10 Storytelling Clichés In Video Games That Need To Die

2. The Enemy Knows Where You Because The Story Demands It

Prime Offender: Outlast, Resident Evil, Alien Isolation

Event triggers in games aren’t new. It’s a way of advancing the story based on a gamer’s actions. You complete a puzzle or section of the map, which tells the game to activate an enemy.

But while some games give a believable reason for a bad guys to locate you – you know, you make a noise and disturb them – some games are so keen to propel the plot forward that the simple matter of silently picking up a key causes an enemy that wasn’t in your vicinity to suddenly appear.

Cue the unfair jump scare and a boss fight.

And gamers cry, ‘How the hell did he know I was there?’ He knew, friends, because the story demanded it. Which is pretty cheap, when you think about it.