Regret/Remorse in gaming

[chavosaur]

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT ABOUT GAMES YOU REGRET PLAYING. THIS IS ABOUT THE FEELING OF REGRET YOU MAY HAVE FELT FROM SOMETHING IN THE GAME.
I've played through a few games that have given me a feeling of regret or remorse, or just something I dont feel comfortable doing. But the biggest game that gave me these feelings, was Telltale's The Walking Dead. Never before had I been faced with difficult decisions, that only led to regret or sorrow as to the events that unfolded next. Wonderful experience.
What about y'all? What games gave you this feeling?

 

[Guild McCommunist]

hayyyy

 

[The Catboy]

Heavy Rain
/thread

 

[Gahars]

Releasing both Spec Ops and The Walking Dead in the same year was a one-two punch of induced guilt.

 

[chavosaur]

Heavy Rain
/thread

Care to explain? Ive never actually played it... (Played spec ops though)

 

[The Catboy]

Care to explain? Ive never actually played it... (Played spec ops though)

This is a rather hard one to explain since I only played it once, but the game really forces you to make quick decisions that effect the whole game, hell a little spoiler.

Spoiler

There is a part of the game were you have to cut off your own finger and the game allows you to choose the tool you use to do it and it is just painful to watch, that's just part of the game changing decisions you can make

 

[TheJeweler]

How does choosing how to cut off your finger change the game? Any ways the most regretful I can remember was playing Ib when I got the ending where Ib and Gary didn't remember one another, it just left me feeling unfulfilled.

 

[Psionic Roshambo]

The first time I shot a scientist in the leg, on Goldeneye for the N64.... At first I felt bad, then I thought it was funny lol It took me a week to complete that level. lol

Edit: Also the kids in Bioshock, I beat it with out hurting them first but to see the other ending I killed them all.

 

[Maxternal]

In GTA I'm glad there's other options of how to kill someone because stomping on their unconscious body until their blood forms a puddle under them I find rather disturbing.

A sad statement on my state of mind, though, is that shooting them, running them over, etc, doesn't really bother me

 

[Maxternal]

The first time I shot a scientist in the leg, on Goldeneye for the N64.... At first I felt bad, then I thought it was funny lol It took me a week to complete that level. lol

I'm not sure how I did it but just ONCE in that game I shot a soldier in ... I guess the the neck ... and he then dropped his weapon and began struggling for breath with his hands on his throat, eventually to end up leaning against a wall and then slid down it and disappeared. I felt kinda bad for the guy. Could never replicate that death scene again, though.

 

[Taleweaver]

Braid's ending.

(and for the love of God, do NOT open this spoiler unless you've finished the game. And if you haven't: go get it).

Spoiler

I had a feeling that those puzzle pieces, the remarks and those books where somewhat...strange. But I didn't think that much of it. I even went through that whole last "run from the fire" in the expectation to be reunited with the princess (I admit kind of thinking there never was a princess...kinda strange that there was one).
Then that sudden flash...and I had no idea what to do anymore. She was just on the other side of the room. Why couldn't I get in? Why didn't she let me in? And how come that time unwind thing suddenly makes me go forward somehow?

I somewhat accidentally held on to rewind button to see what would happen. And it was only then I not only realised how well that time rewind mechanic plays into the gameplay but also in the storyline. In far, far more than I thought it ever could.
Braid and the princess weren't trying to find each other: they were breaking up. They're running away from each other, attempting to hurt each other, no less.

In that moment, all the hints came together: the character (ME!!!) didn't exactly stops time...he WANTS to stop time. Rewind things and do things differently. But the situation...the circumstances just wouldn't allow it.

I knew even before the characters got back to the entrance that that conversation (played backwards...or chronologically) meant that Braid is the actual monster and that that so-called vilain is actually saving her.

And yeah...big budget game companies would have never let that slide. It's not a happy ending. It's a sad realisation of something gone wrong that isn't even properly explained.

But that doesn't have to. It was the RIGHT ending. Everything had lead up to that point...and it wouldn't have been that piece of art that it is if it was told any other way.
(it would still have been a good and even a great game, mind you).

 

[ProtoKun7]

There's at least one occasion that I can remember:

Spoiler

It was a pretty tough decision, but the opportunity was there and I really didn't know which route to take, but I took it and I still kinda wonder if it could have gone differently.

So there I was, with an I block and two empty columns. I decided to drop it right there instead of waiting for a square. Thinking about it now, I stand by my decision, but I tell ya, toughest game of Tetris I've ever played.

 

[XDel]

I had to think on this one for a while. The firs thing that came to mind was some of those old LJN games, but their saving grace is that they were short, well except Rambo.

The game that I regret playing the most I think though was Final Fantasy II, the old Famicom version, not the American release of FF IV.

This games story was nothing to write home about, especially when compared to Final Fantasy I's story with the archeological dig and what not. Basically I felt like all I did was endure fight after fight which required no strategy what so ever. Generally I love a little grinding but that was all there was to this game, mindless grinding that require no strategy what so ever. On top of that, the story that tied all the grinding together felt like a very weak rip off of the old Star Wars story line. Granted I LOVE my classic Star Wars, and one might think that I would be down with a story that was blatantly inspired by it, but I was not impressed in the least. There were no surprises in the game, nothing to get me excited, nothing to make me sad, it was just blah.

What made things even worse is that the end boss fight felt like battling any other enemy in the game, I think he was a hair tougher than a Blue Slime from Dragon Quest and that was about it. If I recall correctly three or four rounds of attacks from my party brought him down. I don't recall even having to use any heal spells or potions. Though I will say that the journey through the levels of Hades was a chore in itself. Had the final boss been hard there would be no way of surviving it as the journey to get there was a boss fight on it's own!

 

[Gahars]

I had to think on this one for a while. The firs thing that came to mind was some of those old LJN games, but their saving grace is that they were short, well except Rambo.

The game that I regret playing the most I think though was Final Fantasy II, the old Famicom version, not the American release of FF IV.

This games story was nothing to write home about, especially when compared to Final Fantasy I's story with the archeological dig and what not. Basically I felt like all I did was endure fight after fight which required no strategy what so ever. Generally I love a little grinding but that was all there was to this game, mindless grinding that require no strategy what so ever. On top of that, the story that tied all the grinding together felt like a very weak rip off of the old Star Wars story line. Granted I LOVE my classic Star Wars, and one might think that I would be down with a story that was blatantly inspired by it, but I was not impressed in the least. There were no surprises in the game, nothing to get me excited, nothing to make me sad, it was just blah.

What made things even worse is that the end boss fight felt like battling any other enemy in the game, I think he was a hair tougher than a Blue Slime from Dragon Quest and that was about it. If I recall correctly three or four rounds of attacks from my party brought him down. I don't recall even having to use any heal spells or potions. Though I will say that the journey through the levels of Hades was a chore in itself. Had the final boss been hard there would be no way of surviving it as the journey to get there was a boss fight on it's own!

PLEASE NOTE: THIS IS NOT ABOUT GAMES YOU REGRET PLAYING. THIS IS ABOUT THE FEELING OF REGRET YOU MAY HAVE FELT FROM SOMETHING IN THE GAME.

 

[mightymuffy]

Shagging Tali in Mass Effect 2 then choosing the Geth in ME3, half expecting her Quarians to simply drop their weapons kind of thing... to which they don't, and she tops herself in front of me, before I'd even managed to do the dirty in that episode too! Could've had a do with the blue un but nah, my Shepherd finally croaked it with a good sackful... Looking back though, leading her on through ME1 & 2, finally giving it to her, then wiping her entire race out when their situation was at its worst = my Shepherd was a right bastard!

 

[Engert]

Did someone say Mass Effect?

Okay, i felt really bad when Sephiroth killed Aerith in FF7.

 

[Rizsparky]

hayyyy

This, shits fucked up.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

hayyyy

Oh god this entire game so hard. So many regrets while playing that I had to play it like 4 different times.

 

[tbgtbg]

Shagging Tali in Mass Effect 2 then choosing the Geth in ME3, half expecting her Quarians to simply drop their weapons kind of thing... to which they don't, and she tops herself in front of me, before I'd even managed to do the dirty in that episode too! Could've had a do with the blue un but nah, my Shepherd finally croaked it with a good sackful... Looking back though, leading her on through ME1 & 2, finally giving it to her, then wiping her entire race out when their situation was at its worst = my Shepherd was a right bastard!

Likewise if you cheated on your ME1 love interest with someone else in ME2, and then when the ME1 love interest confronts you about it in ME3... Oooh, yeah, regrets.

Of course if you killed your ME1 love interest in ME1, that would be a pretty big one in and of itself.

 

[mightymuffy]

Did someone say Mass Effect?

Okay, i felt really bad when Sephiroth killed Aerith in FF7.

Come on it was good UP TO 3... had to complete it for the sake of it!Didn't get to give Tali another one (and certainly won't be touching it again) so yeah I felt a bit bad. Didn't give a flying bollock about Aerith popping her clogs in FF7 though, she was an OK character but I'd much rather have given Tifa on-gawd I've got sex on the mind tonight, best wake the wifey up hehe (TMI?)