Magus wrote:
Though it lacks any sort of character development, Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear had that same sort of "I have to keep my characters alive" mentality. You had about thirty operatives of various capabilities, and if one died during a mission, they were dead. Even though they never really communicated with you (other than "Alpha team, go!"), the simple fact that you'd come to rely on them over and over to get you out of jams made their loss somewhat painful.
And don't forget the "man down" and "failure" music. Made you feel like you were already at the guys funeral, or the funeral for the 40 schoolkids who got killed because you weren't good enough.
so true, although I only played Ravenshield and I'm assuming the gameplay is similar if not identical.
Kerrigan being betrayed and left to die in Star Craft. I was so swept up in the game I genuinely hated Mensek for leaving her to die.
Warcraft 3. Watching Prince Arthus become enraptured by Frostmourne. As I played the first time I remember shouting at my screen that he was being a whiney douche. Blizzard do seem to have a knack for putting a good story and saving what would otherwise be a so so game.
Max Payne, coming home to find your kid and wife murdered. The whole game was an emotional roller coaster from start to finish
Making it to the end in Hitman and getting hit with the stunner by your father/creator. A huge WTF moment for me.
Summoner. You are betrayed and left to slowly rot inside a cell. You lost your hand, your former mentor turned out to be a daemon you have summoned which is going to destroy the entire world.
You then escape and find a magic pool which can restore your hand. Sounds pretty cliche, right?
Except when you finally do that, and walk outside, and see your friends ready to kick ass, as you smile and unsheath your two-handed sword...man, too good for words.
I also want to second Max Payne. Simple gameplay, sure - but very well-told and emotional.
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
Halo: I played this all the way through when i was about 14 or 15 in a 9 hour stint with a pause for sleep, so I was really immersed in the story by the final mission. The warthog ride, nonsensical as it was, was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I've ever had in gaming, especially with the theme playing etc.
Halo 3: Having read all the books etc, by the time I came to play this I was pretty heavily invested in most of the characters, especially Sgt Johnson, so his death was really sad for me. I was also taken in by the false-death ending for the 5 minutes while the credits rolled and just sort of stared aghast at the TV.
Freelancer: Countless moments in this, I got very immersed in it. I especially like games where there's a sense of realism for the player as a character in the game, i.e suspension of disbelief isn't trampled upon by dying constantly and playing the same bit over and over throughout the game, hence why I play most games on Easy. I want to REALLY narrowly escape an ambush thanks to the last-minute arrival of some mysterious reinforcements, not be killed 30 times trying before pulling some stupid stunt involving bunnyhopping or whatever to just continue the game.
Freespace 2: The 'OH SHIT! DIIIIVVEE!' moment as mentioned earlier by others is a classic, but there's a few other points in this game that got me really involved, notably the mad rush to the jump point at the end.
F.E.A.R : To be honest I didn't get that the player was Alma's son until further into the game, possibly even closer to the end, given that she seems as a young girl throughout so I didn't clock on. This is probably the most 'emotional' game I've played given the amount of brown trousers moments, though slightly let down by repetitive interiors to the point where going for 10 mins without a mission update would leave me lost as to what I was supposed to be doing beyong wandering around killing doods.
Lazarus wrote:Halo: I played this all the way through when i was about 14 or 15 in a 9 hour stint with a pause for sleep, so I was really immersed in the story by the final mission. The warthog ride, nonsensical as it was, was one of the biggest adrenaline rushes I've ever had in gaming, especially with the theme playing etc.
The death of Foehammer really got me the first time I played the game. She'd been there for pretty much the whole game - the real cavalry element (and I tend to love dropships anyway) - and then she randomly goes down at the last possible minute...
PeZook wrote:Summoner. You are betrayed and left to slowly rot inside a cell. You lost your hand, your former mentor turned out to be a daemon you have summoned which is going to destroy the entire world.
You then escape and find a magic pool which can restore your hand. Sounds pretty cliche, right?
Except when you finally do that, and walk outside, and see your friends ready to kick ass, as you smile and unsheath your two-handed sword...man, too good for words..
That section of Summoner was pretty cool: oh yeah, totally, putting your hand in this fire will solve all your problems. Oh wait you're doomed! lololol!
Anyone played that old, arcade'ish Apache simulator called Team Apache?
There was this wonderful campaign feature, in which you took on a role of a squadron leader. You had to assemble a squad out of a pool of people. Every pilot and CPG had his own voice, own bio and own characteristics.
During the campaign (which was a linear set of missions) you had to plan out your action, which meant assigning crew to their choppers. As time passed, people got weary, and could even fall into a sort of combat-related stress which hampered their performance. You even had an option to try and talk them out of it.
All that stuff didn't really had any real impact on the actual game (nothing that I could notice at least), but it really deepened the whole experience. Really added the human factor to the whole game experience. Nobody puts that in the games right now...I really miss that.
"everytime a person is born the Earth weighs just a little more."--DMJ on StarTrek.com
"You see now you are using your thinking and that is not a good thing!" DMJay on StarTrek.com
"Watching Sarli argue with Vympel, Stas, Schatten and the others is as bizarre as the idea of the 40-year-old Virgin telling Hugh Hefner that Hef knows nothing about pussy, and that he is the expert."--Elfdart
Oh hell, I forgot about FreeSpace 2. The ending cutscene if you don't make the jump point so well done.
And one I thought of today:
Eternal Darkness, the second time you're in Amiens and find that Anthony's still there, hundreds of years later, still trying to save Charlemange. That's one that sticks in the memory.
According to wikipedia, "the Mohorovičić discontinuity is the boundary between the Earth's crust and the mantle."
According to Starbound, it's a problem solvable with enough combat drugs to turn you into the Incredible Hulk.
Mechwarrior 2: "Mech down at Nav Gamma." from the opening cutscene. Sitting there in my dad's huge leather office chair, holding his awesome Sidewinder joystick with his amazing speakers on his top of the line computer, with the lights out because it was after sundown, man, that was awesome. And then i run the game, one that my Dad has said is completely cool, and proceed to watch the coolest intro of all time. It was fantastic. They need to bring the Mechwarrior games back, except instead of simplified and pretty, mech customization needs to be as in depth as Mech 2.
Suikoden 1: When Gremio died was the first time I'd ever cried in a game.
Suikoden 2: Neclord finally getting what he fucking deserves. After a game and a half of buildup, we get a knockdown, dragout bossfight with the guy playing in our own field, with the most awesome boss music ever. It made me giddy and happy for 2 days.
Baldur's Gate: I believe it's when the Flaming Fists capture you? maybe not them. You're trapped in a jail cell in Baldur's Gate while someone is arrogant at you, and then decides to teach you a lesson by killing one of your companions. I think it was random, but Imoen was the one who got killed on my first playthrough, and it was completely devestating to me.
What was the name of that Sega game... Gunforce? Gunstar? I think there was a Heroes in there somewhere. It was probably the best side scroller I'll ever play, and playing through the whole game was an awesome, enlightening experience for a young me.
EDIT: More
Max Payne: The entire game was amazing, but his fucked up dream sequences were what made my hairs stand on end.
Max Payne 2: The entire atmosphere of the game was fun, and again, the dreams made me absolutely skiddish. But the emotional impact was all in the last few levels of the game, especially the following line: "What the fuck is wrong with you, Max!? WHY DON'T YOU JUST DIE!?"
Drooling Iguana: No, John. You are the liberals. Phantasee: So extortion is cooler and it promotes job creation! Ford Prefect: Maybe there can be a twist ending where Vlad shows up for the one on one duel, only to discover that Sun Tzu ignored it and burnt all his crops.
I walk out of the cryo subsection on the first level. I look around...creepy music plays. I move into the corridor right outside the elevator,thinking "What the fuck happened here?"
And then...
*grrrrrrrroan*....run...RUN!!!
Jesus, I jumped up so hard I fell of my chair. Seriously. I wanted to run out of the room
JULY 20TH 1969 - The day the entire world was looking up
It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - NEIL ARMSTRONG, MISSION COMMANDER, APOLLO 11
Signature dedicated to the greatest achievement of mankind.
MILDLY DERANGED PHYSICIST does not mind BREAKING the SOUND BARRIER, because it is INSURED. - Simon_Jester considering the problems of hypersonic flight for Team L.A.M.E.
^I also got the same reaction from playing the first Unreal, when the lights go out and you figth your first skarji...just imagine - you walk down a corridor, suddenly the lights go out one by one and then this HUGE FUCKING THING jumps at you.
Whoever says "education does not matter" can try ignorance
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A decision must be made in the life of every nation at the very moment when the grasp of the enemy is at its throat. Then, it seems that the only way to survive is to use the means of the enemy, to rest survival upon what is expedient, to look the other way. Well, the answer to that is 'survival as what'? A country isn't a rock. It's not an extension of one's self. It's what it stands for. It's what it stands for when standing for something is the most difficult! - Chief Judge Haywood
------------ My LPs
Joviwan wrote:What was the name of that Sega game... Gunforce? Gunstar? I think there was a Heroes in there somewhere. It was probably the best side scroller I'll ever play, and playing through the whole game was an awesome, enlightening experience for a young me.
Gunstar Heroes is the one. Great game, probably the best side-scroller I've ever played in some respects.
If we're talking atmosphere, then to me few can beat the first time landing on Zebes in Super Metroid. The entire place seems empty, dark and quiet. You run around encountering only worthless bugs and go through the old, ruined levels from the original Metroid until you get the Morphball and suddently a light beam focuses on you. A classic "oh shit!" moment, now you know there ARE things here and they want you dead.
Joviwan wrote:
Mechwarrior 2: "Mech down at Nav Gamma...
"Bravo cadet reports 4 Summoners on site. Bandits are hostile. I repeat - Bandits are hostile."
Mechwarrior 2 kicked ass. Torin's passage was a hilariously good time as well - if you had a quirky sense of humor.
"As James ascended the spiral staircase towards the tower in a futile attempt to escape his tormentors, he pondered the irony of being cornered in a circular room."
emotional doesn't always mean sad. I'm going to toss my vote in for the fucking Spathi in SCII. because when they imprison themSELVES behind a slave shield, I am fucking PISSED because now I can't get anymore eluders, easily the best ships in the game.
Chardok wrote:emotional doesn't always mean sad. I'm going to toss my vote in for the fucking Spathi in SCII. because when they imprison themSELVES behind a slave shield, I am fucking PISSED because now I can't get anymore eluders, easily the best ships in the game.
As an aside.. was I the only one who actually searched for the Black Spathi Squadron?
I walk out of the cryo subsection on the first level. I look around...creepy music plays. I move into the corridor right outside the elevator,thinking "What the fuck happened here?"
And then...
*grrrrrrrroan*....run...RUN!!!
Jesus, I jumped up so hard I fell of my chair. Seriously. I wanted to run out of the room
I was playing at 3 in the morning, and I was down in the engineering tunnels for the first time. When I heard the first nanny...
It scared my roomate.
The scariest folk song lyrics are "My Boy Grew up to be just like me" from cats in the cradle by Harry Chapin
Freespace 2, last mission: there's a long line of ships trying to escape, and good luck actually saving all of them. I forget which one it is, but if you fail to protect one of them, you hear them say something like
"This is the GTVA *ship*, we are going down, get clear".
What's so disturbing about this is how completely lacking in emotion that line is, no terrified pleas for help, no screams of rage at you for failing to protect them, so you end up feeling even worse for your failure. And naturally they aren't a critical mission objective, a massive ship and the entire crew go down as just another mark on your objectives list.
And of course the supernova follows that... either way, the last second escape, or the heroic sacrifice, very well done.
DIVE DIVE DIVE, HIT YOUR BURNERS!! has to be seconded, of course, as do the endings of Call of Duty 4 and HL2-Ep.2.
In Super Paper Mario, between chapters you see snippets of conversation between a man named Blumiere and a woman named Timpani. When I realized who Blumiere and Timpani were, it was an "oh, shit" moment.
Fragment of the Lord of Nightmares, release thy heavenly retribution. Blade of cold, black nothingness: become my power, become my body. Together, let us walk the path of destruction and smash even the souls of the Gods! RAGNA BLADE!
Lore Monkey | the Pichu-master™
Secularism—since AD 80
Av: Elika; Prince of Persia
Metroid Fusion, where during the game you have to keep dodging the SA-X (X parasite has infested your old suit, they had to cut it off, it has all your old weapons, you have to go around finding stuff), and finally the computer you are talking to casually refers to the SA-X parasites.
When you ask, it casually mentions there are Ten of the suits wandering around. The computer reminds you that X reproduces asexually, so it can just divide in half. There are ten of those things wandering around.
Of course, you only have to fight one of them at the end.
Coalition wrote:Metroid Fusion, where during the game you have to keep dodging the SA-X (X parasite has infested your old suit, they had to cut it off, it has all your old weapons, you have to go around finding stuff), and finally the computer you are talking to casually refers to the SA-X parasites.
When you ask, it casually mentions there are Ten of the suits wandering around. The computer reminds you that X reproduces asexually, so it can just divide in half. There are ten of those things wandering around.
Of course, you only have to fight one of them at the end.
Yeah...but there's always the chance that one got away, and is still floating out there, ready to infest the first ship that comes into the system...
The SA-X did scare the bejesus out of me. And I can't wait until they make another game set after Fusion, it was my favorite Metroid title.
so true, although I only played Ravenshield and I'm assuming the gameplay is similar if not identical.
