So i just finished Metro Exodus (thanks Game Pass) and because I am nothing if not an achievement whore I made a point of doing most of the side-missions and playing in a way that would get me the "good" ending. The game ended, it was all quite dramatic and of course i was curious to see how the bad ending went. Huge spoilers for the ending of Metro Exodus, you have been warned etc.
So at the end of Metro Exodus you stumble your way through an area with what the game describes as radiation levels "off the charts". Setting aside the issues with that alone the game ending kicks in after a fairly pedestrian QTE where the main character, Atryom, is all wounded and struggling to survive after getting the magical McGuffin cure to his sick love interest and so on, all fairly standard and slightly cliched stuff. Apparently a blood transfusion is enough to cure catastrophic levels of radiation sickness (wonder why this wasn't a plot point in the HBO Chernobyl series?). If you have played nice and and kept the murdering to a minimum most of your crew should survive and you are cured. Happy ending ensues. If you play it like a typical Doom FPS and murder everyone in sight or even in self defence you're likely to get the bad ending because there won't be enough crew members to provide you with precious lifesaving (and radiation curing) blood.
If you get this ending all the characters are upset and Love Interest Anna is sad and Artyom dies. Which is supposed to be played as this tragic moment and i felt... nothing. Because Artyom is a silent protagonist. I already wasn't invested in much of the plot because in all honesty the voice acting is... distractingly rough to put it nicely and the plot doesn't really go anywhere after a promising start. Maybe i'm just cold and dead on the inside but i have been invested in characters' relationships in the past. Something like say Wolfenstein's BJ & Anya i felt actual legitimate emotions for and rooted for them. The ending for Wolfenstein 2 TNC is one of those great triumphant moments that would have lost so much of the impact had BJ kept his mouth shut for the duration of his games.
I've always thought silent protagonists are kind of dumb if the game has any interest in having a plot because you get that ludicrous situation where characters just talk at you without getting a response which is the most unnatural thing ever. What is kind of baffling and somewhat unique in Artyom's case is that he isn't actually totally silent. He has a voice over in the loading screens when he narrates the journey. Which is even stranger, i always thought the whole point of a silent protag was to help the player see themselves as that character but it kind of loses the point a bit if he still gets voiced in some parts of the game. I just can't really get invested in a character that doesn't speak even if the world itself is a compelling one. Dishonored (not played 2 yet, it's next on the list) is a prime example, I fucking love the world building in that game and the characters are great apart from Corvo himself, I think i would have got sucked in even more if he was properly voiced.
Thoughts?
So at the end of Metro Exodus you stumble your way through an area with what the game describes as radiation levels "off the charts". Setting aside the issues with that alone the game ending kicks in after a fairly pedestrian QTE where the main character, Atryom, is all wounded and struggling to survive after getting the magical McGuffin cure to his sick love interest and so on, all fairly standard and slightly cliched stuff. Apparently a blood transfusion is enough to cure catastrophic levels of radiation sickness (wonder why this wasn't a plot point in the HBO Chernobyl series?). If you have played nice and and kept the murdering to a minimum most of your crew should survive and you are cured. Happy ending ensues. If you play it like a typical Doom FPS and murder everyone in sight or even in self defence you're likely to get the bad ending because there won't be enough crew members to provide you with precious lifesaving (and radiation curing) blood.
If you get this ending all the characters are upset and Love Interest Anna is sad and Artyom dies. Which is supposed to be played as this tragic moment and i felt... nothing. Because Artyom is a silent protagonist. I already wasn't invested in much of the plot because in all honesty the voice acting is... distractingly rough to put it nicely and the plot doesn't really go anywhere after a promising start. Maybe i'm just cold and dead on the inside but i have been invested in characters' relationships in the past. Something like say Wolfenstein's BJ & Anya i felt actual legitimate emotions for and rooted for them. The ending for Wolfenstein 2 TNC is one of those great triumphant moments that would have lost so much of the impact had BJ kept his mouth shut for the duration of his games.
I've always thought silent protagonists are kind of dumb if the game has any interest in having a plot because you get that ludicrous situation where characters just talk at you without getting a response which is the most unnatural thing ever. What is kind of baffling and somewhat unique in Artyom's case is that he isn't actually totally silent. He has a voice over in the loading screens when he narrates the journey. Which is even stranger, i always thought the whole point of a silent protag was to help the player see themselves as that character but it kind of loses the point a bit if he still gets voiced in some parts of the game. I just can't really get invested in a character that doesn't speak even if the world itself is a compelling one. Dishonored (not played 2 yet, it's next on the list) is a prime example, I fucking love the world building in that game and the characters are great apart from Corvo himself, I think i would have got sucked in even more if he was properly voiced.
Thoughts?
