It seems like such a cop-out use aliens in a video game. The biggest reason I say that is because it’s like taking the easy way to create a villian, and no matter what crap they come up with, it’s OK, because it’s an alien, and we don’t know what it should look like.
Does that make sense? Like programmer Bob says: “Hey look at this brown cloud I created.”
Programmer Bill: “That doesn’t look like a cloud to me”
Programmer Bob: “Oh well, I’ll slap some eyes and a mouth on here, and turn him into an extraterrestrial Space Blob”
Programmer Bill: “Awesome!!!”
I’ll give some games their due… HalfLife was pretty awesome… The big lobster claw was pretty cool as were the little squid things you had to shoot. This leads to my next complaint about video game aliens… Some of these creatures are im-fricking-possible to kill! Go in GOD mode sometime and see how rounds of ammo it takes to kill some of these beasts! Wolfenstein 3d is a perfect example of this. There were some levels in there, that I don’t even want to try to beat… it wouldn’t be any fun for me.
So… is Max Payne coming out with a sequel? (I can’t believe I typed SQL first!) Grand Theft Auto is out on PC now… whoo hooo!
Yeah, I suppose I do mean FPSs and things like that. I’m not one of those people who believe that video games have to be realistic, but come on!
Just not my favorite. Another example… Duke Nukem. Boring to me. I thought I’d have fun being able to just start blasting away at anything that moved, but some the creatures in there are so stupid looking, it sucks the fun out of it for me.
What is this lobster claw of which you speak? I haven’t played Half Life in ages, so I don’t remember really… is it a weapon? And are the little squid things headcrabs?
I really like well-designed aliens. I’m a little tired of humanoid aliens though; it’s like the artist couldn’t come up with their own form so they just take a human, add a weird feature or two and change some colors here and there. Bo-ring!
I imagine Enright3 is talking about that big three tentacled lobster dealie that you have to kill by starting the rocket engine on. The level name might have been Blast Pit or something. Truly original.
Zombies … doubtful, as they were created by Doctor Schabbs.
Six bosses:[ul][li]Hans Grosse: Nope, just a big blonde Aryan with two chainguns.[]The aforementioned Dr Schabbs: A guy in blood-spattered scrubs who throws syringes at you.[]Hitler: Well, he wears a suit of mechanized body armor which I suppose may be of alien manufacture…[]Otto Giftmacher: His little rocket pistol may be the giveaway.[]Gretel Grosse: Just another big blonde Aryan with two chainguns.General Fettgesicht: As German as they come.[/ul]No aliens as far as I can tell.[/li]
[sub]Sweet lord, why do I remember all of those names? And what useful information was squeezed out of my brain to make room for that?[/sub]
What gave anyone the idea that those were LOBSTERS? They were obviously giant plant-like space tentalcles.
I think the worst game enemy is a spider. It’s been said before, but bears saying again. Every FPS game for some reason insists on having spiders, and they are always hard and annoying. Maybe if you made it an alien spider you could win some sort of award for least amount of thought put into game design, ever.
Spiders that leap out of crates in badly-lit sewer tunnels with spiked/lava-filled/bottomless instant death pit-based jumping puzzles.
I think that’s required by law, or something. Because I can’t figure out why they’re there otherwise.
Speaking of Max Payne, in relationship to “Bosses being hard to put down” bits. I have a problem with running into fellow human beings who take about a hundred rounds to the face to drop, when the hero of the game can only take, oh, eight or so. (Not counting the availability of excedrin to crunch on.) More bosses should be disposed of like Ms. Bitch was at the end, dagnabbit.
I dunno… with Jack Lupino, it made sense (what with all the Valkyr he had in him). The Finito brothers, however… they shoulda gone down after being farted on a bit too hard.
As for the OP… I dunno, the last time I felt that using “aliens as villain” was a copout was WAY back when with the original NES and SNES consoles, where every other game dealt with alien invasions. Recently, it’s been more trendy to have the aliens the good guys, and the bad guys are clandestine human agencies that want to capture them.
Me and SPOOFE have gotten into an argument of sorts. This thread has pointed out to me that there ARE spiders in every bllue-blazing FPS out there. But, what me and him are grappling about naked and in a kiddy pool of olive oil is
“What constitutes a spider?”
I say that the little head-popper thingies with a bunch of little legs that throw themselves at you from Halo qualify as, at the very least, Spider-esque.
SPOOFE disagrees.
While I agree with him that physically, they are not very spider-like, we disagree on what acting like a spider is.
I say that if you’re small (if not the smallest), come in large numbers, have a bunch of legs and you’re only attacks are jumping on people or shooting goo at them, then you’re a spider.
See, Merc, the problem lies in your definition. It’s far too vague to be of any use. Small? That describes any number of critters. Come in large numbers? Spiders tend to be very solitary. Have a bunch of legs? That describes squid, octopi, crabs, etc., or even just insects in general. Jumping attacks? Sounds more like a cricket. Shooting goo? Spiders don’t.
What constitutes spiderhood, in my opinion, lies primarily in the legs: Up, then down. The foreleg juts up from the body, and then at the first joint, angles back down to the ground, just like the evil Satan-bred legs of those tiny little house-invading monsters that love to plague and torment me. Such as the Spider Mastermind from Doom, or the little maintenance robots from Deus Ex.
But that would make Arachnotrons and the Spider Mastermind non-spiders! They’re not small, they usually don’t come in that large numbers, they have only four legs each (or does the Spider Mastermind have six?), they don’t jump on people and their attacks are from plasma guns and chainguns.
I wouldn’t say video game aliens are any more a cop out then zombies, monsters, terrorists, etc, that are used for the random evil bad guys who come at you with seemingly no intelligence whatsoever. Usually just the same bad guy with a different sprite.
And let’s not forget Clandestine Agency G-Men, Hulking Security Robots with Big-Ass Guns[sub]TM[/sub] or their smaller-version counterparts, or Ninjas (extra points if the Ninjas are women).
Ninjas are almost worse, because they are so totally overused even when there’s no reason for them to be there.
Stupid bad 80’s ninja movies.
The only consulation is that enemy ninjas are sometimes slightly less pathetic then Generic Sub-Machine Gun toting Guards™ who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn at 5 feet and a box full of ammo.
Actually, I take it back. In the sequel to Secret of Mana, which I can neither pronouce or spell, there are two ninjas who are a royal pain. More so then any of the other bosses.
