39,327
edits
No Campaign for the Wicked: Difference between revisions
m
Mass update links
m (Dai-Guard moved page No Campaign for The Wicked to No Campaign for the Wicked: Lowercase prepositions) |
m (Mass update links) |
||
Line 4:
This is especially obvious in WWII-themed [[First-Person Shooter]] games; it is usually the case that even though you can play both the Allied and the Axis sides in multiplayer, the single-player campaign allows you to play only as the Allied side. Whether this is because developers believe that players will not or should not be allowed to play as the bad guys is difficult to say, but it is worth noting that [[Real Time Strategy]] games, flight sims, tactical wargames and grand strategy games usually allow you to play the Axis in single-player mode. This may have something to do with the player being more removed from the action in those types of games as well as just how awesome German ''machinery'' were. (Of course, it might just be because the Axis... well, you know... ''lost''. And then there's the whole [[Nazi]] thing...)
Even if the bad guys get a campaign, [[No Canon for
Compare [[No Swastikas]], [[Video Game Historical Revisionism]].
Line 17:
* In the [[Dungeons and Dragons|D&D]] based RTS game ''Dragonshard'', there is a campaign for the humans and the lizardfolk, but not for the Umbragen.
* In the popular ''[[Mechwarrior]]'' video games, most of the campaigns are played in the Davion/pro Davion POV. In ''Mechcommander 2'', Liao and Steiner is seen as cruel tyrants ruling Carver V with an iron fist and Davion wants Carver V to be independent (read: Client state), in a galaxy where morality is grey and black, Davions tends to be portrayed in a good way here. The Steiner ending in ''[[Mechwarrior]] 4: Mercenaries'' is seen as bittersweet as the character abandons his company to become a Clan warrior and is the only time his operator doesn't agree with him. If not, then you are a Davion pilot.
** There is also another ending in which you STAY with your Merc group and set up a base somewhere in the Chaos March, and remain neutral from then on. You DO have to be pro-Steiner for the game to get there, but it isn't bittersweet, ALL endings conclude with a mention of the Word of Blake jihad, and FYI: The [[Mechwarrior]] games take their canon from the [[
** It is more about how Microsoft painted the Davions in a much more white portrayal than Steiner or the other houses. It was subverted in Black Knight where you are a Steiner pilot in a what-if Ian chose to find weapons rather than saving his sister.
** The Inner Sphere as whole gets this in ''[[Mechwarrior]] 3'', where the Star League-aligned commando team operates against Clan Smoke Jaguar--easily painted as an evil faction after their [[Moral Event Horizon|massacre of over a million civilians at Turtle Bay]]. No Clan campaign for [[Mechwarrior]] 3 exists. Subverted with the sequel, Pirate's Moon, where you may elect to play as Susie Ryan's pirate team. As might be expected, the pirates are full of rebellious loudmouths and violent thugs.
** Also true of two early [[
** ''[[Mechwarrior]] 2'' and its sequels have toyed with this trope. The original game has campaigns for both of the central warring factions, Clan Wolf and Clan Jade Falcon. The first sequel, ''Ghost Bear's Legacy,'' firmly puts the player on the side of Clan Ghost Bear, but the player's enemies are numerous and varied instead of simply the same faction as per the original game. In the final member of the trilogy, ''Mercenaries,'' the player is a mercenary who may elect to take missions for whatever factions offer them. The Federated Commonwealth, Draconis Combine, Free Rasalhague Republic, and even independent factions like corporations and Comstar offered contracts. It was not uncommon for players to spend a few months shooting up Draconis Mechs, then turning around and raiding a Fed-Com chemical plant. {{spoiler|When the Clans show up, though, everyone [[Enemy Mine|bands together against them]] and you ultimately [[Hold the Line|fight to save the Draconis Combine capital world of Luthien]].}}
* ''[[X
** [[Fridge Logic|But wouldn't the Rebel Alliance be Imperial traitors by default?]]
* Taken to an extreme in ''[[
** Which (probably unintentionally) underlines the fact that no-one is evil or unjust in their own eyes, and is also alarmingly reminiscent of the ''[[Outer Limits]]'' episode "Hearts And Minds".
* ''[[Halo]] 2'' has you playing as a Covenant Elite for 1/2 the levels, but you notably never fight against the Humans at all. Every Covenant level involves [[Enemy Civil War|combat against Covenant rebels]], [[Cosmic Horror|the Flood]], and ultimately the Covenant itself after your character undergoes a [[Heel Face Turn]]. Technically they (the Covenant) were the ones to [[Heel Face Turn]] them.
** In ''Combat Evolved: Anniversary'', ODST [[A Is]] were announced to be allies while playing as a Spartan in Firefight. "Does that mean we can kill them as Elites?" is a signature fan statement to any article or video announcing this.
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[Killzone]]'', you can play as the Helghast only in multiplayer, [[Rooting for
** Seven years later, there is still no campaign for [[The Villain Makes the Plot|the most interesting faction of the two]].
* In Bungee's RTS series ''[[Myth]]'', the player can only play as the Human faction in the single-player campaign mode.
Line 40:
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]] A's Portable: The Battle of Aces'' does not have a Story Mode for the three [[Evil Twin|Evil Twins]].
* ''Vietcong'' has only an American campaign following a single character. The sequel has a short Vietcong campaign though.
* ''[[Mario and Sonic At The Olympic Games
* Literally played straight in ''[[Left Behind]]: Eternal Forces.'' The player can only play the Antichrist's Global Community Peacekeepers in multiplayer. But given its intended audience (and [[So Bad It's Good|its quality]]), who would want to do that?
* In ''Battlezone,'' the American forces get a full-fledged campaign. The Soviet forces just get a bunch of unconnected missions.
* ''[[
----
=== Aversions: ===
* Averted in ''[[Deus Ex: Invisible War
* Averted in tank simulations as a whole since there is something alluring about German armour blitzing though enemy lines.
* Averted in ''[[Star Wars]]: Empire At War''. You get to play as the Empire, though [[No Canon for
* Averted in ''[[
** The whole thing gets taken to the next level in ''Warcraft III'', where no matter which race's campaign you get to play in you get to kill at least once race that you were so happily guiding to victory before, with the Night Elves campaign allowing the player to dabble in killing some of all three other major races present in WC III, and then some.
* Averted HARD in ''Battlestations: Pacific''. Not only is there a full Japanese campaign, but it takes a complete [[Alternate History]] approach where they go on to win the war. {{spoiler|Including an ending where the Americans sign the instrument of surrender on board the battleship Yamato in San Francisco Bay.}}
* Averted throughout most of the ''[[Heroes of Might and Magic]]'' series. In the first game, there are four available lords to choose from, two of which the game identifies as 'evil' and two which are identified as 'good', though given that the campaigns are ''identical'' except for lacking the scenario that is about conquering the lord you play as there isn't much to indicate their actual morals (except for the canonical victor, the Knight Lord Ironfist, which the manual paints in an ambigious light). In the second game you can play as [[Big Bad|Archibald Ironfist's]] top general [[No Canon for
** Sometimes you technically get to play against yourself as the bad guy in a good guy campaign or vice versa.
* The [[World War Two]] combat flight sim series ''[[Il-2 Sturmovik]]'' and its sequels/expansions allow you to fly not only for Germany and Japan, but also for the minor Axis air forces of Finland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia. Nearly all countries that participated in aerial combat during the war are present in the games, in one way or another.
Line 60:
** Also the case for other [[Paradox Interactive]] titles, but less an example of this trope because wars other than [[World War II]] don't lend themselves to a [[Black and White Morality]] (or [[Black and Grey Morality]]) portrayal to the same extent [[Grey and Grey Morality|if at all.]]
* ''[[Moe Moe Niji Taisen]]'' allows you to play as both the Axis (minus Italy) and Allied powers (minus France).
* In the first ''[[
** However, you need to score Major Victories in pretty much every mission to get the [[Germany Conquers The World]] outcome. A Minor Victory in just one later mission will end the war in a defeat or at best a stalemate.
** In ''Panzer General II'', there are campaigns for the German, Soviet and UK/US sides. The last of these has identical scenarios regardless of which country you choose, only the units available to you are different. The German campaign is the most elaborate one, with a historical success enabling an invasion to capture Savannah and culminating in an attack on the Oak Ridge facility to prevent the US from completing the atomic bomb.
Line 68:
* Averted in the ''Conquests'' [[Expansion Pack]] of ''[[Civilization]] III''; you can play as the Japanese in the Pacific theater and there is no European theater scenario at all.
* ''[[Dungeon Keeper]]'' is an inversion. The good guys don't get a campaign.
** Same with ''[[Evil Genius (
* Averted in a sense in ''[[Marathon
* Averted in ''[[Command and Conquer]] 3'', as all three factions has a campaign. Also, each campaign is canon and occurs in the same timespan, so in a way the player is fighting against himself/herself.
* ''[[
* The new ''[[Medal of Honor]]'' has been criticized because it will let you play as the Taliban. This is no longer entirely true. The Taliban faction still exists in multiplayer, but it's been renamed "Opposing Force".
* The ''[[
* Entries two, three and five of the [[
* In ''SWAT 2'', you can play as the terrorists.
* ''SD Gundam G Generation DS'' has a Villain Route where your forces consist of the antagonists from the myriad [[Gundam]] series like the [[Zeta Gundam|Titans]], [[Gundam Wing|OZ]], and [[Gundam Seed|OMNI Enforcer]].
* ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]]'''s Galactic Conquest mode allows you to play as any faction, though the endings, particularly in ''II'', are [[No Canon for
* [[Dragon Age]] has the DLC pack "Darkspawn Chronicles," where one plays as an [[Elite Mook]] and "enthralls" other Darkspawn minions.
** It also has Leliana's Song, in which you play through the events that led to Leliana's [[Heel Face Turn]].
* [[War for Cybertron]] actually encourages you to play both Decepticons and Autobots - the first half of the campaign allows you to play as Decepticons getting the upper hand, and in the second, you play Autobots trying to foil their plans.
* Not averted in the demon path of [[Soul Nomad and The World Eaters]]; you don't play the part of the World Eaters, or even the later enemies you encounter, but instead play the hero(ine) as an [[Omnicidal Maniac]] hell bent on destroying EVERYTHING.
* Averted in [[Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45|Red Orcestra 2: Heroes of Stalingrad]] where, apparently for the first time, you can play as the German through the battle of Stalingrad and change history by winning the battle of Stalingrad, though it will most likely be a series of maps and some flavour text instead of a full campaign, it's mostly a multi-player shooter after all.
* The ''[[Jurassic Park]]'' game for the [[Sega Genesis]] had a Human campaign and a Velociraptor campaign.
* In a particularly amazing aversion, Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth actually features two campaigns. One in which you play as the forces of good and the One Ring is destroyed. In the other, you play as the forces of evil and take control of the lands of Rohan and Gondor, ending with the death of Frodo in Cirith Ungol and the destruction of Minas Tirith itself.
Line 103:
* Another exception to the rule is the realtime tactical game ''Soldiers: Heroes of World War II''. It features a German campaign in which you control the tank ace Wittmann and his forces during the defense of Normandy, tearing Allied tanks to pieces while hiding from their superior air power. It is notable for depicting the German soldiers you control as basically honourable and "professional" soldiers, rather than as the mindless babykillers more commonly seen. This is even more remarkable when you consider that it was developed by a Russian studio.
** The sequel ''Men of War'' does the same, though it is probably not a coincidence that the German campaign takes place in the Mediterranean rather than the Eastern front.
* ''[[Civil War Generals
** ''Civil War Generals 2'', the sequel, averts this, allowing you to fight campaigns as either side.
** The offbeat old Civil War game ''North 'n South'' let you play as either side. The game lampshades a Confederate victory by saying, "You obviously didn't take history in school."
Line 115:
** Averted in ''Command & Conquer: Generals'', where you get to play as the irredeemably evil Global Liberation Army, a terrorist group whose atrocities (which the player orchestrates) include massacring a village to steal UN relief supplies, and launching a bioweapon attack on a civilian city.
** Played with again in the Firestorm Expansion. While both factions are given a campaign, this was the first game to make it so that both were canon. On top of that, they made a pseudo-third faction, containing CABAL and his Cyborg army. While most of the units are playable in Skirmish (they're all Nod units) they're not during the campaign.
* Whether or not this applies to the ''Geneforge'' series depends on whether or not there ''are'' any good guys and bad guys. From the first game there's an air of [[Gray and Gray Morality]], and by the fifth [[Team Switzerland]] is arguably as bad or worse than [[A Nazi
* ''[[Star Wars Battlefront]] II'' only has one story mode, for the clone troopers. They stop being the good guys halfway through.
* Somewhat subverted in ''[[Battle Realms]]''. Because of the branching story style of the vanilla edition's campaign, it is possible to play as the sneaky, insidious Serpent rather than the honorable and [[Lawful Good]] Dragon clan. However the expansion campaign only allowed you to play as the [[Chaotic Good]] Wolf clan.
* You can can play as hero and villain alike in ''[[Dissidia Final Fantasy]]'' outside of the 'Destiny Odyssey' and 'Shade Impulse' story modes, but only the protagonists have playable roles in those modes.
* Double averted in [[Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds
* Triple-y averted in ''[[Lego Adaptation Game|Lego Batman]]'' which has [[Another Side Another Story]] just as long as the three Batman campaigns in which the player gets to take on the roles of all the villains in the game.
* Since it's all about the Allied bomber, ''[[B 17 Flying Fortress]]: The Mighty 8th'' only has a campaign for the Americans. However, you can, at any time during the mission, switch from flying the bomber into any other single-prop aircraft currently airborne in the game-world, including the German interceptors launching to take your bombers down. It then becomes a case of playing the enemy ''within'' the Allied campaign.
* [[Double Subverted]] in ''[[Vanguard Bandits]]''. You can stay with [[The Kingdom]], join up with [[The Empire]] or [[Omnicidal Neutral|decide to take power for yourself]], but as [[Grey and Gray Morality|there are heroes on both sides]], you end up joining the good guys in whatever faction you join, and you're always fighting against [[Big Bad]] Faulkner (the de facto leader of [[The Empire]]).
* Averted in Panzer Elite Action: Fields of Glory and Panzer Elite Action: Dunes of War. These are action shoot'em'up games (fairly similar to the tank driving stages in the Call of Duty series), and part of the single player mode are German missions. It's interesting that the briefings and the constant dialogue between the tank crew members paints the German soldiers as normal guys that do their duty, just like those heard in the Allied missions.
* Weakly averted in ''[[Fallout: New Vegas]]''. The player character can side with any of three major factions (or none), including the obviously evil Caesar's Legion (who favor subjugation, slavery, misogyny, and crucifixion, among other things). However, none of the recruitable NPCs support the Legion, two will leave the player's service if he follows the Legion, and one ''will actively shoot at Legionaries at every opportunity.'' Needless to say, diplomacy is impossible at this point. Furthermore, in the ''Honest Hearts'' DLC, the player has the choice to choose a violent or peaceful ends to two tribes being forced to deal with the White Legs tribe, who seek to join the Legion, yet no option to assist (or even speak with) the White Legs exists. This is especially jarring for characters who wholeheartedly support the Legion.
** There ''is'' an option to assist the White Legs, but it is easily missed: go on a killing spree. If you kill a quest character, you get a quest to find the map you need, allowing you to finish the DLC without helping the non-White Legs tribes out. You won't get as many ending slides, especially if you don't kill both Joshua Graham and Daniel, and you won't get any achievements, but the alternative is there for the Legion-aligned character.
* The author of a ''Dragon'' article on the "death master", a necromancy-themed character class for 1st Edition AD&D, introduced it by stressing, thusly, that it was designed for NPC villains only:
| |||