Day 6 – Most annoying character
Heavy Rain had the most annoying selection of characters I have ever seen in a game. Each one of them had something seriously wrong, which could have been interesting, but in the end just felt gimmicky, like the developers were substituting trauma for character depth.
While any of the characters could have qualified for this category, Ethan Mars, the game’s beginning character, was by far the most irritating. Though I lay much of the blame on him, some of the irritation lies with the game mechanics.
The best example is one of the beginning sequences, where Ethan takes his kid to the mall. They stop to purchase a balloon, which the kid grabs and promptly walks off with. The mall is crowded and soon, the only indicator of the kid’s location is the red balloon floating over people’s heads.
What does Ethan do? Fuss with his wallet to pay the balloon guy. No holding hands with the kid, no running after him and paying the guy back later, nothing. Of course the game forces you to pay before you may run after the kid, which it also makes harder by having the menu be incredibly shaky. This obviously does not end well.
Essentially the game isn’t allowing for good parenting here because they need this plot point to happen, so that Ethan can then go on to be a huge, wet, vapid, mess of a man for the rest of the game. It’s yet again, the illusion of choice offered to the player without ever really giving them any real choices.
To that I say F#$% YOU. This game is filled with cheap emotional rollercoasters and Ethan’s kid disaster is only the tip of the iceberg.
Yup, I hated this game, I hated every cheap shot they took, but mostly I hated that they used kids as a way to get them.
Hmm, maybe I should have renamed this topic to ‘Most hated game’.
Tags: 30 days of video games, drama, evil, hate, industry, puzzle
August 6th, 2012 at 12:24 pm
Never played that one.
For me, there were a few title contenders, mostly sorted by rage factor. Varian Wrynn comes to mind for that one, as we wiped on the faction fight in the Tournament. (“Worthless scrub.”) Krang comes to mind as well, (“I’m invincible!”). But we eventually figured out the faction fight. Krang went down, $5 in quarters later.
But the FUCKING DOG from Duck Hunt remains.
The worse thing is, as the four-legged asshole was LAUGHING AT YOU, you’d inevitably squeeze one off at his cartoon head. Most of the times, it wouldn’t do anything, as you were in between rounds. But sometimes, you’d pull the trigger a hair too late, and be a shot down for the next round.
Ugh, that dog.
August 6th, 2012 at 4:04 pm
Oooooh I like that. Good pick! Though I was never much of a duck hunt player, I still know about that dog. That dog is famous for being a thorn in the side.
August 7th, 2012 at 8:07 am
I can’t think of any…
When I think of annoying characters, I think of Jar Jar. Now I just can’t get him out of my mind. Then I think of the paperclip that Microsoft made a few years ago that “helped” you.
OH! Of course!
It was Wirt!
August 7th, 2012 at 9:15 am
Well that explains Wirt’s Leg. =)
August 7th, 2012 at 11:13 am
Oh nice one.