We kick things off with the number 11 best hero in video games. This character is, unlike most video game protagonists, not a warrior from a fantasy world, not a magical hero, not a space marine or bounty hunter, nor a tomb raider. He can't kill dragons by yelling "Fus Ro Dah!", he can't activate the Alpha Protocol, can't launch a Shoryuken, doesn't wield the Keyblade, would probably die if he moved to Raccoon City, and would most certainly get car jacked in Los Santos. But he is still one of the greatest video game heroes of all time. His name is David Hoover, and he is from the freeware video game The Crooked Man.
About two months ago, I had written a blog about The Crooked Man, so I'll be repeating a few things here. If you wish to read that one also, it's on the link to the right of your screen, listen in August 2013. Also, spoilers. Lots and lots of spoilers.
David Hoover is a very different sort of video game hero, who owes more to the protagonists of classic PC Adventure Games, like King's Quest or Leisure Suit Larry, than he does to the more modern protagonists of video games, such as Nathan Drake from Uncharted or Squall Leonhart from Final Fantasy 8. David is a common, every man. He lives in our world, eats what we eat, and does the things normal people do. He watches TV every once in a while, he goes to work, he has a beer with his friends. He does his laundry, and cooks his meals. So, what makes him one of the greatest heroes of all time, if he's so normal?
We need to start with some back story here. David had been raised by his mother; his father had long abandoned the family when David was young. David had one dream in life: becoming a pilot. But, due to his color blindness (meaning that David has a hard time seeing certain colors), he was unable to become one. His relationship with Shirley, his girlfriend, had become strained when she accused him of being spineless and weak. Eventually, David's mother develops a tumor in her brain, rendering her senile, unable to recognize her son. David admits her to the hospital, visiting her every day that he could. Sometimes, his mother would scream in fear, believing David to be a stranger that means her harm. David's friend, Paul, finds him a new apartment, in the hopes that a change of scenery would help ease David's mind and soul.
This is where the game begins. One night, David starts hearing noises across his apartment. During his investigation, he finds bits and pieces of the old tenant's life: a school brochure, a hotel pamphlet, and a nursery rhyme. One day, David finds a message on his wall: "I'm waiting for you." With the hotel's direction as his only clue, David sets out to find the apartment's previous tenant, to get some answers for the strange happenings in the apartment.
David's journey takes him to the Hotel Ruhenheim, where he meets Sissi, a woman whose boyfriend had left her previously, and who was in the hotel, looking for the key to her box, the last memento she has of him. David agrees to help her look for the key. During this search, David runs into his new enemy: the Crooked Man.
Enjoy your Nightmare Fuel, kids!
The Crooked Man attacks David, who locks him up in the hotel's basement. He runs off to warn Sissi about the man, but she laughs off his concerns, teasing him for believing in monsters. Sure enough, the Crooked Man escapes from the basement and attacks Sissi. David, without hesitating, saves her from the monster and urges her to get to safety. Eventually, David is forced to fight off the Crooked Man, with a fruit knife. With the beast temporarily felled, David helps Sissi find her key, helping her get over her failed relationship, while also coming to terms with his own failed romance. For his trouble, Sissi kisses him on the cheek. I was shipping those two so hard...
David's next clue takes him to Julius Stone Law School. Here, David meets a hot blooded youth nicknamed D. The young man is quick to anger, sharp tongued, and not so easily swayed from his goals. D was going through the abandoned school to reminisce about old times, when he attended classes there. David goes his own way, looking for more clues in regards to the tenant of his apartment. While scouring the school, David once more encounters the Crooked Man, who attacks him (yet again). David manages to evade the Crooked Man, and goes to find D to warn him. D, for his trouble, just makes fun of David.
Eventually, D finds himself under attack from the Crooked Man. Once more, it is up to David to get D out of trouble. But wait! D and David find themselves trapped in a room, with poisonous gas emanating from the floor. Thinking on his feet, David takes a hammer and smashes a hole into the wall, providing an escape for both D and himself. D, having breathed too many fumes, finds himself too weak to carry on. David takes D on his back, climbs up an elevator shaft, and carries D all the way to the school's infirmary.
D had returned to the school to remember the times when he was still a wide eyed youth, dreaming about the day he'd become a lawyer. But that dream was destroyed the day he failed his bar examination. And the dream died again the second time he failed, and again the third time, and again... Anyway, D always failed the bar examination because he didn't have the intelligence to pass. D was simply too book dumb to be a lawyer, a profession that demands book smarts. D had stayed on this path, hanging on to this dream, but no one believed in him. Even his teacher, whom he idolized, made fun of D for his lack of skill. When D finds out what his teacher truly thought of him (thanks to a journal that had been left in the school) he despairs. David, however, sympathizes with D and tells him of his own failed dream. Once more, the Crooked Man attacks. David beats the Crooked Man, fighting him off with a piece of pipe. Thankful, D invites David to drink with him someday, telling him that he will give up on his dream for good if he fails his bar exam one more time.
David next goes to an abandoned hospital. While here, he meets a boy, nicknamed, Fluffy, who was waiting for his mother. In an abandoned hospital.
Please excuse me, but when I first played this game, I was disturbed by this turn of events.
Anyway, you know the drill. David encounters the Crooked Man, evades him, goes to Fluffy...only Fluffy ends up locked in a bathroom, and David needs to get him out. By the time he does, Fluffy is being attacked by the Crooked Man! Taking Fluffy away, David manages to save the boy from the wrath of the Crooked Man. After a while, Fluffy and David get separated. David finds himself a gun, and hears a scream. The Crooked Man is trying to kill Fluffy! Grabbing a fire extinguisher, David strikes the Crooked Man, taking Fluffy away to safety. Eventually, David sends Fluffy away to safety, only to proceed to explore the hospital some more, encountering a vision of his dying mother. Remembering all the pain he ever felt, all his disappointments, all his sorrow, and the horror of how he almost killed his own mother one time, due to a freak out caused by her senility, David enters into a suicidal despair, getting possessed by a demon.
Uh...I was going to make a joke...But...no.
David's friend, Paul, feels that his friend is in trouble, and drives towards the hospital David was in. This drive, by the way, took a whole day. Finding his friend possessed by a demon, Paul does the one thing any rational person would do: Talk it out. Take the gun. Beat the living shit out of his friend until he came to his senses. Eventually, once David gets out of his funk, he finally understands the true nature of the Crooked Man. Following a clue he found in the hospital, he goes to the house of one Duke McGahon.
Inside the house, David encounters the Crooked Man once more. Standing his ground, David fights the monster, overcoming the demon once and for all. He goes up the stairs and finds precisely what he was looking for: his apartment's previous tenant. More precisely, he finds the remains of the man that had been haunting him, the previous tenant of his apartment, and the real identity of the Crooked Man: Duke McGahon. Informing him that he now intends to live his life to the fullest, to say goodbye to all the things that held him back, David prays for the soul of Duke, sending his spirit to rest in peace.
David Hoover is a man who is just like you and me, a man who has to deal with crushed dreams, a failed romance, and a dying mother. David is a man who was on the brink of despair, but pulled himself out, and set out to live his life, instead of ending it. David is a man who stood up to a demon that was out to kill him, four times! David is a man who was quick on his feet and quicker in his head, solving various difficult puzzles, always outsmarting the Crooked Man. David is kind, always willing to help those in need. David is a man who is willing to put himself at risk to save the lives of others. David is a man who can not be stopped when he's saving someone else. David Hoover is the eleventh greatest video game hero of all time.
Alright, here's the summary:
Name: David Hoover
Motivation: Compassion for others, morbid curiosity, guilt
Main Enemy: The Crooked Man
Finest Achievement: Defeating the Crooked Man in combat, letting go of his sorrow
Reward: An uncertain, but hopeful, future.
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