"Heroics" that left a bad taste in your mouth

[Unia]

Sometimes the protagonist of a game does something you find distasteful or morally suspect and then just passes it off with a oneliner we're apparently supposed to laugh at.

In Uncharted 2 there's a bit where Nathan goes off with a buddy to get something from a Turkish museum. Drake objects to using guns, to which I thought "Oh, he doesn't want to shoot guards for doing their job. Maybe this guy's alright after all." Nope. Few minutes later he throws a guard to his death, and his buddy even jokes about it.

Alpha Protocol has you do a lot of shady things but what stuck with me was framing a guy as a convicted pedophile to get ahead. This wasn't even optional far as I could tell. Sure the man was working for The Evil PMC but for all we know he was some ignorant lackey.

Before anyone mentions Spec Ops: The Line, that one's *supposed* to upset you. Games where doing evil things is optional don't really count either.

TLDR; Ever looked at a protagonist the game portrays as a hero and said to your self: "what a prick"?

 

[Catfood220]

Sometimes the protagonist of a game does something you find distasteful or morally suspect and then just passes it off with a oneliner we're apparently supposed to laugh at.

In Uncharted 2 there's a bit where Nathan goes off with a buddy to get something from a Turkish museum. Drake objects to using guns, to which I thought "Oh, he doesn't want to shoot guards for doing their job. Maybe this guy's alright after all." Nope. Few minutes later he throws a guard to his death, and his buddy even jokes about it.

Drake doesn't kill the guard, if you look down after you pull him off the roof, you can quite clearly see him swimming away. I know this to be true, I checked it out the last time I played through the game.

 

[AgentLampshade]

Snow. Fucking. Villiers. Dumbass self-proclaimed "hero" and complete tool who even says "heroes don't need plans." Argh!

Every single thing he does isn't thought through at all.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Well there's a bit in Dragon's Dogma where the main town is getting attacked by this evil cockatrice (AKA the most bullshit enemies in that game) I injured it enough (read: took down ONE of its 7 or so health bars) to make it fly off in pain.

"ARISEN! YOU HAVE SLAIN THE BEAST! HAVE ALL THIS AWESOME SHIT!"

*Cockatrice visibly flies off into the distance*

"Ummm, ok."

That had to be one of the weirdest bugs ever. I felt like such a dick, the entire town was convinced the thing was dead. It had a whole 6 health bars left guys. You saw it fly off in the direction of the lofty tower where all the flying monsters go to lick their wounds right? No? Ok then...

Oh and the main character in Persona 3 is at least of questionable friendliness. No matter how much of a blank slate he is meant to be. I keep meaning to go through P3 again to refresh myself over why I hated that guy so much but then I remember the dreadful party AI and that singlehandedly ruins it. The rest of the story is amazing but I can't stand that guy.

He basically never does any genuine friendly stuff in a game about friendship for the whole 60 hours. The loner archtype can't stand that unchanged in that kind of game

 

[Tom_green_day]

When the guy in Far Cry 3 dumps his girlfriend. I thought she was his rock, the person meant to represent the side of him which was remaining sane? You can't just forget about her for the second half of the game or you're missing out a vital aspect of his story arc, him not knowing what to do about it and keeping himself on the fence.
He says it in such a bland voice, and then when he leaves he's like 'that wasn't as hard as I thought' Well obviously fekkin not if you didn't even feel a thing about it -.-

 

[XMark]

If you think of it in real-world terms, yanking that museum guard off the roof, while not guaranteed fatal, would be extremely irresponsible since at that height they could break their neck, or get knocked unconscious and drown, if they don't know how to hit the water right.

Of course, if you're thinking in real-world terms, that makes any game where you knock people unconscious in any way the same sort of thing. Concussions, permanent brain damage, etc. So in game terms that part was okay because in game rules, falling in water = survival.

Thinking of any beat-em up games, realistically probably 1 out of every 10 enemies would be either dead or permanently handicapped afterwards.

 

[kyogen]

Well there's a bit in Dragon's Dogma where the main town is getting attacked by this evil cockatrice (AKA the most bullshit enemies in that game) I injured it enough (read: took down ONE of its 7 or so health bars) to make it fly off in pain.

"ARISEN! YOU HAVE SLAIN THE BEAST! HAVE ALL THIS AWESOME SHIT!"

*Cockatrice visibly flies off into the distance*

"Ummm, ok."

That had to be one of the weirdest bugs ever. I felt like such a dick, the entire town was convinced the thing was dead. It had a whole 6 health bars left guys. You saw it fly off in the direction of the lofty tower where all the flying monsters go to lick their wounds right? No? Ok then...

Oh and the main character in Persona 3 is at least of questionable friendliness. No matter how much of a blank slate he is meant to be. I keep meaning to go through P3 again to refresh myself over why I hated that guy so much but then I remember the dreadful party AI and that singlehandedly ruins it. The rest of the story is amazing but I can't stand that guy.

He basically never does any genuine friendly stuff in a game about friendship for the whole 60 hours. The loner archtype can't stand that unchanged in that kind of game

I hit that glitch in Dragon's Dogma sometimes. It looks really, really stupid, but I don't think they meant for it to work that way--or they did and everyone in Gransys is just really, really into self-delusion. It is kind of a jerk move to "seduce" someone's wife, though, if you go that route. The first time one of my characters did it, I really was just looking for the next step in the quest line, but still...what WAS the protagonist thinking by going to that rendezvous? Duh. What happens after that is more or less deserved.

Persona 3 on the other hand...yeah, that guy's kind of a twit. Still, FeMC from P3Portable isn't that off-putting. She's not quite the loner that the original male protagonist is, or at least she doesn't have to be.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

Oh and the main character in Persona 3 is at least of questionable friendliness. No matter how much of a blank slate he is meant to be. I keep meaning to go through P3 again to refresh myself over why I hated that guy so much but then I remember the dreadful party AI and that singlehandedly ruins it. The rest of the story is amazing but I can't stand that guy.

He basically never does any genuine friendly stuff in a game about friendship for the whole 60 hours. The loner archtype can't stand that unchanged in that kind of game

Except for those dozens of social links which he (read: the player, read: you) genuinely felt, regardless of how unfazed he may have seemed. What problem did you have with it?

Also, if the party AI bothered you, you should get Persona 3: FES. It has much better AI and some extra content.

OT:

While I don't generally have a problem with/notice it when heroes act like dicks, but there was this scene in Mass Effect 2 (I haven't played ME3 yet) where, after sorting out the Project Overlord stuff, Shepard discovers that

Spoiler

the reason Project Overlord was possible is that an autistic math savant was literally crucified and hooked up to a million different tubes and computers and shit in order to try to "speak" to the Geth.

The thing that pissed me off about it was that, apparently, the only possible way this could happen was the guy being crucified with tubes and cables and stuff, even going so far as to shove a big one right down his throat. The good guy decision is to take him down and send him off to a centre for people like him or whatever, but it just left a bad taste in my mouth that Bioware decided to make keeping him there so artificially evil.

Like, seriously? Literally crucifying a naked autistic man was the best way to approach this? Who made that decision?

 

[QuartzQuadreant]

Going around Panau in Just Cause 2, blowing up water towers and electric transformers in the civilian towns and cities. I guess it's to stir up resentment for the regime, but to be honest...

well, I'm reading too much into it, especially in a game in which I can skyjack a military jet and fly it into the side of an airship upon which semi-naked women dance to a disturbingly good beat.

 

[sXeth]

Well there's a bit in Dragon's Dogma where the main town is getting attacked by this evil cockatrice (AKA the most bullshit enemies in that game) I injured it enough (read: took down ONE of its 7 or so health bars) to make it fly off in pain.

"ARISEN! YOU HAVE SLAIN THE BEAST! HAVE ALL THIS AWESOME SHIT!"

*Cockatrice visibly flies off into the distance*

"Ummm, ok."

Oh thats not a bug, it always happens. I think it might be a translation goof between Slain/Defeat. That happens with the Hydra too earlier, it just runs away (and regenerates the head, by the by) and everyone gets all crazy about it.

Finishing the cockatrice

Spoiler

In the next mission you go to Greatwall. If you bang about west of the catacombs and just offroad east of Heaven's Peak fort, you'll find Soulflayer Canyon. If you take that shortcut, you can find it on a ledge down a slide off to oen side during a bunch of ledges and ladders. Good for archer's cause you can usually find a bow made from a cockatrice claw here.

Hydra Round 2

Spoiler

In the post-Dragon game, you'll find a message from ??? on the Cassardis board, challenging you to face them in the Frontier Caves. When you get there, instead of the former cyclops in the Proving Grounds, you'll rematch with the Hydra for realsies this time (and get the previously unavailable chest if you don't die).

 

[Shocksplicer]

When the guy in Far Cry 3 dumps his girlfriend. I thought she was his rock, the person meant to represent the side of him which was remaining sane? You can't just forget about her for the second half of the game or you're missing out a vital aspect of his story arc, him not knowing what to do about it and keeping himself on the fence.
He says it in such a bland voice, and then when he leaves he's like 'that wasn't as hard as I thought' Well obviously fekkin not if you didn't even feel a thing about it -.-

It's worth noting that he actually said that it was HARDER than he expected.

OT: The non-lethal target eliminations in Dishonored. They're significantly more cruel than just killing your targets, which is intentional and makes sense from a revenge point of view, but when you're doing a pacifist run and your only way of dealing with them is EXTRA cruelty, it does seem a little odd.

 

[Abomination]

OT: The non-lethal target eliminations in Dishonored. They're significantly more cruel than just killing your targets, which is intentional and makes sense from a revenge point of view, but when you're doing a pacifist run and your only way of dealing with them is EXTRA cruelty, it does seem a little odd.

Yes, the honourable thing to do is ship the triplet off to rape island.

Some of the non-lethal methods of neutralization I found to be awesome poetic justice... but the rape island one was just too cruel.

 

[Shockolate]

First thing to come to mind is fightning Ceaseless Discharge in Dark Souls, since I just killed him yesterday.

You can avoid fighting him if you have high vitality and the Dark Wood Grain Ring, but most people don't know that.

He isn't hostile until you provoke him by either A) Attacking him or B) Taking the suit of armor in his area.

There is an incredibly easy way to kill him in which you lure him out to deep pit, in which he'll jump over it to try and get to you. If you whack his hand enough times, he slips and falls into the pit, supposedly dying. He'll only do this if you've taken the armor.

Spoiler

If you look at the description of the armor, it says it belonged to a Daughter of Chaos, a follower of Lord Gywn and daughter of the Witch of Izalith. Later on after you find a ring that reduced fire damage and lets you run on lava, the description states it was created by the Daughters of Chaos for their brother, whom was born with sores that ooze lava, but that he dropped it.

The Witch of Izalith and several Daughters of Chaos were comsumed when the Witch attempted to recreated the first flame. Ceaseless discharge dropped his ring and eventually became a monster constantly oozing lava. He took solace in the fact that he could guard one of his beloved sisters tombs for the rest of his days. He attempted to jump the pit because you stole his sister's armor.

My friends going crazy, confronting the tragedies of the past, forcing me to kill monsters with good intentions?

Dark Souls is not a happy game.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Oh and the main character in Persona 3 is at least of questionable friendliness. No matter how much of a blank slate he is meant to be. I keep meaning to go through P3 again to refresh myself over why I hated that guy so much but then I remember the dreadful party AI and that singlehandedly ruins it. The rest of the story is amazing but I can't stand that guy.

He basically never does any genuine friendly stuff in a game about friendship for the whole 60 hours. The loner archtype can't stand that unchanged in that kind of game

Except for those dozens of social links which he (read: the player, read: you) genuinely felt, regardless of how unfazed he may have seemed. What problem did you have with it?

Also, if the party AI bothered you, you should get Persona 3: FES. It has much better AI and some extra content.

I guess that's the point. Sure I might have liked the Social Links but I am 100% sure that my player character couldn't be more bored. There's sort of a a disconnect there, I might be playing as him but i'm not actually him if you get the idea. I just always got the impression that he was a complete dick no matter how nice I tried to make him be.

Oh and I did get FES, if that AI is "better" then god how bad could it have been in the first place? The Answer is a load of wank anyway. I'm sure I would find the story ok if I wasn't getting fucked by the unchangeable difficulty and bad AI working in tandem to make everything as frustrating as possible.

 

[Lazy]

Assassin's Creed III had a few of these moments for me, specifically when you're looking for Captain Kidd's letters. In one Connor chases after a looter who'd found the letter he was looking for, shouting the whole time that it belongs to him (how do you figure that, Connor?) and ultimately murdering him over it. Later he destroys an entire fort for the measly scrap of paper he has no claim to, condemning who knows how many people to fiery, agonizing deaths for the sake of his own wealth.

Frankly, Connor comes across as a pretty massive asshole in general, and the game's attempts to paint him as heroic (if naive) just make him that much more irritating.

 

[Zetatrain]

Alpha Protocol has you do a lot of shady things but what stuck with me was framing a guy as a convicted pedophile to get ahead. This wasn't even optional far as I could tell. Sure the man was working for The Evil PMC but for all we know he was some ignorant lackey.

That part is optional. If I remember correctly, you have to hack the hotel security computer to post his identity on the watch list. I never felt too bad about that since I figured the police would sooner or later figure out the database was hacked.

EDIT: I checked youtube and that is optional. Framing the Halbech employee gets rid of 2 of the 4 men who are guarding the elevator that you have to take, making it much easier to sneak by. However, it is still possible to take out all 4 guards without raising an alarm.

 

[shrekfan246]

Oh and the main character in Persona 3 is at least of questionable friendliness. No matter how much of a blank slate he is meant to be. I keep meaning to go through P3 again to refresh myself over why I hated that guy so much but then I remember the dreadful party AI and that singlehandedly ruins it. The rest of the story is amazing but I can't stand that guy.

He basically never does any genuine friendly stuff in a game about friendship for the whole 60 hours. The loner archtype can't stand that unchanged in that kind of game

If you have a PSP or PS Vita you could always get Persona 3 Portable, which gives you the ability to issue direct commands to party members like in Persona 4. It changes the overworld into a much more visual novel-style game, though, 'cause they apparently couldn't squeeze out the same graphics the original PS2 game had onto the PSP. Or something.

OT: Geralt of Rivia. Though he's a bit lovable in his prickishness.

War and Death from both Darksiders games. Though Death is more actively rude and careless, War is more brooding.

Also, Renegade Shepard. To this day I've never made a fully-Renegade play-through of the Mass Effect games. I'm halfheartedly working on a Renegade ME2 play-through at the moment.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Well there's a bit in Dragon's Dogma where the main town is getting attacked by this evil cockatrice (AKA the most bullshit enemies in that game) I injured it enough (read: took down ONE of its 7 or so health bars) to make it fly off in pain.

"ARISEN! YOU HAVE SLAIN THE BEAST! HAVE ALL THIS AWESOME SHIT!"

*Cockatrice visibly flies off into the distance*

"Ummm, ok."

Oh thats not a bug, it always happens. I think it might be a translation goof between Slain/Defeat. That happens with the Hydra too earlier, it just runs away (and regenerates the head, by the by) and everyone gets all crazy about it.

Finishing the cockatrice

Spoiler

In the next mission you go to Greatwall. If you bang about west of the catacombs and just offroad east of Heaven's Peak fort, you'll find Soulflayer Canyon. If you take that shortcut, you can find it on a ledge down a slide off to oen side during a bunch of ledges and ladders. Good for archer's cause you can usually find a bow made from a cockatrice claw here.

Hydra Round 2

Spoiler

In the post-Dragon game, you'll find a message from ??? on the Cassardis board, challenging you to face them in the Frontier Caves. When you get there, instead of the former cyclops in the Proving Grounds, you'll rematch with the Hydra for realsies this time (and get the previously unavailable chest if you don't die).

Wait is that the one where you drop down from a certain spot in a cave? It's called Leaper's Ledge or something? It was in a cave after the one castle on a mountain. The rest of the area is 100% done there's just this random cockatrice in the very belly of the cave as a hidden boss. It's impossible by the way. It's pitch black and it likes to randomly petrify you for giggles.

I can't remember what the cave itself was called. I don't even think it was a mission cave, I randomly wandered in just because.

I think it was just a different cockatrice but I guess it could be the same one. I suppose there can't be many cockatrices in the game in general since they're just so ridiculous... They really got the balance right between monsters. A huge 5 health bar thing is still really fun and tense and doesn't degenerate into boring "stab,dodge,stab,dodge" tedium. Sitting back and shooting something in the eye for 30 minutes doesn't get boring... Somehow. That is basically how I win boss fights, it's pretty funny. I still get annoyed that shooting 100 arrows into a cyclops' eye never outright blinds him forever. Just stuns him for a while and does increased damage instead

 

[lRookiel]

Ajantis on Baldur's gate was always an arsehole towards poor Xan.

Just because he wasn't righteous enough or some other paladin bullshit.