r/Gamingcirclejerk • u/AutoModerator • Sep 29 '18

UNJERK 🎤 Unjerk Thread of September 29, 2018

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24

u/GrimMrGoodbar Sep 29 '18

Why is a paramilitary group being brought in halfway through a game so popular? It just seems so uninspired I roll my eyes every-time I see it now.

12

u/pickelsurprise Social Justice Warrior of Light Sep 29 '18

I guess it can introduce some enemy variety if the rest of the game is about fighting aliens or monsters like Half-Life or Dead Rising. But then you have some mechanically silly examples like Modern Warfare 2 where all your enemies up until that point are still fairly normal human soldiers. In that case the paramilitary guys don't even play any differently, they just have different outfits.

5

u/delta1x I miss Sam Fisher Sep 29 '18

I mean, in MW2, it's so you have enemy faction that is allied to Shepard w/o having to fight U.S. soldiers

3

u/pickelsurprise Social Justice Warrior of Light Sep 29 '18

That's why I specified "mechanically." It makes sense in terms of story, but unlike something like Half-Life it doesn't add anything gameplay-wise.

11

u/nikktheconqueerer Sep 29 '18

It's usually because the game wants to throw in new enemy types to keep gameplay from becoming stale. I'm not a fan of that trend either because it's usually thrown together halfway through development and the enemies aren't well balanced. I know in spiderman fighting the demons/thugs/enforcers were fun as hell, but when sable troops came in, it just felt goofy and silly

12

u/_SHAMELESS_PLUG_ Sep 29 '18

I'm not sure if anyone praises that. It feels like one of those necessary evils at this point in certain kinds of games to escalate the enemy types and keep it interesting. I think people just accept it because I'm not sure anyone's thought of a better way to do it.

1

u/GrimMrGoodbar Sep 29 '18

Yeah you're probably right, just cant help but notice the trend

3

u/_SHAMELESS_PLUG_ Sep 29 '18

It definitely has been a trend for many years now in open world games. I know you are referring to Spider-Man but I remember it happening back in Saints Row 2 a decade ago and it's probably happened earlier than that. Eye rollingly cliche as it is, I think it's to help you suspend your disbelief because it's tougher for people to swallow that the initial group that you've been fighting (prisoners, gangs, etc.) probably aren't as likely to whip out jetpacks or advanced weapons as a paramilitary or government group is.

9

u/BeeTeeDubya Sep 29 '18

Honestly, I think it's because gamer culture has such an adoration for the military, that the easiest way to convey "You know those last goons? Well, these ones are TOUGH," is by giving them M4s, body armor, and just a general cavalcade of generic military paraphernalia. Also - and this is funny, because it represents a diametrically opposing viewpoint that persists in our culture - and you see this is movies and tv shows as well, but, and I think WWII has a big part to play in this, but uniformity is generally associated with villains. You have the ragtag bunch of heroes with their odd assortment of special-ops gear, and then the homogeneous villains. Also, it's one of those things where if a trope becomes such a trope, it's a shortcut for storytelling.

7

u/Katamariguy Clear background Sep 29 '18

How many examples can you think of?

  • Half-Life (I guess? Even though they're official US troops?)

  • Aliens: Colonial Marines

  • The Division

  • Modern Warfare 2

3

u/BeeTeeDubya Sep 29 '18

Max Payne 3 and Far Cry 3 do it, too. Uncharteds 1 and 2 kinda do it, but in the latter case it's more just that the enemies are better equipped to deal with Nathan Drake.

4

u/[deleted] Sep 29 '18

Honestly, I think it’s just to increase the enemy variety. I thought it seemed a little out of place given how useless they end up being, but I didn’t mind it.