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

[Rastien]

For me it was in Valkyria chronicles

1 hour into a fight my favourite lancer gets killed he was just a side character no major plot points but my god if i didn't throw that entire fight away just make sure he didn't die and started again.


Found the dude, man i love him, made me crack up constantly with his gay qwips :3

Jann Walker
Voiced by: Keiji Hirai (Japanese), John Di Maggio (English)
Jann is an openly gay 27-year-old Lancer. Flamboyant and strong, he enjoys being in the company of muscular men, especially his crush Largo. As a babysitter before enlisting, he acts like a mother hen to the younger members of the militia and becomes very protective when harm comes to them.

lol wut.

 

[Doclector]

Not sure whether it counts...but the first time I came across somebody in the desert in read dead redemption, weeping over a corpse. Then he pulled out a pistol, and before I could even think about doing anything, he shot himself. The entire scene was incredibly bleak, with the desert all around, no visible civilisation. He couldn't face living without this person, and so he killed himself, out there, alone in a lifeless desert with nobody but a stranger for company, who I'm sure he didn't even notice.

RTSs can be pretty traumatic if you think about it. What about that war raging for millions of years in that civilisation game? I remember once I was playing empire earth, hadn't found the enemy yet, didn't care, I had two islands under my complete control, epoch progress good...then they just turned up on the shores of the home island one day, in their masses, far too many to fight, far too widespread to get my citizens out. They attacked the other island too, but I managed to hold that one, as I had time to prepare it while the home island was being destroyed.

In a single hour of gameplay, my civilisation went from three hundred and counting, to one hundred, and falling. I couldn't help but think about the people on the other island. Last of their country, knowing that everything they once knew back home was gone, suddenly struggling to survive.

 

[Lunatic High]

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.

Dude anyone ever tell you your kind of intense? shit I'll get back with a story of my own but I gotta go

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Fucking Valkyria Chronicles is one of the best/worse games for this.

I had Noce balls deep in enemy territory so I could take a base and flood in my reinforcements from the rear, when I turn a corner and he's peppered by a surprise Ace. I couldn't get another unit down there before the enemy swept by and put him out of his misery. His last words were a cry for Alicia, who was just around the corner and would have made it to him on her next turn.

 

[teqrevisited]

My first character on Skyrim had a horse that I'd bought with the first 1000 gold that I got, when I hadn't come to the realization that getting money was trivial. I'd just finished a dungeon, I think it was Mzulft or one of the other dwemer ruins, where you end up coming out above your point of entry. As I looked over the precipice I saw my poor horse being beaten to death by hired thugs and there was nothing I could do in time to save it.

Another would be more recently playing through XCOM again. Over the 13 months that the campaign took my team had been absolutely slaughtered time and time again, but there was one man who'd lasted right from the beginning. Boris Voronin. I'd even kitted him out with a blaster launcher and psi-amp to keep him relatively safe. When the mission to attack Cydonia came all was going well. I was in the process of moving my squad to the main base entrance in lieu of searching for the one last alien that was hiding somewhere in the darkness. I ended the turn with Boris stood right outside the door. [Hidden Movement]. A three round volley of Heavy Plasma fire tears out of the darkness. The first shot is a hit: Boris remains standing. The second shot destroys the wall next to him. The third shot hits. Boris screams and collapses to the floor. Dead.

He was literally one mission away from retirement.

 

[roushutsu]

I had a moment in Skyrim as well, though not as well thought out, let alone illustrated, as the OP's, but here goes.

I was dropping off some things in Riverwood (at the time I didn't have my own home so I left items in Delphine's secret room) when a dragon attacked. Eventually I brought it down to the ground when Alvor's wife charged it with a mace. The dragon bite at her and she died instantly. It made me stop and reflect after I finished off the dragon because she always spoke with hostility towards me whenever I walked by, always going "You're pretty, but stay away from my husband." Yeah I know the dialogue was scripted and all, but still, for a woman who was cautious and harsh whenever I was around and she risked her life to help me despite those feelings. That took some major balls.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Putting a kritz on a demoman who runs back into spawn. Putting an uber on a heavy who decides that it's the best time to sandvich.


Moral of the story? DON'T EVER PLAY PUB MEDIC.

 

[Girl With One Eye]

That....was fucking awesome...

I second this!

OT: I felt like a bit of a dick in fallout 3 when I accidently got the sheriff killed infront of his kid in Megaton.

 

[Rastien]

Putting a kritz on a demoman who runs back into spawn. Putting an uber on a heavy who decides that it's the best time to sandvich.


Moral of the story? DON'T EVER PLAY PUB MEDIC.

Hehe i always cry tears of blood when i see a medic uber another solider/demo/heavy other than myself only to watch them fail and thinking dude... if you have just uberd me like i asked that sentry nest would be gone and we would have the point

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

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.

I had a similar story with Dogmeat... he had followed me literally for hours, fought so many enemies with me, and completed half the story. Then I fought a Deathclaw... it was on a mountainside, with a pile of junk at the top...

Dogmeat had it's attention, as normal, and I was doing my best to keep him alive... I had the Railway Gun and finally killed it. Then I looked for Dogmeat. I ran up the hill to the corpse and looked for my little guy... nothing. Then I looked where the Deathclaw was looking before he died... still nothing... finaly I walked all the way up the hill to the mound of rubbish, where I found the Deathclaws head impaled on a railway spike to the side of a car... Also on that spike was Dogmeat... :/ I had accidentally killed him!

I was so sad...

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

Was doing a Nuzlocke run of Pokemon Yellow. I decided that, since Pikachu can't be PC'd, I'd declare him dead when fainted and declare it Game Over. I took extra special care with Pikachu to make I wouldn't have him fainted.

He fainted.

 

[Zeraki]

I accidentally shot my own horse during a firefight at a gang hideout in Red Dead Redemption. A horse that served me well for so long, he just walked right in front of me and took a bullet to the head.

At least he didn't share the same fate as the horse that came after him... mountain lion.

 

[MetalDooley]

Not sure whether it counts...but the first time I came across somebody in the desert in read dead redemption, weeping over a corpse. Then he pulled out a pistol, and before I could even think about doing anything, he shot himself. The entire scene was incredibly bleak, with the desert all around, no visible civilisation. He couldn't face living without this person, and so he killed himself, out there, alone in a lifeless desert with nobody but a stranger for company, who I'm sure he didn't even notice.

That encounter is scripted but where and when you encounter it seems to be random.I happened across it in the woods in the north of the map while friends of mine have said they came across it in various other parts of the map

 

[blaza]

Was on my role playing character on Skyrim. I had just taken Solitude for the Stormcloaks and was looking for my horse. My character had this horse since the beginning, it's been through killing Alduin, countless tombs, and even burying Lydia in flowers. As he came upon his horse he saw it was almost dead and fighting Frostbite Spiders. He couldn't get to his companion fast enough so he drew his bow that he rarely wielded. He lined up and took the shot..Hitting his horse in the face and sent him falling down the mountain. After killing the spider he went looking for the horse, which was laying on top of a small shack. This event (along with walking through a burning Solitude) turned the character from lawful good (D&D terms)to chaotic evil. Since then he has became the leader of the Dark Brotherhood, and murderer of Riverwood.

 

[SweetLiquidSnake]

I've posted this before but I had a depressing wedding. My breton female used to wander around with Erik the Slayer a lot. She wanted to marry him but some stupid bug prevented it, so they just chilled together. She took him along on a companions quest, and when the quest was completed with her returning to Jorvaskr, turns out the hall was attacked, and then Vilkas and company kicked Erik out of the party and took his place. She left Jorvaskyr and watched as Erik walked out of the gates of Whiterun, planning to collect him in Rorikstead later on.

She walked with her companions to the next objective and after finally beating the quest she returned hoping to find her mate, but he was not there. Many waits and fast travels later and he still didnt show up. After taking a horse and scouring the path in between Whiterun and Rorikstead there was no sign of the body. Erik had either died or disappeared.

Eventually she moved on and took a lesbo twist and married Aela since they were practically twins anyways. They had a wedding in Riften and many attended, and as the ceremony wrapped up my breton turned to the door to see Erik just about to walk out of the chapel. She bolted to the door to try to speak with him, find out where the hell he went and why he hasnt called, but he had already passed through the door. After passing through herself to the other side she was surprised to see he wasn't there, and wasn't anywhere in sight. He had disappeared again, forever.

The ghost of her dead lover attended her wedding. That's some freaky shit lol....

 

[Radoh]

So I've been traveling about with my faithful Khajiit companion named Kharjo, since I had brought him back his Moon Amulet he was plenty happy to help me with my trekking about and general cave spelunking. We've been wandering about for a solid while, when I decide I've had him around for too long and that I should send him back to his caravan. I haven't done anything to show him appreciation, so I handed him some gold for his assistance along with the Dwarven Armour off my back, since we were close enough to a city that I could simply forge myself a new one when I got there, so I sent him on his way.

Not ten minutes later an Elder dragon descends upon me prepared to fight.
'No problem', I think to myself, 'I'm a Dunmer so his fire won't hurt me too badly, but I'll take a fire resistance potion to make sure'. Then he hits me with a frost breath.
Now I'm scared, all I've got is the lackluster Thieves Guild armour to protect me, and I have no frost resistance potions to help out. I struggle for a few agonising minutes, healing myself more than hurting him before I need to take a last desperate ditch effort and spend a soul on the Turn Ethereal shout, which I figured could buy me enough time to help me restore Magicka to heal.

Then Kharjo, decked out in the gift I gave him comes storming up and slashing away with an Ebony Sword, distracting him, and even starts to turn the tide for me while I heal myself up. But I take too long in healing myself, rather than fight at half health I got greedy and went three fourths health. Getting out from the cover I through myself in I saw Kharjo drop down on one knee as the dragon snapped at him.
At this point I'm terrified I'll lose him, so I rush in between the dragon and put Spell Breaker up to defend me from another frost breath, hoping it's stopping Kharjo from getting hit while he healed up. The dragon then turns his head to the left and sprays poor Kharjo, who in his panic had begun to limp away from my defensive line, right into the dragons line of frost.

After felling the beast I walked over to Kharjo, and saw his lifeless body, eyes open, not in fear, but in peaceful acceptance, staring up above. So I follow his gaze.

Spoiler

He died looking up at that, wearing his Moon Amulet proudly, as if to remember why he died defending this stranger, to show a kindness back.

I folded his arms across his chest and watched the moon for the rest of the night before moving on.

 

[Impluse_101]

So I've been traveling about with my faithful Khajiit companion named Kharjo, since I had brought him back his Moon Amulet he was plenty happy to help me with my trekking about and general cave spelunking. We've been wandering about for a solid while, when I decide I've had him around for too long and that I should send him back to his caravan. I haven't done anything to show him appreciation, so I handed him some gold for his assistance along with the Dwarven Armour off my back, since we were close enough to a city that I could simply forge myself a new one when I got there, so I sent him on his way.

Not ten minutes later an Elder dragon descends upon me prepared to fight.
'No problem', I think to myself, 'I'm a Dunmer so his fire won't hurt me too badly, but I'll take a fire resistance potion to make sure'. Then he hits me with a frost breath.
Now I'm scared, all I've got is the lackluster Thieves Guild armour to protect me, and I have no frost resistance potions to help out. I struggle for a few agonising minutes, healing myself more than hurting him before I need to take a last desperate ditch effort and spend a soul on the Turn Ethereal shout, which I figured could buy me enough time to help me restore Magicka to heal.

Then Kharjo, decked out in the gift I gave him comes storming up and slashing away with an Ebony Sword, distracting him, and even starts to turn the tide for me while I heal myself up. But I take too long in healing myself, rather than fight at half health I got greedy and went three fourths health. Getting out from the cover I through myself in I saw Kharjo drop down on one knee as the dragon snapped at him.
At this point I'm terrified I'll lose him, so I rush in between the dragon and put Spell Breaker up to defend me from another frost breath, hoping it's stopping Kharjo from getting hit while he healed up. The dragon then turns his head to the left and sprays poor Kharjo, who in his panic had begun to limp away from my defensive line, right into the dragons line of frost.

After felling the beast I walked over to Kharjo, and saw his lifeless body, eyes open, not in fear, but in peaceful acceptance, staring up above. So I follow his gaze.

Spoiler

He died looking up at that, wearing his Moon Amulet proudly, as if to remember why he died defending this stranger, to show a kindness back.

I folded his arms across his chest and watched the moon for the rest of the night before moving on.

.....
Fffff.....aaaahhhh....
.....
That feel....Oh that feel.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

I remember and excellent captain in Xcom who met his untimely fate in a terror mission in hong kong.

as soon as the ship landed and the troops rushed out towards cover, they were met by a host of hostile mutons with plasma weaponry and other heavy ordnance.

this captain, backed up by a heavy weapons squaddy, took to a local house amid the explosions and crossfire, set up and lay waste to many with his trusty laser rifle.
his compagnion tried to keep up using a heavy plasma, both of them resisting a few blasts of rifle or pistol fire.

and then tragedy struck...

the captain, in his finest hour, was mortally struck by four direct heavy-plasma hits, and fell to the ground unconcious.
his fearstruck squaddy rushed to his aid and tried to revive him with his medi-pack, risked several hits in doing so, and spent his entire turn desperately trying to save his brave captain.

he succeeded, but his triumph was short-lived, as they did not even have time to reach for their weapoms when everything went dark, and the house that was their cover turned to fire and rubble from heavy ordnance fired by a dirty Xeno.

the captain died instantly, the squaddy, his unconcious body was pulled out of the ruins by his fellow brothers in arms, he would only later learn of his superior's demise.

the captain died on his 15th mission with a kill-count of 38, his name was Donald Bradly.

the squaddy would avenge his death with a kill-count 83, and met his fate on the final assault bearing the rank of colonel, his name was micheal sharpe.

godspeed.

 

[Guffe]

That....was fucking awesome...

Seconding that, esepcially the second pic is freaking awesome, almost background material.
Great job OP, can't say I've had similar experiences.