Question of the Week: Your Favorite Grunts?

by: Randy - posted: 8/1/2009 12:28:00 PM

Forget about heroes.  They're overrated.   What about the grunts?  Y'know, the hundreds of look-alike bad guys you have to frag/slice/photograph/dodge/dialog with between boss battles?  Being a grunt has to be the toughest, most underappreciated job in a videogame, yet their faces so rarely garner the limelight.  That's just a crying shame.

Who are your favorite videogame grunts?

Ben Berry:  The only good grunts are dead grunts, and the best ones are the ones that get you to the next level.

Scott Colleli:  I would have to say the stormtroopers from Jedi Outcast/Academy are my favorite grunts. They have some pretty interesting conversations and hacking the game to allow full dismemberment just makes them even more fun to eviscerate. Playing around with Force Grip and Mind Trick is always fun too.

Sean Colleli:  The various incarnations of The Many in System Shock 2 are my favorite grunt enemy.  Sure the basic type were plain old annelid worms but the logical mutations were all kinds of unsettling.  The base zombies still looked like people and half-knew it too; they'd warn you to run away from them, unable to control their actions, and even ask you to kill them.  Some of them had disturbing voice logs on them that recorded their transformations, creepy stuff about feeling the worms inside them, eating their organs.  You even ran into a couple characters who died purging the infection from their bodies.  And the cyborg midwives...yeeeaaghhh.  Irrational's old stuff was so much better than what they're doing now.  BioShock? Clunky guys in diving suits?  Flappers wearing mardi gras masks spouting Ayn Rand?  What's scary about that?

Charles Husemann:  I know this beats a well worn drum for me, but the Combine from Half-Life 2 are probably my favorite bad guys to dispatch en masse.  Not only are they fairly smart and decent tacticians but they make that cool sound when you kill them.  It's a nice acknowledgement that they are joining their brothers in digital bad guy heaven.  Stormtroopers and the grunts from the Halo series are behind them but they just  don't die like you would expect them to.

Currently playing Ratchet and Clank: Tools of Destruction, Prototype, Infamous, Peggle.

Randy Kalista:  S.T.A.L.K.E.R. isn't just an unwieldy acronym, it's how Ukrainian developer GSC Game World spells "A.I."  As in, a Stalker's artificial intelligence can adapt to the roll of "Scavenger, Trespasser, Adventurer, Loner, Killer, Explorer, Robber."  That's in addition to combat basics.  Sure, once the lead starts flying they'll duck for cover, lay down suppressive fire, cross step over to your flank, advance cautiously, or beat a hasty retreat.  But they'll also bandage up a bleeder, take anti-radiation medication, or beg for a med kit if they're going down for the count.  They'll buy bread and sausage off you and hand you a bottle of vodka.  An ally will pull a gun if you draw one on him, or, if you murdered a friend of his, he'll avenge his buddy.  Days later, if he has to.  And in the downtime between patrols, you'll catch them sitting around a burn barrel, chatting in Russian, or playing a lick on an acoustic guitar.  Those are some admirably busy, world-building grunts, right there.

Currently playing Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10, S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.

Jake Wolfe:  Now that I think of it ... Stormtroopers in Jedi Outcast are always a lot of fun to kill.  Although I haven't played much of the Force Unleashed for 360 or PS3, I have played it enough to know that the Stormtroopers are fun to kill in Force Unleashed.  They always die in a different way than the last Stormtrooper you killed, and you can kill them in so many different ways ... I mean, come on, you gotta admit, you've laughed when you've seen how some of them die.  Trying to hang on to stuff, other Stormtroopers, whatever, to try to stay away from whatever fate awaits them ... Always a lot of fun.  I would also like to add the Orcish gruntz from Warcraft II, and the Nazi zombies from Call of Duty V.

Currently playing Combat Arms.

John Yan:  It's a long song ... so I only did a few versus ... but ... Ode 2 Warcraft 2 orc grunt.  Sung to Don McLean's American Pie.

A long, long time ago...
In a land called Azeroth
A war was fought between two sides
I started in an empty land
with a peon and my pointy hand
looking to build and fortified

I gathered gold and looked for lumber
Built a great hall and planned to plunder
My barracks were a churning
My orcs they had a yearning

To see the humans squeal and cry
They chanted swarboo side by side
Zug zug made me warm inside
The day.. the humans...died..

Oh my my you're my favorite grunt guy
Marched my army to the their campsite
and saw the humans all die
And them good old orcs were tearing into their hides
Singing this'll be a good day to die
this'll be a good day to..die..

Did you know that orcs are green
and they usually can be kind of mean
But I hear they're fun they say
Ahh...Did you see them hacking on that knight
The axe came down, it was.... such a sight
Yeah, the blood was spewing forth that day

Oh... they shouted daboo.... in the air
And I gathered them all.... with my square
They attacked this peasant man
It was all according to plan

Oooo ... these orcs are rugged and know no fear
They grunt and march and have these pointy ears
Well I knew that I was... in the clear
The day.. the humans died...

I started singing
Bye bye you damn humans who died
Marched my orc grunts through their campsite
and watched my enemy cry
I cleared the lands with the orcs at my side
Saying that these are my favorite grunt guys...
These are my favorite grunt guys...

Currently playing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.