CharactersAugust 6, 2013

My Favourite Mutants in Video Games

Ian Garstang

Dragons Throughout Gaming and the advent of the Next Gen Dragons

So You Want To Be A Game Designer?

It’s not only zombies out there, if you look a little deeper you’ll find your fair share of mutants too, here are a few of my favourites:

 Gears of War 3

All of the Gears of War games are known for having mutants in them, but Gears of War 3 is full of some really gruesome and awesome mutants. Brumaks, for one, are huge mutants with two chain guns and a rocket launcher. Not the kind of baddie you want to mess with in a dark alley. Also, you can unlock mutations for your own character, which give them a lot of great perks, making the game easier and in some cases, a little more fun.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Resident Evil 3 took the series in a very different direction, in that not only were you dealing with the usual suspects of zombies, dogs and other creepy folk, but Nemesis was always on your trail. He had a thing for going after and killing S.T.A.R.S members and would often chase you at the most inopportune times. You couldn’t defeat him, at least not right away. All you could do was run and hide and hope he wouldn’t find you.

 The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Some mutants aren’t bad guys, as the Ninja Turtles have proven. By now, almost everyone knows they evolved through interaction with an ooze in the sewers (as did their master and sensei, Splinter). Of course, the ooze was also used to create mutants that became their enemies, but through all iterations of games, they showed good guys can come of weird circumstances.

X-men

The X-men are another group that has shown that mutants can be heroes, as well as bad guys. It’s an interesting take on the idea of having super powers and what you would do with it. The latest game the X-men have shown up in has been X-Men Destiny, which came out 2 years ago but to unfortunately poor reception.

S.T.A.L.K.E.R (Chernobyl Dairies)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R is a downright scary game, mostly because it focuses on the idea of what kind of mutants could have come from the Chernobyl incident and it does so in a really creepy, survival first person shooter way. Snorks, for example, are one of the creepiest enemies, mutated from soldiers, still wearing tattered uniforms and gas masks.

Bioshock

The city of Rapture was meant to be a paradise, but with the introduction of Plasmids it turned its residents into drug hungry mutations of what they once were. They are still human, but disfigured and criminally insane, to say the least. There’s nothing creepier than people who are still human but deranged and trying to kill you.

Rage

Often compared to Mad Max 2, Rage is a post-apocalyptic wasteland where you fight mutants and bandits, trying to survive with the rest of the human race. There are variants of these mutants, with different armor and weapons, but all are deadly.

Fallout 3

A post-apocalyptic wasteland, fighting mutants and bandits… wait, didn’t we talk about this already? Except Fallout 3’s mutants are huge. And terrifying. They tower over your character and if you aren’t prepared for your first run in with one, you’ll likely get annihilated in about 3 seconds. Not all mutants are bad, however, and you can even have one fight on your side in Fallout: New Vegas.

  Crash: Mind Over Mutant

A free-roaming beat em; up, Crash Bandicoot has to go up against an evil scientist and free mutants from his control. Instead of running from or killing mutants you’re helping them, which is a lot different of a premise than most of these games.