What is the most depressing non-scripted moment in a game that you can think of?

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

Last night, I was playing some Skyrim before bed. It's important to note that I was playing the PC version, and that I have several mods for things like arrow fletching, LOTR weapons, Sound Enhancements, and a Burnt Corpses mod. I played for roughly 30 minutes, and I ended up experiencing one of the saddest non-scripted moments in my 86-hour playthrough.

I was in a mood to show off my fancy graphics or whatever, so I was in the process of taking tons of screenshots when this moment occurred. I will try to insert visual aides into my post via image tags and spoilers, so that you can visualize these events as they happen.

I started off by visiting the starting town of Riverwood to chop some wood. I only needed one. It was for a LOTR bow I was trying to forge. I didn't have an axe, so I started to forage for one. As I did, a gleaming gold Elder Dragon came out of nowhere and started burning the town.

Spoiler

I smiled and sat around taking screenshots as he sprayed flames at the guards and landed on the houses.

Spoiler

After I'd had my fill, I shot the dragon full of arrows, and it fell dead at the little bridge that crosses the river, between the wood chopping blocks and Alvor's forge.

Spoiler

Only as it's head drooped into the stream and it's wings fell to the ground did I notice the charred remains. This poor man died in searing flames so I might take down the mighty beast.

Spoiler

Who is it? One of the guards? A random passerby? No, as I stood over the burnt carcass, I saw that it was Alvor. The lowly blacksmith that took me in all those many hours ago. He gave me everything. I was an Imperial, on the run with nowhere to go. He let me into his home, lent me his spare iron armor, and now he had even laid down his life to save the Dragonborn he barely knew.

Spoiler

I laid him out properly, mourning the NPC who took me in and shared his every possession with me. It was the best I could do. It was the most I'd ever done.

Spoiler

As I walked to the forge, I noticed another charred corpse in the street. It was Sigrid, Alvor's wife. Curled up and completely burned, you could see she died in agony and fear.

Spoiler

I dragged her to her husband's body, and joined their hands. Their resting place on the bridge, next to the bones of the Elder Dragon, was the most dignified resting place I could put together for them.

Spoiler

As I held a moment of silence, I realized I'd created an orphan. How do you tell an NPC that their parents died in flames while you took screenshots?

I chopped my damn firewood.

Spoiler

As I finally, solemnly, put the axe back where I found it and trudged to the forge, A courier appeared at the other end of the village. They're not an uncommon sight, if you're traveling the roads. That was, until he walked up to me, right before I could access the forge, and handed me a note with 90 coins attached. Mentioned something about an inheritance. Told me he was sorry for my loss.
I read the note.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Not even 5 minutes had passed since his death, and I had already received Alvor's will. He named me his inheritor. He'd literally given shelter, his life, and his entire inheritance to this adventurer. I'd only ever treated him as "just passing through". Our few conversations consisted of me buying the odd ingot for my smithing needs, or making use of his forge.

The Forge was mine. The house was mine. His every saved-up gold coin was mine. I presume I've inherited a little autistic orphan child who doesn't understand that her parents are dead, and only knows four or five sentences.
It's hard to describe the guilt one feels in a moment like that. It's not like real life, these are just 1s and 0s. The problem is, I still felt something a little more. Riverwood was a place of comfort, of safety. Nobody could ever die there. I was a god among men, barely batting an eyelash at the threat of a dragon. But Alvor was no such thing. He was never meant to die. Those villagers were finite, vulnerable, with names and perhaps even questlines that could be lost forever. I failed, not through dying myself, but by failing to protect the citizens who needed me. Worse, the citizens I failed to protect were two of the most generous NPCs in all of Skyrim. They never asked me for anything. They were supposted to be my reminder of where I came from, perhaps also a simple vendor for smithing products and low-level weapons. Many players may scoff at my sadness, but the fact of the matter is, I still lost innocent people I can never get back (no, I won't use the console) and the game rewarded me for my failure by handing me the remnants of the lives I couldn't (or didn't) save.



So, fellow Escapists, I ask you: What is the saddest non-scripted moment you've experienced? I'd love to read your stories (bonus points if they're illustrated with screenshots or "artist's renderings")

 

[ChildishLegacy]

If you kill the first Undead Merchant you find in Dark Souls, he just falls over asking "why me?" in such a depressing tone, it makes you feel like such a dick.

 

[Erana]

When I was very young, my father had the original Tomb Raider on his computer, and while I found the game itself very scary, (and he certainly didn't help matters) sometimes I'd run around Lara's mansion just to play about. Once, I took a running jump over the banister from her bedroom and landed on her gymnastics mat in the main hall, except apparently it wasn't padded enough.
There was an audible "Crack!"

And there was Lara Croft, with a broken neck, after years of grand adventures having her life taken by a simple miscalculation.

 

[Rock-nerd]

That....was fucking awesome...

 

[Humble Grapefruit]

When playing Fallout 3, I had a dog as my follower. That dog fought through thick and thin with me. He was my companion and my best friend in the Wasteland. One day, we had become overly ambitious and attacked a foe we could not handle. That dog gave its life for me and I avenged it to the best of my ability. Afterwards, I went up to my now passed best friend, and in an effort to cremate it, I shot it with a laser rifle, hoping to turn it into ash. Instead, because of the bloody mess perk, it just made all of his limbs and his head fly off in bloody spurts. I felt so terrible for defiling his body that way. I will never forget that dog.

 

[Sean Hollyman]

When I had to Kill Boone in New Vegas.

I accidentally killed some NCR dudes, and he began to walk away. He wouldn't let me talk to him, and he had a load of my stuff, so I had to take him out :'I


I put his body on my bed though, so it's k

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

hah that is a tad bit funny to be honest. still, i've had moments like this, oblivion/skyrim to name a few:

running in for a final heavy blow, and right when you are about to strike the baddie down your follower steps in and you end up slicing them from behind instead, in my case nearly 100% of the time I ended up killing them, and my backpack camel companion ended up having my 300 lbs of loot just laying their in the bottom of a dungeon, and me with no way to drag it back in any fast manner.

...

quickload. Fuck that shit.

 

[The Wykydtron]

If you kill the first Undead Merchant you find in Dark Souls, he just falls over asking "why me?" in such a depressing tone, it makes you feel like such a dick.

Don't worry, it's 'K. He drops some sweet loot and to answer the question because his goods are both overpriced and mostly unhelpful besides the Heater Shield. XD

OT: Personally whenever I see a Sona die in LoL I die a little bit inside... I love that girl. Glad I don't see many of them anymore, I try to avoid fighting her if she's on the other team.


"Ohhhh no, she's going back to her turret at 100 health. Better not go for the ridiculously simple dive!"

Speaking of LoL, this deserves Sad Piano Music.


2:46, number one. Goddamn...

I honestly can't think of many depressing things on the single player side of things. I don't see much unscripted depressing stuff since i'll probably find it funny instead ^^

Devs really need to try to reach my heartstrings. Or they could channel the spirit of Clannad and make me burst into tears...

I find multiplayer things to be more unscriptedly depressing because if it's not a Dark Wesker comeback it's my team throwing a 40 minute game due to being fucking cocky.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

I saw an uninfected citizen commit suicide in Prototype 2. It's not like she just accidentally fell off the building either. She stood on the edge, turned around, spread her arms wide, and let herself fall backwards into the infected streets below. Freaked me the fuck out 0.o

 

[Surpheal]

I had a similar encounter something sort of like this in Skyrim.

In Rorikstead there is an old ruined house by a waterfall, where Narfy lives, waiting for his sister to return from gathering things for alchemy. He asks if you have seen her, and if you have to ask her to come home. If you go into the nearby inn and ask Narfy and his sister, the inn keeper will, if he was programed and had the appropriate expression animation, give you a pitying look and tell you what happened. She had gone out to gather alchemy materials and had yet to return, but that was one year ago. He then tell you the way she took out of town and that is the end of the conversation. You go back to Narfy, I believe, and tell him what happened to his sister, though he doesn't believe you and says that if you are telling the truth to please bring back the necklace that she wore. You are then directed to the bridge out of town and then under it, where the skeleton of Narfy's sister remains. You then bring Narfy back the necklace, and he thanks you by giving you ten coins, ten sad coins, all that he probably had for food, all for the return of his sisters necklace.

What is sadder still was while playing through the Dark Brotherhoods line, I received a mission to kill Narfy. I had to do it to forward the quest line, it was all I could do. I couldn't ask for who wanted him died, and I don't quite remember why they wanted him so. None the less, it had to be done, and only I would do it. I made it as painless as I could, I equipped my best weapon, coated it in my strongest poison, waited until night fell, and snuck up behind him. This simple little man, who gave me all that he had for the return of his dear sisters necklace. I spoke the little chant that I did before I killed my target, adding that he finally be reunited with his family, and ended his existence in Skyrim. However, unlike my other kills, I did not take from his body, I merely moved his body to look as if he died in sleep.

That was the saddest I ever really felt for a game character since the fall of Agro.

 

[The Madman]

Dwarf Fortress

Spoiler: Long Story

I basically relived Titanic in miniature with Dwarves instead of Humans and a flooding underground fortress instead of a boat. It all started when a routine expedition into the depths went wrong and tragically two of the Dwarves in that patrol were killed. Not a terrible disaster really, lives were lost which is always a shame especially when they're experienced soldiers but in a fortress by that point nearing a hundred two lives aren't the end all either.

Not for me anyway, but one of the Dwarves who died that day had a husband and child. Poor bastard... he went mad. First he simply refused to work and drowned away his sorrows in endless casks of ale and wine. It was tragic but harmless till in a drunken rage he attacked another Dwarf and was ultimately subdued by the guards. Beaten and encaged his sorrow only grew worse and worse... if only I had known how bad things had gotten I might have ordered him killed right then and there. But no, the time came and he was released. Instead of running to his child like I might have expected however he went up. Up past the great dining hall and the massive showcase waterfall (TIL: Dwarves love waterfall, if you can engineer a waterfall in viewing distance of a large gathering place they'll be ecstatic.) to the farming area. Odd, but whatever. By this point I'm managing around a hundred Dwarves and working on expanding the mines and the living quarters, I don't have time to pay attention to one depressed Dwarf.

Then he broke into my control room and smashed the levers... the levers that managed the water flow to the waterfall in my grand dining hall.

Probably the most disastrous Dwarf-caused event I've ever seen in DF. I've seen Caves Collapse and Hell invade, I've seen armies starve fortress and massive titans crush armies. But this one Dwarf, he killed my fortress all by himself. The main hall began to flood immediately and the water soon blocked the stairway. Those who'd rushed up towards the surface mostly survived, but those in the lower levels were not nearly so lucky. I'd been harnessing the wrath of a surface river to run the waterfall, and the water from there had been used to run water wheel which in turn powered my 'industrial' section. With nearly the full power of the river now flowing straight down my meager drainage system into the caverns below just wasn't enough. Water was draining, but it was coming in quicker and everyone stuck in the middle was doomed. The middle where my industrial section and, a few floors below, my living quarters were.

Dozens of Dwarves panicking as they tried to outrun the water. Children not attended by parents being swept from the hallway outside their homes while the adults who weren't desperately trying to flee were locking themselves in their quarters and watching the water slowly seep under the door and begin to fill their rooms. Some would commit suicide, others would open the doors and allow the water once it had finally filled the hallway outside to simply engulf them and end the sorrow. But some... some just waited in their rooms as the water around them slowly rose bit by bit till finally it filled their meager dwellings. They were the worst.

In the end there were no survivors from the lower levels and in my frustration I'd ordered the Dwarves alive above to kill the man who'd begun this all. They did, he died beaten to death by a half dozen panicking Dwarves. His child was among the first to drown below, left untended and alone. I learned a powerful lesson that day; wall up any major water controls, if you absolutely need access to them later the wall can be torn down by miners who know where to look. That and to never underestimate the damage one lovestruck Dwarf can cause.

I abandoned the fortress shortly after. Although there were survivors they were in such miserable shape that it would have been pointless to ask them to continue. Continue where anyway? To another hill, another section of the earth where they'd spend their time desperately digging around the flooded ruins of their old home to try and carve some shallow excuse for a new life?

And that is why Dwarf Fortress is one of the best games ever made. Those simplistic retro visuals can tell one hell of a tale once you know where to look and how.

 

[Surpheal]

I had a similar encounter something sort of like this in Skyrim.

In Rorikstead there is an old ruined house by a waterfall, where Narfy lives, waiting for his sister to return from gathering things for alchemy. He asks if you have seen her, and if you have to ask her to come home. If you go into the nearby inn and ask Narfy and his sister, the inn keeper will, if he was programed and had the appropriate expression animation, give you a pitying look and tell you what happened. She had gone out to gather alchemy materials and had yet to return, but that was one year ago. He then tell you the way she took out of town and that is the end of the conversation. You go back to Narfy, I believe, and tell him what happened to his sister, though he doesn't believe you and says that if you are telling the truth to please bring back the necklace that she wore. You are then directed to the bridge out of town and then under it, where the skeleton of Narfy's sister remains. You then bring Narfy back the necklace, and he thanks you by giving you ten coins, ten sad coins, all that he probably had for food, all for the return of his sisters necklace.

What is sadder still was while playing through the Dark Brotherhoods line, I received a mission to kill Narfy. I had to do it to forward the quest line, it was all I could do. I couldn't ask for who wanted him died, and I don't quite remember why they wanted him so. None the less, it had to be done, and only I would do it. I made it as painless as I could, I equipped my best weapon, coated it in my strongest poison, waited until night fell, and snuck up behind him. This simple little man, who gave me all that he had for the return of his dear sisters necklace. I spoke the little chant that I did before I killed my target, adding that he finally be reunited with his family, and ended his existence in Skyrim. However, unlike my other kills, I did not take from his body, I merely moved his body to look as if he died in sleep.

That was the saddest I ever really felt for a game character since the fall of Agro.

That sounds 100% scripted which is sort of the opposite of the point of the thread.

The fall of Agro was scripted, in fact it happens in a cut scene, however my actions toward Narfy were completely of my own accord. It was just something about the character that made me feel sympathetic towards him, and I doubt that many other people would have acted the same.

 

[Ruedyn]

This story will mostly be in the third person, and recounts the days counting down to the end of a perma death run (ie: one chance and one chance only, no falling back to another save file);

Spoiler

Once in Skyrim, there was an Imperial mage who recently discovered his dragonborn status, and was acting rather pompous. He was wandering around Whiterun markets (this being rather early into the game) when a courier strolled up and handed him a letter telling him of a cave with an ancient power within. He decided this was a good chance at testing his new shouting ability, and grabbed his faithful Housecarl Lydia and began heading over to the marked Cave, which was unfortunately near Markarth, and because he was too much of a cheap asshole and didn't feel like buying a ride over, he began to walk over.
The journey was long and he used most of his potions killing Forsworn, wildlife, and a dragon, but alas he made it to the cave, and decided to go in instead of buying more potions at Markarth, fearing he would have to help more people with their lives and would forget his original quest.
Once inside the cave he noticed 2 things, a coffin with locks on it, and a giant gate. Using his amazing brain he decided to begin exploring the cave for keys of any sort. After many Draugr fights, he ran into a named one and killed him using his famed run backwords throwing fireballs and obscene language at him in equal measure, using all of his potions. Unaware of this, he trudged onwards with half the keys necessary (there being only 2) and quickly came to the next key holder.
It was not even halfway into the fight when he realized the mana and health potions he usually drip fed himself were gone, and he was low on both. Being the brave and mighty dragonborn, he ran away and hid in a corner making Lydia fight him by herself. After a couple minutes of thumb sucking, he noticed there was a lack of noise and checked out the scene, and saw a lifeless Lydia at the foot of the draugrs throne, with a fully alive draugr sitting in it. Instead of taking on the draugr fool heartedly, he ran vowing to become more powerful to avenge his sarcastic housecarl, who put up with him despite his constant shouting, use of magic to impress/ scare small children, and even a few murders.
After a few hours of power leveling his magic, he returned to kill the bastard. He strolled through the bodies of slain enemies to where he resided and searched to see if Lydias corpse was around. It was and memories of her came flooding back. The freshly motivated dragonborn started the fight with a full fire shout, and followed that with a few hundred fistfuls O' lightning. With the draugr laying dead at his feet, he picked up the key and debated whether or not to resurrect Lydia, but decided against it as she wouldn't want her corpse to be desecrated.
The Dragonborn walked back to the locked coffin and inserted the last key, satisfied with his victory. This was interrupted by a Dragon Priest flying out of the coffin. The startled Dragonborn could barely pull himself together for any sort of defense, and was promptly murdered, leaving the world to fend for itself against Alduin, a freshly resurrected Dragon priest, and the possibility they may have to solve their own personal problems for once

Not that depressing compared to the OP.

 

[Chunga the Great]

Prety much the same thing happened to me on my main Skyrim character. Over the course of 25-ish hours, Riverwoord was completely cleared out except for the kids. Everyone else was picked off by dragons. Pretty damn creepy just seeing the kids run around in an otherwise empty town.

 

[INF1NIT3 D00M]

Okay, I've read all the posts so far, and they've all been wonderful. Thank you guys for sharing with me, and I hope some more people see this and post as well. Everyone posted a good story, and these two are my favorites.

When playing Fallout 3, I had a dog as my follower. That dog fought through thick and thin with me. He was my companion and my best friend in the Wasteland. One day, we had become overly ambitious and attacked a foe we could not handle. That dog gave its life for me and I avenged it to the best of my ability. Afterwards, I went up to my now passed best friend, and in an effort to cremate it, I shot it with a laser rifle, hoping to turn it into ash. Instead, because of the bloody mess perk, it just made all of his limbs and his head fly off in bloody spurts. I felt so terrible for defiling his body that way. I will never forget that dog.

The above post reminds me of my own playthrough of Fallout 3. See, I never got a chance to have a dog, and I'll tell you why. Here I am, walking through the wilderness, on my way to some factory or whatever in the middle of the wasteland. It's an early quest, and it's the one that's most likely to get you to walk past that little depression in the earth filled with wolves wherein you meet and are subsequently saved by Dogmeat. Well, being the intelligent and handsome man I am, I manage to fall into the pit instead of coming in the "entrance" like you're supposed to. I'm immediately surrounded by 4-5 wolves, with no stimpacks and nothing but my meager 10mm pistol for protection. I jumped into VATS, and shot those wolves in the face. As I was finishing the last of them off, I noticed a slightly larger dog charging me from a great distance at high speed. "Holy shit!" I cried, "that wolf has a GREEN health bar! If years of video games have taught me anything, it's that enemies with different-colored health bars to regular enemies must mean it's some sort of boss!"
Realizing that death was close at hand, I accepted my fate and sprayed bullets wildly at the dog. When my VATS came back, it was inches from my face. I emptied a full clip into Dogmeat's sad, sad eyes before his head exploded and I walked triumphantly onward, convinced I had just emerged unscathed from a surprise boss fight.
It wasn't until about 30 hours later, while talking with a friend and watching my little brother play for the first time, that I realized that I had shot a companion in cold blood.
I loved your story, because reading about someone else killing their dog horribly both amused me and satisfied me. I laughed on the outside, because it's funny. I laughed maniacally on the inside, because now there's someone else out there who doesn't have a Dogmeat in their playthrough. Another person who can't lord their loyal friend over me any more.

Dwarf Fortress

Spoiler: Long Story

I basically relived Titanic in miniature with Dwarves instead of Humans and a flooding underground fortress instead of a boat. It all started when a routine expedition into the depths went wrong and tragically two of the Dwarves in that patrol were killed. Not a terrible disaster really, lives were lost which is always a shame especially when they're experienced soldiers but in a fortress by that point nearing a hundred two lives aren't the end all either.

Not for me anyway, but one of the Dwarves who died that day had a husband and child. Poor bastard... he went mad. First he simply refused to work and drowned away his sorrows in endless casks of ale and wine. It was tragic but harmless till in a drunken rage he attacked another Dwarf and was ultimately subdued by the guards. Beaten and encaged his sorrow only grew worse and worse... if only I had known how bad things had gotten I might have ordered him killed right then and there. But no, the time came and he was released. Instead of running to his child like I might have expected however he went up. Up past the great dining hall and the massive showcase waterfall (TIL: Dwarves love waterfall, if you can engineer a waterfall in viewing distance of a large gathering place they'll be ecstatic.) to the farming area. Odd, but whatever. By this point I'm managing around a hundred Dwarves and working on expanding the mines and the living quarters, I don't have time to pay attention to one depressed Dwarf.

Then he broke into my control room and smashed the levers... the levers that managed the water flow to the waterfall in my grand dining hall.

Probably the most disastrous Dwarf-caused event I've ever seen in DF. I've seen Caves Collapse and Hell invade, I've seen armies starve fortress and massive titans crush armies. But this one Dwarf, he killed my fortress all by himself. The main hall began to flood immediately and the water soon blocked the stairway. Those who'd rushed up towards the surface mostly survived, but those in the lower levels were not nearly so lucky. I'd been harnessing the wrath of a surface river to run the waterfall, and the water from there had been used to run water wheel which in turn powered my 'industrial' section. With nearly the full power of the river now flowing straight down my meager drainage system into the caverns below just wasn't enough. Water was draining, but it was coming in quicker and everyone stuck in the middle was doomed. The middle where my industrial section and, a few floors below, my living quarters were.

Dozens of Dwarves panicking as they tried to outrun the water. Children not attended by parents being swept from the hallway outside their homes while the adults who weren't desperately trying to flee were locking themselves in their quarters and watching the water slowly seep under the door and begin to fill their rooms. Some would commit suicide, others would open the doors and allow the water once it had finally filled the hallway outside to simply engulf them and end the sorrow. But some... some just waited in their rooms as the water around them slowly rose bit by bit till finally it filled their meager dwellings. They were the worst.

In the end there were no survivors from the lower levels and in my frustration I'd ordered the Dwarves alive above to kill the man who'd begun this all. They did, he died beaten to death by a half dozen panicking Dwarves. His child was among the first to drown below, left untended and alone. I learned a powerful lesson that day; wall up any major water controls, if you absolutely need access to them later the wall can be torn down by miners who know where to look. That and to never underestimate the damage one lovestruck Dwarf can cause.

I abandoned the fortress shortly after. Although there were survivors they were in such miserable shape that it would have been pointless to ask them to continue. Continue where anyway? To another hill, another section of the earth where they'd spend their time desperately digging around the flooded ruins of their old home to try and carve some shallow excuse for a new life?

And that is why Dwarf Fortress is one of the best games ever made. Those simplistic retro visuals can tell one hell of a tale once you know where to look and how.

As for this story, I think it completely trumps mine. This is a depressing story all on it's own, the fact that it's an example of emergent gameplay is like icing on the cake. If the cake were filled with downers and razorblades, and the icing made from the tears of terminally ill orphan children.

 

[Easton Dark]

Spoiler: What happened

Spoiler: My response

I felt really bad that they would cheapen her death by telling me about the money. (heh. Cheapen with money)

Also after I had married Lydia, a dragon killed her. Like, not 10 minutes after the wedding. Didn't feel too bad about that, actually.

Spoiler: Found it

I've had lots of fun documenting my Skyrim playing with screenshots. Steam tells me I have 57 for it.

edit: and let's liven this thread up a bit with a game. Whoever has received a will in Skyrim, let's find out who got the most money! In the lead with 200 gold right now.