Bit of an explanation as to what prompted me to make this post: I recently played through Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 1 and 2 and I just felt off. I’ve slaughtered hundreds of innocents for my amusement in games like Fallout and TES, I play through No Russian with a grin, but for some reason, I refrain from killing bad guys in SGW? The first one has you hunt down Russian oligarchs and war criminals, while the second one is about Middle Eastern terrorists and this is the game where I feel bad about killing? There’s just something about the soldiers talking about their daily problems like making no money, uncomfortable boots and sweating too much, or showing eachother pictures of their dogs, not to mention the absolute horror when you’ve got a knife against their throat or when they find a body. I hope this isn’t weird, but I’ve never experienced remorse for killing a video game enemy, and I’ve played a lot of different games. I’d like to hear about your experiences, and which games do a good job humanising common enemies, the concept intrigues me.
You must log in or register to comment.
Spyro the dragon
Shadow of the Colossus
I didn’t fully understand what I was doing the first time. The ending was shocking and somewhat upsetting. Replaying it feels different…
The entire This War of Mine
Wildlife in The Elder Scrolls now. I’ll let a bear maul me ti death now, which is ridiculous.
One time in GTA V I accidentally hit a woman with my car and splattered her against a wall. And it looked so incidental and gross that I really did feel bad.
Spec Ops: The Line. That game just made you feel bad in general
The airport scene in cod mw 2. People screaming for their lives and everything, it was dark af
In Elite Dangerous Odyssey, there are mission wherecyou have to kill people. Sometime they are high bounty criminals. Other times, the corporates want you to assassinate people like unarmed scientists and engineers. Not my cup of tea.
In Skyrim, there’s a quest to kill a fluffy harmless Dragon. I didn’t do it.
In Fallout New Vegas, there’s a whole town with Ghouls in there in NCR (military like faction) clothing. Turns out… That the opposition, who are based on Greek Legionnaires, had released radioactive substance into the town which had burned the skin of everyone and drive them mad, a. K. A. Ghouls.
I felt really bad to kill them, but it was mercy killing. Still felt bad.
Also in the same game, at one point I had to kill a slave mother and daughter because their fate would’ve been far more worse than what the Legion would do to them. Basically they were for breeding. You can either buy and free them, or persuade them that the girl is sick in the private areas so they let them free. But I didn’t have money first time I was there, nor did I have adequate speech skill.
Fallout 4 when playing as a villain
First mission in Contracts 2, I killed one guy Who was talking about getting 1 can and then 1 more so cat 1 would have a friend, then 2 orhters talking about 1 asking permission to date his friends Sister etc. I quit after that section.
Most recently I felt bad about one ending in Armored Core 6 because SPOILERS…
You commit mass planetary genocide on a people that just wanted their independence back, and also kill your supportive hivemind waifu Who talks to you like a pleading scorned lover the entire fight.
I think the first one I played as a kid that made me question “oh no, what am I doing?!” was William Shatner’s TekWar.
If you pointed a gun at a civilian in that game, they would cower down and get scared, and say things like “don’t shoot me!” It was the first time I’d ever seen that in a game. https://youtu.be/mtwAnmwmv_s?si=yvVkpJuNTuuygSfK
Much more recently, the VR version of Superhot made me feel bad. Even though. They are just blank polygonal people trying to kill you, I realized I didn’t want the muscle memory of hitting someone in the face with a hammer
Undertale.
Dishonored. Fuck you Samuel you don’t know what it’s like to be me.
Witcher 3, I accidentally got Keira Metz killed when I was trying to get the ending where she lives
Portal. RIP my best friend the Companion Cube