I'll warn you now, there is a wall of text ahead and this has a few spoilers placed in that are from recent games.

Maybe I'm jaded, maybe I'm not. I've played games for quite some time now, and I've watched storytelling in games advance exponentially. However, very few producers seem to give the same motivation the character you are playing has. That's a bit cryptic, so I'll give an example.

Halo. Yes, I get it. There's an alien invasion and they're the bad guys. The chief kills them before they kill all of us. There's no real emotional connection. The story is too far from reality for the player to actually get attached. There's nothing driving the player aside from the challenge of the game and an interest of what will happen next in the story. We did not witness anything enough to draw us in outside of the action.

Max Payne is a step closer but not quite there. Mobsters killed his family and now he is on a vendetta. A compelling story has been produced to give the character, Max, a huge motivation and a reason to go on a rampage... but not us. We do not share this desire to get revenge like Max does. Its a great story, but it gives the player no true motivation.

So what exactly am I asking for in a game? Its simple. A defining moment where the player will feel the same thing the character that is he/she is playing feels. A reason to hate the bad guys beyond "Well, You're supposed to." Its a story device I see all too rarely in games. Sure, some RPGs try to give you this. The most famous example is FFVII, but you knew Aries for 15 minutes before she got killed. She never played a big enough role in the game for her death to matter anywhere beyond a sense of disappointment that you lost a character you had invested some time in. You weren't mad at Sepiroth for killing her. You were pissed at the game for negating any hard work you had put in to leveling Aries. This may be an outrageous assumption, but it holds true for the bit of gamers that I've have been around.

Warning you again, SPOILERS.

So, what games got it right? Well, two come to mind off the top of my head. The Darkness and Half Life 2: Ep. 2. In the Darkness you get to meet Jackie's girlfriend. Not only do you meet her, but you spend quite a bit of time with her and even like the character they've built. There's a small connection many will feel towards this nice girl(Whose name escapes me at the moment). That's even more rare of an event, to create a character that the player will feel a connection to. And then, there was her brutal killing, right in front of your eyes. At that moment, I... me, not my character, said to myself, "Oh, those fucking assholes. They will die for that!" I had the same feeling, albeit not as powerful, as Jackie did. I had the same motivation as him at this point. The mob would die because they took away someone I cared for.

HL2 did this as well. In fact, they did it better. You spend 3 games with these characters who you genuinely like. Alyx, Eli... hell, even Dog and Lamar are likable. Valve created believable characters who were likable and you got to know. However, it took until the end of HL2:Ep2 before I had any motivation. Up until that gut wrenching finale, the player is given no real motivation aside from they want you dead and you can't beat the game if you're dead. They hadn't taken anything from me. They were just doing the all too cliche, taking over the eath and you're the one man to stop 'em story. Then they killed Eli, while you had no choice but to watch. Pinned by the bug, you sat there and saw them kill this 'person' who had always been a kind, guiding voice to you. Gentle and nice, he was taken from you by the combine. And they did it in front of his daughter. After maybe 3 minutes of jaw dropped silence, listening to Alyx cry in to the credits, I had motivation. I wanted them dead. Not Gordon Freeman. Me. Walking in to Episode 3, I will be wanting them dead. Every last one and with a passion.

Its a genius and compelling plot device to help strip away the detachment between player and game and one all too unused. Why should I save the world? Why should I have to put myself through hell and back? Why should I care? How many games have you played where those questions aren't answered. Sure, you know why your character is doing these ridiculous feats... but why should I?

So I leave you with three questions. What games have I missed that did this and are there any other plot devices in games that produce the same effect that I've overlooked and am I completely off base with this observation?

Hey don't forget Mass Effect choosing between Kaidan and Ashely is always a tough one for me I like them both it is just so damn hard to choose and when I chose Ashely I wanted to kill Saren for taking away one of the few characters in that game that I actually knew a lot about and combined with Shepards reaction I was gung ho to kill Saren for making me do that I hated that choice but it made me think "Damn, I miss Kaidan" and its all because the conversations with him were interesting and to me sometimes funny.

In cinema, Roger Ebert cites Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch" as the real turning point in the change of death in the movies; from being an act that carries emotional gravity of its own accord to becoming a means of expressing masculine power. Generally speaking, the latter tends to make for a more exciting action game experience, while the former has been appropriately applied elsewhere.

Well in a movie it had to be Cyclops in X-Men III because we knew him so long and I was a fan of his power I was genuinely shocked when they killed him I was pissed.

To the OP, speak for yourself. While you may not have had any attachment in "Halo" or "FFVII", it doesn't mean that nobody else did. And while you were pissed at HL2s ending, I for one thought "eh, sucks for him" and moved on. To answer the kind of question you are asking, the whole "what games and/or characters will I care about" is impossible. I don't know you, and I don't know what your tastes are. A more appropriate way to phrase it would be "what games made you feel attached?", and I think there is already a thread like that. Although I may be mistaken.

WTF EDIT: How in the holy hell does Reasonable Doubt have over 1k posts in four days!? Is that even legal?

And to answer you question qbert4ever I post a lot happy with my answer.

Maybe its because I've been so desencitised to violence (my very first game evr being Wolfenstien 3D at the age of 5, and my favurite movies being the Alines and Peditor serise) but i really couldnt give you an answer. Sorry, maybe your asking the wrong people.

Due to the fact I can't think of any off the top of my head... I'm guessing very few, if any, story driven games I've played have made me feel a great amount of connection or compassion for the characters.

LordCraigus:
I'm guessing very few, if any, story driven games I've played have made me feel a great amount of connection or compassion for the characters.

Not true, Half-Life made us conect with Alyx more than was considered possible. And in Ep 2 when the Hunter spiked her i've never mashed the control that much trying to move

I probably am starting to sound obsessed, but.. Persona 3.

I've tried to stop mentioning it in every thread, but it just fits this one way too well. Here you are, spending every in-game day with these dorm mates, and watching them slowly evolve as the events of the story unfold. You feel the tension as you have to go through weeks where something big is going to happen, but the game doesn't throw you right at it. You discover the passions and weaknesses of the characters, and you start to develop your own reason for fighting (maybe, guess all that depends how drawn into it you get).

And so when one of the characters dies or even gets injured, it's practically devastating. But maybe that's just me. Perhaps I am obsessed, who knows.

Mine was in Half Life 2: Ep 2, when you and Alex are pinned by the advisor. Even though the resistance member was already dead, I still felt sorry for the guy who gets his brain eaten. I actually felt fear when Gordan was an inch away from the advisor's tongue a moment later. I've not got up to the ending yet, but I hate how Eli will soon die. Loved that guy.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories kills Denise near to the end, and I pitied Vic so badly. I took joy in the final mission, killing the Mendez brother (whose name I forget).
I'm sure there are more, as games are getting better at the whole making us feel for the characters thing.

I felt a little bit of pride when crushing skulls in oblivion, this is MY house! get back dremora! feel the power of ORC!

Reasonable Doubt:
Hey don't forget Mass Effect choosing between Kaidan and Ashely is always a tough one for me I like them both it is just so damn hard to choose and when I chose Ashely I wanted to kill Saren for taking away one of the few characters in that game that I actually knew a lot about and combined with Shepards reaction I was gung ho to kill Saren for making me do that I hated that choice but it made me think "Damn, I miss Kaidan" and its all because the conversations with him were interesting and to me sometimes funny.

Ha, I barely hesitated on that part after I realized it was either or. I love the characters but I thought "well I need ashley more than kaidan so bye bye kaiden" - I also thought "WHAT THE **** THE BOMB IS RIGHT OVER THERE!! I CAN GO BACK, and STILL get to Kaiden because he is also RIGHT OVER THERE BY THE AA TOWER!" - not to mention that I have two squadmates to go back and help either one of them. Anyway, after realizing that one of them was going to die I just thought "well I need ashley and the bomb is more important."

EDIT: OH, I forgot that you have to give either Ashley or Kaiden (or neither) to the salarians so I guess it's a different scenario for everyone.

Yeah, when Alyx got stabbed by the hunter in HL2:E2 I was smashing away at WASD trying to move so I could stop the little robotic bastard. And every time I met another hunter in the game I would try to kill in the most painful ways possible. And when Eli was killed I seriously just couldn't move. It stunned me, and now I can't wait for HL2:E3 just to kill some Combine advisers. Valve really made some damn engaging characters that you care about.

I would also say the choice between Ashley or Kaiden in Mass Effect, but I didn't really like Kaiden since he's voiced by the same guy who voiced Carth in KOTOR, so I let him die.

I'm going to say Fable: The Lost Chapters. Jack of Blades is taunting you and taunting you throughout the entire game, and you get so close to attacking him several times, but he always ends up getting away and making more smug remarks. Right from the get-go, your father [and entire town] die because of him, so you already have some motivation, but when you finally get your chance for revenge, he kills your mom, too. And since your character is a moral extension of you, it hits pretty hard [The first time around, anyway]. And then after you beat him, you find out a year later that the motherfucker didn't even die. He's just so persistently annoying and smug. And this is just me, but I hate it when people are obnoxiously smug and constantly shoving it in your face that you can't beat them. I really wanted that bitch dead.

I'm also going to second the HL2:Ep.2 motion.

What about CoD4? The part where you die really shows the true nature of war and gets across CoD4's message.

Sure, but that doesn't give you much motivation for anything. I mean, you're dead. What more can you do? If anything, that was for the shock value. Everyone expects to play a war game to kill the shit out of the enemy and win. No one plays a war game to get caught in a nuclear explosion and die. It really shocked the player out of the sense of "I am The One" back down to "Wow, my character is human and can die like everyone else."

You should try Crisis Core. I thought they used character deaths rather well, Zack's and Angeal's mainly. I remember after getting the Buster Sword I was definitely ready to kill that bastard of a scientist and Genesis.

And don't get me started on Zack's death. To this day it's one of the most awe inspiring set of scenes from a video game I've ever witnessed. Shinra deserved to die after what they did.

Reasonable Doubt:
Well in a movie it had to be Cyclops in X-Men III because we knew him so long and I was a fan of his power I was genuinely shocked when they killed him I was pissed.

I thought the same thing! He's only the leader of the X-men and he is killed offscreen without so much as a whimper. But really it was the Hugh Jackman/Halle Berry show so I shouldn't have been surprised.

[SPOILER]

In Bioshock when Andrew Ryan blew up the bathysphere with Atlas' wife and kid at first I blamed myself for not being fast enough; so I reloaded the section and tried again. Once I realised there was nothing I could do I swore a swift and bloody revenge on Ryan.

Boy did I get a shock.

Come on! Bloodlines! They kill your ghoul! There aren't any closer relationships than that. Poor bloodslave!

Prey has quite a dramatic death scene early on. Too bad the game degenerates into a simple (sick) horror shooter soon after that. The first half hour that you 'play' (as in, half of it is a cutscene in which you can look around) is pretty damn good though.

Another one would be Brothers in Arms. You see Leggett die in the very beginning, but as you go back in time, you'll see what a tough time he had by simply being in your 'oversized' squad (there were 13 instead of 12 soldiers, though 1 never got out of the plane on d-day), then getting blamed for the deaths of a few squadmates because there just had to be a scapegoat.
Even a simple discussion between who would win: Batman or Superman, made the characters just that tad more realistic; those people aren't real killing machines. They just wanted to get back home, preferably not in a box.

What fascinates me about the death in HL2 EP2 is how unceremoniously it all happens. It's pretty much "one moment he's alive, the other he's dead", and after that, the game is just over without a sense of closure.

It sounds like i'm criticizing all these things, but actually, it gave some realistic vibe to the event that made it for me all the more dramatic.

It's kinda like Serenity, when

These "unheroic" deaths do much for realism and kill the usual expectation that every character you like will make it out alive, so that what follows will be all the more exciting and dangerous.

Well in Oblivion I very much wanted to have Camaran's head on a stick for Uriel's murder. The man had 3 of his sons killed so you have to pity him. Than with Stewart as voice actor he was really tragic sorta like your grandfather you know is going to die but you can't stop it.

For me it has always been Biggs and Wedge in FF7. Their death haunted me throughout the game. I took down that one-winged bastard for those two. /Salute
Then again, I get this kind of feeling pretty easily. Even MMOG characters and overarching story hits me pretty hard. To me it's all about the believable world, not the character. When a world is painted so well, it draws you in, and every character becomes more real. Warcraft series fits this category for me. After so many games, and novels, the lore solidifies, and I feel like I can relate much more to the "world". That's why that bastard Arthas is going to have his skull crushed by my hammer some day. Lord Uther will be avenged!

The diary of Vilenus Donton, a guild fledgeling who dies unceremoniously by a combination of trolls and insane mercenaries, was quite moving for me. Escpecially since the last words written down are a message to his mother.

Also, I too was moved by the death of Jackie's girlfriend. To this day, I can't see blood spattered on glass without shedding a manly tear.