Prosthetic Limbs

We can rebuild him!

Limbs are very important to human beings. (Judging by Spore's economy I can personally attest to how much DNA they cost to unlock in the first place.) As such it can be devastating to lose a limb and be forced to readjust to simple life. Luckily, in this enlightened age of ours, there exist handy prosthetic replacements for our lost limbs which can sometimes be as sturdy and versatile as the real thing. 'As good as' isn't enough for video games, however, and for that reason whenever prosthetics make it to the video game world, they often come with so many bells and whistles that one might wonder if it's worth keeping our flabby weak human bodies when we can have some of these incredible creations.

Whether we have a story exploring the limits of humanity in transhumanist philosophies, or simply a game in which an Anime-esque hunk uses his robot arm as a baton; Video games are full of examples of this kind of body modification. I suppose developers can see it as a 'proof of struggle' to lose one's limb, as it can be one of the hardest injuries to overcome. However such developers also realize that few people want to play a game wherein they are subject to a disfigurement, and so out come the robot replacements. That might be a simplification but I'd wager that train of thought legitimately paid some role in the absolute deluge of prosthetic limbs we've seen in games.

One could not start a subject like this without starting with the grandfather of it all; Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker. (Huh, that's two mentions in one week. I might be having another relapse...) Fans might remember a very distinctive prosthetic arm in that game belonging to one- hold on- Vladimir Aleksandrovich Zadornov. (Phew, that's a mouthful.) When first introduced he appears to be a humble college professor travelling with his innocent schoolgirl accomplice who's name is literally 'Paz', which is Spanish for 'peace'. (There's a secret cover story that's trying too hard.) There's only one problem, the man has a bright metal robot hand that doubles as a cigarette lighter. (You get that from grading papers professor?) By the time this incredibly suspicious man, who just happens to hire you to investigate an extra-legal CIA occupation, reveals himself to be a Soviet spy, no one in the audience can manage so much as a pity gasp. Unfortunately this particular prosthetic doesn't prove very useful for Zadornov. Once he gets shot by Big Boss, after attempting an incredibly ill-advised quick draw against 'the world's greatest soldier', he makes a last ditch go for Snake by launching his robot arm with it's built in rocket function (What? Your prosthetic doesn't have one?) only to completely whiff his target and hit the wall. A sad way to go for the world's most conspicuous infiltration operative.

The arm, however, lived on. In the prequel to MGS V, 'Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes', Snake is caught in a helicopter crash that costs him his arm and rugged beauty. (Those scars might have some charm to them but the giant horn-shaped debris sticking out of his forehead will definitely cost him some Tinder matches.) But opportunity arises from tragedy as in 'Metal Gear Solid: the Phantom Pain' his old rival, Shalashaska, (colloquially known as Revolver Ocelot) gives him a replacement arm that is known as 'The Bionic arm'. (Probably because 'The Phantom Limb' made too much sense.) This arm is modelled directly off of Zadornov's, for some reason, all the way down to the red paint job. Player's can even unlock the ability to launch it from their arm down the line, just like the 'professor', except Snake's comes with remote control. (That's how you avoid looking like an idiot, Zardornov, by firing your forearm at your combatants instead of your very functional firearms.)

Okay, so I've never played Devil May Cry 4 (I own it, I'm just a lazy piece of poop) but as far I understand it, there is a point wherein the adorable little cherub Nero has his arm sawn off through means that have never been explicitly discussed. (Bummer.) Rather then settle down and live off his impending disability benefits, Nero lived up to his name-sake and decided to secure a demonic replacement known as Devil Bringer. (Maybe not officially a prosthetic but I'm counting it!) In DMC 5, the platinum haired Nero loses this demonic gift and is forced to replace it with a robotic arm called Devil Breaker. This one has the ability fire unearthly demon beams at enemies, pull them over Scorpion-style in order to prolong a combo, and make it explode. (As you do.) However, Nero is in luck because some charitable soul decided to scatter levels with replacement arms, for some reason. (I guess the NHS are over funded in the DMC universe.)

Of course, there is one classic video game character who's prosthetic is so iconic that most forget he even has it, despite the fact it's really hard to ignore a huge black man with a Vulcan minigun for an arm. As I remember it is never explicitly explained why Barret has his minigun arm, nor why his former friend entrusted him with the raising of his daughter in spite of that aforementioned child-unfriendly implement. Whatever the reason, it means that Barret Wallace if often a stable of any team makeup for FF7 due to his useful ranged attacks and his tankiness. (Primarily for the tankiness.) It sure is encouraging that the Shinra of Midgard allow a man who should be classified as a weapon to walk the streets unhindered. (I bet he doesn't even get stop searched.)

On a more philosophical note 'Deus Ex Human Revolutions' proposed an interesting question; if your body was damaged to such a degree that you required a body worth of robotics in order to live, are you still human? (The ol' 'Ship of Thesus' question. ) Every part of Adam Jensen's body is redesigned by David Sarif into tools for hunting down those that kidnapped legendary scientist Megan Reed. Adam is forced to confront a body he doesn't recognize in a world torn by prejudice against the mechanically enhanced as he unravels the world's deepest cabal. (God, I sound like a movie announcer.) Honestly, this is one of my favourite examples of transhumanism in gaming and I sure hope that Jensen's story gets a third game to round out the story. (For the love of god, Square, I'm begging you!)

Tactical revolution, 'Xcom: Enemy Unknown', encountered some controversy regarding prosthetics when it came to envisioning their expansion/new release: 'Enemy Within'. This arose because the new 'mech units', who were designed to balance against the powerful Alien robotics from the late game, had to be piloted by individuals without arms or legs. (So that the mech suit could act as a replacement.) This meant that those who wanted to turn their soldiers into mech units would have to opt them into a procedure to have their limbs removed and replaced with metallic supplements. At the time there was some hubub by those who thought this was 'glorifying body mutilation', but then there were people who claimed that Xcom 2's badass Alien-head wall was 'unhygenic' so I don't but much stock in the word of outrage warriors.

Hold on. Another Metal Gear mention? I've gone mad with power! As it turns out, there is yet another example of prosthetics in Metal Gear, although this one did go a little overboard. Anime schoolboy stand-in, Raiden, was far-in-large the least cool member of the Metal Gear cast after his debut in Metal Gear Solid 2. Especially in the way that they replaced series icon Snake with a guy who is such a pathetic spy that his girlfriend is on the support line and repeatedly calls him by his real name several times over the airwaves. ("Jack, do you know what day it is?") Hideo Kojima amended this by replacing most of Raiden's body with cybernetics in Metal Gear Solid 4 and having him literally wield a samurai sword into battle. (I'm fairly sure this counts as overcompensation.) In Metal Gear Rising Revengence, Raiden has even more bodyparts replaced and essentially becomes a murder fueled robot of death and destruction. (Without all the philosophical hints that Deus Ex implemented.) Throw in a line where cyborg Raiden utters that infamous line; "The Memes!" and Kojima may have created the ultimate life form.

Bizarrely this is such a common trend across video games that I had to leave out a few of the ideas that I had come up with. (The Sekiro arm is too similar to Devil Breaker anyway.) Personally, I do enjoy the hints of imagination that this particular cliche invokes, not just in gaming, but for story telling in general. That 'body horror' angle mixed with typical badass-ery is just the right blend of surreal cool to make me smile every time; and I look forward to see if future games with this idea, like Cyberpunk 2077, go the whole hog and show all angles, the cool and the weird, all in one package.

When Devs sneak into games

There's a familiar face...

Let's be real with each other for a moment; what is the point of making a video game if you don't get the chance to stick yourself in it? Developers put their hearts, souls, and considerable amounts of working hours into creating these products with the intention of them standing the test of time, don't they deserve to slip themselves in somewhere, maybe in a place so obscure that only they will know? What better place to immortalize yourself than in the digital plainscape wherein your likeness will last for perpetuity? (Or at least until the hardware evolves enough to make your game unplayable.)

In movies we occasionally see the director self-insert in sneaky little ways that makes the audience go 'oh look'! Like in Return of the King when Peter Jackson costumed up like an Orc and got shot in the chest or that time that George Lucas turned his entire family into Star Wars toys. (Okay, maybe not that second one.) Given the opportunity however, such inserts can come across as weird, unearned or pretentious. (Like in Lady in Water wherein M. Night. Shyamalan cast himself as a misunderstood genius martyr.) This is a phenomenon that has crossed over to video games over the decades, with varying results.

Perhaps one of my favourite self-inserts comes from the classic PSP masterpiece: Metal Gear Solid; Peace Walker. (which hails from a franchise spawned from the wonderfully weird mind of Hideo Kojima.) One of the earliest levels of this adventure has Naked Snake, now appointed the title of Big Boss, infiltrating a storehouse in search of missing nukes. (Just like on your normal Saturday.) It is at this point that Peace Walker gives players one of their first glimpse into it's silly side by playing "What's behind that door?" with you. And yes, one door opens up to a room full of wrought iron cogs. ("Metal gears?")As you have likely deduced from this setup, the penultimate door opens up to the kidnapped form of the franchise's visionary director; Hideo Kojima. (Whom Snake apparently knows, seeing as how he instantly recognizes him as "Mr Kojima?") From that point onwards Hideo Kojima joins your personal mercenary army with lackluster skills in everything but tech. Obviously. (One touch that I particularly liked was the way that Kojima's ingame bio notes how his body is made up of "70% games". A reflection of his twitter bio which quotes the statistic as "70% movies".)

The first person cowboy game of the 2000's was Techland's Call of Juarez. Is was gritty, bombastic and even downright cinematic at times, whilst always remembering to pay homage to it's Hollywood western routes. With such a history, it only made sense for the developers to search for a suitably western way to sneak their names into the game, and they achieved exactly that with their wanted posters. That's right, throughout the gameworld the player can come across hidden wanted posters that feature the printed out mugs of various developers wearing cowboy hats and putting on their best desperado face. I suppose this means the next logical step is for the Devs to program themselves in as actual bounties to be hunted by players. (Next game, guys.)

As Metal Gear Solid Peacewalker was the second entry in the 'prequel' series of Metal Gear games, it would be several years before we got a follow-up to let everyone know what happened to everyone's favourite mercenary: Hideo Kojima. When Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes rolled around we got to see exactly that as an extra mission allowed us to cover Kojima in his explosive escape from a recon mission gone wrong. (Not too sure why we sent in the tech guy for that.) However, folk had due concern to be worried for Mr. Kojima's safety considering that Ground Zeroes ends with the violent dissolution of your military force by way of several explosions. Which in hindsight is a little odd considering the base seemed fine after you battled a schoolgirl driving a nuclear mechsuit on top of it. (Metal Gear is a weird series.) Luckily, once Phantom Pain rolled around we got to discover the final fate of Kojima-san. Seems he was one of the 10 survivors of the assault and wound up being caught by the Russian forces in Afghanistan. (Who decided to keep him in the exact same room where the kept, and lost, Kaz. These guys aren't the sharpest tools in the shed, huh?) Therefore it's up to Venom Snake to save Kojima one last time and recruit him once again to the noble job of providing military aid in exchange for funds. (Do you think Kojima is trying to tell us something about what he wants to do after he's done with games?)

During one of the content showcases for Final Fantasy 15, leading up to that game's launch, fans were treated to a custom battle between protagonist Noctis and a unforseen opponent; CEO of Square Enix Yosuke Matsuda. Mr Matsuda showed up out the blue and pretty much creamed the crown prince of Insomnia with his magical sword (Which I'm sure the real Yosuke definitely has.) Fans of this surprise boss (I know you're out there) would have to wait until a whole other game to get a chance to experience the surreal insanity of that fight for themselves. Underrated masterpiece 'NeiR: Automata' was only ever graced with a single DLC; an arena mode called: 3C3C1D119440927. (Really rolls of the tongue.) As you've likely guessed, the secret final boss of this mode is Yosuke Matsuda himself, realized in full 3d bullet-hell glory. Of course, just to put a cherry on top of the whole encounter, half way through the fight, CEO and President of Platinum games, Kenichi Sato, shows up. So if you want two old Japanese business men shouting waves of energy at you (lets be honest, who doesn't?) then NeiR: Automata is the game for you! (PSA: 'NeiR: Automata' is fantastic for a lot of other reasons, I swear! Don't let this one incredibly weird facet put you off!)

You know what game series is even more surreal and weird than Metal Gear? Five nights at Freddies. That is a franchise that built itself around the simple premise of haunted Chuck-e-cheese animatronics and has sense gone on to confuse audiences everywhere with confusing plot twists involving bite victims, animatronics in skin suits and the hungry souls of murdered children. All this comes from the entrepreneuring mind of one; Scott Cawthon, a man who managed to turn his early game development missteps into a wildly successful franchise. (Good for him.) I suppose it was only a matter of time before he managed to work himself into one of the games, and that he did with the weird, bright and occasionally annoying RPG: Fnaf World. ("You won't get tired of my voice, will you?") Months before the impressive fangame 'The Joy of Creation', Fnaf World featured Scott as its final boss to round off this LSD trip of a game. Cawthon is envisioned as his blocky Twitter avatar and spends most of the fight bemoaning his excessive work cycle due to his voracious fans. (Okay buddy, well at least you have fans who want to see your work.)

One franchise that I have a begrudging respect for, even though I could care less for the movies themselves, is the Matrix franchise. It was one of the first legitimate attempts to create a multimedia franchise spanning websites, movies, tv-shows and games. (If only they could all tell interesting stories that aided a bigger narrative. What do you mean that was the intention? Well it didn't work. They sucked.) That being said, I appreciate the Wachowski's attempt to pull something original and unique with the concept of a franchise and I especially appreciate their tongue in cheek little message at the end of the second Matrix game; Path of Neo. That game very much ends like the film, with Neo and Mister Smith duking it out in the remains of The Matrix in a symbolic battle of good versus evil. (Very anime now I come to think about it.) However, this wouldn't work so well for a game (one on one final battle? Lame.) So the Wachowski's amended this fight into a mecha-like battle against one giant Mister Smith made out of several little Mister Smiths. (Creative.) Just before this fight, the game pauses for the Wachowski's to speak directly to the player to explain this change reasoning that this just seemed more fun.

I always do enjoy those little moments when developers go out of their way to remind you of the human element that goes into our favourite games. (Even when they do it in ways that are both super weird and uncomfortable.) It's a way for us to take a look at the faces of the hard working individuals and recognize those that don't get to take the stage at every E3, and for them it's a chance to be immortalized within their work. Who could ask for more?