Loki_The_Good said:
My biggest oh crap what did I do moment in saints row 2 actually happened in saints row three. During the stag generals speech he talks about the whole sordid sequence dealing with Jessica's death and I remember hearing that and thinking "wow that's really twisted ... oh crap that was me." Love playing the bad guy though. Its a weird feeling, you keep thinking "no don't" to the character but then you go ahead and make him do it.
I was smiling during that scene. Not because I agreed with what The Boss did in 2, but because it was great to actually see it portrayed as a negative. And there's so little continuity between 2 and 3 that I'll take what I can get.
The only problem I had was that it was just about the only solid argument put forth by the "bad guys" of the game, and so it came off as a bit dissonant (not in the ludonarrative sense) to have that one stark moment of "what a monster" in a game that largely treats you as hero and victim. I mean, ignore the fact that Gat died as a result of your ripping people off as part of a "publicity stunt" where you shoot at least dozens of guards and cops, Gat is dead, the Syndicate (not his own actions) killed him, and we're going to get revenge because we're THE GOOD GUYS!
Then again, I feel a lot of the half-assed "justification" Jim was talking about in GTAV. In fact, the bad guys in the game do seem to be worse than the main characters. Only Trevor seems to potentially be worse, and even he offers a polemic against torture. In his own twisted way, but still.
Worse, people seem to be identifying with and buying into the justifications of Michael. Guy's a total shitbag who tells himself he has no choice, as he keeps making choice after choice. We as the player may identify with this in a sense because we as the player have to follow his decisions if we want to play the game. This is especially weird in a game with three main characters, though: at some point, you have to go back to Michael to progress the story. Trevor's clearly worse, and Franklin's debatable, but still.
I should care whether Michael finally settles things with his family. I can't. He's a monster and they're all crap.
Back to SR2. I didn't have any "Oh God" moments because I embraced my role as a monster. I was aware of what was going on, but I didn't really care. I play these games for juvenile mayhem and this is the logical end result of juvenile mayhem. It's really weird watching friends play the game. Friends who will chase down and brutally kill someone who cut them off in traffic, but who were made uncomfortable by sending Jessica to her death. And in the narrative, Jessica's death is more justified than some random shlub who cut you off. Not a good thing, mind, or totally justifiable, but on a grading scale, it's far more relevant.
But then, that's an interesting thing in Saints Row 2. Life is cheap, unless it's a named character, then suddenly we care.
Except me, apparently. I'm more than capable of shutting down my morality when there are no actual people on the line. And even then, I often choose to do the "good" choices in video games, even if I know I can get away with the "bad."
But games like Saints Row 2, where the whole idea is to play the villain, I embrace the villainy.
