Tear Jerker / ARMA

• Finding Dixon's body in ARMA II PMC in the final mission of the "Truth" route. Made even worse if you don't stick together with Asano and he dies too, thus leaving you all alone to fight against the machinery of the world order.
  • If you go the "Deception" route, though, you're the one who has to put the bullets in Dixon, and when the UN investigators are ambushed and killed there's a voiceover flashback of Dixon's words. This is the canon route, by the way!
• The Eagle Wing mini-campaign (available in all versions of ARMA II after 1.05), after its first mission, where the world gets devastated by nuclear war. The soundtrack didn't help. At all.
• ARMA III introduces several Mauve Shirt NPCS. While no especially heartwarming moments or meaningful interactions occur, the familiarity with they address the Player Character contrasts with the desolate and violent environment of a war-torn nation, frequently causing players to get a certain level of affection for them. Sadly many are shown dying both on screen or through the radio. Still, you just leave them there lying because your mission takes priority and there's nothing you can do for them anymore.
  • Ditto for the men under your orders. There's no penalty for losing them all, as long as you complete your objectives. But given that they have distinct names, individual appearances, roles and carry on from one mission to another if they survive, many players refuse to let them die.
• ARMA 3 begins with the prologue campaign, following the player-controlled Sergeant Conway and NPC Staff Sergeant Adams. The player gains a sort of affection for Adams throughout this campaign. The next campaign, Survive, follows a player-controlled Sergeant Ben Kerry, who is with Adams when everything goes to shit and the AAF turns on NATO, attacking NATO forces and destroying many of their bases. Of course, after this happens, as Kerry and Adams are making their way to rendezvous with other survivors, Adams steps on an AP Mine and is instantly killed without any meaningful last words.
• The whole story for the Laws of War DLC's campaign. You're a member of an NGO there to clean up Altis after the events of the core game, and are working to disarm mines and unexploded ordinance in an abandoned village. While there, you learn piece-by-piece the tragic story of how the village came to be abandoned in the first place as well as the reason for the tragic death of a civilian you play as at the very start of the campaign.