A very good while ago, while I was listening to 'The Breaking of the Fellowship', an idea struck me. The verses "when the Seas and Mountains fall and we come to end of Days. In the dark I hear a call", gave me an idea for the end of a story, though I never was able find a satisfying way to build up to it. At the time, it seemed alright, though now it just sounds rather cheesy; mainly because it requires one of those pesky Apocalypse scenarios, of which there have been more than enough by now. Now that I think about it... there might also have accidentally slipped some MGS in aswell.
I bring this up now because the upcoming 2012 has some stricking resemblance to my idea.
Has any of you ever thought of a nice story element, gameplay mechanic or what not which, on itself was either good, or not too bad, but couldn't find a way to implement it?
Note* that whole story that is about to follow is a rough draft of an unsatisfying idea I had to... well... give it atleast some background.
On reflection... I think it is even actually quite BAD.
I bring this up now because the upcoming 2012 has some stricking resemblance to my idea.
Has any of you ever thought of a nice story element, gameplay mechanic or what not which, on itself was either good, or not too bad, but couldn't find a way to implement it?
Note* that whole story that is about to follow is a rough draft of an unsatisfying idea I had to... well... give it atleast some background.
To kick off, as mentioned earlier, the cookiecutter used is the Apocalypse, either man-made i.e. 'The Core' or a nuclear holocaust, natural causes i.e. 'Armageddon' (I count asteroids, supernovas and gamma-ray bursts as natural) or because we ran out of time i.e. 2012. Setting is either modern day or fantasy.
Here's the gist: Humanity or whatever kind of people this is about, is devided into many factions, which are in all out conflict which each other. Whilst everyone is busy developing more effective ways of kill, noone notices that the world around them is crumbling. It's not until the doomsday clock strikes a quarter to eleven until people realise what's going on. Ofcourse, all hostilities are immediatly halted and a team of heroes is assembled to deal with the problem (of which the protagonist is NOT, and I repeat NOT a member).
The heroes fail miserably and people panickly start to hoard all resources to turn their undergound militairy bases into makeshift Fallout-esque vaults, to hopefully sit out the disaster-spree going on on the surface. Quickly, it becomes clear that the mcguyvered vaults are inadequate (earthquakes off Richter's scale?).
This is where the original idea starts
The protagonist and his horribly shoehorned-in love interest have to endure all this as mere helpless civilians, eventually also ending up in a vault-shaped coffin. Somehow everything the protagonist learns/sees/hears throughout the course of the film/book/tv series lead him to conclude (in not as many words as will follow now) that everything eventually ends, making place for something new and althought fear of death and the unknown that comes after it is perfectly natural, death is stil inevitable and you can't run from it forever. At this point, the protagonist and love interest link arms and head out of the vault, to "see what's on the Other side..."
I also thought of some kind of antagonist, a mercenary leader or something, who tried to make some profit, not necessarily in money, of the whole end-of-the-world ordeal. By the end of the film/book/tv series, he is abbandoned by his men (why, I do not know), leaving him alone. I imagined him sitting in an desolated vault with an empty look on his face as the ceiling is starting to give way and crack.
Here's the gist: Humanity or whatever kind of people this is about, is devided into many factions, which are in all out conflict which each other. Whilst everyone is busy developing more effective ways of kill, noone notices that the world around them is crumbling. It's not until the doomsday clock strikes a quarter to eleven until people realise what's going on. Ofcourse, all hostilities are immediatly halted and a team of heroes is assembled to deal with the problem (of which the protagonist is NOT, and I repeat NOT a member).
The heroes fail miserably and people panickly start to hoard all resources to turn their undergound militairy bases into makeshift Fallout-esque vaults, to hopefully sit out the disaster-spree going on on the surface. Quickly, it becomes clear that the mcguyvered vaults are inadequate (earthquakes off Richter's scale?).
This is where the original idea starts
The protagonist and his horribly shoehorned-in love interest have to endure all this as mere helpless civilians, eventually also ending up in a vault-shaped coffin. Somehow everything the protagonist learns/sees/hears throughout the course of the film/book/tv series lead him to conclude (in not as many words as will follow now) that everything eventually ends, making place for something new and althought fear of death and the unknown that comes after it is perfectly natural, death is stil inevitable and you can't run from it forever. At this point, the protagonist and love interest link arms and head out of the vault, to "see what's on the Other side..."
I also thought of some kind of antagonist, a mercenary leader or something, who tried to make some profit, not necessarily in money, of the whole end-of-the-world ordeal. By the end of the film/book/tv series, he is abbandoned by his men (why, I do not know), leaving him alone. I imagined him sitting in an desolated vault with an empty look on his face as the ceiling is starting to give way and crack.
On reflection... I think it is even actually quite BAD.