History GoneHorriblyRight / VideoGames

** And in a forgotten part of the backstory we have [[spoiler:Dr. W.D. Gaster, the previous royal scientist and the creator of the [=CORE=], who was commissioned to come up with a method that would allow the Monsters to pass through the barrier. So the good Doctor began running some experiments on [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow Determination, SAVEing and LOADing.]] The end result of said experiments? Well, Dr. Gaster certainly passed through the barrier alright... and all the walls, and all the floors, [[AndIMustScream and every single fundamental law of physics,]] ripping several people associated with him out of reality until [[RetGone nothing more than a vague memory remained in the world as a testament to the fact that poor Dr. Gaster had ever existed.]] All of his accomplishments became attributed to other people, [[ItsAWonderfulPlot and the world moved on]] [[DummiedOut as if he had never even been a part of it in the first place]]... But we needn't gossip. After all, it's rude to talk of someone who's listening.]]

** As it looks like Erusea is losing the battle over Ferbanti, they [[spoiler:launch anti satellite missiles to take down the Osean military's communications capabilities,]] and the Oseans respond by [[spoiler:launching their own anti satellite missiles.]] They both succeed in taking out the other side's [[spoiler:ability to coordinate their forces, but the ensuing orbiting debris field takes out almost all of the world's communications satellites, leading to widespread chaos, [[BalkanizeMe including a break out of numerous independence movements within Erusea]].]]

* The clones of Big Boss in the ''Franchise/MetalGear'' franchise, but most especially Solid Snake. They [[spoiler:wanted copies of the world's greatest soldier, clones who could duplicate the scope of their "father's" feats]]. They got them, alright.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' series:
** Most of the Vaults -- which were ''not'' underground bunkers designed to protect the citizenry but instead mass-scale experiments designed to evaluate their suitability for post-war survival and possibly space-travel on generation interstellar ships (read: torture them sadistically in a variety of psychological and physiological ways) have, by the time the player character stumbles upon them, have either GoneHorriblyWrong or have Gone Horribly Right instead. In either case, the result usually sees the player character find a ''lot'' of skeletal corpses lying around. It should be noted that, in an inversion of this trope, those experiments were carried away on the basis that "every single American civilian would want to be part of the Vaults to shelter themselves from an atomic tidal wave washing over the planet", cashing in the countrywide paranoia spread by the media. Standard fare, sure, but every Vault Tec CEO also believed that the news were blowing things out of proportion to press the war agenda on the masses, thus ensuring a much-needed influx of recruits and soldiers, and that nuclear warfare wouldn't be used despite looking like the likely scenario, exactly because of the SaltTheEarth implications, which are counterproductive to any war efforts.

* The Zurks that terrorize the Slums in ''VideoGame/{{Stray}}'' are revealed to be [[spoiler:mutated bacteria originally created by Neco Corp. in an effort to reduce the amount of waste in the city and facilitate its disposal. However, after the extinction of humanity, the bacteria began to grow and develop more organs along with a taste for ''far'' more than trash.]] By the time the story takes place, they're capable of eating robots alive...and they'll happily devour cat too if given the chance.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''VideoGame/ManaKhemiaAlchemistsOfAlrevis''. Roxis is experiencing exhaustion from all his studies, and Jess volunteers to cook up a medicine for him. Considering Jess' [[LethalChef track record]], Roxis wisely tries to get out of the situation, but Jess manages to feed him her concoction anyway. Surprising everyone present, Jess' tonic actually reinvigorates Roxis, removing his fatigue entirely...an effect that lasted for ''an entire week'', leaving him ''more'' exhausted than when he started.
* ''Franchise/MassEffect'':

* In ''[[VideoGame/MetroidPrime Metroid Prime: Hunters]]'', this is Kanden's backstory. It's AllThereInTheManual, but he was created as the ultimate soldier. This included downloading data into his brain to make him super aggressive. The process of raising his aggression worked SO well that Kanden destroyed the lab where he was made, along with all those in it. Now there's a super strong, possibly biologically immortal, killing machine, running around the galaxy.

** [=GlaDOS=]: Aperture Science wanted to develop an AI that was as [[ForScience committed to science]] as they were. They succeeded. Unfortunately for them, [=GlaDOS=] also embodied the company's [[MadScientist complete lack of morals or ethics]] and promptly killed them all so they wouldn't get in the way. It is clarified further in ''VideoGame/Portal2''. Her body is designed so whichever AI uses it gets an "itch" to [[DeathCourse test]] and feels [[FantasticArousal intense euphoria]] upon completing a test. Thing is, [[AIGettingHigh like real drugs]], [=AIs=] on the system develop tolerance and need to do more and more elaborate tests to get the high, as demonstrated by Wheatly throughout Chapter 8. [=GlaDOS=] was actually the most stable AI for testing because she didn't need the stimulation: "I was in it [[ForScience for the science]]. Him, though..."

*** Eggman also falls victim to this again in ''VideoGame/ShadowTheHedgehog''. Over the course of the game, Eggman tries to convince [[AntiHero Shadow]] that he is an android destined to rule the world in a bid to turn him to his side. In one of the [[BadEnding Bad Endings]] Shadow believes this lie, concluding that he's done with Eggman's meddling and [[GoryDiscretionShot kills him]]. Cut to Shadow standing atop a mound of rubble overseeing an army of robotic clones of himself. To say that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard Eggman should have learned not to try and manipulate a being on par with Sonic]] (only far less forgiving) would be an understatement.

** In one particularly memorable questline, it turns out that [[spoiler: Vae Victus, long thought dead but kept alive in captivity by the UC, engineered a Terrormorph outbreak in an effort to turn his clone daughter into a hero and restore the honor and glory of his name. He succeeds: his daughter becomes a hero for ''stopping'' the Terrormorph outbreak, destroying his research that enabled it, and reducing the Terrormorph threat from a Sword of Damocles to a minor nuisance at best. And she does it all while ''denouncing'' his name and relying on the work of others to make it happen. And he may possibly end up dead at the end of it.]]

* Most of the [[LostTechnology Lost Technology]] in ''VideoGame/WildArms1'' fell into this, hence why it ended up hidden away or destroyed while technology became feared as destructive by most of the population.
** The Guardian Blade; a living sword that channels the power of the Guardians, making it the most powerful weapon in existence. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, nobody was able to control it so it went beserk and destroyed everything in its path, creating the Ocean of Sand, a huge desert that cuts across the planet like a scar.]]
** The Holmcross Project [[spoiler: which hoped to create a series of [[ArtificialHuman Artificial Humans]] made of the same metal of the demons in an attempt to even the odds. The Holmcrosses came to love their jobs too much and started killing indiscriminately, leading to them having to be destroyed (save for one who turns out to be [[TomatoInTheMirror the main protagonist.]]]]

** A variation of this happens in second case. Phoenix successfully manages to give a thorough defense of Ron Delite, on the charges of stealing a sacred urn, proving that someone else is the culprit complete with that person confessing, and showing that Ron has a watertight alibi at the time of the theft. Ron is found not guilty and everything is going smoothly...until it's revealed that a man was murdered in the exact same place that Phoenix just proved Ron was at. Even worse, the time of death was the exact same time that Phoenix proved Ron went there. The airtight alibi Phoenix used to get Ron a not guilty verdict as a thief, is now gonna get him executed for a murder he never committed.
** It actually happens twice in that case: by proving Ron innocent of being [=Mask=]☆[=DeMasque=] and stealing the urn, Phoenix actually ''helps'' [=Mask=]☆[=DeMasque=] because he IS Ron Delite. And now, thanks to Double Jeopardy laws, he can't be tried for his crimes, meaning [[KarmaHoudini he got away scot-free from all of his crimes]]. A great job indeed.

* In ''VideoGame/TheDig'', the {{Precursors}} native to the Ghost World that the protagonists find themselves transported to found a way to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence. They found out too late that [[WhoWantsToLiveForever living forever in a void without physical sensation sucks]], and they had no way to get back.

*** Andrew Ryan himself couldn't fully keep to his ideals, and had a breakdown when Frank Fontaine proved to be a legitimate competitor who might unseat him.

** One scientist found an artifact that had unique properties that could be used to develop a method of interstellar travel. He became obsessed with researching it, hoping that such a method would enable humanity to spread among the stars. [[Spoiler: The research on the Grav Drive ended up eroding Earth's magnetic field, to the point that humanity ''had no choice'' but to spread among the stars.]] Mission accomplished.

** Chell is a horribly effective test subject. She's given a portal device and told to escape test chambers. Then she escapes a chamber that isn't supposed to have an exit. ''Lab Rat'' reveals that she was purposefully ''removed'' from the list of possible test subjects because her preliminary testing showed her to be an extreme outlier for [[TheDeterminator sheer tenacity]], thus making her potentially dangerous if ever put into a testing environment. After [=GLaDOS=]'s rebellion, Ratman decided to rig the deck by putting Chell's name back on and at the top of the list.

** [=GlaDOS=]: Aperture Science wanted to develop an AI that was as [[ForScience committed to science]] as they were. They succeeded. Unfortunately for them, [=GlaDOS=] also embodied the company's [[MadScientist complete lack of morals or ethics]] and promptly killed them all so they wouldn't get in the way. It is clarified further in ''VideoGame/Portal2''. Her body is designed so whichever AI uses it gets an "itch" to [[DeathCourse test]] and feels [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything intense euphoria]] upon completing a test. Thing is, like real drugs, AIs on the system develop tolerance and need to do more and more elaborate tests to get the high, as demonstrated by Wheatly throughout Chapter 8. [=GlaDOS=] was actually the most stable AI for testing because she didn't need the stimulation: "I was in it [[ForScience for the science]]. Him, though..."

* One of the main themes in the ''[=BioShock=]'' series.
** In ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'', Doctor Suchong was trying to figure out a way to get the Big Daddies to become super protective of the Little Sisters. When he slapped one of the Little Sisters that was pestering him while working, Suchong realized that he had succeeded when her Big Daddy brutally killed him.
*** Andrew Ryan's vision of Rapture being an objectivist utopia attracted numerous scientists who wanted to perform experiments without government interference, where the main goals were [[ForScience to see what would the end results be]] and [[MoneyDearBoy to make a profit.]] The end result?

** In ''Videogame/BioshockInfinite'', Comstock plans on raising his daughter to become a holy warlord [[spoiler:and kill everyone on the face of the earth]]. In one BadFuture timeline, she succeeds at raiding New York, but by that time she's so far gone [[spoiler:that she plans on using her dimensional-hopping abilities to burn parallel worlds as well. Also, her sons have taken control of everything but themselves. Eventually the strain horrifies herself enough to use time travel, in order to find the one man who can change the past before she goes off the deep end.]]

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'': The architect Cyrus Pinkney used a design style that was said to have the power to drive away evil. One of the buildings he designed was Arkham Asylum. Congratulations, Mr. Pinkney, you just made the most well-known CardboardPrison in all of fiction. [[InsaneTrollLogic Maybe putting the designs on the inside of the building would have worked better]]?

* ''VideoGame/NaziZombies'': In ''Black Ops 2'' zombies, you have a choice between helping [[BigGood Dr. Maxis]] and [[BigBad Dr. Richtofen]]. [[spoiler:Knowing what Edward did, you'd think that helping Maxis was the better choice, right? Wrong! He stops Richtofen, [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt but causes the end of the world anyway]]. [[NecessarilyEvil He's not too happy about it either.]]]]

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/HorizonZeroDawn'', [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Ted Faro]] wanted his "Chariot" line of [[InsistentTerminology "peacekeeping robots"]] to be completely impervious to hacking, as well as capable of self-replication and a capability to convert any biomass into fuel "in emergencies". The designers and programmers of [[MegaCorp Faro Automated Solutions]] delivered what he wanted... [[spoiler:and then the Hartz-Timor Swarm glitched out and refused to accept any more commands. The so-called "Faro Plague" began to raze human civilization and succeeded in destroying it within 16 months, consuming the Earth's entire biosphere within 4 years. It took 50 years for a subroutine of the AI GAIA to brute-force and transmit the shutdown codes, with GAIA subsequently re-seeding the Earth with life.]]

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'': Purah, a Sheikah scientist who was responsible for helping save Link 100 years ago, tried to develop an [[FountainOfYouth anti-aging]] Rune to return old Sheikah soldiers to their prime (and ensure she would live long enough to meet Link again). She tested the rune [[ProfessorGuineaPig on herself]] and it worked, but by the time Purah was able to stop the de-aging process [[ReallySevenHundredYearsOld she'd reverted to being physically about six-years-old]].

* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', the Confederacy developed special devices called Psi Emitters to lure HordeOfAlienLocusts to rebelling worlds. They worked perfectly...on the Confederacy capital world, courtesy of the protagonists.

* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestBuilders'', the city of Cantlin had a golem that was built to protect the town from threats. After the [[BigBad Dragonlord]] robbed humans of the ability to create, the survivors holed up in a fortress to save themselves from the hordes of monsters roaming the land. The golem then watched as everyone in the keep started turning on each other when supplies started running low, and seeing them fight and kill each other over the dwindling resources caused it to come to the conclusion that ''[[HumansAreTheRealMonsters humans]]'' were the biggest threat to Cantlin. As a result, it joined up with the region's monsters and is the first major boss encountered in the game.

* In ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' the god Sin was the only deity sane enough to see that divinity was transforming his fellows into inhuman, tyrannical monsters. Unwilling or able to kill them, he created the Beast, a being of unfathomable magical power, to lull the gods into slumber and let humanity forge its own path. To avoid simply replacing one godlike overlord with another, he deliberately created the Beast to be a passive, peaceful creature with no ambitions of its own. Which meant that when the mage Malachai the Soulless pierced its hide he faced no resistance as he took up residence within its core and bound its power to his twisted will.
* The Anti-Shadow Weapon project from ''VideoGame/Persona4Arena'' was meant to create a weapon with a heart (so that it could wield the power of Persona and fight Shadows). However, no one involved the project really thought through what would happen if they treated such a weapon like dirt and tried to force it to be a mindless killing machine. [[TurnedAgainstTheirMasters The weapon rebels against them, attacking them with a fledgling version of the very power they hoped to control.]] [[SarcasmMode Good work on that, guys.]]

*** The MadScientist Xel'naga who was responsible for uplifting the Zerg wanted to fuse them with the Protoss to create a better, more easily controlled version of the Xel'naga. They never expected [[spoiler:what would happen if the Zerg tried to fuse with a completely different species, [[LoopholeAbuse following their directive of creating a superior Xel'naga while knowing that specific species was genetically hard-wired to resist domination from a higher power]]. Kerrighan decides she's done being Amon's slave and beats the crap out of him with actual Xel'naga powers she took from one of his other projects.]]

* The final mission of ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' reveals that [[spoiler:the entire invasion, SortingAlgorithmOfEvil and all, was a ploy by the alien collective to uplift the humans into a species that is effective in combat, intelligent, and capable of using [[PsychicPowers the Gift]] and then assimilate them]]. Naturally, they got more than they bargained for.
** In the sequel, [[spoiler:they mind-control the commander into tactically supervising their entire army via telepathic signals, while they develop human-Elder hybrid bodies made from millions of human test subjects. The commander uses both of these to blast his way to their secret base and personally rip them apart.]]

* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs'': It was unwise for ComicBook/TheJoker to mock a widowed ComicBook/{{Superman}} after the clown tricked him into killing his own wife Lois Lane and nuking Metropolis. But the MonsterClown had the last laugh when Superman kills him off for good. Joker wanted to break his ArchEnemy ComicBook/{{Batman}}, but he failed every time and knew it would be wiser to go after someone even more vulnerable. If he were alive, he would've laughed at the chaos he unleashed in his wake, as the Justice League splinters apart when Superman established a planetary dictatorship [[KnightTemplar bent on ending crime at all costs]], triggering a mutual distrust between Batman and Superman, with the latter arguing that much of the misery could have been avoided if Joker was in a more secure facility than a CardboardPrison like Arkham, whose inmates never reform. By the end of ''Injustice'', Superman has become no different from Joker, ranting about his miseries but not caring about the collateral damage his reign of terror has caused.

-->'''Ares:'''That day... I was trying to make you a great warrior!\\

** In earlier generations, [[StockNessMonster Lapras]] was a rare Pokémon that could often only be obtained as a gift, with the Pokédex mentioning that this was because of its status as an EndangeredSpecies. By ''Sun and Moon'', preservation efforts have successfully brought the species back from the brink...except now it's suffering from ''overpopulation'' problems.

** In ''Forever'', it's the older scientist's cousin who screws up with another of his creations, the experimental Parisian Cat, whom said cousin had sent out with the intention of cleaning the restaurant he and the younger scientist's cousin were working at in a similar manner to the Grey Goo. At least the Parisian Cat seems fine with only eating the entirety of Paris (where the restaurant was located).

** In ''Tasty Planet Forever'', the scientists screw up once again with the experimental Parisian Cat, whom the older one had sent out with the intention of cleaning the restaurant they were working at in a similar manner to the Grey Goo. At least the Parisian Cat seems fine with only eating the entirety of Paris (where the restaurant was located).

** In ''Torna, the Golden Country'', Malos, being a BloodKnight tries to trigger Mythra's full power, and when she refuses to do so, he forces it out [[spoiler:by killing Milton]]. It succeeds, but Malos almost dies as a result.