History VideoGameCrueltyPotential / FirstPersonShooter

*** You can do that to [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Headcrab Zombines]] in one of the episodes. One entire level in VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}, entitled We Don't Go To Ravenholm, revolves Gordon killing [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Headcrab Zombies]] with a variety of traps laid out by [[AxCrazy Father Grigori]] that include [[CarFu cars being dropped like anvils]] and one zombie in a cage were Gordon can fill it with gas and light it with a stray spark from the cage. An [[BraggingRightsReward achievement]] you can get is going through the entire level with only [[ImprovisedWeapon the Gravity Gun, traps, and spare objects]].

* In ''[[MetroLastLight Metro: Last Light]]'', a player who's going on a no-kill run can punch out a number of enemy soldiers in a sequence set on the surface, where the air is toxic. You can then yank out their gas masks' air filters for your own use while they're lying unconscious on the floor, [[TechnicalPacifist which means you still didn't really kill them]].

* Caleb in ''{{Blood}} 2'' can regain lost health by killing hapless civilians (who uselessly shield themselves with their arms and beg you to spare their lives even as you hack at them with your knife) and harvesting their life force.

* ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' from 2009 allows the player to be exceedingly cruel to anyone on the opposite end of the barrel. Options include simply shooting them to exploding limbs with high caliber weapons, burning, blowing up, stabbing them in the throat with bayonets or vaporizing with one of the [[NaziSuperScience rayguns]]. All of it's excused by them being Nazis (and by the looks of it the worst psychopaths from all branches of the Heer and SS).

*** You can also finish Rojas after Ghost tortures him, or let the favelas gangs do it, which is maybe less cruel, depending how you do it, and kill all chickens you see in Brazil (there are a lot).

** ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'', in addition to the usual array of cruel and unusual deaths that can be inflicted via Vigors or specialised weapons, also gives the player free reign to run around Columbia murdering random civilians everywhere they go, with no storyline penalties whatsoever. In terms of things that can be done strictly to enemies, though, the various Sky-Hook executions probably take the cake-- its ''very first'' usage has you burying its spinning hooks into a poor chap's face, bloodily rendering it into hamburger meat amid a series of horrible whirring and crunching noises. Other Sky-Hook kills include catching a guy's neck in the blades and snapping it, doing the same only to ''grind his entire head off his neck'' in the process, and jamming the blades into their chests before lifting them up by it and tossing them aside.

** ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: ModernWarfare 2'' has the infamous "No Russian" level in which [[spoiler:you gun down unarmed civilians in an airport. You can CHOOSE how many people you kill; the game doesn't care either way. The game allows you to skip the level, and there's no completion penalty if you do.]]

* ''VideoGame/{{Wolfenstein}}'' from 2009 allows the player to be exceedingly cruel to anyone on the opposite end of the barrel. Options include simply shooting them to exploding limbs with high caliber weapons, burning, blowing up, stabbing them in the throat with bayonets or vaporizing with one of the [[NaziSuperScience rayguns]]. All of it's excused by them being Nazis (and by the looks of it the worst psychopaths from all branches of the Heer and SS).

* The original ''SyphonFilter'' had the Air Taser which, when used on enemies, would shock the living bejeezus out of them. And you could hold them in this state until they [[ManOnFire CAUGHT ON FIRE.]] Did I mention they would often [[NightmareFuel scream horrifically the whole time?]] Also, this weapon is available from the very beginning, costs no ammunition to use, and counts as a STEALTH weapon.

* ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' and its sequel ''VideoGame/{{BioShock 2}}'' firstly allow you to dispense with enemies with varying degrees of sadism. The greatest cruelty potential, however, is in how you deal with the Little Sisters. Dealing with them in a certain way results in immediate material gain for you, but existence failure for them. The shame the player may feel over acting so selfishly is exacerbated in the sequel by the re-tooled design and voice acting of the Little Sisters ramping up their cuteness and vulnerability; oh yeah, and [[spoiler:the way that if you Harvest the Little Sisters throughout the game, you bring about the worst possible ending, and you also have to play the final section of the game alongside Eleanor, knowing what a sociopath you've made her and not being able to make it better.]]
** In ''Bioshock 2'', you can also shoot the unarmed nice old nanny on the face, or put a drill through her head. She's only taunting you a little bit, and doesn't try to fight at all.

** ''BioshockInfinite'', in addition to the usual array of cruel and unusual deaths that can be inflicted via Vigors or specialised weapons, also gives the player free reign to run around Columbia murdering random civilians everywhere they go, with no storyline penalties whatsoever. In terms of things that can be done strictly to enemies, though, the various Sky-Hook executions probably take the cake-- its ''very first'' usage has you burying its spinning hooks into a poor chap's face, bloodily rendering it into hamburger meat amid a series of horrible whirring and crunching noises. Other Sky-Hook kills include catching a guy's neck in the blades and snapping it, doing the same only to ''grind his entire head off his neck'' in the process, and jamming the blades into their chests before lifting them up by it and tossing them aside.

** In ''Bioshock 2'', you can also shoot the unarmed nice old nanny on the face, or put a drill through her head. She's only taunting you a little bit, and doesn't try to fight at all.
** ''BioshockInfinite'', in addition to the usual array of cruel and unusual deaths that can be inflicted via Vigors or specialised weapons, also gives the player free reign to run around Columbia murdering random civilians everywhere they go, with no storyline penalties whatsoever. In terms of things that can be done strictly to enemies, though, the various Sky-Hook executions probably take the cake-- its ''very first'' usage has you burying its spinning hooks into a poor chap's face, bloodily rendering it into hamburger meat amid a series of horrible whirring and crunching noises. Other Sky-Hook kills include catching a guy's neck in the blades and snapping it, doing the same only to ''grind his entire head off his neck'' in the process, and jamming the blades into their chests before lifting them up by it and tossing them aside.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life|1}}'' and its expansions, you can kill helpful {{NPC}}s for the hell of it, or in the case of Barney (and in HL:OF, the military {{NPC}}s) kill them just to get the extra ammo when they refuse to go another step. "Don't shoot, I'm a scientist" is just begging for it, really.
** Killing some specific NPC's too early (or at all) can get you a NonstandardGameOver though.
*** An example is using cheat codes to get all the weapons before activating the "plot machine" and murdering all the scientists who are in charge of starting it up. Though really, in Half-Life...not starting it would have been a good thing.
** VideoGame/{{Half-Life 2}}, setting enemy soldiers on fire and watching them flail around in a vain attempt to put themselves out is immensely satisfying. Don't do this on zombies, though, as they will scream bloody murder.
*** YMMV, however. Some players find their screams of pain HILARIOUS.

* ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'' gives you the possibility to go around being a [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] JerkAss slaughtering civilians, and the only thing that changes people's reaction to you is whether or not you're in Darkness mode... which is to say, random people in the subway will always be nice to you even if you've killed most of [[BigApplesauce New York City]] in incredibly brutal ways, as long as you don't have CombatTentacles sprouting from your back and shoulders. [[SomebodyElsesProblem Which may in fact be accurate.]]

* In the game ''VideoGame/HitmanAbsolution'', Lenny Dexter, son of the BigBad, ''always'' is dispatched through VideoGameCrueltyPotential. There is no way around it. The one method that is the most humane in Lenny's eyes is to put a non-silenced bullet through his head, even though you can kill him with tomahawks, bombs, shotguns, assault rifles, bongs, march him over to an old carriage full of explosive crates and watch him explode. He will not fight back and his attempts to escape through your car all end hilariously.
** Actually, the most inhumane way to dispatch him is to get back in your car and drive away, and since the cell phone Lenny has has no reception and you murdered his entire crew anyways, chances are he dies from starvation, thirst, heat stroke, or the three, potentially [[EyeScream eye-hungry]] buzzards that have been circling overhead.

* ''TheDarkness'' gives you the possibility to go around being a [[KickTheDog dog-kicking]] JerkAss slaughtering civilians, and the only thing that changes people's reaction to you is whether or not you're in Darkness mode... which is to say, random people in the subway will always be nice to you even if you've killed most of [[BigApplesauce New York City]] in incredibly brutal ways, as long as you don't have CombatTentacles sprouting from your back and shoulders. [[SomebodyElsesProblem Which may in fact be accurate.]]

* ''BioShock'' and its sequel ''[=BioShock=] 2'' firstly allow you to dispense with enemies with varying degrees of sadism. The greatest cruelty potential, however, is in how you deal with the Little Sisters. Dealing with them in a certain way results in immediate material gain for you, but existence failure for them. The shame the player may feel over acting so selfishly is exacerbated in the sequel by the re-tooled design and voice acting of the Little Sisters ramping up their cuteness and vulnerability; oh yeah, and [[spoiler:the way that if you Harvest the Little Sisters throughout the game, you bring about the worst possible ending, and you also have to play the final section of the game alongside Eleanor, knowing what a sociopath you've made her and not being able to make it better.]]

* In the ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'' series, it's always fun to shoot your own marines. In the very first one, you can shoot Captain Keyes in the face with his own gun. This prompts Cortana to summon invincible marines to kill you, though.

* ''TimeSplitters'' has a few examples. In several levels, you have the option to either fight it out with mooks, or just shoot the explosives near them and watch them all get wiped out. There are also weapons called Plasma Grenades (or you'd probably know them as Sticky Grenades). When you hit somebody with one, it sticks to them as they run away panicking for several seconds before it goes off. However, if you stick it to their feet or legs, it won't just blow them away, it will ''launch them several feet in the air.''

** In ''VideoGame/Halo Reach'', however, killing a civilian causes your character to immediately drop dead.