Blatant Item Placement: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

{{quote|"Who leaves these weapons scattered around anyway?" |''[[Serious Sam]]''}}

 

 

{{examples}}

== Played Straight ==

 

* All of the ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' games outside of Legend and Underworld use this; even in areas where Humans have apparently not been for thousands of years you find contemporary ammo, weapons and medikits.

** Every once in a while (though certainly not often) they'll justify it by having a skeleton, obviously killed by a trap or animal, with an item lying right next to it.

 

* ''[[Doom]]'' has you finding health, weapons and armor in Hell.

** Probably the most [[Egregious]] aspect of this has to be [[Doom (Comic Book)|The Great Communicator]], because it's really difficult to come up with any legitimate reason for why the hell there's a ''chainsaw on Mars''. The third game at least had the courtesy to [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshade this]] in one of the email logs, and [[Hand Wave|handwaves]] it by explaining that an order for jackhammers got mixed up on Earth.

** Not to mention the fact that so many katanas and cricket bats are scattered across the U.S. [[Deep South]] in the first place. [[Katanas Are Just Better]], of course, but you'd think baseball bats would make more sense (they are in the game, but were only plentiful back when they were just a [[Preorder Bonus]]).

 

* Dr. Robotnik seems to love keeping rings around, even though they're the only thing keeping his [[Sonic the Hedgehog|main enemy]] from being a [[One-Hit-Point Wonder]].

** There are a lot of [[Fan Wank]] for the existence of the rings, but that does ignore the fact that Robotnik never bothers to clean them up.

** Although, it's hinted at that {{spoiler|BLS's purpose was to develop biological weaponry.}}

 

* ''Skyrim'' does this to an extreme, you can find money and ammo in anything. Evidently Nords think burial urns are piggy banks.

** Apart from a few [[Money Spider|Money Spiders]] the game actually does a pretty good job at keeping stuff in their appropriate containers. For example, you are unlikely to find anything more valuable than clothes in cupboards and wardrobes. Leaving valuables for the dead is a pretty common custom in many cultures as well, either real or symbolic. Unfortunately you keep finding fresh vegetables in barrels and sacks that have sat in abandoned tombs for centuries, though.

* Many [[Roguelike|Roguelikes]] will have items randomly scattered around on the ground instead of (or in addition to) [[Inexplicable Treasure Chests]].

 

* For a place that's trying to torment you constantly, ''[[Silent Hill]]'' is awfully generous with ammo and health boosters lying strewn randomly through the empty streets. This is not to mention what sort of mental hospital or prison would leave guns or ammo lying around. A player can sometimes finish a playthrough of the game with ammo for all weapons clocking in at over 100, and enough health drinks, medkits and tourniquets to [[Take That|keep the series alive]] after Silent Hill: Homecoming.

** Possible bit of ''[[Fridge Brilliance]]'' there; the Town, in its infinite, mind-raping evil, wants you to stay alive as long as you possibly can, in order to prolong your suffering. It's giving you a sporting chance, because nobody falls as hard as the man elevated by hope.

 

 

* ''[[Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy|Psi Ops the Mindgate Conspiracy]]'' has 'psi-vials' all over the place that are used to replenish the players' psi-energy. Considering that very few people have psi powers, it a bit of a mystery as to why they would be there. This is especially blatant in boss fights, but otherwise disappears later in the game as the player finds [[Your Head Asplode|another way]] to get psi-energy. Health and ammo are also inconsistently placed.

* In ''[[Fifty Cent Blood on the Sand|50 Cent: Blood on the Sand]]'', you buy guns from an arms dealer by contacting him on pay phones strewn throughout the levels. This despite the fact that some of the levels are set in <s>Ancient</s> Napoleonic desert castles, or even in one memorable instance, ''inside a burning building.''

 

== Exceptions/aversions ==

 

* ''[[F.E.A.R.]]'': Although booster injectors turn up in odd places, ammo, weapons and normal health packs are usually found in only enemy staging areas.

** That's not to say that there aren't the occasional inexplicable weapon (such as a sewer worker who apparently committed suicide with a ''10mm nailgun''), of course.

* The third ''[[Doom]]'' game is much more logical than the first two. Much of the stuff you find is in storage areas or other logical locations with e-mail messages saying why somebody has put it there.

 

* In the PC game ''[[Jazz Jackrabbit]]'', the explanation for all the ammo in each level was given not in the game but in a comic [[All There in the Manual|in the manual]], in which one of Devan Shell's acquaintances tells Jazz to expect "a huge stockpile of weapons lying around" and to steal whatever he finds.

* In ''[[New Super Mario Bros Wii]]'', the toads prepare for the mission by scattering power-ups throughout the land by shooting them out of a cannon.

'''Shop keeper:''' [[MST3K Mantra|It's a game, kid. Don't be so serious.]] }}

 

* ''[[Elder Scrolls]] Oblivion'': In the tutorial section you find some very rusted armour. Often treasure could be explained as being hoarded by monsters.

** The vast majority of things you find in Oblivion are things that are perfectly normal to find wherever you find them, meaning this trope only comes up when the leveling system messes up and you start finding bandits in armor that literally costs more than a house.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy XIII]]'', the party comes across high-tech chests and internet shopping terminals in all manner of strange places, including littered about the wilderness of Gran Pulse where no humans live. However, as the player nears the end of the game, the terminals begin displaying not just store options, but messages directly to the party from the Big Bad, who placed all of these things carefully in order to encourage the characters in their intended mission.

 

* ''[[Eternal Darkness]]'' mostly averts this trope - while the odd bunch of crossbow bolts may be found lying around, most characters have all their available gear from the start or loot it off newly-dead bodies. One insanity effect has the floor of the next area littered with dozens of boxes of shotgun shells. Finally, the [[BFG|Elephant Gun]] is located in ''a locked gun cabinet!''

* In ''[[Call of Cthulhu]]: [[Dark Corners of the Earth]]'', the first time you get weapons, they're found in the gun-cabinet of a police station. Most of the time later on the weapons and ammo are found in reasonable places, save for the final [[BFG]], which was originally supposed to have been found from an area behind [[Time Travel|a time portal]], but didn't make it to the game due to time constraints, so you just find it lying around for no reason in a random cave deep in enemy territory.

* ''[[Dead Space (video game)|Dead Space]]'' and ''[[Dead Space 2]]'' both plays this straight (see above) and averts it. While neither setting is a military heavy setting, the weapons are almost all mining equipment. Even the more blatantly offensive uses can be justified as a bit of jury-rigging on Isaacs part (the 'grenade' function of the Force Gun and Flamthrower can be justified as just launching the ammo container at the enemy). The only clear weapon is the Pulse Rifle, but that makes sense as simply being the standard issue security / police weapon. Item pickups waver back and forth on this. Items are generally found in lockers, storage crates, and on the bodies of the necromorphs (who used to be people probably trying to defend themselves the same way you are). However, what is in these locations doesn't always make sense.

 

* ''[[Max Payne (series)|Max Payne]]'': most weapons are dropped by enemies, and as health is in the form of painkillers, you generally find them in bathroom cabinets.

 

[[Category:Suspiciously Convenient Index]]

[[Category:Blatant Item Placement]]