Dethroning Moment of Suck (Darth Wiki)/Video Games: Difference between revisions

* Strategia: [[Heroes of Might and Magic]] V, the Hammers of Fate expansion. [[Good Is Not Nice]] / [[Light Is Not Good]] was well-established with Isabel and the Griffin Empire in the main game. It got jarring at some points, sure, when Isabel was carrying an Idiot Ball you could crush an elephant with, but that kind of fit with her character. In the first campaign of [[Ho F]], the viewpoint switches to Freyda, who bears more than a passing resemblance to Isabel (minus the ruthlessness and being queen, ofc, and with a whole lot more naïveté), who gets sent off with a bloodthirsty murderer, an archbishop who's downright creepy when he's not being a total jackass, and an army of new, more than a little questionable troops (Griffins whose description hints that their "training" is little more than animal abuse, heavy infantry with horns and spikes all over their armour), to suppress some rebellions. The explanation Freyda is given is that the rebels are demonic cultists, evidenced by random low-level demons appearing out of nowhere, which means you get to murder hundreds of peasants, burn their huts, and then capture and raze entire cities, and watch Freyda's uncle get murdered in cold blood. She has deep misgivings about the whole affair, but continues with it anyway out of sheer bloody-minded loyalty, like someone combined [[Honor Before Reason]] with an [[Idiot Ball]] that would make Atlas proud. That's annoying to be sure, but it only forms part of this [[D Mo S]]DMoS. Playing the scenarios themselves, when I go beyond mere gameplay and stats and think about what it is I'm doing, I get deeply disturbed and disgusted. I'm commanding an army of elite soldiers, ravaging the countryside killing everyone they meet, for trumped-up reasons, in the service of an all-powerful, unquestioned leader of an increasingly zealous empire. I'm roleplaying the fantasy version of a Waffen-SS death squad. There's [[Good Is Not Nice]], there's [[Light Is Not Good]], and there's this - after the first mission or two, there's no justification for what you're doing, and it makes me feel sick just to sit through the cutscenes or burn down another town or two. I can never finish a mission in one sitting. This goes far, FAR beyond establishing that Isabel is not a Good queen, even knowing the reason behind it. I cannot fathom why the developers felt it necessary to stretch that storyline, which could have easily fit in one, maybe two missions, into a whole campaign. Not cool, Nival. Not cool.