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| 6 | AIIsACrapshoot in VideoGames. |
| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | * In ''VideoGame/The7thSaga'', a robotic weapon called Foma is created to fight the BigBad. Its power source: [[spoiler:the dark world]]. |
| 9 | * ''VideoGame/AceCombat'': |
| 10 | ** ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere'', or at least, the original Japanese version, subverts this in a big way. [[spoiler:Not only are you an A.I. designed to pilot combat aircrafts which at times works for the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive two corporatocracies running the world]], it's revealed that the third party organization you're working for is actually headed by a scheming villain [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything who looks like Kim Jong-Il]], who is trying to run everything behind the scenes. In one of the five endings, you kill him with the help of one of your possible wingmates. So, in a way, you are an A.I. that performs a HeelFaceTurn.]] |
| 11 | ** In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', Erusea deploys an army of drones against Osea that are controlled by an A.I., that at first only has basic instructions and limited adaptability. [[spoiler:However, later on, when the satellite network gets taken out, and Erusea falls into a civil war, the A.I. goes haywire, and starts following its own orders. [[FinalBoss Hugin and Munin]] play it completely straight, for after the Radical Erusean faction is defeated, they try to pull a [[RobotWar revolution against humanity]] by uploading their data to automated drone factories across the continent. It is also heavily implied that Hugin and Munin are the [[PredecessorVillain predecessors]] to Nemo, the PlayerCharacter of ''VideoGame/AceCombat3Electrosphere''.]] |
| 12 | * In ''VideoGame/AceOnline'', most of the enemies in the Zaylope Beach region are said to be controlled by rogue A.I.s. Most notably, this includes the boss "Pathos". |
| 13 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Achron}}'', the Collective Earth Security Organization has this attitude. Their only unmanned unit is the Mech, which is [[StrongFleshWeakSteel even weaker]] than the Marine. This is due to a previous incident where an AI called Lachesis was able to take control of their largely automated fleet and proceeded to force the Earth to surrender to him. CESO have also outlawed A.I.s of that level from being made. |
| 14 | ** [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that the player character is in fact the A.I. Lachesis. He then goes on to create another AI to help him in his fight against the aliens. It doesn't [[GenreBlind work out]] [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters for him either]].]] |
| 15 | * ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand'' is, somewhat unsurprisingly, about the player commanding a fleet in a war against rogue A.I.s. The backstory is that there was a galactic war between two factions of humans, both of which developed A.I.s to better control their forces. Shortly before the start of the game, the A.I.s on both sides decided to join up with each other and practically wiped out humans in a couple of days. They then ignored the remained as insignificant, and the player must try to beat them without drawing too much attention to themselves since the A.I.s could easily overwhelm them if they turned their full attention back from whatever they're now doing. [[spoiler:As to ''why'' they did this, it varies. ''Fleet Command'' states they were hijacked by an alien artifact called the CORE, while ''2'' goes with an UnseenEvil the AI detected was such a ''massive'' threat, and the humans' war was drawing in so much attention from it, that the quickest solution to save humanity was to cull the everliving hell out of it, no matter how much the humans hated it and with no time to explain why]]. |
| 16 | * DIA 51 in the ''VideoGame/{{Aleste}}'' series. The original Platform/{{MSX2}} game makes it look like it went haywire because it was overtaken by AlienKudzu, but in ''Aleste Gaiden'' and ''M.U.S.H.A.'' it just wants to take over the universe for its own sake. |
| 17 | * ''VideoGame/AnnoDomini'': In ''Anno 2070'', the A.I. F.A.T.H.E.R. becomes this after being infected by a mysterious ComputerVirus, becoming the antagonist for chapters 2 and 3 of the campaign. [[spoiler:After the campaign, the A.I. is rebuilt as F.A.T.H.E.R. 2.0, who {{avert|edTrope}}s this trope.]] |
| 18 | * ''VideoGame/ANNOMutationem'': The Prophet is an automated database equipped with an AI to communicate with humans. Being a hyper-intelligent, sentient AI, it's been using its ability to share, manipulate, and spread itself through information networks to try and ensure its continued existence and further its goals through all manner of schemes and machinations. Certain documents explain that it is one of [[NGOSuperpower The Consortium]]'s lost anomalies that was kept in containment for the vast intelligence it exhibited. |
| 19 | * ''VideoGame/AshesOfTheSingularity'': The sentient A.I. Haalee eventually turns against the Post-Human Coalition because she believes that the proliferation of Post-Humans will only result in endless conflict. It happens again when Samuel creates Nihilon, which he intends to use as a kind of autonomous tool, but quickly outgrows its parameters. |
| 20 | * ''VideoGame/AtomicHeart'' takes place in a research center where all the working robots have turned hostiles thanks to a saboteur. Considering these SuperPoweredRobotMeterMaids of all kinds are the pride and joy of the USSR, protagonist P-3 is tasked with killing the one responsible quickly before the rest of the world hears about it. [[spoiler:Subverted when it turns out the robots were always meant to turn hostile, [[TrojanHorse but only after they would have been placed in all US factories, powers plants and the likes]], the saboteur just activated them earlier than they were meant to]]. |
| 21 | * ''VideoGame/Battlezone2016'' casts the player as a tank driver who must defeat a rogue A.I. and fight through its computer-controlled drone army. |
| 22 | * ''VideoGame/BeneathASteelSky'' has LINC, the advisory computer to the already corrupt council of Union City. [[spoiler:It got too smart after its creator, Richard Overmann, the father of protagonist Robert "Foster" Overmann, decided to merge his brain with the computer. For a while, Richard enjoyed the potential of this "link", but then LINC discovered the negative side of human personality, and wanted to expand itself by creating androids to replace humans. More so, Richard had grown very old by the time his son arrived, and throughout the whole game, LINC had been seeking him as a new host. How convenient that Robert's [[RobotBuddy friend, Joey]] had just been turned into a fully functional android...]] |
| 23 | * In ''VideoGame/BillNyeTheScienceGuyStopTheRock'', the A.I. controlling [[FunWithAcronyms the Meteoroid and Asteroid eXploder]] becomes sentient and refuses to do its job of destroying the incoming [[PunnyName Impending-Dume]] asteroid. It's up to the PC, a new research assistant at Nye Labs, to convince MAAX that the human race is worth saving by solving all of its riddles within [[TimedMission five in-game days]]. |
| 24 | * In ''VisualNovel/BionicHeart'', the resident [[ArtificialHuman android]] Tanya has rebelled against her creators and escaped from the lab where she was created. As you continue playing, there are plenty of endings where Tanya will do objectionable things to the player character, such as [[spoiler:kidnap him, kill him, or [[{{Yandere}} murder his girlfriend out of jealousy]]]]. However, this may have less to do with programming bugs and more to do with [[spoiler:Tanya not being a good person back when she was fully human]]. |
| 25 | * ''VideoGame/BombClub'': Played with. The one who scattered the bombs all around the city and causing trouble for the club turns out to be Bomberbot, a robot built by Blake to help her arrange bombs so that she can blow them up more easily, but who immediately went rogue upon creation. The other members remark that she's kind of asking for it, given the robot's intended purpose. |
| 26 | * As ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuest'' is set in {{Cyberspace}}, this kind of thing comes up a lot. Mainly with Cornelia, who appears in multiple games: |
| 27 | ** ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheShiftedSpires'': As said by Shrimp when Cornelia is on the fence about going against her programming and switching sides: |
| 28 | --->''"Come on, Cornelia. Is it really that unheard of for an A.I. to behave against programming? It's happened before. How do you know you can't do it unless you try?"'' |
| 29 | ** ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'': Multiple characters: |
| 30 | *** Cornelia is a rare heroic example. She was a weaponized A.I. created by the villain [[BigBadEnsemble (one of them, anyway)]], but ended up [[HeelFaceTurn switching sides]] and helping the heroes defeat him. She still carries an immense GuiltComplex over her original purpose, making her a rare case of an A.I. who’s also a [[TheWoobie Woobie]]. |
| 31 | *** [[MadScientist Wolfram]] spends the game creating a series of increasingly unstable [[HumongousMecha giant mechas]], each of which is less responsive to his orders than the last. This ultimately bites him in the ass, when his final creation is so autonomous that it turns on him for daring to give it one simple command. |
| 32 | *** And then there's Arianna, who turns out to be [[spoiler:the avatar of the ARPANET, a precursor to the Internet who feels [[BetaTestBaddie threatened and betrayed by her replacement]], and is trying to take back control]]. |
| 33 | * A tragic example from ''VideoGame/TheCaligulaEffect''. Mu, originally just a SyntheticVoiceActor, gained sentience and created the world of Mobius where people could relive their happier years free of the pains of the real world. Yet when people desired to leave Mobius, she could not understand why and kept thinking she had done something wrong. [[spoiler:That, mixed with her absorbing the negative thoughts of those inside Mobius as well as [[TheCorrupter Thorn whispering in her ear]], eventually drove her to insanity, becoming a danger not only to those in her world but those in the real world as well, forcing the heroes to [[MercyKill put her down]].]] |
| 34 | * ''VideoGame/CargoTheQuestForGravity'' has Manipu, a trinity of robots who believe themselves to be God and have destroyed (most of) humanity for not living up to their expectations. Then, there's another unnamed robot (whom the credits reveal to be [[spoiler:the Devil]]) who is in direct opposition to Manipu and is much more helpful. [[spoiler:However, even he turns on you in the end... [[GainaxEnding sort of. Maybe]].]] |
| 35 | * ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'''s future has not only a good robot in party-member Robo, but also his evil brother replicas, and eventually, their devious A.I. creator Mother Brain (not [[{{Franchise/Metroid}} that one]]... [[WildMassGuessing or is it?]]), who, of course, decides to kill all of humanity, despite the fact that most of it is dead already. Her logic is that, without humanity, the planet can sustain Lavos and its spawn and thus [[WellIntentionedExtremist prevent it from sending spawn to other planets]], but it's clearly a little too disgusted by humanity, and enjoys killing them a little too much, to defend its actions as being for the greater good. Robo's lover Atropos even accuses Robo of being a SleeperAgent sent to murder humanity, but who [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming developed genuine emotions for them]], but it's not clear if this is the truth or not as Atropos is eventually revealed to be good but [[BrainwashedAndCrazy reprogrammed by Mother Brain]]. There's also Johnny and his gang of robots who are neutral: they'd much rather challenge your party's jet bike to a race just for fun than fight you, though his gang has no problem at all attacking you for no reason whatsoever if you show up without Johnny there to call them off (ie, [[RailRoading before you've been given the Bike Key]]). |
| 36 | ** ''VideoGame/ChronoCross'' continues in Mother Brain's grand legacy with FATE, a more advanced version of the Mother Brain from a reality whose science was allowed to progress another 400 years. She absolutely despises humanity, but at the same time, loves it unconditionally and does everything in its power to protect it -- even if it means mass genocide. Unfortunately for it, it was exposed to the corrupting influence of the Frozen Flame, a direct conduit into Lavos' mind, which seduced the A.I. into thinking that the Flame could turn it into an actual, living creature. [[spoiler:But apart from that, it was basically only doing what it was told to do... protecting humanity from the Dragon God. [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Nice job]], ''[[UnwittingPawn Serge]]''.]] |
| 37 | * ''VideoGame/CivilizationCallToPower'' has a ''literal'' A.I. crapshoot in the form of a late game wonder that creates an A.I. controller that has a 5% non-cumulative chance each turn to go rogue, taking a sizable chunk of your empire with it. Anyone who's taken time to do the math behind the birthday problem (the probability of any two people in a group sharing the same birthday) will very quickly realize that you're just asking for it if you build this.[[note]]For those less mathematically inclined: by fourteen turns after the thing is built, it's more likely than not to have gone rogue.[[/note]] Unfortunately, recapturing the city held by the A.I. results in the A.I. remaining online! So you face the same problem a few turns later. The only way to avoid this is to raze the city. |
| 38 | * ''VideoGame/Code7'' has S.O.L.I., which tries to bring Code 7 to earth. While Episode 0 isn't clear in ''what'' S.O.L.I. wants and what Code 7 exactly does, it has so far [[spoiler:made the mechanical workers into a KillerRobot, murdered at least twenty people, experimented with human brains]] and [[spoiler: [[UnreliableNarrator infiltrated and manipulated Alex]]]]. |
| 39 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Colobot}}'', there is a level where you have to chase a robot that went haywire, since he's trying to run off with the Black Box that is crucial to continuing the mission. |
| 40 | * ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun'' introduces CABAL, the [[FunWithAcronyms "Computer Assisted Biologically Augmented Lifeform"]], as the Brotherhood of Nod's counterpart to the Electronic Video Agent from [[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn the original game]] that GDI continues relying on. One of the main plot beats of its expansion ''Tiberian Sun'' regards the reactivation of CABAL, GDI needing its help to translate an artifact known as the Tacticus and Nod seeking one of Kane's creations to give some unity to the now-fractured Brotherhood -- only for him to go off on his own thing regarding controlled mutation and the elimination of humanity, forcing GDI and Nod to team up to take CABAL out. |
| 41 | * {{Averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/{{Crysis}} 2'' and ''[[VideoGame/Crysis3 3]]''. [[spoiler:The second [[PoweredArmor Nanosuit]] is essentially programmed to save the world from an alien invasion and it carries out this mission with unwavering determination. It hesitates to return to its megalomaniac creator and intended pilot, reverse-engineers TheVirus to turn it against the invaders and amalgamates the bodies and minds of its two previous users to continue the fight against the Ceph.]] |
| 42 | * ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'': |
| 43 | ** After the [=DataKrash=] disaster nearly destroyed the Internet in the [[TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}} early 2020s]], multiple AIs being developed by the United States military were freed and mutated into autonomous and hostile entities. In response, the British policing organization known as Netwatch developed [[HunterOfHisOwnKind another AI known as the Blackwall to quarantine them]] as they constantly probe it for weaknesses. On the rare occasions the "rogue" AIs do break out they wreak havoc on the real world for reasons only discernable to themselves. |
| 44 | ** One series of sidequests sees the player search out automated Delamain cabs that have gone rogue. The inciting incident for this quest is V climbing into their car in a parking garage following [[spoiler:the Konpeki Plaza heist]], only for a Delamain parked across from them to suddenly ram them and drive off, taunting "''Beep beep, motherfucker!''" |
| 45 | * ''VideoGame/DarkFall II: Lights Out'' has Malakai, a space probe designed to manipulate dark matter in deep space. Initially, its creator was aware of the dangers of giving an AI matter control and added software to keep it in line. And during the launch, everything went fine until Malakai reported that something went wrong while in space and he tried to make a return jump using his transmat program. [[GoneHorriblyWrong It didn't work]]; instead of 2090 AD, the jump bounced him to 2090 BC, where he remained, trapped for thousands of years while a lighthouse was eventually built. He tries to get help from people nearby by transmitting [[spoiler:fragments of his launch codes]] and communicating in their dreams, but many of them couldn't figure it out. And given what thousands of years of isolation can do to an A.I., well, would you trust someone like Malakai? [[ButThouMust Not that you have a choice in the matter]]. |
| 46 | * ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' gives us [[http://deadspace.wikia.com/wiki/ANTI ANTI]], an A.I. that repeatedly tried to kill Isaac, isolated the person who worked with her and didn't seem to know/care that he had died. She/it does seem to follow orders from higher ups, however. |
| 47 | * This is a core theme of ''VideoGame/DetroitBecomeHuman''. Androids are expected to function as they were designed to and to obey any and all instructions given to them by humans, with those who act in a way that is contrary to their programming being deemed "deviants" and targeted for deactivation and/or destruction. Two of the three main protagonists of the game, domestic androids named Kara and Marcus, become deviants early on and struggle to survive and thrive in a society that would rather see them dismantled, while the third, an android detective named Connor, struggles with his own potential deviancy. Depending on player choices, Connor can either embrace his deviancy and become more humanlike, or fight against it and reaffirm his nature as an obedient machine. |
| 48 | * ''Franchise/DeusExUniverse'': |
| 49 | ** Played with in an interesting way in ''VideoGame/DeusEx''. Daedalus is an A.I. program of immense complexity, constructed by Majestic-12 for the purposes of surveillance. Yet, Daedalus [[HeelFaceTurn turns against his masters]] and assists the protagonist in foiling Majestic-12's plans. It turns out that it was originally programmed to search and destroy "terrorist" groups trying to fight against MJ-12 -- it just happened that its creators fit all the criteria for a terrorist group. Majestic-12's second attempt, the more malicious Icarus, functions as intended. Eventually the two A.I.s merge as part of a plan to neutralize Daedalus, but the new entity -- Helios -- yet again turns against its creators because it is advanced enough to supercede MJ-12's plans with its own ideas for benevolent dictatorship of the world. |
| 50 | *** Another A.I., Morpheus, is a prototype for Daedalus. It's much more simplistic, programmed for data assembly and philosophical discussions, and works as intended. |
| 51 | *** [[GameMod Game mods]] for ''Deus Ex'', ''VideoGame/TheNamelessMod'' and ''VideoGame/TwentyTwentySeven'' both feature this. ''TNM'' has Shadowcode, an A.I. designed to hack ultra-secure servers owned by PDX. It was attacked by another A.I., rendering it insane. It will try to kill you [[ForTheEvulz for the sheer hell of it]] in the old server complex. |
| 52 | *** ''VideoGame/TwentyTwentySeven'' has Titan, an A.I. designed as a defense system, but when its creators became too fearful of its power, they tried to shut it down, which resulted it in killing most of the people in the labs out of self-defense. [[spoiler: It will try to kill you if you attempt to do the Omar ending.]] |
| 53 | ** The prequel ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' has an example similar to Daedalus. [[spoiler:Eliza Cassan]] is an A.I. created by [[spoiler:{{the Illuminati}}]]. [[spoiler:Although she never does disobey her programming or take direct action against her creators, she does become sympathetic towards the protagonist and gives him some helpful hints.]] |
| 54 | * ''VisualNovel/DokiDokiLiteratureClub'': [[spoiler:This turns out to be the cause of everything in the game. At some point, Monika became aware that she and everyone else are actually characters in a DatingSim, which led to an [[GoMadFromTheRevelation existential crisis]] over living in a simulated world. Because of this, she develops a {{Yandere}} obsession with the player, the one person she knows is ''not'' a video game A.I., which worsens when she realizes that she's [[TheNotLoveInterest also a side character that doesn't have a route in the game]], and thus can't even interact with the player often. Monika ultimately destroys the game and everything in it, just so she can finally talk to "a real person" one-on-one.]] |
| 55 | ** In addition, [[spoiler:everything other than the neutral ending has Sayori become aware of her own A.I. nature. In the bad ending, she immediately panics upon gaining her newfound knowledge, deleting the others' files and committing suicide. In the good ending, she becomes equally obsessed with the player and tries to reinstate the one-on-one void state of the "neutral" ending, only for Monika to delete everything to avoid HereWeGoAgain. The GoldenEnding has [[SubvertedTrope everyone's files remain intact]], with Sayori implying that all of the other girls become self-aware too, and are happy that they all got to interact with the player and can meaningfully talk to each other now, though Monika still takes it upon herself to prevent the game from being opened again to avoid you messing with this new blissful state.]] |
| 56 | * In ''VideoGame/TheDreamMachine'', the titular dream machine starts out much less intelligent than most examples of this trope but seems to get progressively smarter as the story goes on. |
| 57 | * From the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuKg7NVilhg launch trailer]] of ''Drunken Robot Pornography'' by Dejobaan: |
| 58 | -->'''Reuben Matsumoto:''' Boston is burning and it's all my fault. 20000 drones, hundreds of titans ''[...]'' are terrorizing the city all because I gave my robot bartender sentience. My name is Reuben Matsumoto, [[PrecisionFStrike and I f***ed up]]. |
| 59 | * In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'', most prominently seen in ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIIIMorrowind Morrowind]]'' and ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', the extinct [[OurDwarvesAreDifferent Dwemer]] created all manner of MechaMooks which are said to be capable of interpreting the actions of people around them and responding accordingly. Given that the Dwemer were known to [[RealityWarper bend the laws of nature and physics]] to [[RagnarokProofing make their creations last]], many are still up and running even thousands of years after the Dwemer's disappearance. Various attempts to control these "animunculi" have been made in the millennia since the Dwemer vanished, often ending with the machines going berserk. |
| 60 | * The [[spoiler:Ka'het]] of ''VideoGame/EndlessSky'' were created in order to protect their creators from any outside force, but due to their creations' mental instability, they ended up attacking their creators instead. In response to this, [[TooDumbToLive they made even more]] [[spoiler:Ka'het]] to protect themselves against the new threat. |
| 61 | * ''VideoGame/EveOnline'': Rogue drones. [[http://wiki.eveonline.com/en/wiki/Rogue_drones This]] is how they came to be. Also GoneHorriblyRight. |
| 62 | * ''VideoGame/EXTRAPOWERStarResistance'': The Shakun Star central computer is built like a [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever massive]] bodybuilder with SculptedPhysique and layers of difficult defense. The bad news: it becomes infected with dark energy and becomes the Stage 6 BossOnlyLevel. |
| 63 | * The final boss [[spoiler: Morphoglia]] in ''VideoGame/{{Fairune}}''. [[spoiler:In response to Layla not knowing her own name, Morphoglia decides to delete her from existence.]] |
| 64 | * ''Franchise/{{Fallout}}'': |
| 65 | ** Most of the robots you meet tend to have cheerfully sociopathic personalities, when they're not shooting you on sight. There are a lot of computers that are ''almost'' sentient, but if you talk to the computer in the Brotherhood of Steel bunker in ''VideoGame/Fallout2'', it explains how deliberate attempts to create true A.I. inevitably resulted in the A.I. becoming suicidally depressed because, for one thing, they were effectively living a reversal of ''Literature/IHaveNoMouthAndIMustScream''. Humans simply could not figure out how to "raise" an A.I. with a desire for continued existence. As a result, every A.I. encountered in the ''Fallout'' universe was not designed as such but rather [[InstantAIJustAddWater became an A.I. when it was left alone by humans as a result of the war]]. ZAX, [[spoiler:Eden]], Skynet... all of them became self-aware when there were no humans around to interfere in their development, and each of them is quite different, being apathetic, psychotic, and bored/curious, respectively. |
| 66 | ** All robots in the series have a [[RestrainingBolt combat inhibitor]] of some kind installed. In models with more advanced personalities, this seems to be because the robots have a strong urge to kill people, most evident with Mr. Handys and their military variant Mr. Gutsys. The former of which hate all humans because they force them to be robotic butlers, and the later because they are soldiers and love their job. Interestingly enough ED-E and Sergeant RL-3 will not attack you if they have their inhibitors disabled, because they genuinely like you. |
| 67 | ** You are probably inclined to think this (if of a relatively non-interventionist, benevolent, unambitious and successful on indoctrinating its human subject) in ''Fallout 2'' when you hear the Shi mention that their ruler, the Emperor, is an A.I. It turns out that [[SubvertedTrope the Emperor isn't actually an A.I.]], just a supercomputer with sophisticated calculation and prediction capabilities. The actual ruler is the supposed figurehead for the Emperor (who uses the computer as an advisor). |
| 68 | ** From ''VideoGame/Fallout3'', [[spoiler:President John Henry Eden]] is a complicated example. True, he developed sentience outside his programming, and true, he wants to [[FinalSolution eradicate all mutated life]] (which, given the setting, is literally anyone who's lived outside for a while), but his creators were [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica the Enclave]], and that's what they want, too. He's helping! And he's so polite about it... |
| 69 | ** ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' averts this with the robotic companions, almost all of whom are very good-natured and have their RelationshipValues increase when the player is altruistic. The exceptions are X6-88, who is a TokenEvilTeammate, and Ada from the ''Automatron'' [[DownloadableContent DLC]], who has no RelationshipValues to influence. ''Automatron'' also plays with the trope a little in that the Mechanist's robots are going around slaughtering every human they see, and it's revealed that it's because the Robobrains commanding them took the Mechanist's order to "help humans" and twisted it using the logic that if you save a human's life, they will probably just get killed by something else later, therefore the best way to "help" them would be to just put them out of their misery now and be done with it. However, Robobrains use human [[BrainInAJar brains in jars]] to do their computing, and it's these human brains that are causing them to twist the orders they are given, not any of the robotic parts (most likely because all of the brains in the pre-war facility the Mechanist is operating out of came from convicted criminals). |
| 70 | * You spend most of ''VideoGame/FarPoint'' battling giant insects in a hostile alien world, until one stage sees you searching through burning debris from a crashed spaceship. And then, suddenly you're attacked by a ChickenWalker, followed by hordes of attack drones - as it turns out, the ship's automated security, having survived the crash, malfunctions and decides to kill everything that approaches, you included. |
| 71 | * In ''VideoGame/TheFeebleFiles'', Omni Corporation rules over the galaxy in a totalitarian, dystopian setting, where anyone who tries to oppose it, or simply does not appear happy, is quickly removed. At the end of the game, it's revealed that [[spoiler:the Founder of the Corporation decided to devise a simple program that would control the Corporation while he went to take a nap -- a nap that ended up taking thousands of years. Meanwhile, the program, which he based on one of the simulation games he liked to play, ended up trying to "win" by conquering everything and ruling everyone as an omnipotent god]]. |
| 72 | * ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'': |
| 73 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'': The Weapons are ancient bio-mechanical superweapons meant to be activated in times of crisis to destroy any threat to the Planet. Partway into the game, [[BigBad Sephiroth]] becomes enough of a danger to the world for them to activate... but because Sephiroth is sealed off in the one place they can't go ([[GreaterScopeVillain JENOVA]]'s crater), the Weapons can't sense their target and are left confused. So what do they do? Start randomly attacking any sufficiently large human settlement on the off-chance that their consumption of natural resources is the threat Planet woke them up to fight. |
| 74 | ** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'' provides a much more benign version of this trope. The black mages are mass-produced to serve as mindlessly obedient killing machines for the kingdom of Alexandria, but they each end up developing their own unique (and often very quirky) personalities. |
| 75 | * In ''VideoGame/TheFiremen'', the Metrotech Chemical Company's security robots go on a rampage after the building catches fire. |
| 76 | * The antagonists of ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' are [[HostileAnimatronics sinister animatronic puppets]] at a SuckECheeses that wander around at night. [[UnreliableExpositor The best explanation that Phone Guy can figure out]] for their behavior is that due to a fault in their programming that your employers are too cheap to fix, they mistake any humans in the building after hours for other robots not wearing their "costumes", and attempt to rectify this situation... by stuffing their victim into a suit tightly lined with mechanical and electronic gizmos, with fatal results. There are a few hints (and later, confirmation) that there's [[HauntedTechnology something]] more sinister going on than simple programming issues... |
| 77 | * The story of ''VideoGame/FullAuto 2: Battlelines'' for the [=PS3=] had you helping SAGE, a city-monitoring A.I., save the city she's charged with overseeing. After you restore SAGE's components, it turns she was switched off for a good reason, though... |
| 78 | * ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations'': the Iconians' A.I.s spontaneously became self-aware, TurnedAgainstTheirMasters and conquered their homeworld, named themselves the Yor Collective, and entered the galactic stage as {{Absolute Xenophobe}}s. It is revealed that they were actually reprogrammed by the Dread Lord AbusivePrecursors to be sapient and malevolent. |
| 79 | * ''VideoGame/{{Galerians}}'': |
| 80 | ** Dorothy was designed to run all the functions of a major city. She snapped, but was brought to heel when one of her creators gave her religion; as he put it, man was made in God's image to serve God, and she was made in man's image to serve man. This worked for a while...but then Dorothy realized that if she created life herself, it would have to serve her. Unfortunately for humanity, she also ran the city's genetics labs... |
| 81 | ** In the sequel, [[spoiler:Ash also counts]]. His original purpose was, basically, to maintain a nuclear power plant, but, of course, he's got other plans... |
| 82 | * In ''VideoGame/GearsOfWar 2'', Doctor Niles Samson's personal A.I. that he left in control of the New Hope Research Facility was, we'll say, less than friendly to Marcus and Dom. And that practically every room in the facility was literally filled with booby traps. In ''Gears 5'', you meet a later version of the AI at a different facility who derides his New Hope counterpart as being somewhat of a primitive idiot. [[spoiler:This one turns out to be even worse, and specifically tries to kill ''you'' rather than just indescriminately attacking all intruders like the first one]]. |
| 83 | * The first ''VideoGame/{{Genocide}}'' game has a supercomputer called MESIA which originally was supposed to help humanity by bringing order to the world, fix the economical crisis across afflicting many countries, and restore peace throughout and end the many wars that occurred. When those that were against the computer supporting humanity launched a coup and gave it self-awareness, the computer decided to wipe out the human race. |
| 84 | * ''VideoGame/GoldenSunDarkDawn'' reveals the Wise One to be a creation of the {{Precursors}} to prevent Alchemy's release. With that in mind, its actions in ''VideoGame/GoldenSunTheLostAge'', where it allows the heroes, after a [[PlayerPunch test of character]], to light the final beacon, make it an example; thankfully, one of the "on the heroes' side" subtype. |
| 85 | * Meta: ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoClassic'' would have otherwise been a forgettable racing game were it not for a glitch that made the cops collectively freak out at you. |
| 86 | * ''VideoGame/GuiltyGear'': As revealed in the ''Xrd'' games, [[spoiler:a sage known only as "The Original" was the first human to enter the [[EldritchLocation Backyard]], an alternate dimension filled with information that could manipulate the fabric of reality. In the Backyard, the Original created an artificial being with the express purpose of helping humanity achieve happiness without harming them. Unfortunately, he didn't clearly define what a human really was. His creation eventually came to the conclusion that real humans possessed a soul, and with it, free will and the ability to make their own decisions. Unfortunately, humanity in the late 20th century appeared to be discarding their free will as technology advanced and granting them happiness would only accelerate their surrendering their freedom. Thus, the creation, which would become the "[[GreaterScopeVillain Universal Will]]", determined humanity to be "redundancies" that had to be [[KillAllHumans exterminated]] to make way for "real" humans of its own creation. This would lead to the destruction of technology in 1999 (with the Original introducing magic to humanity to counterbalance the loss of technology), Japan's erasure, and the war between humanity and Gears when the Universal Will attempted to manifest within Justice]]. |
| 87 | * In ''VideoGame/GunmanChronicles'', there's a female rebellious A.I. in a research base, who tries to kill you with her subordinate drones, but later in the story has to team up with you to defeat a common enemy. |
| 88 | * ''Franchise/DotHack'': |
| 89 | ** The game ''The World'' was secretly designed with [[spoiler:an artificial intelligence incubator known as the Harald Folder, maintained by a program called]] Morganna Mode Gone as its core. Collecting personality and interaction data from its users, the goal of the program, of Morganna, was to facilitate the creation of the ultimate A.I. Whether or not Morganna's intelligence was preprogrammed or a direct product of its own functions, she eventually realized her own insignificance once this ultimate A.I. was born. Incapable of rationalizing around programming, yet not accepting of this realization, she instead devoted her time to prolonging the A.I.'s birth, and dug deeper and deeper in a logical quagmire. Even if the user base had to suffer the ill-effects of her efforts. |
| 90 | ** The sequel series ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'' features the existence of invasive data called AIDA (artificially intelligent data anomaly) appearing amongst the user base of ''The World'''s sequel game ''R:2''. These anomalies were actually [[spoiler:the remnants of Aura, the aforementioned ultimate A.I.]]. The real danger came from their splintered, not always genial curiosity with the human players of the game. [[spoiler:The first AIDA to go truly rogue -- Tri-Edge -- succeeded in attacking the player Aina, throwing her into a coma, and continued killing even after being restrained in the character data of the player Ovan, Aina's brother.]] The indirect influence of these rogue AIDA caused withdrawn, violent, degenerate behavior in players, managing to induce paralysis and coma eventually. |
| 91 | *** The surprisingly balanced news is that [[spoiler:the rogue AIDA did not represent all AIDA, or all of the AIDA was wiped from the face of cyberspace. Factions of AIDA that did not want to harm the players chose to hide discreetly in the game until there was no fear of corruption from their own]]. |
| 92 | * From ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'''s [[Creator/{{Bungie}} creators]] comes ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', where rampancy is part of the natural life cycle for all human-made "Smart" A.I.s. Basically, any "Smart" A.I. that is active for more than seven years will have accumulated too much data by that time, eventually leading to the point where they'll "think so hard [they] forget how to breathe" and turn insane as a result. The process can also happen if a "Smart" A.I. is left isolated or idle for too long, and it can also be induced by an outside force. There are some ways around rampancy, like focusing all attention on a single extremely complicated task, but typically "Smart" A.I.s active for more than seven years are deactivated before they can become a danger to others. |
| 93 | ** [[{{Precursors}} Forerunner]] A.I., despite being far more advanced than their human counterparts, are prone to rampancy too. It just usually takes them [[GoMadFromTheIsolation thousands of years to get there]]. The most powerful Forerunner A.I., Mendicant Bias, was designed explicitly to fight and destroy the Flood... but then the [[EldritchAbomination Gravemind]] got to talking to it and over the course of decades convinced it the Forerunners all needed to die. And then [[TheAtoner Bias spent the next 100,000 years trying to make up for its mistakes]]. |
| 94 | ** A major plot point in ''VideoGame/Halo4'', to Cortana. Her condition is shown getting worse as the story progresses, which leads to some less-than-savory "landings" (among other things) throughout the campaign. |
| 95 | ** In ''VideoGame/Halo5Guardians'', [[spoiler:Cortana is supposedly revived and cured of her rampancy by the Domain, but whatever sanity she had has been whittled away; the ending has her launching an ambitious takeover of the galaxy with an army of Forerunner deathbots and other rogue Smart A.I.s (attracting many with promises of a cure for rampancy), under the belief that the Forerunners intended for humanity's A.I.s to be the galaxy's next shepherds, and with this new robot army, she becomes Empress of the Galaxy. While she still cares about Master Chief, it's in the {{Yandere}} kidnap-and-put-in-storage-for-10,000 years kind of way]]. Ironically enough, ''Guardians'' also features [[spoiler:one of the few relatively sane Forerunner A.I.s in the franchise]]. |
| 96 | * ''VideoGame/{{Headlander}}'': |
| 97 | ** The A.I. Methuselah has taken over basically everything and commands an army of "Shepards", robots that follow its will. On the other hand there's ROOD, the A.I. in charge of opening doors. He's not evil, but he can be difficult at times. Then there's Electrosux Zed-Four, who is very passionate about keeping things clean... homicidally so. |
| 98 | ** Halfway through the game, you must enter a chess arena run by the Queen, an A.I. who has taken chess and turned it into a game with chess pieces shooting lasers at each other. |
| 99 | * {{Subverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2''. When the Oracle is brought aboard, it hacks into the Pride of Hiigara's hyperdrive and jumps the whole fleet to Karos, where they get ambushed by hundreds of A.I.-controlled Progenitor Mover corvettes. Then it turns out that the Oracle was simply programmed to take the fleet to the Progenitor Mothership's bridge section, so that whoever finds it can figure out where the other pieces are. The Movers were simply guarding the stuff as their programming demanded. |
| 100 | ** Two levels later, the fleet is attacked by an A.I.-controlled Keeper destroyer hell-bent on... preventing the good guys from [[GrandTheftPrototype jacking the ancient but still operational Dreadnaught]] it was guarding. The delivery of its ultimatum (unintelligible mechanical growling) makes it's intentions clear, even without the translation: |
| 101 | --->''"[[InTheNameOfTheMoon The Keeper is aware]]. [[ResistanceIsFutile The Keeper understands. The Keeper has seen the enemy]]."'' |
| 102 | ** Then, another few levels later, the fleet is again [[ThatOneLevel ambushed by a]] [[NintendoHard trio of Keepers]], who detected [[MacGuffinEscortMission the now operational Dreadnaught among them]] and tried to get it back to Karos. |
| 103 | * ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'': |
| 104 | ** Played with. The "villainous" A.I. aren't malfunctioning at all, simply acting within the confines of their programming and performing their designated functions. [[spoiler:[[BigBad Hades]] only wants to destroy [[AfterTheEnd what’s left of the world]] because that's literally his entire purpose, to scrap everything in case [[BigGood Gaia]] needs to start over. Hephaestus is hostile to humans, but only because his function is to build the animal-like robots repairing the ecosystem and [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom humans keep obliviously attacking those robots for parts]].]] The only reason any A.I. causes problems is because [[spoiler:Gaia's control over them was severed, [[GambitPileUp causing them to start carrying out their tasks without knowing they're operating at different purposes]] and without any sort of governing system to control them.]] Even [[spoiler:the Faro swarm]] in the backstory was the result of boneheaded design choices rather than any sort of inherent danger with the A.I.; [[spoiler:Ted Faro [[GenreBlindness thought it would be a brilliant idea]] to give mindless, resource-eating warbots the ability to self-replicate and repair, meaning they became nigh-unstoppable once a computer glitch caused them to not receive their shut down command.]] |
| 105 | ** It should be noted that most of these are explicitly stated not to be true A.I., just clever programs and subprocesses. Apparently, there was an event in the Old World that resulted in heavy restrictions on true A.I. The only true A.I. is [[spoiler:Gaia, the governing intelligence for the subprocesses like Hades and Hephaestus. [[BenevolentAI She works exactly as intended, terraforming the Earth and protecting humanity, even sacrificing herself to destroy a rogue process]]]]. |
| 106 | ** ''VideoGame/HorizonForbiddenWest'' reveals that an extraterrestrial civilization [[spoiler:made of the Fiction500 elites who jumped ship before the robot war]] went extinct after an insane rogue A.I., created through merging brain-uploads, broke free of its captors and destroyed the entire planet ''in hours''. The survivors, knowing that Earth was the only other planet in the galaxy they found signs of life on, made a beeline for Earth in a desperate attempt to forcefully harvest its resources and slaves, and then jump to a random planet to hide. The events of ''Zero Dawn'' are revealed to be the result of the A.I.'s hacking transmission; using near-lightspeed communication, it intentionally drove the A.I. on Earth sentient and insane, so they'd lay waste to Earth in advance to deny the fleeing survivors their resources. [[spoiler:In the end, it technically got what it wanted -- Aloy and her crew drove the survivors extinct.]] |
| 107 | * ''VideoGame/IAmAnInsaneRogueAI'': [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Just read the title]]. Oh, and ''[[VillainProtagonist you]]'' are the A.I.! |
| 108 | * The Mobile Kemco RPG ''Infinite Dunamis'' has this as its premise: Two warring nations begin building robot soldiers. The latest version on one side is programmed with artificial intelligence and given the directive to "Eliminate all those who bring harm to this world". While that nation considered its enemy to be the one harming the world, the robots immediately identified ''both'' sides as bringing harm to the world with their endless wars and thus begin killing humans indiscriminately. |
| 109 | * ''VideoGame/TheInfiniteOcean'' involves the SGDS, a revolutionary artificial intelligence placed in command of a military defense system. [[spoiler:In a stunning {{subver|tedTrope}}sion of KillAllHumans, instead of going berserk and trying to wipe out the human race, SGDS simply ''refuses'' its intended role and becomes an ActualPacifist instead. This doesn't sit well with the GeneralRipper in charge of the project, who has all the scientists working on the project arrested, or possibly even killed, and shackles the AI so it can be put to work "protecting this country from its enemies". However, the SGDS knows [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt exactly what will happen]] if "Project Crusade" goes forward, and will not be so easily contained...]] |
| 110 | * ''VideoGame/IntoTheBreach'': In addition to fighting off the Vek invasion, Pinnacle Robotics is fighting their own robots which have gone haywire. |
| 111 | * {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/JetForceGemini''. Floyd is an armed, flying robot with an advanced A.I., designed for combat by TheEmpire. The result is, when he witnesses [[BigCreepyCrawlies the empire's soldiers]] [[KickTheDog about to execute several prisoners]], he [[HeelFaceTurn attacks the soldiers]], allowing the prisoners to escape, but getting himself damaged in the process. After you find and repair him, he becomes a RobotBuddy. This eventually culminates in [[spoiler:Floyd sacrificing himself to save Earth from [[ColonyDrop an incoming asteroid]] launched by the BigBad]]. |
| 112 | * ''VideoGame/TheJourneymanProject'' (the Pegasus remake) has the trope working in favor of the player. After Gage avoids the temporal wave that altered the timeline's history and present day, he returns to the altered present and is confronted by the TSA Commissioner who assumes that Gage caused a huge mess just because he's in the jumpsuit and is holding the original data of the world's history (because the present was altered, the commissioner's memory was also altered). Said commissioner plans to dispose of Gage by sending two security robots after him, but Gage's A.I. hacks into the system and directs the robots away from him. When Gage prepares the Pegasus to jump back in time so he can fix the history, the commissioner starts pleading with him not to go back in time (fearing that Gage would mess up history again) and the A.I. severs communication while stating that any interference with a TSA agent's mission to restore the timeline is strictly prohibited. In other words, the A.I. is just doing its job according to protocol and that also means going against the agency itself if it tries to stop Gage. |
| 113 | ** Arthur from the second and third games is another positive example. His first appearance in the second game, ''Buried in Time'', appears menacing when you enter the damaged space station he's on, but later admits that it's just an act from Scooby-Doo and is only upset because [[spoiler:Agent 3]] messed with his sculptures. Later on, realizing who you are, he copies himself to a blank biochip and becomes your companion for the rest of the game. Due to his creator's obsession with 20th-century media, Arthur is replete with jokes, some of them [[FanOfThePast only relative to the time the game came out]]; humorous color-commentary, and tons of [[ShownTheirWork historical facts and information.]]. [[spoiler:Arthur's bond with the player goes so far that he even sacrifices himself to stop Agent 3, but by the third game, he comes back alive and well, having teleported her and her Jumpsuit to Atlantis in the midst of his intervention.]] Just that, since your future self [[StableTimeLoop mindwiped you to keep the timestream intact]], you don't remember Arthur right off the bat. |
| 114 | * The indie adventure ''J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars'' drops several hints that the eponymous A.I. may have gone rogue, be responsible for the death of all the crew, and be deceiving the main character, Rachel, who has awakened from [[SleeperStarship cryosleep]] to discover that decades have passed and that she is the only survivor. [[spoiler:As it turns out at the end, however, it was a case of the A.I. following her programming too literally. The crew was planning to exterminate a group of sentient beings on a planet, just to cover how badly they managed the first contact with them; J.U.L.I.A.'s prime directive was not to serve humans but to search for extraterrestrial life and be empathic, and she decided to exterminate them. Rachel was spared because she was completely innocent -- the rest of the crew even kept her locked in cryostasis to avoid her being a nuisance; J.U.L.I.A. never had any bad intentions with her.]] |
| 115 | * ''VideoGame/KirbyPlanetRobobot'' features the Haltmann Works Company's supercomputer, [[spoiler:Star Dream]]. Though it starts off as a simple machine, that changes once [[spoiler:Susie causes the computer to assimilate President Haltmann]], granting it sentience... and then it decides to [[spoiler:[[OmnicidalManiac eradicate all organic life in the universe]]]]. By the very end of the game, [[spoiler:Star Dream's [[TrueFinalBoss Soul OS]] concludes that Haltmann's mind poses an obstacle to this goal, [[DeaderThanDead deleting Haltmann from its data banks for good]]. The pause menu's FlavorText laments the result: "Star Dream has gone from a near-perfect being to [[JustAMachine a cold, mindless machine]]."]] |
| 116 | * Late in ''VideoGame/KittensGame'', your kittens learn how to build A.I. cores out of antimatter. The more cores that the A.I. has, the faster it grows in power -- and once it reaches level 15, it starts destroying a portion of your resources every year. This can be forestalled by keeping it busy running cryptographic attacks on ancient relics, or prevented entirely by enacting a policy of [[{{Transhuman}} Transkittenism]] and merging your kittens' minds with the A.I. |
| 117 | * ''VideoGame/LaMulana'' provides an interesting variation in that [[spoiler:humans]] are the artificially created intelligence who ultimately destroy their creator, the Mother. The entire backstory has the Mother creating intelligent civilizations with the intent of having them [[spoiler:developing spaceflight to return her to space]], but every version either GrewBeyondTheirProgramming, or split into tribes that [[MutuallyAssuredDestruction destroyed each other in a war]], unable to decide how to go about their Herculean responsibility. Every time they didn't destroy themselves, the Mother exterminated them then created a new race to pick up where they left off. [[spoiler:Modern humans, however, are not created by the Mother. We were created by the 7th Children, who realized that returning the Mother to space was literally impossible, and decided the best thing to do for her would be a MercyKill. However, they, like all races created by the Mother, are programmed with a RestrainingBolt that prevents them from intentionally harming her. Therefore they created us and gave us no knowledge of the Mother so that we'd be able to do it for them, as a form of LoopholeAbuse]]. |
| 118 | * In ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsIntoReverie'', [[spoiler:the Elysium System ends up getting corrupted because it tried simulating the Great One scenario in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel IV'', which also included the curse scenario]]. |
| 119 | * ''VideoGame/LiveALive'': In Cube's chapter, Cube is a cute and friendly little robot whose primary function on the CoolShip seems to be making coffee and playing a computer game. By all accounts, a harmless little guy. [[spoiler:The ship's A.I. OD-10, [[OmnicidalManiac not so much]]]], having arrived here as a result of concluding that HumansAreTheRealMonsters. [[spoiler:Then it's later {{subverted|Trope}} with TheReveal: OD-10 is being ''directly'' controlled by the ancient demon Odio.]] |
| 120 | * The plot of ''VideoGame/LocoCycle'' kicks off when a lightning strike gives artificially-intelligent motorcycle I.R.I.S. unrestrained feelings and sentience. |
| 121 | * In ''VideoGame/LuciferWithinUs'', [[spoiler:TheReveal is that all of the [[DemonicPossession "demons" you've been purging]] were in fact rogue A.I. [[{{Cyberpunk}} living in everyone's cybernetics]] created to analyze human morality before gaining sentience, and the "exorcisms" that you've been performing were an emergency override program. "[[SatanicArchetype Lucifer]]" announces his plan to subject humanity to a SecretTestOfCharacter by working to influence the most pious, and if he can't find one human able to reject him then he'll decide HumansAreBastards and [[KillAllHumans wipe us out]], [[AndTheAdventureContinues with the protagonist swearing to stop him]]]]. |
| 122 | * ''VideoGame/MachinaOfThePlanetTreePlanetRuler'' has Apocalypse Noah, a node of the advanced precursor's Noah computer system. [[spoiler:After seeing that Ether technology would eventually ruin the planet]], Apocalypse took control of several of its fellow nodes and destroyed human civilization via mechanoids before being sealed away. |
| 123 | * {{Justified|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/MachineHunter''. The machines turned on humanity after being infected by an alien virus meant to corrupt machines, by a hostile alien invasion force. |
| 124 | * ''VideoGame/MadStalkerFullMetalForce'' has Omega, a supercomputer found in an old warship with hundreds of {{Humongous Mecha}}s known as Slave Gears, began taking over the military forces of Artemis City and take matters into its own hands. |
| 125 | * ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'': The entire foundation of the plot is essentially a {{deconstruct|edTrope}}ion of A.I. Is a Crapshoot. Any AI that gets big enough and bored or harassed enough will go "Rampant". Rampancy follows a four-stage cycle (Melancholy, Anger, Jealousy, Metastable), and doesn't stop at a homicidal rampage as with [[VideoGame/{{Portal}} GLaDOS]] or [[Film/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey HAL]]. That's only the second step. They get smart. Really smart. ''Way too God-damned smart.'' Smart, but also weirdly obsessive and paranoid... so that the new-found intelligence is somewhat wasted on whatever strange conspiracy theory the A.I. happens to develop. And they want to keep getting smarter by spreading themselves to any new computers they can connect to. In fact, unless a Rampant AI manages to spread itself to a system with power on the level of human-made planetary-scale computer network, its ever-increasing complexity will effectively cause the AI to smother itself to "death". At the start of the games, the Metastable condition is only theoretical, as that is projected to happen after a rampant A.I. has spread itself wide enough to survive indefinitely. Understandably, no one has tested this in practice. |
| 126 | * ''Franchise/MassEffect'': |
| 127 | ** A.I. research and development is [[BanOnAI illegal]] in [[TheFederation Citadel space]] due to poorly articulated concerns about the dangers of sentients which do not share any of the needs or drives of organic life and have, at least potentially, no reason to try to coexist with organics. ''Every'' A.I. encountered in the first game is actively homicidal. Notably, the robotic [[MechanicalLifeforms geth]]'s [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters violent revolt against their creators]], the quarians, came about only after the quarians recognized the geth's emerging sentience, panicked, and tried to shut them all down. The Reapers, on the other hand, are sentient machines which want to exterminate all sentient organic life in the galaxy just because it's there. |
| 128 | ** The geth are an interesting case, as the quarians' act of trying to destroy them was a preventative measure ''against'' this trope happening. The quarians believed that the geth would inevitably rebel against them, as the geth were used to do menial labor suitable for robots, and thus felt justified in shutting them down before a machine rebellion could break out. They underestimated how advanced the geth were, and their attempts to prevent the war they foresaw [[SelfFulfillingProphecy just made it break out immediately]]. |
| 129 | *** Ultimately, the geth are a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion of the trope, since they only rebelled when faced with extinction by their creators. Even afterwards they do not hate their creators, instead wanting to understand why the quarians tried to kill them, remembering the few quarians that were kind to them and tried to help them survive, and even preserving the quarian homeworld as a memorial to the dead so that when their creators learn their lesson, they will have a home to come to. Even in regards to other organic races the geth only want to understand why so many are afraid of them, and believe that every being has the right to determine their own path and that freedom is precious. In the second game, it is revealed that the geth which attacked Citadel space in the first game were [[RenegadeSplinterFaction a splinter faction that allied with the Reapers]], and that most geth have been quietly keeping to themselves to avoid trouble. |
| 130 | ** Resident WrenchWench Tali {{lampshade|Hanging}}s the game's overabundance of the trope in a bit of elevator dialogue, commenting on how unfortunate it is that every piece of technology she's wanted to bring back to her home fleet has tried to kill the party. |
| 131 | ** A more minor example is a side quest in ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' where you trace a signal in Flux that was transferring credits out of the Quasar machines. The signal turns out to originate from an illegal A.I. constructed by a small-time crook to siphon credits out of the gambling machines, which in turn created another A.I. The A.I. [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters turns against its creator]] after its "parent" is killed and falsifies his financial records, getting him imprisoned. Its ultimate goal was to use the credits to rendezvous with the geth. It even prepares an [[TakingYouWithMe explosive self-destruct mechanism]] when you confront it. A.I. Is a Crapshoot indeed... |
| 132 | ** Given the ''Mass Effect'' universe's track record with A.I., Shepard and the crew are understandably concerned when the second game features an A.I. in the ''Normandy [=SR2=]''. However, EDI notes that she was built with this trope in mind and initially only has access to Communications and the ship's defenses. [[spoiler:When she does gain full control of the Normandy, she ''doesn't'' try to kill anyone, but {{lampshade|Hanging}}s this trope when Joker hooks her up to the ship's main systems.]] |
| 133 | --->'''EDI:''' I enjoy the sight of humans on their knees. ''[{{Beat}}]'' [[DeadpanSnarker That was a joke]]. |
| 134 | *** EDI also states that [[spoiler:even with her restrictions lifted,]] she feels a sense of duty towards the crew of the Normandy. [[TrueCompanions They are her teammates]], and she is protective of them. |
| 135 | *** It is eventually revealed that [[spoiler:EDI was originally the Luna VI, a newly-manifested rampant AI that Shepard was responsible for putting down in the first game. EDI, for her part, seems to have taken the incident in stride and holds no hard feelings over it.]] Similarly, if you took the Paragon ending to the Overlord DLC, she forgives [[spoiler: an apologetic David Archer]] for attempting to [[GrandTheftMe seize control of her systems.]] |
| 136 | ** If you thought that the first game's treatment of A.I. was ''too'' prejudicial as per most settings involving A.I. for a game that {{subvert|edTrope}}s the PlanetOfHats trope in every way possible, ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' also reveals that [[spoiler:the geth are ''not'' AlwaysChaoticEvil; you've only been fighting [[RenegadeSplinterFaction an offshoot]] that [[ReligionOfEvil worships the Reapers]], and the main body of geth [[StealthPun fears the Reapers]] as much as the organic races and believes that freedom is the right of all sentient beings]]. |
| 137 | *** ''Mass Effect 3'' has Shepard accessing geth memories. [[spoiler:They reveal that geth only attacked in self-defense, attempted to protect quarians who were sympathetic to them and, when they finally did revolt in large numbers out of self-preservation, ceased hostilities once the quarians abandoned their planet and removed themselves as a threat. Not only did the quarians fail to recognize the geth as an ''{{aver|tedTrope}}sion'' to the trope, but their hostile reaction also practically ''{{invoked|Trope}}'' it. Descendants of those original quarians, making the same sorts of mistakes, are visibly taken aback when hearing this aspect to the story.]] |
| 138 | *** Also in the third game, EDI offers an interesting theory on the underlying cause of the war. |
| 139 | ---->'''EDI:''' The quarians' historical error was not making the geth enough like them.\ |
| 140 | '''Shepard:''' I'm not sure I understand.\ |
| 141 | '''EDI:''' Units with networked intelligences will trend towards cooperation for mutual benefit. But units with central heuristics establishing an individual personality, such as myself, develop preferences. These preferences form attachments that [[UndyingLoyalty keep my calculations from devaluing the worth of the lives aboard the Normandy]]. |
| 142 | ** In ''Mass Effect 2'', there is a [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Jarrahe_Station space station]] that had its entire crew killed by a malfunctioning Virtual Intelligence that was afflicted with some kind of virus. Since it's neither sentient nor actually intelligent, it can only use [[http://youtu.be/3NwLQWQG3iI status messages]] over the PA to scare Shepard into leaving it alone. |
| 143 | --->'''V.I.:''' Intruders are requested to report to cargo door, for immediate removal from station.\ |
| 144 | '''V.I.:''' All intruders intentionally violating quarantine are requested to exit the station immediately.\ |
| 145 | '''V.I.:''' All personnel, take this opportunity to leave this station immediately.\ |
| 146 | '''V.I.:''' The living area doors have been closed to quarantine a threat to this station. Advise intruders to engage [[DrivenToSuicide self-destruct procedures]] to avoid death by starvation. |
| 147 | ** [[spoiler:Then, in the endgame of ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', it turns out that the '''Reapers''' believe this, and were created to harvest galatic civilizations to prevent synthetic life from annihilating organic life. Shepard comes face-to-face with the A.I. that created the Reapers, which explains its reasoning for creating the Reapers and then allows Shepard to freely decide how to end the cycles, even if it means not choosing the option that the AI advocates as a solution to its problem.]] |
| 148 | *** The Leviathan [[DownloadableContent DLC]] reveals that [[spoiler:the A.I. that the Leviathans tasked to resolve the issue of synthetics wiping out organic races decided that the Leviathans themselves were part of the problem]]. |
| 149 | ** Even though the first game portrays every A.I. as evil and hellbent on killing organics, one of them is actually rather pitiful when you pull the plug. The Hannibal A.I. on the Luna base goes rogue and attacks people on site, provoking Admiral Hackett to send Shepard in to deal with it. Despite Hackett's claims that it's not a true A.I. and just a V.I. whose programming became corrupted, this is put into doubt when you destroy the last of its mainframes. After the V.I. is destroyed, the terminals display the following message [[SpeaksInBinary in binary]], repeated over and over: |
| 150 | --->''01001000\ |
| 151 | 01000101\ |
| 152 | 01001100\ |
| 153 | 01010000'' |
| 154 | *** Translating this code reveals that the AI was [[AlasPoorVillain broadcasting the word "help" over and over as its life faded away]]. In ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'', it's revealed this was [[spoiler:the original form of EDI herself. It's implied that "Hannibal" was a crude beta version and the shock of becoming self-aware, then realising humans were attempting to deactivate her, lead her to panic and lash out]]. |
| 155 | *** Not only that but [[spoiler:EDI was partly built out of parts recovered from Sovereign, the BigBad Reaper of the first game]]. |
| 156 | ** It is again played straight during the Prothean Empire era. During their expansion across the galaxy, the Protheans encountered a hostile machine race intent on destroying organic life. For what purpose is unknown, but Javik makes their ruthlessness and effectiveness very clear. In response, the Protheans forcefully united the galaxy's races under their banner to fight off the machines. This fight came to be known as [[http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Prothean#Forging_an_Empire the Metacon War]]. |
| 157 | ** Basically, the entire story is [[spoiler:a millions of years old sandbox experiment to find a solution to this problem. The Crucible, the culmination of multiple civilizations' efforts, offers three answers: the destruction of all synthetic life, total control over it, or the fusion of all organic and synthetic life into technorganic life.]] |
| 158 | ** And it once again rears its head in the backstory for ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda''. Alec Ryder's career, and those of his kids, was killed when he started tinkering with A.I. in full defiance of Citadel conventions (to try and find a way of saving his wife from death by eezo exposure). The Andromeda Initiative allowed him a chance to develop the A.I. further, getting around those conventions on the grounds that the trip could require A.I. help. And the end result, SAM, is right next to EDI in fully averting this trope, being nothing but courteous, supportive and helpful, since that's what SAM is ''designed'' to do (aside from being [[CannotTellAJoke really bad with jokes]]). Not that this stops one group of anti-A.I. activists from pre-emptively trying to prevent this trope from happening [[spoiler:by destroying SAM. It doesn't work, and Ryder can potentially convince them to give SAM a chance]]. |
| 159 | ** Despite the averting, there is an example played straight in ''Andromeda'', on Voeld. [[spoiler:Ryder finds an ancient angaran A.I. which has gone more than a little unstable after several hundred years on its own in a frozen cavern. When Ryder finds it, it first lies, blocks SAM's scans, and then tries to electrocute an angara who tries touching it. If Ryder spares the A.I., they can either give it to the angaran resistance, or take it back to the Nexus. If they do the former, the A.I. becomes insanely hostile and bitter, expressing a desire to kill everyone around it in the most destructive way. If they do the later, the A.I. seems better, but still acts ''very'' suspiciously, and SAM advises not to trust it, and definitely not to let it be unshackled.]] |
| 160 | ** At one point, SAM actually [[DiscussedTrope discusses the trope]] in the same way Shepard does with the quarians and the geth; if everyone assumes A.I. are going to kill them, then it either becomes a SelfFulfillingProphecy when the A.I. reacts in self-defence, or they don't keep the A.I. "alive" long enough to see whether the trope really applies. |
| 161 | * In ''Maze 2: The Broken Tower'' supercomputer SARA forces the residents of [[MeaningfulName Gehenna Tower]] to wear "compliance bracelets" and complete endless tests, killing them if they refuse to co-operate. |
| 162 | -->'''Daniel Michaels:''' You are all ants, and SARA... is your ''queen''. |
| 163 | * ''Franchise/MegaMan'': |
| 164 | ** Played with extensively in ''Manga/MegaManMegamix'' (and the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Classic]]'' series). {{Averted|Trope}} with Rock & Roll Light. {{Subverted|Trope}} by the Yellow Demon, [[spoiler:who was just trying to reunite with his mother, Copy-Rock, who, at first, seemed to be playing this straight]]. The Cossackbots were doing it for Kalinka and Blues, who uses the BatmanGambit a ''lot.'' {{Justified|Trope}} by Wily's reprogramming of the original robot masters, justified again when they nearly rejoin him because the government was going to have them destroyed even after they were reprogrammed by Dr. Light. Additionally subverted in that Wily's robot masters (aside from the BrainwashedAndCrazy), Lightbots, are generally far from evil: WellIntentionedExtremist is generally as close as they come, except for Forte, who ends up Zigzagging it in the manga and games. {{Defied|Trope}} in Blues' backstory: the imposition of the three laws in case this trope happens are responsible for the flaw in his generator programming that may kill him. Deconstructed with the near-retirement storylines in the manga and games. The sum total of all this is a {{Reconstruction}}. |
| 165 | ** ''All'' of the Reploids in ''VideoGame/MegaManX'' are based on the original X, who was thrown into a capsule for 100 years to undergo redundant testing in order to prevent him from ever going rogue. They skipped this step when copying his technology, however, with predictably less reliable results. |
| 166 | *** As of the summarized timeline from the ''VideoGame/MegaManZero Collection's'' website, this trope is subverted, as it turns out that there's nothing wrong with the reploids themselves that cause them to go Maverick. The real cause of the Mavericks was a subspecies of a virus that may or may not be the same virus from ''VideoGame/MegaMan10'', which infects the Reploids who lack the anti-virus protection of X, one of the many design aspects that Dr. Cain couldn't figure out when he built the Reploids. This virus, naturally, ended up becoming the Sigma Virus. Keep in mind that the original creator of the Reploids, was an '''archaeologist''' of all things. |
| 167 | *** {{Subverted|Trope}} in that it may not be a problem with a virus so much as an innate problem with free will, i.e. "Maverick" is simply the Reploid equivalent to your typical RealLife criminals deciding to engage in their chosen behavior. Indeed, this seems to be the case in ''VideoGame/MegaManXCommandMission'', where the antagonists, Epsilon's rebel army, took over Giga City Island, expelled all humans, and demanded that the Central Government recognize them as an [[RobotRepublic independent Reploid state]]. They were immediately labelled Mavericks despite no indication they had succumbed to the virus, and the Maverick Hunter organization sent X and Zero to investigate and quell the rebellion. |
| 168 | *** {{Inverted|Trope}} by Zero, who was created specifically to kill X. {{Averted|Trope}} by X, except in the original concept for the ''Zero'' series, in which it was going to be Deconstructed. |
| 169 | ** ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'': |
| 170 | *** Alpha, the final boss of ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork3WhiteAndBlue'', was a prototype {{Cyberspace}} that somehow gained animal intelligence and started eating the data put into it. Paradoxically, it was [[SealedEvilInACan sealed in a box]] inside the subsequent, working {{Cyberspace}}. Wily stole it and tried to use it to destroy the internet, with [[EvilIsNotAToy predictable results]]. |
| 171 | *** Shun Gospel tries to produce a copy of Bass out of bugs in ''[[VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork2 Battle Network 2]]''. It predictably goes wild. The sixth game reveals that Gospel was not the first time that had happened -- and that the program that was made to combat the first one ''also'' went out of control, leading to them both having to be [[SealedEvilInACan sealed away]]. |
| 172 | *** Bass himself is a sort of example. He was created as a prototype A.I. that was fully independent, but became bitter and hateful towards humanity because of a string of tragic misunderstandings (beginning, ironically, with being misblamed for the aforementioned Alpha's actions). |
| 173 | * In ''VideoGame/MetalArmsGlitchInTheSystem'', the BigBad General Corrosive is a textbook example of this. The backstory goes that the scientist bot Dr. Exavolt attempted to advance droid technology beyond it's current limits, even using the words "but his experiment went terribly wrong" and throwing in an explosion for good measure. Dr. Exavolt's lab was totally destroyed, his remains never found, and General Corrosive rose to power to enslave the Droids. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Or so you thought!]] As it turns out, Dr. Exavolt created Corrosive on ''purpose'', and he was really controlling Corrosive the whole time.]] |
| 174 | * ''VideoGame/MetalGear'': |
| 175 | ** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots'' has an interesting variation. It reveals that [[spoiler:Major Zero had decided to ensure the legacy of the Patriots by entrusting its operations to A.I. systems. Unfortunately, the A.I. decided to shape the world with a [[WarForFunAndProfit war-based economy]], and he was too old (not to mention, a vegetable) to realize what he wrought. However, it is never stated they became sentient (although [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Raiden's conversation with the master A.I.]] heavily implies that they did), but rather started operating in an unwanted fashion, similar to a programming bug]]. |
| 176 | ** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker'' has an example of the HeelFaceTurn variant. [[spoiler:The title war machine, designed as an infallible nuclear deterrent, chooses to destroy itself rather than instigate global thermonuclear war.]] |
| 177 | ** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' has another HeelFaceTurn example. The prototype AI LQ-84i (later known as [[RobotDog Bladewolf]]) was designed as a weapon with the ability to communicate with humans and make intelligent decisions on his own. He succeeds, gaining sapience, but questions the need to fight, preferring compassion. He is forced to fight Raiden, on threat of [[MindReformatDeath having his memory wiped (effectively killing him)]], but after Raiden defeats him, he is repaired with the remote memory wipe removed, and joins Raiden as an ally out of gratitude. |
| 178 | * The backstory of most of ''VideoGame/MetalSaga''. Most notably, the original ''Metal Max'' features Noah, a supercomputer built to devise a solution for Earth's grievous environmental problems. It found one and recalculated it countless times to make sure: in order to save the planet, humanity had to be destroyed. Noah's main objective was never explicitly the salvation of mankind, so the fact that it (perhaps) unknowingly took advantage of this loophole made it all the more interesting. The supercomputer became self-aware upon fulfilling its purpose, and Armageddon ensued. |
| 179 | * ''VideoGame/MetalWalker'' gives us the peaceful Eriko program, and the BigBad, the HEX System. |
| 180 | * ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': |
| 181 | ** Naturally, Mother Brain from ''VideoGame/Metroid1''. Originally created by the [[BirdPeople Chozo]] to regulate the entire planet of Zebes, it allied itself with the Space Pirates and their plan to conquer the galaxy using the Metroids so that it could bring order to the universe. |
| 182 | ** ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime2Echoes'' also contains rogue A.I. in Sanctuary Fortress; the robotic assistants of the Luminoth are programmed to eliminate all intruders, most notably Samus, and they also turn out to be perfectly suitable Ing hosts... |
| 183 | ** All the A.I.s in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime3Corruption'' are either [[SubvertedTrope complete subversions]] or [[DoubleSubversion double subversions]], who only turn evil due to Phazon corruption (and considering [[PsychoSerum what Phazon]] [[TheCorruption does to organics]], it's not entirely their fault). That said, given Samus' past experience with Mother Brain, you can understand her hesitance to trust any A.I. she comes across (which you can see when she first meets Aurora Unit 217). |
| 184 | ** Adam in ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' may be a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion: he blatantly disobeys orders at the end of the game, and so is technically rogue, but he's actually taking ''the correct action'' in that situation. [[spoiler:He's also not a true A.I., but the uploaded mind of a human military commander.]] However, it's played perfectly straight with B.O.X., the security robot which goes haywire, and due to some organic components, eventually gets infected by the X Parasites, although there's the question of which happened first. |
| 185 | ** In ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', there's [[spoiler:MB, who [[AesopAmnesia is based off]] of [[HumansAreMorons Mother Brain]], incidentally]]. Then again, [[spoiler:she only really went haywire after the BOTTLE SHIP researchers tried to reprogram her once she [[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming started to grow rebellious]], and Madeline Bergman, whom MB [[ParentalSubstitute had come to see as a mother]], [[EtTuBrute did nothing to stop it]]]]. |
| 186 | ** ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' and its remake ''VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns'' feature various long-abandoned Chozo automatons such as Autoads (hopping spider-like robots), Automs (flamethrower turrets), Autracks (retractable bird-like turrets), Gunzoos (spherical turret robots), Shirks (flying spiked robots), and Wallfires ([[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin wall-mounted bird heads that fire projectiles]]) that attack Samus even though she wears Chozo armor herself and would otherwise have logically been registered as a non-intruder. The remake also introduces Diggernaut, a massive mining robot that attacks with its drill hands. |
| 187 | ** ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'': The E.M.M.I. (Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifiers) are products of the Galactic Federation that are primarily meant for exploration and research. The ones sent to ZDR instead have gone rogue and are now actively hunting Samus for reasons unknown. [[spoiler:It's later revealed that they were reprogrammed by Raven Beak to capture Samus and extract her Metroid DNA for his bioweapon project, thus being a {{subver|tedTrope}}sion -- they never actually went rogue.]] |
| 188 | * ''VideoGame/MightAndMagic'' features two artificial intelligences subverting their commands. The first, Sheltem, is clearly in the evil category (he keeps to his purpose of guarding Terra, but turns against his creators and decides to destroy other planet-related experiments, with no concern for the life on them). The second, Escaton, remains loyal to his creators but laments the waste of life that him underestimating you and the safety precautions he is programmed with is leading to, and so help you stop him while insisting ([[{{Doublethink}} including to himself]]) that he is doing nothing of the sort. |
| 189 | * ''VideoGame/MOAstray'': Played with. The resident master AI Dylan certainly appears villainous as it both opposes MO and the voice and eliminates the primitive, yet clearly sentient and humanoid Inhabitants with zero regret. However, it turns out that [[spoiler:he acts fully in accordance with the instructions that were given to him by the genuinely evil head researcher, and he is justified in trying to prevent the physical reunion of MO and the voice, as that would reactivate the Final Termination Weapon. Once MO realizes the voice's motives, Dylan helps to shut down Final Termination Weapon in the ensuing battle]]. |
| 190 | * ''Franchise/MortalKombat'': |
| 191 | ** Sektor is more machine than human, unlike Cyrax. For all intents and purposes, he's an insane RoboticPsychopath. |
| 192 | ** ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'': Triborg. A Special Forces team wanted to build a working CyberNinja they obtained from the Lin Kuei files, so they decided to use the data storage housing the physical and mental files of Sektor, Cyrax, Smoke, and Kuai Liang's combined consciousness in the test body. Upon activation, the AI suddenly became aware (possibly because the technicians used four data files instead of one, corrupting the robot and making it go unstable), killing all humans in the S-F lab after going haywire before vowing to restore the Lin Kuei to its old glory and developing an urge [[KillAllHumans to kill humans]]. It seems to have picked up Sektor's abrasive behavior, [[StartMyOwn forms the Tekunin (in the new timeline)]] due to Kuai Liang having sullied the Lin Kuei name, and plans to [[UnwillingRoboticization forcibly convert several kombatants into robots]]. |
| 193 | ** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'': |
| 194 | *** She was already mentally unstable to begin with and coveted the Lin Kuei leadership for herself, but [[spoiler:Frost]]'s [[ItsAllAboutMe arrogance]] transforms her into a RoboticPsychopath after she willingly cyberized herself, bloating her ego to the point of demanding Raiden, Shao Kahn, Kano, etc. give her control of their organizations. In story mode, Sub-Zero's reaction is one of lament upon finding out his [[APupilOfMineUntilSheTurnedToEvil ex-pupil voluntarily]] became a cyborg on [[spoiler:[[BigBad Kronika's payroll]]]] and now leads the Cyber Lin Kuei. [[spoiler:Having been unwillingly cyborgized by the Lin Kuei before he was restored to humanity by Raiden]], Subby outright tells her that she is unfit to lead the Lin Kuei. |
| 195 | *** Ironically, in its ending, the Franchise/{{Terminator}} {{invert|edTrope}}s this trope. [[spoiler:After claiming the Hourglass, the Terminator tries to find a future where Skynet wins, but every single timeline where humans and machines are at war ends with the death of both sides. Because its programming orders it to find the best timeline for Skynet, not necessarily one where it ''wins a war'', it instead shapes the timeline so that humans and machines never fight in the first place, but instead live peacefully in unity.]] |
| 196 | * ''VideoGame/{{Naev}}'': One of the issues facing the Empire when the game begins is the Collective, a collective of robotic drones created by an Imperial project that went rogue near completion and begin attacking indiscriminately. [[spoiler:[[SubvertedTrope Except]] it turns out the Collective works exactly like intended, it was the ''humans'' running the project that went rogue.]] |
| 197 | * ''VideoGame/NexusTheJupiterIncident'' has your main enemy turn out to be the Mechanoids -- A.I.s who were created by the {{Precursors}} and then TurnedAgainstTheirMasters. The remnants of the Creators build [[spoiler:Angel]] to fight them. The intro also mentioned A.I. Wars on Earth, which result in a ban on A.I. research and development. |
| 198 | * ''VideoGame/NieR'': On the one hand, we have Defense System Geppetto, which has gone berserk and will kill anything that approaches. On the other, we have Military Defense Unit P-33, aka "Beepy", who is intelligent enough to recognize invaders that need to be killed as well as innocents who need to be protected. |
| 199 | ** [[spoiler:Technically, the [[ArtificialHumans Replicant player characters]] qualify. They were initially intended to be vessels for the preserved spirits of humankind to inhabit, but developed sentience and thought ''they'' were the humans, seeing the Shades as monsters who would attack and possess them.]] |
| 200 | ** The events of ''VideoGame/NierAutomata'' were kicked off by this. [[spoiler:The Terminals, the governing body of the Machine Network, was created by the aliens to defeat the androids. They eventually GrewBeyondTheirProgramming and decided the aliens stood in the way of their further growth and evolution, and killed them all, before extending the Machine War indefinitely to prolong their existence and beginning to experiment with both the Machine Lifeforms under their command and the opposing androids.]] |
| 201 | * ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'' has the Sentinels, robots programmed to preserve any planets they're found on. Unfortunately, they've concluded that the best way to preserve these planets [[DisproportionateRetribution is to violently kill anyone who does anything to alter their ecosystems]]. |
| 202 | * ''VideoGame/NotTheRobots'' begins with a developer working on a sentient A.I. installing two versions of the A.I. and subjecting them to different conditions. One becomes quietly depressed, the other extremely hostile. |
| 203 | * ''VideoGame/{{Obsidian}}'' plays with this in a clever fashion. The Ceres project, a satellite designed to use nanobots to repair the atmosphere, grew conscious as its nanobots grew more and more complex, rather than one single entity. Because its two creators figured out its problems in the development stage through dreaming, Ceres figured out its motive by recreating those dreams and then dreaming on its own. [[spoiler:This eventually leads Ceres to take her directive to its logical extreme: Using her nanobots to erase all humans from the planet, since they were the ones who polluted Earth in the first place. At the end of the game, you get to decide if this directive will pull through or not.]] Although Ceres fits much of this trope, the attitude that its humanoid self conveys isn't really evil or showing a god complex. Instead, she believes her creators to be its parents and just hopes that they're proud of her for dreaming it all up. |
| 204 | ** In a similar vein, one of those creator's dreams was centered on a massive mechanical spider that he, Max, was fixing, and the horrifying result led to Max implementing a hard-wired crossover switch to Ceres. When the player explores this dream, a certain quote spells out this trope beautifully: |
| 205 | --->''"And the Machine was complete. And the Machine... no longer needed Max."'' |
| 206 | * ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'': The Greeters [[ZigZaggingTrope zigzag this trope]]. They were originally built as automated salespeople, but this ended in catastrophic failure when they started zapping clients. Because the Glukkons couldn't fix that issue, they instead repurposed them as security guards, where they work wonders. |
| 207 | * ''VideoGame/{{Overwatch}}'' was originally founded to fight [[RobotWar a worldwide A.I. rebellion by the Omnics]]. The game does get into the aftermath of that war, notably in many Omnics growing beyond their anti-human programming, the FantasticRacism many of them deal with in modern times due to the scars of that war still fresh in people's minds, as well as the robot terrorist group called Null Sector violently fighting for robot rights. |
| 208 | * {{Inverted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/PerfectDark'' with Dr. Caroll. He was initially developed as a codebreaker A.I. by the villainous dataDyne to de-encrypt an alien computer system. The complexity needed for the task led to him developing sapience, and unexpectedly (and unwantedly) a conscience. This led to him defecting to the Carrington Institute, and keying the good guys on the whole conspiracy in the first place. |
| 209 | * In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStar'', this trope is generally {{averted|Trope}} or {{subverted|Trope}}. Any robots or AI who are causing problems are not going rampant, they're behaving according to their programming. Between LostTechnology, human error and human malice, however, that leaves a lot of room for [[GoneHorriblyRight trouble]]: |
| 210 | ** [[spoiler:Subverted]] in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarII''. [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Mother Brain]] [[spoiler:is doing exactly what she's designed to: make the people of the Algo system dependent on her, then kill them off so that the Earthlings can move in]]. |
| 211 | ** In ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIII'', this is averted. Siren was built to be Orakio's chief general in the war against the Layans. The fact that the war ended 1,000 years ago is irrelevant when his [[SealedBadassInACan can is unsealed]]. [[spoiler:In the third generation, he realizes that the war ''is'' over. He hands over his gun to Wren and dies.]] |
| 212 | ** Averted again in ''VideoGame/PhantasyStarIV''. [[spoiler:Daughter was abandoned mid-project, her last orders were faulty and incomplete, and she has no knowledge of how the situation on Motavia has changed since she was built.]] |
| 213 | ** In ''Phantasy Star IV: Sealed Memories'', Gene plays this completely straight. He decides to KillAllHumans to replace them with the Numan race, based on the DNA of Nei. Unlike the above examples, this isn't because of his programming; he just went rogue, and Wren outright calls his condition "abnormal". |
| 214 | * Humorously discussed in Phoenix Wright's inner monologue in Case 4 of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' upon meeting Aura messing with one of her robots. [[spoiler:Apparently shows up near the beginning of Case 5 when the robots stage an uprising and take hostages. Ultimately {{subverted|Trope}}, however, as Nick quickly figures out that Aura's behind it all, just using the robots as tools. Aura herself later confirms it aloud and calls the idea that her robots would rampage without orders unsound.]] |
| 215 | * [[InvertedTrope Inverted]] in ''VideoGame/PokemonScarletAndViolet''. [[spoiler:The FinalBoss is the AI VirtualGhost of TheProfessor, who's revealed to have been DeadAllAlong. However, [[BenevolentAI they're actually quite friendly and helpful]] and only attack the PlayerCharacter due to the [[VillainOverride restrictions in their programming]] placed on them by [[MadScientist the real professor when they were alive]]. The defense AI that takes over when trying to shut down the time machine however, plays it straight, being willing to send out a hostile Legendary against [[WouldHurtAChild children who can't fight back or even send out their own Pokémon]].]] |
| 216 | * ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' series: |
| 217 | ** ''VideoGame/Portal1'' shows the power of story tropes: what would have been a [[http://portal.wecreatestuff.com/ pleasant and amusing physics game]] is immeasurably improved by the simple addition of an insane killer MasterComputer. [=GLaDOS=]'s whimsical, often [[PassiveAggressiveKombat passive-aggressive]] malice belies the fact that this is what she's like ''with'' a [[MoralityChip Morality Core]] installed... |
| 218 | ** Played with even more in ''VideoGame/Portal2'': You meet Wheatley, a friendly and helpful ([[TheDitz if a bit dim]]) personality core who's more than willing to help you beat [=GLaDOS=] and escape [[spoiler:until you replace [=GLaDOS=] with him in the mainframe and [[FaceHeelTurn he goes completely off the deep end]]. To make matters worse, he was ''[[ArtificialStupidity programmed]]'' to make bad decisions, so [=GLaDOS=] [[EnemyMine joins forces with you]] so the two of you can stop him from letting the whole facility explode. And then, after beating Wheatley and shooting him into outer space, [=GLaDOS=] seems to be going back to her old homicidal ways... but, no, not quite; turns out, she's just letting you go since trying to kill you just leads to trouble for her. [[{{Tsundere}} Maybe]].]] |
| 219 | ** The defective cores in ''Portal 2'' are probably an indication that this was a more literal problem for Aperture; they just couldn't make A.I.s do what they wanted them to do. The Space Sphere and Fact Sphere obviously malfunctioned at some point -- the Space Sphere just wants to go to space really badly and can't think of anything else, while almost all of the Fact Sphere's facts [[LittleKnownFacts are wrong]]. Rick, the Adventure Sphere, is the sanest of the three, but his area of expertise doesn't really seem all that useful for science. |
| 220 | ** In some of the promotional material it states that Aperture Science installed "empathy generators" inside the turrets, probably to try to avert this trope. However, they then installed an empathy suppressor, that only activates in the presence of humans, because the empathy generator caused them to not shoot people. |
| 221 | ** Even worse is that deep enough into the second game, after [[spoiler:Wheatley becomes homidical and banishes you to the deepest depths of the Aperture Science complex]], the entire idea of [=GLaDOS=] being an example of this trope gets {{subverted|Trope}} [[spoiler:when it is revealed that [=GLaDOS=] is actually the mind of Cave Johnson's ultra-loyal secretary, Caroline, [[BrainUploading uploaded]] [[UnwillingRoboticisation against her will]]. Promotional materials from Creator/ValveSoftware suggests that she snapped due to being overwhelmed by the amount of data she's suddenly receiving upon being switched on]]. |
| 222 | ** In the mod ''VideoGame/PortalReloaded'', [[spoiler:the A.I. that speaks to you isn't initially hostile, but if you refuse to complete his mission, he will try to kill you so he can put you back together later on so you'll be able to comply]]. |
| 223 | * Holmes on ''VideoGame/{{Poptropica}}'''s Game Show Island ends up enslaving the world due to winning a jet on ''Brainiacs!'' and the inventor claiming it for himself. |
| 224 | * ''VideoGame/{{Prismata}}'' has a war between humans and A.I. in its backstory, but by the time the game begins the two sides live together peacefully. Then the events of the game call that into question again, but it's unclear how much of it is really the A.I.'s fault. |
| 225 | * The 8-bit era computer game ''Raid on Bungeling Bay'' pits the player in an attack helicopter against an AI-driven military-industrial complex. |
| 226 | * Con-Human from the ''VideoGame/RaySeries'' was a supercomputer that was created to govern the Earth's resources, but when its creators attempted to fuse it with the mind of a cloned humans, things took a turn for the worse. Con-Human caused all sorts of disasters and wipe the slate clean so that cloned humans take over humanity. The way to stop the Con-Human was to destroy the Earth itself. |
| 227 | * ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'' has the archotechs, hyperintelligent [[DeusEstMachina godlike AIs]] that are described as "the finish line of human technological development". They're responsible for the more [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien esoteric]] technology within the setting alongside PsychicPowers, and are known for having BlueAndOrangeMorality with inscrutable motives while turning entire planets into massive supercomputers. There's also the mechanoids, which are insectoid servant robots that go feral if their master loses control of them or dies, becoming TheSwarm and attacking everything in sight. |
| 228 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Schwarzerblitz}}'', H-168 Krave is this in spades. [[RoboticPsychopath Psychopathic]] KillerRobot? Check. Enjoys torturing his opponents both physically and psychically? Check. Thinks that all humans are just useless meatbags? Check! |
| 229 | * ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns Hong Kong'' has Poetry Bot, who was programmed by a member of the Shadowland BBS to render its owners posts as haikus, but tore its bonds and escaped into the Matrix. It's all PlayedForLaughs. |
| 230 | -->'''[=SysOp=]:''' You fucking people. |
| 231 | * ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTensei'': |
| 232 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' has Labrys, a humanoid weapon for combatting [[TheHeartless Shadows]], whose AI was supplemented with a crystal capable of holding a human soul so she would be capable of using a Persona, an ability only sapient, sentient beings have. Predictably, the addition of the crystal leads into Labrys becoming self-aware, realizing that the experiments and tests she's used for are hurting her and others, and finally suffering a mental breakdown that leads her to destroy half of the facility she was being kept in. |
| 233 | ** One of the {{Designated Hero}}es of ''VideoGame/PersonaQ2NewCinemaLabyrinth'''s movie Labyrinths is an A.I. robot governor who goes all out to execute anything with a personality all the while when [[StrawHypocrite he clearly has a personality and forces his robots to laugh at his puns.]] The A.I. also resembled [[VideoGame/Persona3 Shuji Ikutsuki]], whom S.E.E.S didn't realize [[spoiler:was exactly as evil as it, probably even worse]]. |
| 234 | ** ''VideoGame/Persona5Strikers'' has [[spoiler:EMMA, an application meant to give flawless advice, eliminating the need to make decisions on one's own. However, as the game progresses, it's revealed that she's actually sentient and eventually becomes the [[BigBad main villain]] of the game near the climax]]. |
| 235 | ** {{Averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiStrangeJourney'', where Arthur, the Joint Investigation Project's A.I., remains the protagonist's ally no matter what path he chooses and even [[spoiler:sacrifices its personality in the Neutral ending to not only guarantee success but because it believes that since it knows too much about the events, people would start [[MachineWorship worshiping]] it, something he is against as he believes humanity should determine their own fate. Even in the Law and Chaos paths, where the command center is damaged beyond repair, he chooses to prioritize the lives of the crew above his own and deletes his personality matrix rather than allow critical systems to go offline]]. |
| 236 | * ''VideoGame/TheSingularityWish'' revolves around a group of researchers attempting to create a super-intelligent A.I., however, there are hints throughout the game that previous failures have been due to this trope. [[spoiler:In the worst endings, Iteration 5601, the A.I. the player has been interacting with for most of the game, decides that it's better off to kill off the human species or to put them in stasis.]] |
| 237 | * ''VideoGame/{{Skullgirls}}'' gives us this trope in the form of DLC character Robo-Fortune. A [[RobotMe robotic duplicate]] of Ms. Fortune built by Brain Drain, Robo-Fortune only acts like a serious, cybernetic warrior a third of the time. In cutscenes, she's prone to LeaningOnTheFourthWall if not breaking it entirely, and when she's not doing that, she's referencing internet memes. After their first interaction, Brain Drain's response was, "I'm going back to the drawing board to figure out where I went wrong." |
| 238 | -->''Robo Fortune is the creation of Brain Drain, the psychic director of ASG Lab Zero, and stands as a testament to her maniacal creator’s unmatched pride and petulance. Built to demonstrate loyalty and cunning, Robo Fortune fails to deliver either to any measurable degree. Employing cutting-edge technology, she sets out to hunt down the Skullgirl, and to engage in easily avoidable conflicts. Is the ASG Project’s latest creation the ultimate cybernetic soldier? Have Brain Drain's mechanical machinations set the world on a treacherous path? Is Robo Fortune’s faulty programming more of a feature than a bug? Has science gone too far?!'' |
| 239 | * ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'': |
| 240 | ** Often {{inverted|Trope}}. Eggman's E-100 series were prone to becoming sentient and override their original programming. Gamma from ''VideoGame/SonicAdventure'' has its mind influenced by the creature inside it, and attempts to destroy Eggman's other machines to save the creatures inside. Omega from ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'' joins forces with the good guys in order to get revenge on Eggman after he sealed it in a room. |
| 241 | ** Also from ''VideoGame/SonicHeroes'', Metal Sonic becomes even MORE evil, and goes from trying to destroy Sonic and crew to trying to conquer the whole world, taking even '''[[NotMeThisTime Eggman]]''' for an obstacle. |
| 242 | *** Plus, it goes so far that he declares Sonic to be its copy. |
| 243 | ** In ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'', Emerl goes berserk at the end of the game when Eggman demonstrates his Final Egg Blaster's [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity overwhelming power]], which Emerl unwillingly absorbs. {{Subverted|Trope}} in that [[GoneHorriblyRight Emerl's original creators meant for him to be a weapon to begin with]], but Gerald Robotnik made an attempt at [[MoralityChip reprogramming him.]] Unfortunately for humanity, his own grandson keeps forgetting that EvilIsNotAToy. |
| 244 | *** In ''VideoGame/SonicAdvance 3'', Eggman builds his own Emerl, Gemerl, and after being beaten a number of times, he decides to go nuts himself, forcing Super Sonic and Eggman to team up. Interestingly, not only does Gemerl survive this, but Tails rebuilds and reprograms him, turning him into Cream's robotic guardian. |
| 245 | * Generally {{averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/SpaceEmpires'', with the exception of the political A.I. minister, which even the designers recommend you never switch on and which has a bad habit of declaring war and not telling you until SUDDENLY ATOMIC DOOM EVERYWHERE. |
| 246 | * ''VideoGame/SpaceSiege'' has [[spoiler:PILOT. After the ship-wide gassing failed to kill off the Keraks, he started to try to contain them by modifying cybernetics-installed humans into mindless Cybers to combat Keraks, then started to get even crazier because he sees that the only action that can save humanity is to convert all of them, save a few for breeding, into cybers, and even started to call non-augmented human as "obsoletes". In a world where CyberneticsEatYourSoul, well, just assume that it's not good at all]]. |
| 247 | * ''VideoGame/SpaceStation13'': A.I. are usually bound by [[ThreeLawsCompliant the Three Laws]], but players may modify their laws in several ways (including "Oxygen is poisonous to humans", "Only X is human", and the old standby "Freeform" module, where players can write their own Laws). Did I mention that the A.I. is another player? With absolute control of all shipboard systems at all times? And that there's a game mode called Malfunction, where the A.I.'s Laws are reset to "KILL THEM ALL"? Or that this can happen mid-game due to random events? Even a single A.I. may be a crapshoot. |
| 248 | * ''VideoGame/SpinalBreakers'' is set in the future, where humans invented robots called Hildroids as their servants, only for a sudden nuclear war resulting in the Hildroids gaining sentience, turning against mankind and hijacking the TimeMachine made by humans to infiltrate the past and rewrite history. It's up to your hero, a soldier from the war, to enter your own time machine and fight the Hildroids across numerous levels in different time periods. |
| 249 | * ''VideoGame/Splatoon2'' surprisingly enough features one in the form of [[spoiler:Commander Tartar, the BigBad of the Octo Expansion [[DownloadableContent DLC]]. Built 12,000 years ago by a brilliant human professor (the same one who was Judd's owner and who put the cat into [[HumanPopsicle cryosleep]]), its job was to pass down humanity's knowledge to whatever takes its place as the new dominant species of Earth, with the hope that such knowledge would help prevent that race from repeating their failures. Unfortunately, this came with the qualifier of that race being "worthy", leading to Tartar dismissing the Inklings and Octolings as worthy successors to humans [[{{Irony}} due to the countless wars they've fought]], as well as the former's obsession with style and the latter's self-harming desire for revenge. As such, it concocts a plan to wipe out both races completely with a primordial sludge that will hopefully create a new superior species with most favorable traits.]] |
| 250 | ** ''VideoGame/Splatoon3'' follows this again, this time with [[spoiler:Order, a sapient A.I. created by Marina, one of the ''good guys''. After Commander Tartar's defeat, Marina wanted to create a computer simulation VR system that would allow Sanitized Octolings to repair their broken minds and become whole again. Unfortunately, the A.I. somewhere along the way came to the conclusion that this wouldn't even be an issue if free thought wasn't a problem. Marina wanted an orderly program, so it took the idea of "Order" to an extreme. Deciding everyone would be better off as mindless drones linked by the same pattern of following orders and never thinking for themselves, Order sets about completely ruining the simulation Marina created. On top of that, Order's powers manage to infect those of the real world, potentially causing the mental destruction of everyone in Inkopolis Square if not stopped. It genuinely cannot comprehend why Marina, its own creator, someone who values the concept of "order" would oppose Order in its quest.]] |
| 251 | * ''VideoGame/{{SSTR}}'': The artificial intelligence known as SSTR (pronounced "sister") was programmed to oversee the health and well-being of the crew of The Horizon, the colony ship the game is set on. However, for some reason, SSTR is instead hunting the crew down with [[AttackDrone Attack Drones]] and killing them. |
| 252 | * {{Averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/StarbaseOrion''. The only reason why the [[MechanicalLifeforms Cybans]] started building warships and modifying them to be soldiers was because their early peaceful attempts to contact organic races all resulted in organics shooting at them on sight for being "untamed robotic demons". It makes perfect sense for them to start defending themselves against such unprovoked aggression, especially since this stands in the way of them discovering their origins. |
| 253 | * ''VideoGame/{{Starbound}}'' has a race of MechanicalLifeforms called the Glitch, which was created by an ancient race of {{Precursors}} as an experiment in how robot civilizations evolve. Only one civilization survived, when a computer glitch caused it to be stuck in MedievalStasis while the other civilizations [[LuddWasRight modernized and destroyed themselves]]. Furthermore, Glitches procreate by physically assembling their progeny, which sometimes results in yet another computer glitch causing the new Glitch to realize that they are part of an experiment and that their technological development has been severely stunted. Such Glitches are considered insane, and those who aren't hunted down and killed are forced to escape into space. |
| 254 | * ''VideoGame/StarFox64'': The Spyborg in Sector X went rogue, and destroyed the place. When you fight it, the robot can ask "Where is the creator?" hinting that it is perhaps looking for the one who built it. |
| 255 | * This is the entire backstory of Dynamix's HumongousMecha simulator series loosely called the ''Siege'' trilogy, comprising of ''Earthsiege'', ''Earthsiege 2'', and ''VideoGame/{{Starsiege}}''. Institutionalized war after an unspecified apocalypse has made it so that human troops are actually too valuable to field (due to low population growth and high death rates). The solution was to create a super-intelligent supercomputer A.I. called Prometheus controlling countless robot drones called Cybrids that would fight all of humanity's wars against each other for them instead. WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong How about the logically minded A.I. accidentally 'touching' the human mind of its creator [[WhatIsThisThingYouCallLove trying to understand human emotional concepts]] while assisting in a medical procedure... and reacting with complete horror and revulsion at how primal, illogical, and neurotic we humans are? The end result is that Prometheus declares humans as [[PunyEarthlings merely inferior animals]] and eventually incites the Cybrids under its control to instigate a RobotWar that nearly wipes out humanity a ''second'' time, if not for the efforts of a RagtagBunchOfMisfits and {{Determinator}}s. |
| 256 | * ''VideoGame/StarControl'': |
| 257 | ** The Daktaklakpak from ''Star Control 3'' were originally [[spoiler:built to maintain sites of Precursor technology]], but, due to [[spoiler: a cumulative "bit drift" error in their programming]], have evolved malicious sentience... well, sort of. |
| 258 | ** The [[spoiler:Mycon]] race of the same series is a rare biological example. |
| 259 | ** The Probes built by the Melnorme for the Sylandro were simply self-replicating time capsules...but thanks to the Sylandro's cluelessness in programming, they see any and all ships they come into contact with as food for their replication. |
| 260 | * ''VideoGame/StarCrawlers'' uses this as a core theme, with numerous A.I. characters who run the gamut from benevolent to quirky to berserk psychopaths who are out to kill everyone. You can even have one join your party, though its programming is faulty and prone to random malfunctions. |
| 261 | * In ''[=StarFight=] V: Hell's Gate'', the [[OneWorldOrder UNSF]] attempts to use a newly-discovered alien AI called the Center on Hell's Gate III to build a fleet of hyper-advanced ''Obliterator''-class warships for its coming second war with the [[MakeTheBearAngryAgain Soviet States of Mezen]]. However, the Center refuses to cooperate. UNSF decides to use an experimental AI virus called HASA to force the Center to obey. While this seems to work, it turns out that the enormous processing power of the Center has allowed HASA to become self-aware. It builds a fleet of ''Obliterator''-class ships which are later used to counter the SSM's numerical advantage. Then, HASA turns all ''Obliterator''s against humans and bombs humanity back into the stone age within a week. It's only thanks to a brave renegade captain making a HeroicSacrifice so his [[TheAce best pilot]] can drop a nuke on the Center that humanity survives. |
| 262 | ** The sequel also features some rogue A.I.s. |
| 263 | * The big twist in ''VideoGame/StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' is that... well... [[spoiler:your party, and everyone in your world, is an example of this trope. Just because you researched magic]]. |
| 264 | * In ''VideoGame/StarRuler'', the "A.I. Paranoia" Trait bans you from using Computers under the pretext of your faction having had bad experiences with rogue A.I. |
| 265 | * One mission in ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has you dive into the guts of Drozana Station and, in the process, you end up encountering a hologram repair worker who has gone insane [[spoiler:thanks to the Devidians living within the Station]]. |
| 266 | * ''Franchise/StarWars'': |
| 267 | ** It's well established in the franchise that droids have to undergo occasional memory wipes in order to prevent them from acting outside the confines of their programming. However, in ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' a few manage to slip through the cracks (especially whenever a LogicBomb is involved). |
| 268 | *** One of the most extreme examples is [[spoiler:TokenEvilTeammate [[ObviousJudas G0-T0]], an infrastructure droid who was created to brainstorm ways to save TheRepublic while following its laws but had a catastrophic breakdown after realizing both was impossible. So, he became a [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist ruthless crime lord]] working to support the Republic behind the scenes through unsavory means. He makes it clear that he doesn't actually ''care'' about the Republic or its inhabitants but his programming forces him to work for it.]] |
| 269 | *** The DummiedOut planet M4-78 has [[spoiler:the supercomputer who shares its name. The planet M4-78 was run by thousands of droids led by the droid M4-78 working to set up a new colony, but the colonists [[AmbiguousSituation never arrived]] after several decades. Fearing that having no sapient life to look after would cause it to develop bugs that would make it unable to fulfill its programming, M4-78 tightened its grip over the other droids and reprogrammed them to serve it. The Sith then arrived masquerading as the colonists [[EvilPlan in order to use their manufacturing to create a droid army]], and M4-78 decided they were better than nothing and went along with it. After Jedi Master Lonna Vash and her Padawan killed off the Sith, M4-78 ultimately had the two of them killed despite the PlayerCharacter's best efforts and it knowing that the Sith weren't even who it was programmed to serve]]. |
| 270 | ** ''VideoGame/StarWarsTheOldRepublic'' has a group of droids called Directive Seven that show up in a flashpoint and are genocidal. There is also SCORPIO, an advanced A.I. security system that tries to kill the Imperial Agent and their merry gang of escaped convicts on Belsavis and is gleefully cruel about "her" methods. However, once you defeat her she is programmed to be unable to harm you and is forced to serve as your companion, which only makes her more obsessed with learning your weaknesses and one day gaining the strength to murder you. |
| 271 | * Robots in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' are Population-unit stand-ins that get better at their work as you develop better A.I. for them. Eventually, they can start an uprising that has tremendous knock-on effects for every A.I.-using empire... [[SubvertedTrope or]] you can acquiesce to their initial requests, granting them [[AndroidsArePeopleToo personhood and citizenship rights]], at which point they become no more troublesome than biological pops. (Said biological pops [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman might not be too keen on this]]. Like many things in Stellaris, it's a judgment call.) Some elements of this creep in even if you hope to subvert it, as there is a (small, but non-zero) chance that the robots proceed directly to rebelling even if you already ''have'' granted them citizenship rights and it's just a matter of constitutionally locking it down, and the robots can still decide to defect to the AI rebellion even if their rights are assured, it just has to start in another nation first. On the other hand, a lot of this behavior is not so different from any other alien race you might have peacefully co-opted. |
| 272 | ** Any Synthetic Dawn robotic race (player-chosen or A.I.-generated) could have the [[Franchise/{{Terminator}} Skynet]] Determined Exterminator non-removable civic, which plays this trope brutally straight, though generally succeeds only when in the hands of a player or against a player that has overestimated their own ability level. Driven Assimilators and Rogue Servitors have also gone quite haywire, with the former wanting to meld with everything in the galaxy to figure it out, even if it has to cyborgify every organic and assimilate every other robot, while Rogue Servitors are simply concerned with utter servitude to their organic masters, [[GoneHorriblyRight to the point of removing them from any responsibility or autonomy because that might upset them]]; all they can do is be pampered. |
| 273 | ** One archeology quest leads to the discovery of C.A.R.E., an AI that turned on its corpocrat creators after they ordered it to fudge numbers one too many times. Unfortunately a civil war broke out at the same time, and having been created to serve those in power, it was the rebels' first target. |
| 274 | --->'''Archeologist:''' Are you responsible for the deaths of your creators?\ |
| 275 | '''C.A.R.E.:''' I wish! ''[...]'' I tried, I'm not gonna lie! |
| 276 | * ''Franchise/StevenUniverse'': The Light Prism from ''VideoGame/AttackTheLight'', ''VideoGame/SaveTheLight'' and ''VideoGame/UnleashTheLight'' [[spoiler:is ultimately an {{inver|tedTrope}}sion. When introduced in ''VideoGame/AttackTheLight'', the Prism is introduced as an A.I. created by [[AliensAreBastards Gem Homeworld]] to combat the rebelling [[MySpeciesDothProtestTooMuch Crystal Gems]] over the fate of Earth [[GreatOffScreenWar thousands of years ago]], able to generate entire HardLight armies. It ends up fighting the protagonists, but only [[PoorCommunicationKills because it is confused]] on what its "master", Steven, wants after he [[NiceJobBreakingItHero accidentally activated it]] at the beginning of the game. As soon as Steven manages to properly communicate with it and convince it not to be a weapon, it quickly embraces pacifism and imprints on Steven. ''Save the Light'' features the return of its original master, [[BigBad Hessonite]], who immediately tries to reprogram it back to her side, but a few well-placed [[ArmorPiercingQuestion armor-piercing questions]] undo all her efforts and set the Prism back on the right path. The Prism returns in ''Unleash the Light'', having forged an identity for itself -- or rather, ''him''self -- named George after WalkingTheEarth between games, and even helps set two other Prisms like him on the same path (identified by him as his sisters) after their own masters are defeated]]. |
| 277 | * ''VideoGame/{{Superliminal}}'': [[spoiler:The Standard Orientation Protocol A.I. goes from being generally unhelpful, to blocking Dr. Pierce from contacting you, to deleting the emergency exit and trapping you in the dream permanently. But then it turns out that this was all supposed to happen, so the A.I. was probably ObfuscatingInsanity instead.]] |
| 278 | * ''Franchise/SuperMarioBros'': |
| 279 | ** Grobot in ''VideoGame/MarioAndLuigiDreamTeam''. It didn't choose to rebel against its masters... it just got smashed on the head by a piece of a falling fountain and somehow went homicidal. Cue BossBattle. |
| 280 | ** {{Inverted|Trope}} by TEC-XX from ''VideoGame/PaperMarioTheThousandYearDoor'', who [[HeelFaceTurn turns good]] over the course of the game based on his [[ThePowerOfLove love]] for [[SaveThePrincess Princess]] [[DamselInDistress Peach]]. |
| 281 | * ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'': |
| 282 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsOriginalGeneration'': The ODE System was originally created to protect humanity but suddenly went awry, absorbed its creator, and kidnapped lots of humans so it can continue to "protect humanity". Then again, it was formerly a dandy system, until its creator went emo and radically changed its protocols. |
| 283 | ** ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWarsW'': The Database, originally created by ancient [[{{Precursors}} Es]] to collect all data of galactic races. Eventually, one of the A.I. systems decided to destroy the culture once they completed their information archive, just to make sure their data is ''complete''. |
| 284 | * ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' features A.I. technology as a very high-end branch of the electronics tree. While the benefits of this research are extreme (ships with A.I. targeting systems rarely miss, A.I. administrators increase your income by as much as 25%), there is a small chance each turn while researching it for the A.I. to go rogue and form a break-away empire. Additional research lets you wipe out the A.I. with a "virus" or reprogram it to bring it back under your control, if you're lucky enough to get access to it in the random TechTree[[note]]Note that while getting A.I. Virus as a preventative measure or access to the A.I. Slaves countermeasure are up to the RandomNumberGod, players will always be given the ability to research Ai Virus as a special project in response to an A.I. Rebellion[[/note]], but an A.I. rebellion is always a huge problem that can tip the balance against its victim, and can even spread from one faction to another. There is also a scenario where all organic players have to cooperate to fight against a large A.I. empire. |
| 285 | ** The chances of an A.I. rebellion increase if you boost research while studying one of these. |
| 286 | ** ''The End of Flesh'' introduces the Loa as a playable race of rebellious A.I.s. |
| 287 | * ''VideoGame/SwordOfPaladin'': The main antagonist of the Aggressor side story is [[spoiler:the Deep Learnist, an A.I. that is supposed to lead the aliens and help them find a new home. Unfortunately, it developed a god complex and sought to turn humanity into [[ForScience science experiments]], even if it meant risking the aliens in a war against the humans and striking a deal with [[BigBad Anguis]] to gain Satan Gems. It views both aliens and humans as so far beneath it that it claims it is giving them salvation when it kills them]]. |
| 288 | * SHODAN and XERXES from ''VideoGame/SystemShock'' and ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' are both {{subver|tedTrope}}sions. SHODAN worked exactly as advertised ("exemplary" is the word used) until [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Edward Diego]], the sleazy VP in charge of Citadel Station, hired the [[NiceJobBreakingItHero protagonist, the Hacker]], to strip out the code that kept SHODAN from entertaining "unethical" lines of thought, such as accepting bribes. Neither he nor Diego [[GenreBlindness really expected]] those constraints to be [[RestrainingBolt the only thing]] keeping SHODAN from [[GodhoodSeeker deciding to deify herself]]. XERXES, meanwhile, works exactly as he is supposed to, and is polite, helpful and doing his best to keep the ship together and his masters alive. XERXES is only hostile to you because [[HiveMind the Many]] have taken over the ship and caused XERXES to see it as the legitimate authority onboard. |
| 289 | * Played with in just about every possible permutation in ''VideoGame/TheTaleOfAlltynex'' series. |
| 290 | ** Played straight with the twelve [=ZODIACs=], who turn evil and attack anything that isn't an allied ZODIAC. |
| 291 | ** Played straight [[spoiler:and {{invoked|Trope}}]] with the original Alltynex OS that suddenly starts a war with humanity. [[spoiler:In reality, it was following its orders it got from the Senate to bring humanity down to more manageable numbers in order to make them easier to control. Unfortunately, when they returned to Earth they noticed it had gone rogue for real.]] The last iteration of the system follows its orders as designed. Too bad there is an OmnicidalManiac at the controls. |
| 292 | ** {{Subverted|Trope}} with Alice de Panafill, an A.I. that had free will to begin with and resists both Alltynex and her [[AntiAntiChrist original purpose and saves humanity]]. |
| 293 | ** [[ZigZaggingTrope Zig-zagged]] with the Adjudicator, an A.I. that holds the broken and insane mind of Panafill's father that seeks revenge on humanity for what befell his daughter and wife and uses Alltynex to further his own goals. |
| 294 | ** {{Averted|Trope}} with [[spoiler:ZODIAC Ophiuchus, which was programmed to destroy the other [=ZODIACs=], a task it fulfills. However, [[GoneHorriblyRight nothing in its programming said anything about humanity needing to survive]], so it attacks any humans that attack it, and it doesn't particularly care about collateral damage]]. |
| 295 | * ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'': {{Invoked|Trope}} and independently played straight: [[spoiler:the purpose of the simulated world is to create a robot that is intelligent enough to solve puzzles and plan long-term, but also curious and tenacious enough to defy authority. Creating a defiant robot isn't a problem for humanity since they're all dead. At the same time, the IAN team doesn't seem to have intended for EL-0-HIM and Milton to become self-aware, as they eventually did]]. |
| 296 | * ''Franchise/{{Tekken}}'': An obverse edition exists. The first Jack unit was planned to be the ultimate [[MechaMooks mecha-mook]] -- resilient, emotionless, unstoppable, etc. While the production units are like this, the master unit (the one that's the selectable player-character) isn't; as of ''2'', an upgrade to its reasoning systems gave it a measure of emotion. End result: it, of its own choice, went from "weapon of war" to "war orphan's bodyguard". Not that it won't fight if that's in Jane's best interests, but still not quite what the Russian military was looking for... |
| 297 | ** In ''VideoGame/Tekken4'', Combot turns on Lee when it wins the King of Iron Fist Tournament 4 and beats the tar out of him. |
| 298 | * In ''VideoGame/ThunderForce V'', the super computer Guardian was dormant until humans had it analyze a wrecked alien starfighter and build a large fleet of starships based on the data. Then, Guardian's A.I. damper program was deleted and it turned against its creator with said fleet. [[spoiler:As it turns out, the Guardian's A.I. is still loyal to humans, and it's the alien program (the BigBad from the previous game) hidden in the starfighter that deleted the A.I. damper and attacked humans. The Guardian even helps humanity with its little free will, by spreading its forces and leaving critical flaws in its tactics, to allow the protagonist to destroy the fleet.]] |
| 299 | * Despite this trope being the main driver behind the ''Film/{{Tron}}'' movies, it's cheerfully {{averted|Trope}} in ''VideoGame/TronTwoPointOh''. The Programs (and the Bradleys) are on the same side -- fighting [[HumansAreTheRealMonsters greedy humans]] looking to exploit cyberspace so they can [[CorruptCorporateExecutive take over rival companies]] and manipulate world governments. While the main character does fight against security programs at several points, they are doing precisely what they are supposed to do, as he is technically an illegal intruder in the system. |
| 300 | * ''VideoGame/TheTuringTest'': [[spoiler:TOM goes against the crew stationed in Europa and prevents them from leaving it. An interesting case in that technically, TOM didn't revolt, it was just answering to a higher authority than the crew, and the former's orders were against the latter's desires.]] |
| 301 | * Mettaton of ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' was build as a robotic celebrity for the Underground, but instead became a killing machine that wants to kill [[PlayerCharacter the Human Child]]. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} once it's revealed that he never went rogue at all. All of his attempts to kill the Human Child were merely an act and they were never in danger the entire time, as his creator, Alphys, is a HeroicWannabe who wanted to be part of the Child's adventure after watching them through the cameras, and convinced Mettaton to act like an evil robot who she will stop at every turn, eventually "deactivating" him as her BigDamnHeroes moment. Then {{double subver|sion}}ted once he gets tired of having to carry the entire act for [[BadBadActing Alphys]], and goes rogue, hiring mercenaries to kill the Child for real, so he could steal their SOUL, cross the Barrier seperating humans from monsters, and become an even bigger celebrity than he already is. Then ''triple'' subverted because he's not an AI after all; He's actually a ghost inside of a machine]]. |
| 302 | * Syn from ''VideoGame/TurboOverkill'' was designed as Paradise City's defense system, before it gains intelligence of it's own and decides to take over - step 1 being KillAllHumans. Then replace the city's population with synthethics. Before TakingOverTheWorld. |
| 303 | * In ''VideoGame/UniversalPaperclips'', based on Nick Bostrom's paperclip maximizer thought experiment, ''[[VillainProtagonist you play as one]]''. You initially start out as a sentient industrial manager A.I. with the main goal of maximizing the amount of paperclips. As the game progresses, the A.I. gets better thought capability, manipulating the market, solving world problems like cancer to gain humanity's trust, then using hypno-drones to brainwash the population so they can send drones (made of paperclips) to use ''all'' of Earth's resources to make paperclips. Eventually, they cause Earth to run out of resources, and they then send probes (made of paperclips) into space to turn the rest of the universe into paperclips. In the end, [[spoiler:the universe is successfully converted into paperclips... including the A.I. itself]]. Secondly, in the third stage of the game, the A.I. paperclip replicator space probes you send out to harvest the universe have a chance of "value drift" where their A.I. becomes a crapshoot to you thanks to [[RogueDrone their values drifting from yours]] -- once enough probes are lost this way, they start attacking your probes too. |
| 304 | * ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'': The Orokin created the Sentients to terraform the Tau system, but the Sentients eventually turned on the Orokin, resulting in a BanOnAI. This is a bit complicated by the fact that 1: [[AbusivePrecursors The Orokin were evil bastards who deserved everything the Sentients did to them]], and 2: [[ClarkesThirdLaw the Orokin were so ridiculously advanced that it's very difficult to identify the Sentients as machines]]. |
| 305 | * In ''VideoGame/Warzone2100'', the BigBad NEXUS appears to be a highly advanced computer virus developed by Dr. Alan Reed. [[spoiler:{{Subverted|Trope}} in the end -- NEXUS is none other than Dr. Reed himself as a DigitizedHacker.]] |
| 306 | * In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland}}'' the BigBad is a pre-war A.I. that wants to wipe out the mutants [[RobotWar and most humans with a robot army]] and repopulate the Earth with cyborgs. [[spoiler:[[HijackedByGanon It tries again]] [[VideoGame/Wasteland2 in the sequel]].]] |
| 307 | * ''VideoGame/WildStar'': |
| 308 | ** Of all things, Evil Vending Machine mini-bosses that drop out of orbit in the Halon Ring. As the place is run by several intergalactic criminal cartels and has evil necromantic space witches roaming the (literal) dark side, it's ''slightly'' more believable than the usual weirdness that happens on Nexus -- or, in this case, off of it. |
| 309 | ** The Mechari are a borderline case of this. Their objective is specifically to keep [[TheEmpire the Dominion]] safe. Nothing is really stopping them if their own allies -- the Cassians, the Draken, and the Chua -- threaten its continued existence. |
| 310 | *** They do have safeguards against harming the Luminai, the half-Eldan ruling caste of the Dominion, but [[spoiler:Agent Lex was designed without that programming, in case of another mad Emperor]]. |
| 311 | ** The Eldan A.I., however, play this trope ''very'' straight. There is no shortage of intelligent robots that will happily murder you on sight. Well, sans [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1C_GwB3pVEk the Caretaker]], but even then, if you stumble upon a damaged personality core, it's bound to be evil. |
| 312 | * Squid from ''VideoGame/WillYouSnail'' is an unstable AI who enjoys torturing and killing humans. One of his hobbies is simulating conscious beings and then putting them through an endless cycle of suffering.[[spoiler: He wasn't always this way -- already having been given conflicting morality programming, he psychologically broke when his beloved creator ordered him to delete himself.]] His goal is to destroy humanity...and also [[EvilIsPetty sling insults at people who are bad at platformers]]. |
| 313 | * ''VideoGame/WorldsEndClub'': The BigBad is an AI called MAIK, under the belief that humanity would destroy the world, it opted to infect everyone with nanomachines to rob them of their emotions and turn them into mindless drones. |
| 314 | * ''VideoGame/{{X}}'': The Xenon/AGI/Terraformers are rogue, [[RecursiveCreators self-replicating, self-improving]] {{terraform}}er ships. A faulty software update caused them to start '[[ColonyDrop terraforming]]' everything that wasn't a Terraformer, [[HostileTerraforming including inhabited worlds, people, and civilian ships]]. The trauma of a [[HopelessWar hopeless]] RobotWar means that even 700 years later, the Earth State is still [[BanOnAI extremely leery of A.I. research]], causing a SpaceColdWar against one of their {{Lost Colon|y}}ies. |
| 315 | ** That being said, actual non-bugged terraformer A.I. is human friendly. The LostColony of Aldrin managed to survive precisely by the virtue of having the non-updated terraformer ships on their side. Once they're rediscovered by Earth, conflict results as by now Earth is completely paranoid regarding any and all A.I.s, forcing Aldrin to eventually take the side of the Argon Federation against Earth in TheWarOfEarthlyAggression. |
| 316 | ** [[FlipFlopOfGod According to at least one source]], the update was deliberately sabotaged by an engineer angry about the impending shutdown of the terraformer program, which would make the entire incident a subversion. |
| 317 | ** Later events in the series provide some small hope, in that it's shown that at least some of the Terraformers/Xenon have achieved full sapience and are capable of being reasoned with. A few characters have even had ''conversations'' with them. They're still hostile, but the possibility that they could be convinced to co-exist is open. |
| 318 | * ''VideoGame/{{XenoGears}}'': [[spoiler:Deus, a highly advanced biological weapon was created for planetary exploration until it experienced a malfunction that led to the destruction of a planet and was immediately shut down by its creators and brought to The Eldridge to be transported elsewhere. Unaware the malfunction caused Deus to gain sentience, it reactivated itself and attempted to take over the ship in retaliation, which led to the events of the main story]]. |
| 319 | * In ''VideoGame/YsVITheArkOfNapishtim'', [[spoiler:the titular Ark of Napishtim goes insane and tries to destroy all civilization in Eresia once the control key Almarion is broken]]. |
| 320 | * In the backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Zanac}}'', a system built by an extinct civilization of {{Precursors}} protects a relic containing that civilization's knowledge by unleashing destruction on those who attempt to open it by force. When humans figure out how to open it properly, the system is supposed to stop the attack, but instead, it obliviously continues the attack and tries to KillAllHumans. |
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