Something strange happened to me.

Recently, I got Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty, a remake of the very first videogame I've ever played in my life. It's a good remake, there are changes to the gameplay that make the game fresh again while still keeping the feel of the original. A perfect remake, one would say.

But it's one of the minor changes that struck me the most:

For those of you who don't know, in this game you kill your enemies by possessing them, controlling their bodies and disposing of them when you don't need them anymore. They are clearly presented as sentient beings of human-like intellect.

In the original, when you were in the process of possessing an enemy, they would yell for help in a weird un-emotional computerized voice. Then, when you were done with them and killed them, they just exploded or fell off a cliff or something and that was that.

Now in the remake, when you're possessing them, they scream for help in a very human voice full of fear, calling their mothers and otherwise behaving in a very realistic human-like way. And even though in the original it was established that once you took control of them, their mind ceased to exist and it was just you in their body, when you're done with controlling them in the remake and you decide to kill them, they lament their fate, saying things like "I don't wanna... I don't wanna..." in a voice that sounds like they're crying...

I "killed" literally millions of "people" in games without a second thought over the years, but this just feels so eerie for me I can barely play the game anymore. I mean they're certainly evil and stuff, but that doesn't really help in any way.

Have you ever felt the same about generic bad guys in movies or games?

Nope, it's all digital and I'd kick a bad guy's ass in a game any day of the week.

Yes, I always cry like a crocodile when I kill generic bad guys in games! /s

No cause they aren't real people

Well, I did in Spider-Man for the PS2. You can websling people off of the buildings, with them falling to their death. Yet Peter Parker still says "stop right there murderer!", right after splattering the streets of New York with corpses.

Well the Sligs are merely the pawns of the Glukkons. So they are not really evil, they are the tools of the actual evil dudes. It's a bit like calling attack dogs evil, when it's actually the people who use the attack dogs against innocent people who are evil. Or even like Orcs in LOTR/Hobbit. Without Sauron and Saruman controlling them and putting them to mass evil use Orcs are just a tribe of creatures who are a bit aggro, but are of no particular threat to the various other races in middle earth.

I actually prefer not to kill the henchmen if I can get around them. But it seems most games are designed to make you kill the henchmen.

Usually I don't. They're baddies that usually have it coming to them, and it's a game, so it's not real. Though what you described in Oddworld does sound terrible. I would feel kind of bad if I had to kill them. There may have been times in games where I felt bad about beating a character, and I would say something like "Sorry I have to do this..."

My first thought was "That's a good point", but then I remembered the way Sligs beat the slaves with the butts of their guns for no reason and then laughing about it... Doesn't look like they're just doing what they're told. Although who knows... maybe they are victims themselves...

But unless there's mind control, deception or something of similar nature in play, I do blame the lackeys as much as their masters.

I pressume people who look at all game characters as simply that and have no emotion towards them hate story driven games?? I mean I would never play any of my fave series if they didnt make me feel different emotions through story.

they deserve to die for opposing my greatness.