5 times video games broke their own lore (and 5 times they fixed a plot hole)

Plot holes are possible in nearly every form of creative medium today owing to a slight oversight by some. Video games are often considered the peak of artistic expression in today’s times, with massive AAA titles combining actors, voice artists, directors, VFX artists, writers, designers, programmers and more.

The scale of each project requires cooperation between multiple teams. This inadvertently gives rise to a number of small misses, such as plot holes, which might become the one thing that derails the experience.

This article looks at five times when video games overlooked massive plot holes for the sake of convenience and five times when they patched them up successfully.

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5 plot holes in video games that are really hard to overlook

1) Portal 2 - Moving surfaces

The portal series is a revolutionary first-person puzzle platform video game by Valve, and it is set in a mysterious laboratory complex. The first title was released in 2007 and was followed by a sequel in 2011.

For the most part, the rules followed in both Portal games are very clearly defined and followed to the T. It is made abundantly clear early on that a portal on any surface would disappear in case the surface moves.

However, this rule is broken in the fifth chapter of the sequel. In a neurotoxin room, players are required to destroy a generator by using a moving laser to cut through certain tubes. This is accomplished by spawning a portal on a moving white platform to direct the laser through it and slice through the tubes.

This is the only time in the series that this plot hole occurs and has drawn a lot of flak from fans.

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2) Tomb Raider - Bloodthirsty Lara

In the 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider series, the relatively young and inexperienced Lara Croft is captured, bound, and beaten by a Russian man who also moves to s*xually assault her.

In self-defense, Lara is forced to kill him and the act of taking a human life visibly shakes her up, becoming a traumatic experience. The video game tells fans that she isn’t some happy-go-lucky mass murderer and isn’t okay with killing but does it out of necessity.

Unfortunately, in the immediate next chapters, Lara becomes a trigger happy action hero who doesn’t flinch from murdering people with arrows and even her fists. Even though some amount of combat is understandable to make the video game fun to play, her immediate transformation from a archeology student into a killing machine feels like a jarring plothole to say the least.

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3) Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order - Underpowered lightsaber

Throughout Star Wars history, lightsabers have been portrayed as the ultimate weapons of the universe and can slice through anything, even thick metal doors. It can easily dismember organic beings with a single swipe and the only materials that can withstand it are special ones like the Mandalorian armor.

Thus, the surprise of fans was understandable when the lightsaber felt more like a traditional sword than a laser sword in the Fallen Order. Enemies take tons of damage and can withstand multiple strikes from the weapon. Even basic Stormtrooper grunts aren’t one-hit kills as portrayed in most other video games in the franchise.

The justification that the lightsaber is designed this way to make the video game more challenging just flies in the face of everything fans know and is an unacceptable plot hole for many.

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4) Gears of War - Discriminating Kryll

Essentially a flying swarm of piranhas, the Kryll strike terror into the hearts of humans and locusts alike. The only way to survive them is to stay under lights and there are multiple missions where gamers spend time jumping from one well-lit spot to another or point a spotlight at a teammate to keep them illuminated.

The only exception seems to be General Ram, who they obey and don’t see as prey.However, in the Gears of War 3 DLC, "Ram's Shadow," the plot hole appears when Ram and entire legions of Locust advance under the shadow of the Kryll, which suddenly only focus on humans now.

Even though Ram’s generals are shown to command the Kryll, fans are given no logical explanation as to why the other common locusts remain unharmed.

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5) Batman Arkham Origins - Bane knows Batman’s identity

Throughout the Batman franchise, be it films, comics, video games or animated presentations, Batman’s identity being a secret forms the cornerstone of every plot. The only exception seems to be Hugo Strange’s knowledge of Bruce Wayne being the bat in Arkham City, but that plot hole is covered when he is killed off before doing anything about it.

In Arkham Origins, though, the plot is centered around Bane knowing the Dark Knight's secret identity. However, he doesn't do anything to reveal it to the world or his allies. What makes it even worse is that, Arkham Origins is a prequel to the Arkham trilogy and the only explanation given for this plot hole is that he forgot all about it due to a heavy consumption of the venom serum.

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5 times when video games fixed glaring plot holes

1) Fallout 3 - The ridiculous ending

One of the most frustrating moments in the history of gaming is when you have no option but to sacrifice yourself to stop Armageddon. In this title, players have to lock themselves into a cubicle with heavy radiation in order to set off a plot centric device.

Many gamers might find this heroic and consider it the supreme sacrifice. However, it doesn't seem all that logical and is a readily apparent plot hole when you consider that your companions are super mutants or robots who would face no problems executing the same action.

The solution to this plot hole was released with the Fallout 3 DLC where players could convince their companions or some other poor character to take their place while they basked in the resulting glory.

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2) Mass Effect Legendary Edition - Human-traitor-turned-Turian

One of the largest glaring plot holes in gaming history came about simply because of the incorrect placement of an art asset. Elanos Haliat's character was introduced as a human with such a chip on their shoulder that their very actions were against their own kind.

The odd thing was that the dialogues all referred to humans in third person and bore disdain towards them. This, coupled with their allies being other human hating species, made for a very strange situation.

The simple solution that was shipped out with the Mass Effect legendary edition was that the character was Turian and not human in the first place, which solved the confusing plot hole.

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3) Diablo 2 Resurrected - Case of the missing Soul Stone

After defeating the almighty Diablo at the end of Diablo 1, the player’s character is shown cutting out the Soul Stone from its head and jamming it into their own.

As crazy as that might sound and look, the official explanation behind it was that it was done in an effort to buy what little time of peace was possible by pitting Diablo against their own soul. This would in turn keep it out of reach of any other vessel that it might manipulate.

The plot hole was created in the critically acclaimed sequel Diablo 2 in whose cinematics we see the protagonist lose control of their powers after the battle with Diablo and slowly morph into the the Lord of Terror.

It was a massive gaping hole where the Soul Stone should have been and led many to the conclusion that it was removed, but there was no logical explanation then for Diablo's continued malevolent presence.

Apparently it was supposed to be there but somehow didn't make the final cut. This was resolved in Diablo 2 Resurrected, where fans can see the Soul Stone force its way into the character’s forehead in the updated cinematics.

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4) Final Fantasy XV - Patching up the holes

With a choppy and problematic story that confused even the most ardent of fans, Final Fantasy XV had a very lackusture release. At times, the story looks no better than a collage of ideas. Characters arrive and exit without much fanfare, odd camera angles emphasized wrong people in the scene and plot holes are rampant owing to the extremely convoluted storyline.

The biggest complaint from fans was that the story didn't do justice to multiple characters such as Ravus and Somnus, with their stories needing more meat.

The video game’s director went on official record to state that they would use patches to fix all of the inconsistencies and to their credit, after a year or so of regular patches to fix the plot holes, the video game was in a much better state. The DLCs expanded the ending and gave the main antagonist a more believable motivation.

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5) Batman Arkham Knight - The shock that packed quite a punch

Though Arkham Origins faced a lot of flak for being a prequel that no one asked for, one of the best gadgets that it introduced was Batman’s Shock gloves. This item literally takes the video game to easy mode as he can smash through tougher enemies and do double the damage, while sending enough current through foes to light them up like a christmas tree.

The obvious plot hole that arises is that if it's so good, then why isn't it featured in subsequent video games?

The answer to this plot hole was provided by Arkham Knight, where players can see the gloves locked inside a cabinet if they visit Gotham’s police armory. Police officers in the vicinity can also be heard discussing why Batman doesn’t use the equipment before finally concluding that he just likes the additional challenge.

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Note: This article is subjective and solely reflects the writer's opinions.