10 Tired Video Game Plots Everyone Is Sick Of Seeing
8. Dream Sequences
Chances are you'll have written a dream sequence. Thankfully, its normal to get it out the way while youre still at school and you cant think of a decent ending for your creative writing assignment. The phrase and it was all just a dream might as well be code for dinners nearly ready. Bizarrely though, some people manage to make it into their adult lives, become professional storytellers and still think its an acceptable twist ending. The movie adaptation of The Wizard of Oz was re-framed as a dream sequence because it was felt to be a more sophisticated premise than Oz being real, though admittedly that was nearly a century ago. When theyre intercut with another story though, dream sequences serve two narrative purposes. Sometimes theyre used to justify a character suddenly remembering a missed clue or forgotten fact, but more often theyre used as a form of exposition. Thing is, only a few directors have ever had the skill to create something that feels genuinely dream-like. Dreams are ambiguous and confusing, which are not words you really want associated with a scene where youre trying to tell the audience important stuff. And while a few games have used dreams or fantasy moments well Eternal Darkness and its sanity effects are a memorable example for the most part, asking gamers to actually play through a dream sequence is a recipe for disaster. The minute you realise your character is dreaming, your actions become meaningless and you lose investment in whats happening. If you really must show video game characters dreaming, save it for the cutscenes but, preferably, dont show it at all.
