10 Useful Video Game Companions That SUCKED To Hang Out With
Just because these video game sidekicks helped you out doesn't mean you had to like them.
The whole point of any video game companion is to lighten the player’s load, right?
A good sidekick will prove themselves useful by either doling out handy items, pointing the player in the right direction, or just providing some good old-fashioned moral support when they need it most.
Yet we’re all complicated creatures, and that evidently applies to NPC helpers too, who not content to be merely helpful, sometimes decide to be totally unbearable too.
As if the developers felt that you needed to pay a cosmic, soul-rending toll for receiving help from these characters, they were designed to be obnoxious, arrogant, unrelentingly chatty, or perhaps even eventually villainous.
For though each of them gave the player some serious help, from nifty convenience perks to literally guiding them through large swaths of the game, they ultimately proved to be a serious drain on the player’s mental faculties too.
By the time you rolled credits on each of these games, you were surely at least happy to be done with these “complicated,” shall we say, companions, sidekicks, pals, and helpers…
10. Roman Bellic - Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV's Roman Bellic is one of the most infamous, meme-worthy video game companions in history, and for damn "good" reason.
Beyond being the exuberant, boneheaded cousin of protagonist Niko, Roman does actually offer a helping hand if you take the time to develop your bond with him.
Spending time with Roman on various activities - like, yes, bowling - will raise your friendship rating with him, and once it crosses the 75% threshold, he'll offer you free taxi rides for the rest of the game.
The kicker, though, is that you need to maintain that friendship rating, which means routinely hanging out with Roman who, let's be honest, becomes exhausting to be around after a short while.
His boisterousness is one thing, but his sheer neediness, in constantly calling the player to hang out and especially to go bowl, quickly establishes him as a draining energy vampire whose sheer aura is intensely offputting. He means well, sure, but he's just so damn "extra" it hurts.
If you picked the game's ending where Roman dies, tears were shed only for losing out on all those free cab rides in the post-game - let's be honest.