The Most Emotional Thing You've Witnessed in a Game

[islagatt]

To me, two major scenes were where you leave Cortana at the end of Halo 2, and where you save her in Halo 3. Maybe you have to read Fall of Reach to fully understand why John and Cortana are so close, but really those moments mattered to me.

Also, Mass Effect 2 really played on the emotional links to the first game, so meeting Tali and hearing her reaction to Sheperd being alive right at the outset, and Garrus when he went down from the gunship's fire... Mass Effect 2 pretty much the whole way through was a game that dragged in my emotions.

Acht! How could I possibly forget that one, Disgaea Hour of Darkness, when Seraph Lamington hands down his judgement and Laharl goes nuts. Moving because of what Lamington does, because Laharl taps into his full power, and most importantly because for the first time Laharl shows his honest emotions.

 

[Woodsey]

PoP: Sands of Time's ending. Really understated but brilliantly delivered - all that and she doesn't even recognise him.

Mafia: That final monologue is exceptionally well written, delivered and poignant.

ME1: That decision was very difficult, especially as it was less than an hour after a very tense showdown that ended oh so wrongly.

ME2:

Spoiler

Meeting Ash again, only for her to walk away after a few minutes. Seeing Mordin's lifeless body on the final level (only him and Zaeed died) and possibly the most nerve-wracking jump I've ever seen; Shepard, final level, huge leap, slow-mo. My heart was pounding. Oh, and when the platform starts crumbling, I had Miranda with me and Shepard dived for her. They land on the ground and he wakes up Garrus - I thought she was dead.

Such an intense game.

KotOR: Feeling betrayed by Bastila after Malak's revelation.

 

[Withard]

Gonna have to agree with the FF7 people here. When Aerith died I reloaded and did everything I could before that bit again trying to find some sercret way to save her

Didnt wanna play after that bit. Was definately a Jesse Custer meets god in the desert kinda thing after. For those who know what I mean eh eh

 

[Vkmies]

"OMG the effing necklace is talking to me! KILL IT, KILL IT!" -Me playing Heroes of might and magic 2: The succesion wars the first time

 

[katsabas]

A certain fall in Infamous. Sniff.

 

[MadMechanic]

The last level of MW. Seeing everyone on the bridge, and people like Griggs fighting for survival.
I see a few others have mentioned the Nuke in MW1 - that didn't tug at me. I'm sorry to say that the USMC character had no impact on me. Infact, it just annoyed me more than anything, as it made me feel like all the USMC missions had been a waste of time.

Loose ends in MW2. I won't say anything more due to possible spoilers (and I don't know how to put the spolier thingy up), but that really got to me. Again, like Endgame in MW1, you fought so hard, desperatly and frantically... That, and the way Ghost reacts to what Shepard does to you, his "nooooooooooooo!" scream.

Mass Effect, ME2 and Dragon Age have had a few moments of pure "awww" and "arrrgh!".

 

[JeanLuc761]

This. Between those two games, I have felt every strong emotion there is to feel and ME2 is the first game to make me cry (multiple times at that!)

Mass Effect 2 just takes the cake. I thought the first game had peaked in terms of the emotional department, but going Paragon in the second game pretty much guarantees that you'll be drowning in a pool of tears by the endgame.

Exactly. It's one of the few games I can think of that could hold emotional impact even 15 years from now.

 

[Dr. Paine]

-tosses her hat into the HL2 Episode 2 ring-

I knew what was going to happen long before I got the game, and I still about cried at the end.

Other than that... no game has ever made me come close to crying in terms of emotion. Pissed me off or scared the crap out of me? Sure, but nothing really sad.

 

[Slaanax]

Not in a game but I was sad when they killed Liam Neeson's in The Star Wars movie because he was about the only reason worth watching the movie =/. The very final scene in ME2 made me say "oh shit".

Now I think of it in ME2 when you are crawling over the crashed space ship that suspended hanging over a cliff, that triggered my terrible fear of heights. I felt like I was going to fall to my doom if I screwed up. It was late at night and I couldn't fall a sleep for another 2 hours after that it had my adrenaline pumping so hard.

 

[Riobux]

I'm torn between Metal Gear Solid when Sniper Wolf dies which made me feel like crying and Kane And Lynch: Dead Men when reviewing upon both endings you can get which made me feel...Well...It's hard to describe how I felt but sorry for Kane is probably the closest I could get to naming it.

 

[BloodyThoughts]

Spoiler: Spoiler! Gears of War 2

When Dom finally finds Maria in the locust work camp and is forced to euthanise her zombie ass.

I guess this. That was so emotional I wanted to tear the locusts fucking heads off.

Second goes to Jack in ME2

Spoiler

when you are in the base about to bomb it. When she starts to reminisce about her child hood there. That was very emotional to me.

 

[Delock]

A lot of games tied in this for me.

Metal Gear Solid series - MGS4: Microwave tunnel
Shadow of the Colossus: The whole game
The Darkness: If you've reached this post, you already know which one I'm talking about.
Mass Effect 2: From walking out into the vacuum of space to the very end, this game is full of emotional moments.
Half Life 2 - Episode 2: The end for similar reasons as the Darkness
Call of Duty 4: crawling after the nuke and the end... You know what, I'm just going to say "Any game where you watch someone you want to actually save die in front of you."
Left 4 Dead: Actually feeling the need to work together.

 

[Spectrum_Prez]

Spoiler: My absolute most emotional moment in any game ever was in Dreamfall: The Longest Journey

The first and the last scenes are identical: the main character, Zoe, is lying in a hospital bed in a coma with her father and ex-boyfriend. At the beginning, she starts narrating about how this is her story, and then you jump into the actual game. Then, you go through this epic adventure where in the end the other main character, April Ryan, goes MIA, suspected KIA, and Zoe is betrayed by her mother.

The very last scene returns to her on the hospital bed, but when I played through, it had been so long that I had forgotten that was the very beginning. At the start, I thought you would return to that part and then someone would save her and the game would go on from there. Instead, the game ends with her lying hopelessly helpless in a coma, while the whole game world is going to shit and she really needs to wake up in order to stop it. I felt so sad for her, being caught in a state of limbo.

To rub it in, the planned trilogy was never finished and now we'll never know how the story ends. Argh...

 

[SpireOfFire]

Metal Gear Solid

Any of them.

Every emotion.

MGS3 is my favorite; the ending when Snake salutes the Boss's grave. So sad, yet so proud.

that one would probly be my pick, too.

 

[maninahat]

In Bioshock:

Spoiler: spoiler alert

After Atlas reveals himself to be Fontaine and attempts to kill you, he states the code word "code yellow" which causes your heart to fail. When you get your first heart attack, a really tragic, dispairing tune kicks in as your character gasps desperately. I found that quite moving.

Very few games have ever actually moved me in any way, despite their attempts at drama, I don't emote - this includes the ones which people often cite like Half Life 2: Episode 2.

 

[ArchBlade]

Spoiler

Pretty much the entire suicide mission is Mass Effect 2. Yeah, I was well prepared and in the end no one died, but it was so nerve racking. Every second I thought "Oh god, someone's gonna die, someone's gonna die." I had come to genuinely like the entire crew as characters, do it was kind of messed up to think of any of them dying.

 

[Insert Comedy Here]

It turns out that a few of the levels in EBA make me emote a bit.

Highway Star, helping a pug return home is heart warming, and ver funny when he punches out three larger dogs.

September, helping a mother change the weather so she can have a good weekend with her son.

Believe, helping a struggling star with self-doubt issues make it on Broadway. Again, this level differs than the usual, if only slightly. The Agents kneel in repsect before each level segemnt, and the arm-waving wackiness is replaced with Amanda overcoming her doubts.

Then there's The Anthem, you are helping a fallen baseball star defeat a giant firebreathing golem terrorising a theme park. It's so implausibly hilarious it works.

Most of the levels seem to have been designed to have a different emotion to go with each level.

Why does it work so well?

 

[WINDOWCLEAN2]

SPOILERS. ME2

Mine was the death of Legion in the engine room, i chose to buy the cannon insted of sheilding. (got my revenge with joker blowing up the collecter ship)
Then thane got sniped...that hit me pretty hard.
The Zaeed died a heroes death defending.

i chose to blow-up the place because i felt if i didnt it was betraying the sacrafice of those 3......call me paranoid.

 

[Feste the Jester]

1. Nuke Scene in Modern Warfare (I really felt bad and sympathized with your character (forgot name) as he crawled in the wastes, alone, with no comfort, until he dies

2. Meeting Andrew Ryan (It left me in awe)

3. The Village in Resident Evil 4 (Scared the shit out of me)