History FromBadToWorse / VideoGames

** And ''then'' there's ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. You thought Kirkwall looked bad? It turns out, the events in Kirkwall caused mages all over Thedas to rebel, resulting in the [[FinalSolution Right of Annulment]] being imposed on Rivain's Circle. There's now a full-scale war between mages and templars waging all over the continent. To make matters worse, the [[ArtifactOfDoom red lyrium]] Hawke found in the deep roads [[spoiler:is being used by an [[AncientEvil ancient, sentient darkspawn]] to corrupt either the mages or the Templars, creating his own, private army with powers cranked up to eleven. He's also gotten his hands on the [[EliteArmy Grey Wardens]], used them to open the Breach, releasing an endless stream of demons into the world, and convinced them to use [[TheDarkArts blood magic]] to bind their mages to demons, essentially creating a demon army. This is all a bid to force his way into the Black City and make himself a god, never mind that this would [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the world]].]] No wonder the Warden took off while the organization suffer from massive bad rep.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, this is the case for TheEmpire following [[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]] [[LegionsOfHell Crisis]]. The Oblivion Crisis was an utter disaster for Tamriel, no question. Cities were leveled, thousands of people killed, and, following a HeroicSacrifice to end it, the Third Empire of Tamriel was left without a Septim heir to the throne for the first time in nearly 500 years. Then, the [[ANaziByAnyOtherNAme Thalmor]], an Aldmeri radical and [[StateSec militarized]] political party of religious extremists, use the chaos following the Crisis to [[StealingTheCredit claim credit]] for ending it. This brings them massive populist support in their homeland and allows them to rise to the highest levels of the Aldmeri government. Ten years later, they assassinate [[RegentForLife Potentate]] Ocato, who was doing well at holding the fractured Empire together. Petty infighting erupts among the Elder Council, and the Summerset Isles, the Aldmeri homeland, use the ensuing chaos to secede from the Empire under the leadership of the Thalmor. They annex neighboring Valenwood (homeland of the Bosmer) and announce the reformation of the [[AntiHumanAlliance Aldmeri Dominion]] of old, an ancient ArchEnemy to the various Cyrodiilic Empires. Through further manipulation, they convince the Khajiit of Elsweyr to join the Dominion as a vassal nation and then convince the Argonians to secede and then invade the [[ColonyDrop Red]] [[ChekhovsVolcano Year]] weakened Morrowind in [[TheDogBitesBack retaliation]] for thousands of years of their race's slavery at the hands of the Dunmer. Their actions essentially rob the [[VestigialEmpire Vestigial Third Empire]] of five former provinces. Titus Mede, a Colovian warlord, manages to capture the vacant Ruby Throne and declares himself to be the new Emperor, bringing some stability to the Empire for a time. However, the Dominion isn't satisfied. After building their nation back up, they attack the Empire in what becomes known as the "Great War". Dominion forces capture the Imperial City, but Emperor Titus Mede II (grandson of Titus Mede I) pulls his legions out and regroups with his forces from Skyrim. Together, they re-capture the Imperial City and push the Dominion out of Cyrodiil. The remaining strength of the Empire is greater than the Dominion anticipated, but they have a fallback: the White-Gold Concordat. With Mede II sensing that his forces are too weak to further pursue the Dominion, he reluctantly agrees. The Concordat, among other things, cedes large tracts of Hammerfell to the Dominion, bans the worship of [[DeityOfHumanOrigin Talos]], and allows Dominion agents to patrol the Empire to enforce these terms. Mede II's acceptance of the Concordat essentially [[WonTheWarLostThePeace wins the war but loses the peace]]. Hammerfell secedes and continues the war with the Dominion on their own. Civil War erupts in Skyrim as the Nords attempt to do the same... This all leads up to the events of ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'', which, depending on the choices you make, can end with [[spoiler:Titus Mede II being [[TheKingslayer assassinated]] by the [[MurderInc Dark Brotherhood]] and the [[PlayerCharacter Dragonborn]] leading the Stormcloak rebels to victory over the forces of the Empire]].

* ''Videogame/FallenLegionRevenants'': The Miasma starts as a global pandemic of a respiratory disease that slowly but eventually kills the infected. Then something happened to make it start zombifying people and turning animals into monsters. [[spoiler: That something was Ivor using unspecified Dark Magic on a patient in attempt to discover a cure. The supervirus carrying PatientZero then went about trying to infect the whole world until you stop it in Lucien's Epilogue.]] Conditions in Welkin also decline as your actions deliberately ruin the quarentine to provoke rebellion against Ivor.

* ''Videogame/GrandTheftAutoV'' in the mission Caida Libre, Michael De Santa tries to make amends with cartel don Martin Madraza. Trevor Phillips joins in the mission and separates with Michael temporarily to personally talk with Martin. According to Trevor, they both got angry at each other, resulting in Trevor assaulting Martin. Michael is shocked to see Trevor arrive while driving Martin's now stolen car. Michael assumes the worst and asks if Trevor murdered Martin. Trevor replies, "No, I didn't kill him. [[spoiler:But I did kidnap his wife!]]"

* ''{{Franchise/Halo}}''

* [[spoiler:Kuchiki Toko]] getting hit by a truck in ''VisualNovel/KaraNoShoujo'' is bad enough. How can that worsen? Her friend is killed off, then it's revealed she has a really rare blood type and can't get a transfusion. [[spoiler:Then all her limbs are cut in a surgery to reduce the amount of blood she ''needs'' and then have her get kidnapped. And finally, her get gets killed off in every ending except one, where she's still horribly off.]]

** In Blood Omen, [[spoiler: the Balance Guardian is murdered by one of her fellow Guardians who is [[MoreThanMindControl possessed]] by an EldritchAbomination. This causes her lover to go mad with grief and [[PsychicNosebleed drives his fellow Guardians insane]] through their telepathic link]]... and that's all BEFORE the game actually starts.
** In ''Soul Reaver'', we see [[spoiler: the result of Kain refusing his [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice]]]]. [[CrapsackWorld Nosgoth]] isn't really a pretty place right now...
** ''Soul Reaver 2'', [[spoiler: at the end, Kain realizes that everything he's done up to that point has [[NiceJobBreakingItHero played right into the hands of his enemies]].]] Cue brief, but visible, HeroicBSOD.

* While many attempt to make the claim, ''VideoGame/NieR'' is essentially "It Got Worse: The Game". Subsequent playthroughs are altered and reveal secrets from previous playthroughs that horrify you not only in terms of the plot but game elements and actions you performed which you previously took for granted. They are then upstaged by the NEXT playthrough where things then get much much worse. A running gag of sorts for the entire franchise, its predecessor ''VideoGame/{{Drakengard}}'' and follow up ''Videogame/NierAutomata'' are more of the same in their own horrifyingly depressing manner. All this before even going into the extra material or considering any horrifying implications which can be derived or are suggested by these games.

* For the most part, ''VideoGame/Persona4'' it is a very happy game. But then, November and December happen, which are just one long downhill slide. [[spoiler:First, Nanako gets kidnapped, Dojima gets seriously injured, and one of the people struck off the suspect list at the start turns out to be the killer. Then, you save Nanako, but she's ''really sick''. During this time, the fog from the TV -- which is ''very toxic'' to non-Persona users -- starts leaking into Inaba. Then, NANAKO DIES. She gets better, but she's still critically ill. You then work out who the real killer is, and it's freaking ''Adachi'', who it's ''very'' unlikely that you suspected at that point. He gets into the TV... and reveals that ''he's trying to turn humans into [[TheHeartless Shadows]]''!]] That all gets fixed, but then March happens... [[spoiler:all of this will happen ''again'' in fifty years' time unless you destroy Izanami, a ''goddess of death'' who very nearly manages to kill ''you''.]]
* ''VideoGame/Persona3''.

** Sherry Birkin's life story should be titled ''It Got Worse''. First, she gets dumped at the Police Station with [[spoiler:the crazy rapist police chief that her parents are paying off]] because her mother can't be bothered to protect her because she's too busy tramping around the sewers of Raccoon City with a gun for basically ''no reason''. Then, she gets word that her dad's being attacked by the monsters that have started popping up out of nowhere. ''Then'' one of them comes after ''her'' because Birkin came up with a craaaazy scheme to [[spoiler:stick his virus in his daughter's locket to hide it from the company he ''made the virus for''.]] Then of course, turns out another monster is after her: [[AndThenJohnWasAZombie Her own father]], who needs to find a host to implant his embryos in. And that someone needs to be very closely related to him. Guess what that means for poor Sherry? Don't worry, though, Annette's finally going to step it up and cure her daugh- Nevermind, Birkin just killed her. Claire, once again, picks up the slack for the Birkins, and gives Sherry an abortion shot. But it's not over. Not even close. ''Now'' [[VaginaDentata Birkin's]] eating the train which is about to blow up because Umbrella is fucking terrible at making labs that don't blow up. Sherry comes to the rescue and is finally not completely useless by [[spoiler:stopping the train, ''thus killing her own father'']]. Then, Claire, Sherry's new mommy, runs off into the sunset to find Chris. But it's not all bad. Leon can take care of her just fine. Until the government decides to take her into custody. But, whoopsie. Someone found Will's will and Sherry is put under Wesker's care. And then, [[spoiler:he goes and gets ''him''self killed by going all {{Clipped Wing Angel}} on us.]] If Sherry isn't in a padded room rocking back and forth by now, she's about to go {{ax crazy}} on ''someone''.

* ''{{VideoGame/Persona 3}}''.

** [[spoiler: The protagonist's death causes the main party to be overcome with despair which causes them to be trapped in their dorm in a Groundhog Day loop and opens a new labyrinth known as the Abyss of Time under their dorm. In the Abyss they discover a way to bring back the protagonist and some party members are all for it while others think the last shouldn't be messed with. This causes a schism in the group and Aigis is forced to fight ALL of her friends in order to obtain pieces of a key that will unlock a door that allows the party to travel back to the moment of the protagonist's heroic sacrifice. After doing so, they discover that the protagonist used his soul to create a seal to prevent Erebus, the manifestation of humanity's despair and negative emotions, from reaching Nyx, which is what would bring about The Fall. The party defeats Erebus, but it will keep coming back every year until humanity no longer feels despair, which will NEVER happen, meaning that it will reappear over and over, likely until the end of time. ''{{VideoGame/Persona 4 Arena}}'' confirms that it is still reappearing years later and Elizabeth has taken it upon herself to destroy it every time it returns. She laments that in a year's time she will have to defeat it once more.]]
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'' is interesting because it starts partway through the shift to worse, and then goes six months back in time to explain how that happened. [[spoiler:First the Phantom Thieves of Heart get framed for murder, making most of Japan fear and hate them. In their efforts to clear their name, they get backstabbed by the GuestStarPartyMember and their leader gets arrested and shot in the head. In the good ending path, he cheats his way out of being shot, but now faces the danger of the Conspiracy finding out that he's alive and finishing the job. The Phantom Thieves then manage to steal the heart of the man responsible for their predicament... and nothing changes, because he ''still'' gets elected as Prime Minister and the people ''still'' believe he's the best option for the country, despite him being a manipulative, mass-murdering, child abusing ''rapist''. Our heroes then try to steal the heart of the collective unconsciousness in order to force the people of Japan to wake up and realize that they're being sheep, only to get ''wiped out of existence'' by the villain who turns out to been disguised as the BigGood for the entire game.]] Needless to say, headshotting the bastard who was responsible for all of this feels very, very good.
* ''{{VideoGame/Portal 2}}'' reveals much of the backstory of Aperture Science through a combination of visual storytelling and [[PosthumousCharacter recorded messages]] from its founder, Cave Johnson. These combine to chronicle a descent from being voted Best New Science Company in the 1950's and recruiting "astronauts, Olympians, and war heroes", to bankruptcy and recruiting [[DisposableVagrant street bums]] in the 70's, to testing products on the [[ProfessorGuineaPig company's own employees]] in the 80's. As if this couldn't get any worse, earlier in the game there is a CallBack to the "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day" originally mentioned in ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', very strongly implying that the employees' ''children'' were the penultimate subjects. [[InferredHolocaust Most of whom died horribly]], either through testing or when the [[CryonicsFailure facility's life support systems ran out of power]].
* ''{{VideoGame/Prototype}}'':

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' tends to use things going downhill to advance much of the plot. Starts out with the MegaCorp with the massive private army sucking the planet dry. Then the crazy, presumably dead BigBad periodically manifests to cause chaos and drop [[EldritchAbomination Jenova]] boss fights on you. Eventually, you learn he's after the Black Materia, which contains the world-destroying black magic, Meteor. Your party manages to reach it first and circumvents the deadly booby trap with no casualties aside from a rapidly-replaced robot. Guess what? Turns out TheHero is BrainwashedAndCrazy, he attacks his own friends and hands the Black Materia over to the nutter. Your WhiteMagicianGirl figures out how to stop Meteor, but of course, [[ItWasHisSled she dies.]] Things only go further south from there [[TraumaCongaLine in rapid succession]]. Sephiroth is fully revived, [[GaiasVengeance the planet itself spawns giant monsters]] to KillAllHumans, [[BreakingTheFellowship Cloud is rendered catatonic and Tifa leaves the party entirely to care for him]], and the whole time, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Meteor is hanging in the sky.]] [[spoiler: Obviously, some of it gets better before the game ends. At least a couple of the weapons will always be killed as the plot advances (two of them being optional [[BonusBoss Bonus Bosses]]). Cloud and Tifa rejoin the party, with Cloud fully sane again.]] Then in the sequel ''[[Anime/FinalFantasyVIIAdventChildren Advent Children]]'', people start dropping dead left and right from a mysterious plague that's incurable, excruciatingly painful, always fatal, and drowns its victims in despair and depression. And Cloud finds out that he has the disease.

* ''Videogame/GrandTheftAutoV'' in the mission Caida Libre, Michael De Santa tries to make amends with cartel don Martin Madraza. Trevor Phillips joins in the mission and separates with Michael temporarily to personally talk with Martin. According to Trevor, they both got angry at each other, resulting in Trevor assaulting Martin. Michael is shocked to see Trevor arrive while driving Martin's car. Michael assumes the worst and asks if Trevor murdered Martin. Trevor replies, "No, I didn't kill him. [[spoiler:But I did kidnap his wife!]]"

* ''Videogame/GTA V'' in the mission Caida Libre, Michael De Santa tries to make amends with cartel don Martin Madraza. Trevor Phillips joins in the mission and separates with Michael temporarily to personally talk with Martin. According to Trevor, they both got angry at each other, resulting in Trevor assaulting Martin. Michael is shocked to see Trevor arrive while driving Martin's car. Michael assumes the worst and asks if Trevor murdered Martin. Trevor replies, "No, I didn't kill him. [[spoiler:But I did kidnap his wife!]]"

* ''Videogame/GTA V'' in the mission Caida Libre, Michael De Santa tries to make amends with cartel don Martin Madraza. Trevor Phillips joins in the mission and separates with Michael temporarily to personally talk with Martin. According to Trevor, they both got angry at each other, resulting in Trevor assaulting Martin. Michael is shocked to see Trevor arrive while driving Martin's car. Michael assumes the worst and asks if Trevor murdered Martin. Trevor replies, "No, I didn't kill him. But I did kidnap his wife!"

* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' has everything slowly get worse. In Episode 1 it's not too rough, yes there's an apocalypse but you're surviving it fine, and only a couple of Characters die. Then comes Episode 2, 3 months later. Your group is starving, still has just as many arguments as there were before, and the only people who offer a trade involving food end up [[spoiler: trapping you in a meat locker to turn ''you'' into food. And a member of your group dies right in front of his daughter before you can escape.]] Episode 3 begins with scavenging and detective work, shortly followed by an attack by bandits, your home being destroyed, and a paranoid member of your group [[spoiler:killing an innocent group member believing this was there fault. After which you find out a kid in your group was bit by a zombie, and you'll have to MercyKill him, and his mother is DrivenToSuicide, and the whole thing ends with a creepy sounding stranger contacting Clementine, the child you're caring for, on her radio]]. Episode 4 revolves around your group trying to find a boat. [[spoiler:You find nothing. Any boats are either long gone or scavenged to the hull. [[HopeSpot Then you find a boat]] in a place where no one would look, and get supplies to fix it with some help from a local group of invalids. Shortly before you get to get on it, Clementine goes missing, and you get ''bit by a zombie''. Next Episode, your boat gets stolen while you were looking for her, you're either dying or dying slowly ''and'' missing an arm, the rest of your group either dies or disappears as you look for Clem... and even when you do get her back, you die shortly afterwards.]]

* Most of ''[[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'' could basically be summed up as this, but the first time it really hits you like a stone is the aptly named mission "Fear Experiment" where you're trying to secure an automated food factory and you encounter a new enemy faction. They're not like Beast's raiders who are a ragtag bunch of criminals and mercenaries running around with the scraps left behind by the military who sadistically kill people to steal weapons and supplies -- this army is well organized, well-funded, ''very'' well armed with well-maintained cutting edge equipment, with the ability to call for reinforcements, who explicitly had no goal outside of [[ForTheEvulz destroying the factory so your group will starve to death]]. If that's not enough, you meet the Creeper at the end of the episode, flowers that nicely combine BodyHorror and ThePlague all in one "wonderful" package.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum''. Joker takes over Arkham. Joker lets out the inmates. Joker unleashes big ass Titan monsters. Joker sends Scarecrow after you. Joker [[spoiler: MUTATES HIMSELF INTO A TITAN MONSTER!]]
* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'''s backstory has this in spades. It starts off well enough, a radical objectivist founds an isolated city of art, science and industry underwater to avoid the "taint of parasites". Things look even better when mutant sea slugs carrying a "miracle serum" are discovered and said serum gets mass-produced. Things start to go bad when a smuggler decides to monopolize the serum, making the objectivist who runs the city crack down on the smuggler and his supporters in increasingly severe ways. Things ''really'' go bad after the smuggler's [[spoiler:faked]] death, as the majority of citizens go insane because they've grown to be entirely dependent on the highly addictive serum. And ''then'' there's a civil war that kills off most of the population, trashes the city into ruins and debris and starts the city's decline. By the time Jack arrives, the city has devolved into anarchy, with the population turned into violent, mutated "Splicers" and the radical objectivist desperately trying to keep his city together by becoming a totalitarian dictator, which was, ironically, the exact opposite of what he sought to become.
* It doesn't matter how bad the ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' world has gotten, [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[{{Troll}} Yuuki Terumi]] will attempt to, and most likely succeed, in making it even worse: [[spoiler:He is behind ''everything'' bad that occured before in the series]]. His motives? [[ForTheEvulz Shits and giggles]], mostly... and plunging the world into his own version of paradise of truth: despair. This trope is referenced and lampshaded prior to a fateful decision in ''Slight Hope''. [[spoiler:Makoto's memory of world history doesn't match up with what everyone else is telling her (due to her being in an alternate timeline, but she doesn't know that), she's apparently gone back in time, Hazama tried to kill her, Jin is seriously injured, Tager and Kokonoe don't recognize her or her "gnu" password, and then Jin goes missing.]]

* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSeries''. In ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn Tiberian Dawn]]'', GDI defeats Nod and kills Kane. In ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianSun Tiberian Sun]]'', Kane comes back and GDI defeats them again, killing him again. Meanwhile, tiberium has begun to mutate substantial portions of the human population, and tiberium growth is spreading across the surface of the planet. In ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars Tiberium Wars]]'', tiberium has now taken over more than half the Earth's surface, rendering entire continents uninhabitable. GDI has cleaned up some areas, Blue Zones; but other Yellow Zones remain contaminated, and Red Zones are so bad that humans can't even survive there. Then, Kane comes back AGAIN, now as a cyborg, more powerful than ever. GDI uses their ion cannon to root Kane out -- this attracts the Scrin, who come to claim the tiberium they apparently [[spoiler: seeded on the Earth before the events of Tiberian Dawn]]. The Scrin didn't know we were here, but they want their tiberium, and they decide to just go ahead and kill us off. If this weren't bad enough, Kane [[spoiler: plan to use Scrin technology ]] and refuses to fight them; thus GDI is forced to fight Kane and the Scrin at the same time. Finally, in a last-ditch effort GDI defeats the Scrin and [[spoiler: the Scrin commander escapes]], only to learn that [[spoiler: now the Scrin are planning a full-scale invasion.]]

** "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU0dgjon10U OBITUARIES: Everybody Max Payne ever loved.]]"

*** Elysia: The Elysians -- mechanoid beings who avoid AIIsACrapshoot -- were created by the Chozo themselves and gifted with self-awareness. They selflessly aided their creators until they left, and governed the facility diligently even from sleep mode despite the horrible dreams they had. When the GFMC signed a treaty with them, they yielded their vast wealth of knowledge and gained the fuel, parts, and equipment to keep themselves going. It starts going downhill once the Space Pirates infect 313 with a virus, knocking 217 offline due to universal AU shutdown to stem the damage. Four months later, the Space Pirates show up and hang the forces long enough for another Leviathan to drop, and likely worsen 217's Phazon corruption as one last fuck you. Two weeks after that disaster, Ghor shows up and starts fixing things... and then, to utterly dash the Elysians' remaining hopes, he gets completely corrupted himself and takes absolute control over SkyTown. Somewhere in space, the Chozo are crying...

** ''VideoGame/MetroidDread'' lives up to the name. From the moment Samus arrives, she's had a megalomaniacal Chozo and seven hacked [[KillerRobot E.M.M.I.]] units hunting for her, but then the one living being on the planet not out for her literal blood is killed by a robot loyal to the aforementioned Chozo. [[spoiler:It is revealed by that one living being that the X came to ZDR after his people were wiped out, and that Chozo confined them to a single location... before letting Samus in to fight them and ultimately letting them out.]] The end result of all of this would justify [[EarthShatteringKaboom blowing up the whole planet]][[spoiler:, which is exactly what happens by the end of the game]].

* In ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare'', the mission "Shock and Awe" goes from bad to worse very fast. You start off rescuing an advance unit of Marines trapped by Al-Asad's fanatical soldiers, and right after evacuating them, the Cobra helicopter that's been backing you up all mission long goes down. You swoop in to save her, and learn that there's [[spoiler: a nuclear warhead found in the city]]. After you pull her out, and are bugging out of town, [[spoiler:the nuke goes off. You survive the aftermath... [[DownerEnding for a few minutes]].]] [[spoiler:The world's apathetic response to this is what motivates the big bad of ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare2''.]]

* For the most part, ''{{VideoGame/Persona 4}}'' it is a very happy game. But then, November and December happen, which are just one long downhill slide. [[spoiler:First, Nanako gets kidnapped, Dojima gets seriously injured, and one of the people struck off the suspect list at the start turns out to be the killer. Then, you save Nanako, but she's ''really sick''. During this time, the fog from the TV -- which is ''very toxic'' to non-Persona users -- starts leaking into Inaba. Then, NANAKO DIES. She gets better, but she's still critically ill. You then work out who the real killer is, and it's freaking ''Adachi'', who it's ''very'' unlikely that you suspected at that point. He gets into the TV... and reveals that ''he's trying to turn humans into [[TheHeartless Shadows]]''!]] That all gets fixed, but then March happens... [[spoiler:all of this will happen ''again'' in fifty years' time unless you destroy Izanami, a ''goddess of death'' who very nearly manages to kill ''you''.]]

* ''VideoGame/StarCraft''. The original game ends with the destruction of the Zerg Overmind, and it looks like more or less all is well -- the Protoss, honorable and advanced, are mostly in charge, and the corrupt and tyrannical Terran Confederacy has been overthrown in favor of a new human world order. But as it turns out, destroying the Overmind was useless, and by the end of ''Brood War'' not only has Protoss society been scattered to the winds, the United Earth Directorate been thoroughly beaten, and a new, just as corrupt and tyrannical Terran Dominion formed, [[spoiler: Kerrigan]] is now in charge of the Zerg, [[spoiler: after defeating the combined might of the rest of the sector]] is poised to [[spoiler: take over the entire galaxy.]] It doesn't even stop there, as [[spoiler:her [[TheDragon Dragon]] is apparently using her for his own schemes, which she doesn't seem to be aware of]].
* ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'' ends up upping the ante even further. After the first few missions of LaResistance fighting against the Dominion, [[spoiler:the Zerg suddenly launch a massive all-out attack on human space for no apparent reason, killing billions and razing entire star systems]]. Also, remember Raynor swearing in ''Brood War'' that he's going to kill Kerrigan someday? [[spoiler:Zeratul turns up and reveals that if Kerrigan dies, it will cause TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt.]] Why would that happen, you ask? [[spoiler:Because Duran was actually working for a rogue Xel'Naga that, in a BadFuture, will corrupt the Zerg and use them alongside his PhysicalGod Protoss/Zerg hybrids to annihilate all life in the galaxy. The Tal'Darim Protoss who are impeding Raynor throughout the game are already corrupted and the first Protoss/Zerg hybrids have already been set loose.]] Shit just got '''''real'''''.

*** In fall 2011 Blizzard announced [[http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/game/mists-of-pandaria/ Mists of Pandaria]], the next expansion which is about... [[PandaingToTheAudience pandas]]. And a new continent they live on. And what's basically the Fourth War. [[note]]It's actually counted. The last one was the [[http://www.wowpedia.org/Third_war Third War]].[[/note]] And that your negative emotions are coming to kill you. [[spoiler: they're the remains of one of those Eldrich Abominations]]

* An almost universal complaint of ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X3: Reunion]]'' by critics was its confusing interface, with menus buried in menus buried in more menus accessible only via key-combos. The ExpansionPack made it more far accessible, but it was still somewhat archaic and not very pretty. Come ''Videogame/XRebirth'', Egosoft attempted to make the interface more accessible, but the end result was an often incomprehensible, slow, [[ObviousBeta buggy and ugly interface with missing features]], mixed in with a pretty but slow DiegeticInterface. The old UI was eventually replaced with an updated interface similar to the one from ''X3: Albion Prelude''. One can still view the horrors by enabling the Legacy UI.

* ''[[VideoGame/{{Killzone}} Killzone 2]]''. Oooh, '''boy''', ''Killzone 2''. So, [[spoiler: Visari's dead!]] The war has finally concluded. Pshaw, [[spoiler: "The madness begins"]], right? It turns out only a few fleeting moments later that those words are ''hardly'' a lie. An [[spoiler: stupidly '''huge''' Helghast ''fleet'']] enters ''out of nowhere'', obliterates whatever aerial support the ISA ground forces still had in the blink of an eye, and, to top it off, the player character quite possibly ''resigns himself to death''.
** And then Killzone 3 reveals you can follow the script of an action movie and manage to fuck things up even more. [[spoiler:Rico manages to bungle saving the galaxy by accidentally ''destroying Helghan''. In a standard action movie, completely eradicating the fascists would be a good ending. In this series, Helghan only grew to become an authoritarian superpower because they were supplying ''most of humanity's energy''. So, the galaxy is now in an energy crisis, the surviving Helghans are forced to go back to work on their now-irradiated hellhole of a planet to barely meet energy quotas, and the only way to placate them into not going on a suicide run was to (literally) give half of Vekta to Helghan, and everyone involved is miserable.]]

* ''VideoGame/AiToYuukiToKashiwamochi'' seems like a simple, if difficult, puzzle game at first with a simple plot: A young girl named Ai is sick, and while she's sick, she dreams of a world full of sweets and her imaginary friend, a boy named Yuki. However, as the game progresses, the player gradually begins to realize that something is amiss, and sure enough there is. [[spoiler:Ai isn't simply sick, ''she's dying of cancer''. And Yuki? ''He's a {{Shinigami}} sent to guide her soul to the afterlife'']].

* ''VideoGame/MegaMan'':

** And ''then'' there's ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. You thought Kirkwall looked bad? It turns out, the events in Kirkwall caused mages all over Thedas to rebel, resulting in the [[FinalSolution Right of Annulment]] being imposed on Rivain's Circle. There's now a full-scale war between mages and templars waging all over the continent. To make matters worse, the [[ArtifactOfDoom red lyrium]] Hawke found in the deep roads [[spoiler:is being used by an [[AncientEvil ancient, sentient darkspawn]] to corrupt either the mages or the Templars, creating his own, private army with powers cranked up to eleven. He's also gotten his hands on the [[EliteArmy Grey Wardens]], used them to open the Breach, releasing an endless stream of demons into the world, and convinced them to use [[TheDarkArts blood magic]] to bind their mages to demons, essentially creating a demon army. This is all a bid to force his way into the Black City and make himself a god, never mind that this would [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the world]].]] No wonder the Warden took off.

* Fou-lu's storyline in ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIV''. He gets summoned as a god--except the summoners manage to bugger it up, only bring half the god across [[spoiler:with the other half ending up 600 years in future, on the other side of the planet.]] Then he reunites an empire only to end up as the KingInTheMountain for the next six hundred years [[spoiler:while the inheritors of the imperial throne become gradually more and more corrupt and decide not to keep that bargain with the GodEmperor they summoned.]] When he wakes up, he discovers his own empire has been telling the army he is the "Dragon of Doom" destined to destroy the empire, ends up having increasingly extreme attempts at assassination, discovers the army is also hunting down his other half, and eventually goes LaughingMad and [[KillEmAll generally stabby towards humanity]] with [[spoiler:the third assassination attempt, which involved kidnapping his Significant Other, torturing her to insanity, and using her ''as the warhead of a Nuclear Weapon Expy'' because ''her connection to him would literally [[LoveHurts make it hurt more.]]'']] And this is ''still'' not the end of the attempts to Kill The GodEmperor (and ''literally'' BullyingADragon). When Fou-lu finally makes it to the capital, the acting emperor acts as if the whole thing about the EvilEmpire setting him on fire, mauling him with Giant Owls of Doom, using his girlfriend as a Tactical Magickal Thermonuclear Warhead, and so on were a horrible mistake[[spoiler:..right before ''stabbing him in the back'' with a soul-eating sword made from the results of ''another'' botched attempt at summoning a god.]] To say Fou-lu takes this poorly [[OffWithHisHead is an understatement]], and it is perfectly reasonable in retrospect that he finds HumansAreBastards as a result. And his other half ended up with a very supportive Nakama and had a chance to learn something about humanity [[HumansAreBastards other than the inherent bastardy of people.]] And in the standard GameOver, the aforementioned other half essentially has to beat Fou-lu ''sane'' before merging with him. There is also a NonstandardGameOver where the protagonist can decide that HumansAreBastards.

* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace'': Isaac's heading to a ship to repair a transmitter and meet up with an estranged girlfriend. Said ship turns out to be overrun with [[BodyHorror some of the freakiest monsters ever]]. And it turns out that the ship's engines stopped, so that they're going to crash into the planet they're orbiting. Then, once Isaac fixes that, the ship's going to run into asteroids unless Isaac manages to shoot them down. Then, it turns out that something's poisoning the air, a MadScientist created an ImplacableMan, the cure for the air poisoning won't work until you deal with a Lovecraftian monster, then your attempts to get a call out for rescue are blocked by a [[GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere space slug that inexplicably selected the antenna array to sit around]], then it turns out the military opened a [[ChekhovsGun escape pod full of necromorphs]] and now their ship is full of [[DemonicSpider superfast necromorphs]], the regenerator returns, then TheMole is revealed, then when you finally seem to have stopped the monsters the mole returns steals the marker [[spoiler:and reveals your girlfriend was dead the whole time]], then the BigBad HiveMind shows up. Then there's an ending that implies that Isaac's either [[spoiler:freakin' insane or killed by his zombie girlfriend]]. ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' does this right off the bat and ends in [[spoiler: KillEmAll]].

** And ''then'' there's ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition''. You thought Kirkwall looked bad? It turns out, the events in Kirkwall caused mages all over Thedas to rebel, resulting in the [[FinalSolution Right of Annulment]] being imposed on Rivain's Circle. There's now a full-scale war between mages and templars waging all over the continent. To make matters worse, the [[ArtifactOfDoom red lyrium]] Hawke found in the deep roads [[spoiler:is being used by an [[AncientEvil ancient, sentient darkspawn]] to corrupt either the mages or the Templars, creating his own, private army with powers cranked UpToEleven. He's also gotten his hands on the [[EliteArmy Grey Wardens]], used them to open the Breach, releasing an endless stream of demons into the world, and convinced them to use [[TheDarkArts blood magic]] to bind their mages to demons, essentially creating a demon army. This is all a bid to force his way into the Black City and make himself a god, never mind that this would [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt destroy the world]].]] No wonder the Warden took off.

* It doesn't matter how bad the ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' world has gotten, (and let me tell you, inbetween [[{{Orochi}} the monster]] that [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ravaged the face of the planet]] and killed 50% of all life in the decade it took humanity to finally kill it; the highly poisonous fumes the monster left in its wake that, even a hundred years after its demise, makes it impossible to live at lower elevations; the [[TheEmpire totalitarian institution]] that [[WellIntentionedExtremist governs the pockets of civilization that are left]] with a [[LawfulEvil despotic and completely merciless ironfist]], [[NecessarilyEvil because it's either that or a world of chaos and high possibilities of the wrong people picking up]] [[ArtifactOfDoom the wrong weapons]]; and the {{Anti Hero}}ic man who's willing to [[ChaoticGood destroy said totalitarian institution]], and [[ChaoticNeutral kill every single]] [[PunchClockVillain person]] associated with it [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold if he has to]], in the process plunging the remaining pockets of civilization into said era of anarchy, simply so he can have his {{Revenge}} on the man who destroyed his life; it is a [[CrapsackWorld pretty bad world]],) [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[{{Troll}} Yuuki]] [[AxCrazy Terumi]] will attempt to, and most likely succeed, in making it even worse. How much worse? Read through all the stuff in the parenthesis one more time and then consider this: [[spoiler: He is behind ''everything'' listed there.]] His motives? [[ForTheEvulz Shits and giggles]], mostly... Oh and also plunging the world into his own version of paradise of truth: despair. This trope is referenced and lampshaded prior to a fateful decision in ''Slight Hope''. [[spoiler:Makoto's memory of world history doesn't match up with what everyone else is telling her (due to her being in an alternate timeline, but she doesn't know that), she's apparently gone back in time, Hazama tried to kill her, Jin is seriously injured, Tager and Kokonoe don't recognize her or her "gnu" password, and then Jin goes missing.]]

* It doesn't matter how bad the ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' world has gotten, (and let me tell you, inbetween [[{{Orochi}} the monster]] that [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt ravaged the face of the planet]] and killed 80% of all life in the one year it took humanity to finally kill it; the highly poisonous fumes the monster left in its wake that, even a hundred years after its demise, makes it impossible to live at lower elevations; the [[TheEmpire totalitarian institution]] that [[WellIntentionedExtremist governs the pockets of civilization that are left]] with a [[LawfulEvil despotic and completely merciless ironfist]], [[NecessarilyEvil because it's either that or a world of chaos and high possibilities of the wrong people picking up]] [[ArtifactOfDoom the wrong weapons]]; and the {{Anti Hero}}ic man who's willing to [[ChaoticGood destroy said totalitarian institution]], and [[ChaoticNeutral kill every single]] [[PunchClockVillain person]] associated with it [[JerkWithAHeartOfGold if he has to]], in the process plunging the remaining pockets of civilization into said era of anarchy, simply so he can have his {{Revenge}} on the man who destroyed his life; it is a [[CrapsackWorld pretty bad world]],) [[CardCarryingVillain Hazama]]/[[{{Troll}} Yuuki]] [[AxCrazy Terumi]] will attempt to, and most likely succeed, in making it even worse. How much worse? Read through all the stuff in the parenthesis one more time and then consider this: [[spoiler: He is behind ''everything'' listed there.]] His motives? [[ForTheEvulz Shits and giggles]], mostly... Oh and also plunging the world into his own version of paradise of truth: despair. This trope is referenced and lampshaded prior to a fateful decision in ''Slight Hope''. [[spoiler:Makoto's memory of world history doesn't match up with what everyone else is telling her (due to her being in an alternate timeline, but she doesn't know that), she's apparently gone back in time, Hazama tried to kill her, Jin is seriously injured, Tager and Kokonoe don't recognize her or her "gnu" password, and then Jin goes missing.]]

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfHorror'' has "Old God Stirs" events that trigger after each mystery, making the playthrough harder with each victory achieved and further imperiling the world. These include"

* ''VideoGame/RadiantSilvergun''. Want to know what happens when a Creator/{{Treasure}} game does NOT have an ExcusePlot? Why don't we start with [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt everyone and everything on Earth being wiped out in a flash]] by the just-unearthed Stone-Like, with the only survivors of humanity being on an orbiting spacecraft? Then those human survivors have to come down to the desolate Earth in about a year to replenish supplies and find out more about the Stone-Like, only to find that the planet's full of robots and other constructs [[EverythingTryingToKillYou trying to finish the job of human genocide]], and some of those survivors start dying off. Still not bad enough? At the very end of the game, [[spoiler:the Stone-Like sends the remaining survivors back 100,000 years in time for Stage 1, and at the end, finish them off-but not before Creator uses hair strands collected from Buster and Reana to make clones and start humanity anew in its final moments.]] It's so bad that [[spoiler:humanity is apparently doomed to repeat this fate again and again and AGAIN.]]

* Everything in a ''VideoGame/JakAndDaxter'' game goes wrong eventually. Even in the LighterAndSofter first game. Bombs able to blow up the universe, near-infinite supplies of Dark Eco kept in underground silos that are quite easy to open with the right robot, [[AristocratsAreEvil villainous aristocrats, AlwaysChaoticEvil aliens coming to ally with a cyborg OmnicidalManiac and, of course, whenever it looks like the world's been saved, it goes straight back to hell within the week. And Jak spends about half his life [[NiceJobBreakingItHero breaking it]].

* Most of ''[[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars: Days of Ruin]]'' could basically be summed up as this, but the first time it really hits you like a stone is the aptly named mission "Fear Experiment" where you're trying to secure an automated food factory. Up until now, you've fought a ragtag band of sadistic raiders who run around killing people to steal weapons and supplies, but the enemy in Fear Experiment is a new army who explicitly has no goal outside of [[ForTheEvulz destroying the factory so your group will starve to death]]. If that's not enough, you meet the Creeper at the end of the episode, flowers that nicely combine BodyHorror and ThePlague all in one "wonderful" package.