Image via Complex Original
There are more different types of video games available now then there have ever been before. Shooters, indie games, puzzle games, online games, casual games, hardcore games, PC games—no matter what you're into, there's a video game for you.
Yet all too often video games continue to rely on the same tired, old tropes and cliches, again and again.
Even the best games fall victim to these overused mechanics and story elements. We give them a pass because we love them, because they're from a series we enjoy, or because they're otherwise very good.
But isn't it time that these ten video game cliches died for good?
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Amnesia
Recent example: BioShock Infinite
Amnesia may be the single most overused video game story mechanic in the world.
We get why developers and writers still do it. It's convenient to have your characters forget everything when the game begins. That way the other characters will have to explain everything to them, and by extension, to players.
In BioShock Infinite Booker repressed certain memories, conveniently forgetting some pretty important things about his life. There are countless other examples, though—far too many in fact.
Back to Basics
Recent example: Batman: Arkham Asylum
"Back to basics" is what we like to call the old Metroid trick where your character starts out powerful—or should be powerful, at least—and somehow either loses her powers or doesn't have them at all.
A more recent example is, of course, Batman: Arkham Asylum. He's Batman, yet for some reason he has none of his signature gear on him when the game starts. Why is he wearing an empty belt around when he's on-duty?
The second Arkham game, Arkham City, fixed this by starting Batman with all his equipment from the first one. Still, we doubt we've seen the last of this cliche.
Kill the Terrorists
Recent example: Splinter Cell: Blacklist
If there is one enemy that's completely overused in video games it's terrorists. Just plain old generic terrorists. They're everywhere, and we're sick of killing them.
These days they're usually Middle Eastern, as is the case in Splinter Cell: Blacklist. In the past they would often be Russian, because the Cold War was still fresh in many minds during the 90s.
We don't care what nationality they are, though. Terrorists as cannon fodder in video games are boring.
Zombies
Recent example: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
OK, if there are two overused enemies in games, then the other is definitely zombies. This is a problem in the rest of society as well, but in games it's gotten pretty bad.
The Call of Duty series began shoehorning them in years ago in a mode that, while fun at first, has grown stale. Countless other series, like Red Dead Redemption, have done the same, and others, like Dead Rising and Dead Island, star zombies exclusively.
But we are so sick of killing them. At least CoD: Ghosts has aliens instead!
The Hero/Errand Boy Complex
Recent example: Skyrim
This is a trope that's used over and over again in RPGs. Again, we get why developers do it: not every quest can be an epic fight for the salvation of a realm.
But it makes literally no sense for a hero who's bloodied his sword in the bellies of a thousand demons to be running errands for the locals. Even worse is when it's something they can very easily do themselves, like delivering a note or a wedge of cheese to someone right next door.
We're singling out Skyrim, but really basically every RPG ever (except for Demon's Souls and Dark Souls, love those games) is guilty of this.
No Rest For the Good
Recent example: Halo 4
Hollywood has a bad case of sequelitis, but the game industry's may be terminal.
For some reason (hint: money) game companies just can't let a good hero die. Take Halo 4. The game was great, and we really enjoyed it a lot. But the Master Chief had a perfect ending in Halo 3, when he floated off into space finally at rest.
Now they've woken him up and he's doing everything all over again. Need another example? How about this: don't you wish they had let Duke Nukem languish instead of releasing Duke Nukem Forever?
The Unstoppable Hero
Recent example: Borderlands 2
Most people won't have fun with a game if their character is getting dropped by a single bullet. That much is obvious. But when video game protagonists are taking shotgun shells to the face and either walking it off or waking up ten seconds later in a nearby vita chamber (BioShock) or New-U Station (Borderlands) then our suspension of disbelief can only take us so far. And omnipresent regenerating health systems have only worsened the problem
What happened to games with stakes? What happened to games where the hero is vulnerable and not invincible or immortal? They exist, but the unstoppable hero trope still lives on for some reason.
The Female Sidekick
Recent example: The Last of Us
Nobody likes escort missions in games. Game developers have thankfully come to finally understand this, so situations like Resident Evil 4 with the president's daughter don't occur very often anymore.
So why why do we still have female sidekicks, like Ellie in The Last of Us? Enslaved and BioShock Infinite are two other good and relatively recent examples of this. The female characters in these games aren't useless, but they are really just there to toss the male hero ammo and provide story fodder.
Here's an idea: how about we start seeing more female protagonists with a male sidekicks in games?
The Unlikely Heroes
Recent example: Ni No Kuni
Another common RPG cliche that's existed since the beginning of time itself, "the unlikely heroes" has three to five small town kids embark on an epic journey in which they inexplicably destroy some evil demon or sorcerer.
They're usually armed with nothing more than big hearts, open minds and impossibly huge swords. Or, in the case of Ni No Kuni, a creepy Scottish sidekick and an army of Pokémon-like slaves.
We like it better when RPG heroes are actual heroes, like in Lost Odyssey. Although that memorable game suffers from a different cliche—its protagonist has lost his memory.
Quick-Time Events
Recent example: Ryse: Son of Rome
Quick-time events, or QTEs, are the worst. They are the absolute worst. We want them to die forever, but somehow we know that that isn't going to happen any time soon.
They were kind of fun back in Resident Evil 4 and the original God of War. But now that developers like Quantic Dream have built entire games around them (Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls), and other developers have shoehorned them into every variety of game regardless of how they affect the experience, they're not fun anymore at all.
Ryse: Son of Rome isn't even subtle about it; in the Xbox One title, not even yet released, enemies flash red, blue or yellow, corresponding to controller buttons that you then have to press. Yawn.
What other video game cliches are you sick of? Disagree with any of these? Let us know in the comments or on Twitter!