History Main / BlamedForBeingRailroaded

-->-- '''Andrew Vanden Bossche''', author of ''[[http://tinysubversions.com/videogamemoralityplay/ Video Game Morality Play]]''

* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}'' is a game that features several branching story paths and blurs the line between the player and their character, so it takes pains to avert this trope. Going for the worst ending requires the player to kill every single encounter including ones who won't fight back, but the option to spare any enemy and go back to the neutral path remains until one too many lines have been crossed. The game does, however, try to manipulate the player into accidentally killing the first boss as a way to get them to reset and replay the fight the right way -- revealing that resetting is actually an in-universe ability as the main antagonist taunts you for what you did anyway. This twist wouldn't work nearly as well if the game railroaded you, so it doesn't, but it can and will bury you in {{Red Herring}}s and hope for the best.

* Creator/TelltaleGames' output loves to do this by giving the player a no-win SadisticChoice where, no matter what they choose, it will cause things to go to hell in a half-minute, people to suffer, or even the death of someone, and then have characters chew you out for making that choice. Typically it's done quite well, as it adds real gravity and consequences to your choices and keeps decisions from just being a meta "choose the [[BlackAndWhiteMorality obvious right or wrong option]] for the sake of being good or evil" kind of thing.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' does this in a big way. Most of the characters who knew Shepard in the previous game greet him or her with a vehement "WhatTheHellHero" upon learning that he or she has joined Cerberus, a notoriously xenophobic human organization with no qualms about atrocious human rights violations and unethical experiments, even on humans. However, most of those characters ''eventually'' come around. Not so with the human squadmate (Ashley or Kaiden), who remains adamantly against the idea and refuses to have a civil conversation with Shepard for the entire game. Never mind the fact that the player is forced to work for Cerberus for the entirety of the game, no matter what choices are made in this game or the previous one. You're also not given the option to say that you're just using Cerberus to accomplish a task (stopping the Collectors) and intend to drop them like a hot potato once it's accomplished, an option you ''are'' given with other returning characters and which Shepard in fact does between games.

* ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' has Liquid Snake trying to guilt trip Snake near the end for killing his men and saying he enjoys violence. This would hold a lot more weight if it hadn't previously been revealed that [[spoiler:Liquid's plan to Activate Metal Gear REX relied upon Snake making it through his men(including his top liutenents) with the PAL key]]. Which much of the game can be played by avoiding killing and direct combat, you're locked into both boss battles and a few ambushes with no option other then to kill to survive. Liquid knows this and so his rant about Snake being kill happy comes across as being a bit hypocritical at least.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory Interactive Story Book'', the player (as Woody) has to use the other toys to "dispose of" Buzz. As per the movie, they give Woody shit for this ''despite being just as responsible as he/the player is.''

* Mocked in ''[[http://tinysubversions.com/videogamemoralityplay/ Video Game Morality Play]]'', which was largely a response to ''Spec Ops'' and video games that [[http://mammon-machine.tumblr.com/post/56239255623/systemic-violence indulge in this trope]]. Eventually, the "game" forces you to kill innocents, and you have to go through with it to proceed. After the deed, the game calls you a monster and asks if you enjoy this. If you respond that you don't enjoy shooting civilians in real life, [[RailRoading the game forces you]] to either say you're a soulless person for trying to escape your droll, boring, worthless life (as declared by the game makers) by wasting your time via saccharine "fun" that just forced you to shoot civilians in the face (which is completely your fault, the game tries to convince you so), [[DirtyCommunists or say you're an evil materialistic shit for buying corporate entertainment that lines the pockets of evil fat cats.]] You have to "admit" you are an evil bastard, and you're awarded with [[FauxlosophicNarration "We deserve every bullet we make"]]. Picking [[SarcasmMode FUCK YEAH OBVIOUSLY]] has you go on about your life after rating the game a 6 or 7 out of 10 (it's an okay shooter), and you go do some volunteer work, where you decidedly don't appreciate killing civilians.

* The first mission of ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedI'' begins with you breaking the assassins' three tenets. You have your rank and cool weapons stripped, and spend the rest of the game re-earning them. Justified by the FramingStory: you're reliving your ancestor's memories, so you ''can't'' act differently.
* In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'', at one point, Tim Drake (the current Robin) discovers Batman is infected with an incurable toxin that will transform him into a clone of the Joker and urges him to voluntarily be incarcerated while he deals with the situation. Choosing this causes a flashback to Jason Todd being tortured and murdered by the Joker, followed by being presented with the choice again. You have to lock Tim in the cell and be cursed out by him to continue -- there's no option to take him with you, like Alfred has repeatedly urged you to do. Barbara reams you out for it later.

* Done very well in VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV. If you speak to the NPCs being held captive at the beginning of the game, they will call you out for being an evil jerk and stealing their crystal. Granted, that's all done in a cutscene. A straighter example would be a little deeper into the game when Cecil is ordered/tricked by his king to deliver a package that destroys an entire village and kills nearly everyone in it, save for a little girl whose mother you just inadvertently murdered after slaying the monster that blocks your way ''into'' said village. The player character and the game both do a good job of making you feel like a complete bastard even though the only way to progress is to deliver the package and destroy the village. Fortunately this is also when Cecil realizes he's on the wrong side and kicks off the events of the game proper. Sadly, the surviving villagers still call you a bastard and treat you like crap when you return to the rebuilt village later on in the game after reforming.

* Happens in ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'' - early in the game, two locations are being attacked simultaneously and you have to choose which one of them to assist (and no, you can't save both no matter what you do). The other location is overrun and the few survivors berate you when you go there after saving the first.

* In ''VideoGame/AceCombat7SkiesUnknown'', Mission 4 ends with [[spoiler: former President Harling's Osprey helicopter getting shot down and exploding in midair. The squadron blames player character Trigger for firing the missile that destroyed the chopper, and Trigger is convicted of assassination and sent to a penal squadron. It is revealed much later in the game the deadly missile was fired by an Erusean spoofing an IFF signal.]] And this ''still'' happens even if you do not fire missiles at all[[note]]The game is very tricky about it, though: if you pay attention during the gameplay immediately before the cutscene, an [=F/A-18=] pulls up behind you while you're shooting at the drones that are trying to shoot down Harling. If you don't shoot the drones, Harling will die and you'll fail. If you shoot a missile, the cutscene happens. But if you only use guns, it's much easier to see that the [=F/A-18=] actually fires a missile relatively close to your firing axis, and the cutscene that immediately follows makes it clear (once you know what to look for) that the plane is a drone plane controlled by Erusea. And the pilots all say the same thing: "Trigger was closest", which is ''technically correct'': the [=F/A-18=], thanks to spoofing the IFF system, doesn't register as an actual combatant and flies away before anyone else gets close to you. In other words, the game goes out of its way to justify the entire sequence, but it's only if you ''don't'' fire missiles that you ''know'' you didn't hit him[[/note]].

* ''VideoGame/Fallout3'' contains an infamous inversion of this trope: Blaming the Player Who ''Refuses'' to be Railroaded. At the end of the game the player is expected to activate Project Purity, a machine that will provide clean drinking water to the Capital Wasteland, but the control room is flooded with lethal levels of radiation. The game fully expects the player to sacrifice their life for the Greater Good, and if you ask a human companion to activate the machine instead, you get an ending where Creator/RonPerlman calls you a coward for refusing to accept your "destiny". What makes this infuriating is that the game contains three companions who are completely immune to radiation (a robot, a Super Mutant, and a Ghoul), but all three of them will refuse to activate the machine in your place, with the former two insisting that it's your destiny and the latter simply saying that he's saved your ass more than enough and this time it's all on you[[note]]Making this more infuriating, the Ghoul has been brainwashed to be absolutely obedient to whomever holds his contract...except for this one time, apparently[[/note]].

Sometimes, however, this can lead to a certain problem: let's say that the linear storyline assumes that you do some kind of action that the game's [=NPCs=] consider heinous. What usually follows is them [[WhatTheHellHero not letting you hear the end of it]], constantly nagging you about it and chewing you out over it. The issue here is that you couldn't change the course of actions even if you wanted to - the game specifically assumes that this is what you're going to do and there's no going around it. You can be looking over the entire location, trying various different items, attempting to talk to various different people, but in the end, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption the only thing the game allows you to do is playing out that one horrible action]], and everyone ''will'' hate you for it. What usually follows is the player exclaiming in frustration, "Don't blame ''me''; the developers made me do it!" Of course, there may be an alternative option in the form of quitting the game and never coming back, but if the player character is on a quest to SaveTheWorld or otherwise do something good that outweighs the negative impact of their actions, that wouldn't be the best thing to do.

* In the ''Franchise/ToyStory Interactive Story Book'', the player (as Woody) has to use the other toys to "dispose of" Buzz. As per the movie, they give Woody shit for this ''despite being just as responsible as he/the player is.''

** [[PlayerCharacter Walker]] encounters a heavily defended chokepoint that he and his squad need to get past. Luckily, they gain access to white phosphorous artillery and proceed to bomb their way through. They soon discover, to their horror, that in doing so ''they murdered innocent civilians'', and this is a [[MurderMakesYouCrazy critical turning point]] for the character. But in fact there is no alternative for the player; if you attempt to fight the defenders normally, the game will respawn them forever until you are killed. If you use the phosphorous but deliberately aim the bombs to avoid hitting the civilians, the game will place a military vehicle in the trench with them, which must be destroyed for the sequence to end. This was quite a point of contention among the press since the game [[WhatTheHellPlayer calls you out]] for completing the only objective available to you in the only available way. The game, using both characters ''and the loading screens'', mocks the player for not ''stopping playing''. WordOfGod later stated in an interview that he knew that players would consider this unfair, because they're right to do so. Earlier builds actually did give players the option of fighting their way through (among other options, such as reportedly being able to [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere simply leave when ordered to do so early on]]), but because a majority of playtesters chose to do it that way, it was removed, otherwise it'd ruin the narrative.

* The original ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'' ends with the player character being supposedly killed by a bomb planted on a boat. A hidden mission in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' allows the player to reunite with Julius, the former leader of the Saints, who claims that he did it because the Saints were becoming just another gang terrorizing the city rather than helping clean up the city and protect the Row as he'd intended. Yet Julius did not attack any of the other Saints - not even Johnny Gat, who is by far [[BloodKnight the most bloodthirsty]] of the Saints, and only ends up out of the picture between the games because [[spoiler:he gets arrested from trying to kill [[TheMole Troy]]]] - and for most of the original game, you had no particular influence over the direction of the gang as a whole, except in the loosest sense of propelling the Saints upward by tearing down the other three more obviously villainous gangs. Moreover, although you are named Julius' right-hand man towards the end, everything you do after that is forced upon you by the need to rescue Julius. At that point, it looks less like Julius [[IDidWhatIHadToDo doing what needed to be done]] to put down a psychopath before he destroyed the city, and more like Julius having a predetermined notion of what you're like without his influence and then, when you prove to [[TrueCompanions still care about people other than yourself]], blowing you up for not following his script.

* In File 06 of ''VideoGame/AstralChain'', Hal declares he's going to sneak into Zone 09, which is off-limits to the police, yourself included, and invites you to assist him, but only if you really want to. "Really want to," as in "if you want the game to progress any further": Talk to him again and the only dialogue options in response to his invitation are "Yes" and "Of course." One illegal mission later, you're arrested and charged with insubordination and locked up in spite of the [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight well-intentioned nature]] of the mission.

* In File 06 of ''VideoGame/AstralChain'', Hal declares he's going to sneak into Zone 09, which is off-limits to the police, yourself included, and invites you to assist him, but only if you really want to. "Really want to," as in "if you want the game to progress any further": Talk to him again and the only dialogue options in response to his invitation are "Yes" and "Of course." One illegal mission later, you're arrested and charged with insubordination and locked up.

* The original ''VideoGame/SaintsRow1'' ends with the player character being supposedly killed by a bomb planted on a boat. A hidden mission in ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2'' allows the player to reunite with Julius, the former leader of the Saints, who claims that he did it because the Saints were becoming just another gang terrorizing the city rather than helping clean up the city and protect the Row as he'd intended. Yet Julius did not attack any of the other Saints - not even Johnny Gat, who is by far [[BloodKnight the most bloodthirsty]] of the Saints - and for most of the original game, you had no particular influence over the direction of the gang as a whole; and although you are named Julius' right-hand man towards the end, everything you do after that is forced upon you by the need to rescue Julius.

* Mocked in ''[[http://tinysubversions.com/videogamemoralityplay/ Video Game Morality Play]]'', which was largely a response to ''Spec Ops'' and video games that [[http://mammon-machine.tumblr.com/post/56239255623/systemic-violence indulge in this trope]]. Eventually, the "game" forces you to kill innocents, and you have to go through with it to proceed. After the deed, the game calls you a monster and asks if you enjoy this. If you respond that you don't enjoy shooting civilians in real life, [[RailRoading the game forces you]] to either say you're a soulless person for trying to escape your droll, boring, worthless life (as declared by the game makers) by wasting your time via saccharine "fun" that just forced you to shoot civilians in the face (which is completely your fault, the game tries to convince you so), [[DirtyCommunists or say you're an evil materialistic shit for buying corporate entertainment that lines the pockets of evil fat cats.]] You have to "admit" you are an evil bastard, and you're awarded with [[FauxlosophicNarration "We deserve every bullet we make"]]. Picking [[SarcasmMode FUCK YEAH OBVIOUSLY]] has you go on about your life after rating the game a 7/10 or 6/10 (it's an okay shooter), and you go do some volunteer work, where you decidedly don't appreciate killing civilians.

* Creator/TelltaleGames' output loves to do this by giving the player a no-win SadisticChoice where, no matter what they choose, it will cause things to go to hell in a half-minute, people to suffer, or even the death of someone, and then have characters chew you out for making that choice. Typically it's done quite well, as it adds real gravity and consequences to your choices and keeps decisions from just being a meta "choose the right or wrong option for the sake of being good or evil" kind of thing.

* The immediate sequel, ''Zero Escape: VisualNovel/ZeroTimeDilemma'' takes this UpToEleven. You don't just have to pick a few vile options to complete the story; you have to pick damn near ''all'' of them, [[spoiler: since the game is constructed to only be winnable by constant hopping between alternate timelines, and you can't hop to a timeline that hasn't happened yet, and the villain has low-level mind control]]. Whenever you force a character to make a truly evil decision, you'll hear not only the shocked reactions of those around them, you'll hear the character's own miserable confusion about why they made that choice.

* In one mission of ''VideoGame/ThiefDeadlyShadows'', you can meet a blind, delusional widow who owns the mansion you've broken into in search of a MacGuffin. You also find a note from her late husband explaining that the large bag of money in a nearby chest should allow her to live well without him. If you don't steal the money, a few levels later she sends you a letter and a gift. Unfortunately, on expert difficulty, you ''have'' to take the money to meet the 90% loot requirement[[labelnote:*]](The game requires you to complete the main objective AND to steal a specific minimum of loot from the entire area to complete a mission)[[/labelnote]]... which causes her to send an assassin after you instead.

* The original VideoGame/SaintsRow ends with the player character being killed by a bomb planted on a boat. A hidden mission in VideoGame/SaintsRow2 allows the player to meet Julius, the former leader of the Saints, who claims that he did it because the Saints were becoming just another gang rather than helping clean up the city as he'd intended. Yet Julius did not attack any of the other Saints, and for most of the original game, you had no particular influence over the direction of the gang as a whole; and although you are named leader towards the end, everything you do after that is forced upon you by the need to rescue Julius.

* Luke, the protagonist of ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'', spends a good portion of the game being a whiny, self-absorbed burden on the party (even if he does hold his own in battle). When his actions result in what amounts to an entire town being massacred, he's uniformly blamed by his party members, and ''continues'' to insist that it wasn't his fault. To be fair, it kind of is his fault. But to be fairer, [[FailureIsTheOnlyOption there's no other way things could have possibly gone for the player]]. '''Or Luke himself'''; the one behind the whole situation is his ParentalSubstitute and no one in the party gave him an actual good reason to distrust him outside of "they say so". [[spoiler: The fact Luke is [[YoungerThanTheyLook seven years old]] on account of being a [[ArtificialHuman replica]] of the original just makes this worse.]]

Shortly saying, this trope refers to any kind of situation where the only option you are given to advance the plot is doing something that results in the game's [=NPCs=] hating your character's guts, or otherwise being upset at them.