Ever feel sorry for the enemies you've killed in a game?

[Use_Imagination_here]

The reason I'm bringing this up is that recently when playing arkham city, I realised it's impossible for all the thugs I'm beating up to be assholes. A lot of them are probably just regular prisoners who got dumped in there and are trying to stay alive. And I'm breaking their bones.

I mean yeah they allways attack you but you're the fucking batman, they must be scared for their lifes.

 

[umadbro]

yeah, remember that AC-130 mission in Call of Duty 4? That's when I found out I was a jerk... killing dozens of soldiers who were just fighting for their respective country from five miles in the air with a 120mm Howitzer.

 

[GundamSentinel]

For generic mook enemies? No, never.

Some of the bosses on the other hand, like The Boss in MGS3, or some of the Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus or Maiden Astraea from Demon's Souls.

 

[worldruler8]

The only enemy I felt bad killing, or indirectly killing, was the engineer in Halo: ODST. There was always a squad of Brutes nearby, and if you killed the Captain, an explosive device would trigger, killing the Engineer. The engineer would make sounds that sounded like an alien whale's cry for help, and you could tell the last thing it wanted to do was make the shields it did on the brutes nearby. Killing it was a tactical achievement, yet it certainly made me think trying to stealth through was the better option.

 

[joe-h2o]

I think all the "normal" crims are hiding away - remember the Joker's selection process for new thugs in Dark Knight was a fight to the death. I don't feel bad about pounding those guys with Batman's righteous fists.

There were some fights in WoW where I was sad for my enemy, but that was down to the story - either former "good" characters, or otherwise corrupted beings.

There were some truly moving story lines in the plethora of quests in WoW - some large scale, some tiny and tucked away. Anyone who did that quest for the mourning Night Elf who was on the pier in Auberdine knows what I mean (the first town you come to on the mainland after leaving the Night Elf starting 'island' [giant tree]).

 

[SidingWithTheEnemy]

I feel sorry for every single stereotyped non-standard-white-american-christian I kill. A little something of me dies every time. I normally even shoot first, that doesn't help feeling me better at all.

 

[Lilani]

I sort of feel bad whenever I set the zombies on fire in HL2. The way they just scream in agony until they drop dead...it's chilling. I only feel that way about the regular zombies, though. The zombines and the hellish things that run really fast can burn in hell for all I care.

 

[Commissar Sae]

Playing Red Orchestra 2 at one point, shot a Russian in the gut and he proceeded to groan and whimper for a good minute before dying. I tried to put him out of his digital misery but the game wouldn't let me, and I had to defend that position so I heard him in agony for the whole time it took him to die.

Yeah felt pretty sorry for that one.

Strangely feel sorry for some of the guys I kill in Alpha protocol as well, maybe it has to do with the ORPHAN COUNTER they so nicely put in the game to remind you of all the fatherless children you've now created.

 

[AJax_21]

Killing Sif in Dark Souls. Why From Soft? Whyyyy?!

He's just a huge adorable wolf with 20-foot buster sword on his mouth. The way he limps when he reaches low health just crushes my heart. T_T

 

[doomspore98]

Killing the people who attack me in fallout three. But only if they run away from me, then I kill them but feel really bad about

 

[kyogen]

For generic mook enemies? No, never.

Some of the bosses on the other hand, like The Boss in MGS3, or some of the Colossi from Shadow of the Colossus or Maiden Astraea from Demon's Souls.

I agree with this. I really enjoy the second-guessing that some narratives are designed to create, but killing the generic enemies doesn't phase me at all. On the other hand, even small tweaks to the gameplay can give narrative context to killing random npcs--Kratos slaughtering random fleeing civilians in GOW1 and being rewarded for it doesn't make me feel guilty (the action isn't designed to make an rpg-style choice available), but it reinforces how much of a self-absorbed jerk he is. Nice little touch in that level.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Freelancer. First time I ever decided to go rogue and be a pirate on my own accord. I know the ships belong to corporations who may most likely be run by bad people but that doesn't keep me from thinking about the poor schmuck using the useless transport turret to fight me and my tricked out pirate raider. He's just doing his job, I'm just killing for fun and the loot.

...

BUT IT IS FUN!

And so the killing continues.

 

[rokkolpo]

The collosi in Shadow of the Collosus

The game made sure that you were hunting THEM, not the other way.
(Minus the bull and lion, but there are 14 more)

 

[Slycne]

Spoiler: Spoilers for the last level of Deus Ex: Human Revolution

I couldn't bring myself to kill a single person after having made this impassioned plea that they were people and not simply a means to an end. I had even spent the last several hours gearing up for a big final confrontation, but I hadn't brought any stun weapons with me.

I spent the next few hours cloak sprinting through groups, using all my energy bars to double KO them 2 at a time and strongly fighting the urge to mow them down with my battle riffle.

 

[aidutcher]

There's a part in Oblivion during one of the Dark Brotherhood quests when you have to kill a whole family, starting with an old woman. She gets all excited thinking you're from a gift delivery service, so she gives you a list telling you where all her relatives are and thanks you profusely for being kind enough to get the gifts to all of her children. Then you kill her and proceed to kill everyone on the list. When you kill the old woman, her dog comes over and starts howling.

I was usually able to put the targets' personal lives out of my mind when doing the DB quests, but I made the mistake of talking to the old woman before killing her. I felt absolutely terrible. It took a lot of effort to maintain cold detachment for the rest of the quest.

There's another moment where you have to kill someone who's been nothing but kind to you and he shouts "Why brother?!" as he dies. Yet another time when Oblivion kicked my heart in the balls.

 

[Gulleko]

The enemies that nearly break my heart are the wolves in Fable 2 & 3, they just look and sound so much like dogs...
Oh, and the Mabari!

 

[Prof. Monkeypox]

Big Daddies/Little Sisters. The Big Daddies aren't responsible for their actions, and the way the Little Sisters cry after their big friends are killed is just heartbreaking...

 

[TheGreatAndPowerfulZOG]

In Fallout 3, when I know if I had played differently I could have avoided killing a character. Also in any MGS game I'll usually play as a pacifist/non-lethal Snake - I figure all those russians are just regular soldiers with no idea about the evil plot they're accomplices to. Basically, when a game gives me a real choice of whether or not to kill people, I'll actually think about it, even if it doesn't affect the outcome of the game. I have no problem killing "bad guys", but I find it pretty annoying when a game will send cannon fodder enemies at me who are just regular security guards/soldiers/cops doing their job.

 

[Bar_Chek]

I always felt bad about mowing down the poorly spelt Krimzon Guard of Jak II - in some missions you can hear them chat about stuff like racing, and Praxis' propaganda machines imply many join the Guard for the benefits for their families. Families who'll never see their bullet-riddled corpse, due to the fact it exploded into purple dust.

However, I find beating the regular citizens to death hilarious. Oh well.