Introduction
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The gamer is a special breed with unique evolutionary instincts and well-developed highly attuned senses. The gamer mind can be an intricate puzzle to comprehend, and man, is it ever nice when developers get it. Hi folks, it's Zaid Ikram, and today on Speed Tool, we're exploring 10 times games understood the gamer mind.
Red Dead Redemption 2
Starting with number 10, it's Red Dead Redemption 2. Sometimes games just know what we're going to do before we do it. In RDR 2's case, they knew exactly what they were doing with this peeping Tom random encounter. Occasionally, when you're out wandering around the town of Strawberry at night, you can spot two guys looking in a window. It's pretty obvious what they're doing from context, and if you get close enough, you can scare them off, which earns you a few honor points for doing a good deed. Of course, they knew people would be curious, they knew people would want to see what's in the mirror themselves. So the game gives you an option, and you get an eyeful. Inside is a woman who can only be described as being in a very mild state of undress, who immediately catches you looking into her window and responds by grabbing a shotgun and taking a shot at you. This, those two people there, anyway. Not again, you filthy pervert. Have an eyeful of this. Oh, may have deserved that. Also, you get a bounty on your head as well as an honor hit. Now, I mean, I don't know what you expected would happen, but why didn't she see the other guys? You're only one guy, and you're quieter than them. I mean, they have a full-scale conversation about this lady taking her shorts off, and I'm quiet as a mouse. Why don't I get to look at this woman dressed like she's going to a basketball court? How well Rockstar knew everyone playing the game was going to do something they're not supposed to do, because that's why you buy Rockstar Games: just to do things that you're not supposed to do. And, you know, they made it responsive, so I guess that's more immersive that way.
Bloodborne
At number nine is Bloodborne. You play enough of these games, and the traps start to look a little predictable. But what happens when the devs already know you catch none of the tricks? Well, that's what you get here with this ridiculous trap near the entrance of the Forbidden Forest. After crossing the bridge, there's a pile of leaves and sticks in the middle of the road. Nice try, but I can see this coming from a mile away. Thank you very much. You see the log hanging in the air; you know stepping there's going to be a trigger for the log trap. But you don't want to trigger it by mistake while you're fighting an enemy or rushing through. So you do the sensible thing and set off the trap and immediately get out of the way. It all plays out exactly like we expected: the log swings forward, then swings back. That was easy. Why even bother? But then suddenly the rope snaps, and the log starts rolling forward. By the time we all realized what was going on, it was too late. These guys were already famous for their goats, and this is still one of the all-time greats. But perfect comedy timing, like, well done from well done.
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Number eight is Assassin's Creed Brotherhood. A more benign example of developer foresight is the follow-up to Assassin's Creed 2. After the prologue, there's an extended sequence where you control Desmond Miles while he explores a secret passage. There's a lot of Uncharted-style banter between him and Lucy. Nothing too noteworthy, but there's one clever little moment near the end where the devs knew what we were thinking. So there's a part where you find this obvious path to proceed forward through this broken wall. But there's also a set of stairs nearby. No gamer worth their salt is going to turn down an alternate path. It's just burned into our brains to fully explore an area and go down every optional direction before continuing down the intended path. Even in heavily scripted moments like this, it's a tough instinct to ignore. So you go up the stairs expecting something, but it's a dead end. There's a door, but you can't interact with it. So all you can do is go back. Well, they say that; you'd think these stairs would lead somewhere, but they don't. Well, life is full of disappointments. It's a small detail but an appreciated one and rare to see a game acknowledge all the pointless things we do as gamers as well as acknowledge the limitations of the environment. I wonder how old these tunnels are. Middle Ages, probably. Luckily, the beams still hold our weight after all this time in the Animus. I'm not so sure. Yeah, I didn't want to say anything, but you're getting fat. Ouch.
High on Life
Number seven is High on Life. Speedrunning, sequence breaking, just general boundary-breaking. These are things we just do as gamers, right? Finding ways to break out of the game, going places we're not supposed to go, it's just something that comes naturally. It's an instinct; it just has to be done. Video games rarely react when you do this stuff because of the nature of subverting the way you're supposed to play the game. But once in a while, a game knows what you're doing and calls you out on it. During the mission where you're supposed to hunt down Dr. Giblets in High on Life, your first task is to investigate the High on Life store in the city slums. There's an intended route to this place, but if you're creative with your jetpack and do a few careful jumps, it's possible to skip most of the level and reach the store much quicker than you're supposed to. Doing this catches the attention of your sweet OS, which directly comments on it. He's surprisingly supportive, basically just telling you good luck and "I hope you get a world record." "Are you trying to speedrun? Are you speedrunning right now? That's okay; you can do that. That's cool. We think that's great. Good luck. I hope you get a world record." I was honestly expecting something a little more abrasive; this is High on Life after all, a game that does not shy away from insulting the player. But hey, it's interesting enough that the game caught it, even if you're not speedrunning; you're just screwing around. It's still a pretty amusing Easter egg. They just keep coming, holding a g. Yeah, let's do this.
Baldur's Gate 3
Number six is Baldur's Gate 3. Sometimes you do things that feel like they're intended, and sometimes not so much. So one of the best examples of a time where the game knows exactly what you're doing here is when you encounter The Runaway Gnome with the explosives in the Underdark. When you find her, she threatens to blow up the explosives if you take a step further. Normally, what you're supposed to do and what a regular game would force you to do is to talk her down. But this game gives you a little more agency in the situation. Let's say, for example, you can trigger the standoff, switch to another party member, sneak up behind her, and remove the explosive barrel without any notice. If you do that, then switch back to your character who's in conversation, you can dare her to blow up the bomb. "Then let it be done," she says. She'll do it too, but it doesn't work if you've moved the bomb away from her. Oops. So she just pointlessly fires into the ground and sheepishly realizes you've got the upper hand. The game acknowledges you doing something quite clever. Most of the time, you're just supposed to be a dumbass in situations like this, so it's pretty refreshing that the game rewards you for doing something smart. "I know what you are, one of Ni's cult goons. Sailed right in. Better to die in this shithy than rot in Moonrise. You want me? Come get me."
Alone in the Dark (2024)
Number five is Alone in the Dark (2024). The second or, I guess, a third reboot of Alone in the Dark. I can't honestly keep track. But there's a safe you can find near the start of the game, and you don't get the code until much later. Something is stopping you from trying to open it, though. So you know what that means, right? That means you can open it early. You just remember the code from your second playthrough, which isn't too hard. It's a short game. Or just, you know, straight-up cheat and look up the code online. Normally, it would just mean that you get the key item early, but the game knows you're doing this and directly acknowledges it when you open the chest. Depending on who you're playing as, they'll comment like, "Oh wow, I can't believe I guessed the combination. I must be some kind of genius," said in the most sarcastic possible voice. You don't even get the regular item if you open the thing early; you get this special collectible that's Alone in the Dark. It's a book, but it's got the cover of the original game. The devs knew that gamers would want to do things before they're supposed to, so they used it to hide an Easter egg. I think that's the right move. That, I like. I don't have the combination for this. Maybe Jeremy did.
Undertale
Even when a game tells us we're supposed to be stuck with our choices, it's hard to resist the call for a do-over if a game has choices and lets you load a save. We're inevitably going to do it and then do something different or try again if we screwed up, right? One of the first, most important decisions in this game is when you fight Toriel. Do you spare her or kill her? Many players will kill her by mistake because they didn't realize they were able to not do that and, out of shame, went back, loaded, and tried to do it right this time. But the game knows and it rubs our noses in it. That flower from the beginning remembers what you did and straight up says, "You murdered her, and then you went back because you regretted it. You're OJ Simpson." This flower is Norm Macdonald; it doesn't care how fired from SNL it gets; it's going to say it. Honestly, it's uncanny how accurate this is. Toby Fox must have done a lot of playtesting to find out what people would do here because it's a pretty specific callout.
Elder Scrolls Oblivion
Number three is Elder Scrolls Oblivion. Put a powerful NPC, a king, or even a god in an RPG, and someone somewhere is going to want to kill him. If not kill him, then at least take a few swings at him just to see what happens. Ever since players went out of their way to find ways to kill Lord British in the Ultima games, killing the supposedly unkillable has been a game of tradition. In this game's case, it's going to take more than a few swipes to take down Sheogorath, the Daedric Prince of Madness, whose realm you explore as part of the Shivering Isles expansion. Bethesda knew you were going to attack this guy because who can resist? But it's not the best idea. Take a swing at him, and he'll freeze you in place and simply say, "You shouldn't have done that. Enjoy the view." After a loading screen, you pop back into the world a few thousand feet above the island, a long enough fall to think about what you did before you splat on the surface.
Bears in Space
If there's one thing gamers hate, it's a waist-high wall, right? These things are everywhere, even now, and with games getting more and more realistic-looking, developers have to come up with increasingly creative ways to keep you from going somewhere they don't want you to. Creative or, in the case of some games, really contrived. As previously established, the mind of a gamer wants to be free to explore, and that means we're going to try to jump over every waist-high fence we can see, no matter how futile it ultimately is. The devs of Bears in Space know it, and that's why they put this stupid gag in. As you progress through the game, you eventually reach a point where it seems impossible to progress. A little tiny fence with a lock on it. "Max, that gate is locked down tight if I'm not mistaken, and I rarely am in all things lock-related. That's a Lockatronic 600, with a solid robot-pressed alloy body, a drop-forged rust-proof shackle, and an anti-bear double ricochet fastener. What I'm trying to say, Maxie is there's no way we can break this lock open. We need to find another way." "Oh no, oh what am I going to do?" The game makes it as explicit as possible: you cannot open this lock, and it looks like you're going to have to find another way. It's made all the more ridiculous by the fact it's the entrance to a prison. It's not just meant to keep you out but also to keep the prisoners in. So what do you do? Well, just jump over it. Easy. They knew you were going to try to do that, and if there's one way to burrow deep into a gamer's mind, it's reverse psychology. The more you tell us we can't do something, the more we're going to do it. "Hey Max and BT, thanks for saving us."
Lisa the Painful RPG
And number one is Lisa the Painful RPG. There are plenty of games that use their understanding of gamers to effectively troll them, and that's basically From Software's entire MO. But nothing in one of their games comes even close to this so, if you're playing this game, you'll eventually come to a rope that leads up to a sign that says "very important" above it. So you start climbing it, but it keeps going and going. There's got to be something up there to justify this climb, right? It takes a minute and a half straight of climbing to get to the top of this rope. So what's up there better be worth the trouble. But you want to know what you get? It's a statue of a middle finger. Also, the game doesn't even let you get down quickly. If you try to fall off one of the ledges, it says, "Nah, you don't want to do that. Just climb back down." So that's three or so minutes just completely wasted. It's so blunt and stupid that I have to respect it. Like, this game does not care about wasting your time and screw you. Anyway, most games use an understanding of gamer brains for, like, a light ribbing or an Easter egg or something. But Lisa the Painful skips all that and goes straight for the weapons-grade trolling.
Conclusion
And that's all for today. Leave us a comment, and let us know what you think. And as always, we thank you very much for reading this blog. I'm Zaid Ikram. We'll see you next time right here on Speed Tool.
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