The point is there, really. The public would not allow it's military to engage in a mission that may be damaging to it's soldiers health when there are simple preventive measures that could be in place. It's a plot hole that highlights a lack of thought put into the issue and to me signals that the real reason for the Helghast get up is simply to appear more bad ass. If that were not true, and the narrative explanation of this was well developed and had a real reason to it, the team would have either. 1. given your unit protective gear as well. or 2. Adress the inevitable social fallout that would follow if they failed to do so. The narrative explanation to me seems paper thin and I just don't buy it.

Well I don't really understand that. I basically hang out with football guys, frat guys, and the like. They play a lot of shooters, survival horror games and sports games. I showed them Fallout 3 and Prince of Persia. They said it looked "bad ass". Isn't the term itself just something you say when you see something you find awesome? I remember a while ago, Cloud and Sephiroth were the epitome of "bad ass", with their oversized swords. I find plenty of people here that think those whiny little emos like Neku from The World Ends With You are the most "bad ass" characters on earth. Am I missing something here, and the term has reverted to meaning "macho guys fighting a war with guns"?

Also isn't Gears 2 a bad example since Dom spends most of the game searching for his wife as a side mission, completely negating that game as simply having no heart? I can also add in the suggestive messages between Marcus and that blonde chick he fancies from command. I can add that Tai was pretty hunble the entire part of the game he was in. He wasn't swearing, yelling or chanting at all. In fact you'll notice most of that excitement comes from Baird and Cole. Marcus seems a bit desensitized, but I never get the feeling he wants this to keep going on. You also have Ben Carmine that is scared shitless most of the game, and helps to show the other side of the war.

I'm just going to use that as my example since it's always Gears that gets picked on the most for this sort of thing.

I miss the days when characters were considered badass because of what they accomplished, not for what they said.

Remember when we were first introduced to Mario? An overweight out-of-work Italian plumber? Yeah, that sounds really heroic and badass, doesn't it? And this guy, without a single word, goes and stops an entire ARMY (of anthropomorphic turtles and mushrooms, but still) to save a princess. Repeatedly, at that!

Remember back before the cliche of the badass space marine was born, and all we had was the DooM marine? There's another guy who never said a word (beyond grunting in pain, anyway). And he literally went to Hell and back, TWICE, to battle a demon invasion. All without even a single catchphrase uttered, too.

But I guess developers weren't satisfied with the "mute hero who's a badass for what he does, not what he says" thing. It was kind of quaint when it started back with Duke Nukem 3D, especially since the catchphrase-spewing character had some real personality to him. But what happened after that? Everybody got into the catchphrase thing. It became a tired cliche. And how did they spice it up? With swear words, making an already tired gimmick also immature? How sad.

I say bring back the days of heroes who made you cheer for how badass they were because they could do what nobody else could, because they could be awesome even if they were just an otherwise unimpressive everyman. Anybody can swear like a sailor. But how many can be a badass without trying to be one?

Without going into the back story, again, if the ISA wore masks also, we don't get the stark contrast and symbolism of human vs. monsters/un-humans.

Also, I think that not all works of art are obligated to be deep and meaningful. That doesn't mean you're wrong in calling them out, and saying that they're just a mindless indulgence of fun... but then again that's what most people play video games for. The market that FPS's appeal to are casual gamers who just want to shoot some thing and blow shit up, and there's nothing wrong with that, and for game developers to appeal to that. I think you're just unfortunate that you're part of the minority audience.

I think that games like GOW have the perfect ammount of story. It's not so deep and complicated that you have to read a back story on a website, but it's emotional and relateable for you to get absorbed into the game, enhancing the experience and escapism. Would Killzone 2 have been a better game if it had a better story? Of course. But, I don't think that the lack of a deep story really detracts from the game, not including the bad voice acting/script.

Hopefully Guerilla could hire the same people that wrote the back story to write the in game story.

Were you one of the guys talking about the social outcry that should have followed because of shooting haphazardly towards the atmosphere at aliens in Space Invaders too? Get over it. It's a videogame.

So because theres a plothole or a part of the story that you don't understand, they're supposed to design the characters to look like shit? That's where you fail. Basically what you're saying is a character in a video game can only look cool if theres an absolute, drawn-out, detailed explanation for it. Otherwise, they have to look like pansies.

That's what you're saying.

So again I'll say it. This thread fails.

The public gladly allowed the Helghast to be unjustly deprived of their home and wealth, and forced to live in that very same hell hole for years. I'm sure the public won't care for that militia soldiers went in there for the few months they expected.

I mean, people are saying that the game also ties into the Iraq war. Although there was clearly public outrage over the lack of bulletproof armor for US soldiers, the government wasn't outsted of their seat of power.

Also this is something that's happening millions of miles away. I'm sure the government could control the media, as there probably aren't any private news organizations willing to/able to afford to cover such a war... but again this all doesn't matter. It's a work of fiction, and it can sacrifice some realism for the purpose of having an important piece of symbolism (the mask).

Agreed. Just as most FPS protagonists are hardcore "bad-asses", JRPG protagonists tip the scale in the other direction, often whining, moping, and dragging their asses from battle to battle with obnoxiously long introspective moments in between.

Some of the hardcore bad-asses don't bother me... Marcus being one of them. He gives off a feeling of "just get this over with" because he's been through so much in his life. The attitude fits. He just doesn't give a shit anymore. Many other protagonists abuse this idea but for some reason, it never irritated me with Fenix.

Most videogames are poorly written, no matter their origin. Picking on the "bad asses" is unfairly turning your eye on one small segment of a mountain of fermenting shit.

Oh, and Raiden was a horrible character. There's a difference between an emotional character and one you want to punch in the face because he won't shut up about how much he questions his existence, the world, and whatever else he happens to stumble across during battle. That's no better than one who screams "I'm gonna rip your f---ing throat out!" every time he steps into a fight. One dimensional, poorly written, and lame.

Nico from GTAIV is a much more fully developed character than Raiden and even he made me want to throw my controller at the television during points of the game.

 OK forgive me if I am wrong but I thought they had to wear masks that were similiar to the planet Helghan while they were on the planet Vekta in the first one. Now on the planet Helghan they have to wear masks because they won't live past 40? Wasn't it the atmosphere that mutated the Helghast in the first place and only the half breeds who didn't need masks on other planets?

Do the half breeds need masks on the Helghan? What is the air pumped through it. I had trusted there would be some explaination in KZ2 about Helghan than it is lame.

While a story doesn't need to fill every detail something as prominent as gas masks on the face is something that is usally explained at least in passing.

@ Badgenome

I think this guy is talking about paper thin characters that usually follow a macho cookie cutter formula. AKA Space Marine.

What annoys me is characters like OMG he can kill everyone but oh no there si another more powerful character as well. You can only carry that so far until you get DBz. In orcer to maintian such a thing you need to have better writers. Look at how far Heroes has fallen and how mcuh they have had to forget characters have power X.

You are right about that.  Duke Nukem is the ultimate bad ass!