Hardest Hitting Gaming Moments (spoilers)

[CriticalGaming]

Guys I have a very simple question for you all.

What moments in gaming have hit you the hardest. The moments that got such a rise out of you in one way or another that they've burned themselves into your memory to never be forgotten.

What made you cry? Gave you joy? Made you scream in delight?

A few moments for me personally happened in recent years.

God of War 4 - Where Kratos is putting on the Blades of Chaos with Athena berating him in the background. She says, "You will always be a monster." And there is a moment where Kratos solumnly nods, "I know." Then he slowly rises wielding the Blades and says, "BUT I am YOUR monster no longer." It is in this moment I had to pause the game because it was just such a meaningful moment in so many ways. It was badass, but it was also uplifting and sad all at the same time. In this moment Kratos comes to terms with his monsterousness, but he also knows that he is no longer the monster of the Gods and instead is a monster for his SON. He brings back the monster within not for himself, he embraces it because he needs to be the monster for his child. HOLY SHIT it was the best moment in the game series.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake - It's no shock that I love Final Fantasy 7. But let me give you all a little bit of my history. My Grandfather started me in gaming. He had an Atari 2600 when I was like four or something. And he loved it. Shortly afterwards the NES came out and he bought it for me and we played mario and all sorts of stuff together. Then the SNES, and beyond. He got arthritis to the point where as the Ps1 approached he could no longer hold a controller. But he loved to watch me play whenever he came over and he would always talk about how amazing graphics have become.

One game really really impressed him, Final Fantasy 7. He watched me play the whole game and marveled at the cutscenes and the story and everything that game did. It became his favorite game, and mine.

I remember when Final Fantasy X came out and he watched the opening cinematic he said, "This is it. This is the best graphics will ever get."

Fast Forward to 2020 and I'm watching the opening movie for FF7 Remake. Seeing Aerith appear and I could hear my Grandfather behind me going, "HOLY COW LOOK AT THAT!". And I broke down.



Let me know what gaming moments hit you.

 

[Worgen]

Spiritfarer. Not really the whole thing but enough of it that I'm not going to nit pick.

Undertale, that ending for true pacifist, so good. I'm an easy lay for people coming together and working to overcome a problem and also the power of forgiveness in a medium where it can work.

 

[Trunkage]

Far Cry 3 - burning down the weed field, getting high, listening to Skrillex and trying to hit enemies while wobbling around. First time a game made me feel like a bad ass. Second time was in FC5

Bioshock Infinite - the finger. My daughter was only a few months old when BI came out. That slice affected far more than I thought possible. It should be giving away the baby. But that was the gut punch.

Dead Space - the reanimator. Talk about a relentless stressful gauntlet. It wasn't hard or scary but definitely made you feel like time was of the essence and every second counted

Disco Elysium - blasting Sad FM, standing on the front of the boat, heading to the final confrontation letting everyone know where you are was just the absurdist thing I've ever seen.
The funniest was sticking a thumb up my butt to prove how honourable I am and my partner just: WTF
Also, everything in the church

Return of the Obra Dinn - every time you reach a new scene just had me staring for a while

 

[happyninja42]

Life is Strange 1 Ep. 2. The end situation of that episode. Coming around the corner and seeing Kate jump to her death, and then being forced to rewind it, but not holding the button down long enough, so she fell again, making me think for a second I wouldn't be able to stop her at all. Then the pause as time broke, and I run up there. Then standing on that roof without my rewind powers, hoping that I'd made enough Kate positive choices to bring her down from the edge. Genuine anxiety and stress during that moment for me. Any time a game makes me FEEL for the little pixel people dancing on my screen, I take notice.

Homeworld. I've mentioned this in another thread, so I'll try and condense my verbosity. The opening scene, camera panning around the mothership, while Adagio for Strings plays, the mood of the maiden voyage, this Brave Exploration vibe of the Higarrans, then warping off to test the jump drive...only to be attacked..and you learn you are being attacked, in a POV shot from the enemy POV. So you see YOUR ships in the crosshairs, unable to react yet. Jumping back to the planet after this attack, and seeing the only habitable portion of the planet, completely on fire from orbital bombardment, meaning you are the last of your people....and THEN to get notification that the trays of cryogenically frozen colonists are being attacked, helpless. Yeah, genuine anger at that point.

Homeworld: Cataclysm: The end cinematic, as your little mining ship, now a mighty warship, defeats the Beast, and you get the little epilogue. The music as the shot shows all the fleet ships of the other clans, lineup in an honor guard for you as you sail home. "And the Somtaaw clan was known, from that day, to this....as Beastslayers." Cut to the clan logo, being altered, to reflect your deeds in destroying a galaxy-wide threat. The music, the tone. Just, all of it was fucking awesome.

Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey: I have a soft spot for the idea of "we're stronger together", so in that game, I'm running around trying to save my fellow Mudokans, trapped by an evil corporation. I save them, and get the good ending (having saved a minimum number of friends, like 65+ i think?) I see Abe, trapped, dangling over a pit about to be minced into snackfood....cut to another location, clearly the wild mudokan home village. Surfer Dude Mudokan Shaman warps in...."Whoooa...." *ala Keanu Reeves*, and then starts chanting.....as he continues, cut to Abe, closer to death....cut back...another Mudokan warps in, and joins the chant...and another...and another....a massive pool of mystical energy begins to swirl in the center of them, the chanting begins to reverberate as more voices join....cut to Abe about to die....then....energy sparks in his center, he curls up...and poofs.....reappears among the people he saved, who in turn saved him...and they cheer their savior, saved by those he saved. Yeah, that gets me every time. Hell I'm tearing up just writing this overview of it.

I'm sure there are others, but that's all I can think of at the moment.

Actually, just remembered a few after re-reading the OP.

FF 10. Yuna's Sending cinematic, was just...hauntingly beautiful. So much emotion, both for her, and the others, in that silent scene.

Also the wedding scene, when Yuna leaps off the balcony, and mid fall, summons that creature to catch her. That was just badass.

Yuna was so much fun for me, concept wise in that game, that she inspired a half-orc wizard in an Epic level D&D game, that focused on summoning. Sadly the game rules didn't live up to what Yuna could do, but it was still a fun idea to play with. Love Yuna from that game.

 

[BrawlMan]

Devil May Cry 3 - Lady killing her father. Arkham was a total bastard and had to be done, but it sucks she had to do it. It's where Mary died, and Lady was born. The final battle in the same game with Vergil. Him staying the demon world. "This was our father's home." Refusing to take Dante's hand and throws himself in to hell. Powerful moment.

DMC5 - Nero's Devil Trigger. Nothing else needs to be said.

Resident Evil 2 - The Licker, William Birkin, Mr. X, and Ada being a double agent (I felt more bad for Leon as he deserved better). The Remake had the scene with Kendo and his daughter. Leon's original voice actor passing earlier this year made me sad too.

Evil Within 2 - Completing all of Sykes missions. Doing so yields Sebastian rewards and a new shotgun. The downside is that after sending Sykes out of STEM, an audio log plays that the chair-tub he used has a 50/50 success rate. Only half of people were able to get out of STEM, while the other half suffered a fate worse than death. Sebastian did not know, and Sykes definitely did not know. It's kept ambiguous what his fate was.

Asura's Wrath - The fights against Wyzen, Yasha, and Deus. The true final boss, Chakravartan takes the cake though. One of the best final bosses ever made.

Metal Gear Rising - Everything!

F.E.A.R - Finding out that you're related to Alma Wade, Paxton Fettel, and Harlan Wade. Making you the older brother, Alma being your mother, and Harlan being your father and grandfather at the same time. Disturbing for 18 year old me.

Silent Hill 2 - Finding out James wife has been dead for only 3 days at best, and that James did it himself. The circumstances and feelings depends on the playthough, but goddamn I had to put the controller down and cried "Jesus James, what did you do?!"

Parasite Eve - The opening opera segment. Such beautiful and chaotic destruction. That is how you start a fucking video game!

 

[FakeSympathy]

Valiant Hearts: The Great War
The ending shows that the mc getting executed for death of his commanding officer, eventhough it was not his intention to kill the officer. The VA for the mc reads his last will, and it gives such an sad feeling of how terrible WWI was, or any wars in general

Dark Souls 3: Finally beating the nameless king
If you ask Dark Souls community, they will all have the bosses they struggled with and finally beat them after many attempts. For me, that was the nameless king. This was one tough SOB. The first phase was rather easy, and deceived me into thinking the 2nd phase will also be easy. That boss took nearly 20 attempts for me to beat, the last 7 being with the summons

Red Dead Redemption 2: House building
After the loss of arthur, going through so much shit as John, this momeny left a huge goofy smile on my face. Mostly due to how happy and silly the music was, and there were moments when you were building houses to the beat of the house.

Fallout 4: Finding Shaun
After many miles walked in order to find my son, I finally was able to get into the institute and find my boy there. It turns out not only is the boy an synth (shock #1), but the old director of the institute is your son, just aged (shock #2). The back-to-back plot twist was mind blowing, I just stood there for like 5 min before I can process and continue. It also made me conflict on whether the institute should truly be destroyed

 

[Dalisclock]

Valiant Hearts: The Great War.

Two missions near the end. The first was the final battle you have to survive, the Nivelle Offensive , which is a fucking bloodbath(almost literally). You have to use piles of corpses as cover from the near constant machine gun fire and the other men you go with are cut down one by one as they're ordered into obviously suicidal advances. Eventually the main character you're playing as loses his cool and bashs his commanding officer over the head, which ends up killing him in an attempt to preserve their lives.

The mission after that(I believe) is the same character being slowly lead to execution in front of a firing squad(for killing said officer) as his last words are narrated. As he passes some surviving soldiers, they all salute him for what he did and then he's tied to a post and blindfolded. The screen goes dark and the you hear the sound of gunshots before the credits roll.

Powerful and it still makes me cry every time. Hell, I can't even think about it without tearing up.

Red Dead Redemption 2

Arthur getting diagnosed with TB, going through chapter 6 slowly getting more and more visibly ill and weak, having to stop every so often as his coughing fits get worse and worse and then at the end finally succumbing to his illness and the big fight(preferably at the top of the mountain). Also the talks you have with Sister Calderon, particularly that one at the train station where Arthur just breaks down in front of her.

Though watching John build Beechers Hope and get his family back was also pretty bad considering in 4 short years it will all be ripped away from him, he just doesn't know it yet.

 

[Ghostrick Dorklord]

Disgaea: Hour of Darkness

Let me preface with a personal story during this time. I was really depressed when starting out in high school; A lot of shit happened during this time and I just couldn't really feel happy anymore. I just felt lost and didn't know what to do. Then when I went to a video rental place I saw this game in passing, remembering my friend mentioning it once before he disappeared for a while because of sickness so I decided to pick it up and well let's just say it changed my life. Disgaea was the thing I really needed because it was a very wacky game that was really over the top with everything it does. I actually lost it when Laharl just calls this cool looking guy Midboss and it sticks for the entire game! Its one of those games and it came at a time when I did need it.

However I do think out of all the Disgaea games I feel like the first has the strongest story because its oddly more down to earth and uses the whole heaven/hell/earth theme which other Nippon Ichi games don't do in favor for just focusing on the hell part. That said despite the game being very silly it does have a great story to it that's surprisingly mature for what it is. The Red Moon chapter in particular is just one of those big heart wrenching moments for me. Its established that Laharl hates the concept of love which he claims its because he's a demon. However its a deeper scar than that as Laharl hates it because he believes its the very thing that killed his mother for sacrificing herself to heal him from a deadly sickness. Its his mother that Laharl was the only person he shown any love for and when he finally meets his mother as a Prinny she has to leave him again. Its at this point where Laharl starts getting major character development and gets along better with Flonne. I did end up crying a lot during this scene but somehow I knew it would be fine in the end.

And then there's the normal ending which Laharl accidentally kills Seraph Lamington in a fit of rage as Flonne gets turned into a flower as punishment for her sins of helping demons despite being an angel. Midboss explains if Laharl actually spared Lamington Flonne would had been alright and was testing Laharl this whole time but he messed up and Flonne is trapped as a flower. Laharl then gives up the throne of the Netherworld to Etna and pleads to God himself to take his life instead of Flonne's and God obliges. Laharl's sacrifice to save another was a sad but bittersweet ending not helped by the sad credits music but I remember that scene too well and I did cry a lot when I first saw it. You'd imagine I'd do everything in my power to get the good ending and it was worth it because it was definitely a happy ending. But I really love this game's story to this day and it changed my life for the better. I'm so sorry for rambling about it too much.

Metal Gear Solid 3

Believe it or not but this is actually my first M rated game because I was a good boy growing up and followed all the rules so I didn't sneak out to buy all the violent video games so this was a different change in pace. I was really surprised by this game because it wasn't as violent as I'd thought and it was kind of silly with the bee guy and having an old man sniper with a parrot. I was having fun with everything; From the over the top villains to learning about the wildlife it was a blast.

For me though this game does ultimately represent a loss of innocence, not just for Big Boss but for me as well. Like I mentioned this was my first M rated title and this game did changed my world view like how it did for Big Boss. With the reveals about The Boss' true intentions was a major bomb shell and I couldn't help cry so much because of well everything. I think everyone knows at this point but I honestly can't put my emotions about it to words as well. It just devastated me so much.

Thanks MGS3 for being awesome and helping me find my path on becoming a man. Its truly one of those moments you don't forget everything when it happened.

 

[FakeSympathy]

Metal Gear Solid 3

Believe it or not but this is actually my first M rated game because I was a good boy growing up and followed all the rules so I didn't sneak out to buy all the violent video games so this was a different change in pace. I was really surprised by this game because it wasn't as violent as I'd thought and it was kind of silly with the bee guy and having an old man sniper with a parrot. I was having fun with everything; From the over the top villains to learning about the wildlife it was a blast.

For me though this game does ultimately represent a loss of innocence, not just for Big Boss but for me as well. Like I mentioned this was my first M rated title and this game did changed my world view like how it did for Big Boss. With the reveals about The Boss' true intentions was a major bomb shell and I couldn't help cry so much because of well everything. I think everyone knows at this point but I honestly can't put my emotions about it to words as well. It just devastated me so much.

Thanks MGS3 for being awesome and helping me find my path on becoming a man. Its truly one of those moments you don't forget everything when it happened.

When EVA's voice began to break, and said the final line "she was a true patriot", I FELT that. I grew up in a country with a very strong view of patriotism for one's country, and the delivery broke me. When Snake did the salute, I saluted as well

 

[happyninja42]

F.E.A.R - Finding out that you're related to Alma Wade, Paxton Fettel, and Harlan Wade. Making you the older brother, Alma being your mother, and Harlan being your father and grandfather at the same time. Disturbing for 18 year old me.

F.E.A.R. will always have a special place in my heart, thanks to an out of game event when playing it. I was in an apartment with my then girlfriend, now wife, and I made a point to only play the game at night, with all the lights out, except for this ocean-blue lava lamp, just to keep my eyes from getting tunnel vision. It really helped amp up the creep factor for me while playing, was great. BUUUUUT. I got to the part where you have a nekked Alma creeping around, wearing nothing but her hair, and I was in a part where it was the "quiet leading up to an Alma section". where the feedback noise in your headset starts going off, you get the static, and you hear her start giggling. Occasionally seeing flashes of her in the corner of your eyes.

And that's when, IRL, I see something out of the corner of my eyes, and it's my wife, nekked, wearing nothing but her very alma-esque length dark hair, walking past the room and out of sight to go the bathroom. Needless to say I nearly shit myself, the timing of the game effects and her passing was just too perfect. I got up and play thumped her in the chest multiple times when she came out of the bathroom, cursing her for scaring the shit out of me, much to her confusion. When I explained, she just sort of looked at me with sleepy eyes and was like "oh...well um....I sawwy I scare you, I go back to bed now." And she just shuffled off.

 

[Dalisclock]

What remains of Edith FInch.

There's a number of powerful moments in this, so I'm gonna go with the big ones for me. First is the famous Cannery level, which is fucking brilliant because it shows a young adult who is obviously fairly intelligent and creative with little other option then to work a menial job cutting off fish heads at the local cannery. At first it's just playing a simple mini-game of cutting off the fish heads and toss them on belt, but then the character starts to daydream to pass the time and a fantasy takes shape in his head, which takes up small portion of the screen with some narration. As it goes on, the fantasy gets more complex and vivid and begins taking up more and more of the screen as the fantasy version of himself becomes a hero, an explorer and eventually a king. All the while you're still playing the fish cutting mini-game with one hand while controlling the fantasy with the other. It keeps on going like this until the line between his fantasy and real life disappears completely and he accidently(or maybe not) chops his head off with the fish cutter while being crowned king of the lands.

Superbunnyhop did an excellent take on the whole thing.



The other was more personal to me as a father of a small child. It involves gregory, an infant whose level is him in a bathtub full of water toys which he's playing with while his mom talks on the nearby phone. It's cute and lighthearted, where the bathtoys come to life in the childs eyes and play with him as well. Unfortunately, mom gets distracted and the tub accidently begins to fill with water while she's not watching, which leads to the child slowly start to drown, which depicted as the whole thing turning into a surreal underwater dance of bathtoys until the child "floats" down the drain in his dying moments while his father's narration wonders what he saw in his last moments. It's both adorable and incredibly heartbreaking. If you haven't noticed the trend here yet, What Remains of Editih Finch is a game about a family where all the members seem to die in terrible and unlucky ways.

Just gonna put a video here too because it helps a lot more then my description.

 

[Dalisclock]

Oddworld: Abe's Odyssey: I have a soft spot for the idea of "we're stronger together", so in that game, I'm running around trying to save my fellow Mudokans, trapped by an evil corporation. I save them, and get the good ending (having saved a minimum number of friends, like 65+ i think?) I see Abe, trapped, dangling over a pit about to be minced into snackfood....cut to another location, clearly the wild mudokan home village. Surfer Dude Mudokan Shaman warps in...."Whoooa...." *ala Keanu Reeves*, and then starts chanting.....as he continues, cut to Abe, closer to death....cut back...another Mudokan warps in, and joins the chant...and another...and another....a massive pool of mystical energy begins to swirl in the center of them, the chanting begins to reverberate as more voices join....cut to Abe about to die....then....energy sparks in his center, he curls up...and poofs.....reappears among the people he saved, who in turn saved him...and they cheer their savior, saved by those he saved. Yeah, that gets me every time. Hell I'm tearing up just writing this overview of it.

There's a rather epic example like that I remember from Final Fantasy IX. At one point near the end, Zidane has just learned the disturbing truth that he's basically an artificially created being, something akin to a homunculus, designed to sow chaos on the planet to help an invading parasitic world take over. This sends him into a huge existential crisis and really just starts losing it badly, pushing all of his friends aside in the middle of the big bad's fortress before going into a semi-catatonic state of despair. Eventually he comes out of it and begins pressing deeper inside all alone, nearly getting killed by dangerous monsters with only himself to rely on. However, then his friends start to show up, one by one and the fights become easier, as the each remind him they're there for him. The musical track, called "You are not alone" starts really dark and gets more and more uplifting as he goes and more of his friends come to help him along the way.

 

[happyninja42]

There's a rather epic example like that I remember from Final Fantasy IX. At one point near the end, Zidane has just learned the disturbing truth that he's basically an artificially created being, something akin to a homunculus, designed to sow chaos on the planet to help an invading parasitic world take over. This sends him into a huge existential crisis and really just starts losing it badly, pushing all of his friends aside in the middle of the big bad's fortress before going into a semi-catatonic state of despair. Eventually he comes out of it and begins pressing deeper inside all alone, nearly getting killed by dangerous monsters with only himself to rely on. However, then his friends start to show up, one by one and the fights become easier, as the each remind him they're there for him. The musical track, called "You are not alone" starts really dark and gets more and more uplifting as he goes and more of his friends come to help him along the way.

Yeah I've always enjoyed stories that basically tell the idea of ancestral guilt to go fuck off. "You were made to be my servant and bring chaos!!" "...yeah but, you gave me free will, and I say fuck that shit, I LIKE PEOPLE, so no, I'm not doing it." Love that kind of story.

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

Guys I have a very simple question for you all.

What moments in gaming have hit you the hardest. The moments that got such a rise out of you in one way or another that they've burned themselves into your memory to never be forgotten.

What made you cry? Gave you joy? Made you scream in delight?

A few moments for me personally happened in recent years.

God of War 4 - Where Kratos is putting on the Blades of Chaos with Athena berating him in the background. She says, "You will always be a monster." And there is a moment where Kratos solumnly nods, "I know." Then he slowly rises wielding the Blades and says, "BUT I am YOUR monster no longer." It is in this moment I had to pause the game because it was just such a meaningful moment in so many ways. It was badass, but it was also uplifting and sad all at the same time. In this moment Kratos comes to terms with his monsterousness, but he also knows that he is no longer the monster of the Gods and instead is a monster for his SON. He brings back the monster within not for himself, he embraces it because he needs to be the monster for his child. HOLY SHIT it was the best moment in the game series.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake - It's no shock that I love Final Fantasy 7. But let me give you all a little bit of my history. My Grandfather started me in gaming. He had an Atari 2600 when I was like four or something. And he loved it. Shortly afterwards the NES came out and he bought it for me and we played mario and all sorts of stuff together. Then the SNES, and beyond. He got arthritis to the point where as the Ps1 approached he could no longer hold a controller. But he loved to watch me play whenever he came over and he would always talk about how amazing graphics have become.

One game really really impressed him, Final Fantasy 7. He watched me play the whole game and marveled at the cutscenes and the story and everything that game did. It became his favorite game, and mine.

I remember when Final Fantasy X came out and he watched the opening cinematic he said, "This is it. This is the best graphics will ever get."

Fast Forward to 2020 and I'm watching the opening movie for FF7 Remake. Seeing Aerith appear and I could hear my Grandfather behind me going, "HOLY COW LOOK AT THAT!". And I broke down.



Let me know what gaming moments hit you.

In God of War, this scene was what made me really start to empathize with Kratos and actually feel even kinda sorry for him. Through only body language the game conveyed so well, that this poor bastard is just.so.sick and tired of what he “needs” to do.

I really hope Kratos gets a nice long vacation before he dies, because after who knows how many millennia of service to everyone but himself, he’s earned it.

 

[happyninja42]

In God of War, this scene was what made me really start to empathize with Kratos and actually feel even kinda sorry for him. Through only body language the game conveyed so well, that this poor bastard is just.so.sick and tired of what he “needs” to do.

I really hope Kratos gets a nice long vacation before he dies, because after who knows how many millennia of service to everyone but himself, he’s earned it.

Yeah that was a good one. The other one I like is when he's carrying Atreus to Freya, and he's pacing outside her door, just a regular, frantic dad with a sick child. "Open the door woman!" *pace pace pace* You can feel his helplessness in that moment. He has no way to deal with "someone is sick, and needs healing.....I don't do healing...I do the opposite of healing.....shit!"

Also, when he is explaining about how a warrior must be smart, and he's using the knife that he made for his son, gifting it to him since he lost his mother's blade. And he has a very profound moment, where you really see Atreus actually listening, and understanding what his father is trying to teach him. About using your mind, and not just a weapon in your hand. Just, so many good moments between them.

 

[meiam]

Homeworld. I've mentioned this in another thread, so I'll try and condense my verbosity. The opening scene, camera panning around the mothership, while Adagio for Strings plays, the mood of the maiden voyage, this Brave Exploration vibe of the Higarrans, then warping off to test the jump drive...only to be attacked..and you learn you are being attacked, in a POV shot from the enemy POV. So you see YOUR ships in the crosshairs, unable to react yet. Jumping back to the planet after this attack, and seeing the only habitable portion of the planet, completely on fire from orbital bombardment, meaning you are the last of your people....and THEN to get notification that the trays of cryogenically frozen colonists are being attacked, helpless. Yeah, genuine anger at that point.

"No one's left... Kharak is burning." That and "the subject did not survive interrogation" really stood out to me. I love the presentation in the game, everything is present to you very matter of fact, no one if shown screaming in the air or anything like that.

My moment is easily shadow of the colossus with losing Agro. Doesn't say a single word in the entire game yet I cared more for that horse than almost any other video game character.

 

[happyninja42]

"No one's left... Kharak is burning." That and "the subject did not survive interrogation" really stood out to me. I love the presentation in the game, everything is present to you very matter of fact, no one if shown screaming in the air or anything like that.

Yes, Karen S'Jet's voice in that moment was very powerful. You could hear her emotions bleeding through her connection to the ship. That was one thing that I really hated in HW 2, they really just removed all emotion from Karen's voice, which I thought was a tragedy. She was so good at still portraying the fact that there was a human in that ship's core, even though she was definitely disconnected to some degree. And the fact that when you load up the cryotrays into the Mothership, she's literally, and metaphorically pregnant at that point, with all the remaining people of her planet. I dunno, I just feel that game, and Cataclysm, really nailed the emotional weight of the story they were telling. So much emotion and drama in an RTS, that was also a really damn fun RTS. Love that series, except for HW 2, that was definitely a dud for me personally.

 

[Trunkage]

F.E.A.R. will always have a special place in my heart, thanks to an out of game event when playing it. I was in an apartment with my then girlfriend, now wife, and I made a point to only play the game at night, with all the lights out, except for this ocean-blue lava lamp, just to keep my eyes from getting tunnel vision. It really helped amp up the creep factor for me while playing, was great. BUUUUUT. I got to the part where you have a nekked Alma creeping around, wearing nothing but her hair, and I was in a part where it was the "quiet leading up to an Alma section". where the feedback noise in your headset starts going off, you get the static, and you hear her start giggling. Occasionally seeing flashes of her in the corner of your eyes.

And that's when, IRL, I see something out of the corner of my eyes, and it's my wife, nekked, wearing nothing but her very alma-esque length dark hair, walking past the room and out of sight to go the bathroom. Needless to say I nearly shit myself, the timing of the game effects and her passing was just too perfect. I got up and play thumped her in the chest multiple times when she came out of the bathroom, cursing her for scaring the shit out of me, much to her confusion. When I explained, she just sort of looked at me with sleepy eyes and was like "oh...well um....I sawwy I scare you, I go back to bed now." And she just shuffled off.

I know a lot of the Alma appearance were cheap jump scares. But most were usually well done and did get this old black husk I call a heart pumping

 

[happyninja42]

I know a lot of the Alma appearance were cheap jump scares. But most were usually well done and did get this old black husk I call a heart pumping

Yeah I thought the pacing was great to be honest. The game would shift from standard cover shooter stuff with the soldiers (who had some very interesting AI now that I think about it), and then you'd turn a corner...see blood everywhere...little girl footprints in the blood leading to an elevator that wasclosing as you turn towards it...then your HUD starts to flicker and that feedback noise...then a giggle in your headphones......then silence as you are now in the horror section for the next 20 minutes.

Sorry but that was just some good design in my opinion. That jarring jump from FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT SHOOTY SHOOTY SHOOT, BOOM GRENADE, BULLET TIME PEW PEW....oh.....it's her....um....mommy? It worked very well for me.

 

[gorfias]

I 2nd @Dalisclock and Edith Fintch. Incredible gaming experience. And as a Dad, I could not believe they had some of the stuff that was in there. The ending was pretty epic as well. Also, I'm with @ happyninja42 regarding FFX. What a great, captivating experience. I played on PS2 and bought a PS3 bundle from a buddy that includes the PS3 hi def version. Replayed a bunch and remember why I like it so much.
I've yet to play Life is Strange yet but think I have it on PS4 from plus. I'll have to give it a shot.
I'm really enjoying Detroit Almost Human but not done yet so don't want to comment yet.
I'll add to the discussion the arc of Halo 1-3. It comes full circle... or Halo if you prefer.