Enemy Chatter

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Thug #1: You're dreaming, Louie. Turner's Law clearly stipulates that ultra high band energy interactions are inherently unstable. You can't just energize a quark and expect it to act like a tachyon.
Thug #2: All I'm saying is that Heisenberg clearly postulates- oh no! Hero-types! Get in character!
Thug #1: We'll smash you good!

Thug #2: Hey, you!
—Freedom Force

Sometimes, to show that the enemies aren't just mindless NPCs whose sole purpose is to provide a threat to the player, the developers may throw in some dialogue here and there if the enemies can speak the same language as the hero. This can either be the dialog equivalent of a Random Encounter, in which they mindlessly babble from a handful of pre-selected phrases (i.e. "Did you see anything?"), or entire scripted sequences with full-blown dialog between two or more enemies.

They're still mindless NPCs whose sole purpose is to provide a threat to the player, but now they have personality, and the player may feel sorry about killing them (well, depending on circumstances, the dialogue might just as well establish the NPCs as being major Jerkasses or even Complete Monsters, anyway). Retirony may also be used to further hammer the point home.

Examples of Enemy Chatter include:
  • The Force Unleashed has some amusing chatter. The best though was the scripted chatter when escaping Vader's laboratory ship.
    • "All escape pods have been launched... empty. Um. Wait for additional orders."
      • "Aw, that's not good..."
  • Company of Heroes has battle chatter during combat on both sides. Not only that, many scenes in the campaign show German soldiers and their reaction to events. During the second mission, which portrays the attack upon German occupied French roads prior to the D-day invasion, there is a starting cutscene featuring three soldiers manning a flak emplacement. They good-naturedly joke about the coffee one of them makes while relaxing, until one of them hears the roar of transport planes overhead and realizes the airborne are attacking. During one of the last missions, which features taking a port, a German soldier screams in a panic "ENOUGH! ENOUGH! STOOOOOP!" during massive shelling while hiding in a bunker.
    • "I've heard the Nazis are all ten feet tall!"
    • "Stop killin' the bastards and give 'em hell!"
    • When MP40 Volks were shooting, the squadleader (who tends to act like a mentor to the younger troops) says "When it's clicking like that you have to reloooad!"
    • They also converse with each other when you leave them alone long enough.
      • So then this Kraut officer just explodes... I mean, EXPLODES. Sausage meat! It was everywhere! Boogeyman (sniper) must have hit the guy's grenade.
        • It was like a barrage - you ever been in a barrage? - anyway, so this fat Kraut on the balcony pulls back with a freakin' potato masher... (slang name for german grenades)
      • All this rain makes me think god's a bloody jerry..
    • Also, if you have 2 factions working together (Brits and Americans side-by-side) they sometimes comment on each other's equipment. I had a US MG Team set up next to a Brit Bofors Emplacement, and I heard one of the Americans remark "Fucking hell! Now that's an autocannon!" and a bit later "Those Brits sure know how to design an AA-Gun."
      • Which is ironical as the 40mm Bofors is a swedish design.
    • The best remains the German infantry's response to American paratroopers.
      • "It's raining the entire fucking Allied army!"
  • Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel has several cutscenes that are instances of this trope, added just to give certain random enemies a feel of being real people with real problems. add in some more of the traditional Fallout gross-out humor. In one, a ghoul complains about his private parts falling off to another ghoul. In another, a super mutant complains to his superior that he must go to the bathroom, he then proceeds to the toilet and unleashes a disgusting torrent of green liquid against the wall.
  • Medal of Honor games will feature this on occasion, usually if the player manages to sneak close to enemies they can sometimes hear them chatting to each other, although it's usually in German or Japanese so you can't really glean any useful information by eavesdropping on them (although some games will provide you with handy subtitles). In later levels of some games (which usually involve the player infiltrating an enemy stronghold) an enemy will come over the PA and try rather abysmally to talk the player into surrendering.
  • Wolfenstein 3D featured some of the first in-game speech, when its World War Two German soldiers would shout at the player to stop in German. By the time Return to Castle Wolfenstein was released, they were ready to include some standard-issue Enemy Chatter... but now it was all in English!
    • Could be explained by the player character knowing German and translating it in his head or something.
  • In Doom, most of the monsters just spoke meaningless nonsense, except for a few exceptions. The Arch Vile's death cry is a distorted recording of a teenage girl asking "Why?", for example. The makers explained this by saying that since the monster is a healer, it doesn't see any reason that anyone would want to kill it. This is despite the fact that, in the actual game, the Arch-Vile sets the player on fire.
    • Maybe it's Revive Kills Zombie in reverse?
    • In Doom 3, one of the Wraith's death cries sounds suspiciously like "Aw, hell!"
  • Half Life and its sequels had both kinds; the soldiers in the original game were meant to be considered faceless enemies for the player to kill, though they had dialog of their own, such as one who gripes that he "killed twelve dumb*ss scientists and not one of them fought back", or two soldiers wondering if Freeman sabotaged the experiment and angrily muttering about how Freeman had been "killing [their] buddies", and that "he will definitely pay." Half-Life 2 also contains instances of chatter, mostly from Civil Protection officers who radio for backup when attacked, but also have stock radio dispatch broadcasts playing in the first part of the game.
    • Play it backwards. It's actually "Oh, God help me!" It kind of sounds like that anyway, but it's much clearer when played backwards. Here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xh D-vd7PXY4
    • The Voltigaunts in the first game would screech "DIE!" before firing their lightning. In addition, the Shocktroopers of Opposing Force said something similar, too.
    • The Half Life mod They Hunger features a lot of enemy chatter about the titular hunger.
  • The Matrix: Path of Neo, also had both kinds, although the "pre-selected phrases" got somewhat repetitive. ("We've gotta stop this guy". Or "Dammit! Drop this guy!" repeated over and over)
  • And the Metal Gear Solid series, although on occasion the guards' chatter is used to convey vital information such as whether they have spotted the player. One scripted sequence has Snake knock over something, and a guard slowly approach him. Before the guard gets to Snake, another guard sneaks up behind the first guard, taps him on the back, and scares the bejesus out of him. The guards joke about it, and go on their way. Completely forgetting about Snake, who is most likely about to die from a heart attack.
    • Metal Gear Solid 3 gives us the option to blow up the guards' food supplies. Afterwards, you can overhear them complain about being hungry.
    • Not to forget a variation of good ol' Johnny's soliloquys within MGS1 and MGS2 although it doesn't happen in 4 as he's not an enemy.
    • In some of the games, it's a significant gameplay element. Guards are expected to contact HQ regularly, and if they fail to do so, a heavily-armed search team is despatched to investigate.
  • Star Wars Dark Forces: Jedi Knight and its sequels, Jedi Outcast and Jedi Academy, featured mooks making either funny, humanizing, or disturbing small talk before you murdered them. (Quoth a Stormtrooper in Darth Vader's fortress: "I hope I never see a lightsaber ..." right before Kyle Katarn rushes past the player—a different character in this installment—and hacks them to bits.)
    • The first game in the series, Dark Forces, did this too, though the Stormtroopers were generally confined to more generic phrases like "Stop, Rebel scum!" and "Blast him!"
    • During the Stealth-Based Mission in the Cairn Installation in Jedi Outcast, Kyle can listen to a lone stormtrooper talking via radio to an Imperial officer about whether he sees anything unusual (Kyle can only hear the trooper's half of the conversation). After saying something slightly imperious to the officer, the trooper apologizes profusely after promising to have a look around. He then gripes to himself, saying, among other things, "How about you get into this armour and try to see out of this damn helmet?" (Most likely a reference to certain members of the Star Wars fanbase's humorous explanation for the stormtroopers supposedly being unable to hit anything).
    • One conversation between two stormtroopers is about how it was one's "last day in Michigan."
    • During an early mission in Jedi Academy, two human mercenaries make racist remarks concerning Rodians. Fairly humorous if you're playing a Rodian character, because within the next 10 seconds you're striking them both down.
    • In Jedi Academy, gran mooks (and possibly mooks from other species as well) on the Nar Shadaa mission, say "Apxmasi kipunya!", which means "Don't shoot!" in Hutteese - which makes sense considering the fact that Nar Shadaa orbits the Hutt homeworld.
  • All of the English-speaking enemies (and their victims!) in the MMORPG City of Heroes have surprisingly extensive (and amusing!) repertoires of dialogue—repertoires that get larger and more varied with each major update of the game (and which have recently started to include some Lampshade Hanging and No Fourth Wall comments about the setting).
    • *In a canyon zone* "I'm bored. Let's go find a hero and toss him over the edge. Make sure he's a superspeeder.").
    • One particularly amusing one involves one gangster trying to explain what "oxymoron" means to another.

"No, I didn't just call you stupid. I said your comment was an oxymoron. It's a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are put together. Am I the only one who reads the books we swipe around here?"

    • Ran across this one near an Architect building:

"This is the third time my mission 'Statesman's Furry Adventure' was rejected for violating the terms of service."

    • Overheard conversation between two Council Supersoldiers:

"This supersoldier serum tastes digusting."
"What do you want it to taste like, cherries?"
"That would be nice, actually."
"What? Cherry-flavored supersoldier serum? We'd be a laughingstock!"

    • When encountering a Rikti

"Character: (Censored)"

    • Arachnos minion:

"Who took my Half-Caf Vanilla Soy Caramel Double Froth-Whip?"

  • Max Payne makes use of both scripted dialogue and random "canned" dialogue for its enemy characters. Late in the game, if you stop and listen before bursting into a room, you'll hear one enemy mention to another that he has two boys at home whom he's very proud of. This may make it a little hard for you to pull the trigger on him when you kick down the door... except when you do, he starts firing while shouting "Kill the bastard! Kill the bastard!!" (He also mentions he has no qualms about killing, it's just a job he gets paid for.) Things get more amusing when one mook suggests to another that a Guns Akimbo One-Man Army taking down an entire drug cartel only happens in action movies.
    • Mook- "You know in action movies, I mean the coolest of the cool, where time slows down and you can see the bullets flying..." Cue Max.
    • One early bunch of mooks questions why vampire movies always take place in California, saying that if he was one he would move to Alaska "Where there's one long night!" This was YEARS before the movie 30 Days of Night was even out in trailers.
      • And a year before the original comic book series.
    • Max Payne 2 takes this a step further. In a level set in a high class apartment block, the inhabitants of which the mooks have murdered, one of the flats you enter has two mooks chatting while one of them plays the theme music on the dead inhabitants piano.
  • In Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, if you were in a certain form, the villagers you could kill/drain the life of would converse about many things, from their dislike of the king to how hard farming is.
    • In Blood Omen 2, similarly, you could overhear any number of inane conversations from the residents of Meridian.
  • In Manhunt, enemies will frequently mutter to themselves about various topics, often warning you about their presence before you run right into them. This is frequently lines designed to be an ironic counterpoint to the logical result of you sneaking up behind them (namely, their painful and gory deaths) -- such as grumbling about being bored, stating that you're probably hiding scared in some corner, or making self-assured statements of invincibility. The Smileys are among the most interesting to listen to, being lunatics in an asylum.
  • Recent games set in people-packed areas (like Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion) will typically feature people who run into each other (be they friend or foe to you) having smalltalk. This dialogue is often rather stilted (since it's literally back-and-forth banter), occasionally completely inappropriate (like famous characters talking about themselves in the third person), and above all repetitive.
    • Grand Theft Auto IV has the pedestrians even answering cell phone calls. While sauntering by Nico's car, one of them did so with "Hello? What? Motherfucker, I told you never to call me at this number!"
    • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas I've only heard it once, but I swear a person walking by said, very enthusiastically, "I've been resurrected 163 times!" (I don't remember the actual number, but it was a lot). This is quite funny considering that after you kill people, if you hang around, an ambulance will show up and bring them back to life.
  • Used extensively in the Thief series of games, including ongoing conversations in some cases. Many of the crucial clues in the game can be found just from overhearing the guards chatting with each other. The most famous of these, though, is probably the extended conversation about the bear pits by guards at the beginning of the first game, as seen here.
  • System Shock 2 put this trope to good use. Every single formerly human enemy had dialogue that mainly served as a reminder that they were out there, stalking you. The enemies would beg you to run away or stay hidden, or in an alien voice simply say the opposite... and some would cry and bemoan their fate.
  • No One Lives Forever and its sequel had many genuinely funny (not to mention deeply Genre Savvy) conversations that could be overheard by the player.
  • Subversion: In the PC game Vivisector: Beast Inside, only some versions of the human enemies and the Black and White Wolf Overbrutes have some form of distinguishable Enemy Chatter; the rest can only growl and make other animal noises. This is, for the most part, explained away as the animalistic enemies not being taught human speech by their creator, with the exception of the Hum Animal leader Lion.
  • Time Splitters: Future Perfect contained a lot of Enemy Chatter that the player could listen in on if he snuck up on enemies, and each level contained a drunk grunt somewhere which provided some of the game's funniest dialogue if the player stays around long enough to listen to the whole thing.
    • During the mission "The Russian Connection," you find a drunk sniper atop a water tower. "Sssoon, Soon we rule WORLD!... And I get car, a sports car 's a red one * burp* . And I'll love it like a thingy...WOMAN! and they'll say OOH what a big red one OOH so impressive heheheh."
  • The STALKER series does this extensively. If one can manage to sneak up to a military/bandit/mercenary camp, they'll be rewarded with dozens of unique conversations, and the enemies can even play on the harmonica and guitar, eat food, go to sleep, etc, and there are just as many audio files for the enemies as there are for neutral or friendly NPCs. One optional mission in particular has the player steal a case full of documents from a heavily-guarded military checkpoint in the dead of night, where you actually sneak through a military barracks while the soldiers are sleeping (and snoring). The player can even hear the grunts outside talking in Russian about their low-end assignments.
    • In combat this doesn't fall short either. Enemies will taunt you if they have friends around or are behind cover, yell in pain as they take damage, communicate with their allies to flank the player, alert their buddies if they find a fresh body, and even cry for help when incapacitated on the ground and bleeding out.
  • SNK vs. Capcom SVC Chaos had a different pre-fight conversation for every character combination, although the overall effect was spoiled by poor translation to English (giving characters totally inappropriate lines, such as the demonic Akuma shouting "Poppycock!", for example).
  • Scarface the World Is Yours features a lot of enemy chatter, and often people from the streets who notice you might either engage a conversation with you, which you can also respond to, or talk to each other about various topics.
    • Talk to someone again, the conversation gets random. Also, Tony can talk to himself.
  • Occasionally used to some effect in the Hitman games, particularly Blood Money where NPC conversations elaborate on, among other things, the various subplots. It's also possible to listen in on the two FBI agents in a surveillance van during one level for a handy piece of information (Namely the camera monitoring the kitchen entrance is not operating) which might have been a tad more useful to know if you hadn't arranged the delivery of some doped donuts to them.
  • The SOCOM series sometimes has some otherwise inconsequential objectives require a player to listen to some of the baddies talk about whatever nefarious plans are afoot before turning the corner and shooting them in the face.
  • Destroy All Humans! had an interesting variation on the trope—the Player Character, an alien, is psychic and needs to absorb psychic energy to be recharge, much of the Enemy Chatter is in fact the hidden thoughts of the various humans (many of which reveal hidden sexual predilections, deep-seated stupidity and numerous pop culture Shout Outs) that the player encounters. The standard kind of chatter can also be heard as well. And scanning an agent's mind in the first game might have him wondering why does Silhouette give him the shitty jobs, then says that maybe he hit on her at a party, then scratches the thought because no one is supposed to know that Silhouette is a chick.
  • God of War. Diiiiiieeee with honoooour!!
  • BioShock (series) is full of enemy chatter that adds to the game's creepiness, from the unhinged ramblings and threats of the splicers to the eerily cheerful mutterings of the Little Sisters.
    • "Jesus loves me, this I know, For the Bible tells me so, Little Ones to- KILL THE OUTSIDER!"
    • One nice touch in Bioshock is that there's actually several distinct personalities among the Splicers that can be discerned by the enemy chatter. The splicers quoted above are probably the most creepily memorable, though.
  • Batman: Arkham Asylum and its sequel Batman: Arkham City features various chatter from the local Mooks, varying from loudly proclaiming that nothing can stop them now, to, when at Terrified status, making pointless pleas to the darkness as they warily pace the corridors.
    • "H-hey! C-come over here and give me a hand!" "SCREW YOU!"
    • Arkham City also seems to make a point of showing how evil the thugs are, often casually discussing the heinous acts they've perpretrated.
  • Fable had peasants and merchants. While it's usually not too bad, and occasionally amusing, they didn't give the hostages anything different. It's kind of annoying to listen to a merchant, living in the bandit camp home to the bandit king, announce in tones of hushed awe that he saw Twinblade! KING of the bandits!
    • Not to mention the fact that they seem to also know every detail of your private life and can predict the future.
      • Also sometimes the praise from one file is heard while playing another. Example: During the Wasp Queen quest, the merchantmen would walk up to the player and say "Your victory in the Arena was incredible! But why did you kill Whisper?"
        • This is actually a well documented bug. If you complete the game and then start another one (even with a new profile) the random chatter will reflect events from the original play through that are years in the future for the new character.
    • Fable II, thankfully, makes this less of an issue. Particularly people talking about things with much overblown delivery. It's still there, make no mistake, but it's less frequent and therefore less annoying.
      • It's also possible to make the game absolutely hilarious inadvertently. By not changing your initial title (which is Sparrow), people will deliver line specifically keyed to that title. Such as, after saving the world, people will say "Don't worry, Sparrow, I'm sure you'll be famous one day".
    • Another Fable II example with the living gargoyle statues you're intended to shoot in a Golden Skulltula sort of way. They mock you in a Scottish accent, referring to you as the worst marksmen of all time and asking if you have any food or potions, since you have no skill. (A Shout-Out to the previous game)
    • Don't forget the human enemies you fight, such as the Zorro-esque highwaymen, and the self-righteous bandits (When killing bandits, you hear them ask, "Why are you doing this? What do you have against bandits?")
    • At one point you can overhear a pair of bandits talking about how mundane guarding a destroyed bridge is.
      • Fable III increases the amount of reaction to your moves during combat, context sensitive to what you're doing. It also introduces animated garden gnomes. Like the gargoyles in II, they're hidden all over Albion, Unlike the gargoyles, the gnomes are not just insulting, but also threatening. ("You know what I like most about people? They die!")
      • On the other end of the scale, there's the Crawler's chatter during your fights in the caves more than halfway through the third game. Most enemy chatter is irritating or amusing. What comes out of its mouth is just scary as hell.
  • In XIII, the player will often hear enemy guards discussing things while they sneak up on them. This even goes as far as having one guard make reference to a guard you'd killed earlier in the same level.
    • Some of the chatter you can overhear contains important plot elements and will occasionally trigger a flashback. Most plot-related chatter cannot be avoided though, as they're linked to scripted events and you have no way of silencing the speaker before the flashback occurs.
      • In addition, there's a running gag about a soldier sent to an insane asylum after insulting a high-ranking Colonel, and various people singing an odd song.
      • One instance had a bad-guy soldier doubting the need to kill all the good guy soldiers.
  • The Ace Combat series loves this; apparently everyone on the battlefield uses the same radio frequency. You can hear allied air and ground forces, enemy air and ground forces, and sometimes even civilians. They often respond to the player's actions—for example, an enemy who you have locked on to will start to panic, enemies you've shot down will cry mayday or report that they're ejecting. Enemies that must survive for plotline reasons can still be shot down—and their radio chatter will inform you that they're returning to base with a severely damaged aircraft (not to mention that they're pissed at you, and yelling at their friends to shoot you down). In later missions, both enemies and allies will react to your reputation. Flying air support over a ground battle, troops on both sides will recognize your plane's insignia and celebrate or despair.
    • The ability to listen in to all that chatter is handwaved by having the AWACS transmit the information to the player in the form of intercepted transmissions. The fact that it's not mission-critical is not addressed, but the fact that it does help the pilot get a better overall view of the battlefield as long as they're not completely inundated by the sheer amount of information is certainly useful.
    • Ace Combat 04 has some particularly in-depth ones; in the final mission, if you shoot down the enemy planes in the right order, you're treated to increasing levels of panic as command devolves onto lower and lower ranked pilots. The enemy squadron leader is killed in an earlier mission, so his second in command takes over for the final battle. If you shoot him down, the third in command will freak out, and the fourth in command has to remind him that he's the squad leader now. If you shoot down the third in command, the fourth in command will freak out when he realizes that he's the squad leader now. It's quite difficult to hear this whole sequence, because you have to shoot people down in the right order, and other than during the first clash (when everyone is flying in formation) it's impossible to tell individual planes apart.
  • The Far Cry series has piles of this kind of chatter, ranging from the typical combat yells and insults being flung at the player to long, drawn-out conversations revealing useful bits of background information or simply mercenaries chatting about their history and lives. It was so well-done that the chatter, combined with the huge, agonizing death screams and gasps of agony, left some players honestly feeling sorry about ripping through the mercenaries like a genetically-supercharged freight train through tissue paper.
    • In Far Cry 2, the enemy chatter is back, and perhaps the most sickeningly fun thing about it is that, as you start taking down your enemies and losing them via stealth, they'll actually start freaking out. Their smack talk suddenly devolves into half-hearted taunts and other lines delivered in a tone that betrays their utter terror. Occasionally one of them will suggest charging or running, while the other tells him to stay put to avoid getting flanked. After some time they might gather the courage to enter an area they think you're in.
      • While they often repeat themselves, some dialogue isn't hear particularly often. After killing an enemy and hiding, you might hear them discussing the dead man by name and calling him the "new guy". Consider the fact that just like you, all of these men are mercenaries out to earn a buck. Is there really any true "good" guy?
  • Mass Effect : "I WILL DESTROY YOU!!!" "YOU MUST DIE!!!" "ENEMIES EVERYWHERE!!!"
    • Mass Effect 2, true to form, has this for many enemies, but none can compare to the raw Ham that is Harbinger.
  • One of the more disturbing elements of the Call of Duty series is that the enemy is always speaking in foreign languages, but you can tell that they're actually conversing in that language, which makes it feel all the more like you're fighting Punch Clock Villains. It gets real disturbing when you start hearing them calling out each other's names, and realize they're using the same basic chatter as your allies.
    • The Nazi troops in Call of Duty 2 saying "Sovjetische Truppen!" in the Russian missions.
      • Nazi mooks never seem all that villainous when you hear them talking about their girls or hometowns or how pants-shittingly terrified they are of the Russians.
    • In Modern Warfare, during the mission "All Ghillied Up", you can listen to the Ultranationalist soldiers chatting with one another in Russian; they're having actual conversations, such as one soldier wondering aloud why Zakhaev wants so many guards in a place where no one hostile comes, and another telling him that he shouldn't worry about it if Zakhaev wants to throw away money on hiring them.
      • The Cuban soldiers in Call of Duty Black Ops will speak recognizable Spanish during "Operation 40", both in the opening cutscene (Take out your papers! Now!), and in combat ("I see them! They're over there!"). In the multiplayer, they have even more lines, and will say when they're throwing a grenade, alert their comrades of snipers, or shout that there's a man down. Same for the Russians and other such non-English-speaking factions in the more recent games.
  • In Star FOX 64, one stage consists of you and your squad breaking through a massive line of defense. Instead of scripted dialog between the squad, you hear mostly the enemies discuss your efforts. As you destroy more and more ships and beat more and more minibosses, they start to freak out. Then you start eliminating these characters one at time, sometimes hearing their last words as their dialog boxes fill with light. It's funny and kinda creepy at the same time.
  • The game Gun has a lot of this. At one point of the game you are breaking out of jail and you can hear guards singing incredibly crude, inane, and annoying songs. You then shoot them in the head with an arrow; or a shotgun if you don't care about stealth.
  • The Assassin's Creed series populates its world with lifelike NPCs who talk animatedly among themselves while going about their daily business and react in kind to your more noticeable activities. The game makes note of which actions are "socially acceptable" and acting in High Profile mode or doing illegal things will get the citizens angry or scare them away, with dialogue such as, "Why is he doing that?" or "He's going to hurt himself, and when he does I won't help him." The sequels add such gems as, "He must be late - and she must be beautiful!" and "Mmmmm, nice pants." Guards also have a conversational repertoire when you annoy them or attract their attention, yelling at you to get down from ledges, pushing you around if you get them angry, and yelling, "Who did this? Show yourself!" upon finding a body. In Open Conflict, they will shout advice to each other about how to fight you. Shopkeepers and merchants have a great deal of stock dialogue too, much of it highly amusing, such as the Doctor's claims regarding his All-Natural Snake Oil remedies: "I have distilled an elixir of lead and pomegrante! Ideal for the liver!" or in Revelations, a rheumatism remedy made of coriander and lemon... that is also a fine salad dressing.
  • In some missions in Jak II you can overhear various different conversations between the Krimzon Guard troopers if you stay out of sight of them. Some of these include one guard saying their new uniforms are 'more comforting on the crotch', one soldier threatening to shoot another 'if something doesn't happen soon' (the previous guard had asked if he could shoot a townsperson), one soldier complaining about sewer patrol, and discussions on Jak, the Underground, and the Metal Heads. They also utter various lines (no actual conversations, though) throughout the game while patrolling Haven City and while going after you.
  • Halo has enemy chatter among the Covenant, most amusingly by the helium-voiced, hyperactive Grunts. Turning on the "I Would Have Been Your Daddy" skull in Halo 3 and ODST makes some of their funnier phrases more common.

"Can I keep his helmet?"
"He's going to kill us all!"
"Leader dead! Run away!"

    • Not to mention the iconic "Wort! Wort! Wort!" of the Elites.
      • This is actually what someone yelling "Go! Go! Go!" sounds like in reverse.
    • There's plenty of stuff for your allies, too, for all kinds of situations. Even if you die.

"Can I have his helmet?"

  • In BloodRayne, sneaking up on two Nazis at a particular level but refraining from immediately killing them will reward you by overhearing one telling the other a particularly vulgar joke about a certain pig...
  • One of the oldest examples would have to be Ys II, where red-headed hero Adol can acquire a spell that transforms him into a cute little monster, allowing him to pass unharmed through the enemy ranks - and allowing him to talk to every single monster in the game like they were a regular NPC, thus revealing that even the freakiest-looking among them are mild-mannered Punch Clock Villains who are scared and upset at the 'red-haired demon' running around slaughtering their friends, workmates and family members.
  • In Conker's Bad Fur Day, he walks in to find some Tedi Doctors talking about how if any intelligent characters were in the game, they wouldn't affect the game. They then hear Conker cock his gun, and one quickly proclaims "What the @#$%! It's that bloody squirrel. Quick, into character!", followed by evil-sounding gibberish.
  • In Deus Ex, it's possible to sneak up on characters (as early as the first mission) and eavesdrop on their conversations, which often reveal extra information about upcoming plot twists or additional character information. Enemies will also yell for help, or tell other enemies where you are if you're running away.
    • It being Deus Ex, you can also read their email, diaries and memos. One particularly jarring example comes in the first (optional) MJ12 facility under New York: an email to all employees discusses details about the upcoming company picnic. You can return there when you next visit New York—if you infiltrated it first time around without harming the "employees", you run into the MJ12 cleanup team that dumped the original inhabitants' bodies into the sewers. Anvilicious!

MJ12 mook 1: "Man, I'll be glad to get out of here."
MJ12 mook 2: "Me too. I don't like tunnels. Always sounds like someone's sneaking up on you."

  • Command & Conquer: Renegade had some particularly good examples of this; everything from useful information about weapons caches and warnings of what's about to come (a technician complains about cleaning up tiberium, only to turn into a mutant creature when you enter the room), to chatting about Communist theory and how the new Chem Suits itch and need anti-itch powder.
    • It also helped you find enemy Officers, which controlled much of the respawn.
  • One of the most irritating parts of the otherwise outstanding Spider-Man 2: The Movie game was the very small amount of soundbites provided to both the titular hero and the NPCs and villains he encounters. They got very old, very fast. Doubly annoying given how long the game takes to complete...
    • Taken to hilarious levels on Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions. In one Noir level, the mooks talk about how they're gonna kill Spidey, only to end up stating that that's why they're mooks, just to talk about random things. And on another level, before a fight, on the Ultimate Deadpool level, a group of mooks/Deadpool fans talk about how their suits were made. What.
  • The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction and its Spiritual Successor Prototype had frequent enemy chatter ranging from the amusing (police officer: You have the right to re... aww, what's the point!) to nonsensical (Let's hear it for the fighting badgers of alpha squadron!). Though considering a good deal of it was radio chatter, it led to Fridge Logic about how the Hulk/Alex Mercer (respectively) could hear it.
  • Fire Emblem for the most part doesn't have this. It's generally only unique enemies that say anything at the beginning of a fight, or at their death. One chapter in Path of Radiance however, uses a variation. If you have Jill, a former enemy soldier who was stationed at the fortress from this chapter, fight the otherwise generic enemy wyvern riders, they yell at her for being a traitor.
  • Urban Chaos: Riot Response had this. It did get tedious after a while but it was unique from other games. The enemies would swear and tell you what they would do to your family after you died.
    • While is funny seeing as the reason Nick is there is because they burned his father. Alive. And kept firefighters from getting to the building. They never make the Burners seem sympathic. Ever.
  • One of the few high points of the largely disappointing Avatar: The Last Airbender games was the highly amusing Enemy Chatter in one sequence of the first game, with Fire Nation soldiers swapping recipes and debating what birthday presents to buy their kids.
  • Most Delta Force games. But not always in English though, so bonus points if you understand the language they speak which includes Russian, Arabic, Indonesian, Spanish, and many other. Trust me, you will laugh hard if you understand what they are saying.
  • In the ultraviolent video game The Punisher. Mooks tend to talk a lot whether it's taunting you ("You can't aim worth a shit!"), giving justifications when they shoot one of their own by mistake ("Punisher would have killed him anyway."), or just talking among themselves. Most of the time the dialogue just makes them sound as stupid as their A.I. makes them.
    • It becomes much more fun when you start grabbing random mooks and interrogating them, not for the information they'll give you (which is usually worthless) but because of the false bravado that quickly fades to nothing. Example: Point a gun in a mook's face, the obvious intent being "talk or I'll shoot", and he'll start trash-talking to the Punisher. Then, he breaks and just whimpers repeatedly. Then, you shoot him.
      • Some interrogating brings weird flashbacks for the Punisher, with fades to classic comic book art. Then it's time for the mook to die (try to find a kill spot, like impaling them onto an elephant tusk).
      • Scripted chatter can be listened in on, such as card games or groups of enemies discussing what they know or do not know. Entire conversations can be overheard, or if one is bored, they can be interrupted by a well-placed AK-47 burst.
      • I remember a Shout-Out by the villains. In one episode the Yakuza have broken into Stark Industries. The Punisher can grab one, kill him, then the other's find the body.

"Oh my God, they've killed Kenji!"
"Those Bastards!"

  • The Xbox 360 version of Crash of the Titans has an achievement for listening to enemy chatter.
  • In one level of Jet Li's Rise To Honor, a pair of museum guards can be overheard talking... and one of them mentions his son wanting Rise to Honor for his birthday.
  • Starting with Mega Man X 4, many of the bosses you face will have conversations before you make them taste the pavement. Even though some bosses mean no harm, you have no choice but to kill them anyway.
  • MDK and MDK2, in line with Shiny Entertainment's quirky style, feature strange and wacky enemy chatter. In MDK, the aliens scream "You're going to get saaacked!" at each other and "I'm not taking this!" at the player, along with occasional bouts of mocking cries and mooning. In MDK 2 the sentence "This had better be gobbledegook." appears amongst the enemy chatter, probably having appeared as a note on a concept document.
    • The most annoying is some sort of weird grunting made by the first enemy you encounter in MDK2, waving a target.
  • If you like to sneak around in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, be prepared to hear the line "I better cut down on the ale. Starting to see things, I am" quite often. It's atmospheric the first time you hear it, but after the tenth time one starts to wonder if all the humanoid enemies are complete drunkards.
    • That's a standard audio cue from the AI indicating that it's detected the player (or theoretically an NPC) who's sneaking near them. Though only a handful of NPCs actually use stealth in the game, and even then it's thematic, not actual gameplay. Gets rather ridiculous when it is said by a blind monk—that monk must really be getting into the ale then.
    • "Stop right there, criminal scum!"
    • "I saw a mudcrab the other day" "Nasty creatures, I avoid them when I can" - to the point where discussing mudcrabs is considered a stock response to everything amongst the Elder Scrolls community.
  • The first Dark Cloud game occasionally had monsters talk before going to fight against you. In the second game, Dark Chronicle, you can use Monicas' monster forms to talk to the monsters, who will talk about things like their dream of running their own circus, or about how great the bad guy is, or how snooty another kind of monster is.
  • The F.E.A.R. games all have context-sensitive enemy chatter, as a means of plot advancement as well as a tactical tool, as enemy squads will coordinate their movements by radio. The developers specifically included this to highlight the high quality of their AI, noting that historically players find the AI's decisions more intelligent if they can see the rationale behind it.
  • In Splinter Cell many levels have mooks do pre-scripted chats with each other, assuming you haven't tipped them off. In Chaos Theory in the Japanese house level, one guy talks about the anti-ninja flooring and the other guy scoffs at him. Enter Sam Fisher...
    • It gets even more hilarious if you actually grab one of them...
    • Note that Splinter Cell 1 was set in the time and place the guard mentions earlier. In other words, it was Sam Fisher he saw earlier.
    • A common complaint about Splinter Cell: Conviction, because it's almost incessant. Besides the Mooks non-bulletproof skulls, this will get them killed more than anything. The storyline justification is that the Black Arrow mercs aren't used to hunting stealthy guys like Fisher, and are trying to psych themselves up so they can get past their terror. When it's Sam vs. other Splinter Cells later on, they are noticeably quiet and professional.
    • Parodied in this Penny Arcade.
  • The original Driver had 'Friend' Chatter, on missions where you had to pick up people in your car and transport them to a particular destination. However, in many cases this could be infuriatingly inane; such as, after having three police cars repeatedly crash into you in an effort to knock you off the road, your passenger would shout "Do something! We got ourselves a tail!" Thanks, pal. Hadn't noticed.
  • In Fallout 3 (Based on the Oblivion engine, explaining a lot), if you should sweep your eyes past a locked container or look at it for more than one nanosecond, expect whoever owns it to exclaim "YES THAT'S LOCKED AND YES I CAN SEE YOU EYEING IT".
    • Or, "That's locked for a reason." Or something along the lines of "You'd better not do what I think you're about to." And looking at anything, like an item in a shop, gets you a similar, annoyed reaction.
    • Earlier titles had sentient enemies spout random taunt lines in combat. Allied NPCs have their collections of combat lines.
      • Sentient enemies will most often speak if you hide from them, but they know you're there. Raiders will call you a "fucking pussy" and Super Mutants will scream, "NO USE HIDING! I CAN SMELL YOUR FEAR!"
    • A very interesting conversation between two supermutants while snooping through a building. #1: "Hey." #2: "What?" #1: "Sometimes, I think... and it hurts! But it makes me remember things. I remember... a woman. Or maybe... I was a woman! Argh! Head hurt!" #2: "Talking to you is stoopid."
      • This actually makes sense, and is rather sad, considering the method in which Super Mutants are made.
  • In the MMO La Tale, certain enemies will walk around with talk bubbles over their head, the same as those that appear when player characters or NPCs speak. Their dialog almost never makes any sense.
  • The repeatitive chatter of the enemy vampires in Buffy the Vampire Slayer for the Xbox can be quelled by a delicious application of sharp pointy wood to the heart.
  • Enemies in Baldur's Gate chatter quite a bit, although the standard Mooks tend to be a bit repetitive.

Guard: I can take Drizzt with both arms tied behind my back!
Bandit: And then I kicked him in the head until he was dead, hahahaha!
Inn Owner: My hotel's as clean as an Elven arse!

  • In Heavenly Sword, the guards sometimes spout little quips as you beat the crap out of them or shoot them in the face.

Guard1: She's accurate, isn't she?
Guard2: You 'think'?!

  • Crysis has the enemies giving clues as to what they're doing and their alert level—on the other hand, at higher difficulty levels, they speak in their native language: Korean.
  • Medieval 2: Total War loves this, especially with the english units. They also occasionally mourn dying comrades for a moment before going back to beating the snot out of some poncy frenchman or whatever enemy of the day is facing you.
    • "HACK 'IS ARM OFF!"
    • "Bloody Hell!"
    • "I can't see!"
  • In Alien vs. Predator 2 during the first mission of the Alien campaign as a Facehugger, as you crawl around the facility in search of a host the NPCs will often talk to each other of one particularly lonely and lazy co-worker. Of course he ends up being the one you chest-burst out of.
    • The chatter that humans make during the Predator campaign is especially funny when you're invisible and right behind them.
  • Final Fantasy VI has several scenes showing Empire soldiers talking amongst themselves hinting about the true nature of Leo (noble soldier) and Kefka (daft loon).
  • Velvet Assassin features extensive mook chatter as a way to humanize the Nazi soldiers and show that they are real people. They would spend their time discussing the nature of heroism, how some of their friends are going through a rough time, their girlfriends, the newest model of the U-boat, history of art, among other more banal topics. It has the effect of making the player character (an Allies spy) always cruelest/most evil person in the room as you murder every one of them.
  • Tomb Raider: Legend is much more rewarding if you stop to listen to some enemies. Definitely stop to listen to the 2 guys in Bolivia.
  • Thief: Deadly Shadows:

"We need a plan"
"Well I say we attack now!"

    • And the thieves in Captain Moira's Mansion and the thieves near the Wieldstrom Musuem.
  • In Morrowind, it is possible to initiate conversation if the player gets close enough undetected to certain hostile creatures that would otherwise attack on sight. Most, like the corprus monsters, just babble incoherently, but some of the stronger ones, such as the ash vampires, have some amusing chatter, among other things inviting the player for a drink before the fight (from which you actually gain a bottle of the rare Dagoth brandy).
  • The Il-2 series of flight sims allows the player to tune in on the enemy frequency to listen to their radio chatter. This can actually be of some use - provided you know the language. Your own radio chatter is subtitled, so you know what's being said no matter which side you fly for. The enemy's isn't.
  • In the Myth series, the fourth level of Soulblighter features a pair of guards talking to each other about a giant turnip. A little research reveals that it's taken from Cheech and Chong.
  • Perfect Dark for the N64 gives the guards a few lines. Some of the more amusing ones include "I bet this is another drill" (said by a guard who has heard/seen you, but can't find you now), and "Ah, I never liked him anyway" (said by a guard who found one of his comrades dead).
    • Other guards scream out the Big No when finding an ally dead. It's possible to shoot someone in the middle of a line.
  • The military personel in Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse have a few lines too. Some are regular orders, but some are pretty funny, like "Ah! My penis!...I mean, my arm!" when you rip their arm off or "Better dead than red!" when they see you. (Since the game takes place in the late 1950's, they don't seem to come after you so much because you're a zombie but because you're something worse...)
  • The majority of Shin Megami Tensei games (and their spinoffs) that include Demon Negotiation as an alternative to combat. Although the mechanics vary from game to game, the protagonist can encounter hostile demons on the field and try to converse with them in order to a)invite them into his party, b)get an item from them, or c)send them away without fighting. Some demons are serious or haughty and will look down upon humans; others will reveal a funny bone and engage in comic banter with the protagonist and/or his party members (including other demons.) It's up to the player to recognize the demon's personality and approach them in an engaging manner, otherwise they'll just get mad.
  • Iji has the protagonist reading computer logbooks written by enemies that function more like Enemy Chatter than an Apocalyptic Log.
    • In addition, each enemy type has their own unique sound set and will say different things when they see you:
  • Sneaking up on certain enemies in the video game adaptation of The Darkness can lead to the possibility of overhearing full-fledged conversations ranging from a construction worker talking about cheating on his wife, Uncle Paulie's sadistic tendencies, to even a man asking his friend a hypothetical question about if he'd have sex with a moose for a million dollars. These are just a few of the various (possibly crazy) conversations you might overhear.
  • In Mother 3, Lucas and his party stumble upon a group of pigmasks who are carrying on a heated discussion about whether they remove their masks when using the bathroom.
  • Brutal Legend features bits of chatter for every faction, but during the game's only stealth section, You can listen to two Hairbangers discuss hair cleansing rituals. They go on for quite some time if you don't kill them.
  • In The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks, a Zelda-posessed Phantom can converse with the other Phantoms WHO SPEAK IN ALL CAPS. Apprently, the lower-ranking Phantoms do not get on well with the elite ones.
    • "SOMETIMES IT'S LONELY BEING SO ELITE"
    • Near the beginning of Twilight Princess you can see two Bokoblins conversing. You can't understand what they're saying, of course.
  • Ratchet & Clank has had a lot of this since Tools of Destruction. Enemies will not only talk to Ratchet in combat, but also amongst themselves (often about entirely trivial things, such as how their favorite show Jumped the Shark last night) if you manage to catch them idle.
    • They even have unique reactions to most of your weapons/items. E.g. "The Lombax has engaged Hoverboots."
    • In Going Commando it's possible to find two idle enemies playing rock-paper-scissors.
  • In Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5, the mooks will yell stuff to their comrades once they see you, and will say VERY interesting stuff... if you can read Spanish or Swahili.
  • Ivory Springs (an abandoned demo by the same guy who made Noitu Love) actually uses chatter as a game mechanic. At one point you have to sneak past a roomful of soldiers; the only time when you can move without being heard and captured is when they're all laughing.
  • In the Revenge of Meta-Knight segment of Kirby Super Star, Meta-Knight and his lackies comment on Kirby stampeding through the Halberd. A few lines are only seen upon entering a secret area, but it's worth it for some of the silly exchanges they make.
  • Star FOX 64, most prominently in MacBeth, where the conductor shouts instructions to his unseen crew, and Area 6, where two bad guys chatter as you break through their defenses.
  • The Star Wars Battlefront series has the normal use of this, but there's also another application of it in 2. If you jump into an enemy ship, you can spy on their communications.
  • Sometimes happens in Shadow Complex, of both random and scripted kind. Scripted chatter about the enemy plans can be overheard in one scene in a control room while the player is crawling through the vent above. They also often talk about how Jason is just "one guy", but later in the game they get more panicked.
  • Sonny has dialogue at the beginning of a fair portion of fights, even during fights, between Sonny and company and whoever they're fighting. Sonny (primarily in the second game) will respond in true Deadpan Snarker fashion to enemies:

(at the beginning of the first fight of Sonny 2 after the optional tutorial)

Prison Guard: More Hostiles! You made a big mistake coming in here.
Sonny: Sorry about the gate, I couldn't find the doorbell.

(In Zone 2 of Sonny 2 after taking the first Knight to low health)

Knight: Lay down your arms, I (cough) accept your request.
Sonny: Your membership fees are too high. I think I'd rather kill you.
Knight: Heretic! My master will have your heads!

  • There's no dialogue in Metal Slug, but you can still see the mooks chatting and laughing it up amongst themselves. This is actually to your advantage, because they freak out when they see you coming, and that's vital time to kill them before they open fire.
  • In Star Trek Online, it's possible to sneak up on enemies in story missions and listen to them talk amongst themselves. Typically, it's plot relevant, such as pirates talking about what they'll do with their cut of the profits or so on; in others, it will contain Foreshadowing about later missions in the story arc. However, in the mission "Under the Cover of Night", one of the Orion Syndicate members says to another, "I've got some things that will blow your mind. How does the unrated cut of Vulcan Love Slave VI sound?" Fans of Deep Space 9 are sure to recognize that as the name of a Holodeck program...
  • In Valkyria Chronicles 2 when you approach an ennemy's dead body or just after killing one of them you can hear what his comrades were saying. Knowing that many of them were forced to fight with the rebels and that you are in the middle of a civil war makes was bad, but when you hear their companions litterally crying for a simple "mook" you can't help but feeling guilty.
  • Grim Fandango has a variation of this; Carla is holding onto a handheld metal detector that she's too stubborn to hand over [1] and, after tricking her into a side room to ask her if you can have the detector, she ends up ranting about her depressing past; failing to interrupt her will lead to a constant loop of idle chatter.

Carla: I remember this town we moved to when I was in first grade. The only industry was figs.
[snip]
Carla: Poor Grandma Hedwig was always forgetting things...
[snip]
Carla: He was as deaf as they come, but he'd still try to bark.
[snip]
Carla: I was shy all the way through highschool. I never want to a single dance.
[snip]
Carla: My Mom always said the best part of my outfit was my smile. Well maybe I would've smiled more, Mom, if you hadn't drank so much!

  • World of Warcraft has this in varying types, from guards who will yell warnings on spotting an enemy to pre-scripted conversations among NPCs that can run on a loop or activate when you approach.
  • Guild Wars has some rare conversations between enemy foes. In Nightfall Kournans would shout threats and insults on seeing you.
  • The monsters in Dungeons of Dredmor will come out with random lines as they attack you, ranging from threats and insults ("what, you again?", "you festering poltroon", "thou art a hack") to expressions of fear and doubt ("why does nothing love me?", "i need an adult! help") to random Shout Outs ("FUS RO DAH!" "spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace")
  • In The Godfather: The Game, walking past a rival family mamber will cause them to tell you something condescending and in a very gruff voice, e.g. "Why can't we just put a bullet in his head and be done with it?" or "This guy really bugs me"
    • Actually talking to them, however, causes them to say things in a smoother voice and in a lighter tone, e.g. "Keep moving, you're a big target around here!" or "We only want peace between our families." or "I'm think of getting out of this business."
  • Killzone 2 had this gem when the player starts sneaking around on the enemy homeworld for a mission.

Helghast 1: Did you hear? Two grunts from our unit got executed by Radec?
Helghast 2: No shit? What for? Cowardice? Defeatism?
Helghast 1: Uniform violations. I shit you not.
Helghast 2: "The Dress Code is the foundation of discipline..."

  • Rainbow Six games feature this, most notably in the Vegas sub-series where you can catch a number of unique conversations if you just sit back and listen before shooting everyone. Of course, you're also likely hear the same few conversations multiple times per level.

Generic Tango 1: Eyes up, we may have a situation.
Generic Tango 2: What kind of situation?
Generic Tango 1: The killing kind.
Generic Tango 2: The killing kind?

  • Enemy ships in the X-Universe series will broadcast for help when they're taking damage, yell that their shields are down to their allies, and taunt you—even if they're about to die.
  • Bethesda upped the ante somewhat in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. In addition to enemies who mutter random things to themselves, certain dungeons have fully scripted NPC interactions. One memorable one is a pair of necromancers bickering about how every time they raise a zombie, it comes back stupider.
  • Need for Speed: Most Wanted and Carbon let you eavesdrop on the cops' radio channel to anticipate your moves.
  1. ↑ Hence how she's an "enemy".
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