Video Game / Collapse (2008)

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Collapse (Ukrainian: Kолапс, Collapse: Devastated World - also known as After the War in certain territories) is a 2008 Third-Person Shooter/Hack and Slash/sci-fi action game developed by Ukrainian-based company Creoteam with collaboration from Russia's Buka Entertainment.

In the then-future of 2013, illegal experiments in opening cross-dimensional portals conducted in Ukraine's capital city, Kyiv, has led to monsters from another world entering and overrunning the city. To prevent complete destruction of Kyiv, the rift's point-zero and it's surrounding area - henceforth known as the Zone - was quarantined by the government, with it's citizens forbidden from leaving.

By 2096, monster attacks, combined with civil war between the militia and government, has split most of Kyiv apart, with parts of the city under the leadership of rebel clans whose leaders are imbued with superpowers enhanced by gadgets, and equipped with the best weaponry of the future; Rodan the Player Character and last surviving Lord of the Inner Circle, was sent into the Zone for a mission towards the rift's point zero, the Hole.

Not to be confused with the puzzle game, Collapse!.

I am Rodan, Last of the Lords...

• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The Catacombs stage somehow leads to Kyiv's sewer system where it's overrun with assorted monstrosities, and huge enough for Rodan and Helen to spend an hour navigating their way across wide-open areas while fighting the mutants.
• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Greenman, after Rodan defeats him as a boss, attempts begging for his miserable life. But before he could spill anything else, someone puts a bullet in him from an elevated position.
  Greenman: Don't kill me, Rodan. I'll tell you everything... I'll do whatever you want. Please understand, I simply couldn't do anything...
  [BANG]
• Almost Kiss: At the end of Part V, Rodan and Helen decides to share a celebratory kiss for surviving the catacombs and through hordes and hordes of mutated abominations... until a beep from Helen's walkie-talkie interrupts them. They don't get to kiss after she hangs up either, and somehow this scene was highlighted on the Steam re-release trailer.
• Ambiguously Brown: Helen looks rather Asian for a game made in Russia/Ukraine, where every other human character is white. The fact that her full name wasn't revealed at anypoint and her uniform having markings resembling designs seen on Chinese tapestries seems to enforce her Oriental nature.
• Assist Character:
  • Hollerman, Rodan's Token Black Friend, helps him during the raid on Mark's Castle, where he turns out to be a Barrier Warrior with a powerful Orbiting Particle Shield that damages mooks on contact.
  • Helen, in a few stages where she accompanies Rodan, would provide cover fire with her sidearm. She's not too shabby as a markswoman either.
• Badass Bookworm: Helen was supposedly a scientist and an assistant to Dr. Zinevsky. Doesn't stop her from taking names and killing plenty of monsters.
• Blade Lock: Against sword-wielding opponents (notably, bosses like Mark and Yakir) this tends to happen every now and then. Some Button Mashing is needed to get out of the lock, and the loser loses a chunk or health or die.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: When Rodan's blocking with his blade, nothing can get past his defenses. But then he's unable to fight back unless he breaks cover.
• Blood Knight: Rodan loves bloodshed. One has to be to survive in a post-apocalyptic city overrun with marauders and monsters.
• Charged Attack: One of Rodan's later firearm upgrades allows him to charge an energy bolt and blast it on enemies for increased damage, the downside being that he's vulnerable while charging.
• Close-Range Combatant: Between the human-based marauders, there are those who use guns, and those exclusively armed with machetes, swords, or Wolverine Claws. They'll jump and pounce all over the place trying to slice up Rodan from up close, despite their colleagues having firearms.
• Cooked to Death: The first boss is a giant mutated monstrosity called The Sentinel, where Rodan needs to lure it to a corridor with an exposed furnace at the end. After dealing enough damage Rodan automatically sends the Sentinel into the furnace, but the creature will crawl out the fire after a while. He needs to repeat this four times before the Sentinel's taken down.
• Down in the Dumps: Part VI, after exiting the catacombs, is a landfill populated by enemy marauders.
• Every Bullet Is a Tracer: Rounds fired by human enemies tends to leave white tracers each shot.
• Fallen Angel: A rather... unexpected example pops up at the game's very, very end, but turns out the one responsible for The Hole and subsequent release of monsters into Kyiv is a Dark Angel, depicted as a monstrous Winged Humanoid fought in a hovering platform somewhere in the heavens. Who swoops everywhere using it's Razor Wings to slice Rodan apart. Destroy the Dark Angel and Rodan seals the Hole, ending the apocalypse once and for all.
• Heavily Armored Mook: Human mercenaries in full-body armor and face-concealing masks shows up in the later chapters, and they can soak a lot more damage before Rodan penetrates their armor, including two headshots via sniper.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Rodan is at least three times larger than Helen, and One Head Taller.
• Laser Sight: A few sniper-equipped enemies who attempts plugging Rodan from a distance tends to emit these, which gives their position away.
• Mad Scientist: One named Dr. Zinovsky turns out to be investigating the Hole where all the mutations emerged from, and would do anything to find out more.
• Map Stabbing: The opening FMV depicts a meeting between the last surviving Lords of the Zone with a map depicting the mission parameters Rodan shall be sent to. Whose destination is marked by a dagger stabbed through the tabletop.
• Mêlée à Trois:
  • Human and mutant-based enemies spends as much time attacking each other as they spend assaulting Rodan.
  • Rodan could invoke this on purpose while facing Greenman, a Flunky Boss who's accompanied by numerous mooks and fought in an area containing multiple suspended cages housing imprisoned mutants. During the battle, Rodan can choose to shoot upwards at the cages instead of at enemies on ground level, damaging the locks and causing the mutants to drop into the area, resulting in Greenman and his mooks fighting Rodan and the mutants at the same time - but be warned that stray mutants will also attack Rodan on sight.
• Mirror Boss:
  • Mark is a fellow Lord of his own domain and sword-user like Rodan, moving with similar speed, with his boss battle an epic Sword Fight. Though he'll intermitently summon drones to unleash a Laser Hallway between him and Rodan until Rodan gets past his defenses.
  • Yakir is another human boss, who uses Devious Daggers instead. Still puts up hell of a melee fight against the sword-wielding Rodan.
• Mission Control: Helen serves this role to Rodan after giving him a PDA, where she'll regularly radio Rodan for intel.
• Mook Debut Cutscene: Most mutant monstrosities and all bosses are given their own introductory cutscene, notably the first Xenomorph Xerox creature chewing on a carcass until it noticed Rodan from behind.
• The Musketeer: Rodan is armed with guns and his huge, honking, massive BFS, but can only use either firearms or melee weapons one at a time.
• Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight: Zig-zagged a bit with both Rodan, and certain human mooks, when using swords and close-range weapons. On one hand, melee enemies from a distance can be gunned down by Rodan before reaching stabbing distance; but then again melee enemies tends to be faster than those using firearms and in enclosed spaces, poses a threat even if Rodan's carrying guns. Then again, Rodan himself is badass enough to take out multiple gunmen using only his precious sword.
• Nothing Personal: Rodan, who's held captive by Dr. Zinevsky after watching his potential Love Interest, Helen, killed by the doctor, was surprised when his former enemy, Yakir, shows up and performs a Villainous Rescue by killing Zinevsky before releasing Rodan. Questioning Yakir's motives, Yakir only responds with this line.
  Yakir: Nothing Personal. I suspected from the start that he wasn't going to shut the Hole. Now it's all up to you...
• No Time to Explain: Rodan and Helen's first interaction concludes like this, after Helen impresses Rodan by gunning down two marauders while riding a motorcycle and tossing Rodan her PDA.
  Rodan: Have we met before?
  Helen: We'll introduce ourselves later.
  [zooms off into a distance]
• Off with His Head!: After Rodan defeats Mark, with the Coup de Grâce Cutscene showing Mark's cranium flying off after Rodan lands a precise hit via sword.
• Real-Place Background: The game is set in post-apocalyptic Kyiv, and recreates most of the city in various stages on the surface. Real-life locations, like the Maidan Nezalezhnosti and Kyiv Pechersk Lavra are prominently featured.
• Quick Time Event: During multiple boss fights (Sentinel, Mark, Yakir, The Dark Angel), executing QTEs by pressing directional and action buttons onscreen is the only way to reduce a boss' health.
• Recurring Boss:
  • The Worm is fought twice.
  • Late into the game, the Keeper (a hulking one-eyed mutant monstrosity who comes with it's own force-field generator) is fought five times, once in the floating dimension and later in the cities. The first one is fought alone, while later instances the Keeper will summon mutants as backup.
• Sand Worm: The Worm boss (fought more than once) is an eldritch worm-insect hybrid monster, who tunnels all over the place trying to ambush Rodan from underground, and when it surfaces all that's visible is the monster's upper body connected to a juicy, pulsating worm-like torso, and occasionally Combat Tentacles that pops up, Attack of the Monster Appendage-style.
• Scenery Gorn: Either in the form of mostly-destroyed cities, or wrecked interiors of laboratories where scientists investigating the creatures were ripped apart and had their bodies tossed around with bloody results.
• Sniper Rifle: Rodan can collect a Dragunov to snipe enemies from afar, turning the screen into a giant sniper scope.
• Sword Lines: Bladed weapons wielded by Rodan or mooks (or Mark, the sword-wielding boss) tends to leave these behind after each swing.
• Talk to the Fist: The prologue opens with a meeting between the Lords and one of them, Greenman, ranting about how their time is over and how he's against the decision of sending Rodan into the Zone. Rodan shuts him up by drawing his blade and pressing it against Greenman's jugular.
  Rodan: Listen, fatso. You talk too much and remembered too late, which are two things that gets you into trouble!
• Take Cover!: The landscape tends to be decorated with debris like ruined vehicles, broken walls, wrecked vehicles and assorted barriers Rodan and enemy mooks can use for cover during shootouts.
• Tank Goodness: The second boss is a tank that pursues Rodan across the ruined city, attacking with it's dual machine-guns and cannons. It puts up quite a bit of a fight before going down.
• Urban Ruins: As result of a decades-long war than consumed Kyiv, the entire city on the surface has been reduced to ruins and collapsed buildings, and often filled with bandits or monsters.
• Why Won't You Die?: Greenman lets out this line before facing Rodan as a boss, Rodan having killed his way through dozens and dozens of mooks and surviving all the way.
  Greenman: You damn lord... why can't you die already?
• World in the Sky: The dimension from which the Hole opens from, which Rodan accessed in Part VIII with Yakir's help, turns out to be the ruins of a city in the cosmos, with buildings, structures and hills airborne and surrounded by floating debris and the ground nowhere in sight. It's the most Platform Hell-laden area in the entire game (though sometimes the platforms will automatically form a bridge for Rodan to cross.
• Xenomorph Xerox: Amongst the monsters, the most common of the lot are Xenomorph expies with smooth, phallic-looking elongated faces and limbs, who moves by crawling all over the place and even clinging on walls to drop on Rodan. But minus the acidic blood and barbed stinger tail associated with its inspiration and plus a second face on the back of their heads looking like skulls.