Most Cringeworthy Moments in games

[Danbo Jambo]

With the release of Dragon Age Inquisition I popped back for a look at DA2 online, just to see how far both games have strayed from the classic Origins.

Unfortunately I was then reminded of the 3 most cringeworthy moments in gaming.

Firstly the sexing up of Flemeth. Dear Lord what were they thinking? The second she appeared in human form in DA:2 I was gobsmacked at just how tacky things had become.

Secondly, the Power Ranger style darkspawn. What were once fearsome, gritty beings of the underworld had become Sat morning cartoon villains.

Lastly, Mass Effect 3's portrayal of The Illusive Man. Morally ambiguous grey area character, with depth and many potential angles and motives? Not any more, hello Scooby Doo villain and cliche bad guy role instead.

Just wondering what moments in games made you cringe like these did me?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Everytime anyone spoke in the '13 Tomb Raider reboot.

God, all these characters were horrid, and I couldn't wait for each of them to die off.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

More so for squeamish reasons, but I did cringe really hard during a certain segment in Telltale's The Walking Dead: Season 2 when Clementine is forced to stitch up her own arm.

The manner in which this scene plays out is done in such a drawn-out, visceral way that lingers just a bit too long made for a real cringe-inducing moment indeed.

Playing through that moment, I couldn't imagine having to do something like that myself. I would sooner just take my arm off.

 

[Rayce Archer]

The parts of Borderlands 2 that try to deal with serious stuff, like Roland dying, were all pretty weak. They kind of fixed it in Dragon Keep though.

And after what a fun, Dick-inspired romp Human Revolution was, the dorky animu final showdown was a little out of place.

Spoiler

you fight a sexy crime boss lady in a big force-field arena then shoot a bunch of comatose cloned girls inside a big pod because science reasons

In terms of ick factor cringing, when the big drill on the wall tears out your vocal chords so you can only mumble and grunt like a big daddy in Bioshock was pretty horrible.

 

[Genocidicles]

...Just that.

It actually made me stop playing for a month or so.

 

[Greg White]

The entirety of Ride to Hell: Retribution. Just pick any part of it and it's pretty cringeworthy.

On a more serious note, the later half of Fallout 3. The amount of pointless and avoidable deaths in the later half, starting with your dad and ending with you(unless you have Broken Steel), was mind-numbing.

Also, I'd suggest checking the Darkspawn's lore. They've always been Saturday Morning cartoons, just with more blood and rape. Their only reason to exist is to kill or corrupt anything and everything that isn't them and turn all the women into broodmothers.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Some of Batman's dialogue in Arkham City was a bit cringe, one of the best being:

"So it's the world's deadliest assassin against the world's greatest detective. Who's going to win?"

...

...

...

"Not him"

*cringe*

Just the elongated pause before the shitty response makes it so much worse, like it's hyping up for this cool oneliner then just falls flat on its face.

Can't really think of much else but then again, in the post Watamote world nothing should ever cause me to cringe ever again. I've survived 12 episodes of nonstop pain and cringe, I think I can survive anything else.

Still can't force myself through the OVA...

 

[EmperorZinyak]

In terms of "ick" factor, I'm going with this moment from Shadow of Mordor.

Spoiler

When Celebrimbor and his family gets brutally murdered by Sauron. You get to listen as Sauron very clearly murders a little girl, and then you get to watch a first person perspective as Sauron brutally smashes you with a hammer several times. You can almost feel your skull cracking as he brings it onto you with a sickening metal thud each time. Then, when you think you've seen the worst, he flips the hammer onto it's pointed side, and then presumably digs it into your eye for the killing blow. That was single-handedly the most brutal and dark death scene in any video game, and amazingly it didn't feel forced or out of place, despite being a flashback. I don't think there's ever been a more visceral scene in a game.

In terms of cringe factor, just take any scene from an FPS where a squadmate gets killed off. "Random jarhead #2875! Nooooooooooooooo!"

 

[Duster]

The writing in any mmo. They may as well pay some 16 year old autist who writes fanfics 200 dollars to write the entire script for their game and save themselves the investment.

@rayce archer
Any part in Human Revolution during and after your return to hong kong was pretty bad. It's a shame because it started off so strong.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Secondly, the Power Ranger style darkspawn. What were once fearsome, gritty beings of the underworld had become Sat morning cartoon villains.

god dammit, now I can't get them being putties out of my head...

I honestly would like that as a mod now lol, get all the non-elite darkspawn to be swapped with putty skins.

OT:

Unfortunately if you die you are forced to rewatch this scene again...and again. I wasn't the greatest at this game growing up so bloody hell did I have to replay it TOO MANY TIMES.

not that kingdom hearts doesn't have cringeworthy moments all over, but this one definitely sticks out.

 

[EyeReaper]

In terms of like, narmworthy-ness? Well, I'm going to have to go with an old classic
turn on the captions for extra hilarity.

But the scene that made me cringe and go "nononononon nooope!" the most? Probably the Accomplice ending added in Persona 4 Golden. Or maybe about half of the failure scenes of the third episode of Monster girl Quest. They really turned up the squick factor in the final run, especially scenes like Black Alice's teddy bear or The Robot Assassin's slug monster thing.

This one is also a bit more anecdotal, and not necessarily video games, but I found my copy of One Piece: Grand Adventure for gamecube recently, and some of the things I've forgotten about from the dark days of 4kids... Giving Shanks an Aussie accent was passable, but HEAT fist TRACE? I'm tasting blood now.

 

[h@wke]

Sex scenes in dragon age origins. It was like the team America sex scene played straight

 

[Rayce Archer]

The writing in any mmo. They may as well pay some 16 year old autist who writes fanfics 200 dollars to write the entire script for their game and save themselves the investment.

@rayce archer
Any part in Human Revolution during and after your return to hong kong was pretty bad. It's a shame because it started off so strong.

My problem wasn't so much the quality of writing as the sudden loss of choice, particularly at the very end. It's most obvious when you talk to Seraph:

Jensen: So, you turned me into an awesome combat cyborg because you thought the world would NEED Awesome combat cyborgs, and not just for your own selfish reasons? You're a MONSTER.

Seraph: Are you even thinking about what you're saying? I saved your life for free! I made you almost immortal and nearly invincible, no strings attached! You look better than 90% of the people with purely job-related augs, what's your problem?

Jensen: Even though you haven't hurt anyone and have given me almost complete leeway and limitless support, you are as bad as that other rich old guy who wants to murder thousands of people using thousands of other people as weapons. All political platforms are bad regardless of their intent or methods.

Seraph: Didn't you win a debate to the total contrary of all that like three days ago? Using a perception augment that I installed in you?

Jensen: Giving serious thought to just flooding this shitheap and killing all of you old bastards I NEVER ASKED FOR THIS

Seraph: Christ, fine, you fucking ingrate. Take this assault rifle my bodyguard held onto for you and try to remember that you do still technically work for me and also your other endings are all going to involve hurting or killing tons of innocent people in some way.

QUEST UPDATED: Sink all your friends and coworkers under thousands of feet of freezing water for saving your life, or don't

 

[Adam Lester]

The moment in MGS2 when I realized I'd be playing the rest of the game as Raiden.

 

[Pete Oddly]

Cringe with embarrassment?

- Every line of dialogue in every Resident Evil ever

Cringe in discomfort?

- Clementine stitching her arm in The Walking Dead: Season 2
- Isolde begging you not to kill Connor in Dragon Age: Origins (Seriously, I actually had to put the controller down and stop playing, this shook me so badly. Excellent voice acting in that scene.)
- Becoming part Strogg in Quake IV (Awesome scene, but in a skin-crawling way)
- Finding the flayed child in the washroom of the alternate school in Silent Hill

 

[Pete Oddly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_VItFUEEI

This fucking scene right here. I visually cringed the second I heard the word misogynistic in a completely non-ironic way.

Wait, does this mean you're a misogyny hipster? As in, you only like being a misogynist ironically?

 

[Rayce Archer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG_VItFUEEI

This fucking scene right here. I visually cringed the second I heard the word misogynistic in a completely non-ironic way.

You do realize the whole point of this part was to take the piss out of "nice guys" who consider the very idea of misogyny an attack on how they view the world? So... yeah.

Mr. Torgue, telling it like it is.

 

[Pete Oddly]

Wait, does this mean you're a misogyny hipster? As in, you only like being a misogynist ironically?

You do realize the whole point of this part was to take the piss out of "nice guys" who consider the very idea of misogyny an attack on how they view the world? So... yeah.

Mr. Torgue, telling it like it is.

Completely missed the point I was trying to get at. This was about as subtle as trying to portray a fedora tipping, trenchcoat wearing, Cheetos dust encrusted neckbeard completely straight.

To be fair, Borderlands as a series doesn't really do subtle humour all that much. To be honest, to play that particular joke with subtlety wouldn't have worked as well, as the people being derided by it don't necessarily get subtlety all that well.