While it was generally crazy over the top 99% of the time, Bayonetta sure went bat-poop insane near the end. I mean, the way you take out the end boss is just all kinds of super over the top awesome.

 

[Evil Smurf]

The Saint's Row series. I haven't played the first, but the second game was a little absurd and wacky, but still retained some sense of reality. The third game goes beyond absurdity, into Charlie Sheen territory and never looks back.

SR3 has you beating all the things to death with a giant dildo. Yeah batshit insane and I love it.

 

[Luftwaffles]

http://twinbeardstudios.com/frog-fractions

Pretty sure i win.