Actions in Games That Made You Physically Uncomfortable.

[rob_simple]

I've seen a couple of threads pop up recently about the saddest moments in games or things that made you rage hard, and it got me thinking about the genuinely unpleasant situations games will occasionally plonk you down in.

I'm not talking about the flimsy moral choice systems games like Fable proudly tout --where your actions might upset you for a second then you move on and nothing of value was lost-- but times when you are actively involved in doing something you really don't want to for the sake of the greater good/progressing the game.

Spoiler

I'll get the ball rolling by throwing up the killing of Andrew Ryan in Bioshock. I know everyone waxes lyrical about the writing in this game but this scene in particular to me was utter genius and I felt genuinely bad for murdering a defenseless man.

Also, the end of Gungrave where you have to kill your corrupt best friend and the cutscene actually waits for you to pull the trigger before progressing.

Edit: Do throw up some spoiler tags if you're going to reveal something big in a game.

Edit 2, Electric Boogaloo: There's been some confusion with the wording of my title, what I was trying to get across is that the games I'm talking about shouldn't just make you gasp or mutter 'fucking hell' under your breath, but actually give you that horrible feeling in the pit of your stomach either as a result of something that you had no control over or that you were forced to do.

 

[Eddie the head]

Well you might want to say spoilers in the title. But the game I want to say it about a year old so if you haven't played it yet you are not going to.

Spoiler: infamous 2 Spoiler

Killing Zeke at the end of Infamous 2 evil ending was Uncomfortable to say the least.

 

[rob_simple]

Yeah I was going to throw up the spoiler blinkers, but the newest game I mentioned is like six years old so I figured it'd be like saying 'SPOILER: DARTH VADER IS TOTALLY LUKE'S DAD'.

 

[The_Deleted]

Shooting the humanitarian lawyer in GTA IV. For a game that prided itself on choice and freedom and for a story about a guy who's trying to put his bad life behind him, this just took me out of the game. They could have done so much if they'd given us the option to walk away.

 

[Zhukov]

Heavy Rain. Pliers. Pinky finger.

Also, Dead Space 2. Eyeball.

Oh, and yeah, I found the Andrew Ryan scene a bit disquieting as well.

 

[Fat Hippo]

Several actions in the single-player campaign of CoD: Black Ops. Like the beginning of one mission, where you shove broken glass into a mans mouth and then punch him in the face to get him to tell you what he knows. That was fucked up, and I didn't want to do it. Oh well, 5 minutes later he's running across the rooftops with you, shooting bad guys, so apparently he didn't mind that much. *sigh*
Or at a later point in the game, when one of your buddies jumps out of the river and brutally slits some bad guys throat. And then makes a joke about it. It was at this point that I realized: I must actually be on the side of the psychopaths in this game. Okay, that wasn't MY action strictly speaking, but the fact that I was supposed to be this sick bastards friend DID make me uncomfortable.

 

[arnoldthebird]

Mass Effect 3 spoilers follow, view at your own risk

Spoiler

Killing Legion....I felt so dirty afterwards, I was doing a renegade playthrough and you turn into a fucking psychopath

I felt dirty after this, I had to play through as a good person again.

 

[Brighton_Game_Trader]

Yeah, definitely Heavy Rain - that was horrible.

Another shout out to Condemned 'cos that game had some twisted first-person melee violence.

And as final example Red Dead Redemption - walking outside at the end.... *sobs*

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Spoiler: Heavy Mass Effect 3 Spoiler

When you kill Wrex as a Renegade Shepard, Ive never done this and I never will, but I watched a Youtube video of it, man It was the absolute most painful thing to watch

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

Yeah, definitely Heavy Rain - that was horrible.

Another shout out to Condemned 'cos that game had some twisted first-person melee violence.

And as final example Red Dead Redemption - walking outside at the end.... *sobs*

Oh god that too, and then its even worse when

Spoiler

They bury John and that song is playing in the background, then Jacks mother dies, and the final twist of the knife when Jack grows up to be exactly what his father didnt want

Red Dead Redemption was such a great game :'(

 

[rob_simple]

Several actions in the single-player campaign of CoD: Black Ops. Like the beginning of one mission, where you shove broken glass into a mans mouth and then punch him in the face to get him to tell you what he knows. That was fucked up, and I didn't want to do it. Oh well, 5 minutes later he's running across the rooftops with you, shooting bad guys, so apparently he didn't mind that much. *sigh*
Or at a later point in the game, when one of your buddies jumps out of the river and brutally slits some bad guys throat. And then makes a joke about it. It was at this point that I realized: I must actually be on the side of the psychopaths in this game. Okay, that wasn't MY action strictly speaking, but the fact that I was supposed to be this sick bastards friend DID make me uncomfortable.

Yeah, that reminds me of a part in Homefront, which as well as being a horrible game was some of the most alarmist propaganda bullshit I've ever seen.

Anyway, there's a part where you use phosphorous grenades or something to kill a bunch of enemy soldiers and one guy on your team says something like 'anyone else smell Korean barbecue?' One of the other characters pulls him up for it, but even so I thought it was a pretty horrible thing to joke about and didn't exactly give me that feeling of being one of the good guys.

 

[rob_simple]

Yeah I was going to throw up the spoiler blinkers, but the newest game I mentioned is like six years old so I figured it'd be like saying 'SPOILER: DARTH VADER IS TOTALLY LUKE'S DAD'.

Age means fuck all. You don't be a dick like that and spoil games without the spoiler titles, that is precisely what they are there for. Also reported.

Alright man, there's no need to swear so much. I fixed my original post. Also, sorry if I spoiled Star Wars for you.

 

[Eddie the head]

Well you might want to say spoilers in the title. But the game I want to say it about a year old so if you haven't played it yet you are not going to. Killing Zeke at the end of Infamous 2 evil ending was Uncomfortable to say the least.

Reported for spoiling. Regardless of age you don't fucking spoil a game like that, it just makes you look like a prick.

OT: Strogg conversion in Quake 4.

You could have just asked politely instead of being a douche about that but ok.

Also I spelled politely wrong the first time.

 

[Eddie the head]

And you could have been polite and used spoiler tags, but you didn't.

Yeah but I didn't' think there was anything wrong with that like I said it's been out for a while I thought anyone who cared played it already and I was wrong I guess. You know calling someone a prick is a rude thing to do.

Regardless of that that's no excuse. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

 

[eggy32]

As someone else mentioned, the final boss fight from Condemned is very brutal and makes me feel a little bit uncomfortable.

Also in Aliens Vs. Predator, the most recent one, the Xenomorphs have a finisher attack in which they grab someone from ehind and shove their tail upwards through them until it comes out of their mouth. That one always makes me feel unpleasant.
They also have a finisher that involves shoving their tail through a person's stomach and pulling the person along their tail while said victim vomits blood everywhere. AVP is a damn brutal game.

 

[Eddie the head]

And you could have been polite and used spoiler tags, but you didn't.

Yeah but I didn't' think there was anything wrong with that like I said it's been out for a while I thought anyone who cared played it already and I was wrong I guess. You know calling someone a prick is a rude thing to do.

Regardless of that that's no excuse. An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

Clearly you were wrong. There are a number of reasons someone hasn't gotten the game yet. Not enough spare cash, not enough time, distracted by other games. Not to mention it's a story heavy game. Regardless of time you don't spoil something that story driven.

Ok you don't need to reiterate that I said I was wrong. Could you just act nicer in the future? Not everyone thinks the same way as you.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Spoiler

Ordering Logan's execution in Fable 3.

Sure he was a prick, but he was doing it for a really valid reason so killing him just always felt wrong. Especially since killing him is the evil option and if you're going with the evil options you end up doing the same shit he did, so it just doesn't make any sense either.

Actually come to think of it, most of the 'evil' choices during that part of Fable 3 made me feel uncomfortable, either because you stab your allies in the back or because you reduce Albion to a festering shithole.

 

[rob_simple]

Tries to start thread fostering genuine discussion about the emotional power of games.

Ends up with two people fighting like schoolchildren over what constitutes a spoiler.

 

[rob_simple]

Spoiler

Ordering Logan's execution in Fable 3.

Sure he was a prick, but he was doing it for a really valid reason so killing him just always felt wrong. Especially since killing him is the evil option and if you're going with the evil options you end up doing the same shit he did, so it just doesn't make any sense either.

Actually come to think of it, most of the 'evil' choices during that part of Fable 3 made me feel uncomfortable, either because you stab your allies in the back or because you reduce Albion to a festering shithole.

Yeah that's one of the things about the Fable series that I hate: decisions can never be as black and white as good or evil; like the utterly retarded choice to preserve a pretty lake because it's pretty or turn it into a refinery so you can fight the shoggoth creeping towards your shores.

 

[ReservoirAngel]

Spoiler

Ordering Logan's execution in Fable 3.

Sure he was a prick, but he was doing it for a really valid reason so killing him just always felt wrong. Especially since killing him is the evil option and if you're going with the evil options you end up doing the same shit he did, so it just doesn't make any sense either.

Actually come to think of it, most of the 'evil' choices during that part of Fable 3 made me feel uncomfortable, either because you stab your allies in the back or because you reduce Albion to a festering shithole.

Yeah that's one of the things about the Fable series that I hate: decisions can never be as black and white as good or evil; like the utterly retarded choice to preserve a pretty lake because it's pretty or turn it into a refinery so you can fight the shoggoth creeping towards your shores.

The good and evil in that game is fucked. On my evil playthrough I reduced that kingdom to a smog-filled shithole yet because everyone stayed alive, they all still loved me. It's fucked up. I wanted to be a feared tyrant but the fuckers wouldn't stop being nice to me. The only way you can truly be evil in that game is to take all the evil choices, then before the final mission drain the treasury into your own bank account. Otherwise you're just an arsehole with a heart of gold by default.

Say what you will about Fable 2, at least you could be an unrepentant monster if you wanted to.

Hell in Fable 3 even being evil your character LOOKS bad! He looks like a fucking cross-dresser with Youngblood's disease. Black holes where his eyes would be and it looks like he's wearing goth lipstick.