10 Video Game Companions So Strong You're Just Getting In The Way
Just let them do their thing.
Companions can make or break a video game - if they’re a pain in the ass who constantly needs babysitting, they can make the entire game feel like a damn chore to get through. But if they’re fun to be around and can hold their own in battle, quite the opposite.
And then there are those sidekicks who prove themselves to be so freakin' strong that you have to question why the hero even has to do much at all.
These 10 video game companions - whether outright NPCs or playable party members - all skirt on the fringes of being grossly overpowered, albeit in a way that’s totally awesome.
It’s clear that these characters could ultimately do most of the heavy lifting themselves, and so each hero can’t help but feel like a bit of a passenger in their own story as a result.
For the most part, though, given how handy these companions can be in a pinch, they’re a neat option to have, even if they might not be entirely to everyone’s tastes. It’s certainly preferable to having to micromanage every damn aspect of their mere existence, though.
10. Fawkes - Fallout 3
He may look like a cross between a testicle and some leftovers you forgot about at the bottom of the fridge, but Fallout 3's companion character Fawkes is a gosh-darn unit - a giant, hulking pillar of super mutant man-meat whose hit points dwarf those of all other sidekicks.
Fawkes rocks the hilariously OP Gatling Laser weapon, ensuring that if you go to town with him, he'll melt just about anything you cross paths with.
In fact, the main story even draws attention to this itself during its widely derided original ending, where somebody needs to enter the irradiated control room and activate a water purifier.
It's blindingly obvious to anyone with Hawkes in their ranks that he should be the one to do it, given that as a radiation-immune mutant he'd survive doing so, but the game instead railroads you into picking either Sarah Lyons or yourself.
Fawkes gives you a pathetic spiel about not wanting to obstruct your destiny as a sacrificial lamb, which players complained about enough that Bethesda eventually revised the ending in the Broken Steel DLC, allowing you to let Fawkes do the job instead.
And that's Fallout 3 in a nutshell, really. If you've got the ultra-durable juggernaut that is Fawkes on side, you can't help but seem like a bit of a spare part yourself.