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

[Darkgoosey666]

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.

Same thing happened to me

It was after i had finished the main storyline, and i was shooting travelers and innocent people on the road. As i lined up a beautiful headshot, my poor faithful horse stepped in front of the rifle and took the bullet for this unknown stranger. The fact that my horse, which i had completed the game with, would sacrifice himself for a stranger just showed me how far my once honourable character had fallen.

 

[Seagoon]

Fallout: New Vegas.. I remember it vividly.. Me, Rex (My robodog) and Veronica (My companion) were wandering the wastes. I was low on H2O and FOD and we hadn't seen any animals for a long while. Then I saw something. A tiny pink lump of flesh in the distance.. I walked over and it revealed itself to be a baby Mole-rat. There were no adult Mole-rats around for miles as far as I could discern and it didn't attack me. It just gazed up at me, unmoving, a haunting and genuine fear in it's eyes. For a moment we stared at each other, until it turn to run at which point I heard Veronica's voice behind me, cold and unrelenting: 'Bring it on!' She screamed at the tiny beast and as it fled in fear she fired a blast of her plasma pistol and hit it dead with one shot. I just stood there, speechless and depressed. I dragged it's body under a cactus and had a moments silence. I killed Veronica there and then (back of the head with a Hunting Revolver) and placed her body by the Mole-rats. I still visit there every so often to pay my respects... R.I.P Mysterious Mole-rat..

 

[mental_looney]

In Fallout 3 I had dogmeat as a follower but was so worried he might die I always had him wait in my house in megaton, so one day going back home to drop off my stuff and no sign of him, hmm odd go check out side vault 101 and he's not there either. He was just gone, no where to be found never saw him again, must have run away and it was so depressing no happy dog to greet me any more after a hard day killing super mutants, just alone in the wasteland.

 

[The_Lost_King]

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.

I had a moment like that but the thing is I think I killed the guy he was weeping over. So I am hunting in tall trees. I see a tnt shop and see tnt barrels. I decide to have some fun and blow up the tnt killing everyone. I come back to that same spot still hunting and see that same scene and I knew it was the same spot because the scorch marks were still there.

 

[Lectori Salutem]

In Diablo 2, after one of the first quests, you get a free Rogue mercenary. Usually, I didn't care to much about them, giving them quite a short lifespan.
One time however, when I was playing an assassin, my rogue managed to survive quite long. Since this was the first time I had a companion for any significant amount of time, I grew a bit attached to her.

One day I accidentally ran into a rather large group of enemies that could have mauled me in no time. When I retreated, my companion refused to come with me. Instead, she kept standing in a doorway, bravely fighting of the demons, like she wanted to give me a chance to escape. Of course, she was quickly overwhelmed by them.

Probably the only time I felt sad about a game character, probably because she was permanently dead, thanks to D2's save system.

 

[Demgar]

Coming across a zombie trapped in a tiny 3x3 room deep deep underground in Minecraft. How did it get there? Would it have spent eternity alone if I hadn't come to kill it?

Also Minecraft: falling into a pool of Lava after mining a pocket of diamonds.

 

[Delock]

Final Fantasy Tactics.

I raised that unit since he was a squire, and I trusted him when I had to deploy a unit far from the rest of the group if I wanted to win the battle. I thought he could handle it, but the enemy began to focus on him. He held for two whole turns. I tried to get to him before the countdown took him, but it was too late, and I had not saved lately enough to strategically justify resetting, a particularly hard choice on my part. I shall always remember that one unit, as I now save scum anything with permadeath for units (like Valkyria Chronicles) to never again allow such a loss.

 

[Luke3184]

I had recently married Jenassa, the Dark elf sellsword, and moved her to the security of Markarth where my name carried weight as Thane. I returned home after a long time adventuring in the wilds, so that I could drop off some of my unique weapons. I checked in with Jenassa, who cooked me dinner and we spent the night together. In the morning I decided to leave the Ebony Blade propped against the wall and made my preparations to leave. From the bedroom I heard my housecarl state 'If nobody wants that blade, I'll take it' to which Jenassa responded 'No way, I saw it first. As I left through the front door on that gloomy Markarth morning I heard Argis threaten 'Give it up or I'll beat you'. After several months of running battle with Stormcloaks all over Skyrim, I found myself in Ivarstead. Looking forward to a warm bed an a good meal I made my way to the inn. Out of the twilight a man ran up to me and hastily pushed a note and a bag of coin into my hand before continuing on his way. The note simply stated that Jenessa had passed away and left me all that was hers. Without further a do I swung myself on my horse and rode through the night h reaching home by morning. I burst into Vindriel hall, ignored Argis's greeting, and hurried through into the bedroom. On the floor of our room Jenessa lay, her body bruised and beaten. I turned to find Argis stood behind me and immediately demanded he showed me what he had on him. He sheepishly withdrew the Ebony Blade from his back and handed it too me. Reaising that my trusted Housecarl had brutally murdered my wife and stolen my property, I let anger consume me and I cut him down. As I fell to my knees between the two corpses I remembered the warning written in 'Admonition Against Ebony' and cursed my foolisness.

 

[Chalacachaca]

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.

Holy shit, I've read some good DF stories before, but I think this one tops them all, I really wish I could know how to play that game.

 

[Luca72]

This is one of the best topics I've seen on this board! These are some brilliant examples of emergent gameplay.

 

[Reincarnatedwolfgod]

i have two skyrim ones

Spoiler

i would not call this depressing but it's something
i was at a dragon area called shear point fighting a dragon priest with the help of Eola(the follower you get during the cannibalism quest) and a Dremora Lord i summoned. they were taking the damage and distracting him i was at a safe dissidence with a bow

eola walked right in front of my arrow and died. in the middle of the fight

after the fight ended i went out of my way to her drag body the closest dignified area i could find
which was the open coffin wear the dragon priest came out of
she was a good follower that served me well and deserved more then having her corpse left on the cold ground
true she was a cannibal but my character was too and is still more evil then she was

after that i basically stopped using followers

Spoiler

this is kinda depressing

the other meaning full moment was when a dragon attacked riverwood
yeah kinda similar story to the op's story
it happened a while ago so i forgot some details
a high level dragon was attacking riverwood but i just want to turn in my quest to i entered the inn. it took a minute for the fighting music to stop. the quset was done and i went back out side and killed the dragon
casualties i remeber:
the black smith body was never found but he was never seen again(basically dead)
the black smiths wife was dead
http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Skyrim:Faendal
Faendal my first follower was dead

i also remember the child of the black smith not mentioning any thing about her dead parents which kinda is a big immersion killer
i choose not to load my recent save because i felt it added something positive to the game
by positive i mean the first meaningful event i ever had in skyrim

snip

interesting
in the game i am married Mjoll the Lioness who happens to be unkillable and lives in my Markarth home
recently i was playing skyrim Argis was attacking the Mjoll for no apparent reason so i killed him
i am still not sure why he did it

 

[lithiumvocals]

I was doing my legendary run of Halo: Reach. I was on the level "The Package". In the very first grueling firefight, I lost two of my 3 ODST squadmates. One died taking a needler round to the face for me. Another sacrificed himself for the rest of us by running up to a suicide grunt and delaying him so it exploded before reaching us. After the last one and I killed the remaining Covenant, we walked away. He turned to me, sighed, and said, "Guess I'm the only one left now..."

I felt kinda bad for him. He was killed by turret fire in the very next encounter.