Name a Plot Hole and Has It Ruined the Game for You.

[Brownie80]

I was thinking of Heavy Rain. A great game, great story, gre...av...MEH voice acting, and lots of agency. However, it got criticized by many that the plot holes almost ruined the game.

Spoiler: View at own risk

1. Ethan wakes up from blackouts with an origami figure in his hand. Never explained and only happens twice-at the beginning.
2. The thoughts mechanic made this hole. Shelby-the murderer-is playable and you can hear his thoughts. However, not ONCE is there something related to him being the murderer other than one near the end of the "Manfred" chapter right before you discover Manfred's body. And if you DIDN't know he was the murderer before this than it will most likely fly right over your head as even it's just a slight hint.

These didn't ruin the game for me, but I saw the game get blasted by other people for them. Do you have any massive plot holes from games from your experience and did they ruin a major aspect of the game for you?

 

[krazykidd]

I generally don't notice plot holes,unless someone else points it out. I usually play games for the story, so i guess i'm just simple minded. Even when people point them out to me, i'm not bothered. I've been gaming so long i usually chalk it up under " because magic".

 

[Sniper Team 4]

I know I've seen a few here and there, but I always sweep them under the rug. However, there are two that I will never be able to accept.

First is from Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Spoiler

If you don't shoot Mason in the head when you're playing as Woods, Mason shows back up again at the end of the game.

Yay! Warm feelings all around. Except...where the hell were you for the past twenty-five or so years? No, seriously, the game even asks that very question and it's never explained. It raises so many questions that it's very easy to pick the entire story apart if I focus on it too much.

Second is from Call of Duty: Ghosts

Spoiler

. Okay, Rorke just got the snot beat out of him (if I remember right, someone even hits him in the head with a fire extinguisher), shot clean through the chest, thrown off a cliff in an exploding train, and drowned. And yet...not only does he survive all of that, he's still strong enough to overpower Logan, drag him away with not support, and able to avoid being spotted by your allies because the entire enemy army has just been reduced to ash. How...? Did all that time in the Amazon turn him into a literal super human?

This was the final straw that broke the camel's back in Ghosts for me. I could, barely, accept the rest of the story, but when that came up, and couldn't accept it. There's no way any human could do that.

 

[Tom_green_day]

Not a plot hole as such as I don't mind them but the element of time in GTA V. It's stated that for Trevor to drive into Los Santos it takes several hours, yet when playing it takes only a few minutes if that. Why couldn't he just say he lived a few minutes out of town? And why does the game progress in quickened time instead of real time and just have shorter days? It annoys me when games do that.

 

[spartandude]

There's currently a thread about Mass Effect on front page at the moment so im just going to point to that because otherwise im going to write a good damn essay.

Another one would be GTA IV. Il admit i cant remember the specifics but if i recall Niko murders his brother's boss and all of a sudden everyones commenting on how he killed a man.... as if i hadnt shot and stabbed people as part of the main story to get to this point not to mention the side missions and all the people i ran other because why the hell not. It was just so fucking stupid.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

When it comes to Mass Effect, how did Udina end up as the Human Councillor in ME3? How did Anderson get ahead of Shepard in The Citadel at the end of ME3? Finally, in ME3 as you're making the final dash towards the Citadel Beam thing, what happens to your party? Personally, I kept Garrus and Liara with me so they should have been killed by The Reaper beam and yet we see both of them safe and sound on The Normandy...Tha Hell?! None of those plot holes ruined Mass Effect 3 for me since they're minor when compared to the awesomeness that is Kalros vs Reaper and certain other character moments.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

I don't think a plot hole ever ruined a game for me. I'm used to being condescending to storytelling in videogames. I just laugh plot holes off.

 

[balladbird]

I was thinking of Heavy Rain. A great game, great story, gre...av...MEH voice acting, and lots of agency. However, it got criticized by many that the plot holes almost ruined the game.

Spoiler: View at own risk

1. Ethan wakes up from blackouts with an origami figure in his hand. Never explained and only happens twice-at the beginning.
2. The thoughts mechanic made this hole. Shelby-the murderer-is playable and you can hear his thoughts. However, not ONCE is there something related to him being the murderer other than one near the end of the "Manfred" chapter right before you discover Manfred's body. And if you DIDN't know he was the murderer before this than it will most likely fly right over your head as even it's just a slight hint.

The first one was actually a plot hole created by David Cage having bizarre taste in what scenes to save from an original draft.

Spoiler: heavy rain

The original plan was for Ethan and the killer to have developed a psychic link, which is the reason for the blackouts and origami figures. Supernatural elements were removed early in the planning stages, but the blackout scenes remained... apparently for no reason other than because they couldn't be bothered to come up with anything more feasible to make him a red herring.

 

[Fox12]

When it comes to Mass Effect, how did Udina end up as the Human Councillor in ME3? How did Anderson get ahead of Shepard in The Citadel at the end of ME3? Finally, in ME3 as you're making the final dash towards the Citadel Beam thing, what happens to your party? Personally, I kept Garrus and Liara with me so they should have been killed by The Reaper beam and yet we see both of them safe and sound on The Normandy...Tha Hell?! None of those plot holes ruined Mass Effect 3 for me since they're minor when compared to the awesomeness that is Kalros vs Reaper and certain other character moments.

The biggest plot hole for me was also the simplest.

Anderson: "Our objective is to reach that giant beacon, which the Reapers now control. It'll be a slaughter, but if we can get even one man inside that thing, they'll be able to activate our magic (Deus Ex Machina) super weapon and destroy the reapers forever. Any questions?"

Me: "So why don't the reapers just turn it off...."

Just like that the magic was broken. I still loved the game, but the whole time I kept hoping that the writers would explain the plot hole. Maybe this was just another layer of control. Maybe Shepard was indoctrinated, and he was supposed to lure the entire Allied fleet into one place so that the Reapers could destroy them in one fell swoop. Therefore, the Reapers wanted you to reach the beacon the entire time. After all, Bioware had great writers. They knew what they were doing. Obviously... that's not what happened.

Also, anything David Cage related. It's not uncommon for games to have poorly developed stories, but if the story is the entire crux of your game, and if you're going to play tortured artist, you better make damn sure that you have all your ducks in a row, because plot holes are unacceptable. Heavy Rain was interesting, but the shamble of a story and the rapey bits destroyed the entire game for me. For someone focused on video game story telling, David Cage is a really poor writer...

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

When it comes to Mass Effect, how did Udina end up as the Human Councillor in ME3? How did Anderson get ahead of Shepard in The Citadel at the end of ME3? Finally, in ME3 as you're making the final dash towards the Citadel Beam thing, what happens to your party? Personally, I kept Garrus and Liara with me so they should have been killed by The Reaper beam and yet we see both of them safe and sound on The Normandy...Tha Hell?! None of those plot holes ruined Mass Effect 3 for me since they're minor when compared to the awesomeness that is Kalros vs Reaper and certain other character moments.

Anderson stepped down between ME2 and 3. The beam transported them to different areas on the Citadel. The Extended Cut shows your team being hustled on to the Normandy.

I got Fahrenheit (Cage's game before Heavy Rain) for the PC a while back, the story in that game was extremely disjointed. The female cop chasing the suspected killer around in one scene, is for some reason, prancing around for him in her underwear in the next scene. Confused the hell out of me.

 

[Vivi22]

I was thinking of Heavy Rain. A great game, great story, gre...av...MEH voice acting, and lots of agency. However, it got criticized by many that the plot holes almost ruined the game.

Spoiler: View at own risk

1. Ethan wakes up from blackouts with an origami figure in his hand. Never explained and only happens twice-at the beginning.
2. The thoughts mechanic made this hole. Shelby-the murderer-is playable and you can hear his thoughts. However, not ONCE is there something related to him being the murderer other than one near the end of the "Manfred" chapter right before you discover Manfred's body. And if you DIDN't know he was the murderer before this than it will most likely fly right over your head as even it's just a slight hint.

These didn't ruin the game for me, but I saw the game get blasted by other people for them. Do you have any massive plot holes from games from your experience and did they ruin a major aspect of the game for you?

The trouble with point number 1 is that they cut a major part of the game and story which would have explained it, but the blackouts were so integral to the story that they couldn't change that. Bad call on their part.

And I don't consider number 2 a plot hole so much as a case of unreliable narrator which is something that is done in fiction.

In other news, my captcha for this post is red herring. How quaint.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

Let's bring up my favourite two from Fallout 3:

1) Vault 87. Computers in Vault 87 specifically mention the FEV virus wanting to "level the playing field" by converting both males and females into androgynous subjects, yet in Fallout 1 you defeat The Master by revealing to him that Super Mutants aren't a viable branch of human evolution as whilst the males retain the ability to breed, females are rendered sterile, leading The Master to pull the plug on his experiments and end the Super Mutant threat. A seemingly small change, but one that invalidates the ending of F1 and by extension invalidates the entirety of F2 as the Vault Dweller would not have survived to found the tribe living in Arroyo.

2) Little Lamplight. A community that has existed for the last 200 years in isolation despite ejecting citizens as soon as they reach puberty. If you need this explaining to you then I officially give up.

 

[Dalisclock]

I got Fahrenheit (Cage's game before Heavy Rain) for the PC a while back, the story in that game was extremely disjointed. The female cop chasing the suspected killer around in one scene, is for some reason, prancing around for him in her underwear in the next scene. Confused the hell out of me.

It doesn't help that next scene is a full month later, with no explanation exactly what happened during that period of time. Apparently Cage just couldn't be assed to develop that particular relationship, so he just goes "Time Skip!"

 

[teebeeohh]

DAII
blood magic
done

I am not sure that this is an actual plot hole but in the otherwise excellent human revolution it always bugged the shit out of me that augmentations are that common. according to the original deus ex augs only became popular when they became small and unobtrusive (like Maliks), yet augs are super common in the game and most arms/legs look like someone ripped of part of a fork lift. people like Gunther Hermann, who have whole working body parts replaced, are supposed to be the exception. where did all those people go between games? and if they just replaced their augs with newer models, why didn't Hermann ever do that?

Let's bring up my favourite two from Fallout 3:

1) Vault 87. Computers in Vault 87 specifically mention the FEV virus wanting to "level the playing field" by converting both males and females into androgynous subjects, yet in Fallout 1 you defeat The Master by revealing to him that Super Mutants aren't a viable branch of human evolution as whilst the males retain the ability to breed, females are rendered sterile, leading The Master to pull the plug on his experiments and end the Super Mutant threat. A seemingly small change, but one that invalidates the ending of F1 and by extension invalidates the entirety of F2 as the Vault Dweller would not have survived to found the tribe living in Arroyo.

2) Little Lamplight. A community that has existed for the last 200 years in isolation despite ejecting citizens as soon as they reach puberty. If you need this explaining to you then I officially give up.

isn't the FEV thing explained by the East coast magic that also turns the BoS into nice people and makes jet appear in closed Vaults?

 

[Worgen]

I know I've seen a few here and there, but I always sweep them under the rug. However, there are two that I will never be able to accept.

First is from Call of Duty: Black Ops II.

Spoiler

If you don't shoot Mason in the head when you're playing as Woods, Mason shows back up again at the end of the game.

Yay! Warm feelings all around. Except...where the hell were you for the past twenty-five or so years? No, seriously, the game even asks that very question and it's never explained. It raises so many questions that it's very easy to pick the entire story apart if I focus on it too much.

Second is from Call of Duty: Ghosts

Spoiler

. Okay, Rorke just got the snot beat out of him (if I remember right, someone even hits him in the head with a fire extinguisher), shot clean through the chest, thrown off a cliff in an exploding train, and drowned. And yet...not only does he survive all of that, he's still strong enough to overpower Logan, drag him away with not support, and able to avoid being spotted by your allies because the entire enemy army has just been reduced to ash. How...? Did all that time in the Amazon turn him into a literal super human?

This was the final straw that broke the camel's back in Ghosts for me. I could, barely, accept the rest of the story, but when that came up, and couldn't accept it. There's no way any human could do that.

To be fair, every cod plot after cod 4 was a mess of plot holes and stupidity.

 

[Grouchy Imp_v1legacy]

isn't the FEV thing explained by the East coast magic that also turns the BoS into nice people and makes jet appear in closed Vaults?

You mean by the same magic* that makes all DC feral ghouls carry ID cards to a Californian nuclear power station?

Yep, it's the exact same magic*.

[sub][sub]* Piss-poor writing[/sub][/sub]

 

[The Wykydtron]

Ha. David Cage: The Thread. You thought his other games were bad? Beyond: Two Souls has got to be the worst offender of plot holes ever. It's not even just overall story plotholes, it's that everything is so disjointed and even individual scenes go and contradict themselves every two seconds. Every other line makes no sense. Early on you can make Jodie attempt to jump off a bridge because her life is so shit right now then she goes begging for money as if nothing happened. The event is never referenced again and is quietly swept under the rug.

He also "pays homage" to films and games that aren't as obscure as he thinks they are. Remember that level that ripped off Dead Space and KOTOR at the same time?

One of the worst was at the end

Spoiler: If for some reason you care about this schlock i'll spoiler it for you

When everything goes crazy and they get full Mass Effect shields to protect themselves from the ghosts (technology which was never shown or explained to be in place until that very scene) everything goes alright until Barney gets run through by some ghost sword thing straight through the belt shield (oh no, my 3D Manoeuvre Gear is out of gas!)

Not two seconds later "thank god for these shields, we'd be dead without them" despite the fact that Barney just died through their so called protection instantly so the plot armour surrounding Jodie hits critical mass and all tension in the scene disappears completely.

Then he rips off MGS3's Sorrow boss fight bit where you walk towards a light with a microwave hallway.

I do enjoy watching how badly he writes scenes though, it's quite entertaining. I still cannot believe the lengths to which he goes to to place every female character into yet another creepy rape scenario.

I will give credit to the voice work in the game. Especially Willem Dafoe's really good portrayal of Nathan, especially towards the end. The voices 100% carry the game through the crappy writing.

 

[aozgolo]

I can't say it "ruined it" for me, but I always hated the "force canon" that Baldur's Gate II does on you irregardless of what companions or choices or people you murdered in BG1, I kind of understand it in a way as they needed to streamline things and couldn't do Mass Effect level of game carry-over, but it always kinda irked me when in BGII I run into Edwin and my first thought is "Mother***er you died!"

 

[SajuukKhar]

Let's bring up my favourite two from Fallout 3:

1) Vault 87. Computers in Vault 87 specifically mention the FEV virus wanting to "level the playing field" by converting both males and females into androgynous subjects, yet in Fallout 1 you defeat The Master by revealing to him that Super Mutants aren't a viable branch of human evolution as whilst the males retain the ability to breed, females are rendered sterile, leading The Master to pull the plug on his experiments and end the Super Mutant threat. A seemingly small change, but one that invalidates the ending of F1 and by extension invalidates the entirety of F2 as the Vault Dweller would not have survived to found the tribe living in Arroyo.

2) Little Lamplight. A community that has existed for the last 200 years in isolation despite ejecting citizens as soon as they reach puberty. If you need this explaining to you then I officially give up.

1. "Male" super mutants on the west coast never retained their ability to breed, what Marcus said in Fo2 about "taking a few years for the juices to start flowing again" was confirmed to be a joke, both "male" and "female" super mutants are 100% sterile in all Fallout games.

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Marcus
"While Marcus says that he is no longer sterile, Chris Avellone, who wrote that dialogue, confirmed that Marcus was only joking and that super mutants remain entirely sterile. "

Also, the strain of FEV used in Vault 87 was different from the Mariposa strain, hence why the Vault 87 super mutants look and grow differently. It is but one of many FEV strains that has different effects, like FEV strain "Curling-13", made by the Enclave to kill all mutants, and Eden's modified strain of FEV, based off of the curling strain, which does the same thing, but via water instead of air.

2. LL ejects kids when they reach 16, its possible to have kids as young as 14. Also, LL is not isolationist, they are proven to take in orphaned kids, such as the case from the kid from Greyditch, they are known to frequently send people out to scavenge food, and their city is well known to the people of the wasteland, from Paradise Falls to Rivet city, and given the state of the wasteland, its far from improbable that parents wouldn't either leave their kids at LL because they either don't want them, or can't feed them themselves.

 

[Nimzabaat]

BioShock Infinite

Almost too many to mention but...

Spoiler

The first time you switch dimensions why didn't Booker just take Elizabeth to Paris? He is now in a different dimension where he has zero obligations as far as he knows. He doesn't know that the people who gave him the mission could follow him, so in his mind, he can't even turn in the mission anymore.

Though the one I hated most was the ending. (note that Booker and Elizabeth/Ana "A" refers to the characters from the starting dimension). Sorry but killing Booker A after he fathered Elizabeth/Ana A would not have any affect on Elizabath/Ana A, let alone all of the Elizabeths. If somebody killed my dad today, that would not make me cease to exist. That made zero sense. It almost made dividing-by-zero sense.