Corruption

Some faggot kept trying to make a bait corruption thread, but now I'm genuinely curious. Are there any games with solid corruption themes as their central focus.

As a kid, the first few human missions in WC3 really spooked me. I was worried that if I did evil things in a game, it might make me evil in real life. That's a great example of the character not really noticing it, instead of bitching incessantly but going along with it anyway.

Other games have sequences that touch on insanity or mindbreak. Anything that deal with corruption specifically?

Hard mode: corruption, not madness.

Insanity mode: no porn

It’s not what you’re looking for, but Bioware’s corruption “mechanic” in KOTOR (II) and Mass Effect where the character’s appearance changes (and the actions of his companions) based on his behavior sort of counts.

Wololo!

Metroid Prime 3 has a very important corruption mechanic and multiple unique game over sequences depending on how you die, several just to various levels of corruption.

DoWII had a corruption mechanic, but I don't remember ever even considering taking that route, so it must not have been very compelling.


Would you recommend 3? Prime games seem really hit or miss.

This piece of crap and it's "malevolence" bullshit.

This had a whole mechanic about your squad members being corrupted by Chaos. You could get different endings and (iirc) different loot as a result of it.

This was the first thing that popped into my head for some reason. It was done in the most cliche way possible. Pic related got mad because nobody took him seriously and while trying to prove himself he got corrupted by Dracula.

True. This was the only related pic I could find

Glory to the Many

I recongize that voice. That's the VA of Garrett from Thief.
Not surprising given that System Shock was created by the same devs.

They're all really solid

Retro knew exactly what they were doing and I loved it.
RIP

What a way to ruin a perfectly good post

Pretty much anything that changes your character's appearance like Fable or Bioware games like KOTORII has this sort of mechanic. WarcraftIII makes Arthas's transition from Paladin to Deathknight pretty abrupt so I wouldn't consider that corruption.

Fate/Stay Night because the Holy Grail is corrupted. Also Heaven's Feel route.

The corruption system in DoW II: Chaos Rising might have been need if any one of the corrupting items actually were worth the trouble.

Abomination: Project Nemesis, an old real time tactics game, had the corruption of reality. Some technoflesh demon worshiping cultists let loose the monsters from another dimension, you gotta use X-men with guns to stop it while the world around starts changing, human architecture slowly being replaced by alien biotechnological designs. At certain point in the game, even your interface gets warped - vid related.

SotC and SMT3. Or any of the SMTs really.

Prime 3 was bretty fucking good.
Prime 1 was the best. Prime 2 was too rushed IMO, but the final fight is worth it.

Shame that you can't do anyhting important aboard your ship in 3, cause it was neat as fuck to fiddle with the controls in it.
Holy shit really? Never seen those corruption game overs.
Samus feeling so sick she has to remove her helmet to puke was absolutely magistral
Prime 1 Samus model is still the best

borderlands, the pre sequel

you just checked the TvTropes page for karma meter didn't you?
for shame, don't ever mention that garbage in my presence.

Fable and Kotor2 had good corruption mechanics, some force powers and feats were locked behind Sith path like Force Crush and similar stuff while in Fable it was mainly cosmetic (both good and evil spells are the same its only visuals that are different) and sometimes guards/civilian NPCs will run in fear from you.

Have you ever heard of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim?
It's an open world RPG (directed by Todd Howard) with literally infinite quests!
I won't spoil the story for you, but one quest involves uncovering a conspiracy in a golden city.

Ah. I didn't fully read the OP and got excited to Toddpost.
I thought that you mean government corruption.

Make way for the true Lord of Calamity who did absolutely nothing wrong.

The mechanic was ok in kotor, I really hated the fact that Kreia acted all wise and shit telling you the greatest mysteries cant be learned by falling to the dark side or by being a shut in hermit jedi either.
Except that its exactly what you need to do to unlock "the highest mysteries", so the shit you're told and gameplay mechanics clash a little.

If you die during Hypermode you get a game over where the normally red blood is blue from the Phazon infusion. If you die from corruption (your meter filling after staying in Hypermode too long) you transform into Dark Samus and get a game over. It's pretty fuckin neat.

People tend to forget that Kotor2 was not a finished game, 18 months of development time was cut from it and because of that several characters in game are contradicting themselves or lacking proper things about them like Kreia constantly contradicting herself throughout the game with her "wisdom" and actions. Cut of development time also explains why last 2 chapters and ending were garbage.

Kreia was supposed to be the main enemy of Light side playthrough while Atris was the Dark side enemy, after they lost development time they just mashed both Light side and Dark side playthrough to Kreia so she became this bipolar person.

I was slightly hyped to play an edgy chick but then she just turned into an angsty emo antihero instead of being edgy baddie for the sake of being one.

Fable was a flawed game and all, but your character's hair slowly falling off and the horns growing was pretty fucking cool now that I reminisce.

Tropico 5 kinda fits since you can spend all the island's GDP on improving the lives of its citizens or instead funnel it to your swiss bank account and spend it leveling up, making your (the player's) life easier instead.

Spec Ops: The Line is the only game that does it right.

It's ok, user, the apology got a genuine laugh out of me.

CoC :^)

Jak 2

That and aging+scarring.
Shame Fable 2-3 didn't focus on more immersion and mechanics vs. THEMATIC STORY TELLING

It might have a lot of faggotry to it and an unbearable fanbase but undertale does in many ways handle "corruption" themes in novel and effective ways where in every encounter you have the option to be evil if you so chose.

Path of Exile has a strong corruption theme going through the entire lore.