Melee A Trois / Video Games

• Ace Combat:
  • The uncut Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere eventually had four sides fighting each other in every one of its Multiple Endings: UPEO vs. General Resource vs. Neucom vs. Ouroboros. In fact, each ending was mainly characterized by who your character was fighting for in the end (Ouroboros technically got two).
  • Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War had the setup of Yuktobania vs. Osea vs. Belka in the last few missions. Also, your own squadron had to fight all of them at once until the truth about the third participant went public.
  • One mission in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War briefly descends into this, with the Allied Forces intercepting a group of Belkan bombers and escorts, only for a second group of Belkans to show up and open fire on the first group to try to prevent them from dropping their nuclear payload. The latter group won't target you, but you can still shoot them down if you want extra money and don't care about being seen as a moral-less merc.
  • Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown: after the Usean satellite network is destroyed in Mission 15, communications on both sides of the conflict are severed. Chain of command disintegrates for both Osea and Erusea, with Erusea's military splintering into anti-war conservatives versus pro-war radicals, and Osean penal units taking advantage of the chaos to attack their captors and escape. In Mission 16, all vehicles are designated as "Unknown" until you can do a visual fly-by to positively identify them, with Oseans shooting Oseans until your AWACS can send the updated data out. And to make matters worse, no comms means the Erusean UAV fleet is unable to receive updated orders from their human controllers, so the drone AI programs begin acting on their own as defined by their dangerously vague mission parameters and overriding the Erusean military's authority as to what constitutes a "target.".
• Alien vs. Predator games have Predators vs. Aliens vs. Space Marines vs. Weyland-Yutani.
• Armored Core is kind of complicated in a way this trope is played. In 2 it was Zio Matrix vs. Emurade vs. Balena, with the LCC later joining with Balena. But it led to some confusion involving a Civil War between Zio on Earth and on Mars and Balena being caught between the now Corrupted Martian government and the Earth Government.
• Assassin's Creed:
  • Assassin's Creed: Revelations has this, between the Ottoman guard, the Byzantine Templars and their guards, and the Assassins. It's not uncommon to see both of the opposing factions fighting (or sometimes cause it by forcing them to meet somewhere).
  • Assassin's Creed III: Neither the Assassins nor Templars have any loyalty to either side in the American Revolution. Haytham makes it clear that he cares nothing about England's "idiot king", and Connor is motivated purely by personal vengeance and doesn't really give a damn if America wins independence. The very messy political situation is reflected in the ending, where the Colonial Templars have been wiped out, England has lost its colonies, and Connor realizes that the men he slew, though certainly despicable, weren't in any way responsible for the destruction of his village, while the man who was is now the most powerful man in the newly-formed United States of America.
  • Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag: Bartholomew Roberts flees to Principe in the near the end of the game after the British and Spanish navies take notice of his conquests throughout the Caribbean. Edward Kenway catches wind of his trail and pursues him there, eventually arriving and forcing Roberts to take to the seas once again. His escape causes him to accidentally sail directly into an absolutely massive battle between the British and Spanish fleets both arriving off the coast at the same time. Both sides immediately turn their guns on Bart and he is forced to return fire in every direction while Edward attempts to navigate himself onto the ship to kill him.
• The Vehicular Combat MMORPG Auto Assault involves conflicts between Humans, Mutants and Biomeks.
• Azure Striker Gunvolt Series has at least two.
  • 1 has QUILL (whom GV is part of), a resistance movement who wanted to liberate all Adepts from oppression and opposes Sumeragi that perform inhumane experiments on them as an alternate energy resource, and later joining the frey is Copen who wanted to take down Sumeragi and exterminate all Adepts down to man, woman, and child.
  • 2 has GV (accompanied by Joule and supported by Xiao) fighting against Eden that wanted to create an Adept paradise by killing all non-Adepts. Then there's Copen (now accompanied by Lola and supported by Nori) who still commits to Adept genocide.
• In Baldur's Gate II:
  • Before ending chapter 1 you might find a vampire and some shadow thieves fighting each other, whoever survives will then attack you, even if you gave assistance against the other.
  • In chapter 4, the crew of Saemon Havarian, the Githyanki, and the Sahuagin (while you are technically included among the first, you might consider yourself a fourth side caught into the frail).
  • Inside the Watcher's Keep, your party against the demons and the devils both fighting each other in the Blood War (though you face them separately).
• In Battlefield 4, the multiplayer maps can be played with some combination of the United States, Russian Federation and the People's Republic of China, though the maps can only be played with two factions at once.
• Happens sometimes in random missions in BattleTech, particularly ones to kill specific enemies: a third party will occassionally arrive who also wants to kill the target. This is actually a good thing if the target happens to be in a big, nasty mech since you can pull back and let both sides pound each other for a few rounds before you swoop in with your fresh lance to mop up the survivors. It also happens at the end of the Heavy Metal flashpoint, when you find yourself going up against Natasha Kerinsky *and* the Bounty Hunter, and each of their overpowered lances- the only chance you really have is to make sure they spend more time shooting each other.
• In BioShock 2, you occasionally come across a group of Splicers trying (and always failing) to bring down a Big Daddy. It's always scripted, though, as Splicers will otherwise leave the Big Daddies alone even in your absence in both games. Which makes sense; if every Big Daddy had to constantly fight off every Splicer they run across, you could just follow them around and wait for their health to get whittled down — helping yourself to free Splicer loot all the way. Luckily there are still ways to force this.
• BioShock Infinite, meanwhile, has the fights between the Vox and the Columbia police, which become this once the Vox turns on you.
• In Bloodborne, the Beast Possessed Soul is outright hostile to everything when he is a mob, and will attack the other creatures within its sight. You can use it to dispatch other creatures for you.
• The final boss battle in BloodRayne is a three-way fight between Rayne, the super-powered Nazi Commander, and the Devil. Earlier in the game, there are also three-way fights between Rayne, the Nazis and various Vampire creatures. Before that, we also get Rayne vs. the Nazis vs. the Daemites.
• The final few missions of the main story in Borderlands see the protagonist mowing down dozens of both Crimson Lance soldiers and the indigenous "Guardian" aliens as the two also battle each other.
• Broken Helix focused on a U.S. marine team being sent to Area 51 to eliminate both renegade scientists and aliens (including hybrids). The player can join either of them.
• Near the conclusion of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, after General Shepherd's betrayal, the player is caught in a battle between Makarov's men and Shepherd's, though you're encouraged to let them kill each other off (because, as always, they'll all drop everything to focus on you if you make your presence known).
• Civilization:
  • Design-wise, the ideology system in Civilization V should always lead to this trope more or less occurring in any given game. Although civilizations with different ideologies (Autocracy, Freedom, Order) do not necessarily have to enter into a direct military confrontation against one another, a conflict of some kind between them is practically inevitable for a good reason, as the ideological choice of any civilization will have an impact not only on their own population but also on those of other civs (provided that the civilization in question is culturally influential enough), thereby increasing interest in chosen ideology being adopted as widely as possible. Though the difference in itself does not mean a guaranteed bad relationship until the end of the game (a penalty it gives is difficult to overcome but possible), civilizations with common ideological beliefs are still much more likely to cooperate with each other, including to counteract adherents of other worldview systems.
  • The affinity system in Civilization: Beyond Earth also aims to cause such situations in one variation or the other. The further factions go in developing their selected affinity (Harmony, Purity, Supremacy), the more they are inclined to fully understand only those who made the same choice, not least due to them having common ultimate aspirations. This tendency makes itself felt when approaching any victory type associated with a certain affinity: while adherents of other affinities will always have something to say to you in protest, like-minded factions won't be concerned about your progress, even though there can only be one winner. Moreover, they might be interested in allying with you against the former, who, in turn, may try to stop you from making a "critical mistake". That said, similarly to Civilization V, factions with different affinities do not automatically become eternal enemies for this reason alone, so one can conclude that the confrontation manifests itself not so much during the gameplay as in the narrative.
• Command & Conquer:
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge downplays this. The only actual three-way battle between the Allies, Soviets, and Yuri occurs in the first mission (either the Allies use their time machine to travel back to the beginning of the war, fighting off the initial Soviet invasion then moving to take out Yuri's Psychic Dominator, or the Soviets capture the machine from the Allies, then go back in time with it to destroy the Dominator), and even then whoever uses the time machine still focuses on taking out the other faction first before paying much mind to Yuri.
  • Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 has the Allies vs the Soviets vs the Empire of the Rising Sun.
  • Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars has the plot start of with a traditional war with the Brotherhood of Nod staring an assault on the GDI Blue Zones after Nod disables Goddard Space Center and nukes the defenseless GDS Philedelphia space station. However, through deliberate plotting by Kane (supreme leader of Nod), the GDI forces take the bait Kane left them and are manipulated into firing their Ion Cannon upon the desired target, which alerts the Scrin to invade Earth and turns the war into controlled free for all. This is all according to Kane's grand scheme so that he can capture Scrin technology for his longterm goals agenda, and without any of the others realizing it.
    • The Scrin even make note in their campaign over how odd it is that GDI and Nod continue to skirmish with one another at every chance even with the presence of what should be a common enemy.
    • In the mission "Operation Stiletto" as Nod, the GDI and Scrin are launching full scale assaults against each other and you have to make sure they don't completely destroy each other while you capture each other's construction yards.
• Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back has Crash himself stuck in the middle of one, as it's N. Brio's forces vs. Neo Cortex and N. Gin vs. Coco (who tries to warn Crash about Cortex manipulating him). Of course, since it's Crash who is the hero, he ultimately defeats Cortex and N. Gin, and he, Coco and N. Brio use the gems to destroy Cortex's space station. The N. Sane Trilogy version skews things even further by having Coco directly help Crash herself via time travel.
• Crusader Kings: If two separate claimants launch wars for a title, they automatically become hostile to each other as well. This mechanic can sometimes result in a morass of warfare consuming entire continents.
• Crysis has the USA vs. North Korea vs. Aliens, but only in the expansion game Crysis Warhead. In the original Crysis, the Koreans were killed off right as the aliens showed up. You see Koreans standing around everywhere, frozen solid.
  • Crysis 2 & 3 have a similar dynamic, with you fighting both CELL PMCs and the Ceph who also fight each other.
• The Moonshine Mob in Cuphead is a fight between a mob consisting of bugs and ant cops, with the player caught in the middle of the fight. With the exception of the snail, none of the mobsters directly attack the player, and the cops try to attack the mobsters.
• Dark Souls III:
  • The Darkwraiths and Ghrus in Farron Keep are hostile to each other. The Ghru may still attack you while fending off the Darkwraiths, but the Darkwraiths are much stronger and would prioritise on killing the Ghru first, usually resulting in the Darkwraiths defeating a pack of Ghrus before focusing on you.
  • PvP in general can potentially lead to one of these fights if the player ends up fighting invading phantoms from different factions who don't just team up against you. The sequels take it up even further if you use the Seed of the Giant Tree during these encounters, as it makes the enemies hostile to the invaders in addition to already trying to kill you.
  • This is a key part of the first phase of the Abyss Watchers fight. The first two Watchers are hostile only to you, but some of the ones that emerge after that are corrupted by the Abyss and will attack anyone who gets close enough - and the uncorrupted ones will attack their corrupted brethren in return, giving you an opening to strike while they're distracted.
• Dead Island:
  • In the Jungle level, a local militia would make an attempt to gun you down at a waterfall. What they don't know is the zombies will ambush them. You can let them fight each other and then finish off the remaining foes.
  • The same scenario happens again in the Prison. The Police is hostile to everyone since they are overly paranoid. You can let them fend off the zombies and then finish them off, or finish the cops first and then the zombies.
  • You can deliberately invoke this by baiting the zombies to the Punks in the Town level.
• In Dawn of War it's a ménage à quatre: you have the Imperium (Space Marines + some Imperial Guard support), the Orks, the Eldar, and Chaos all fighting for different goals around the demon artifact in the planet. In terms of gameplay, though, you will actually only see the Eldar briefly repel some Orks in their introductory mission, and later join your forces in the final battle after you long fought each other.
  • In Winter Assault you have the "order" forces comprising the Imperial Guard + the Eldar, and the "disorder" forces comprising the Orks + Chaos. The alliances are quite fragile, though, particularly in the disorder campaign where Orks and Chaos fight each other as much as they fight the order. In the penultimate order mission, you can switch to the Eldar and to win you have to necessarily fight your former imperial allies, while also fending off Chaos and Ork forces. The penultimate disorder mission is the same from the other side, but no matter if you prefer Chaos or Orks you are counted as enemies, while the Imperial Guard and the Eldar are united against you.
    • The final mission for every faction is always at least order vs disorder vs Necrons, and with the Orks the disorder is definitely broken and you have to fight Chaos as well. It can be hilarious to see your opponents fight each other while you pierce them from the distance.
  • In Dark Crusade you have SEVEN factions fighting for planet Kronus: Space Marines, Imperial Guard, Orks, Eldar, Chaos, Necrons, and Tau. While in the strategic map everybody is against anybody, during battles you will never go beyond a 1vs1 though.
  • In Soulstorm it's the same, but you add the Sisters of Battle and the Dark Eldar, bringing the factions fighting for the Kaurava system to NINE.
    • The Unification mod further expands the faction list by adding the Undivided Daemons, the Ordo Malleus, and the Tyranids.
• Dawn of War II returns back to the ménage à quatre: Space Marines, Orks, Eldar, and Tyranids fighting in the Aurelia sector without alliances. In actual missions, you will rarely see more than one enemy though. The Eldar in their introductory mission are seen fighting the Orks and you can interfere or let them kill each other. The Tyranids and the Orks will fight at Angel Gate and more notably in Remnants of the Dark Age - where you can satisfactorily see them engage in a melee mess, and if you want, you can call artillery strikes on them just for fun.
  • In Retribution the campaign implicitly assumes that all the previous four forces plus the Imperial Guard and the Chaos Marines fight for their objective, with the faction controlled by the player being the one that ultimately wins.
• Demon Skin has a stage set in a Gladiatorial arena, containing every previous enemy type you ever encountered. Said stage is a free-for-all bloodbath where everyone in the arena - you included - tries killing each other until only one remains.
• Devil May Cry:
  • In Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, the conflict between Dante, Vergil and Lady, until Arkham de-allied with Vergil and led the Sons of Sparda to work together against him, while Dante Befriended Lady shortly as well.
  • In Devil May Cry 4, there are actually three factions: the Player Characters Dante and Nero, the Order of the Sword, and the Demons. When you're in a battle with enemies from both enemy factions, they will occasionally attack each other instead of Dante/Nero if you stand back long enough and watch the carnage. You're given hints about this situation in Mission 9 when two Assault enemies that were introduced in the last mission jump past and ignore Nero to attack the two Bianco Angelos guarding the Order of the Sword HQ, only to be killed effortlessly as part of an introduction for the Alto Angelo enemies and later in Mission 12 when Fortuna comes under attack, and the Savior and its army of Bianco and Alto Angelos come in to attack the Mephisto army.
• Several of the battles in Devil Survivor are like this, and frequently let you choose to intervene on one side or another. In one particularly complex example on Day 6, you have to intervene to stop some demon tamers from escaping the barricade in the midst of a fight between several angels and demons. You can choose to fight either the angels, the demons, or both; meanwhile both the angels and demons will try to kill the tamers before you can defeat them and remove them from battle, resulting in a game over.
• The Item World in Disgaea. In the earliest levels, the "specialists" that you must kill to level up your weapon ignore everything until you attack them, at which point they may counter, but won't attack. Once you get deeper in, however, you see that their "NPC Ally" designation on your map screen isn't just for show, and you may have to pull off some tricky maneuvers to make sure your enemies don't kill them first if they start out too far away.
• Dragon Age: Origins: While there're many factions and individuals with their own agendas competing with each other across Ferelden, the main conflict is between the Grey Wardens and their allies, Loghain and his allies, and the Darkspawn. The main plot is about the Grey Wardens trying to gather allies in order to fight off the Darkspawn, while being antagonized by Loghain, who betrayed them in an attempt to seize Ferelden for himself, forcing the Grey Wardens to deal with him first before they can deal with the Archdemon.
• As discussed in Dragon Age II and Dragon Age: Inquisition, the island nation of Seheron is currently being fought over by the Qunari, the Tal-Vashoth (former Qunari), the Tevinter Imperium and the Fog Warriors (Seheron natives).
• In Driver's final mission, The President's Run, both the NYPD and the Mafia are all over Tanner like fire ants.
• In Drunk on Nectar, the tiger beetle, dragonfly, and spider are all engaged in a 3-way rivalry as they're the only species that can prey and be preyed on by each other.
• Dynasty Warriors 6 has two of these in Lu Bu’s Musou Mode. His second battle has him suddenly rush into the Battle of Guandu and he fights both Cao Cao and Yuan Shao’s armies at the same time. His fourth stage has him butt in on the Battle of Chi Bi, and he fights both the Coalition Forces and Cao Cao’s Forces at once. Both scenarios are eventually subverted, due to the armies involved forming an Enemy Mine in an attempt to stop Lu Bu, not that it does them any good.
• A first for the series, in Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain introduces the Kindred Rebellion, who will fight you and the EDF as much as the giant insects are trying to kill and eat the both of you.
• The Elder Scrolls:
  • In The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Skyrim finds itself in the middle of three different wars: an active war between the Cyrodilic Empire and the Stormcloaks, a cold war between the Empire and the Thalmor, and everyone versus the dragons. One of the missions you can elect to take during the main mission chain is to call a meeting between the three factions to get them to stop their fighting and accept a truce in order to fight the dragons. Meanwhile, the Forsworn want to kill all the Nords in one part of Skyrim and Harkon's vampires want to make the sun never rise again in order to rule over the mortal world. And to top it all off, the player themselves can be a force to be reckoned with, following their own agenda, if they so wish.
  • Before that, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion featured seven specially named goblin tribes whose lairs contain totem staves, which the player can steal and give to another tribe to provoke a war. The only time most players encounter this mechanic is a sidequest where a farmstead placed right between the caves of two warring goblin tribes asks the player to stop them fighting nearby. The players' options range wildly here, from wiping one or both tribes out, returning the staff one tribe stole from the other, or stealing them both yourself and dropping them somewhere else to simply move the fighting.
  • The Elder Scrolls Online has the Aldmeri Dominion (High Elves, Wood Elves and Khajiit) vs. the Ebonheart Pact (Nords, Dark Elves and Argonians) vs. the Daggerfall Covenant (Orcs, Bretons and Redguards). Naturally, PVP devolves into this quickly.
• End of Nations the player chooses to side with either the Liberation Front, and the Shadow Revolution, as they fight the Order of Nations and each other.
• EndWar pits the United States, the European Federation and Russia against each other in a three-way conventional war; they simply don't nuke each other into oblivion due to a nuclear missile defence shield covering the territories of all combatants.
• Escape Velocity Override features the Strand War, fought between the Zidagar, Igadzra and Azdagari (all cultures of the same species). Word of God is that it was deliberately set up this way: their original home-planet was nuked by internal warfare into being a dead rock. The Council that was set up by the survivors debated how best to ensure the survival of the species. The answer they came up with was to split the species into three sides, as that would be the number easiest to keep balanced in war, while a single state would be at greater risk from internal unrest outside the Council's influence. This works fine until they run into humans, who are apparently born meddlers and there's not a single Council operative amongst them, so the Council ends up going 'fuck this' and just openly assuming control, ending the Strand War.
• EXTRAPOWER: Attack of Darkforce: This becomes the heroes' plan to defeat Dark Force, to pull his mothership into the Yami world, where its alien physics disrupt his ship's teleportation technology. Then, while Dark Force and the Yami Clan waste troops on each other, the heroes launch a strike against both Yami and Dark Force factions.
• Fallout:
  • Fallout 3 has the Brotherhood of Steel as the main good faction and the Enclave as the main antagonists, along with several lesser factions fighting with or against the player as well as each other. At the optional Capitol Building, you may get involved in a four-way battle between yourself, the Enclave's troops, the Super Mutants, and the Talon Company Mercs. In another location, there can be a threesome between Outcasts (friendly to the player unless you piss them off), Mutants, and Raiders. Or better still, Raiders, a Yao Guai, a Deathclaw, and a Sentry Bot.
  • Fallout: New Vegas involves an upcoming battle for Hoover Dam between the New California Republic, Caesar's Legion and Mr. House and his Securitrons, with the main character deciding who they want to side with as the Wild Card of the game. Of course, if the players wish, they can even fight for an Independent New Vegas in which they essentially take over Vegas. It gets even more complicated with DLC, which reveals that Elijah and Ulysses also want to wipe out the three main factions competing in the Mojave. And they fully have the means to do it.
  • Fallout 4:
    • You have four different factions: the Brotherhood of Steel, the Minutemen, the Railroad, and the Institute, all with their own agendas. Aside from the Minutemen and Railroad, who mostly don't care about each other, all of them oppose all the others. In the story mission The Battle of Bunker Hill, you actually have a three-way brawl between the Railroad, the Institute, and the Brotherhood. At that point in the game, it's entirely possible to be working for all three factions, so they'll all treat you as a friendly. Even if you're busy slaughtering them. The battle can get even more complicated if an outside force like Raiders, Super Mutants, or a hungry Deathclaw get attracted by all the fighting.
    • The DLC continues the tradition. Automatron has the Sole Survivor and Ada, plus other robots they may have crafted, versus the Mechanist's robots, vs. the Rust Devils and their robots, while Far Harbor pits the citizens of the titular harbor town, the synth colony of Acadia, and the Children of Atom against each other, as well as possibly the Institute or the Brotherhood if the Sole Survivor has allied with one of them.
• Mercenaries vs. Trigens vs. Jack, Val and Doyle in Far Cry. The level "Rebellion" showcases it best, when Jack has to go through battle sites between the Trigens and the Mercs, and can be targeted by both if he doesn't wait for one side to be wiped out.
• Final Fantasy:
  • The plot of Final Fantasy VII quickly becomes a three-way battle between Cloud's group, Shinra and Sephiroth.
  • In Final Fantasy XIII, some Random Encounters will have one group of monsters fighting another group of rival monsters. You can use this to your advantage to take out the stronger group as the weaker ones whittle their health away.
    • In Chapter 12, Cocoon's capital city Eden gets invaded by no fewer than 3 different factions: your six l'Cie party members, the traitorous army faction known as the Cavalry, and a truly ludicrous number of monsters from Pulse. The ensuing battles feature the l'Cie vs. Eden's Homeguard army vs. the Pulse monsters vs. the Cavalry. Even though the l'Cie & the Cavalry are supposed to be on the same side, but it wasn't their fault they got turned into crystal zombies.
  • Frontline PvP battles in Final Fantasy XIV pit players of the three Grand Companies of Eorzea (Limsa Lominsa's Maelstrom, Ul'dah's Immortal Flames, and Gridania's Order of the Twin Adder) against one another.
• The Fire Emblem franchise averted this for a long time, where enemy factions who should theoretically hate each other just as much as you will Gang Up on the Human, though some later games have warmed up to the trope.
  • In Chapter 12 of Fire Emblem Warriors. Hoshido and Nohr are manipulated into fighting each other, and it's up to you to subdue both of them while preventing them from killing each other. In addition, Pincer Escape maps in History Mode set you up against two rival factions and task you with bringing them both down.
  • The trope then appeared in the main series with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, with a number of examples. Firstly, the trope is invoked by the academy that serves as the game’s main setting, with the school year including two mock battles that take place between the houses. While the first one is treated as a Gang Up on the Human in gameplay, the second one is a proper example of the trope, where both rival houses will be just as willing to attack each other when they can. The second mock battle is called back to after the time skip in two of the story routes, where the three factions meet up on the same battlefield, only this time, it’s a real battle. There are also optional auxiliary battles, where the player’s army must take on a group of bandits, and a giant monster is also present on the map, which is too feral minded to side with anyone.
  • In Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes:
    • Several fights can involve a three-way between your group, the enemy army, and a giant monster that will kill anything that gets in its way. While this sort of fight is usually restricted to a Side Quest in regular missions where you can ignore the giant monster in favor of defeating the enemy army, auxiliary missions have this as their defacto scenario, often with two or more giant monsters before an enemy army suddenly shows up to attack.
    • On the Scarlet Blaze route, if you kill Jeralt in Chapter 10, Byleth later convinces Claude to double-cross Edelgard during the fight in the Valley of Torment, turning what should have been a united front against the Kingdom of Faerghus and Church of Seiros into a free-for-all with the Adrestian Empire, Faerghus/Church, Leicester Alliance, and Byleth all fighting for their own purposes.
    • The final mission of the Scarlet Blaze route has the Empire, the Church, and the Agarthans all fighting each other in Garreg Mach and the Final Boss being a Dual Boss against Rhea and Thales together who are also taking potshots at each other the whole time, rather than just being one or the other on the other routes.
    • Often in auxillary battles on the war map, your chosen faction will be battling another major one (such as "The Leicester Alliance is battling Imperial Soldiers"), only for a 3rd faction, usually bandits, showing up midway through it.
  • In Fire Emblem Engage, Fell Xenologue 4 involves a three-way fight between the Divine Dragon and their cohort, the alternate Elusia, and the alternate Solm.
• FEAR's later levels have three-for-alls between the F.E.A.R. and Delta Force units, the Replicas, and ATC's rent-a-cops.
  • The original's game's second expansion pack, Perseus Mandate, adds the Nightcrawlers to the fray, making it a Melee A Quatre.
• In Galak-Z: The Dimensional, The Empire, Void Raiders, and Space Bugs aggro on one another just as much as they aggro on the player.
• By the third game in the series, the conflict in Gears of War has the remains of humanity, the Locust, and the Lambent locked in a three-way war.
• God of War III: After the inevitable betrayal of Kratos by Gaia, the Second Titanomachy turns into this, with the Olympians vs. the Titans vs. Kratos and his remaining few allies (Pandora, Athena, Hephaestus); the latter two predictably tries to betray him later on.
• The Story Mode in Godzilla Unleashed consists of four sides: Earth Defenders, Global Defense Forces, Aliens, and Mutants. The sides differ on how they deal with the crystals that arrived from a meteorite and start royally screwing up the Earth, sent by the Big Bad Spacegodzilla. The Earth Defenders goes out of its way to destroy the crystals, even though their efforts do cause massive property damage. The Global Defense Forces work to stop the monsters running amok from trampling all the cities, and try to maintain order throughout the course of the game. The Aliens are loyal to the Vortaak and want to use the crystals to conquer and enslave Earth. The Mutants wish to use the crystals for power and are willing to trample anyone to get it, whether they are monsters, humans, or aliens.
• There's a brief one in Grand Theft Auto V, with the meth/arms trafficking wars between Trevor Philips Enterprises, The Lost MC, the Varrios Los Aztecas and the O'Neil brothers. Shortly after the player gains control of him for the first time, Trevor proceeds to wipe out all opposing sides almost entirely by himself.
  • Later on in the mission "The Wrap-Up", a four-way shootout occurs with Michael, Dave Norton and Trevor vs. an FIB SWAT team vs. a team of IAA agents vs. a whole platoon of Merryweather mercenaries with several Buzzard attack helicopters. And it should be noted that Michael, Dave, and Trevor are all on shaky ground with each other to begin with.
  • The possible final mission, "The Third Way", begins with a grueling shootout between the three protagonists (Franklin, Michael, and Trevor), a team of FIB agents, and some Merryweather mercenaries. True to the trope, the FIB agents and Merryweather soldiers help the protags out by shooting at each other.
• This trope shows up a lot in video games that feature both enemy human soldiers (or just humanoid, really) and enemy monstrous creatures. Typically, the soldiers and monsters fight each other as well as you. Examples include Halo (alien soldiers vs zombies), inFAMOUS 2 (fascist redneck militia vs feral mutants), Fallout 3 (Talon mercs vs Super Mutants), Dead Rising 2 (mercenaries/security guards vs zombies), [PROTOTYPE] (US marines Blackwatch soldiers vs Greene's Infected army), and...
• Half-Life:
  • Three-way firefights between Gordon Freeman, the marines, and the aliens are one of the defining attributes of Half-Life. The Marines usually end ahead of the aliens, and Gordon consistently trounces both.
  • It happens in scripted sequences too, to remind you that yes, there is a battle raging. For example, three Alien Grunts get dropped off by a Xen Flyer only to be immediately bombed by an F-16.
  • In Half-Life 2 and the Episodes, it becomes Human/Vortigaunt Resistance vs. Antlions vs. the Combine vs. Headcrab Zombies (Antlions and Zombies were rarely in the same place at the same time in the original game, but Episode 2 features a particularly epic brawl in an abandoned mine shaft). The Combine use headcrab shells as a weapon against rebel-controlled areas, and at one point the player gets to control a bunch of antlions.
    • In fact, the very first time Overwatch soldiers show up, they're seen killing zombies that wander out of the Ravenholm mine shaft.
  • In Opposing Force there are four sides in play (the player and the friendly Marines, the Xen Aliens, the new aliens that have since disappeared from the story and the Black Ops that used to be with the Marines), and with a level editor there could be five (the traditional "enemy" Marines), but without that level editor you never see more than three in the same place at once. The Black Ops and Race X don't fight as much as the Xenians and Marines, but they do indeed so. More noticeable in the final few chapters.
  • The Half-Life mod Heart of Evil, with Percy, Barney, and MIKE troops vs. the 1st Air Cav vs. the Viet Cong and the NVA vs. Kurtz's zombies vs. exploding dogs vs. gorillas.
• Halo:
  • Halo: Combat Evolved has Humans vs. Covenant vs. Flood vs. Sentinels, and Halo 2 takes that same setup and eventually splits the Covenant side between Loyalists (Prophets, Brutes, Jackals and Drones) vs. Separatists (Elites, Grunts, and Hunters). In Halo 3, things settle down into a simpler two-way Everybody vs. the Prophet of Truth and his loyalists, with Gravemind and the Flood taking over as the Big Bad guys after Truth is finally killed near the end; specifically, 3 serves as an inversion and subversion of the typical FPS case, with the Flood essentially becoming your temporary allies... and then backstabbing you again. As the Arbiter says, "We trade one enemy for another."
  • Halo Wars also has Humans vs. Covenant vs. Flood vs. Sentinels.
  • In Halo 4, you can find Covenant remnants and Prometheans fighting each other in the first level that they are both in, making it possible for you to mop the floor with whoever's left. The rest of the game subverts this by having the Covenant and Prometheans unite under the command of the Didact. In Halo 5: Guardians, the two groups oppose each other again, with the opening level dropping your team right into the middle of a big battle between the two.
  • The expanded universe tells of several proxy wars on Earth and it's colonies, which were three-way conflicts between the United Nations, the Friedens, and the Koslovics. The subsequent Interplanetary War continued this setup.
• The three-way ideological rivalry reflective of history in Hearts of Iron between the democratic Allies, the fascist Axis, and the communist Comintern. Each version of the game had slightly different means by which individual nations could join or drop out, but the three groups start out more or less hostile to one another and have their own set of victory conditions to accomplish by the end of the game.
  • The Armageddon expansion to HOI 2 has a scenario that is specifically built around this trope. As a result of Alternate History, there are only 18 nations left in the world, each of which is approximately equal in strength to the others. At the beginning of the campaign, all these nations are equally divided into three hostile-to-each-other ideological alliances that resemble their real prototypes only in name.
• The Pure Blooded Thief/Convict Allies path in Henry Stickmin Series: Complete The Mission has this as Henry and Ellie find themselves in an all out battle between the Government and the Toppats while being chased by the Wall. This results in a 4-way battle between the Government vs the Toppats vs the Wall vs Henry and Ellie, where the Government tries to take down the Toppat Clan, the Toppats try to launch their space station, the Wall tries to recapture Ellie and Henry (not caring if they have to fight through the government and Toppats to do so), and Henry and Ellie aim to escape. At the end of the path, the player is asked to choose sides. Choosing the Government or the Toppats results in endings where Henry and Ellie help take out the space station and get pardoned (Government), or help the Toppats launch their station and kill the leaders of the Wall (Toppat). Choosing the Wall will result in a fail where Henry and Ellie are brought back to the Complex and frozen in a cryogenic cell. Choosing no side will also result in a fail where Henry and Ellie both die after a poorly executed escape plan.
• The story of Heroes of Might and Magic: A Strategic Quest is that three sides are battling it over who'll become ruler of Enroth when a noble stumbles through a portal from another world and starts a fourth faction with the same goal. That noble is the canonical victor.
  • There are many maps featuring three or more factions clashing, although the factions being large enough that the clashes can persist over multiple missions is rarer after I. One exception is in III, where the neutral campaign ends with your mercenaries triggering a border war between Tatalia and Krewlod after you helped both of them expand their borders at Erathia's expense enough that only a thin strip of land separates them, with remaining Erathian forces acting as a third force. Then in the second good campaign you get sent in with a joint Bracadan-Erathian force to expel both Tatalia and Krewlod from their occupied land while they continue to fight one-another.
• At the beginning of Hyperdimension Neptunia, the four goddesses Purple Heart, Black Heart, White Heart, and Green Heart are openly duking it out with each other, no alliances or anything, and it's implied they've been doing this for a long time. A voice suggests that they get rid of one of their numbers to shake things up and turn it into a true melee a trois. They agree and quickly settle on sending Purple Heart (Neptune) off the floating island before resuming their battle.
• In Iji, the conflict eventually becomes Iji vs. Tasen vs. Komato. Of course, the Komato outgun the Tasen completely, and eventually the Tasen either end up siding with a pacifistic Iji who promises to keep the few safe and very likely makes good on it with Tor of the Komato, or the Tasen are killed to a man and Iji instead just tries to talk Tor out of Alpha Striking the remains.
• Trinity and Hilo Monster in Impossible Creatures feature three players in an RTS free-for-all. Also mission 14 of the single-player campaign, between you, the island's caretakers, and The Virus infected creatures.
• The final mission in The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction is a frenetic chase and final boss battle between the Hulk, the Abomination, and General Ross' troops.
• Happens on two separate occasions in the Jak and Daxter series.
  • In Jak II: Renegade, which focuses on the three-way struggle between the Underground Resistance, Baron Praxis and the KG, and the Metal Heads.
  • In Jak 3: Wastelander, Haven City becomes a war zone between the resurgent Metal Heads, the Freedom League, and the army of KG robots led by a cybernetically-revived Erol, and that's not even bringing Spargus or the Dark Makers into the mix.
• Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy has several examples in different levels, with the player character being the third party.
  • One level has Imperial Remnant stormtroopers fighting Noghri assassins left behind by Darth Vader, both also hostile to you.
  • In another, the Disciples release a Godzilla-like mutated Rancor to ravage a city, but it begins eating them just as surely as it will chase you. That doesn't stop the cultists from attacking you while you're trying to run away from the danged thing before it breaks down the wall between you and it and kills everyone on the other side.
  • Most notably, the final levels have the Jedi and students from Luke Skywalker's academy fighting the Disciples of Ragnos. If you've chosen to play the Dark Side, the Jedi will sense your evil and attack you as well. This leads to a number of different Mêlée à Trois situations.
• In Kingdom Hearts II: It is Sora and his allies vs. Organization XIII vs. Maleficent and her allies, and The Heartless regularly changing sides among the latter two depending on which one is the strongest for the moment. In the manga adaptation for the same game, it's Hades vs. Pete vs. Auron, with a Bound and Gagged Megara caught up in the middle, Hercules lying unconscious nearby, and Sora and his friends on the side rooting for Auron.
• Kid Icarus: Uprising:
  • Pit vs Dark Pit vs Underworld Forces in Chapter 6.
  • Pit vs Space Pirates vs Underworld Forces in Chapter 8.
  • The big one, starting in Chapter 11, is Palutena's Army vs Hades' Underworld Forces vs Viridi's Forces of Nature.
  • And then you throw the Aurum and later the Chaos Kin into the mix... Does anybody get along in this game? As a matter of fact, if you stop to pay attention, you will see mooks of different factions beating each other up. Sometimes they'll even kill each other for you so you don't have to.
  • Actually subverted in the Aurum's case, since Palutena's Army, Hades' Underworld Forces, and Viridi's Forces of Nature join together in defeating them. Played straight with the Chaos Kin, however, as there it's Hades' Underworld Forces, Palutena's Army (under control of the Chaos Kin), and Viridi's Forces of Nature, with Pit siding with the last since they're the most decent group left.
• KKnD2: Krossfire: The Survivors vs. the Evolved vs. the Series 9 robots. Some missions involve your faction attacking (and being attacked by) both enemy factions at the same time.
• Legendary: The Box revolves around the Council of 98 (which includes the player) vs. the Black Order vs. the Monsters running amok in the world.
• The Legend of Spyro: A New Beginning: In the level Dante's Freezer, Spyro arrives right when the Ice Soldiers and the apes are in the middle of a war. Neither of them is pleased to see him. They spend a lot of time bombing each other as well as Spyro, which can sometimes mean that the gigantic mass of enemies in front of you that you're sweating over is wiped out in ten seconds by the other side.
• The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Warriors:
  • In the main story, "Land of Twilight" starts out as Hyrulean Forces vs. Cia's Dark Forces, but partway through the stage, Midna shows up with her own army. She teams up with the Hyrulean Forces afterward.
  • In Cia's Tale, this happens twice. The Dark Forces fight both the Gorons and Volga's army in "The Dragon of the Caves", and both Zant and Midna in "The Usurper King".
  • In the midst of the battle in the Temple of Souls between the Hyrulean forces and Cia's, Ganondorf bursts in with his own army to fight them all.
  • Some battles in Adventure Mode task you with defeating two enemy armies, while others have you in a Body-Count Competition with another army.
• One Mission in the Magical Battle Arena Lyrical Pack takes this trope and multiplies it by ten (plus 1) with a Gadget Drone Mêlée à Trente-et-Un. Naturally, your mission goal is to be the last Gadget Drone standing.
• Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: The fight in prison 42 soon explodes in a three-way battle against the Pro-SRA heroes, the Anti-SRA heroes, and the nanomachine controlled supervillains.
• Happens twice in Max Payne 3: First in chapter 3, where Max and Raul's meeting with the Comando Sombra is rudely interrupted by the Cracha Preto, and second in chapter 9 where the UFE stick their heads into the same.
• One level in Medal of Honor: Underground has you infiltrating German-occupied Crete, just as Cretan buccaneers are looting the area. For most of the level the Germans and buccanners will be shooting at each other and ignoring your presence (if you're still disguised as a reporter) but should your cover be blown (or you chose to draw a gun in front of the Germans) you'll quickly become the third-party of a three-way-shootout.
• The first two missions in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots have the local militia vs Ocelot's P.M.C.s vs Snake. Of course, this changes quite quickly if you make it clear to the rebels that you are out to get the P.M.C.s.
• Metroid:
  • Metroid Prime 2: Echoes: There are numerous factions battling on Aether at the time the game takes place. Samus, the Federation Marines and the Luminoth are essentially on friendly terms, but the Ing, Dark Samus and the space pirates all have their own agenda.
  • Metroid Prime: Hunters: Samus and six other bounty hunters are all in the Alimbic cluster to try and claim the "ultimate power" for themselves.
• Monster Hunter: World introduces Turf Wars where two large monsters enter the same area and get into an epic clash of the titans. Anjanath vs. Rathalos^note Rathalos picks up Anjanath and drops him, Barroth vs. Diablos^note Diablos bulls the charging Barroth aside like it's nothing, Odogaron vs. Paolumu^note Odogaron jumps up at Paolumu and ferociously slams it into the floor, Deviljho vs. everyone^note being Deviljho it wins against everything (except Bazelgeuse which it still overpowers and only is forced to drop it because of its explosive scales), are just a few examples. These battles are not only cool for the hunters to watch, but it gives them an opening to wail on the monsters while they're busy, plus monster-on-monster damage is buffed so hundreds of points of damage can be inflicted as a result of these fights.
• In Myth: The Fallen Lords, mission 9, Seven Gates, the forces of light decide to take advantage of an Enemy Civil War and send a task force to kill an enemy Shade (an undead wizard-commander) while the thralls of two of the Fallen Lords are infighting. They still see you as an enemy though, and you will have to carefully pick up fights if you don't want to be between the hammer and the anvil, or even lure different enemy units to kill each other.
• In New Horizons, players can join an encounter of two fighting nation, each being hostile against them.
• Nexuiz and its Spiritual Successor Xonotic have multi-way Team Deathmatch, Domination and Key Hunt matches. Some of those matches can even be found in both games' respective campaigns.
• Nexus War games revolve around the titular War between Angels, Demons and the free-willed Transcended. Transcended can join either of the other sides instead of forming their own factions, but this serves to keep both Angels and Demons distrustful of them.
• In space strategy Reunion (1994) it's you against Morgruls-Kalls alliance against the League.
• Averted in Ogre Battle. If there are two or more enemies, they will spontaneously ally against you.
• In Overlord II, it's the well-meaning but idiotic elves, versus the Roman-themed Glorious Empire, versus the forces of the eponymous Evil Overlord.
• In the second mission of Perfect Dark Zero, you can trigger a three-way battle between yourself, Killian's gang members, and Datadyne's personnel.
• In Phantasy Star Online 2, the native creatures of the various planets can often be seen fighting the Darkers (and vice-versa) when they aren't attacking you.
• Pirates: Legend of the Black Buccaneer have you playing as a buccaneer in an uncharted treasure island where the wildlife, consisting of hostile apes, attacks everything in sight, while you contend against rival pirates after the same bounty. More often than not, the AI for pirates and local apes will attack each other, besides attacking you on sight.
• Pirates Vikings and Knights: Guess who the three factions are.
• Both PlanetSide games take place in the middle of a Forever War between three splinter factions - the oppressive Terran Republic remnant, the corporate New Conglomerate rebels, and the transhuman Vanu Sovereignty cultists. Because of the Ancient Vanu nanite sequencing system, anyone killed is shortly re-assembled inside a facility spawn tube, leading to the endless slaughter. Fights over bases in both games often have the defenders blasting at another empire on one side... and the other empire attacking in the opposite direction (with both invaders shooting each other and the defenders at the same time). The areas between bases often turn into deadlocks between two empires until the third empire barges in for some kills.
• Pokémon:
  • The Hoenn games (Ruby and Sapphire and their remakes) feature two villainous teams instead of just one: Team Aqua and Team Magma. The two have opposing goals (Team Aqua wants to flood the world for the benefit of water-types, while Team Magma wants to eliminate the oceans for the benefit of ground-types), and of course the player wants neither team to succeed. Typically the Aqua/Magma conflicts play out off-screen (since watching them fight would just slow down the game), but the animosity is present from the start and by the end when the Olympus Mons get into play, it's something of a free-for-all.
  • Downplayed in Kalos, wherein horde battles (five wild Pokémon encountered at once) are typically player-against-wild, but every so often a Zangoose or Seviper (mortal enemies) will wind up in a horde with each other, and they'll attack each other as well as the player. Which is tricky, because it's the only way to get a Zangoose or Seviper, depending on the version you're playing, so you've got to stop the others from killing it if you want to catch it, not to mention stop them from killing you.
  • Alola introduces the Battle Royal battle format, wherein four competitors engage in a one-on-one-on-one-on-one fight which ends as soon as the first person's Pokémon faints, rather than being to the last person standing.
• [PROTOTYPE] starts out as Alex Mercer vs. Blackwatch/US Marines, but shortly thereafter, the Redlight virus and Elizabeth Greene hit the scene as well, adding legions of viral mutants to the fray as well. Later on, Greene is killed and her virus starts to die off as well, but the Supreme Hunter takes her place as the third party, although not until the Final Boss fight.
• In Red Dead Redemption 2, the final mission in Chapter 6 has Arthur and John confronting and fighting Dutch, Micah and the remaining gang members while an army of Pinkertons arrive to wipe everyone out.
• The Final Boss fight of RefleX is a three-way battle between yourself, an alien Humongous Mecha, and two Kamui fighters from the developer's previous game.
• Resident Evil: Gun Survivor introduces a new enemy, the Umbrella Trashsweeper, artificially-produced soldiers tasked by Umbrella to eliminate all evidence of the T-Virus outbreak, humans and zombies alike, turning the game into a three-way battle between you, the Trashsweepers and the T-Virus abominations.
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein, in levels with undead enemies, pits you vs. the Nazis vs. them.
• Saints Row often has the player fighting off both rival gangs and police. Nowhere is this more evident than Saints Row: The Third's penultimate mission, "Three Way", where the city of Steelport breaks out into chaos as the Luchadores and STAG engage each other in mass warfare, and the Saints have to clean up the mess...by killing off both sides at the worst areas of fighting, along with any extras that show up due to maxed notoriety for both sides.
  • The second mission of the first Saints Row has a Melee A Quatre, with the Saints crashing what was already a three-way gang war and wiping out all the other parties in the confusion.
• Samurai Warriors:
  • In the first Samurai Warriors, Masamune Date's entire story mode consists of nothing but him butting in on other generals' conflicts and annihilating both sides without stopping to think overmuch on whose side is right or wrong... or stopping to think at all, for that matter.
  • In Noh's story in the first game, she has a variation of the Honnonji Incident where she betrays Nobunaga at the same time as Mitsuhide. As such, the two of them end up fighting each other as they attempt to be the one to personally assassinate Nobunaga, only for him to escape in the confusion, while his army stays behind to try and stop the two would-be assassins.
  • One of Samurai Warriors 2's more interesting fights takes place during Hanzo's story, a three-way fight between Hanzo, Kotaro, and Nene (the game's three playable ninjas).
  • Speaking of Nene, her dream stage in the second game sees her interrupt the Battle of Sekigahara in order to discipline the two armies for fighting over Japan. She ends up defeating both of them then gives them a lecture and makes them rice cakes.
  • Kotaro Fuma's Musou Mode in the second game, often sees him doublecrossing his supposed allies and ends up kicking everybody's ass indiscriminately. Then again, he claims to be Chaos...
• SCP: Secret Laboratory has Class-D personnel and the Chaos Insurgency vs the Foundation vs the escaping SCPs. It should be noted that there's no actual benefit or consequence to all these factions waging war on each other, making it perfectly fine to try and make alliances with players or to backstab your own team. Also note that the Class-D and the Foundation Scientists are forced to work together to survive in the first sections of a game, but are also encouraged to wipe each other out if they find the means to.
• A few of the battles in Sengoku Basara also involves this. The second game has one in which Keiji butts in on the Betrayal at Honnouji and ends up in a battle between Nobunaga and Mitsuhide (all for the reason of just saying hi to Nobunaga) and one where characters crash a battle between Kenshin and Shingen. The third has certain campaigns ending with the characters intruding in on the Battle of Sekigahara and wiping out both Ieyasu and Mitsunari's army.
• The Senran Kagura series is absolutely full of this. Originally in the first game Burst, it was Hanzo Academy vs. Hebijo Academy to evoke the traditional sense of "Good Shinobi vs. Evil Shinobi", but this gets completely abandoned near the end of the game when the true Big Bad shows up and releases an Eldritch Abomination on both of the factions. After that, the Hebijo students break off from their faction to form their own called the Crimson Squad.
  • Senran Kagura 2: Deep Crimson has Hanzo Academy and the Crimson Squad vs. Dougen and the Youma vs. Naraku and Kagura. It gets complicated.
  • It gets even more complicated in the Versus series. Shinovi Versus introduces Gessen Academy, a Knight Templar faction, and the new Hebijo faction formed from new students in the wake of the Crimson Squad's breakaway. Leading to instances of Good Versus Good, Evil Versus Evil, and Gray-and-Grey Morality throughout the whole game. Estival Versus introduces the Thousand-Year Festival Executives, a faction with a Freudian Excuse who engages the other four factions in a five-way competition.
• Jason Call, the hero of Shadow Guardian, spends most of the game battling Dr. Novik's mercenaries, but there are stages containing undead monsters who attacks everyone. When appearing in the same area human and undead mooks tends to spend as much time attacking Jason as they did attacking each other.
• Sharpshooter 3D is set in the middle of a Gang War, and every now and then you find either mobsters of opposing gangs, or thugs and policemen, actively fighting each other besides attacking you. When caught in large-scale brawls enemies of different allegiances will try killing each other in the background as you're occupied with your own enemies in front.
• In Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse, the conflict escalated from the events of Shin Megami Tensei IV with the humans, the angels under Merkabah, and the demons under Lucifer in an all-out war, with the Divine Powers joining the fray.
• The game Sins of a Solar Empire has this as its basic structure — a three-way fight between different factions with different abilities (tech, psionics, wormhole manipulation). Also, Sid Meier's Civilization series, the Dominion games, (most 4x games, in fact)...
  • The Rebellion Expansion Pack has the main three factions each split into Loyalists and Rebels with slight differences between the two. Mainly, each of the six factions has their own Titan (unique ginormous warship that dwarfs entire fleets).
• At one point in Sly 2: Band of Thieves, there is a three-way battle between the Cooper Gang, Neyla and the Contessa, the latter of whom has Carmelita Fox captured.
• In Sniper Elite, you are an American OSS agent/Cold Sniper dropped into the middle of the Battle Of Berlin. You can come across Germans and Russians fighting each other, and can join in whenever you like or simply observe until one side destroys the other.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • The final boss of Sonic Adventure sees Perfect Chaos break free of Eggman's reins after obtaining the power of all seven Chaos Emeralds. Eggman tries to stop it himself but only ends up with another destroyed Egg Carrier on his hands before Super Sonic steps in and cleans up the mess.
  • The entirety of Shadow the Hedgehog is one huge war between G.U.N./Sonic Heroes, the Black Arms, the Eggman Empire, and the titular hedgehog himself, who can side with whoever the player wants to. Bizarrely, the Mooks from each side still attack you even if you're allegedly on their side. Which your follower doesn't seem to notice, as evidenced by their What the Hell, Player? reaction when you fight back to defend yourself.
  • The True Final Boss of Sonic Mania pits Super Sonic against Eggman and the leader of the Hard-Boiled Heavies, Heavy King, in the middle of a tug-of-war between Eggman and Heavy King over the Phantom Ruby. The battle is fought as a Dual Boss where Sonic fights both of them, each of them trading places whenever the other is hit.
• In South Park: The Fractured but Whole, the final boss starts with Kyle pretending to be Mitch Conner to mess with Cartman, with both of them being considered enemies (even before Cartman being in his Mitch) that primarily attack each other and rarely attack the player.
• Spec Ops: The Line follows a three-man Delta squad as they make their way through the apocalyptic wasteland that was once the city-state of Dubai. They end up fighting both armed civilian insurgents (led by CIA agents, one of whom has plans of his own) and the 33rd Infantry Battalion, who are of course fighting each other. This isn't counting the more rebellious elements of the 33rd that were executed before the events of the game, or the civilians who are fanatically loyal to the 33rd's leader John Konrad...
• Splatoon 3 changes up the series’ signature Splatfests by making them be contested between three teams instead of two. For the first half, this means your matches are between your team and one of the other two teams chosen at random. The second half on the other hand, gives players the option of Tricolour Battles, which feature players from all three teams. The defending team gets a full group of four, while the two attacking teams get two players each. To make up for the number disadvantage, the two losing teams can compete for an "Ultra Signal" which, if claimed, will allow the Deep Cut member sponsoring their team to provide covering fire with a Sprinkler of Doom. Both attacking teams benefit so long as the defending team doesn't win the match, but the fact that the team that inked the most turf gets bonus points downplays any Enemy Mine scenarios.
• Star Trek Online:
  • The mission "Skirmish" opens up with one of these between Starfleet, the Klingon Defense Force, and the True Way (The Remnant of the old Cardassian military dictatorship). You learn later there's a fourth side, Devidians preying on ships in the area, including the True Way.
  • Upon arrival at the Preserver outpost world, the player finds several Breen and Jem'Hadar ships fighting for control of whatever's on the surface. The player's crewmates encourage them to attack while both are distracted.
  • On a macro scale, the conflict between the Voth, the Alpha Quadrant powers, and the Borg, shown in Dyson Reputation cutscenes and spoken of in the dev blogs. The Voth are fighting the Borg in their home space, as is the Alpha Quadrant, but the Voth are fighting the Alpha Quadrant for control of the Dyson spheres. Then Delta Rising adds the Vaadwaur to the mix, who are at war with the Voth, Borg, and the Alliance. Then the Vaadwaur have an Enemy Civil War 2/3 of the way into Delta Rising and one side allies with the Alliance.
  • "A Step Between Stars" is initially just between the Voth and the Dyson alliance. Then the Undine blast their way into the Jenolan Dyson sphere and wipe out what's left of the Voth fleet before engaging the Dyson alliance.
  • In Delta Rising's "Borg Disconnected" STF, what starts as an effort to rescue Borg drones liberated after "Hive: Onslaught" from re-assimilation turns into a Mêlée à Quatre between the players and Borg Cooperative, the Borg Collective, the Undine, and the Voth.
• Star Wars: Battlefront: The Tatooine map has the Rebel Alliance vs The Galactic Empire vs Tusken Raiders.
• The Star Wars Conquest Game Mod features three playable factions: the Rebel Alliance, the Galactic Empire, and the Hutt Cartel. Although the formers begins the campaign at war against each others while the latter is neutral at first, the situation will eventually become this trope.
  • If the player character decides to create his own faction, it can even become a Mêlée A Quatre.
• The Star Wars: Empire at War expansion Forces of Corruption has the Galactic Empire, the Rebel Alliance, and the Zann Consortium duking it out, culminating in a massive final battle over Kuat, in which Zann at first allies with the Rebels only to betray them once he has control over the Super Star Destroyer Eclipse and its One-Hit Kill laser. At that point, it's a straight-up three-way fight.
• Star Wars: The Old Republic:
  • The Republic and the Sith Empire have enough on their plate fighting a major galactic war with each other. Then Darth Malgus betrays the Empire to form his own. He fights both armies. Then the Hutt Cartel gets involved.
  • Alderaan is engulfed in a Civil War at the start of the game due to the death of all the Royal family's heirs. There are three, possibly more, factions all shooting at each other. First, we have House Organa (Leia's future adoptive family) which supports The Republic and receives military support from them. Then there's House Thul which is backed by the Sith. And House Ulgo which started the war to begin with when their leader Bouris Ulgo stages a coup in a bid to ironically end the planetary legislature's stalemate on choosing a new Royal family. It's eventually revealed that he was the mastermind behind the previous Monarch's assassination and he slaughtered most of the Panteer clan because he saw them as weak and unable to face a possible Imperial invasion. And if things weren't crazy enough, the long-hidden insectoid Killiks are accidentally disturbed and are thus drawn into the war themselves.
  • On Hoth, The Republic, The Empire, and the White Maw Pirates are fighting over the lost technology in a graveyard of crashed starships from the last war.
  • And then in Knights of the Fallen Empire (the newest and to date, largest expansion) we have the biggest example of this yet. The Eternal Empire of Zakuul, a powerful new faction hailing from a region in space not fully explored. This new Empire reveals itself to the galaxy, wages war against both the Republic and the Sith Empire... and WINS!! Thus beginning the Fallen Empire storyline.
• StarCraft: Averted... most of the time. Despite the seemingly perfect set-up of Terran vs. Protoss vs. Zerg, each race consists of various factions. Infighting ensues.
  • In the novels, the Battle of Tarsonis was depicted as one of these (in the game, there were three separate missions for the battle, allowing them to show that each side was around without having a true melee), with Confederates, Sons of Korhal, Protoss, and Zerg beating the crap out of each other. Mostly, though, the various factions were canny enough to sit back and watch when they found two enemies fighting. Mostly.
  • In New Gettysburg theoretically the Protoss could fight the Zerg, but in practice they will never attack their base. And even if they did, Mengsk wants to pull an Enemy Mine and so you have to protect every Zerg structure. Unfortunately, the Zerg don't care...
  • Another example can be found in Brood War, mission 6: Emperor's Flight, when the UED follows Fenix, Raynor, and Mengsk to Aiur and not only encounters Protoss forces there, but also a bunch of Zerg broods that are still around and will fight against both Protoss and Terrans.
• In Starlink: Battle for Atlas, the Legion and the Outlaws will attack eachother as well as the player.
• Happens often in Streets of Rogue, usually invoked by the player to find simple solutions to their problems. Getting mugged by the mafia? Just lead them into that base you need to storm and let guards and mobsters waste their ammo on each other. Need to take out a gangster? Just orchestrate a massive shootout between them, a rival gang and the police then clean up whoever is left. The capacity for nearly any NPC to become hostile towards any other NPC under the right conditions and the several automatic rivalries between various groups means that it's actually fairly rare to go through a level without some form of multi-party Set a Mook to Kill a Mook action breaking out.
• In Stellaris, an event called War in Heaven becomes one of these between two fallen empires alongside their respective allies and an alliance of all the factions that decided to stay neutral.
• Super Mario Bros.:
  • Mario Party is in essence a four player free-for-all (at least in a standard game), but for the minigame at the end of each turn, teams are determined by the color of the space they landed on, leading to basically random and constantly changing 2v2 and 1v3 alliances, as well as free-for-alls if everyone lands on the same color.
  • To a lesser degree, because Bowser is a more minor threat, Mario and Luigi vs. the Shroobs vs. Baby Bowser in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time, and Mario vs. the X-Nauts vs. Bowser and Kammy Koopa vs. Beldam and the Shadow Queen in Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door.
• Super Smash Bros.:
  • You can set up fights as free-for-alls of up to 4 players, or team battles consisting of 2-on-1, 2-on-2, 3-on-1, or 2-on-1-on-1. Technically only if you have four humans. If it's you and three AI, you can count on the CPU going for you instead of another CPU if they have a choice.
  • Super Smash Bros. for Wii U introduces 8-Player Smash (and that number changes depending on how many fighters above than 4 are), which is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. For team battles, the characters can be split into up to four teams.
  • Super Smash Bros. Ultimate uses this as the Final Boss's gimmick: officially, it's your fighter vs. the Dual Boss (Galeem and Dharkon, who are both evil and seek to destroy you, but also want to destroy each other), but said bosses make no attempt to avoid friendly fire and never hesitate to Kick Them While They Are Down, making it your fighter vs. Final Boss 1 vs. Final Boss 2. If you pay attention to the Color-Coded for Your Convenience player indicators, you will see that yours is in red, Galeem's puppet fighters' are in blue and Dharkon's puppet fighters' are in green, even further punctuating this trope.
• Super Robot Wars:
  • The fourth to last mission in Super Robot Wars: Original Generation 2 takes place in space, just next to a battle between the Einsts and the Shadow Mirrors/Inspectors. Your team arrives to destroy everybody still standing.
  • Super Robot Wars W has it across several missions, due to the fact that there are multiple villainous factions. While the Earth/human-based organizations (like Amalgam, the Mariemeia Army and the Jovian Federation) are sometimes willing to ally with each other (albeit only until the other has served their purpose), the alien ones (the Galra Empire, the Radam, the Evoluted or the Zonderians) will more often prioritize destroying one another instead of the heroes. On every mission the player faces two villain factions that aren't allied with each other, they'll be represented by red and yellow units.
• In the first Syphon Filter game, Logan and Xing vs. Rhoemer's troops vs. Pharcom. The last act of the second game has Logan and friends vs. the Agency vs. the NYPD. The Minsk mission in The Omega Strain has the Agency vs. Jandran's mooks vs. the University guards.
• For all intents and purposes, Tales of Symphonia had three parties at conflict: Cruxis, the Renegades, and Lloyd's group, who wove in and out of the conflict between the first two in an attempt to save Colette and end the system without sacrificing anyone.
• A gameplay variant of this appeared in Tales of Berseria, where your party got in a three-way fight with Eizen and Zaveid.
• The obscure First-Person Shooter Team Factor pits NATO special forces (eg. Green Berets, KSK, SAS, GIGN) vs. terrorists vs. the Russian Spetsnaz, around the world.
• Tetris 99: As expected from a battle royale game, this tends to happen a lot. You have manual targeting and badges that increase your attack power (that you can only get by K.O.ing other players), so the dynamics can get interesting. This top 3.
• In Thief Deadly Shadow, the ending features the Big Bad fighting both the Pagans and the Hammerites, besides you. You can persuade these two factions into seeing you as an ally if you raise your reputation meter enough (easier with just one, harder with both), but otherwise they will attack you as well. The city guards join the fight too.
• Happens in almost every game of the Total War series, with multiple nations fighting it out in campaign mode.
  • In the first two Total War games you could end up in this situation if two or more powers attacked a third at the same time. In later games, this kind of massive free-for-all is only possible in the custom battles, but boy could this make for awesome battles if your computer could handle the weight.
• By the end of Act I in Tyranny, you have one of these on your hands between the Disfavored (Empire-aligned, honorful warriors, elite army), the Scarlet Chorus (also Empire-aligned, army of thieves and whores, the horde) and the Rebellion, which is split into even more sub-faction that might or might not get along. Made even more complicated by a number of neutral groups that just want to be left alone, such as the beast people tribes, those that are mostly in it for the money (the Bronze Brotherhood), and the Court of Fatebinders, which is the judicial part of the Empire and the faction the player belongs to initially. The player then can ally with either of the main factions, support them while trying to stay neutral in their role of fatebinder, or betray everyone and start their own anarchist faction.
• Universe at War has the aggressive world-bestriding Hierarchy vs. the robotic Novus vs. the Sufficiently Advanced Human Alien Masari. Humanity is less than pleased with the idea of three hyper-advanced and powerful alien races duking it out on their Insignificant Little Blue Planet, to say the least. Eventually the Novus, Masari and humans team up on the Hierarchy and manage to defeat them.
• Unreal Tournament: The Team Deathmatch and Domination gametypes can support up to four teams.
• Vandal Hearts II: Heaven's Gate: The main plot thread starts off as a simple East vs. West civil war in the country of Natra, and then things get complicated when the heroes form a third side, the Central faction, with the help of some disillusioned nobles and generals. Things get even more complicated when it turns out there are also at least three other outside factions who are manipulating the entire civil war for their own benefit, all of them acting independently of each other (the Church of Nirvadia, the Kudur Cult, and the Zora-Archeo Empire).
• Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos has a few missions where this occurs.
  • In "Reign of Chaos Night Elf 4", the three factions are Night Elves (player), humans and orcs, and undead and demons.
  • "Frozen Throne Blood Elf 3" has the Blood Elves (player), humans, and undead. There are a couple of points within the mission where the players have to go through the other two factions fighting it out.
• World of Warcraft: In the Drak'theron Keep dungeon, the Scourge is attacking the Drakkari ice troll-controlled keep. Both sides are hostile to the player. At the Wrathgate battle, the Horde and Alliance put aside their differences to fight the Scourge until Putress launches the New Plague that kills the living and the Undead at the Alliance, Horde and Scourge forces, killing many and starting a war between the Alliance and the Horde. Both factions then invade the Undercity, which Putress' master Varimathras has taken over; the Alliance hopes to reclaim Lordaeron while the Horde wants their city back. As a result, in Icecrown Citadel, the player must fight through soldiers of the opposing faction, and board their faction's gunship to fight off the other side's.
  • In Warlords of Draenor, the main conflict is the combined Alliance/Horde forces vs. the Iron Horde vs. the Shadow Council/Burning Legion.
  • Generally speaking, any given expansion tends to amount to "Alliance vs Horde vs Monster of the Week". How much focus the Alliance vs Horde conflict gets varies between expansions and sometimes major patches.
• Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine starts out as the Ultramarines and Imperial Guard vs. the Orks, but two-thirds of the way through a Chaos Space Marine warband shows up and starts summoning daemons.
• In XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, the Lost (even with their skewed priorities) will attack both the player's troops and ADVENT's forces as opportunities allow, turning missions into a frantic three-way brawl.