Game segments that made you need a break after. SPOILERS

[Objectable]

Have you ever needed to take a break from sheer emotional exhaustion after playing a game? There were two instances
One was from Final Fantasy VII. YOu know the scene

The second was MGS4's Microwave Tunnel.
<youtube=LuPpCSmT4dE>
Raiden is being overpowered by FROGs, Meryl and Johnny are running out of ammunition and taking a few bullets, the Missouri is being overrun by Scarabs... and all the while Snake is slowly being cooked by radiation - he's literally dragging himself along as bits of his suit (along with the Solid Eye) explode, Rose and Campbell turn away from their screen, unable to watch, and Otacon is begging Snake not to give up. And if you die... Otacon's agonized scream of "SNAAAAKE!!".

 

[tippy2k2]

For all the hate MGS4 gets, at the very least, that ending was excellent.

As to the topic at hand, I really don't have that issue. For the most part, when a sequence sucker punches me right in the emotions (Final Fantasy VII, Last of Us, Bioshock, Spec-Ops The Line), I want to keep going to see what is going to happen next.

Funny enough, I usually get the emotional crash in strategy games, particularly XCOM (though any game with non-faceless/nameless characters like "Valkyria Chronicles" also hurt). As many here probably know since I link it constantly (though it is currently inactive), I run the "Tippy2k2's XCOM Army" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play] Let's Play.

I get emotionally drained playing games like that, ESPECIALLY when I give them names and they get their own kind of stories like that group gets. After shifting through the posts, you can see that come into my writing style. There's usually more of a defeatist attitude after a group of soldiers bite the dust and you really get to see some self-loathing out of me, especially when I feel it was my fault that I got soldiers killed...

If you want to see an example of this in action, go into the group chat to page 11. My bottom post when I get frustrated by Thin Men and it just crashes and burns from there

 

[Salus]

I have to like, stop and puke every five minutes while playing Slender: The Eight Pages. Play a Civ 5 NQ game and you have to lapse into a coma to rejuvenate.

Other than that, the ending of Red Dead Redemption, most definitely. I had something akin to postpartum depression after finishing that game. It just left me melancholy for like 5 or 6 days after finishing it. I thought about life and living a lot during those days, I was seriously affected.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

The only time that has happened to me while playing a game was Spec Ops: The Line, about half way through. If you are at all familiar with the game, you know which part I'm talking about. Literally felt sick and had to turn the game off for a bit.

There have been a few endings where I get exhausted too, but I think that's more of finally reaching the end and just letting go of all the effort than actual emotional impact.

 

[Seraj33]

There was the first time I sat down with STALKER Shadow of Chernobyl, the very first time you enter an underground maintenance tunnelesque area to get to a military base.

At the very end, when you hear a roar and a controller steps out and you get "babbys first mindfuck". Well, I panicked and didnt play the game for a week afterwards.

 

[Fox12]

This doesn't usually happen to me. There were a few moments in FF7 and The Last of Us that were heavy, mostly the endings, but that's about it. I did find that I could only stomach small doses of Silent Hill 2 at a time, though I finally defeated the game.

Berserk did this to me though. The Eclipse. Seriously, it was bad in the show, but the book... good God. I needed to take a walk afterwards. It may be the only piece of fiction that ever made me break down in tears. It just too much to take, and every time you thought you'd seen the lowest point it just got worse. Even the scenes immediately following the event were perfectly executed, and exhausting. I was actually happy to see Puck, a character I hadn't liked before, come back. After descending that low, the audience needed a breather.

 

[DaWaffledude]

Mass Effect. Virmire. Don't know what else to say.

 

[NeutralDrow]

After getting my first ending in Kana: Little Sister, I had to stop playing for a week and a half. Same with Symphonic Rain (three days).

I also had trouble finishing Depression Quest in one sitting, but that's something else entirely.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

I tend to take breaks while gaming anyway. I had a day off work today and spent some time playing Metroid Prime. I'm still on my first playthrough and took breaks after beating Sheegoth and, Thardus for example. I also break after levels of Kid Icarus Uprising but that's mainly due to how I play handheld games; in short bursts instead of over long stretches of time.

 

[Maximum Bert]

The only ones that made me want to take a break are ones I find ridiculously tedious like Fable 2s mini games (when I actually didnt loath achievement completely) and ones that make me rage ridiculously hard like Donkey Kong Country (my most hated game ever and the break was permanent).

Cant say I have ever had a game instill any other emotion in me other than anger and/or boredom that makes me want to take a break. I have never found any game, film, book or piece of music so emotionally draining I need to take a break. Then again im not exactly very emotional anyway or so I am told.

 

[-Ezio-]

10 minutes into the last of us. had to then. was just thinkin "so that's how it's gonna be is it?"

also gears 2 and 3. i'm sure you all know what parts.

 

[Torque2100]

Probably the only game sequence where I've felt so many Sads that I had to stop playing was, you may laugh at me for this, but Sargent Johnson's death from Halo 3. The degree to which hid death upset me surprised even me but it makes sense in hindsight. Here's a character I'd been through 3 games with, whom I had grown extremely attached to, and now he's gone.

No other character death in a video game has really affected me that way. Except maybe, during my first playthrough of Fallout 1 when I blasted my way through the Khan's camp and when the smoke cleared I found that both my companions, Ian and Dogmeat, were both dead.

 

[Groxnax]

The Walking Dead game from Telltale games.

 

[Chester Rabbit]

Mass Effect 2: The Collector ambush on insanity. I had to put it down for a week to bounce back from that.

Bioshock Infinite: The Siren. I don?t even mean the entire fight, I?m just talking about the first encounter, and I beat her fair and square...it only took me well over 20 tries and I didn?t even beat her at that point I had to put the game down for two months and then it was just by luck that I pulled it off; but then by that point I knew there were three fucking more and had to put down the controller and game because I just did not want to become that angry again. Then I came back in Feb and found out my save file couldn?t load got pissed and dreaded having to do it all over again, but, thankfully found out about that fire trap exploit. Thank Christ for that!

 

[LongAndShort]

The end of Red Dead Redemption. That was a punch in the emotional gut.

X-com: Enemy Unknown. Fucking up and watching my top-notch team get torn apart by Mutons and Heavy Floaters was (and is) heart-wrenching.

When I finished Bioshock Infinite. This was more a moment to stop and figure out what the fuck had just happened, rather than emotional exhaustion.

 

[Chris Tian]

The only time that has happened to me while playing a game was Spec Ops: The Line, about half way through. If you are at all familiar with the game, you know which part I'm talking about. Literally felt sick and had to turn the game off for a bit.

I know exactly what you mean, that was like a kick to the balls, or since its actually two terrible things happen in very rapid succession two kicks.

Mass Effect 2: The Collector ambush on insanity. I had to put it down for a week to bounce back from that.

Because of what happens there storywise or because of the difficulty gameplaywise?


OT:I have to pause Outlast every now and then. I normally don't like this kind of game (horror, powerless protagonist who can only run from the monster, etc.) but my girlfriend really likes it and since she is too scared to play herself, she watches me play.

 

[Avalanche91]

I began playing Persona 4 without any knowledge prior. Not sure if spoilers are still needed for such an old game but

Not taking the correct dialogue choices accidently killed Nanako and jegus that was bleak

Also episode 3 from the Walking Dead.

 

[The Wykydtron]

After pretty much any drawn out 50 minute League match I will take a break from after. 2 stressful 5 me. I also take a break between every single DOTA 2 match for over a month because i'm just too bad at it and I feel like i'm fighting the game engine to get anything done. I forget how much I don't enjoy the game and try to give it another go.

I did start playing Smite on a whim yesterday though and it's actually fun as hell, I was quite surprised. I took a break after playing a round of Assault (the ARAM one) cuz I randomed Scylla and fucking hell what the actual fuck is this character? I turned the game around twice by ulting and smashing left clicks into the vague area of the other team. Literally got a penta by saying "fuck this" when I was getting jumped by some melee assassin/bruisers guys.

Scylla's ult isn't called I'm a Monster for no reason, I suppose.

 

[MrBaskerville]

I don't think i've ever played anything that worked that well on the storylevel. I have witnessed passable and engaging stories, but never anything close to emotionally exhausting. Maybe after a couple of hours with Heavy Rain or Fahrenheit, but mostly because everything is turned up to 11, i need a break once in a while if i'm supposed to spend my time with characters this mopey in a world where it's constantly raining. That's not a compliment though.

Gameplaywise there have been games where i had to take a break because it got a little too intense. I'm on a break from both Xcom (Lost all my good men in three terrible battles) and Dark Souls after dying searching for a bonfire after Sens Fortress, i nearly aced it the first time and then i accidentally got hit by napalm.

 

[Thyunda]

For all the hate MGS4 gets, at the very least, that ending was excellent.

As to the topic at hand, I really don't have that issue. For the most part, when a sequence sucker punches me right in the emotions (Final Fantasy VII, Last of Us, Bioshock, Spec-Ops The Line), I want to keep going to see what is going to happen next.

Funny enough, I usually get the emotional crash in strategy games, particularly XCOM (though any game with non-faceless/nameless characters like "Valkyria Chronicles" also hurt). As many here probably know since I link it constantly (though it is currently inactive), I run the "Tippy2k2's XCOM Army" [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/groups/view/Tippy2k2-s-XCOM-Army-Let-s-Play] Let's Play.

I get emotionally drained playing games like that, ESPECIALLY when I give them names and they get their own kind of stories like that group gets. After shifting through the posts, you can see that come into my writing style. There's usually more of a defeatist attitude after a group of soldiers bite the dust and you really get to see some self-loathing out of me, especially when I feel it was my fault that I got soldiers killed...

If you want to see an example of this in action, go into the group chat to page 11. My bottom post when I get frustrated by Thin Men and it just crashes and burns from there

XCOM is great for that. If I lose a good chunk of my best-trained men, I haze the rookies. And I mean I haze them. I push their faces against the grind and lose three or four in every subsequent mission till only the best remain, though losing Tombstone Rodriguez was more than I could take and I haven't played since.