History Main / VideoGamesAndFate

* The strict linearity and use of NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series is a plot element as well as a gameplay device, reflecting how the protagonist's actions are being controlled by a mysterious entity called the G-Man (who at one point boasts that he'd rather not offer the protagonist "the illusion of free choice"). This is particularly ironic given that the protagonist's name is Gordon ''Freeman''.

* ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' is something of [[SerialEscalation a direct expansion and response]] to how its predecessor approaches the subject, tying in a paradigm of "[[HistoryRepeats constants]] and [[ForWantOfANail variables]]" in its narrative explicitly about the merging of [[AlternateUniverse alternate realities]] defined by such. Like its predecessor, some of this ties to the player/gameplay experience:

* ''[[VideoGame/AntigoneWillTakeTheStairsToday]]'' explores the helplessness of characters in Greek tragedies by having the player control Antigone through the very linear gameplay.

* The strict linearity and use of NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom in the ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series is a plot element as well as a gameplay device, reflecting how the protagonist's actions are being controlled by a mysterious entity called the G-Man (who at one point boasts that he'd rather not offer the protagonist "the illusion of free will"). This is particularly ironic given that the protagonist's name is Gordon ''Freeman''.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' and [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII2 its sequel]] have fate as one of their {{Central Theme}}s, though it is only first expressed in the gameplay in the latter: Serah learns to manipulate time and thus to replay events leading up to the ending as many times as she wants, even creating paradoxes along the way, but nothing can really change the conclusion of her story (namely, that TheBadGuyWins and TheHeroDies).
** In the first game, the moment where the game drops NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom is the moment when the characters realise they should stop blindly following their Focus and attempt to ScrewDestiny instead.

* ''VideoGame/BioshockInfinite'' is something of [[SerialEscalation a direct expansion and response]] to how its predecessor approaches the subject, tying in a paradigm of "[[HistoryRepeats constants]] and [[ForWantOfANail variables]]" in its narrative explicitly about the merging of [[AlternateUniverse alternate realities]] defined by such. Like its predecessor, some of this ties to the player/gameplay experience:

* In ''VideoGame/LimboOfTheLost'', Captain Benjamin Briggs of the ''Mary Celeste'' is been chosen as Destiny's champion against Fate. In TheStinger, Fate decides to go for another round, [[SequelHook setting up]] ''Limbo of the Lost 2: Flight to Freedom'' (which is unlikely to see the light of day).

** Further embedded in the series in the concept of a [[http://en.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Dragon_Break "Dragon Break,"]] a localized phenomena where time itself becomes so convoluted that otherwise impossible things happen (such as both sides winning a battle, or a man being his own grandfather). This is mainly used to justify the lack of need to support the multiple possible endings in a few of the previous Elder Scrolls games.

* In ''Videogame/{{Hand of Fate}}'', the Dealer will sometimes {{lean|ing on the fourth wall}} on the {{fourth wall}}.

* The ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' Trilogy's Security Officer, in contrast to the other FPS protganists at the time like [[VideoGame/{{Doom}} Doomguy]] and [[VideoGame/DukeNukem Duke Nukem]], is for all intents and purposes a pawn (If a pawn could [[OneManArmy kill the entire board]]) on the [=AIs'=] figurative chessboard, particularly Durandal, who enjoys rubbing it in about the protagonist's lack of freedom while bragging about gaining his. In the second game, ''Durandal'', the Security Officer is hinted to be an EternalHero destined to battle evil for all eternity, whatever he likes it or not. And then in the final game, ''Infinity'', the CosmicHorror screws everything up, and the Security Officer has to take matters into his hands, while going slightly insane in the process somewhat similar to the AI Rampancy, in the end managing to break free from the AIs control. In the epilogue, moments before the heat death of the Universe, Durandal muses about the Security Officer, and concludes that he is Destiny itself.

** Its interesting to note that simply not buying the game in the first place would also be an effective ending (or at least "lack of a beginning") using the "don't play it" viewpoint, but that was not an option brought up by the developers. This would presumably correspond to Walker never starting his interference in the first place.

[[NonStandardGameOver Non Standard Game Overs]]) while continually presenting them with the ''illusion'' of free will and agency, and giving the impression that the PlayerCharacter is acting according to their own free will (with the
PlayerCharacter typically being significantly disconnected from the player; see PlayerAndProtagonistIntegration).

** The protagonist, Booker [=DeWitt=], is characterized as [[AntiHero a very flawed man]] who brings chaos, tragedy, and corruption through his mere existence, tying to the TwistEnding reveal that [[BigBad Comstock]] is an AlternateSelf with the same terrible baggage and traded out his morally-ambiguous lot in life into [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope fanatical totalitarianism]]. Booker's own influence on the world is integrated by [[{{Gorn}} the game's jarringly violent gameplay]] set against the [[CrapsaccharineWorld (at least aesthetically)]] bright and idyllic setting, demonstrating that [[InSpiteOfANail no matter how much he wants to redeem himself from it]], he's an agent of chaos where misery and pain follows him at every turn.

** The game's ending also fully explores the existential fate of Booker as we know him -- while there are many Bookers of many realities, the one we play as is TheConstant of realities that include himself and the AlternateSelf [[StartOfDarkness that undergoes a baptism and becomes Comstock as we know him]], and the only way to cease their realities of pain is there to be ''no more Booker'', [[HeroicSuicide and so he dies]], [[RetGone retconning them from existence]]. This fatalistic approach is the big reason why the game has no MultipleEndings unlike the previous ''VideoGame/BioShock'' titles -- [[RedHerring in spite of all the opportunities presented as being potentially relevant to different endings]], the plot only allows one way for his existence to go down.

** The game's ending also fully explores the existential fate of Booker as we know him -- while there are many Bookers of many realities, the one we play as is TheConstant of realities that include himself and the AlternateSelf [[StartOfDarkness that undergoes a baptism and becomes Comstock as we know him]], and the only way to cease their realities of pain is there to be ''no more Booker'', [[HeroicSuicide and so he dies]], [[RetGone retconning them from existence]]. This fatalistic approach is the big reason why the game has no MultipleEndings unlike the previous ''VideoGame/BioShock'' titles -- [[RedHerring in spite of all the opportunities presented as being potentially relevant to different endings]], the plot only allows way for his existence to go down.

Video games (and other kinds of game such as tabletop games) differ from virtually all other storytelling media in that the player can actively interact with the world of the story, meaning that it is theoretically possible to create a game in which any choice the player decides to make is valid and they can dynamically change the story as they see fit. This will never be a practical possibility, however, so most video games with any sort of story focus tend to lead the player through a strictly linear story (albeit possibly one with prominent StoryBranching and numerous MultipleEndings or

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* The ''Chrono'' series of videogames has this theme:
** ''Videogame/ChronoTrigger'' takes a very light-hearted, and extremely optimistic, view of fate and one's ability to ScrewDestiny. The moment that our protagonists find out about their world's BadFuture, they vow to change it without a second thought. The game [[TimeyWimeyBall zig-zags on exactly what the rules]] of TimeTravel are, though, with some parts of it leaning toward SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong and the entire plot hinging on what's ultimately a StableTimeLoop. In the end, though, the future was changed, and everything turned out for the best.
** Until ''Videogame/ChronoCross'' was released. It takes a far darker, bleaker, and more serious approach to TimeTravel, at one point even bringing up the possibility that [[ShaggyDogStory everything the original protagonists did]] [[MakeWrongWhatOnceWentRight made things ''worse''.]] Replacing the TimeTravel mechanics from the first game, you instead travel between AlternateTimelines, and the plot makes it explicitly clear that changing time only replaces one timeline with a new one and implies that our heroes from ''Trigger'' inadvertently destroyed billions of living beings in the past, present and future every time they changed time. Further, [[TheHeavy the plot-centered villain]] is a supercomputer called "FATE" which is determined to master TimeTravel so that it can [[KnightTemplar shape a future which protects mankind]] from TheEvilsOfFreeWill. What happens in the ending is [[GainaxEnding highly debated ]], as it involves stuff like merging all potential timelines into one, setting a ResetButton on the events of that game, [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything defeating FATE and allowing humanity to pursue a free--if uncertain--future]], stopping an EldritchAbomination from ever coming into existence, and the {{Deuteragonist}} finding herself in the "real" world but telling TheHero that they will be MarriedInTheFuture someday. So who knows how much of the future is written and how it isn't.

** The setting has the idea of mythical "heroes", mortals with a special fate and the ability to rule their own destiny. Heroes are closely related to the prophecies revealed in the [[TomeOfEldritchLore Elder Scrolls]] themselves, but are not bound by them, and have a tendency to grow far more powerful than other mortals. Naturally, the {{Player Character}}s in each of the series' games tend to be these "heroes".

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* In ''Videogame/{{Pikmin}} 2'', if you analyse the Key, Olimar will note that he occasionally feels an invisible hand guiding him.

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/video_games_and_fate.JPG]]]]

This can be done in various ways: by having characters discuss the concept of free will in dialogue; using tropes such as NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom to visually represent the player's lack of choice both in-game and in-story; or having characters actively announce their lack of free will. In terms of plot devices, this trope can encompass supernatural examples such as YouCantFightFate; or more mundane MoreThanMindControl plot devices, in which the character's actions are controlled by another party in much the same way that the player's actions are "controlled" by the game itself. [[note]]Or how the player character's actions are controlled by the player, who is in turn controlled by the game, but the player character is part of the game so [[MindScrew oh no I've gone cross-eyed.]][[/note]] It can often overlap with PlayingThePlayer, in which the player is actively deceived by the game and their expectations about it betrayed, but this trope need not involve deception.

** ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' uses this as part of a MindScrew PlayingThePlayer plot device. The game centres on a new PlayerCharacter named Raiden, who is placed in a situation that exhibits eerie similarities with that of the first game in the series. At the end of the game, the villains reveal that their goal is to control society at large by systematically deleting information from the Internet which goes against the party line, and their MoreThanMindControl plot was to see if they could control an individual's behavior and choices simply by providing them with the appropriate context and misleading information for their actions (that is, if they could control Raiden by putting him in an artificial simulation similar to the first game). Even after Raiden learns the truth, he still nevertheless follows his orders to the letter, as he has no real choice (just as the player does not).

* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne'' is entirely linear, with NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom (although there are two MultipleEndings depending on difficulty level). It also features numerous ruminations upon the nature of free will and destiny, with several of the characters debating whether they truly have agency of their own or if their actions are simply pre-determined (see the page quote).
-->'''Vlad:''' ''Hypothetically, if the [[MortonsFork only choice you have is to do the wrong thing]], it's not really the wrong thing. It's more like fate.''

This trope is hence about video games in which the strict linearity of the storyline and the lack of agency afforded to the player is not employed solely as a gameplay contrivance but also as a storytelling device or thematic element. This can be used as a means of PaintingTheMedium or LeaningOnTheFourthWall, a device to express the themes of the game through its formal structure, or simply an amusing way to [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] the inherent artificiality of the medium. It can also act as a convenient way to avert GameplayAndStorySegregation (as many of the examples on that page illustrate).

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[[quoteright:350:[[VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/video_games_and_fate.JPG]]
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[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/video_games_and_fate.JPG VideoGame/MaxPayne2TheFallOfMaxPayne]]