Something went wrong. Try again later
    Follow

    Drugs

    Concept »

    Life altering and potentially dangerous, drugs come in a large variety of forms. In most games, drugs can have significantly different physical and social effects on video game characters.

    Short summary describing this concept.

    No recent wiki edits to this page.

    Overview

    Drugs play a prominent role in many video games. They can range from a skill booster, to health restorative, to a simple part of the narrative. No matter what their cause, they can be a powerful element in a game.

    Drugs as Narrative Devices

    Many games in the action crime genre, such as Grand Theft Auto, base their some of their missions around drugs. The player is often tasked with transporting some amount of an illegal drug, or helping a group of drug dealers, or assisting in the selling. The drugs, however, are usually kept unseen and act only as a cause for the mission, because driving a truck from Point A to Point B is meaningless unless there is something of value in the truck. The opposite of this would be cracking down on a drug dealer, which was a sub-plot in the classic visual adventure game Portopia Serial Murder Case.

    Drugs for Skills

    Some games use drugs as a means for accessing skills. Bioshock, for example, uses " plasmids" that the player injects into their veins in order to use their abilities like shooting fire or electricity or bees. Other games, such as Haze for example, use drugs to allow the player to go into bullet time, or increase accuracy.

    Drugs for Stat Alterations

    Another common role for drugs in games is for altering stats. These games, often role-playing games, have players on missions not focused on drugs, but drugs are found, and used to boost health, temporarily raise other stats, or decrease negatively impacting stats. The XZR / Exile series was controversial for replacing the traditional potions and medical herbs with drugs that the player character consumes to restore health and increase other attributes, though there are side-effects for using them. Fallout 3 has the player use drugs to decrease the damage of radiation and to restore health to body parts, in addition to several drugs which can temporarily boost player stats but risk giving them addictions.

    sizepositionchange
    sizepositionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    positionchange
    bordersheaderpositiontable
    positionchange

    This edit will also create new pages on Giant Bomb for:

    Beware, you are proposing to add brand new pages to the wiki along with your edits. Make sure this is what you intended. This will likely increase the time it takes for your changes to go live.

    Comment and Save

    Until you earn 1000 points all your submissions need to be vetted by other Giant Bomb users. This process takes no more than a few hours and we'll send you an email once approved.