Multiverse, time travelling, and ruin – oh my!

There have just been way too many games recently that have been using the time travelling and parallel dimensions idea.

As interesting as these ideas are, they are sometimes the downfall for many titles – they destroy a good game by overcomplicating things.

Here is a list of my worst story destroyers in gaming thanks to the implementation of time travelling through multiverses – warning, there are spoilers ahead.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 / Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII

Not only did XIII-2 include time travelling but it also had alternate versions of different worlds in it too. Using the Historia Crux, Sarah and Noel, a time travelling warrior from 700 AF, travel through different times to save the timeline and to hopefully find Lightning at the end of all this.

Sounds pretty basic right? Wrong. Everything that takes place during the game is re-implemented in Lighting Returns, like nothing ever happened. Hope is young again, Lightning has awoken with other intentions compared to the ending of XIII-2. What happened within the 500 years that passed? Many relationships between characters were erased or forgotten.

All we can rely on is the idea of a “time paradox”. Bringing in the idea of time travelling and multiverse exploration not only confused the hell out of players but also took the once forgiving storyline and created chaos. I did not see this one coming at the end of the original XIII.

Bioshock Infinite

Bioshock was one of the greatest games of its time; exploring Rapture was a breath-taking experience. The same goes for Bioshock Infinite, beautiful action-packed entertainment – until the end.

During the last few moments in the game the story takes a turn for the worst. We discover that Columbia is just another version of an Infinite numbers of worlds, and that every time something happens a new version is created that has a different outcome. So you pick up a shotgun and another version is created where you didn’t pick up the shotgun, for example.

The simplicity of the original game’s story set the bar for the franchise, the ending of Infinite single-handedly destroyed everything we once knew Bioshock for. Everything that happened in the past games was now questionable.

Was Andrew Ryan who we thought he was? Were we another version of Andrew Ryan stuck in another universe? Was Comstock actually Andrew Ryan? With an Infinite number of worlds comes and infinite number of questions, and with the closure of developer Irrational Games, we may never have closure on all the possibilities.

Ken Levine took a simple yet effective storyline and created a mess that he will never be able to piece back together. I can’t take the story seriously any more knowing that anything is possible and that whatever we are fighting for or trying and achieve will be for nothing, if the opposite is created somewhere else.

The story and the fight has become pointless, and Rapture has become another outcome that could have just stayed a twisted city under the sea.

InFAMOUS Series

What a great game – an open world, super powers, and a great story – until the plot twist at end. Just before the credits roll you find out that the final boss is actually you from the future, come to warn you about the future; You then tell your future self that you hate him, but take his advice anyway.

inFAMOUS decided to drop the time travelling bomb right when you thought it was all over. Now that would be okay if it carried on in the sequel; if Kessler was the future Cole then why is the future Cole not Kessler? If the past Cole now knew about The Beast, surely the future Cole would change? What happens in the past changes the future right?

Why, when the sequel was announced, was Cole totally different character (with hair)? How serious were the creators about their original storyline, that they then abandoned their old character completely? It just felt like a tacked-on afterthought.

Castlevania Lords of Shadow 2

I cannot begin to describe the confusion that comes with Lords of Shadow 2. The game features a parallel Castlevania that you often get teleported to at random times. Here you come face to face with characters that are supposed to be dead, and these characters muddle the once-simple story line.

The worst thing is Dracula pretends that it’s all okay; that this world that we don’t even know is real, is normal to him. This idea creates disaster during the game – you often are confused as to what’s happening or even where to go. Every time you unwillingly teleport to the parallel castle you are in a new place doing something different, swerving from the objective you had in the alternate Castlevania.

This unfortunately does not gel for me – it seems like a sad way to cover up the idea of the modern day Castlevania, like the developers would go back to the old Castlevania if they could, and clearly they want us to spend more time in it.

Do you have any examples of games let down by their overcomplicated stories? Let us know in the comments below.