At the end of the day, the hero gets the girl (or guy) and ends of saving the day. Sure, there might be a few causalities along the way, like Aerith from Final Fantasy VII, but at the end of the day, the hero lives to tell another tale.
Not is the case for Clayton Carmine of the Gears of War series. Here we have a hero whose fate is up to the players. Right now, on XBL, you can buy a t-shirt saying “Carmine Must Die” or “Save Carmine”. For 80 MSP, fans of the series will be able to vote on this hero’s fate. Not only do you get to choose but all proceeds from each avatar shirt purchase goes to Child’s Play.
It’s nice to see that fans of a series are in control of what happens to the hero at the end. The majority of video games out there always have the hero alive and well by the final cut scene.
Only a few give you the choice, based on your actions, if they live or die.
Dragon Age: Origins allows us to create the hero for the story. Here we watch the hero start off in their normal life before being trusted into an adventure. By the end of the game you have to choose to sacrifice yourself or someone else.
I’m sure the same will be said for Dragon Age 2, where this time around you play as Hawke, a human that survived the Blight and is the Champion of Kirkwall. You will be able to choose between a male or female version of Hawke and I’m 98% sure that his/her fate will be up to the person playing it.
Mass Effect 2 is another game that gives us the choice of the hero’s fate. Not so much in the first installment, but with its sequel, your actions throughout the game determine if the hero lives or dies at the end.
Both games mentioned above are from Bioware, a great company that allows the player to take control of the characters and to shape their story and fate on how we see it fit, based on what we would do and our own moral code.
It’s always great to see the hero survive at the end but every once in a while, to make a hero that much better, they must fall.
