Action games have existed just about as long as the video game industry as a whole has, with Atari's 1979 classic Adventure being considered the very first action-adventure game ever made. So, with over 40 years of prevalence in the gaming industry, it's no wonder then that the action genre has accrued its fair share of tropes over the decades. While some of these tropes are shared across genres, some are exclusive to action games, and the 'Catastrophic Countdown' trope is certainly one of the latter.
By its very nature, players won't find the 'Catastrophic Countdown' trope across the whole of the video game medium. Relaxing life-sims, exploration games, and even fighting games don't make use of this trope. But when it comes to action games, the 'Catastrophic Countdown' trope can be found in some of the best, often making for an explosive, climactic ending that players are sure to remember long after the credits roll.
The 'Catastrophic Countdown' Trope Explained
The 'Catastrophic Countdown' trope essentially refers to any time in an action game when a countdown appears, and the player needs to escape the area within the time limit. In the vast majority of cases, this occurs when the player character sets something to self-destruct or accidentally damages a volatile machine, priming an explosive that'll go off within just a few moments. It's then up to the player to make it out of the blast radius in time, often needing to avoid obstacles and enemies along the way.
The 'Catastrophic Countdown' trope almost always occurs during the final mission of a game or the final mission of a chapter, and is used to push tension to the max. For even more intensity, this trope can be paired with the 'Outrun the fireball' trope, which sees players narrowly escape from a series of smaller explosions, a rising water level, or an unstoppable storm of fire that often chases them to the final moment of escape.
The Best Examples of the 'Catastrophic Countdown' Trope in Gaming
One of the best examples of the 'Catastrophic Countdown' in all of gaming can be found in Halo 3. After defeating Guilty Spark, the Master Chief finally activates the Halo ring, something which has been teased since the very first game. Activating the ring will cause its destruction, and that process begins almost immediately. As the player heads outside, Cortana tells them that the ring has begun its firing sequence and that they need to escape quickly. The player then begins to make their escape in a Warthog, traveling across the surface of the Halo installation as panels explode and break off all around them. Cortana continues to increase the tension, telling the player what percentage Halo's firing sequence is at. Players escape by the skin of their teeth, launching off a ramp and into a ship as the ring explodes beneath them.
Final Fantasy 7's opening level features another great example of the 'Catastrophic Countdown.' After players battle the game's first boss, the enemy begins firing uncontrollably into the surrounding environment, prematurely activating a detonation charge that the player character put on the Mako reactor. The player then needs to escape the reactor facility within the time limit, battling enemies along the way.
Both the Resident Evil and Dino Crisis series use the 'Catastrophic Countdown' trope a lot, often in practically the same scenario in every entry. At the end of some entries in each series, such as Resident Evil 2 and Dino Crisis 2, players will activate a self-destruct sequence in an underground research facility to stop its nefarious creators from returning to continue their work. This starts a countdown, and the player needs to escape the facility before it explodes.