50 Oh. My. God. Moments @ Edge Online

Oh. My. God!!! at Edge Online looks at 50 "awe-inspiring" moments in gaming. The list covers the gamut from console to PC, 80's to the latest, with a (very) short description of the memorable moment from each game. Titles of interest to us include Fallout, Thief, Deus Ex, Diablo, Knights of the Old Republic and Oblivion (spoilers apply).
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Even more spoilers....

Dang youngsters don't remember the terrible end that came to Floyd in Planetfall.

Or what about that level in No One Lives Forever where you jump out of an airplane with no parachute? Or the tornado level in the game's sequel?

Final Fantasy 7 has two or three OMG moments, including the biggest spoiler of all spoilers, which I'm not even going to say 10 years later in a post marked with spoiler warnings.

Or the Descent games? I can still hear that female computer voice counting down. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Zero. Won a few levels when she was in the middle of saying "zero", too.

Going to the MMO's... Asheron's Call, early in the game's life. Being out in a storm at night and seeing something out of the corner of my eye when lightning struck. Then looking north when lightning struck again and seeing Hopeslayer on the horizon.

Something more recent - Mass Effect and using the Conduit.

Doom, the very start of the very first level. Going up on that platform and looking out at the mountains. The graphics (at the time) were just insane!!

Doom again - the "Aliens" mod. The fact that somebody could change a game this much floored me, plus it was fun!

Back to Infocom, this time with Hitchiker's Guide - finally getting the Bable Fish into my ear.

And, since I just mentioned it in another news topic, Sacrifice - getting hit by a Tornado spell.

System Shock 2. Oh look, little lab monkies! Am I supposed to attack them or free them or.... GHAAA!! They're shooting fireballs at me!?!?! {boom} {splat}

Oblivion - finally stepping out of the prison cave and seeing those super graphics. Then, just a year later (?), getting that same feeling again at "First Light" in Crysis.

Xenosaga 1 - Albedo ripping his own head off just for dramatic effect.

In a completely different "OMG" sense, doing the "Man contest" in Shadow Hearts: Covenant. Come to think of it, there were several of those kinds of OMG moments in that particular game. (And it was rated T!)

As for the article:

- Half-Life 2 Going to Ravenholm 2004: Yawn. Compared to the Haunted Hotel in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Ravenholm is tedium.

- Oblivion 'Dark Brotherhood' - yes, this is the closest thing to actually making a choice - yet as always with the fluffy RPG-lite, there really are no choices, no repercussions, you do it or not. You can destroy everyone and still be the most holy paladin. No choices, no consequences, no role-playing.

So ... what moments stick with me?

- SS Attack! In the original Castle Wolfenstein (Apple ][+, 1981), you would eventually develop a strategy to get by guards using stealth ... but the SS was much smarter and didn't fall for disguises! They would chase you from room to room as well ... it was nasty!

- "Thanks for nothing!" In Karateka (Apple ][+, 1984), after you beat the end boss and freed the princess you approached her for the final rescue and to be rewarded with the end scene. But if you were in fighting stance she's kick you in the head and kill you!

- Jedi Training: Jedi Knight II (PC, 2002) wasn't nearly the first Star Wars game, nor the first lightsaber game. Yet there was something special - unlike the original Jedi Knight, where you would be using a wide variety of weapons right to the end of the game, JKII was the first game to really make you *feel* like a Jedi. And it all starts on Yavin IV. After working through the initial planets and waves of mine-crabs, you land on Yavin, and meet with Luke Skywalker. From there you enter a training ground, the John Williams themes start swirling, and you experience a simple but cathartic change. This is one of my absolute favorite moments in all of gaming.

txa1265 said:

As for the article:

- Half-Life 2 Going to Ravenholm 2004: Yawn. Compared to the Haunted Hotel in Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, Ravenholm is tedium.

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And compared to the Shalebridge Cradle in Thief: Deadly Shadows, Oceanside is tedium. (It's a bit of a shame that the rest of the game wasn't up to that standard.)

That said, I *did* enjoy slicing headcrab zombies in two by shooting buzzsaw blades at (or, rather, through) them.

These people have a very poor idea of what constitutes a "what the hell" moment. The trial scene from Chrono? What? How about the moment where Chrono suddenly and willingly sacrifices his life against Lavos and Queen Zeal, after having spent the majority of the game largely being mute and soulless?

God of War causing a "lingering sense of guilt" over a random soldier is really pushing it.

And once again, people bring up the obvious "You are Revan" without ever mentioning Planescape: Torment, which did it far better and way before.

Some of my OMG! moments in gaming:

* Planescape: Torment has so many of these I can barely count them. Let's see:
- Waking up in the Mortuary and having Morte read the "notes to self" tattooed on my own back.
- Unlocking Dak'kon's powers by unfolding the wisdom of Zerthimon, leaf by leaf...
- ...and then discovering what it *really* was.
- Kissing Fall-From-Grace.
- Disrupting a Sensate lecture on the nature of Death.
- Finding, and unlocking, the dodecahedron puzzle.
- Talking Vhailor into joining the party.
- Discovering what Trias really was up to.
- Discovering what Morte's story really was.
- The first, and then the last, encounter with Deionarra.
- And, last but *definitely* not least, the final meeting with The Transcendent One.

Every one of these was more of an OMG! moment than pretty much anything in that list. It's just a shame the game *plays* so damn badly. But... there are a few others, too.

* Hobbes's treachery in Wing Commander III (or was it IV?)
* Getting my eyes in Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
* The encounter with Master Li in the Imperial Palace in Jade Empire.
* (Also: the rather surprising denouement of the romance subplots in it a little later.)
* The denouement of the Noonwraith quest in The Witcher.
* The encounter with the Lady of the Lake in the same.
* The return to Vizima when the war was fully on, in the same.

Whoo, there's more, actually -- in BG2 and in MotB at least. Maybe later...

Biggest such moment for me was the revelation of the protagonists real identity in KotOR. I wasn't even looking for the clues of the real identity, and then it all fell into place so suddenly. An incredible scene.

You mentioned most that I would post. How about:

- Wolfenstein 3D, end of first level. Behind the last door to freedom, guy with machinegun attached to his arms. "Gutentag!!!!" *TAKATAKATAKATAKATAKA*

- Or Doom: the Cyberdemon. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. Thunk. KABOOOM BOOM BOOOM!

I still remember those vividly to this day.

Oh, and thanks for spoiling the big KOTOR twist, article. I was planning on finishing that game in the next 5-10 years.

Reads more like a typical favorite games list than an OMG-moments specific list.

Unreal (no, not Tournament, just Unreal - anyone remember?) - when you leave prison ship at the beginning of the game.

Unreal - first encounter with Napali guys.

Thief 2 - Thieve's higway (rooftop level).

Thief (all) - OMG! It's loot here (by "here" I mean place you didnt know although you played game for months)

Space Quest, Larry, Police Quest etc (old ones) - OMG! I ve found right word

Another World (US Title: Out of this world) - one big OMG!

Fade To Black - OMG! Its 3D!

Gothic - OMG! Orcs are chasing me!

Pitfall (Atari 800XL) - I ve managed to jump over lion (or whatever those pixels were)!! OMG!

Elite/Frontier - OMG Its so huge!

Comanche (old 386 4MB ram) - those graphics! (novalogic's "voxels")

Alone In The Dark 1 - intro and someone's hand when he or it watches as you arrive (scaaarry!)

Mortal Kombat - "Finish him!" - OMG its sick!

Carmageddon - OMG! Its even more sick!

Postal 2 - If above were sick than this is... OMG!

Ecstatica - OMG! What the _hell_ is going on here

Popolous - Oh my GOD Im GOD!

Max Payne - ohhhhhhhh myyyyyyyy gooooodddddd (slow motion)

Spy vs Spy (Atari 800XL) - (split screen) oh my god, faster, faster, oh my god, almost done, almost , oh my god, just one more trap, oh my god!! YEEESSS!!

Cannon Fodder (Amiga) - OMG what a song! ("War - never been so much fun, War - never been so much fun, go to your brother kill him with your gun, War...")

Quake - omg, muuum, what problem is to buy me a new pentium. muuum?

Descent - OMG where is up, where is down, where am I?

Messiah (PC) - OMG I can be a rat! I can be anyone!

Mario Bros - OMG I ve finished it to the left (no its a joke, really, dont try it)

Call of Cthulhu - night in the motel

Horde (PC) - scaaaarrryyyy!! (or maybe I was young )

Settlers - OMG no more coal.. shit!!

Thief (all serie) - OMG I can climb there (rope arrows)

enough

I'd prolly add Bloodlines and Torment as mentioned, but on top of that my personal pick would definitely include at least one bit from Pathologic. Probably the first time you go through your rounds, checking up on the allies you've made in town and seeing one of those Executors silently standing in front of his door, and realising what it means. Or possibly the first time you're really faced with the moral conundrum as you watch a child scamper into an alleyway and realise you may be forced to choose between his survival or your own.

Pathologic is an incredible game, but on the other hand I can hardly blame lists like these for not including it.

The only one I'd agree with from his list is Wolfenstein 3D. Not for the Hitler part I never knew about but just hte fact that it was smooth scrolling..heh.

Pong - OMG I moved the light bar on the screen and it hit the light ball...

Wiz 1 - OMG this is the same maze I just entered - they aren't random. OMG this game takes up the ENTIRE (360k) floppy disk - BOTH SIDES!

U4 -
OMG, I paid nothing for the reagents from the blind lady and my virtues have dropped to nothing. It seems obvious now but that was radical game design back then - he invented it!
Also, hey I managed to kill the guy in the city..and he's gone for good!

Neuromancer - the ending - you died. Your mysterious benefactor was turned out to be one of the super AI's (its ALWAYS super AI's in Gibson's books) that had been leading you through the whole game . She traps you into a mysterious part of cyberspace set up like paradise while she escaped from her artificial constraints. She says thanks sucker, leaves and then you slowly..ever so slowly..die.

In KotOR I agree everything started to fall into place - I think I even realized it in the beginning. Neverthless, the way it was built up to was really well done.
More surprising to me however was the site of the Sith-lord and why he kept the lower half od his face covered: he no longer had a jaw and spoke through a speaker attachment where his mouth used to be. Now that was shocking and it was a nice throw-back to Darth Vader.

Ghosts and Goblins - you won the game by using fire to kill the end boss - the weakest and worst of all the weapons you can pick up.

Gauntlet - MP games until this point had largely been in the form of duels and quickly rejected by gamers as a rip off. Gauntlet, of course, was co-op. The complexity of one of the original quartersuckers probably saved Atari.

The OMG moment came when shots stun other players and shots hurt other players.

One time a 10 year old came into the arcade and had a fifty dollar bill and shoved it all into Warrior and was a complete dork running through ghosts and eating every food he could get - this went on for an hour as he was letting the other players get killed with his selfishness. (I watched kids play games for entertainment back in those days) The teenager he was ticking off sat there with his last quarter until at last, Shots Now Stun Other Players and Shots Now Hurt Other players. He then jumped in with his lone quarter and the two other kids suddenly got the same idea when he started pounding the Warrior kid repeatedly over and over dragging down his 1000's of health points by the second. The kid started screaming and finally ran to the plug and pulled it before screaming and crying out of the arcade. Good times. The kid probably still had $25 in the machine at that point.

Another OMG is U9. OMG, this thing doesn't even start!

Another moment they might have added to the list was in Starcraft, when Sarah Kerrigan gets abandoned to the Zerg. No! Not Sarah!

The betrayel in Jaged Alliance by one of your team who suddenly starts shooting you was a shock to one of the Doctors at Bio. They were actively trying to repeat that experience when they designed BG1.

I think everyone has OMG moments from FO. Three of mine were from FO2 when after blowing up the latrine. I don't want to even describe what happened.

Another was when I found out two of the guys in one town were feuding and I found one of the wrenches. When one of the guys started complaining about the other I told him Mr Other had it so he screamed out WHAT!? then marched on over there to tell him what for. Naturally I followed and I was practically applauding after I watched what the designers did - and it was all because I got to tell a lie!

Another in FO2 is when I pull up to mutant city and as the screen pans out I find out I've run over a ghoul. I don't remember if I dragged him for a few miles either as these things just don't want to die. He wasn't happy.

Lucky Day said:

Ghosts and Goblins - you won the game by using fire to kill the end boss - the weakest and worst of all the weapons you can pick up.

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Huh? I recall any weapon being able to kill the end boss. Just finishing that sadisticly hard game was an omg moment in itself though...

KazikluBey said:

Reads more like a typical favorite games list than an OMG-moments specific list.

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I agree 100%.

Has this guy never played any of the System Shock, Gothic, Baldur's Gate, or Elder Scrolls(besides Oblivion) games?? No mention of Planescape Torment??

What about Doom, Half-Life 1, F.E.A.R., or Medal of Honor?

Prime Junta said:

And compared to the Shalebridge Cradle in Thief: Deadly Shadows, Oceanside is tedium. (It's a bit of a shame that the rest of the game wasn't up to that standard.)

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I *love* Thief: Deadly Shadows, and would have mentioned Shalebridge but since HL2 and VtM:B share an engine and near-simultaneous release I tend to always fall to that comparison.

I think the TRex battle in Tomb Raider was one of my favorite OMG moments, both the original and anniversary

Hmmm... leaving the ship in Unreal definitely was a 'Wow' moment for me. Shodans first trap in System Shock was more of a 'dang noooo' moment, and sitting in a dark corner in Thief II and hearing a passing child of Karras pray for the first time was an 'oh crap' moment. There was another Oh Crap moment in Wolfenstein 3D (or was it Spear of Destiny?) where you discovered a pushwall which, when pushed, revealed rows and rows of SS troopers who stood with their backs to you.
More 'Oh crap' moments:
- meeting the first enemy in Realms of the Haunting, and the whole final part where the protagonist (or was that 'dang nooo'?)
- in the first Command & Conquer, when Kane shoots Seth right before your eyes
- in Daggerfall, when you see the actual SIZE of the Numidium
- the first Larkhon in Lands of Lore
- being followed by an inmate in TIII's Shalebridge Cradle (there you go, PJ )
More 'Dang noooo' moments:
- Your reward at the end of Cyberstorm... provided you have read all the info about your 'derms
- The spontaneous combustion in Kingdom Hearts II
- When the Old Camp closed its doors in Gothic I
- The end sequence in Lands of Lore 3
More 'Wow' moments:
- Morrowind: getting offboard in Seyda Neen and hearing the giant flea's 'song' for the first time
- The REAL end sequence of Lands of Lore 3 for those who were patiently sitting through the end credits (in the sense of 'Wow, the game's not over yet after all, and I can still actively settle some scores...!')
- Grunty's victory speech in Jagged Alliance II (provided you played the SciFi variety, and Grunty was your last man standing after facing the .

There are very different kinds of Wow moments in games. Some for graphic beauty or impressive scenery, some for special action moments, some for plot revelations. some of my favourites:

- Stepping (exhausted, beat up and near dead, after hours of searching for the exit) out of the damn Daggerfall starting dungeon, and suddenly standing outside, in gently falling snow.

- In Jedi Outcast the fight where you drop through the ceiling into a room full of enemies and take them all out with your lightsaber. First time I felt like a Jedi of terrible power.

- Yes, I agree with the Revan moment in KOTOR. I didn't see it coming and was stunned. It only works once though, just like a Shalamayan movie.

- The opening level of HL2, especially the "hunted down" plot device. But also the tour through the Citadel.

- Walking towards Ebonheart at sunset in Morrowind.

- Descending the Crypt in Arx Fatalis. Rarely have I felt more scared in a game.

- First seeing a 3D game (in my case Ultima Underworld) - what, this is like a real room, in 3D? What, I can THROW things? And walk through the entire castle? And there are PEOPLE in it? WOW!

- First walking through the old camp in Gothic, just seeing how everyone goes about their business. Also: first looking down the huge shaft in the mine.

- in Gothic 2, coming to the circle of the sun at night, with the magic light shining out into the darkness.

(Someone above mentioned the moment in Oblivion, leaving the starting dungeon. For me a huge dissapointment. Finally the outside I had seen in so many glorious screenshots - and all I get is a full frontal view of a hillside covered in a horribly ugly, blurry, but clearly tiled texture. Then enter the imperial city, just to be surrounded by too loud, highly annoying AI chatter. Then talking to NPC's that look like they have a lightbulb lit in their heads (and also been slightly melted by its heat). Then walking over the bridge and seeing entire houses and ruins pop into view. No fading, no LOD. All this after allready hastily turning of self shadowing during the Tutorial because it transformed the poor imperator into an undead monstorsity. These first 30 minutes were a real shock at the time. I already had some doubts about Oblivion in the story and quest department on release, but I had absolutely expected to be blown away by the graphics - but I wasn't. Of course Oblivion can look entirely amazing at times - but it's presentation is very uneven)