Glaring plot holes in games

[KalosCast]

Fable 2 would have less plot holes if the plot was actually about holes.

 

[Something Amyss]

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: Spoiler Response

The problem here is that the theme of the game is the death of the Old West. Or, should I say, A theme is the death of the Old West. The game even advertised itself with the line "Outlaws to the End," Which turns out to be exactly what it says on the tin.

By the end, Marston makes peace with the fact that he cannot keep running. That no matter where he goes or what he does, he's inexorably tied to the lawmen who are on his ass. The fact that he's armed to the teeth might mean he could fight them off today, but the end result is that there would be more. And more.

And while I may personally be interpreting this part, that endangers his wife and son. We know John doesn't want this kind of life for his son, so one could look at this as an attempt to make sure he doesn't grow up like Daddy. Which, of course, fails, but that's another story.

This is a very classic theme, one that's been done in Western movies to great effect before and is neither a plot hole nor bad storytelling. And persoanlly, I think it was brilliantly done.

 

[TerranReaper]

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

He probably could've, but if he did, he would've been constantly hunted down along his family. If he escapes by himself, the lawmen would've threatened or even killed his family to get to him. They did it once, wouldn't be past them to do it again. If he takes his family with him, he also endangers them by being with him. It's kinda of a lose-lose situation.

OT: No Russian in MW2, or just how the war against America started. Now this is an airport we're talking about, I don't see how the Russians could've missed the fact that Makarov, a well-known terrorist to have been the person that shot up the airport. If he was wearing a mask, maybe that could've been excusable, but he wasn't even covering up his face, surely they must've seen him on the cameras while they were performing the shootings. Not to mention, one of the squadmates dies as well as you, so how did the Russians miss a dead guy with a military issue gun right beside him? Granted, they probably have connections in the government, but I doubt that all the connections in the world would be able to cover up everything and blame it onto an American. Also, what happened to NATO?

 

[kuyo]

Tenpenny Towers: Ray gives you a ghoul mask for quest completion. It's useful, but it's like if Malcolm X painted you in black face for helping out with the civil rights movement. Not to mention how disgusting sticking your head inside that rotting flesh sack must be even by wasteland standards.

Feral ghouls are not intelligent beings. Take a look at their eyes, cataracts asunder.

Ray wasn't feral.

 

[TheDarkestDerp]

Tenpenny Towers: Ray gives you a ghoul mask for quest completion. It's useful, but it's like if Malcolm X painted you in black face for helping out with the civil rights movement. Not to mention how disgusting sticking your head inside that rotting flesh sack must be even by wasteland standards.

Feral ghouls are not intelligent beings. Take a look at their eyes, cataracts asunder.

Although humorous, I don't think you're quite addressing the point made. I have to agree, considering Ray was a VERY militant supporter of ghouls, 'normal' or feral it seemed odd to me also that he would give you a ghoul's skinned face to wear as a mask, regardless of the reasoning. In game he berates you for making minor commentary on ghouls, and threatens you with violence and implied murder if you act against 'his people'. Whether or not feral ghouls can see and how effective that mask would be isn't so much the question as why in the world he would do something like this which would seem to go against his character...

Also a fave- Bioshock 1 or 2, if Adam is so horribly bad because excessive use of it warps people into crazy freako "sploicers", why do you use it willy-nilly all game with no ill effects?

ADAM's negative effects only come out to play once you stop taking ADAM for an extended period. Seeing as you're ingesting more throughout the entire game, I'd say Jack was safe.

I imagine Big Daddies are impervious to ADAM withdrawal. Note that Jack was never a true Big Daddy, he just had the outward appearance of one.

Specualation on the Big Daddies aside, this is interesting. I'll soon finish my third play-through of Bioshock 1 and 2 and I don't recall this point on ADAM withdrawal ever being made in either. In both games it's stated plainly in multiple characters' exposition that people were driven to personality schizm ans grotesque mutation by excessive use of ADAM, not it's disuse. What source are you quoting for this statement?

 

[BlackAura]

In Heavy Rain, why did Ethan keep having those random blackouts and why did he have an origami figure?

Yeah, this got me too. I know that they put it in so as to cast doubt on Ethan, and make us all wary of him, but they never explained to my satisfaction why he was having these black outs and waking up carrying origami figures. In fact, I don't think the game even attempted to explain that one.

It was a fantastic game otherwise, though.

Maybe this will help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxpdGB6Gbac

If this was posted already, sorry. Still reading the thread.

 

[BlackAura]

... What conspires afterwards doesn't makes sense without the help of a few dozen drops of acid. We have a very confusing cutscene of Lucas and his brother as children, then later on the storyline is highjacked by 'The Cultists' from the Silent Hill series, who believe in some 'insert generic ancient civilization god here' type deal. And the entire fate of the world depends upon a little girl whom five seconds before this took place, you didn't even know existed in the game. Lucas randomly comes across the woman who throughout the entire game has been trying to bring him to justice/kill him, et al; but within hours of them meeting, she ends up not only sleeping with him, but 'falling in love' with him. Can everyone say 'WTF!?' with me?

*snicker, snort*

 

[BlackAura]

Metal Gear Solid 4. Microwaves...

Spoiler: Microwaves and the MKII

Why send Snake when the damned MKII made it through just fine? It could have stayed in stealth mode and finished the job without the need for Snake to get all crispy.

Otacon tells Snake he can't use stealth while working, saying it's like trying to eat dinner or clean a gun while your hands are invisible (call him when you're at the timed locked door in the disposal warehouse). But then why not just plug the cable in THEN turn on the stealth? Apparently the mini-MG can't hack and stealth at the same time.

Also the Mk.II very visibly blows a few things from the microwaves.

Spoiler

And Snake was practically dead anyway, so what the hell.

 

[Saint of M]

Why were you blowing up a super computer at the end of Armored core, and why was Hustler 1 protecting it? The third expansion pack, and Armored Core 3 made more sense.

 

[The Code]

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

Shephard gets spaced some time after Mass Effect 1 ends. The clips could have been introduced before the incident?

OT: I haven't really found plot hoeles in games much lately. It's more in TV shows, movies, and that kind of thing.

 

[chrono16]

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

They weren't looking for Halo. They were following Cole protocol and jumped away in a path that wouldn't lead them back to Earth. Finding Halo was dumb luck lol. They didn't know where they were going to come out.

 

[chrono16]

Mine's not really a plot hole, more of a pissed off moment. Why didn't Woods just kick that asshole out the window instead of tackling him out of it?! i actually yelled WOODS NOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Devias-]

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.

Oh, after you have exposed Loghain then. You do make a good point. They could have simply rounded up volunteers from the military and have them undergo the Joining. The best excuse, I suppose, is that they didn't have much time due to the Archdemon and darkspawn rising.

Wait, did they need Archdemon blood or darkspawn blood for the joining? It was the latter, wasn't it?

 

[mattttherman3]

Heavy Rain, clock store, no way that chick wouldn't have heard you kill that guy, music box is not that loud.

Heavy Rain, Shaun would have died from hypothermia in the first day.

Answer to why the Reaper in ME2, well the Reapers make a few new Reapers out of every society they destroy. Why they do this? No clue. Maybe to immortalize the species?

 

[HentMas]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

Because they knew that he(Shepherd) was behind the entire conflict with Russia. Roach and Ghost ( and the rest of TF-141 were loose ends, and he needed to be sure that there were No Loose Ends.

Um, actually, they didn't. That's why it's such a surprise that he shoots them. It comes out of nowhere, and it's the first indication given that he's evil. He could have just destroyed the hard drive, and no one would have known about his involvement. And even if TF141 ARE loose ends, then why didn't he just use his OTHER secret black ops group(the guys you spend time killing for the rest of the game) to do all his dirty work? Then he wouldn't have to worry about it.

well... i actually understood that as making them get the hard drive as to make them look like they were stealing it from terrorists to do some terroring of their own,and he getting there to kill them and "rescue", its all about "who is the good guy" and "the immage" he was trying to mantain, as the hero of the world, that last bit was to make them the bad guys

so he makes it seem that they were the next group of terrorists, in the ending they do say something in the line of "they will be hunting for you now" implying the US was going to blame them for the terrorist attack.

 

[Jonny1188]

Where does Dr. Eggman/Robotnik find time to build his badniks and stages full of traps, especially between Sonic 3 and 4, which aren't really spaced out by a period of a few years? If he really did it all by himself, wouldn't that constant work (including chasing down penguins and bunnies to shove into his robots) help him lose weight? Why include rings in the stages? I don't think they're a natural occurring item, but if they are couldn't he snatch them up as he's placing motobugs around?

 

[Devias-]

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.

Actually, I just replayed the game and made it to the point where you meet Riordan. It appears that you need a vial of darkspawn blood and a drop of archdemon blood for the Joining. An acceptable excuse, and perhaps the reason that refutes this plot hole, is that they only had a single drop of archdemon blood.

 

[Phoenixlight]

In Heavy Rain, why did Ethan keep having those random blackouts and why did he have an origami figure?

I was wondering about that for quite a while after completing the game multiple times but then read somewhere that it was going to be part of Heavy Rain 2.

 

[Sarah Kerrigan]

*AHEM*

WHY DID SHEPHERD KILL ROACH AND GHOST?

Thought i believe it was answered, I'm with you

Also, is Soap and Price alive?

 

[Zechnophobe]

The start of Bioshock and Crono Trigger.

Let's do things for no apparent reason without understanding the consequences! That's a great way to start a game.

Random bathosphere after a plane crash and coming out unharmed magically? Fuck yeah.
Going into a teleportation device after a woman disappears with no understanding of what's going to happen? Count me the fuck in!

These are not plot holes. That isn't a hole in the plot.

Just because someone does an action you wouldn't have done, doesn't make it a plot hole. "OMG, she had peanut butter but no jelly on her toast! PLOT HOLE".

In real life, people do REALLY STUPID things to impress women. Bam, Chrono trigger down. Heck, you have to realize further that that was a magical world, the concept of such a device wasn't nearly as foreign compared to the status quo.

The much more common 'if I resurrect 2 or 3 party members per fight, why is it a tragedy the king dies?' is more of a plot hole, and even then is a narrative vs story hole, as opposed to a narrative vs narrative hole, which is a lot more blatant.