History IDidWhatIHadToDo / VideoGames

* A CentralTheme in ''VideoGame/FrostPunk''. The game is about managing a Victorian colony surviving a post-apocalyptic ice age. Players can introduce unsavoury edicts like making children work manual labour jobs and burying the dead in mass graves. If the player is too harsh then people will lose hope and resent the leader and eventually banish him out into the wilderness to die. If the player doesn't implement any of them they will run into some serious resource problems. Later on, a massive crisis event happens [[spoiler:when the city discovers that the neighbouring settlement Winterhome is completely dead and a faction forms to try to escape back down to London, which is also destroyed - the people of your colony are the last living humans left. At this point a new decision opens up to turn the colony into either a totalitarian dictatorship or a religious theocracy which starts out more benign but gradually becomes NotSoDifferent.]]

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': [[spoiler:[[GodEmperor Lucian]]]] orchestrated both a FantasticNuke against the [[ApocalypseCult Black Ring]] and a FinalSolution against Sourcerers to end the threat of the Void. When challenged, he says that his actions were terrible but necessary for a lasting peace. However, the massive civilian casualties from the first attack [[UpsettingTheBalance weakened the gods]] and actually ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero caused]]'' the Voidwoken invasion in the first place, and he let [[TheDragon Dallis]]' faction of sadistic {{Knight Templar}}s run unchecked, worsening the situation further.

* ''VideoGame/DivinityOriginalSinII'': [[spoiler:[[GodEmperor Lucian]]]] orchestrated both a FantasticNuke against the [[ApocalypseCult Black Ring]] and a FinalSolution against Sourcerers to end the threat of the Void. When challenged, he says that his actions were terrible but necessary for a lasting peace. However, the massive civilian casualties from the first attack [[UpsettingTheBalance weakened the gods]] and actually ''[[NiceJobBreakingItHero caused]]'' the Voidwoken invasion in the first place, and to persecute Sourcerers, he let [[TheDragon Dallis]]' faction of sadistic {{Knight Templar}}s run unchecked, worsening the situation even further.

[[Examples H to O]]

* "[[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture Science]] - [[ForScience We do what we must, because we can]]."

* At the end of Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/SallyFace,'' Ashley says that Sal was found by the police muttering, "I had no choice, I had to do it, there wasn't any other way," to himself over and over after being forced to kill everyone in Addison Apartments in order to prevent [[BigBad The Red-Eyed Demon]] from being able to find a new host to inhabit.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** At the end of ''VideoGame/HaloCombatEvolved'', Cortana says this about having to blow up Halo (killing any survivor who was still there) in order to save the galaxy, though it's clear from her tone of voice that she's trying to convince herself and the Master Chief, not stating her actual feelings.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', the Sangheili Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum decides to completely incinerate a Flood-infected portion of Africa, a decision to which Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood initially reacts with hostility, but is forced to realize that there was nothing else to do.
--->'''Rtas 'Vadum''': "A Flood army, a Gravemind, has you in its sights - you barely survived a small contamination."
--->'''Lord Hood''': "And you, Shipmaster, just glassed half a continent! Maybe the Flood isn't all I should be worried about."
--->'''Rtas 'Vadum''': "One single Flood spore can destroy a ''species''. Were it not for the Arbiter's counsel, I would have glassed your entire ''planet''!"
** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] took some quite morally questionable actions during their tenure as the supreme civilization in the galaxy, but pretty much everyone agrees that firing the Halo Array and killing everything left in the galaxy 100,000 years ago was a justified move, given that otherwise the Flood would have overrun everything. It helps that it's made clear that this was a last-ditch plan; the Forerunners had tried all kinds of less destructive methods first, and those all failed. The Forerunners further did take precautions to re-seed life in the galaxy afterward. In fact, when the Forerunner who pressed the button is asked about his decision to do so, he says that he'd do it again if he had to, despite the fact that he himself was reluctant to do it for the longest time.
** Dr. Halsey spends much of the series grappling with being the creator of the SPARTAN-II program, which involved kidnapping 75 children from their families, replacing them with flash clones (which swiftly died), and turning said children into deadly {{Super Soldier}}s through experimental and highly-dangerous medical treatments which kill or cripple more than half. The reason why she originally conceived the idea in the first place was that she saw them as the only way to prevent the UNSC from falling into civil war, but [[VideoGame/HaloReach her journal]] makes it clear that she sometimes has trouble convincing herself that it was all worth it. She ultimately decides to make up for her sins by doing everything she can to help her Spartans survive. That said, she'll still pull this trope whenever people ask her about the [=IIs=]; when she's interrogated about the shady aspects of the S-II program at the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'', she points out that her Spartans played a key role in saving humanity from the Covenant. This one's more of a blatant self-justification, as the interrogator quickly points out that the [=IIs=] were originally tended to fight human rebels.

* Subverted more humorously in ''VideoGame/LostOdyssey''; Jansen Friedh tells Queen Ming, "I had to do what I had to do back there," and then admits that what he "had to do" was pretty much "sit there and let you save me."

---->'''Balak''': You could have saved them. Who's the real terrorist here?
---->'''Shepard''': You. But you're dead. *gunshot*

** In The Arrival DLC after Shepard [[spoiler:destroys an ENTIRE SOLAR SYSTEM, killing over 300,000 batarians (s/he does this whether you're Paragon or Renegade) s/he defends the decision to Admiral Hackett who after a few minutes concedes that s/he had no other choice. He says that this will not stop the fallout and s/he will be put to trial for the deaths and war will likely come with the batarians.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/CommandAndConquer Red Alert 3]]'' has the President of the United States say [[spoiler:"Well, since you don't have the guts to do what needs to be done, I'm gonna wipe those Soviets off the face of the Earth myself! And you can't stop me! If my heart stops beating, the weapon fires!"]]
* Faldio from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' justifies his [[spoiler:shooting of Alicia to activate her Valkyria powers]] as needed to save Gallia. Unlike most examples of this trope, he felt guilty after he had a chance to think about his actions [[spoiler:which led to his HeroicSacrifice at the Marmota]].

* In ''VideoGame/NeverwinterNights2'', [[spoiler: Ammon Jerro]] goes on and on and on about how he "did what he had to do".
* Said word-for-word by Tyrande Whisperwind in ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}} 3: The Frozen Throne'' regarding the freeing of Illidan Stormrage. She does later suggest that she regrets this decision, though.
** Also said word-for-word by Alexstrasza in VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft response to killing her brother Malygos to end the Nexus War after the raid defeats him. She then says that he had to be stopped, but [[FallenHero he was once a hero]], and she [[AlasPoorVillain will mourn his loss]].
** Jaina Proudmoore says this in response to [[spoiler:expelling the Sunreavers from Dalaran after finding out that Garrosh used the city's portal network to steal the Divine Bell from Darnassus]].
* In order to [[ScrewDestiny change his own destiny]], [[spoiler: Cid Raines]] in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII'' [[spoiler: chose to oppose and kill the party, as it was originally his focus as a [[BlessedWithSuck l'Cie]] to help them. This was an attempt to make himself somewhat human again, and it should be noted that he held no ill-will towards the party whilst doing so]].

* ''Franchise/DragonAge'':
** In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', if the main character asks Alistair if the [[BadassArmy Grey Wardens]] are like heroes, Alistair responds that the Wardens do whatever is necessary, implying that that includes some pretty unheroic stuff. Depending on your decisions, a ruthless yet well-meaning warden may find themselves using this justification a lot.
** [[spoiler: Anders]] uses this as justification for [[spoiler: blowing up the Chantry]] in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII''.
** Defied by Ser Ruth, a Grey Warden in ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition''. She willingly submits to the Inquisition's justice, knowing that death is the likely punishment she will suffer. When it's pointed out that as a Grey Warden she could invoke this trope, she refuses to do so. As far as she's concerned, being a Warden doesn't excuse her for [[spoiler:murdering a fellow Warden for a BloodMagic sacrifice as so many others did]]. She also admits that she's done worse for less cause in the past [[KarmaHoudini using the Wardens' carte blanche to do anything if it means fighting the Blights to avoid punishment]]. Ser Ruth believes it's high time Wardens stopped using their duty to justify horrible crimes and wants her fate to set an example for them. Thus the only punishment she will dislike is [[spoiler:being sent to the Deep Roads to die alone, because it's the only one that won't send any clear message]].
** Leliana has taken this road, with the threat so great she resorts to DirtyBusiness to protect her friends and allies, while hating herself for doing so.
* Unknown Pan-Asian Coallition leader(s) from ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' are guilty of this trope. Their world was turning into CrapsackWorld thanks to new ice age. And only warm place left is the Africa, which is being prepared as warm hidey-place for Europian Union (and possibly also for USA). PAC launched an unprovoked and merciless attack to conquer Africa for itself. But from their point of view, it was thing of survival of their nations, and PAC are not considered as bad guys by any means in the game. They might have been even on good terms with EU before, but did what they had to do for their nations.
** And EU in the end did the same by kicking them out of Africa to freeze.
* King Logan of ''VideoGame/FableIII''. He was a ruthless tyrant who oppressed his people and brutally exploited them to maximize the profits of his kingdom. [[spoiler: It later turns out that he was doing all of that to build up an army to defend the kingdom against an inevitable attack by a monstrous horde of darkness incarnate. What's a few years of misery under his tyrannic rule if the alternative is the death of all life, right? Well, no. By putting in some effort the player can prove Logan wrong by turning the kingdom into a prosperous utopia all while defending it from the attack all the same.]]
* [[spoiler:Kouin]] in ''VisualNovel/EienNoAselia'' uses this as a justification for his actions. He has to do what he has to do [[spoiler:in order to save Kyouko, who has been devoured by her sword, Void.]]
* In ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorney'', Lana Skye has this attitude about forging evidence to help convict serial killer Joe Darke. [[spoiler:It turns out that she's actually motivated to protect her younger sister Ema from being framed by Gant]].
** By extension, [[spoiler:[[SupportingProtagonist Phoenix Wright]] forging evidence]] in ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' just to find the truth largely because [[spoiler:the real incriminating evidence had been removed. Taking down the person who destroyed his career and by extension removed said incriminating evidence, Kristoph Gavin, was an unintended bonus on his part]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Bastion}}'', the kid needs to destroy the petrified remains of other children who were hit by the calamity to get to a warp gate.
* In ''VideoGame/MetroidOtherM'', we learn that, when Samus was a federation soldier, Adam [[spoiler:sacrificed his brother, Ian,]] to ensure that everyone onboard the ship he was commanding didn't die. Later he sacrificed himself to [[spoiler:ensure that Samus didn't get herself killed going into Sector Zero]].
* In ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'', the eponymous line is crossed several times by several people who invariably fall back on this as an excuse. A major theme in the game is that people who use this justification are largely deluding themselves, including [[spoiler:Captain Martin Walker, the protagonist himself, who starts ''actually having delusions'', and Colonel John Konrad, who killed himself when he couldn't convince himself of it anymore.]]
* In ''VideoGame/DuelSaviorDestiny'' [[spoiler:Muriel Sheerfield]] is trying to kill the Messiah despite the legends [[spoiler:because she knows that the actual Messiah awakening would be a very bad thing along the lines of an end of the world situation.]]
* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the player can choose this attitude for the Jedi Exile when talking about the Mandalorian Wars. [[spoiler:Kreia claims that this is also why Revan turned to the Dark Side and started the Jedi Civil War because he had to protect the Galaxy from a threat that the Republic couldn't handle]].
* ''VisualNovel/LittleBusters'': [[spoiler:Kyousuke is a sympathetic example in Refrain. He feels completely terrible that his actions in the previous timeline caused Rin so much damage, which he never intended. However, he is still convinced that Rin and Riki absolutely need to get stronger if they're going to survive the events of the future and he's still determined to do whatever is necessary to achieve that.]]
* The bright, colourful and friendly Exiles of [[VideoGame/WildStar WildStar]] have done some terrible things to survive in a galaxy controlled by their worst enemies, the Dominion.
* [[SubvertedTrope Attempted]] by [[KidFromTheFuture Lucina]] in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening''. When she realizes that [[spoiler:The Avatar]] is being controlled, she draws her sword and prepares to kill them on the spot to prevent the BadFuture. Chrom stops her before she can, [[spoiler: or if you are her mother or husband, [[HeroicBSOD she stops herself.]]]]
* In ''VideoGame/AStudyInSteampunk'', you play a doctor in an {{expy}} of Victorian Britain (specifically, an expy of [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Watson]]). At one point, you're tasked with dealing with a cholera outbreak. [[spoiler: If you want to save the most lives possible, then you have to harden your heart and treat absolutely nobody until you've found the contaminated water pump. Leave that sick baby to die; going out to nurse him will mean other people die because you delayed in making that map of the outbreak.]]

* A CentralTheme in ''VideoGame/FrostPunk''. The game is about managing a Victorian colony surviving a post-apocalyptic ice age. Players can introduce unsavoury edicts like making children work manual labour jobs and burying the dead in mass graves. If the player is too harsh then people will lose hope and resent the leader and eventually banish him out into the wilderness to die. If the player doesn't implement any of them they will run into some serious resource problems. Later on, a massive crisis event happens [[spoiler:when the city discovers that the neighbouring settlement Winterhome is completely dead and a faction forms to try to escape back down to London, which is also destroyed - the people of your colony are the last living humans left. At this point a new decision opens up to turn the colony into either a totalitarian dictatorship or a religious theocracy which starts out more benign but gradually becomes NotSoDifferent.]]

-->'''Rtas 'Vadum''': "A Flood army, a Gravemind, has you in its sights - you barely survived a small contamination."
-->'''Lord Hood''': "And you, Shipmaster, just glassed half a continent! Maybe the Flood isn't all I should be worried about."
-->'''Rtas 'Vadum''': "One single Flood spore can destroy a ''species''. Were it not for the Arbiter's counsel, I would have glassed your entire ''planet''!"

** Dr. Halsey spends much of the series grappling with being the creator of the SPARTAN-II program, which involved kidnapping 75 children from their families, replacing them with flash clones (which swiftly died), and turning said children into deadly {{Super Soldier}}s through experimental and highly-dangerous medical treatments which kill or cripple more than half. The reason why she originally conceived the idea in the first place was because she saw them as the only way to prevent the UNSC from falling into civil war, but [[VideoGame/HaloReach her journal]] makes it clear that she sometimes has trouble convincing herself that it was all worth it. She ultimately decides to make up for her sins by doing everything she can to help her Spartans survive. That said, she'll still pull this trope whenever people ask her about the [=IIs=]; when she's interrogated about the shady aspects of the S-II program at the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'', she points out that her Spartans played a key role in saving humanity from the Covenant. This one's more of a blatant self-justification, as the interrogator quickly points out that the [=IIs=] were originally tended to fight human rebels.

---> '''Balak''': You could have saved them. Who's the real terrorist here?
---> '''Shepard''': You. But you're dead. *gunshot*

*** Although in [[VideoGame/MassEffect3 ME3]], you discover that [[spoiler: the Spectres knew that [[TheExtremistWasRight Shepard was telling the truth]] about the [[EldritchAbomination Reapers]]]] - turning [[spoiler: Tela]] into either a complete hypocrite, or a foolish cynic, knowingly working with someone actively trying to screw over the galaxy's [[PlayerCharacter best hope]] for survival by turning over his/her [[spoiler: [[OnlyMostlyDead almost-corpse]] over to the [[BrainwashedAndCrazy Collectors]], rather than the aforementioned [[WellIntentionedExtremist Cerberus]], who - [[AsYouKnow as you know by now]] - ended up constructing a new body for Shepard's frozen-but-completely-intact brain.]]

* Faldio from ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles'' justifies his [[spoiler:shooting of Alicia to activate her Valkyria powers]] as needed to save Gallia. Unlike most examples of this trope, he felt guilty after he had a chance to think about his actions [[spoiler:which led to his his HeroicSacrifice at the Marmota]].

** Defied by Ser Ruth, a Grey Warden in ''Videogame/DragonAgeInquisition''. She willingly submits to the Inquisition's justice, knowing that death is the likely punishment she will suffer. When it's pointed out that as a Grey Warden she could invoke this trope, she refuses to do so. As far as she's concerned, being a Warden doesn't excuse her for [[spoiler:murdering a fellow Warden for a BloodMagic sacrifice as so many others did]]. She also admits that she's done worse for less cause in the past [[KarmaHoudini using the Wardens' carte blanche to do anything if it means fighting the Blights to avoid punishment]]. Ser Ruth believes it's high time Wardens stopped using their duty to justify horrible crimes, and wants her fate to set an example for them. Thus the only punishment she will dislike is [[spoiler:being sent to the Deep Roads to die alone, because it's the only one that won't send any clear message]].

* Unknown Pan-Asian Coallition leader(s) from ''VideoGame/Battlefield2142'' are guilty of this trope. Their world was turning into CrapsackWorld thanks to new ice age. And only warm place left is the Africa, which is being prepared as warm hidey-place for Europian Union (and possibly also for USA). PAC launched an unprovocked ad merciless attack to conquer Africa for itself. But from their point of view, it was thing of survival of their nations, and PAC are not considered as bad guys by any means in the game. They might have been even on good terms with EU before, but did what they had to do for their nations.

* King Logan of ''VideoGame/FableIII''. He was a ruthless tyrant who opressed his people and brutally exploited them to maximize the profits of his kingdom. [[spoiler: It later turns out that he was doing all of that to build up an army to defend the kingdom against an inevitable attack by a monstrous horde of darkness incarnate. What's a few years of misery under his tyranic rule if the alternative is the death of all life, right? Well, no. By putting in some effort the player can prove Logan wrong by turning the kingdom into a prosperous utopia all while defending it from the attack all the same.]]

* In ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'', the player can choose this attitude for the Jedi Exile when talking about the Mandalorian Wars. [[spoiler:Kreia claims that this is also why Revan turned to the Dark Side and started the Jedi Civil War, because he had to protect the Galaxy from a threat that the Republic couldn't handle]].

* A CentralTheme in ''VideoGame/FrostPunk''. The game is about managing a Victorian colony surviving a post-apocalyptic ice age. Players can introduce unsavoury edicts like making children work manual labour jobs and burying the dead in mass graves. If the player is too harsh then people will lose hope and resent the leader and eventually banish him out into the wilderness to die. If the player doesn't implement any of them they will run into some serious resource problems. Later on a massive crisis event happens [[spoiler:when the city discovers that the neighbouring settlement Winterhome is completely dead and a faction forms to try to escape back down to London, which is also destroyed - the people of your colony are the last living humans left. At this point a new decision opens up to turn the colony into either a totalitarian dictatorship or a religious theocracy which starts out more benign but gradually becomes NotSoDifferent.]]

* ''[[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars Dual-Strike]]'' has the player, as Jake, be presented with a choice: Either he can kill the BigBad, who is [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt draining the life force out of the entire planet]] in order to extend his own life, and has ([[OffstageVillainy presumably]]) killed millions if not billions of lives in doing so, or he can sit and watch as the villain wipes out all life on the planet to extend his own life just a little longer. Maybe this would trouble a normal kid, but Jake is ''a military officer who has just fought a war to get to this point'', and has ordered the deaths of hundreds, if not tens of thousands of [[WhatMeasureIsAMook enemy soldiers]] and [[WeHaveReserves made decisions that inevitably lead to his own units' deaths]]. In fact, you are graded upon the ''efficiency'' with which you mow down your opponents and minimize sacrifices. If you, for some reason, decide not to save the world, [[TheAtoner Hawke]] will [[BigDamnVillains do it for you]]... [[TakeThatAudience you coward.]]

* At the end of Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/SallyFace,'' Ashley says that Sal was found by the police muttering, "I had no choice," to himself over and over after being forced to kill everyone in Addison Apartments in order to prevent [[BigBad The Red-Eyed Demon]] from being able to find a new host to inhabit.

* At the end of Episode 4 of ''VideoGame/SallyFace,'' Ashley says that Sal was found by the police muttering "I had no choice" to himself over and over after being forced to kill everyone in Addison Apartments in order to prevent [[BigBad The Red-Eyes Demon]] from being able to find a new host to inhabit.

* ''[[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars Dual-Strike]]'' has the player, as Jake, be presented with a choice: Either he can kill the BigBad, who is [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt draining the life force out of the entire planet]] in order to extend his own life, and has ([[OffstageVillainy presumably]]) killed millions if not billions of lives in doing so, or he can sit and watch as the villain wipes out all life on the planet to extend his own life just a little longer. Maybe this would trouble a normal kid, but Jake is ''a military officer who has just fought a war to get to this point'', and has ordered the deaths of hundreds, if not tens of thousands of [[WhatMeasureIsAMook enemy soldiers]] and [[WeHaveReserves made decisions that inevitably lead to his own units' deaths]]. In fact, you are graded upon the ''efficiency'' with which you mow down your opponents and minimize sacrifices. If you, for some reason, decide not to save the world, [[TheAtoner Hawke]] will [[BigDamnVillains do it for you]]... [[TakeThatAudience you coward]].

* Unknown Pan-Asian Coallition leader(s) from ''VVideoGame/Battlefield2142'' are guilty of this trope. Their world was turning into CrapsackWorld thanks to new ice age. And only warm place left is the Africa, which is being prepared as warm hidey-place for Europian Union (and possibly also for USA). PAC launched an unprovocked ad merciless attack to conquer Africa for itself. But from their point of view, it was thing of survival of their nations, and PAC are not considered as bad guys by any means in the game. They might have been even on good terms with EU before, but did what they had to do for their nations.

** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] took some quite morally questionable actions during their tenure as the supreme civilization in the galaxy, but pretty much everyone agrees that firing the Halo Array and killing everything left in the galaxy 100,000 years ago was a justified move, given that otherwise the Flood would have overrun everything. And the Forerunners did take precautions to re-seed life in the galaxy afterward. In fact, when the Forerunner who pressed the button is asked about his decision to do so, he says that he'd do it again if he had to, despite the fact that he himself was reluctant to do it for the longest time.

* ''[[VideoGame/AdvanceWars Advance Wars Dual-Strike]]'' has the player, as Jake, be presented with a choice: Either he can kill the BigBad, who is [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt draining the life force out of the entire planet]] in order to extend his own life, and has ([[OffstageVillainy presumably]]) killed millions if not billions of lives in doing so, or he can sit and watch as the villain wipes out all life on the planet to extend his own life just a little longer. Maybe this would trouble a normal kid, but Jake is ''a military officer who has just fought a war to get to this point'', and has ordered the deaths of hundreds, if not tens of thousands of [[WhatMeasureIsAMook enemy soldiers]] and [[WeHaveReserves made decisions that inevitably lead to his own units' deaths]]. In fact, you are graded upon the ''efficiency'' with which you mow down your opponents and minimize sacrifices. If you, for some reason, decide not to save the world, [[TheAtoner Hawke]] will [[BigDamnVillains do it for you]]... [[YouSuck you coward]].

* [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid The Boss.]] Arguably others might count as well.

* In ''[[OgreBattle Tactics Ogre]]'', if your player goes down the Law route, [[spoiler: in which you kill a bunch of innocent people]], this will be your response to people like [[spoiler: Vice]], who challenge your methods and cynical view.

* Subverted more humorously in ''LostOdyssey''; Jansen Friedh tells Queen Ming, "I had to do what I had to do back there," and then admits that what he "had to do" was pretty much "sit there and let you save me."

* "[[VideoGame/{{Portal}} Aperture Science]] - We do what we must, [[ForTheEvulz because we can]]."

* Cortana, in the final CutScene of the original ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'', though it's clear from her tone of voice that she's trying to convince herself and the Master Chief, not stating her actual feelings.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Halo 3}}'', the Sangheili Shipmaster Rtas 'Vadum decides to completely incinerate a Flood-infected portion of Africa, a decision to which Fleet Admiral Lord Terrence Hood initially reacts with hostility, but he is forced to realize that there was nothing else to do.

** The [[{{Precursors}} Forerunners]] took some quite morally questionable actions during their tenure as the supreme civilization in the galaxy, but pretty much everyone (in game and out) agrees that firing the Halo Array and killing everything in the galaxy 100,000 years ago was a justified move, given that otherwise the Flood would have overrun everything. And the Forerunners did take precautions to re-seed life in the galaxy afterward.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Halo 4}}'', this is how Dr. Halsey justifies the Spartan project.

* Unknown Pan-Asian Coallition leader(s) from ''VideoGame/{{Battlefield}} 2142'' are guilty of this trope. Their world was turning into CrapsackWorld thanks to new ice age. And only warm place left is the Africa, which is being prepared as warm hidey-place for Europian Union (and possibly also for USA). PAC launched an unprovocked ad merciless attack to conquer Africa for itself. But from their point of view, it was thing of survival of their nations, and PAC are not considered as bad guys by any means in the game. They might have been even on good terms with EU before, but did what they had to do for their nations.

* Used often in ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'', during the personal conversations between Altair and [[TheKnightsTemplar his Templar victims]]. Actually said by both sides, with Altair explaining that he has to kill the Templars for the sake of the Holy Land, and [[KnightTemplar the Templars]] justifying their own heinous crimes.

* In [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic Knights Of The Old Republic II]], the player can choose this attitude for the Jedi Exile when talking about the Mandalorian Wars. [[spoiler:Kreia claims that this is also why Revan turned to the Dark Side and started the Jedi Civil War, because he had to protect the Galaxy from a threat that the Republic couldn't handle]].

----

** By extension, [[spoiler:[[SupportingProtagonist Phoenix Wright]] forging evidence]] in ''[[ApolloJusticeAceAttorney Apollo Justice]]'' just to find the truth largely because [[spoiler:the real incriminating evidence had been removed. Taking down the person who destroyed his career and by extension removed said incriminating evidence, Kristoph Gavin, was an unintended bonus on his part]].

* In ''MetroidOtherM'', we learn that, when Samus was a federation soldier, Adam [[spoiler:sacrificed his brother, Ian,]] to ensure that everyone onboard the ship he was commanding didn't die. Later he sacrificed himself to [[spoiler:ensure that Samus didn't get herself killed going into Sector Zero]].

** Leliana has taken this road, with the threat so great she resorts to DirtuBusiness to protect her friends and allies, while hating herself for doing so.

* In ''VideoGame/AStudyInSteampunk'', you play a doctor in an {{expy}} of Victorian Britain (specifically, an expy of [[Literature/SherlockHolmes Watson]]). At one point, you're tasked with dealing with a cholera outbreak. [[spoiler: If you want to save the most lives possible, then you have to harden your heart and treat absolutely nobody until you've found the contaminated water pump. Leave that sick baby to die; going out to nurse him will mean other people die because you delayed in making that map of the outbreak.