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drboot on 17 February 2009
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Akvod said:
drboot said:
Phrancheyez said:
this post fails hard. Complaining about Killzone 2's enemies having red eyed gas masks? Get out of here.

Let me geuss, you have a legitimate explanation as to why these characters have to wear gas masks with glowing eyes that leaves no plot holes? Look, almost everyone openly admits that the designs of the Helghast are purely for "aesthetic" reasons (or to be more specific, to be more bad ass). The question is not whether they look good or not, the question is, why is the video game industry in a position where it is necessary to make everything more "bad ass"?

 

@MrBubble

People read books and watch movies about so called "bitch" characters all the time, people just like you and me who have their own daily problems, emotional issues, financial worries, social problems, etc. The point is, the portrayal of such characters is taboo in the video game industry as opposed to other storytelling mediums. Why can there not be an acceptence of a greater variety of characters, including the bad ass ones but also the more "human" ones in video games?

The Helghast mask all refers back to the German Nazis.

As easy as it is to dehumanize the German Nazis, and the usage of the word "inhumanity" for evil people and actions, the fact is that the Nazis and Hitler were indeed human. I think that movies such as "Downfall" and "Saving Private Ryan" did a good job telling this message, and I'm hoping that Killzone 2 will as well. The mask and, especially the helmet are an obvious reference to the German Nazi designs. Even if you haven't read the back story, it symbolizes their de-humanity and makes them even more foreign and alien to us when we shoot them without remorse (In the back story, the Helghast actually declare themselves as not being human but superior beings, just as the German Nazis have done with their Aryan race theory). 

I can already imagine a scene where we see a dying Helghast, without his mask on , and realize that we are taking the lives of humans and not aliens. If anyone played Valkryia, I could see Rico being KZ2's Rosie =P

Unfortunately the reviews say that the story isn't that good we might not see that, and end up with the Helghast being depicted as simply an evil mindless, bad ass alien.

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I think that the OP has some valid points, but his biggest mistake is his obsession with the "bad ass" characters. Kratos is a bad ass character, yet he is one that has a great ammount of inner conflict, flaws, and emotion (lots of anger =P).

There are countless cliche JRPG's that have emo and whiney characters that have absolutely no depth.

I think you shouldn't come down on bad ass characters, and say that we need more whiney emo characters. What we simply need are likeable, or at least relatable characters that have depth.

 

The playthrough of the game has been posted online days ago, I have watched through it and let's just say the reviewers you quoted were right about the storyline lacking. The depth you are hoping for is not present in the slightest, unfortunately.

You're right, we need more "human" characters. However, many gamers I see often throw around the term bad ass at everything that resembles a paper thin, remorseless killing machine, even developers (cliff comes to mind) are capitalizing on this obsession and the apparent hate for complex, in depth characters such as Raiden do show a general bias for brainless killing machines.