10 Storytelling Clichés In Video Games That Need To Die

3. Your Sidekick’s Awesome Until…

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EA

Prime Offender: Mass Effect 2, ReCore

You know how it is. You assemble an awesomely powerful team who can kill and maim thousands of evil-doers over the course of the game and then…

And then, right out of nowhere, your companion struggles, goes down (and quite possibly dies – see ‘Kill the Cutie’).

That’s weird, because just minutes before this dude or dudette was kicking serious ass. And now, just because the story demands you save them, suddenly they can’t put one foot in front of the other without taking damage. It doesn’t fit their character, and it doesn’t fit with the hours of gameplay you’ve just sat through. Your companion, alas, has been cursed by the plot.

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Contributor

Word-wrangler and video gamer on the rocks. Once completed the original Resident Evil in 1 hour 4 minutes. Prefers Irish coffee over any other kind. Former movie trailer writer, now rehabilitated. Wrote the viral videos for the movie Watchmen. Likes sarcasm, cynicism, smoking and you.