longbough

We've seen them dozens of times and almost come to expect them in a game. Off the top of my head I can think of mainly FPS games. If you think of others (even non FPS) please feel free to add.

1.) You're a badass killer with no memory of your past.
either
>a). You get flashbacks to military experiments on you - with lots of screaming.
or
>b). You have flashbacks of a woman in the underground resistance you loved - just before they zapped your memory to infiltrate the empre/syndicate/etc.
or
>c.) You are "the One" from prophesy with natural abilities - of course many people in the resistance doubt you until you save some people or kill a lot of badguys - then you're a hero. (Sometimes you just discover that you were a "mole" sent to gain their confidence - but you are later faced with a moral choice - as in Total Recall.)

2.) The evil genius who spends all day sending voice messages taunting you ... "Give it up Mr. X, you and the whole world wil die ... ha ha ha."

3.) The heroic comrade who holds off the enemy while you escape. Usually there's pounding on the door and you need to leave through the window or something .... "I'll hold them back ... run!" I recall this one as early as Deus Ex (and probably earlier) and as recent as HL 2. In Deus Ex, instead of running, I hid in the secret closet until the gunfire died down then came out to see who was still alive.

4.) If you have to infiltrate a lab -- there's a secret weapon in one of the rooms ... usually hovering and rotating suspended on a pedestal.

5.) Big flashing red buttons are related to your objectives.

6.) Run from inside a firey collapsing building

7.) If you're captured, it doesn't matter if you've been held for days or months, your equipment is in a chest in a nearby room.

8.) Helicoptors are never friendly.

9.) Many bosses don't like to take cover - they stand in the middle of cleared rubble and fire missiles at you.

10.) Some bosses do take cover and snipe at you from a distance - and almost never miss. If you do enough damage to them they just run off to another room/area where you have to snipe at each other again. You can tell you're in the right region because they usually keep taunting you and won't shut up.

I'll add more as they come to me.
Please add your own gaming cliches.