Games That Say "You Bastard".

Agreed. As much as I loved MGS 2 when I first got it, I thought it was a crock of shit that I was expected to just leave the gamefile idling forever if I wanted to truly "win". If I wanted a postmodern, meta, mindscrew project where my victory will be a defeat, I'd play a flash-game, for free. I paid a full $9.95 for this game, and I will see the end you programmed into it, you bastards.

edited 2nd Sep '12 12:38:05 AM by MrMallard

Amusingly enough, the depth of choice given in Spec Ops is greater than that of most RP Gs. You're often given a plain "A or B" choice, but then there's always more beyond that. It's a very clever game.

But does it matter in the end? I mean, every people in the city will die and such anyway...

edited 2nd Sep '12 1:58:20 AM by onyhow

This is what we call Darkness-Induced Audience Apathy. Which is a bit of death knell for writing usually.

See, like I said before, I'm okay with a game calling me a bastard if I made the decision.

Even if said decision is "murder a puppy" and "murder a kitten-" so long as there's a justification for why I have to murder one.

Well, consider the fact that in this very wiki's page for Spec Ops:The Line, there is mention made that you may be able to NOT skull fuck the civilian population of Dubai, therefore one must also consider the fact that most people will not even try to save them. Walker may be doomed, that is after all the whole point of the game, but he doesn't have to take everyone else with him in some pale imitation of Ragnarok.

The thing about Spec Ops is that it's very self-aware of what you/Walker do throughout the story. I remember reading an article by FilmCritHulk talking about Modern Warfare and how stuff like blowing up the Eiffel Tower is not given the attention/thought it deserves, and I'd say that The Line does what MW fails to do in that regard.

edited 2nd Sep '12 3:02:45 AM by RocketDude

@Tam: By the end of the game you already killed them all (even if they don't die yet)...the water truck, remember?

edited 2nd Sep '12 3:12:07 AM by onyhow

How about the No More Heroes games? Henry says "You bastard!" when you beat him in the first game. The second game has Travis give a passionate speech about You Bastard! to Sylvia and the player close to the end of the game. The final boss of the second game is very unsatisfying, and that was used to enforce the YB.

From this very wiki's page on Spec Ops.

"Can move to Bittersweet Ending if you chose to kill Konrad's shadow and chose to show mercy whenever possible. Walker's people are dead but he's able to call in the evacuation he claimed to have been working towards the entire time. The 33rd has been largely annihilated, his squadmates are dead, and he's quite possibly unfit for any war crimes trial the military wants to hold for him but the people of Dubai will live."

Not having actually played the game yet, I haven't got that far. But the possibility must exist or else the troper who made the page edit is telling big fat porky pies.

I don't consider turning off the game a valid gameplay choice, so any game that forces me to be an evil bastard and tries to call me out for it falls flat. You can't make me feel guilty for something I had no control over.

Plus, being forced to do something I would never do given a choice is an immersion breaker, so it's hard for me to have an emotional reaction to that. But Thou Must! and Stupidity Is the Only Option leap to mind.

edited 2nd Sep '12 6:41:41 AM by Talby

As far as You Bastard! moments go, Armored Core : For Answer has a pretty great one in one of the optional story paths, where you Destroy the cradles killing 100 million innocent people, and then pretty much every good guy, including your Voice with an Internet Connection on hard mode, team up to try and kill you in the hardest fight in the entire game.

edited 3rd Sep '12 6:25:58 AM by Oroboro

Oh wow. Didn't realize there was a game that let you do something that evil outside of Sim City.

Although I've heard you can be an enormous ass in Soul Nomad And The World Eaters I haven't actually gotten any examples of what you can do.

edited 3rd Sep '12 9:20:45 AM by ShirowShirow

Basically, after the end of your first game (Not sure if it was just any ending or the "best" one only, going to have to look at that.), you get an extra option known as the "Demon Path". It starts with you agreeing with the disproportionately destructive spirit within a cursed sword to (Assumedly.) kill everybody within your village before going around to each of the places and people within the regular game that you mostly, basically fixed up the problems of, and screwing everything up to infinite factors, towards the point that even the afore - mentioned destructive sword spirit sometimes says that you're going perhaps overboard with it. The ending depends upon the winning side of the final battle. If you lose, your sealed with your former best friend, sacrificing herself within order to seal you. If you win, You kill everything. Ever. Including the gods. And possibly yourself.

So yup, thats a pretty accurate summary you've got there.

How about Master Of Orion? If you play the conquering dictator route, and you decide not to accept the rule of the other races, every single one of them will turn against you. You must be ahead in the arms race, and have a lot of ships, people, and planets at your disposal to stand a chance! I managed to win going that route once, and I got the news robot saying something along the lines of "Oh, well. Another century ruled by a ruthless dictator." Chances are, you're going to feel like a real heel after that.

edited 3rd Sep '12 3:10:01 PM by TiggersAreGreat

Is there any game where the programmers basically admit in some sort of Fourth Wall breaking way they are bigger bastards for making the game than you are by playing it? ISTR reading The Simpsons Game kinda does that, but I've never played it myself.

The problem with that example is that, everyone declares war on you whether you are trying to conquer the galaxy, or just don't want to cede sovereignty to somebody else. So it *can* be a You Bastard, or it can just be Screw You, Live Free or Die. It totally depends on how your R Ping your society, with a side order of "technically the game basically requires you to dominate the galaxy to win."

Tactics Ogre has a moment when you : can choose to murder a lot of unarmed civilians being held at a force-labor camp because it's an order. The best comes when, if you do that, your alignment changes to Lawful.