Video Game Cruelty Potential: Difference between revisions

This trope is often used [[Comedic Sociopathy|for laughs.]] Remember, though: Just because a game lets you do something [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|doesn't necessarily mean you should do it]].

 

 

One of the [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]. You may laugh at video games, but if someone did this in [[Real Life]]? You probably wouldn't be laughing. [[You Bastard|And if you are, then you're a sick freak.]]

** Early in the game, you have to choose between saving a Gremlin or catapulting him away for some E-tickets.

{{quote| '''Gus:''' Mickey! You chose E-Tickets over the safety of a Gremlin! You launched him to who knows where! You are supposed to be the hero! You are the hero, right... Are you? }}

** Tip: ''[[The Legend of Zelda Links Awakening (Video Game)|Link's Awakening]]'' chickens are vulnerable to magic powder and fire. Time for revenge! This works on the dogs in that game as well. That's right: you can ''immolate your neighbors' pet dogs''.

** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|Ocarina of Time]]'', you can ride your horse over the chickens on Lon Lon Ranch. Since you couldn't be damaged while on horseback, a flock of chickens would fly behind you waiting for you to get off.

** In ''[[The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess]] Twilight Princess'', beating chickens lets you take control of their bodies, and you can make them jump into lakes or off tall structures. If you spot a pair of boar riders aimed at a cliff -- and the game helpfully spawns some every time you enter Hyrule Field -- shoot the boar. It will scream in pain and sprint cleanly off the cliff, dragging its panicked riders with it.

*** In an uncommon example, consider the Poes, whose souls you rip out from their bodies, and they writhe in agony as they boil away.

*** Hit her too many times, though, and she'll [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|crush you]].

*** Ironically, you ''need'' to attack her a few times; it's the only way to get her to drop an item that she can't set down in a fixed location.

*** That's because you kill him by ''detonating the bag of stolen explosives he's carrying.''

*** There's also a man in a tree outside the comet observatory. If you roll into the tree, you can knock him out of it, leaving him to clutch his injured leg while you take the rupees he was stealing from a crow.

*** Another point in the game, you have a love letter you could either deliver to a student's crush, or [[Mythology Gag|you could give it to a ghostly hand in the toilet.]] {{spoiler|Either way, the girl ends up with another student.}} Then again, it's [[Jerkass|Cawlin]] who wrote the letter.

*** The real cruelty potential comes out if you give the letter to the ghost hand. Visit Cawlin soon after that, and he'll complain of constant nightmares. Visit his room that night, and witness {{spoiler|Cawlin ''whimpering in terror in his sleep while the ghost hand caresses him, having fallen in love with him.'' That's right, you not only broke his heart, you ''condemned him to a lifetime of night terrors''.}}

** You may also headbutt those kittens off the cat tower to have them plunge to their deaths.

* ''[[Shadow of the Colossus (Video Game)|Shadow of the Colossus]]'' makes it nearly impossible for you to kill your horse, but you can still shoot an exploding arrow at him (the blast will simply cause him to fall over, limp a bit, then right himself up). With excellent timing, (as the exploding arrows take longer to adjust into position and don't launch as quickly as regular arrows), you can shoot one of these suckers into the [[Eye Scream|eye of the tenth colossus.]]

** You can also spray some of your gel right next to them, then set it off when their friends come to check it out.

 

** Hitting people with a lamppost makes a very satisfying "PONGK!" sound.

*** The giant fighting robots the military sends to fight you can get not only IMPALED with the lamppost, it can pin them to buildings. Watch the operators inside struggle to unpin themselves before their robots explode with glee.

*** Notably, that special move where the Hulk gently puts the civilian down and pats them on the head can be turned into one of the crueler things to do in the game; they will always run away from you screaming after you set them down. ''Always.'' Even when you set them down on top of skyscrapers, they will run away off the top of the building and fall to their deaths.

**** And that means ALWAYS always. For example, if you pick up the broken body of a hapless civilian which you have just finished smashing before they disappear and put them back down with a gentle pat on the head, they will revive, leaving them vulnerable to more unspeakable Gamma-fueled cruelty.

* In updated rereleases of ''[[The Secret of Monkey Island]]'', one Xbox Achievement/PS3 Trophy requires you to let Guybrush drown. [[Sarcasm Mode|Gee, thanks for making me feel guilty just for a virtual reward!]]

* Both ''[[Little Big Adventure]]'' games pretty much allow the player to attack anyone. Some of the [[NPC|NPCs]] can even be killed (only to come back later once you [[Respawning Enemies|leave the area]]), and some of them will fight back. Note that most of the friendly characters can't be hurt, but if they fight back, ''you'' do get the damage. In particular, try beating up the kids near the beginning of the second game when it's still raining, then go outside and watch an... interesting cut scene.

* There is one part of ''[[Zak McKracken and The Alien Mindbenders]]'' where you have to raise hell on an airplane to loot the crucial stuff you need from it. First off, you plug the sink up with toilet paper and call the stewardess. She quickly shouts "Oh no!!!" and starts cleaning up the mess. Then, in order to keep her completely distracted, you go to the microwave...set in an egg and then BOOM! The stewardess then asks what the awful smell is and notices the microwave on the airplane is a mess. "AAAAAIEEEEEE WHO DID THIS?!" Poor stewardess... Zak would end up on [[Not Always Right]] for that!

** You can also kill animals in inventive ways (Bludgeoning a squirrel, running a fish named Sushi through a garbage disposal.) Unlike tormenting the stewardess, these are optional.

** Killing some specific NPC's too early (or at all) can get you a [[Nonstandard Game Over]] though.

** In the sequel, setting enemy soldiers on fire and watching them flail around in a vain attempt to put themselves out is immensely satisfying. Don't do this on zombies, though, as they will scream bloody murder.

** When a Mook manages to get lucky and actually seriously hurt you, it's oh so satisfying to dispatch him via painful and horrifying impalement using your aforementioned [[Combat Tentacles]].

** In the second game's Vendetta mode, one of Shoshanna's Executions is shooting the mook victim in the balls, then shoving her gun in his mouth and killing him while he's trying to double over.

* ''[[Tomb Raider]]'' features a variety of unique death animations for Lara Croft depending on how she dies. This can lead players to intentionally kill her to watch her writhe in agony or crash into rocks. In the commentary for ''Tomb Raider Anniversary'', the creator comments that during the development time, it just wasn't a good day unless they impaled Lara on some spikes.

** [[Ragdoll Physics]] took brutality to a new level in the otherwise sham-game ''Angel Of Darkness''; videos exist on YouTube of players gleefully tossing the protagonist off a ledge to hear the scream and see the resulting death pose. While rag doll physics do exist in the later games, they are usually accompanied by a quick fadeout before the player reaches the bottom of the cliff, or the exact instant that contact is made, whereas the early games let you [[Have a Nice Death|get a good look at post-mortem Lara for about eight seconds]].

** Perhaps even crueler is the fact that if you're in a large ship, you can fly around the city at high speeds ramming into citizens on small ships causing an ''instant explosion of the craft and the driver.'' You can do this multiple times with one large ship. It's delightful!

* In some of the ''[[Ratchet and Clank]]'' games, you can achieve rewards for shooting down enough cars. Not that bad? Try the stage in [[Ratchet and Clank Going Commando|the second game]] where you have to take on a Thugs 4 Less boss as [[Humongous Mecha|Giant Clank]] on a small, heavily urbanized moon. You can knock down every single friggin' building if you take your time, and ''even be rewarded for it with health and ammo''. And you're supposed to be the ''good guy''.

* In ''[[New Super Mario Bros Wii (Video Game)|New Super Mario Bros Wii]]'', you can really screw over your fellow players. The down side is that [[Video Game Cruelty Punishment|they can dick you over just as much]].

** Really, combining the tighter jumps in the game along with the physics in multiplayer is more like Video Game Cruelty ''Provocation''.

* In the "Space Junk Galaxy" level of ''[[Super Mario Galaxy]]'', before fighting [[Giant Spider|Tarantox]], you can actually kill the Toad Tarantox captured in his web before your battle with him by pulling the Sling Pod said Toad is tied to away from Tarantox's web-strewn planet and sending him flying into space. He does survive later on, however.

* How big of an asshole can you be in ''[[Iji]]''? Seriously, point, shoot, and you can hit [[Omnicidal Maniac]] in minutes. Alternatively, you can actually pull off being an [[Actual Pacifist]] if you work for it. so much easier to be cruel.

** In ''We Love Katamari'' there's a series of levels where a sumo wrestler replaces the Katamari. Sucking people into his belly was... fantastic.

* Go ahead, try to find someone who hasn't shot those poor animals a single time in ''[[Boom Blox]]''. Its sequel even has achievements for hitting them a number of times.

* ''[[The Incredible Machine]]'' games allow the player to dream up countless ways to inflict terror and pain on Mel and the assorted fauna - it is possible to trap the immortal Curie Cat in a never-stopping [[Robinson Goldberg Contraption|intricately crafted contraption]] of agony, for example.

* In ''[[Catherine]]'', you can shove the sheep trying to climb the block tower with you to their deaths, lead them over spike blocks that cause them to explode in a spray of blood, or even squash them with heavy blocks. And remember, all of them are innocent victims of the nightmare, ''just like you''.

== Real Time Strategy ==

* [[Age of Empires (Video Game)|Age of Empires]] and games derived from it make killing civilians a sound tactical move. Then again, most of the games are set before the Geneva Conventions and most civilians can take up weapons and attack the enemy anyway...

** Capture a group of heroes and convert all but one of them. Feed your converts, heal them, and train them while giving the odd one out only the barest amount of food and healing to survive the prison. Then drop the unconverted one into a pit and put his former friends on the sidelines to cheer as he's beaten to a pulp over and over.

** Capture a hero. Drop him in the torture chamber and keep him barely alive until he gives some information. Reward him by dropping him in the fight pit with your meanest monster before returning him to prison and letting him starve to death, becoming a skeleton.

*** This is actually a viable tactic. If your enemy's base is close to a tiberium field, letting enough infantry die in the field and morph into visceroids causes them to eventually merge into very dangerous large visceroids, which will soon start attacking the base. It's probably not as efficient as just attacking with the infantry units in the first place, but it's so deliciously sadistic!

*** Against human players this is a viable tactic because they ''will'' have to focus on the attacking visceroids, since they do not register as "enemies" and your units would not engage them autonomously. The little buggers also move extremely fast, making actually clicking them a difficult task as well. If left alone they can destroy entire bases within minutes.

** In ''[[Company of Heroes]]'', not only can you run over infantry with tanks, but Sherman tanks can be upgraded with mine flails, a collection of weights attached via chains to a spinning motor. Their primary purpose is to [[Exactly What It Says On the Tin|destroy mines]], but there's no reason why you can't use it on [[Ludicrous Gibs|infantry]].

* Countless Critters of several ''[[War Craft]]'' games have met their bloody end at the hands of various troops, thanks to myself and others.

** One of your neighbours [[Serious Business|criticises your jousting ability]]? [[Disproportionate Retribution|Declare war, invade his lands, wipe out his family line using assassins and strip him of all his titles]]. If you want to be a ''real'' bastard, you can do all this and force them to become your vassal - there's nothing quite like having them slave away under your command until the day they die, at which point their family line will end and you can seize their lands.

* ''[[Mech Commander]]'' allows your mechs to target and destroy civilian objects such as houses and cars (although you get no bonus for doing so--apparently civilian casualties are of no importance in the 31st century), and has the "lordbunny" cheat, which allows for infinite artillery strikes. While this has the obvious potential use of decimating enemy forces, it also can be used to annihilate huge numbers of ''civilian'' targets without wasting your mechs' ammo. You can call in dozens of artillery strikes to ''raze entire cities to the ground'' and, once all civilian buildings have been flattened, set the forests on fire, probably condemning [[Bambi (Disney)|Bambi]] to certain doom in the process.

** Goofy is also the perfect height for you to throw barrels right into his face.

* In ''[[Kingdom Hearts 3D]]'', should one of your dream eater allies get KO'd, a timer will start ticking down, and if it expires before you revive it, [[Killed Off for Real|the dream eater will fade away]], and leave behind a dream piece. The dream pieces left behind in this fashion can be of a higher quality then what's currently available through other means, meaning you can potentially create some better dream eaters earlier then normal by repeatedly creating and allowing weaker ones to die off (Though it's not exactly efficient).

** Or you could always {{spoiler|constantly remind him of that debt}}. In every conversation you have with him, no less.

** Or to Morte {{spoiler|whom you had once pulled from the Pillar of Skulls, and get an in-game opportunity to put him back}} in exchange for information you can pay for in other (much less evil) ways.

** The same can be done to other party members. {{spoiler|''Including your current love interest.''}}

*** In fact, the game actually encourages this kind of personal, soul-crushing malevolence over random violence. If you start just killing at random, the Lady of Pain will show up shortly to [[Killed Off for Real|inform you]] that you are ''not'' top dog in ''her'' city, but there is no major penalty for ruining other's lives with just words. Go right ahead!

**** On the other hand, the Entropic Blade isn't that much worse than the Celestial Fire and you obtain it by being a complete monster. Even better example of utter cruelty: Dakkon's people used to be slaves and a huge part of their beliefs center around their escape from that slavery. A certain evil book will empower you with various spells for doing evil acts, including selling a party member into slavery. Hmm. Dakkon, come here a minute, I'd like you to meet someone...

* Exploring in ''[[Might and Magic]]'' 2 you can stumble across a peaceful goblin village... and choose to attack. It was filled with standard goblins, but as many as the game could handle, and with the right spells you could kill them with ease. That's right, you ''could commit genocide''.

* The ''[[Neverwinter Nights]]'' module ''Aribeth's Redemption'' allows the player to ''continuously needle Aribeth about Fenthick''. And, being the lawful good suicidally depressed Elvish former paladin she is, she sits and takes all of your insults as if she deserves it!

** The evil options for every [[Optional Sexual Encounter]] in ''The Bastard of Kosigan''. And the evil options for dealing with the prisoners in the Inquisition's basement in Cologne.

** The Sandral-Matale sequence may very well be the funniest [[The Dark Side]] sequence ever implemented in a video game.

** Outside the Sith Academy on Korriban, you will see a student, Mekel, making a bunch of hopefuls stand at attention for days, with the promise that the last one left can enter the Academy. Needless to say, Mekel is just doing this [[Complete Monster|for shits and giggles]]. Of course, you CAN convince some of them of the truth. But it is SO much fun to [[Manipulative Bastard|convince one of the poor saps that he has, in fact, won, and that his last challenge is to attack the guard by the gate]]. Goodbye.

*** Her reaction to The Exile leaving is like a lit match to [[Nightmare Fuel]].

*** It was always impossible to resist the opportunity to play the thorough rogue on Korriban. The final test of the academy would leave the player character alone with the academy master, Uthar, and his assistant, Yuthura. If you suck up to Yuthura enough over the course of the academy's initial tests, she asks for your help in betraying her master during the final test. With him dead, the two of you will share power at the academy. You can accept, and then go rat her out to Uthar, who rewards you by advancing you further through the academy tests and gives you poison to plant on Yuthura, so that she will be weakened during the final tests. The fun part is going back to Yuthura, showing her the poison and telling her what happened. She will chide you for endangering the plan, but give you some poison of her own to use on the headmaster. The ''really'' fun part is going ahead and using the poison on both of them, leaving them to come to the slow and horrible realization during the final test that they've been ''triple'' crossed. Then you kill them.

*** The best part about being an absolute monster of a dark sider is how gleefully HK-47 reacts to your cruelty. Get your dark side score high (low?) enough and he'll come right out gushing over you and the number of new ways that the exile has taught him to be cruel. The dark side conversation option is something to the effect of "Stick with me, and you'll learn a few things," to which he replies "Oh yes, Master, I already have."

** Never pass up the chance to [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTS5VsRMGCg ensure the untimely yet amusing demise] of some thugs on Nar Shaddaa in the sequel, even while Light Side.

** There are entire internet communities devoted to finding out the evil things you can do in ''[[Ultima]].''

** One of the few good things players had to say about the [[Ultima IX|ninth installment]] was that little thing involving Lord British and the poisoned bread. Go Google it.

** And yet, despite the killing, that was still nowhere near as satisfying as punching out an annoying reporter. On ''live galactic television''.

** That fanboy who you meet in the Citadel? Wants to help you out. ''Point a gun at him, so he'll piss his pants and run crying''.

** Some players take advantage of [[Anyone Can Die]] to kill off characters, despite it obviously being detrimental to do so. If you intentionally choose not to upgrade the Normandy or do any of your crew's side-missions, it is possible to kill ''everyone'' in the final mission - including Shepherd him/herself.

** Analysis: Defenceless herbivores are no match for guided missiles.

* [[Mass Effect 3]] makes cruelty a lot less entertaining. The list of people you can kill - you, personally - can include {{spoiler|Mordin, shooting him in the back to stop him from curing the genophage; Wrex, after he finds out you sabotaged it; one of Samara's daughters (and you can let Samara herself commit suicide); Legion, if you let the quarians wipe out the geth, in which case you can shoot him ''four times''; and you're directly responsible for Tali committing suicide if you let the geth wipe out her entire race.}} Renegade Shepard goes from being an amusing jerk to a [[Complete Monster]].

** Renegade Shepard? If we accept that the upper right choice on the wheel is paragon and the lower right choice is renegade (like it is for the whole trilogy), then {{spoiler|siding with the Geth by allowing the upload}} is the PARAGON choice. {{spoiler|That's the choice that wipes the quarians out and drives Tali to suicide in what is probably the [[Tear Jerker|single most gut-wrenching scene in the entire series]]}}. [[Rene Shep]] gives a slow clap. Bravo, [[Para Shep]]. Bravo.

* ''[[Arcanum]]'' offers lots of cruelty options, especially to the talented mystic. One particularly glorious possibility involves charming a wolf or bear, then walking to the nearest town, entering an occupied house, and releasing your control over the wild animal (but not before leaving the house and Magelocking the doors and windows). Other fun activities include using Force Walls and Walls of Fire to trap and burn the clothes off passersby and tricking [[NPC|NPCs]] into picking up and equipping armor that deals continual poison damage.

** If you're really set on playing the game as an evil bastard, one of the ''required quests'' becomes to {{spoiler|slaughter the entire population of a small, quiet out-of-the-way village.}} One of the endings you can get even involves {{spoiler|you and the [[Big Bad]] killing every living thing on the planet.}}

* ''[[Fallout (Video Game)|Fallout]]'' also contains some amusing possibilities for the vicious Vault Dweller, such as planting timed explosives on random [[NPC|NPCs]] or - in one scenario I'm simultaneously proud and ashamed of - murdering an unarmed flower child with a single, well-aimed thrown rock to the back of the head. Let's face it: this series ''really'' goes out of its way to let the player be one evil, sadistic son of a bitch.

* ''[[Fallout 2 (Video Game)|Fallout 2]]'' has it even better. The best example would be when you force a conman, at gunpoint, to dig-up a grave where he has buried loot. Half-way through he sheepishly removes a booby-trapped landmine and hands it to you. A popular choice is to wait until he's finished digging, and...

*** It can be done in ''Fallout 1'' and ''2'', and you'll even get a perk for it. The perk makes people hate you. Hooray!

*** Not only can you kill children in the first two games, but they have a full suite of death animations. Shooting a child with a flamethrower will cause the poor mite to run around screaming and burning until collapsing into a pile of ash. This was considered sufficiently gruesome that European versions of the game had to be patched to remove children entirely. Unfortunately, this was accomplished by simply rendering them invisible, breaking several quests and rendering the source of their floating dialogue inexplicable, as well as infuriatingly not stopping them from pickpocketing you. Ironically, these heard-but-not-seen children could still be killed by stray gunfire.

*** Even better, you can get the perk AND a sweet, unique gun: Tell {{spoiler|Harkness}} that they are an android, then tell {{spoiler|him}} you'll kill Dr. Zimmer yourself, as otherwise you won't get the perk. You'll get {{spoiler|his}} unique gun, as well as Good Karma. Next, tell Dr. Zimmer that {{spoiler|Harkness}} is the android, and you'll get his perk and Bad Karma, neutralizing the Karma gain from earlier. Now laugh evilly as {{spoiler|they wipe his memory and take him away}}. You could also kill Zimmer and his Bodyguard, but that's not nearly as cruel.

** You can do the tutorial just beating the ever-living crap out of everyone. The funniest bit? After getting the BB gun the Kid keeps shooting daddy, who passes out just when the celebratory picture is taken.

** One of the Knights of Pluto wants to quit the Alexandrian army to become a writer, and asks Steiner if he can leave the Knights. Steiner can either say that he'll eventually let the knight leave, but first he has to find Princess Garnet, or he can be a [[Jerkass]] and yell at the knight, telling him he can't leave before basically telling him to get off his lazy behind and find the princess. Either way, the poor knight runs off in tears.

** The wonderful Thunder Plains, which are constantly plagued by thunder and lightning. You can take shelter near very tall pillars designed to divert the lightning, jump out of the way of a strike with good timing, or - if you're feeling particularly sadistic - let Tidus get struck by lightning. over and over again. For as long as you want. (Unfortunately, this feature was removed in ''[[Final Fantasy X 2 (Video Game)|Final Fantasy X 2]]''.)

** You can avoid dying, though, by eating one and immediately evolving in some way, restoring your HP to full.

* Playing ''[[Might and Magic]] 6''? Going for Master Dark Magic? Head to Free Haven and cast Armageddon. Instant evil party~! Just make sure you hotfoot it to Paradise Valley ''before'' going to a castle...

* In ''Might and Magic 7'', it's quite easy to bait a pack of monsters into a town and watch them slaughter the helpless peasants. Not only that, but in the tutorial mission you get ''rewarded'' for doing this. Normally, you have to buy a lute for 500 gold and you can accept a magic wand in exchange for performing a later favor for the mercenary guild. Get the NPCs who offer these two things killed by monsters and you can loot the items from their corpses.

* In ''[[Pokémon Gold and Silver (Video Game)|Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver]]'', a random [[NPC]] whose house you walk into says your rival scared him into giving away a rare Pokémon. He then gives you another, to keep safe. Go to the PC, and release it from the game. Upon returning to the NPC, when you talk to him he says '[[Crowning Moment of Funny|How's]] [[Your Mileage May Vary|my]] [[Jerkass|Pokémon]]?' And later he says 'I think I can have my Pokémon back now'. So it's kind of like "I think my psycho ex-wife might try and kill my cat, can you hold on to it for me for a while?" "Sure, naïve fool. Kitty go for solo plane trip now. Bye-bye forever, beloved companion."

** The move Frustration becomes more effective the more your Mon hates you.

** Consequences of the (un)happiness stat have no impact on anything, really. The only exceptions are ''HeartGold'' and ''SoulSilver'', where you could speak to your Mon and it would display a speech bubble, sometimes with an unhappy face.

** Use Psychic with your Mewtwo on a level 2 Starly. Mind rape ensues.

** ''[[Poke Park Wii]]'': You can dash Pikachu into smaller mons and send them flying a few feet into the air. Most times out of ten, the victimized Poké will cry its little eyes out if it's one of the adorable ones. However, it's also averted with some. Dash or Shock a Pokémon like Scyther, and they will knock six bells out of Pikachu!

** In ''[[Pokémon Snap]]'', you can use Pester Balls to stun and/or drive Pokemon out of their hiding spots, just so you can take their picture. Taken to an extreme in Rainbow Cloud, where, in order to get a good shot of Mew, you need to nail it with dozens upon dozens of Pester Balls in a row, so that it stays stunned long enough for you to get a nice close-up picture.

* ''[[Vampire: The Masquerade Bloodlines|Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines]]'' makes it very possible to have a bloody rampage, slicing hobos to bits with a fire axe, snapping the necks of club kids, and eating hookers for a late night snack, but discourages this in two ways. One, killing innocents (as in, anyone not trying to kill you,) even when feeding reduces your Humanity, the game's [[Karma Meter]]. Having a low Humanity makes you more likely to frenzy, where you lose control of your character and try to drain any nearby juicebags dry. Also, any use of obvious supernatural powers or feeding when people are watching results in a Masquerade Violation, which results in Vampire Hunters following you around. Also, if your Humanity drops to zero, or you stack up five Masquerade Violations, it's an instant game over. However, there are limited opportunities to regain both Humanity and redeem your Masquerade Violations, so you can get away with this to a point. Plus there are enough opportunities for plot assisted cruelty as well: sending a hapless TV Show Host to be devoured by a flesh-eating Vampire, enticing a naive thin blood to attempt to assassinate the president, and arranging for a young woman to have her blood slowly drained and sold to local Kindred are just a few of them. All of these do cause your Humanity to drop though, so it's a fine line.

** Ignore those oddly-placed trees in Kolima Junction. Oh, wait, [[Baleful Polymorph|those trees were people]], and because of your neglect an innocent girl just got ''washed away downstream to an unknown fate''.

** You can drop a crate on one of the Kibombo guards in ''The Lost Age'' and watch him flail around underneath it. I can't remember if this is necessary to get past him or just to grab an item nearby.

** ''Dark Dawn'' brings Slap Psynergy to the table. Its main canon uses are [[It Makes Sense in Context|bopping statues on the nose]], ''slapping sleeping things to wake them up'', and ''knocking Djinn and friendly pirates down from high places''. Said pirate is understandably peeved with us for doing so.

*** However, the [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything|dev team thought of one more]]: You can ring the emergency gong in Tonfon, sending the city into a panic, and then blame a guard for the false alarm.

* In the original ''Tropico'', the entire premise of the game is being a Dictator on a tropical island/Cuba Expy which can be anywhere from a Benevolent Dictatorship to one where you use the military to attempt to keep your poor peons in place with bad food, no real medicine, and so on. And of course various edicts you can slap down to see just how far you can push your poor citizens...

** ''Tropico 2'' is still worse though, since at least in 1 your peons can leave, but in 2 you are the Pirate King of a Pirate Isle, and since the pirates under you only work as, well, pirates, or guards and overseers, all of your labor is provided by, well, slaves that you kidnap from settlements, including the prosti...er...wenches that you use to keep your pirates entertained. Plus the aforementioned edicts. And the fact that one of the ways to keep your captives from revolting/escaping is by keeping them in abject terror...

* The ''[[Roller Coaster Tycoon]]'' games provide a tool which you can use to pick up your guests and put them anywhere in the park. Including dropping them into the water and drowning them. You can also deliberately build certain rides to crash in a horrible, firey explosion.

** In the first game, one of the pre-made coasters is a loop coaster that's supposed to seem like the car is going over the edge, but then it stops and goes backwards. You can increase the speed on the coaster, watching the cars fly off in a terrible wreck. The game shuts down the coaster for this. You can open it back up again. Repeat.

** [[Black Comedy]] is a part of the game. Two of the [[Dead Baby Comedy|most hilarious]] threads on the forum discuss inventions such as mermaid bone gathering ([http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=25967.0 24 pages] of "won't you just need a room with chained up mermaids that has 4/7 water and a door leading to the airdrowning room for the babies?") and "[[The Spartan Way|Dwarven Child Care]]" ([http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=91093.0 25 pages worth] of dwarven kids locked in and defending themselves from animals who go nuts from being stuffed in such small cells).

* ''[http://shock-value.deviantart.com/art/Interactive-Buddy-v-1-02-11117398 Interactive Buddy]''. So many possibilities; everything from punching him to pelting him with flaming bowling balls while he's trapped in a gravity vortex to shooting explosive missiles. You actually get rewarded with money for hurting him (or being nice, but where's the fun in that?) and can use the money to buy new ways to "interact" with him.

** In fact, in ''More Friends of Mineral Town'', when starting a new game, you ''attack the mayor,'' after which he says "stop hitting me," and you are prompted to either stop hitting him...or continue hitting him, ''with a farm tool of your choice''. You can do this indefinitely; it has no effect on anything. Encouragingly, he has a unique response for each tool; for the sickle, "stop cutting me," for the watering can, "stop watering me," etc. ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BRNsjIDrALs I'm not kidding.]'' You ''can keep doing this forever.''

** Also, in some later games, if you want to marry a character called the Witch Princess, you have to do any number of horrid things, including ''repeatedly killing your animals.'' Which she ''praises you for.'' What. (Notably, in the girl version, when you first encounter the mayor [same guy, despite being a different town--long story] you ''again attempt to hit him.'' He dodges, mentioning that he wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. ''Your dog proceeds to run up and attack him.'')

** In the ''[[Rune Factory (Video Game)|Rune Factory]]'' spin-off series, it is possible to trigger a proposal event and then ''reject the girl in question''. She loses all affection for you, but it is possible to ''break the heart of every marriageable girl in game.'' Repeatedly.

** In the Squeal Rune Factory Frontier, you may have left you old life behind that you started in the first game, including any wife and kid you may have had, for added points if you chose a wife that follows you into the new game in the series you could marry her again (leaving the child from the first game still abandoned) or marry a completely different girl wile your apparent ex-wife just looks on.

** To add detail, the third game presents possibly the most cruelty potential of all video games ever made. There is a machine that allows injecing any chemical in the creatures. This includes various toxins that may cause a lot of pain, birth defects to unborn creatures and a nasty case of death. One may even inflict the worst pain there is by directly injecting pain chemicals. Oh yes, and there is one creature type, Grendel, that is ugly, evil and aggressive - socially acceptable cruelty ensues. In addition to the chemical injector, there are various other machines of fun - airlocks, piranha pools with a trapdoor (right next to where the Grendels spawn!) and a genetic splicer that reduces two creatures into a single egg with a nice slicing sound. And for the more scientifically inclined, genetic manipulation allows some innocent creature to be made utterly repulsive by making it emit a Grendel stench.

* The [[Nintendo 3DS]] ''AR Games'' aren't exactly simulations, but one of the unlockable shop items is a globe. You can operate it much the same way as the globe in the Wii's Weather Channel. However, you can also shoot at it as you would in other modes. Shoot it too many times, and it will start to glow red. Keep shooting it, and [[Earthshattering Kaboom|it explodes]]. After the smoke clears, you're told to "[[You Bastard|Look after our planet.]]" On top of that, the globe disappears from the menu, and you have to buy it again. It's only one coin, but still.

 

== Survival Horror ==

** Damage the cows enough and they'll damn near kill you.

 

 

* Let us just say that ''[[Crusader (Video Game)|Crusader]]: No Remorse'' and its follow-up ''No Regret'' are aptly-titled when it comes to what you can do to people.

* In ''[[Video Game/Syphon Filter|Syphon Filter]]'' you are rewarded for killing [[Mooks]] in certain conditions and styles. By using stealth kills, killing them with darts, knives or headshots. Doing so will unlock new weapons and you can carry more darts.

* In Slave Zero, you take on the role of a giant 60 story tall robot. Among the actions you can take, are stepping on pedestrians and cars, or you can PICK THEM UP AND THROW THEM AT ENEMIES.

 

* In ''[[La Pucelle (Video Game)|La Pucelle]]'' you are encouraged to take the monsters that you purified, [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2004/05/10 put into your party, and loved and nurtured to trust you]...and sell them into eternal slavery to the Dark World. You are ''encouraged to do this'' as the Dark World will send you gifts for any accomplishments that monster does, such as working through the ranks to Demon Lord or Overlord. In addition, the process fuses any items they had together. Maybe there's a reason Prier is a Demon Overlord in the ''[[Disgaea (Video Game)|Disgaea]]'' games...

** Granted, that "loving and nurturing" you did involved stuff ranging from making them break blocks and do push ups to turning them into cyborgs and even ''shooting'' them (Granted, you have to build up their trust a number of times before they wouldn't quit over that last one).

** If Montblanc is killed mid-game, his storyline scenes are replaced with the arguably much more interesting character Ezel Berbier. Some players actually kill Montblanc just to replace the annoying storyline companion with the more interesting one.

* In ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics (Video Game)|Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' pretty much from the very beginning, you can pass over Mandalia Plains repeatedly until you get a random encounter. The enemies' party will invariably have a yellow chocobo in it and you can kill off everyone else in its party, then surround it and attack it virtually endlessly as its only healing action, Choco Cure, also heals characters on all four sides, thus giving you a way to level up and get a hell of a lot of jp to boot, and joy of all joys, all you have to do is torture a sad-faced chocobo forever.

* The same applies to the Grand Canyon track in ''[[Video Game/Gran Turismo|Gran Turismo]] 4'', which features tourists standing in the middle of the road to take photographs and jumping out of the way ''just'' before you'd end up hitting them. If you actually do, you'll just clip through them.

 

* In all three of the ''[[Marathon (Video Game)|Marathon]]'' games, you are not only capable, but ''encouraged'' by ''Bungie'' to kill BOBs, which, in the first game, are unarmed civillians who have no hope of survival without the Player's help. In ''Marathon 2: Durandal'', they are volunteers risking their lives and listening to the batshit Durandal to help the player, however, like in ''[[Halo]]'', killing two of them will cause them to shoot at you. In ''Marathon Infinity'', it's actually the player character's mission to kill them in more levels than they help him in, and for some reason they're a ''lot'' [[Took a Level In Badass|better at killing you than they are at killing aliens.]] The aliens that so easily killed them before, while working at your side, get mercilessly mowed down by the BOBs.

* In ''[[Soldier of Fortune]] II'', killing any NPC's results in an [[Hostage Spirit Link|instant game over]].

[[Category:index]]

[[Category:Video Game Cruelty Potential]]