Have We Met?
Some gaming tropes are silly. Like the one about always meeting someone you know, or knew from the before times - before the game started. You know the scene, the hero is calmly going about his mission to save A from B by doing X, when suddenly it turns out that his ex-girlfiend is the contact he had to meet in Russia, or the invisible metal ninja is actually his old war buddy (who is also undead), or the evil overlord was himself the whole time.
OH MY GOD. SNAP. What a twist! Except it isn’t a fucking twist, is it? Not when every game (and movie) does it at every opportunity. Playing through a story-driven game is more like a family reunion in hell. And talk about awkward. I played the new Bionic Commando recently, which is lousy with this sort of shit. You’re pulled out of future prison to save the world from bad dudes by your old commander, only to discover that your old best friend is actually part of the evil group, a group headed by your German ex-nemesis. Oh, and you’re only doing it to find out where your bitch of a wife went.
I would love to see a game where you’re a total stranger to everyone:
Evil Steve: Finally I have you, Megabob.
Megabob: Oh, uh… hi. Do I know you?
Evil Steve: You fool! I’m Evil Steve! Your arch nemesis!
Megabob: Look buddy, you know how this works. I meet you and we fight here. It’s a tough fight and you totally mess me up. I probably win, but you manage to escape because of outside forces or possibly a play on my heroic nature. One (or both) of us swears revenge. Then later on you jump out again and I’ll be like “YOU! I’ve been waiting for this since that jungle back there! This time you won’t escape!”
Then later on it turns out that they are not long lost brothers.