History PlayerPunch / StealthBasedGames

* [[VideoGame/Dishonored]] somehow manages to do this with a character who dies ''in the prologue''. The death of the empress, Jessamine, is painful enough for her being cute little Emily's mother, but if you put it together that she was secretly Corvo's lover? And the epilogue implies that he never loved another like her?

* ''VideoGame/Dishonored'' somehow manages to do this with a character who dies ''in the prologue''. The death of the empress, Jessamine, is painful enough for her being cute little Emily's mother, but if you put it together that she was secretly Corvo's lover? And the epilogue implies that he never loved another like her?

* In ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII Assassin's Creed II]]'', the first hour of the game introduces Ezio's family, and aside from the initial fight with the Pazzi, all the missions show you that the Auditore household is solid and full of love. You hang out with affable big brother Fredrico, beat up sister Claudia's cheating boyfriend, collect feathers for sickly little brother Pettruccio, and do jobs for his ReasonableAuthorityFigure parents Giovanni and Maria. They look like they're going to be part of the story for a while, especially considering the detailed profiles regarding them in the database. Then his father and brothers - yes, including the twelve-year-old Pettruccio - are hanged at Rodrigo Borgia's order, and his mother goes mute from shock when the guards who came for them tried to rape her. Oh, it is ''on now.'' Those Templar fuckers are ''going down.''

** Oh and in the end, [[spoiler:you kill the guy who turns out to be the father of the hero of ''Unity''; you know, that adorable little boy you play at the start in the opening]].

* ''[[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRouge Assassin's Creed: Rouge]]'' is essentially PlayerPunch: TheGame.

** Another strong scene is when Jensen [[spoiler: discovers Megan Reed is still alive, and is actually ''willingly'' working with the conspiracy that faked her death that Jensen has fought and investigated so hard to unravel. To drive the point home, Jensen's cybernetic mirror shades are put on at the beginning of the game, at which point all of his reactions are usually a balance between distant professionalism and biting sarcasm, even when being empathetic. When he sees Megan, his shades come off for the first and ''last'' time in the game, as he shows genuine unrestrained human emotion at seeing her alive.]]

** But the ''biggest'' player punch of the entire franchise has to come from ''MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'', the epilogue to ''Peace Walker'' and the prologue for ''MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. We are given a HopeSpot only for it to be cruelly crushed as we see Mother Base go down in flames before Big Boss' horrified eyes, and then we see Paz, [[spoiler:who is now on full Woobie mode, get blown up in a HeroicSuicide to save Big Boss and the survivors of MSF]], which unfortunately isn't enough, as the explosion still sends his helicopter crashing down, sending him into a coma that would last ''nine years!''

** But the ''biggest'' player punch of the entire franchise has to come from ''MetalGearSolidGroundZeroes'', the epilogue to ''Peace Walker'' and the prologue for ''MetalGearSolidVThePhantomPain''. We are given a HopeSpot only for it to be cruelly crushed as we see Mother Base go down in flames before Big Boss' horrified eyes, and then we see Paz, [[spoiler:who is now on full Woobie mode, get blown up in a HeroicSuicide to save Big Boss]], which unfortunately isn't enough, as the explosion still sends his helicopter crashing down, sending him into a coma that would last ''nine years!''

** In the [[FinalBattle final battle]] of ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Metal Gear Solid 3]]'' Naked Snake has to fight his beloved mentor, The Boss, in a duel to the death. She gives a long final speech about her motives and why she is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her duty, and tells Snake that he has to fulfill his own. Like in most fights of the series, she's not immediately dead after being defeated and with her last words demands that Snake shoot her with her own gun. But you don't get to simply watch Snake shoot her. [[PressXToNotDie You have to press the fire button yourself.]] There is nothing you can do about it. Even worse, if you don't do it, Snake will automatically pull the trigger after a while. This directly leads to the [[StartOfDarkness birth of Big Boss]]. The [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory feminist]] [[UnfortunateImplications overtones]] only serve to make it all the more fucked up.

* The original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has the death of [[spoiler:the horribly mentally and physically twisted Gray Fox]], crushed under the foot of Metal Gear REX. As an added bonus, you then get to repeatedly fire ''missiles'' into the ''face'' of the bastard that killed him.
** Go ahead, call Revoler Ocelot's bluff about him killing Meryl if you give into the torture.
** How often do you keep a dying villain company for their last minutes, and especially villains who repeatedly shot at your friend with a sniper rifle to lure you out of your hiding place? For [[spoiler: Sniper Wolf]] you do, and it's unbelievably sad.

*** Go ahead, call Revoler Ocelot's bluff about him killing Meryl if you give into the torture.
*** How often do you keep a dying villain company for their last minutes, and especially villains who repeatedly shot at your friend with a sniper rifle to lure you out of your hiding place? For [[spoiler: Sniper Wolf]] you do, and it's unbelievably sad.

* In the [[FinalBattle final battle]] of ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater Metal Gear Solid 3]]'' Naked Snake has to fight his beloved mentor, The Boss, in a duel to the death. She gives a long final speech about her motives and why she is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her duty, and tells Snake that he has to fulfill his own. Like in most fights of the series, she's not immediately dead after being defeated and with her last words demands that Snake shoot her with her own gun. But you don't get to simply watch Snake shoot her. [[PressXToNotDie You have to press the fire button yourself.]] There is nothing you can do about it. Even worse, if you don't do it, Snake will automatically pull the trigger after a while. This directly leads to the [[StartOfDarkness birth of Big Boss]]. The [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory feminist]] [[UnfortunateImplications overtones]] only serve to make it all the more fucked up.
** The above moment is referenced in [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPeaceWalker Peace Walker]], where Snake rides on a horse that may or may not be the Boss's own white horse to chase the titular gear, and pushes it too hard, causing it to fall over with a broken ankle, writhing in pain. Snake has to put it down, and the cutscene flashes back and forth between Snake standing over the Horse and him standing over the Boss. Once again, you have to pull the trigger.
** A cutscene in ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops]]'' has the villain indirectly kill off the first soldier you recruited in the game, who gets a little bit of screen-time, but has almost all of his emotional connection to the player being the fact that he'd been there since the beginning.
** The original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has the death of the horribly mentally and physically twisted Gray Fox, crushed under the foot of Metal Gear REX. As an added bonus, you then get to repeatedly fire ''missiles'' into the ''face'' of the bastard that killed him.

*** How often do you keep a dying villain company for their last minutes, and especially villains who repeatedly shot at your friend with a sniper rifle to lure you out of your hiding place? For Sniper Wolf, you do, and it's unbelievably sad.
** ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4GunsOfThePatriots Metal Gear Solid 4]]'' has ''multiple'' player punches. So many, in fact, that it's possible the game will ''seriously injure your psyche'' if you're not careful. Almost everyone comes out okay in the end, but ''man''.
** Even more incredibly hard hitting is the TheReasonYouSuckSpeech given to Raiden, by GW near the end of ''[[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2SonsOfLiberty Metal Gear Solid 2]]''. Even though it doesn't actually involve anyone dying, it makes a huge emotional impact by ''practically chewing out the player more so than the character''.
*** Also in ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' is Emma Emmerich's death. Just when you start to become attached to her, Vamp has to go and stab her. What makes it even sadder is the fact that Otacon hasn't seen her in years, and right when he gets to see her again, she dies. And then as he takes her parrot, the parrot keeps saying to him "Hal...Hal...I miss you...I miss you..."

* ''[[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution Deus Ex: Human Revolution]]'' and the scene [[spoiler: where the VTOL carrying yourself and Faridah Malik is shot down. She tells you to go on with the mission while she tries to repair the VTOL. Several possibilities result. One is that if the enemy forces are able to shoot up the VTOL because you took too long to escape then it explodes. Another is that if you escape quickly into a nearby elevator the enemy will capture her then execute her in front of you. Worse still, later in another level her butchered corpse, stripped of the augmentations is found lying on a autopsy slab. The ''good news'' is that you can avoid that fate by taking out the enemy. You can even do it using non-lethal stealth tactics.]]

* In the FinalBattle of ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3'' Snake has to fight his best friend and mentor in a duel to the death. She gives a long final speech about her motives and why she is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her duty, and tells Snake that he has to fulfill his own. Like in most fights of the series, she's not immediately dead after being defeated and with her last words demands that Snake shoot her with her own gun. But you don't get to simply watch Snake shoot her. [[PressXToNotDie You have to press the fire button yourself.]] Which directly leads to the [[StartOfDarkness birth of Big Boss]]. The [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory feminist]] [[UnfortunateImplications overtones]] only serve to make it all the more fucked up.
** A cutscene in ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' has the villain indirectly kill off the first soldier you collected in the game, who gets a little bit of screen-time, but has almost all of his emotional connection to the player being the fact that he'd been there since the beginning.
** The original [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid MGS]] has the death of the horribly mentally and physically twisted Grey Fox, crushed under the foot of Metal Gear REX. As an added bonus, you then get to repeatedly fire ''missiles'' into the ''face'' of the bastard that killed him.

*** How often do you keep a dying villain company for his last minutes, and especially villains who repeatedly shot at your friend with a sniper rifle to lure you out of your hiding place? For Sniper Wolf you do, and it's unbelievably sad.
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid4'' has ''multiple'' Player Punches. So many, in fact, that it's possible the game will ''seriously injure your psyche'' if you're not careful. Almost everyone comes out okay in the end, but ''man''.
** Even more incredibly hard hitting is the TheReasonYouSuckSpeech given to Raiden, by GW near the end of [[VideoGame/MetalGearSolid2 MGS2]]. Even though it doesn't actually involve anyone dying, it makes a huge emotional impact by ''practically chewing out the player more so than the character''.
*** Also in [=MGS2=] is Emma Emmerich's death. Just when you start to become attached to her, Vamp has to go and stab her. What makes it even sadder is the fact that Otacon hasn't seen her in years, and right when he gets to see her again, she dies. And then as he takes her parrot, the parrot keeps saying to him "Hal...Hal...I miss you...I miss you..."

* In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', the first hour of the game introduces Ezio's family, and aside from the initial fight with the Pazzi, all the missions show you that the Auditore household is solid and full of love. You hang out with affable big brother Fredrico, beat up sister Claudia's cheating boyfriend, collect feathers for sickly little brother Pettruccio, and do jobs for his ReasonableAuthorityFigure parents Giovanni and Maria. They look like they're going to be part of the story for a while, especially considering the detailed profiles regarding them in the database. Then his father and brothers - yes, including the twelve-year-old Pettruccio - are hanged at Rodrigo Borgia's order, and his mother goes mute from shock when the guards who came for them tried to rape her. Oh, it is ''on now.'' Those Templar fuckers are ''going down.''

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' introduces you to each of the targets by showing them commit an atrocity. The first brutally stabs a man to death for talking back to him, the second has a man's legs broken because he tried to flee the hospital of horrors, one throws a scholar onto a pile of burning books because the man argued (peaceably and politely) that books are treasures to be preserved, not destroyed, and another murders an innocent priest because he thinks the man might be ''you''...the list goes on. The player is always completely unable to intervene and has to watch these terrible things happen, even though some of them would be so easy to prevent because you're literally a few yards away from the target.

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' develops the Master Assassin and LovableRogue, Yusuf Tazim, as Ezio's closest ally in Constantinople. His boisterous antics provide much needed comic relief for the player and the two develop an incredibly close and trusting relationship. When Ezio asks Yusuf to guard his LoveInterest, Sofia, as Ezio heads off to Cappadocia to confront what he believes to be the last of the Byzantine Templars, it's not hard to see where this is going to end. Sure enough, the BigBad threatens to pull off a HostageForMacguffin scenario, and Ezio rushes back to Constantinople to find Yusuf killed in her defense. This inspires him (and the player) to a fury not seen since ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', and what follows is a RousingSpeech to the Assassins and a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' and the scene [[spoiler: where the VTOL carrying yourself and Faridah Malik is shot down. She tells you to go on with the mission while she tries to repair the VTOL. Several possibilities result. One is that if the enemy forces are able to shoot up the VTOL because you took too long to escape then it explodes. Another is that if you escape quickly into a nearby elevator the enemy will capture her then execute her in front of you. Worse still, later in another level her butchered corpse, stripped of the augmentations is found lying on a autopsy slab. The ''good news'' is that you can avoid that fate by taking out the enemy. You can even do it using non-lethal stealth tactics.]]

* ''DeusExHumanRevolution'' and the scene [[spoiler: where the VTOL carrying yourself and Faridah Malik is shot down. She tells you to go on with the mission while she tries to repair the VTOL. Several possibilities result. One is that if the enemy forces are able to shoot up the VTOL because you took too long to escape then it explodes. Another is that if you escape quickly into a nearby elevator the enemy will capture her then execute her in front of you. Worse still, later in another level her butchered corpse, stripped of the augmentations is found lying on a autopsy slab. The ''good news'' is that you can avoid that fate by taking out the enemy. You can even do it using non-lethal stealth tactics.]]

* ''DeusExHumanRevolution'' and the scene [[spoiler: where the VTOL carrying yourself and Faridah Malik is shot down. She tells you to go on with the mission while she tries to repair the VTOL. Several possibilities result. One is that if the enemy forces are able to shoot up the VTOL because you took too long to escape then it explodes. Another is that if you escape quickly into a nearby elevator the enemy will capture her then execute her in front of you. Worse still, later in another level her butcher corpse, stripped of the augmentations is found lying on a autopsy slab. The ''good news'' is that you can avoid that fate by taking out the enemy. You can even do it using non-lethal stealth tactics.]]

* ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedRevelations'' develops the Master Assassin and LovableRogue, Yusuf Tazim, as Ezio's closest ally in Constantinople. His boisterous antics provide much needed comic relief for the player and the two develop an incredibly close and trusting relationship. When Ezio asks Yusuf to guard his LoveInterest, Sofia, as Ezio heads off to Cappadocia to confront what he believes to be the last of the Byzantine Templars, it's not hard to see where this is going to end. Sure enough, the BigBad threatens to pull off a HostageForMacguffin scenario, and Ezio rushes back to Constantinople to find Yusuf killed in her defense. This inspires him (and the player) to a fury not seen since ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'', and what follows is a RousingSpeech to the Assassins and a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.

* In the FinalBattle of ''MetalGearSolid3'' Snake has to fight his best friend and mentor in a duel to the death. She gives a long final speech about her motives and why she is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her duty, and tells Snake that he has to fulfill his own. Like in most fights of the series, she's not immediately dead after being defeated and with her last words demands that Snake shoot her with her own gun. But you don't get to simply watch Snake shoot her. [[PressXToNotDie You have to press the fire button yourself.]] Which directly leads to the [[StartOfDarkness birth of Big Boss]]. The [[EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory feminist]] [[UnfortunateImplications overtones]] only serve to make it all the more fucked up.
** A cutscene in ''MetalGearSolidPortableOps'' has the villain indirectly kill off the first soldier you collected in the game, who gets a little bit of screen-time, but has almost all of his emotional connection to the player being the fact that he'd been there since the beginning.
** The original [[MetalGearSolid MGS]] has the death of the horribly mentally and physically twisted Grey Fox, crushed under the foot of Metal Gear REX. As an added bonus, you then get to repeatedly fire ''missiles'' into the ''face'' of the bastard that killed him.

** ''MetalGearSolid4'' has ''multiple'' Player Punches. So many, in fact, that it's possible the game will ''seriously injure your psyche'' if you're not careful. Almost everyone comes out okay in the end, but ''man''.
** Even more incredibly hard hitting is the TheReasonYouSuckSpeech given to Raiden, by GW near the end of [[MetalGearSolid2 MGS2]]. Even though it doesn't actually involve anyone dying, it makes a huge emotional impact by ''practically chewing out the player more so than the character''.

** A cutscene in ''Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops'' has the villain indirectly kill off the first soldier you collected in the game, who gets a little bit of screen-time, but has almost all of his emotional connection to the player being the fact that he'd been there since the beginning.
** The original ''MGS'' has the death of the horribly mentally and physically twisted Grey Fox, crushed under the foot of Metal Gear REX. As an added bonus, you then get to repeatedly fire ''missiles'' into the ''face'' of the bastard that killed him.

** How often do you keep a dying villain company for his last minutes, and especially villains who repeatedly shot at your friend with a sniper rifle to lure you out of your hiding place? For Sniper Wolf you do, and it's unbelievably sad.

** Even more incredibly hard hitting is the TheReasonYouSuckSpeech given to Raiden, by GW near the end of the game. Even though it doesn't actually involve anyone dying, it makes a huge emotional impact by ''practically chewing out the player more so than the character''.

* In the FinalBattle of ''MetalGearSolid3'' Snake has to fight his best friend and mentor in a duel to the death. She gives a long final speech about her motives and why she is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her duty, and tells Snake that he has to fulfill his own. Like in most fights of the series, she's not immediately dead after being defeated and with her last words demands that Snake shoot her with her own gun. But you don't get to simply watch Snake shoot her. [[PressXToNotDie You have to press the fire button yourself.]] Which directly leads to the [[StartOfDarkness birth of Big Boss]]. The [[UnfortunateImplications feminist overtones]] only serve to make it all the more fucked up.

* In the FinalBattle of ''MetalGearSolid3'' Snake has to fight his best friend and mentor in a duel to the death. She gives a long final speech about her motives and why she is willing to sacrifice everything to fulfill her duty, and tells Snake that he has to fulfill his own. Like in most fights of the series, she's not immediately dead after being defeated and with her last words demands that Snake shoot her with her own gun. But you don't get to simply watch Snake shoot her. [[TearJerker You have to press the fire button yourself.]] Which directly leads to the [[StartOfDarkness birth of Big Boss]].

** Another PlayerPunch from ''[=MGS3=]'' was the [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown torture]] [[ColdBloodedTorture sequence]]. By the time it was over, I wanted to ''kill'' Volgin like no other video game character I have yet seen.
*** A slight one, also from ''Snake Eater'', is if you let The End die of old age in your duel. All he wanted is a FinalBattle against a WorthyOpponent and you couldn't or wouldn't give it to him. Even Snake was saddened by that.

* ''AssassinsCreed'' introduces you to each of the targets by showing them commit an atrocity. The first brutally stabs a man to death for talking back to him, the second has a man's legs broken because he tried to flee the hospital of horrors, one throws a scholar onto a pile of burning books because the man argued (peaceably and politely) that books are treasures to be preserved, not destroyed, and another murders an innocent priest because he thinks the man might be ''you''...the list goes on. The player is always completely unable to intervene and has to watch these terrible things happen, even though some of them would be so easy to prevent because you're literally a few yards away from the target.

*** All of them except for Majd Addin, who turns out to be a psychopath who killed people for fun.