Top 7: Repeat offenders

News
By published

Kill these enemies all you want - they'll be in your next game too

Oct 9, 2007

You've played a thousand games. You've killed a million bad guys. And yet, as you stand over the mangled corpse of the end boss, you look up to see another enemy on the horizon. A new game, a new threat. It may look different, and in some ways it is. But the truth is you've met this foe countless times before. For our enemies may take many forms, but when you look behind the veil, you'll likely see one of the same seven evils of gaming. We unmask them over the following pages - know your enemy.

Nazis
Back when Medal of Honor first emerged on PSone, World War II was a fresh setting for videogames. The horrifying evil of Nazi Germany made for a human-shaped enemy that you didn't have to feel bad about filling with lead.

But look at the sorry state of affairs now. So many first-person shooters have picked up on the idea, it's lost all impact. How many games set in WWII actually make you aware of why you're shooting all these Nazis? The atrocities of Hitler's regime have all been shamefully diluted in the meaningless barrage of a billion virtual bullets. So much so, in fact, Nazis are now becoming better known and despised for a different reason. Yup, that's right - we're sick of the sight of them.

Justin Towell
Justin Towell

Justin was a GamesRadar staffer for 10 years but is now a freelancer, musician and videographer. He's big on retro, Sega and racing games (especially retro Sega racing games) and currently also writes for Play Magazine, Traxion.gg, PC Gamer and TopTenReviews, as well as running his own YouTube channel. Having learned to love all platforms equally after Sega left the hardware industry (sniff), his favourite games include Christmas NiGHTS into Dreams, Zelda BotW, Sea of Thieves, Sega Rally Championship and Treasure Island Dizzy.