History RealityEnsues / VideoGames

Moments in video games when certain elements of the storyline (or even gameplay) have some unexpectedly realistic consequences.

Due to the large size of this page, this page has been split into two subpages.

** RealityEnsues/DeadRising

** RealityEnsues/{{Pokemon}}

[[/index]]

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* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':
** The agility and tenacity of the GameBreaker [=QAAMs=] may be what happens when you put a real-world nigh-unbeatable heater, ''a la'' the Python 4/5, the AA-11/R-73, or the AIM-9X, against planes that usually encounter missiles sloppy enough to be outflown without needing countermeasures.
** Likewise, when Captain Bartlett in ''VideoGame/AceCombat5TheUnsungWar'' draws a missile away from Nagase, and then again when Nagase is targeted by a hidden AA position a few missions later, in both cases the missile stays right on them despite them pulling maneuvers that would have shaken off a standard missile in gameplay - must have been [=QAAMs=].
** Similarly in the UsefulNotes/{{Xbox 360}} game ''Over G Fighters''. Did you know that afterburner in the presence of heat-seeking missiles is a ''bad'' thing? On the other hand, unlike ''Ace Combat'', the player (and also enemies) can sometimes break missile locks by turning enough to reduce their plane's radar cross-section.
** One of the differences the [[DuelingWorks competing]] ''VideoGame/AirforceDelta'' series has with ''Ace Combat'' is that the effect of air resistance on the control surfaces is more accurately depicted. Whereas ''Ace Combat'' tactics revolve around flying just above stall speeds to have maximum maneuverability and prevent overshooting and ending up in front of your target, planes in ''Airforce Delta'' all have specific speeds, much higher than in ''Ace Combat'', where they're most maneuverable - slower than that means there's not enough airflow to properly change your heading, while faster than that means the systems to reduce airframe stress and your plane's inertia get in the way.
* ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand'': What happens when you make the AI with far more resources than you ever can have and no compunction against holding back sit up and decide you're a threat? You get flattened, that's what.
* ''VideoGame/AlienIsolation'': As expected of a stealth game, even after Ripley does get a few weapons it just takes two or three bullets, even fired from across a room, to take her down. Attempting any kind of head-on fight will end up with her dead within seconds.
** Also, using the proximity scanner or hacking tools will alert others of her presence. They do emit pretty conspicuous beeps after all.
** TalkingIsAFreeAction is thoroughly averted. Except for scripted sequences which require the Xenomorph to be somewhere else, interaction with computers or conversations can be cut short by Ripley being tail-stabbed in the back.
* In ''VideoGame/AliceMadnessReturns'', any time Alice falls out of Wonderland into reality tends to strike a nerve, as Alice is a helpless teenager wandering the streets of London and the game really drives that home; [[spoiler: the second time you return, for example, Alice gets slapped unconscious by a pimp for trying to come to her friend's aid.]] Everyone is also aware Alice isn't entirely right in the head, [[spoiler:a fact the BigBad tries to use to pull a KarmaHoudini; who would believe that a highly respected child pyschologist raped and killed someone's sister with only the word of a known mental patient? Alice also admits he's right, then [[KarmicDeath takes it into her own hands.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/AloneInTheDark'': If you light up a molotov cocktail (accidentally or otherwise) in the 2008 reboot, it simply cannot be stowed back in your inventory. Either you throw it away or [[ExplosiveStupidity it will explode right in Edward's hands]] after a few seconds.
* Near the end of ''[[VideoGame/ApeEscape Ape Escape 2]]'', Specter decides to fight the player in a gigantic robot suit. While trying to stomp the player, he has the suit balance on one foot, concentrating all its weight on one small area...and the robot promptly falls through the floor.
* ''VideoGame/ApexLegends'':
** In ''VideoGame/Titanfall2'', players have used [[RocketJumping Grenade Jumping]] to pull off [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ElNQVYDsA record-breaking Gauntlet runs]]. When Octane tried it, he blew his legs off.
* ''Franchise/AssassinsCreed'':
** In all games, pickpocket victims who realise you're the culprit will try to punch you out. Problem is, the culprit is a battle-hardened warrior who goes through trained soldiers like a lawnmower. It doesn't end well for the civilian.
** The first two assassinations from [[VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII the second game]] are performed by someone who is A) completely untrained in the act of murder, and B) thirsty for revenge. Ezio doesn't kill his first victim with a single stab, he [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill violently and repeatedly shanks him]]. And when killing [[spoiler: Vieri]], he angrily curses the dying victim before Mario angrily rebukes him.
*** Speaking of [[spoiler: Vieri di'Pazzi]], he's the only character who outright mocks the post-assassination conversations.
--->'''[[spoiler: Vieri]]:''' [[LampshadeHanging I'm sorry, were you hoping for a confession?]]
** In every game from 2 onward when guns are introduced, the game treats them as an InfinityPlusOneSword. Only the most durable of targets can survive even a single hit, and even as the arms race goes on and armor gets better to compensate for them it still remains one of the player character's most deadly and reliable weapons.
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedBrotherhood'', Ezio gets shot at the start of the game and when he comes to he's seriously injured. At first he can't even run or climb properly because of the injury combined with his age, and even after getting cured by a doctor he doesn't get his full climbing ability back until purchasing a climbing harness. Even being the LivingLegend that Ezio is, even he can't resist the passage of time with the mediocre at best and outright harmful at worst Renaissance-era medical techniques.
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIII'' while fighting the BigBad, Connor ends up in a burning shipyard and has rubble fall on him. Upon waking up, he finds that he's been impaled through the side by a wooden beam. The following segment has him limping at an arduous crawl to chase after the equally wounded villain (who Connor shot when he tried to gloat, defying [[TalkingIsAFreeAction another trope]]), who he confronts in a bar half-dead, shares a last drink with, and kills. He goes back to normal in the post-game, but from a story standpoint it's implied that even five years later in the epilogue, the injury crippled him for life and ended his career as an Assassin.
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedIV''
*** [[spoiler: Blackbeard]], who is a OneManArmy deserving of his legend, dies when a British soldier stabs him in the back with a bayonet. That his death was so depressingly... quiet, leaves Edward in a slump for some time after.
*** In general, while the game starts off in an idealistic "Golden Age" of piracy and high seas plunder, by the end of the game the grim reality of piracy sets in all at once; the British navy, in response to the rampant piracy, finally muscles in to protect their interests around the Caribbean. Since the "heroic" side's cast are all rival pirates with whatever ships and crews they could scrape together against the might of the most powerful Navy in that period of time with trained and equipped sailors, the British quickly start putting a brutal end to piracy in the Atlantic, by recruiting the worthwhile pirates as privateers in return for full pardons for previous crimes, and wiping out any crews that resist or refuse the offer. By the final few missions, Edward is left a depressed wreck of a man seeking a purpose to give his life meaning, while his allies and friends die around him or turn heel and join the privateering initiative.
** In ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedSyndicate'', Jacob successfully assassinates the corrupt Templars who are the medical, transportational, and economic leaders of Britain in rapid succession. Since these assassination targets had a complete monopoly on their given industries and Jacob gives the Assassins no time to locate friendly replacements, this leads to medical supply shortages, transportation rackets, and an economic depression that Evie has to fix in order for London to not collapse on itself within a year.
** In ''Videogame/AssassinsCreedOdyssey,'' Alexios or Kassandra's decisions can have some depressingly realistic consequences. Sure, you can feel quite good about [[spoiler:sparing the last surviving family of a plague-ridden village from execution, and them thanking you for sparing their lives later]], but be prepared to learn that [[spoiler:they've accidentally spread the disease again and caused more suffering, and you've also directly caused the deaths of soldiers and priests trying to protect the common good.]] Other decisions that seem clear-cut "good" and "bad" also have similar consequences, like [[spoiler:sparing mercenaries from death resulting in them ambushing you further down the road, them believing they owe you one.]]
* ''VideoGame/AzureStrikerGunvolt'', particularly its sequel, nicely [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructs]] the ideas behind {{Revenge}}. Particularly where it concerns our two main characters, Gunvolt and Copen.
** For Gunvolt, it turns out that killing someone out of vengeance, no matter how justified you may feel, '''won't''' make you feel better. [[spoiler: Even after killing Asimov and avenging Joule, Gunvolt still can't find the will to forgive himself and is shown to be plagued by nightmares about it. However, he does learn from this and in his True Ending BossFight with Copen, attempts to teach this to him.]]
-->'''Gunvolt:''' I've been in your position! Vengeance won't help! It's not noble! It's giving into the worst of yourself.
** For Copen, dedicating your life solely for revenge is unhealthy, won't make you feel better, and can have detrimental and lasting negative effects on your life. During his fight with Desna, a known FortuneTeller, she warns him that if he continues on his path, he'll lose everything he holds dear. [[spoiler: And during the final battle with Gunvolt in his True Ending, Gunvolt also attempts to dissuade him from his path, having been in his position himself. And sure enough, he learns this the hard way when he finds out that his beloved sister Mytyl, who he had been fighting so hard to save, is actually an Adept, the very thing he swore to destroy. This forces him to fake his death and cut ties with her and his family, so she won't be involved in his battles again and won't know the monster he's become.]]
** The sequel also gives us one of the villains, Gibril, whose Septima gives her power over blood and metal. During her boss fight, when reduced to a 1/3 of her health, she unleashes her Iron Maiden Special Skill, where she uses her own blood to create spikes along the walls, floors, and ceiling. Naturally, after repetitive uses of the attack, she keels over from excessive blood loss.
* ''VideoGame/BaldursGate'':
** In the first game, you finally get the chance to confront the [[spoiler:supposed]] BigBad, Rieltar, as he holds a meeting with his subordinates. Attacking and killing him results in [[spoiler:being thrown in jail, because the only tangible evidence to his guilt are a few torn letters that may or may not even have been written by him.]]
** Likewise, when you confront [[spoiler:the ''real'' BigBad,]] a VillainWithGoodPublicity, if you don't have any evidence against him, he points this out, calls you criminals out to start a war and frame him, and successfully turns every noble in the city against you. Come on, you're a HeroWithBadPublicity with a heavy bounty on your head, he's a respected soldier and duke of the city, who did you think they'd believe?
** Walking around during a storm wearing plate armor? Get struck by lightning. What did you ''think'' was going to happen?
** In the second game, [[BigGood Ellesime]] decides to [[spoiler:exile her former lover, who has become a crazed megalomaniac MadScientist with a god complex, instead of killing him, hoping this act of mercy will cause him to seek redemption. However, when she does so, she also strips him of his ''soul'', but not his magical powers. Long story short, he gets even ''stronger'' and comes back seeking revenge.]] LoveMakesYouStupid at its finest.
** As is now common in RPGs, it's possible to enter romances with some of your companions. Contraception isn't particularly common in medieval fantasy, so it's entirely possible for a female partner to become pregnant. At which point she can decide to leave you, since traipsing around dungeons fighting dragons and the like isn't a great environment in which to raise a child.
* ''VideoGame/TheBardsTale'':
** The "good" ending ends with the Bard saving the world from an ancient and terrifying evil. However, as nobody aside from a small cult who don't really like him know this, he's soon back to hustling inns for free booze and sex.
** The various "Chosen Ones" encountered during the game are victims of this. [[BlatantLies Bright, bold]] lads setting out to meet their destiny, they're quickly murdered by everything from wolves to trow to zombies. One sheriff took to locking them up for their own safety.
* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamSeries'':
** Even though the electronic fences are built by the company Batman owns, even he can't get through without codes. And even when he gets half the code, he still needs to hack through. They were made to keep unauthorized people in or out of certain areas, and that includes Batman.
** Batman can take out dozens of prisoners with delicate uses of flips, jumps, punches, and Batarangs. But try to take on a group of gun-wielding goons head on, and Batman will quickly be turned into Bat-paste. Especially when he fights mooks with high-powered sniper rifles.
** It turns out that the formula that turns men into giant monsters developed in a prison by a bunch of lunatics, and a corrupt doctor with nothing even vaguely resembling proper medical testing, has unforeseen short-term and long-term side effects. You don't even actually defeat the first boss so much as he keels over from a heart attack two minutes into the fight. [[spoiler: The Joker taking the formula directly leads to the next game, where he's dying due to the damage that the untested formula did to his body]].
** The series' approach to super-villains. Yes, they are dangerous but the problem lies in ''finding'' them or dealing with their gimmicks. Once that's all done, things go how you'd expect when Batman, an Olympic-level athlete/expert combatant in full body armor and specialized weapons, fights [[CurbStompBattle people who aren't all this.]]
** Batman can OffhandBackhand ''individual'' mooks easily. But when faced with multiple mooks, he has to pull his punches so he can be sure he won't kill them. As his combos get longer, he starts leaping across entire rooms to strike foes, since they're hesitating - and giving him breathing room to think - after seeing him smash their pals into the pavement.
** While for the most part the games [[TakeYourTime have no true time limits]], there is one point in ''Arkham Asylum'' where Zsasz takes a hostage, knowing full well that he has no hope in a fight against Batman. However, Zsasz is also a compulsive murderer with a penchant for killing women and his hostage is a woman who has made his life hell for a long time. Players who linger for a while or let themselves be seen by him results in him killing the hostage instantly, which is {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d by Joker. It's particularly jarring for experienced players, who usually assume that there is no time limit and want to listen to all of Zsasz's dialogue.
*** When you call him in ''City'', he says he has three hostages. Batman eventually needles the psychopathic murderer about his life choices during the course of tracking his location, which enrages Zsasz and makes him drop the call. When you get to him, he has two hostages and there's a corpse elsewhere. And he said Batman would regret pissing him off.
*** Early on in ''Arkham City'', Batman is held at gunpoint by four mooks inside the church. If the player decides to wait around, the mooks will eventually shoot Batman dead.
*** Same thing in ''Arkham Knight'' where Harley Quinn has Robin being held at gunpoint. If Batman takes too long to intervene, Harley will kill Robin.
** For most of ''City'', there are an abundance of henchmen. [[spoiler:After many of the inmates are killed in Protocol 10, there are a lot less heads to knock around.]]
** Batman can pull metal grates off of walls. So can Joker, Nightwing, Robin, and Deathstroke since all of them are some degree of BadassNormal. Catwoman - who is more about agility and speed - is ''not'' able to do this, to the point she asks Batman just how he does it at all.
** The ending of ''Arkham City'' shows that JokerImmunity isn't always a sure thing. [[spoiler:Attacking someone that is holding the only cure to the poison that is killing you is not a good idea]].
** Also from ''Arkham City'', Batman uses lethal force on both [[spoiler:Solomon Grundy and Clayface. Considering they're both nearly impervious to physical damage (Grundy is literally an unkillable zombie, while Clayface is made of living mud)]] it's not surprising.
** ''Harley Quinn's Revenge'' implies that, although not formally charged, the general consensus, at least among the remaining inmates of Arkham City, is that [[spoiler:Batman killed the Joker. MurderByInaction is still murder.]]
** ''Origins'' has quite a bit:
*** Promotional materials for ''Origins'' mention "unconfirmed rumors" that Batman has personalized aircraft. When Batman discovers [[spoiler:Bane's computer console and realizes Bane knows his SecretIdentity, one of the monitors has a radar display. Bane figured it out by merely tracking the Batwing, and putting two and two together about where it takes off and where it goes to land.]]
*** Letting Joker ramble on too long while he has [[spoiler:Batman at gunpoint will result in Joker ''killing'' Batman with a single bullet at point blank range. At this point, Batman is just another meaningless victim to the Joker, without the clown's future obsession with turning the Bat insane like him]].
*** During the credits, Jack Ryder is having a live conversation with Quincy Sharp and various political experts over the game's events, debating over how effective the cops are, the state of the country if such criminals can actually exist, and the failure of Gotham's prison system. The only one to escape criticism is Batman.
** ''Knight'' has quite a few:
*** After the shit-storm in Arkham City involving Protocol 10, many of the surviving inmates sued Gotham City Hall for giving Hugo Strange the go-ahead for the protocol; many of them got a substantial payoff and were released from prison. Since the Gotham city government isn't obscenely rich (like most city governments aren't), the money for these payoffs came from budget cuts to Gotham city departments and services, like the GCPD and the Gotham Fire Department. This means big layoffs in both departments, which directly affects Gotham's ability to respond to emergencies during Halloween Night.
*** The police were unable to find all of the tainted blood the Joker sent to hospitals in the previous game. A statewide search and retrieval is ''not'' going to go off flawlessly, with mistakes and errors preventing all the blood from being found.
*** Batman has three hideouts: [[spoiler:Panessa, the clock tower, and his office. Each of these is occupied by just one of Batman's allies, two tops. All three are easily stormed by villains because there are no guards and the only security measures seem to be bio-metric recognition, which we see can be easily faked. Even the GCPD is attacked, but it takes a small army to make the attempt since the building is actually guarded by an entrenched force.]]
*** The supervillains [[spoiler:pooled all of their money for a $3 billion army. As a result, they're so strapped for cash that most of them have to do regular crimes just to get some income, with Penguin running guns and Two-Face robbing banks. This comes back to bite them as they lose whatever money they had left in the DLC chapters]].
*** Talia is mentioned a few times in the game, and despite ProtagonistCenteredMorality, her impact on the world is mixed. [[spoiler:Her family and Batman miss her, whereas Cash's entry in the evidence room calls her a terrorist, Alfred calls Nyssa the sanest of the Ghul family, and the Joker hallucination mentions seeing her in hell. The Joker one is especially poignant if you view him as a product of Batman's subconscious: even ''he'' couldn't totally deny Talia was evil.]]
*** Victor Zsasz was a recurring threat in the previous games, but it was clear that he had Joker's support because the other villains were too disgusted or scared of him. [[spoiler:With the Joker dead, Zsasz has been left to his own devices and is irrelevant to the game's events.]]
*** This is what the [[spoiler:Knightfall Protocol]] is all about at the very end: [[spoiler:when the Scarecrow unmasks Batman live on television, that's it, Bruce knows it's over. Batman relies on superstition and fear to be effective since he's just a normal human under the training and the high-tech gear, and having his identity revealed completely destroys that - not to mention as well that a successful vigilante like Batman, especially one prone to {{Arch Enem|y}}ies due to his aversion to directly killing criminals, in a city as riddled with crime as Gotham, will have made a ''lot'' of enemies who absolutely will not hesitate to use any advantage they can get against him. He rounds up the last of the villains, races off back to Wayne Manor, and blows it all to kingdom come. It's uncertain if Bruce and Alfred died at the very end or not, but it's done to make sure no one goes after the other masked heroes connected to him.]]
*** [[spoiler:After Batman's identity is exposed to the world, some mook chatter can be heard in the PlayableEpilogue stating that even if Batman is [[RichIdiotWithNoDayJob Bruce Wayne]], he is not any less dangerous.]]
* ''VideoGame/BatmanTheTelltaleSeries'': In Season Two, Episode 2, Bruce is forced to break into his own company, a guard is attacked and security footage captures him. However, while the guard is put on leave and Alfred replaces the footage with dummy footage, it does not stop the guard from telling the cops about it, while the dummy footage is easily seen through and results in Bruce almost getting arrested.
* ''VideoGame/{{Battletech}} takes a lot of its cues for {{Overheating}} rules from its tabletop counterpart. Deserts and hot badlands make it harder to sink heat, snowfields make it easier. Standing in a river lets cold water wash over the heatsinks and improves cooling. Battling in space... makes heat management your worst nightmare. Space is NOT cold, in fact there's very little for heat to conduct into at all, giving barren worlds and space platforms the most punishing heat modifiers of all.
* ''Videogame/BendyAndTheInkMachine'':
** Even if an animation boss is respected and talented, he'll lose his employees' confidence if he undergoes SanitySlippage, introduces an AwesomeButImpractical machine, and allows for unsanitary working conditions. On the tape recorder the speaker threatens to quit if another pipe bursts.
* ''VideoGame/BioShock'':
** With the sole exception of the final boss in the first game, all the antagonists are dispatched with one blow or [[CutsceneBoss in a cutscene]]. Sure, most of them are intelligent and charismatic people with a vast array of people and resources under their control, but they're still ordinary people that are no match for the OneManArmy main character.
** ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}'' has this trope as instrumental to the fall of Rapture. The city was built as a place with no laws or morals, and so Rapture attracted sociopaths and sadists only concerned with their own power. Without laws or ethics, these people inevitably rose to the top of Rapture society due to underhanded methods or because Andrew Ryan favored them. The city's location under the sea meant that Ryan couldn't convince the best members of various fields (science, engineering, the arts) to come live in his underwater utopia, because those people were both sane and well-established, so he only got the desperate ones or visionaries who weren't up to the tasks set to them. Despite the "everyone can make it" propaganda, the citizenry still needed people to scrub the toilets, so there was a huge underclass disillusioned with the Rapture dream, furious at founder Andrew Ryan and his ilk. All this came to a head with the discovery of ADAM, the miracle substance that powers plasmids, and the city promptly tore itself apart fighting over this highly powerful and valuable resource, with those same sociopaths taking their chance to get more powerful by splitting into their own factions.
** Fontaine directly benefited from this trope: when nobody feels like doing menial work and yet some people are forced into it, who is the likeliest customer for goods that make menial tasks go away? Suddenly he went from a small-fry thief and conman to one of the most influential people in Rapture because he saw something nobody else did and grabbed it with both hands.
** So what happens when you build a massive city at the bottom of the sea? A ''hell'' of a lot of engineering problems, that's what. It's frequently mentioned that large parts of Rapture are leaking, especially since nobody's sane enough to do the upkeep. Some of the Big Daddies can be seen patching holes, but they're hardly trained engineers or a coordinated maintenance crew. By the sequel, parts of Rapture have just plain ''collapsed''.
** The prequel novel ''Literature/BioshockRapture'' shows an incident that serves as a perfect example of the consequences of a completely privatized society: the owner of the garbage collection service uses it to drive a rival grocery shop owner out of business by leaving his garbage piled up. Since this is not illegal and a public garbage collection service is anathema to Ryan's beliefs, the grocer resorts to MurderSuicide.
** The penultimate level of ''VideoGame/BioShock2'' reveals that Eleanor [[spoiler:has been seeing through Delta's eyes the whole time]], which has [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment dire consequences]] for the ending if you've been [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential harvesting the Little Sisters]]. After all, what else would happen when [[spoiler:your little girl wants to be just like daddy?]]
** Also from ''Bioshock 2'', [[HellholePrison Persephone Correctional]] was meant to be the perfect dumping ground for Rapture's dissidents: almost unassailable, hidden on the edge of an oceanic trench, and kept secret from most of Rapture's populace, it was impossible to break out of. So, just about anyone Ryan didn't like was sent there for life... and given all the social problems mentioned above, that amounted to a lot more people than the guards could safely control. Plus, because nobody was ever released or paroled, the population just kept growing. Add to that the fact that many of the prisoners were being leased out to Fontaine Futuristics for [[PlayingWithSyringes plasmid testing]], and the inmate population was ''dangerously'' unstable. When [[BigBad Sofia Lamb]] was sent to the prison, she was put to work in giving therapy to the inmates and rewarded with additional privileges for cooperation; as such, she was able to use inmate discontent, her privileges as a model inmate and her own charisma to stage an uprising and seize control of the prison - and because the facility was so well-defended, it was impossible for anyone to dislodge her. As such, Lamb was able to turn Persephone into her own personal Hotel Escobar where she could wait out the civil war in peace.
** ''VideoGame/BioShockInfinite'' repeats the same scenario as Rapture in Columbia. The city is a miracle of technology, presenting itself as a divine haven far from the sins of the world below... [[DeliberateValuesDissonance with the same racism, imperialism, antisemitism and xenophobia as 1912 America]]. So not only does it get used as essentially a floating WMD ([[spoiler:more than once in the BadFuture]]), but despite in theory being only open to [[WhiteAngloSaxonProtestant WASPs]] they still need labourers, hence the oppressed underclass of "negroes" and "potato eaters", and the inevitable civil war that boils over because of their treatment.
*** Songbird is big, he's powerful, he lurks as a threat in the background of most of the game, he's intimately tied to the backstory of the deuteragonist, and everyone with even a passing knowledge of VideoGameTropes expects him to be fought in a big ClimaxBoss or even FinalBoss battle. But Booker, for all his tricks, is still just a single human, and Songbird is still a [[GiantFlyer giant flying]] LightningBruiser that's ImmuneToBullets, so every time they cross paths Booker barely escapes with his life, incapable of doing the slightest shred of damage to Songbird. He's only defeated by [[spoiler:a temporary HeelFaceTurn and then by dropping him at ''the bottom of the ocean'', since Songbird was not designed to withstand water pressure. Any timeline where Booker tried to fight Songbird directly quickly ended with Booker being torn to pieces]].
*** The US government were not aware that Columbia had weapons capabilities. When the city got involved in the Boxer Rebellion, Congress was ''not'' happy with Comstock, and ordered him to return to the US. And when Comstock refused to return, the government declared that the entire city of Columbia had gone rogue, and cut all official ties with it. Even in the early 20th century, such a massive weapon would be a major liability to any sane government.
** After Elizabeth killed [[spoiler:Daisy Fitzroy]], the Vox Populi don't simply [[DecapitatedArmy pack up and surrender]]. Not only did the character's death fail to stop the Vox Populi's actions, but they are now even a bigger threat since [[spoiler: Daisy is no longer controlling them]].
* ''VideoGame/TheBlackwellSeries'': In the course of her investigations Rosa repeatedly breaks into homes and businesses, harasses multiple people well past the point where they want anything to do with her, and is in close proximity to a lot of dead bodies. By the time of ''Epiphany'' she's banned from a hospital and ''two'' campuses, has multiple restraining orders put out against her, and being near to yet another freshly dead body gets her arrested, with the officer perplexed that she hasn't been arrested before, and the only reason she escapes being sent to prison is because of her FriendOnTheForce (a deleted scene shows that [[spoiler:Police Commissioner Alex Silva has been protecting Rosa from police scrutiny for her own ends]], but it isn't clear in the final product if that's still the case).
* ''VideoGame/BlasterMasterZero'' completes its GoldenEnding with Jason yanking Eve out of the Mutant Core's flesh before utterly vaporizing it. All's well that ends well? [[HaHaHaNo You're kidding, right?!]] Turns out hypermutagenic cells and viruses don't [[NoOntologicalInertia cease to exist just because the source body is obliterated]], and [[HappyEndingOverride Eve comes down with a case of corruption]] because of it. And because Jason and Eve are the only beings on Earth that know the mutants existed in the first place, there's no cure of any stripe anywhere on the planet. [[VideoGame/BlasterMasterZero2 Time for another adventure, young Frudnick!]]
* ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' has several examples, as part of its overall DarkerAndEdgier tone.
** Ragna destroying countless NOL divisions has made him a wanted criminal with a bounty worth trillions.
** Following the Dark War, humanity had to relocate to the mountains due to the seithr concentration being too lethal for them. The only way they're able to build settlements is through weather control devices, and when one of them no longer functions, as shown with Akitsu-Kō, the place becomes bitterly cold.
** Hibiki Kohaku [[TykeBomb being raised for nothing other than fighting]] has rendered him very psychologically unstable, to the point that he was willing to kill Kagura to become the ultimate killing machine.
** If the main characters would have tried to reach out each other, realize the threat and work together instead of fighting constantly and minding their own business, [[PoorCommunicationKills much of the villains' goals would have been averted]]. This is underscored in one of Makoto's story modes, where she ends up in an alternate timeline where she tries to SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong; while she does some damage by tipping people off to things they otherwise couldn't have known, she [[SpannerInTheWorks deals the deathblow to the villain's plans]] for the cycle with [[RousingSpeech one well-timed pep talk]].
* In ''VideoGame/BreathOfFireIII'', Ryu, Teepo, and Rei attempt to pull a Robin Hood on the nearby [=McNeil=] family, who is oppressing the villagers with outrageous taxes. The heroes bravely break into the [=McNeil=] mansion, defeat the [=McNeils=][[note]]or to be more accurate, the ghosts of previous [=McNeils=], as the only living one is too cowardly to even fight them[[/note]], and rob the place, returning the ill-gotten gain to the villagers. [[spoiler: Unfortunately, the villagers turn on the heroes, afraid of reprisals from the [=McNeil=] and the criminal syndicate he belongs to, forcing the heroes to flee.]]
* As is Rockstar tradition, the FinalBoss in ''VideoGame/{{Bully}}'' also falls under this. You are Jimmy Hopkins, a scrappy CombatPragmatist who's been spending the entire game time fighting constantly, and as a result, getting stronger and learning more ways to beat people up. Your archenemy, Gary Smith, is a SmugSnake who's been hiding behind the scenes making the other kids do his bidding. When you finally get to fight him, he's just as easy to beat up as anybody else. In fact, EliteMooks [[TheBrute Damon and Bif]] are tougher to beat in a one on one.
* ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'':
** ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare 3'', during the tank gunner section in "Goalpost". Is the M1 Abrams a badass CoolTank? Yes! Is it a good idea to drive it and all 57 tons of its weight into a parking garage only rated for 30 tons? Decidedly no. The crew [[OhCrap realizes]] this about half a second before their tank falls through two stories into the basement. They survive, thankfully, but the fall - and several of the other cars falling on it through the massive hole it made - messed up the systems of the tank enough that they're forced to continue on foot.
** [[spoiler: Soap's death]] is another instance. Getting thrown out the top of a clock tower following a bomb explosion and smashing through various scaffolding on the way to the ground is bad enough, but then add on not being even two full months past a deep stab wound to your chest. Yuri is dazed for a while, but ultimately gets up on his own and is able to fight after a minute or so; [[spoiler: Soap]] has to be carried through the whole level and leaves a near-entirely-solid trail of blood behind him until he bleeds out on a table.
** The AC-130, in the various campaigns, is treated as a sort of undefeatable InfinityPlusOneSword of air support that all but guarantees a successful mission - but its first appearance was where it shined because it was exactly the sort of situation the AC-130 is deployed for in reality, at night with no enemy anti-aircraft weaponry (due to the player and their squadron taking out the only cache of Stinger missiles the enemy had to take down ''their'' air support), and as the series went on it went to lengths to demonstrate the actual weaknesses of strapping that much firepower into a slow-moving and low-flying cargo plane. For starters is its appearance as a KillStreak reward in the second game, where it lays down the hurt just as well as it did in the first game's campaign, but its only defenses are flying high enough that bullets can't touch it and having two sets of flares to draw away missiles - as soon as those are exhausted, it's a sitting duck that goes down in a single hit. ''[=MW3=]'' goes even further, with AC-130s being deployed in noticeably more risky situations. In the campaign it's flying over a contested city, requiring a flight of fighter jets to protect it from the enemy, and even with that it still needs to retreat halfway through the mission as soon as enemy jets show up to harass it. In Special Ops mode there's also a level where one is flown over a mine directly in enemy territory - and the first objective the player on the ground is given is to haul ass to disable the air defenses within a minute before they simply shoot the AC-130 down.
* ''VideoGame/ChronoTrigger'': In the first area, Millennial Fair, you can pick up someone's lunch to replenish your HP. Just a classic bit of [[KleptomaniacHero video game kleptomania]] which will have no further consequences? Not so, as later you're put on trial and the person in question testifies against you, lamenting that you ate their lunch right off the table.
* In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals'', General Alexander is often considered the hardest General to fight by far, despite having assets not all that much greater than any other General. The reason for this is simple: Whereas every other General likes to take their time [[BossBanter mocking your feeble attempts]] in the early game and gradually ramping up the level of force they use against you, [[NoNonsenseNemesis Alexander comes at you full-force, immediately,]] when you are still at your weakest. This also works in reverse: Alexander may be incredibly dangerous on her own turf, but playing ''as'' her in any meaningful aggressive way is really hard because she specializes in defence based on existing infrastructure; take that away and she's easily crushed.
* In ''VideoGame/CultistSimulator'', no matter how much mystical power you accumulate or how many followers you have, at the end of the day, you still have to pay your bills. Fail to have a regular source of income and your eldritch cult leader will go hungry and die. And all the mystical Lore in the world won't help if you get put in prison for the rest of your life.
* The FinalBoss of ''VideoGame/TheDarkness'', Uncle Paulie, is built up as the catalyst for all of the misery in Jackie's life, from [[spoiler: the death of Jackie's girlfriend]] to getting blown out of a window by a bomb. Jackie finally makes it to Paulie, and [[spoiler:Paulie goes down just as easy as the {{Mooks}} Jackie had been slaughtering to reach him. After all, Paulie's a normal human being, and a rather overweight one, at that. Jackie has the personification of all evil living inside of him. If anything, it's more of a CurbstompBattle CutsceneBoss than a final boss fight]].
* ''VideoGame/DarkestDungeon'' is a deconstruction of living in the darker counterpart of a D&D style AdventureFriendlyWorld; the explorers you hire to delve the dungeons are just normal people who happen to have strengths, they have fears and weaknesses, and fighting against abominations against nature like the undead and other monsters will cause them to develop new quirks that can either help or harm. The dangerous journeys themselves stress the heroes out, and if you don't help them recover after missions, you run the risk of having them break and letting the worst of their personality come out, which in a game where teamwork and strategy is the number one, can be fatal for all involved.
* ''VideoGame/DarkSouls'': Part of the reason the franchise (and [[VideoGame/DemonsSouls its]] [[VideoGame/{{Bloodborne}} fellows]]) are NintendoHard is that they just don't pull punches. Think you'll run into a group of low-level {{Mook}}s without a plan [[ConservationOfNinjitsu and win]]? HaHaHaNo [[CurbStompBattle you won't]]. Think that the various giant armor sets will make you invincible? You'll be a MightyGlacier unless you have the [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower right stats]] and [[PoorPredictableRock you'll always have SOME weaknesses]]. Want to challenge that dragon guarding that bridge? You'll need real superhuman stats, clever placement and/or the proper equipment/spells active ''just to survive its FireBreathingWeapon''. It's only thanks to ([[WhoWantsToLiveForever sucky]]) CompleteImmortality do you have ''any'' chance, as [[TheManyDeathsOfYou your many and varied demises will prove]]; you're a [[NotUsingTheZWord living hunk of jerky]] in a DeathWorld and only artificially powering yourself up with [[YourSoulIsMine countless souls]] can you even hope to survive the myriad horrors that await you.
** And that well at Firelink Shrine? You might believe there's some secret down there... but it is, in fact, just a well. Jumping down it gets you killed. Surprise.
* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':
** There are several occasions when important characters get swiftly killed with little fanfare. Bale is easily killed by Angelos after the former's backup deserts him. In ''Winter Assault'' Sturnn is killed by Gorgutz in seconds by beating him into bloody pulp, because Gorgutz is a hulking green monstrosity and Sturnn is a normal human with fancy equipment. ''Retribution'' has Merrick go up against a Tyranid Hive Tyrant, and get killed even faster.
** ''Dawn of War II'' and its first expansion ''Chaos Rising'' have the player achieving glorious victory over the enemies that threaten to engulf the subsector and destroy the Chapter, both ending in a triumphant speech by Gabriel Angelos about how heroic you are. The second expansion, ''Retribution'', is set ten years later and shows that "defeated" is not the same as "gone"; remnants of all the different enemy factions are still making a mess of the subsector, all sides keep funneling in reinforcements to the point that all the planets are engulfed in constant fighting, and the situation has deteriorated so much the Imperial higher ups consider [[KillEmAll Exterminatus]] to be the best option.
** During ''Dark Crusade'', several of the strongholds play out this way. Gorgutz of the Orks is defeated by pitting his forces, notorious for in-fighting if they feel like it, against each other so he stands alone on the field. The Necrons are known to be unstoppable in combat, so instead their catacombs are nuked to cause a cave-in, completely disabling their abilities of repair and reinforcement. The Imperial Guard are regular humans and prone to cowardice and rebelling against bad officers, so the player can pit them against each other as well if it appears that the player in charge would be a better leadership than their own high command. The Tau venerate their Ethereals to the point of fanaticism, so killing the spiritual leader breaks their morale so hard they just pack up and flee.
** ''Chaos Rising'' has MultipleEndings, and while the two Purity endings involve [[spoiler:the Force Commander being made Captain of the Fourth Company or joining Angelos in purging corruption within the Blood Ravens chapter]], the partial to total Corruption endings feature [[spoiler:your strike force being sent on a hundred-year Penitent Crusade, the Commander getting a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from and executed by Angelos in person with the implication that your men are either dead or going to be or all your squads [[FaceHeelTurn joining the Black Legion]] and fleeing into the Warp, with a vow from Angelos to pursue you wherever you go]]. In the case of the former two: you didn't think you could [[ItsAllAboutMe endanger civilians for personal gain]], [[RobbingTheDead steal a dead Battle Brother's equipment]], [[UnfriendlyFire deliberately kill fellow Marines]] who [[ObliviouslyEvil didn't understand their reasons for fighting you were bogus]] and use suspiciously Warp-like abilities without Angelos finding out and without suffering the consequences, did you? And in the latter case, did you really think you could [[SlowlySlippingIntoEvil slowly but surely give your squads over to the influence of Chaos]] and [[EvilIsNotAToy you wouldn't lose yourselves to the Dark Gods]]?
* ''Dead End Road'': You can wish to be the grand ruler of the entire world. [[spoiler:Too bad it doesn't mean you have the skills to maintain control over it.]]
* ''VideoGame/DeadRising2'':
** People are strangely resistant to gunfire. Chuck, while not an invincible steel wall, can take a .50 caliber rifle bullet to the face and negate the effects with a bottle of whiskey. Psychopaths are even more bullet resistant, with some taking it to ridiculous degrees (Antoine, a fat celebrity chef with presumably no combat experience can [[MoreDakka take 200 rounds of LMG fire]] by blocking it with a frying pan). So when [[BigBad Sullivan]] pulls out his handgun and [[PrettyLittleHeadshots puts a hole]] in Rebecca Chang's forehead and kills her, it can be a bit stunning to a player to witness.
** Chuck can recover health by consuming food or drink, but if he does this with alcohol several times in a row or with spoiled food, he'll get sick and throw up.
** Marion Mallon is the [[ManBehindTheMan true antagonist for all the games]], a wealthy and corrupt pharmaceutical CEO whose employees have started at least 3 separate zombie outbreaks, and who has the cure, but refuses to release it to keep selling their treatment (the third game reveals [[spoiler:that last one is a blatant lie]]). Despite this, she's still an old woman in a wheelchair, so ''VideoGame/DeadRising3'' antagonist General Hemlock, a big, burly man kills her easily by just dumping her off a roof.
** Protagonist Nick Ramos has no problem killing the undead because hey, [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman they're not human]]. When he kills an ''actual living human'' for the first time, he suffers a HeroicBSOD, due to having not killed someone before, even though it was rightfully done out of self-defense.
** In the fourth game, Frank questions the antagonist on her plan to create controllable zombies, guessing she intends to create an army of soldiers. She shoots back, no, the zombies are designed as menial workers, farmers, and other back-breaking labor, as an army of creatures the government has already been dealing with for 17 years would be worthless.
-->'''Frank:''' Peanuts. Peanuts are hard to farm.
** Exposing the truth to the populace is wonderful and the just thing to do until you make an enemy of the Government. Then you'll see those rights of yours go right out the damn door. The Government will happily ruin the life of a person who gets close to uncovering those secrets, and Frank's life goes right down as a result of it.
* ''VideoGame/DeadSpace3''. Isaac Clarke, and the team investigating Tau Volantis, manage to find an old space shuttle in order to travel to the planet's surface and continue their mission. Too bad that the shuttle was around 200 years old, as were all the available replacement parts (what few there were), thus they didn't have the time nor resources to to a full restore of the vehicle. Upon using it to enter the planet's atmosphere, it works well...for awhile, but eventually the ship's age and lack of proper maintenance catch up with it. The ship breaks apart close to the planet's surface, killing 2 of its crew members and stranding the rest on the planet's frozen surface.
** During the ActionPrologue Isaac uses stasis to slow down an automated car on the freeway. Because it only stopped the one car and not the ones behind it however this ends up causing a pile up.
** Later on Isaac must use stasis again to stop a fan as he is repelling down a shaft. After passing it he quickly has to cut to line in order to avoid being pulled back into the blades once the fan resume spinning.
** In most of the games in the ''Franchise/DeadSpace'' series, the vast majority of weapons are actually [[UtilityWeapon futuristic industrial and mining tools]]. The majority of the games aren't set on military installations (''VideoGame/DeadSpace'' took place on a mining ship, ''VideoGame/DeadSpaceExtraction'' on a mining colony, ''VideoGame/DeadSpace2'' on a civilian space station and so on) and the protagonists use whatever they have on hand. The major exception to this is ''Dead Space 3'', since several areas in the game were former military installations or the wreckage of military vessels, so actual firearms are plentiful. This isn't really a problem as the Necromorph's [[AnArmAndALeg weaknesses]] mean that cutting tools are more effective than [[GunsAreUseless firearms]] anyway.
** Unlike the Necromorphs Unitologist soldiers are living beings and are not MadeOfIron. When Isaac uses high powered engineering tools like his plasma cutter on them you get to see why safety regulations exist. Further more it only takes a single shot to the head, from any weapon, to instantly kill them.
* ''{{VideoGame/Deltarune}}'': As the Sequel to Undertale below, likes to have realistic consequences for things and a touch on the more fantasy-esque formula
** Unlike in ''Undertale'', where even the worst villains could be befriended and redeemed (with the exception of the player on the bad ending path), the BigBad of chapter 1, the Spades King, is an irredeemable despot who refuses attempts at reasoning, and tricks the party member who believes in ''Undertale's'' message of "nobody is truly evil" as part of an ISurrenderSuckers that almost gets the party killed. A realistic, surprisingly brutal, though [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped perhaps needed]] bit of reality from ''Undertale''.
** Much like the Genocide route in ''Undertale'', attempting the "Violent" route in ''Deltarune'' doesn't end favorably for the party. After defeating King, Lancer shows up and says he had to bar the door because the entire Dark World is trying to break in to capture and kill the party, forcing them to hurry to the Fountain of Darkness and leave. The Spades King may be a tyrannical despot who's taxed his citizens into poverty and locked up threats to his rule, but in that situation, he's still a better alternative to letting a band of outsiders - who have beaten up and attempted to kill everyone in their path on their quest to destroy the Fountain that King said will bring a new age to the Dark World - get their way. The player's aggression basically made King the one in the right to the Darkners' eyes and justified his extremism, which means he suffers [[KarmaHoudini no consequences]] as a result.
* ''VideoGame/Destiny2'':
** Guardians are [[TheAgeless ageless]] super powered warriors with decades if not centuries of combat experience each, a regenerative HealingFactor and ResurrectiveImmortality which makes death a minor inconvenience. Without the Light its a completly different story. While skilled they are entirely mortal and take heavy casualties from simple attrition, with many suffering from a HeroicBSOD.
** Late in the story [[spoiler:the adviser tries to make demands of Ghaul, reminding him how he gave him everything and made him the warrior that he is. Ghaul gets annoyed and chokes him to death.]]
** Guardians' ResurrectiveImmortality only works because of their [[PiecesOfGod Ghosts]] rebuilding their bodies and reviving them once the Guardian's taken enough of a beating to kill them. If the Ghost is destroyed, that Guardian can't come back, even if they're not ''currently'' dead.
* ''VideoGame/DeusEx'', a minor patron saint of deconstruction, lets reality happen quite a few times. At one point, TheDragon decides that it's much, much smarter to [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim just order his troops to kill you]], rather than actually having to go through the complicated business of waiting for the ExplosiveLeash to kick in. Notably, he ''also'' activates said leash - which for newer models like you is a relatively slow and seemingly natural death rather than instant death by explosion - just to be sure. At another point, you confront an enemy ObstructiveBureaucrat who realizes that trying to shoot the SuperSoldier might not be such a good idea, so he waits until you turn around and leave, whereupon he shoots you in the back. At the "Realistic" difficulty level, there's a quite high chance that this will kill the player character in one shot. You can silently pick off the guards before he decides to sic them on you, resulting in a "You win this round, Denton."
* ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'':
** If you're cocky enough to act like Franchise/{{Rambo}} or the Franchise/{{Terminator}}, even basic mooks will make you regret it fast.
** If you TakeYourTime getting to the Sarif factory, the terrorists occupying it will have killed off all the hostages, even though it's not explicitly a TimedMission.
** Similarly, a major named ally will die if you take too long to kill her attackers, even though there's no explicit timer here either.
** In ''The Missing Link'' {{DLC}}, a [[PrivateMilitaryContractors Belltower]] commander makes mention that a number of their people that Jensen "peacefully" knocked unconscious by bashing them in the face with a metal fist are in comas. If you do a non-lethal and/or stealth run through the mission then the commander will point out that even though Jensen hasn't killed anyone, all that means is that the character is extremely resourceful and more dangerous than someone just shooting people, and that the soldiers under his command should be even more vigilant in the event Jensen decides to start taking lethal options.
** When the head of a powerful mega corporation is approached by an intruder demanding information, she doesn't just cave in, she talks until she can trip the alarm and run for the panic room.
** Being invisible or transparent in real life would allow light to travel through you. Because of this Jensen can pass through laser wires while invisible without setting them off.
** When a random civilian tries MuggingTheMonster by threatening to call security forces on Adam, you can get him to change his mind by pointing out how easy it would be to [[AppealToForce break his bones]]. There's nothing keeping you from exiting the conversation and just killing or [[TalkToTheFist knocking him out]] on the spot either.
** A crooked bouncer demands money in exchange for the location of a missing prostitute. If you refuse to pay he'll point out that it's pointless to threaten him since "It's not like I have the info conveniently on me...". If you knock him out or kill him, you instantly fail the mission. In another case of ensuing reality, once he gives you the info you need, there's nothing stopping you from knocking him out or killing him to get your money back, which he WILL have on him.
** An in-game example happens if you get jump enhancements (especially the ground-pound attack) before you get the Icarus Landing System will result in you being hurt for jumping too high; they only improve the force in which you lift off, not reducing it when you come back down. In extreme cases, this can actually kill a player who is unaware of this fact.
* ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided''
** [[LateArrivalSpoiler Hugh Darrow's psychosis-inducing signal, causing all augmented humans around the world to go temporarily homicidal]] lasted, at most, an hour. In that hour, the thousands of people with augmentations caused millions of deaths, billions of dollars in property damage and turned the order of the world on its head. The aftermath was profound. The augmented, who were once touted as superior to baseline humankind, are now persecuted with near impunity by both individuals and governments, feared and segregated from the rest of humanity. Augmentation technology is effectively brought to a complete halt, used only sparingly, and even then it still invites scorn. Some cities, like Dubai, who put a heavy emphasis on using augmented labor, are devastated both physically and economically, and by the time the game takes place, these places still haven't recovered. For the individual augs, in addition to having to deal with the new prejudices and societal pressures, many of them suffer mental disorders, both from the trauma of the signal itself, and from struggling to come to terms with what they did while under its influence.
* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor'': The Yamanote line in Tokyo gets locked in by the SDF and food rations are only dropped in sparingly. It takes very little time for the people to turn to anarchy, and start fighting over any food available or otherwise falling into lawless ways. Even several police officers begin to abuse their status and kill, since the lockdown is considered a lawless zone and they can do whatever they want. If one ignores the supernatural aspect of a demon summoning app giving people the power to fight with demons on their side, [[AdultFear this is what would happen to a metropolitan area being closed off for prolonged time]].
* ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'':
** After the route split, you can talk to your companions who didn't side with you or are dead and try to convince them to rejoin you. If you lack a high enough FATE bond with them, they refuse to join you, citing that while they may like you, the differences in motives has damaged things to where they do not feel comfortable fighting alongside you, and leave for the rest of the game. After all, you did just fight them over a difference in opinion, so unless your friendship with them is strong enough, they have no reason to help you since you were willing to fight them.
** At one point, Joe ends up in trouble when his phone dies and he is attacked while trying to help people escape some demons. It's the only instance of this happening in game but the point still remains; if your phone is your only source of power, make sure its charged when you go out into a dangerous environment, or you risk dying.
** The game applies this to ScrewDestiny as well. The Death Videos show how someone will die and thus the person's fate can be altered so they survive, but in order to prevent them from dying, you need to actually ''work'' to save them and cannot just hope things work out. Take your time before running off to help them? They'll die because you took too long. Didn't help your friend who was obviously [[StepfordSmiler hiding their pain from you]]? They lose the will to live because they couldn't move forward. Also, some people simply cannot be saved, no matter how hard you try.
** The Nicea app was released to pretty much everyone, meaning in theory everyone can summon powerful demons to fight for them. Naturally, there are people who take to using their new powers to bully others, or begin attacking people to get what they want. Without laws to keep people in check, there will be people who take advantage of it to hurt others. Also, the widespread usage of the app means many people who summoned a demon died because they either failed to control it, or were killed by another, leaving plenty of phones around that can now summon demons freely.
** Even in a world with demons and magic, being shot with a gun is likely going to be fatal. If you fail to arrive quick enough, Ronald will shoot and kill Makoto once she is weakened from combat. Makoto is still a regular human after all.
* ''{{VideoGame/Dishonored}}'':
** Corvo may have [[FlashStep a]] [[PsychicRadar vast]] [[TimeStandsStill array]] [[SwarmOfRats of powers]], but when it comes down to it, he's still physically an ordinary human - getting in a scrap with guards and getting shot, or falling a long distance without breaking it via blink will do substantial if not fatal damage to you. The same applies to every normal human too. Any fight you get in tends to be dangerous because of the numbers, but a single target will die quickly regardless of if you cut him down with your sword or just shoot him dead. This includes all of the major targets; most are no better than mooks when you fight, and even the tougher ones you can simply kill at range before they even know you're there.
** While Corvo also has a bunch of wonderful toys, his handheld crossbow doesn't pack much of a punch, one-hit-killing is only possible with a headshot or an incendiary bolt. Daud's own wrist-based crossbow has the same weakness, and he ultimately gets far more mileage out of it in a takedown animation where he fires the bolt into a guy's neck at point-blank range, then has the crossbow pull it back into position when it rearms itself.
** The last assassination targets don't even try to fight Corvo; by this stage, whichever way you have played, they know all too well they can't win.
** Killing every enemy you come across will not secure any kind of victory. The dead guards will just be replaced with less than savory new recruits, your enemies will increase security with more elaborate death machines sooner than they would in a pacifist run, and your own allies will get increasingly disillusioned and/or paranoid with you. And much like Eleanor Lamb above, Emily Kaldwin learns by watching you, so if you decide that violence is the way to go, so will she. She's also the rightful successor to the throne, so having a young Empress learn that violence solves all problems will not end well.
*** And what happens when there are corpses everywhere? ''Rats'', that's what happens. [[YouDirtyRat Filthy rats]], carrying the plague.
** Corvo and Jessamine were secretly lovers, except it wasn't a secret to ''anyone'', given everything from their obvious closeness to the daughter they had out of wedlock. The reason no one ever said anything about it (unless you let a dying Pendleton talk in High Chaos) is because of the sheer RefugeInAudacity of it all.
** When trying to find information on Delilah, Daud has the option of getting it from [[BitchInSheepsClothing Abigail Ames]], either by helping her, or torturing it out of her. Should the player choose to help her, she'll sell a favor in a later level. Should the player torture her instead, she'll still sell the favor, except it will actually be an explosive trap. Abigail's not the forgiving type.
** If you chose to ambush Campbell down in the basement when he is going to try and kill Curnow, but don't do it when he is clearly about to kill Curnow, Curnow will attack you. Even though you were trying to save his life, without knowledge that he was going to be killed, from his perspective Corvo, a wanted man and an assassin, just jumped down and attacked someone of high rank in front of him who, up to that point, was still technically an ally. If you want to save him and avoid fighting him, you need to wait till Campbell is about to kill Curnow, at which point he thanks you for saving him.
* ''VideoGame/Dishonored2'':
** The previous game's points regarding human vitality, taking on multiple enemies at once and the consequences of killing every enemy you come across all apply here, with the exception being that the rats are now replaced by parasitic flying insects.
** It's mentioned several times that Emily and Corvo knew about Luca Abele's despotic regime, but [[BystanderSyndrome were content to ignore it]] until it led to them getting deposed. As a result, a number of people consider them partly responsible for how bad the situation has become in Serkonos.
** Near the end of a Low Chaos playthrough, Meagan Foster drops a huge bombshell about herself; [[spoiler: she's actually Billie Lurk, one of the assassins who murdered Jessamine, aka Emily's mother/Corvo's lover]]. Despite Meagan being one of their staunchest allies, and whatever the player might want to do, neither Emily nor Corvo will take such a damning revelation well. At best they'll acknowledge that Meagan's changed since then, after making it very clear that they'll never forgive her. At worst they'll be openly disgusted with Meagan, and want nothing more to do with her from that point on. They can even [[spoiler:murder her, and it'll be considered avenging Jessamine]].
** The Overseers' music boxes work like a charm on Outsider powers... but not on anything else. So when the Overseers [[spoiler: march on Delilah, they get wiped out because the clockwork soldiers are machines, not sorcery.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Divekick}}'' features [[WebVideo/TwoBestFriendsPlay The Baz]], a fighter who's special moves have him [[ShockAndAwe shock his opponent with electricity]]. FinalBoss S-Kill flat out tells him that this is blatantly illegal, and his ending has him barred from any future Divekick tournaments because his electric powers ended up putting multiple divekickers in comas. This is implied to be a big reason why he's been kicked out of countless other fighting tournaments.
--> The game is called "Divekick", not "Electrocute People".
* In ''VideoGame/DonkeyKongCountry3DixieKongsDoubleTrouble'''s "Lightning Look-Out", as in real life, it is a bad idea to be swimming during a thunderstorm, as you'll be shocked regardless of if the actual lightning bolt hits you while underwater.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'':
** The Amell Family Shield is virtually worthless ([[LevelLockedLoot at least, by the time you find it]]). Unlike the other examples, it doesn't appear in any quest, and seems to just be an [[RuleOfCool excuse]] to let the player actually equip one of the numerous Amell family crests they will have seen hanging up all over the city.
** An example that crosses over with JerkassGenie and BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Xenon, the owner of the Black Emporium, once wished for eternal life. He got his wish, but it didn't do anything to stop his body aging because he never took that into account, and by the time you meet him, he's an ancient, immobile and unhinged corpse.
** Playing Hawke as a mage gives you an opportunity to reveal as much to a group of Qunari Arvaarad-essentially the Qunari's "handlers" of mages and hunters of rogue mages. Being that the Qunari fear magic and only see mages as safe when they're restrained and under guard (and those who are separated from their handlers, even for a short time, are immediately killed on suspicion on being "[[DemonicPossession corrupted]]") they react predictably to how one would think they'd react to a foreign, unbound mage standing right in front of them: They [[OhCrap freak out]] and immediately attack.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'':
** The ending of the Dwarves SuccessionCrisis shows how the situation is not as black and white as "appoint the ReasonableAuthorityFigure as king" like you might expect. Harrowmont is a good man who wants to do what is right, but he is also a firm traditionalist, so he doesn't push to bring reforms to society because the status-quo is more important to him and the majority of the senate. So if he is appointed king, he ultimately fails as a king because he is a SlaveToPR that wants to keep the senate on his side, causing the already DyingRace nature of the Dwarves to get worse. By contrast, while Belen is not a good person, [[CainAndAbel especially if you are a Noble Dwarf background]], his radical viewpoints are ultimately what is needed to improve Orzammar and the people living in it, as the ending shows him making things better for the regular people, as well as establishing relations with the surface.
** Magic allows you to shoot lightning at people, raise the dead to work for you, or call down giant firestorms on your enemies... but is also feared and hated by most of the world, and doing magic outside of the strictly regulated circles is outright illegal.
** The Dwarf Noble origin notes that the old Aeducan family shield they find is crude by their current standards and only of symbolic value.
** Alistair is beyond pissed if the player tries to forge a grand redemption arc for Teryn Loghain by inducting him into the Wardens. Alistair is unable to forgive or forget Loghain's atrocities and storms off, leaving the party permanently.
** Helping the Dwarven priest build a church in Orzammar for example leads to its destruction and his death, since the atheistic dwarves are outraged by him spreading foreign beliefs. These events draw the attention of the Chantry which is said to be considering a holy war against the city following this.
** In return for their aid during the blight the Dalish elves are given lands to settle. However tensions quickly arise with an independent elven state forming in the middle of Human lands. Things deteriorate faster if the Warden [[spoiler:choose to ally with the werewolves, who are given those lands instead.]]
** The most popular way to handle the Landsmeet is to [[spoiler: name Alistair as king, due to him being the bastard son of the late King Maric]], with or without having him marry Queen Anora. Another possible solution is for a male human noble player character to marry Anora himself and become a monarch. But if you make a comment about becoming "King," Anora will swiftly remind you that you'd be her ''prince consort'' and that she'd still be the one calling the shots.
* ''VideoGame/DragonAgeInquisition'':
** The Ferelden Nobility were sympathetic towards the Mages with Arl Eamon even allowing the mages shelter in his estate of Redcliffe. But if you side with the mages, once you complete their recruitment quest, [[spoiler: the monarch of Ferelden, which can be either Alastair or Anora, will personally arrive to tell the mages to leave the country because [[SacredHospitality they abused the hospitality of the monarch and Arl Eamon, supported a Tevinter cult responsible for the murder of the Divine (Thedas' equivalent to the Pope) and expelled the Arl from his own estate]].]]
*** There is no change based upon the above choice despite one crucial detail if Alastair is present in that scene - [[spoiler: Fiona is his mother. She doesn't reveal the fact as he is unlikely to believe her, due to the lie she asked Maric to tell him.]]
** Impersonating a Grey Warden is a ''very'' serious offense. [[spoiler: You can lose Blackwall permanently as a result.]]
*** Two characters both show admiration for the Grey Wardens and believe them to be heroes who protect the weak and defenseless. It goes badly for both characters because their primary duty is to stop [[TheEndofTheWorldAsWeKnowIt blights]], not play heroes. [[spoiler: Blackwall's is a major hint that he's lying right from the start as any Warden who invokes the right of conscription would use it not to train humble fishermen but to forcibly recruit new wardens from people who would be executed or killed otherwise. The other, while she is willing to seek out the Wardens to join, will end up dead unless the Inquisitor recruits her for themselves due to the Wardens being highly suspicious of them.]]
*** Related to the above, should the player use Blackwall's Grey Warden connections to obtain resources for the Inquisition, [[spoiler:the people who provided the resources will demand reparations once Blackwall's duplicity is revealed, seeing as you pretty much committed fraud against them]].
*** [[spoiler: ''You'' can invoke this back on the people demanding reparations if you choose Cullen's option: Regardless of Blackwall's duplicity, those resources ''were'' needed against a threat by Darkspawn (albeit not a Blight/Archdemon-related Darkspawn) and since you are now allied with the remaining Grey Wardens (or exiled them and seized their holdings), the resources now rightfully belong to the Inquisition.]]
---> '''Cullen''':[[spoiler: I'm sorry, did we embarrass a duchess at a soiree by stepping on her gown, or was the sky torn open and [[DoomedHometown Haven]] beset by an ancient darkspawn magister? We needed the gold. We needed the men. You would have persuaded someone to part with them, with or without the treaties. We are not making reparations for [[IDidWhatIHadToDo doing what we had to do.]] What no one else could have done.]]
*** Another Grey Warden point; the Wardens are revealed to have effectively been tricked into summoning a demon army for the BigBad. Is it any small wonder that some of your companions will call for you to exile them as a result of this?
** TakeAThirdOption is not always the best decision. [[spoiler: Out of the three possible candidates for Divine, Vivienne, being both pro-templar ''and'' a mage, is arguably the most controversial. Most characters with an opinion on her appointment are surprised at best and more than a little wary of her ambition and iron-fisted methods, and depending on what choices you make, she can kick off her rule by having the remaining rebelling mages mercilessly suppressed by the Templars.]]
** Vivienne is initially presented as a possible romantic choice because of the option to flirt with her, but as revealed when you first meet her, she's already in a loving relationship with her lover Bastien. [[spoiler: He dies from an illness, but you cannot attempt ComfortingTheWidow]].
** Being hailed as TheChosenOne doesn't automatically mean you're TheHero - the first thing the Herald has to deal with is the Chantry declaring them and all those who support them as heretics.
*** People will be skeptical of your claim to being the Herald of [[CrystalDragonJesus Andraste]] if you're not a human. This is due to official teaching of the Chantry that humans, while still shunned by the Maker, were not nearly as shunned by other races, as well as being a mostly-human organization.
** The Qunari Inquisitor, if they try to discuss what it means to be Qunari with The Iron Bull, will be coldly shot down - Bull states that the Inquisitor isn't a follower of the Qun so has no right to call themself a Qunari.
*** The Iron Bull, if [[spoiler: declared Tal Vashoth, goes into a HeroicBSOD due to the teachings of the Qun saying that those who abandon the Qun are insane, which was the justification he used for killing deserters of the Qun. If he doesn't go insane then that means he killed a lot of innocent people.]]
*** Bull mentions that the Qunari are not fond of wearing shirts, given how much trouble it is to put one on when you have a large pair of horns growing out of your head.
** One side quest has the Inquisitor collect pieces of an ancient sword and ask Dagna to reforge it, only for her to explain that you cannot remake a sword from its shards. She instead makes a new one using the collected pieces as inspiration.
** The Revered Mothers of the Chantry are just old women - their most effective weapon is their unified voice and the Chant of Light. It's no wonder that Lord Seeker Lucius was able to completely shatter their illusion of power by assaulting one of them.
** Trying to re-appropriate the culture of another civilization is highly offensive to those from the original culture, especially if you get it wrong. [[spoiler: This is why Solas hates what the Dalish have become, especially when their FacialMarkings, which they think is to honor the elvish gods, happen to be the equivalent of a SlaveBrand.]]
** According to Varric, Hawke had to go on the run after his game due to the events of the last chapter making him a scapegoat. Also the [[WretchedHive general corruption of the city]] alone was enough to have numerous calls for the city to be the target of an Exalted March even before the incident with the Qunari and [[spoiler: an apostate committing a terrorist bombing of the local Chantry]].[[note]]Which is a bit of WhatCouldHaveBeen about ''VideoGame/DragonAgeII'' - ''Exalted March'' was a planned piece of DLC that was cancelled due to the poor reception to the game.[[/note]]
** Related to the above, when Cassandra learns that Varric had lied to her about [[spoiler: not knowing Hawke's whereabouts]], she angrily confronts him over it. Varric asks her what she was expecting, given that she kidnapped him and interrogated him about [[spoiler: the location of one of his closest friends]].
** As Dorian's backstory proves, even in a world where homophobia is nonexistent and being gay is seen as little more than a sexual quirk not unlike a fetish, it can still be problematic if you come from a culture that emphasises strengthening and continuing your lineage. There's also the fact that living in a world without gay bars or Grindr means finding partners isn't easy.
-->'''Cole:''' (reading Dorian's memories) Rilienus, skin tan like fine whiskey, cheekbones shaded, lips curl when he smiles. He would have said yes.
-->'''Dorian:''' I'll...thank you not to do that again, please.
** The most difficult way to end the Orlesian civil war is to gather enough blackmail fodder to force all three factions--sitting Empress Celene, her cousin Duke Gaspard, and elven spymaster Briala--to work together instead of playing out the KingmakerScenario. But despite seeming like it'd be the most rewarding option, it's actually the ''worst''. According to the epilogue, once the main danger is past, they're on the verge of starting the civil war up all over again since none of the underlying issues are addressed. The best option is to reunite former lovers Celene and Briala, which results in the best in-game rewards, long-term stability in Orlais, and more rights for [[FantasticRacism the oppressed elves]]. However, you ''have'' to implicate Gaspard in plotting against Celene and let her sentence him to death, even though he's no more or less guilty than Briala. In other words, to get the best results you ''have'' to play [[DecadentCourt The Grand Game]].
** A key plot point of the ''Trespasser DLC'' is that Ferelden and Orlais are unhappy about having an independent military organization like the Inquisition on their borders, with Ferelden calling the Inquisition out on some of their more controversial actions and wanting them disbanded, and Orlais wanting more control over the organization.
** At the end of ''Trespasser'', it's pointed out that an organization like the Inquisition will inevitably fall victim to internal corruption as it expands.
** Relationships are a bit more realistic in that not every love interest is available to every player. In addition to gender preference, some characters have racial preferences as well, and party members' approval meters are invisible to the player and harder to manipulate. You can no longer shower them with gifts to make them like you, and you can't avoid disapproval by not bringing them on quests where you know they'll disagree with your actions, such as leaving Sera, who hates magic, at home when you do a quest supporting mages. It ''will'' get back to her. Bioware may have felt they were perpetuating "Nice Guy Syndrome" in previous games by implying that as long as you make all the right moves with your crush and tell them what they want to hear, they will mindlessly fall in love with you regardless of your personal traits. In reality, some people are ''just not into you.''
** There is no Blood Mage specialization for a mage Inquisitor, due to it being seen as inherently evil. In previous games, it was always the preferred spec for a purely-offensive playstyle, and storywise, no one was in a position to stop you. But in ''Inquisition'', the player character is the leader of a religious organization tasked with keeping the peace across Thedas. The Inquisition depends on the goodwill of the public to function, and it's already controversial if the leader is a mage (especially one that isn't human). There is no way the Inquisitor can get away with openly practicing blood magic without losing crucial support. Necromancy is tolerated--just barely--by being a Nevarran cultural practice, but blood magic is right out.
* ''Videogame/DungeonsOfDredmor'' plays several tropes to their natural conclusions for humor. For example:
** Extremely powerful books on cloud magic will barely even assist you inside the dungeon, because there's no windows at all and you're underground.
** [[BoozeBasedBuff Mana is restored through drinking booze]]. As a result, the Age of Wizardry came to an end due to the great wizards all succumbing to alcoholism and its complications like belligerent colleagues and dwindling funds for and quality of booze.
** Several double-weapons like the Double-Quarterstaff and the Dire Halberd are actually rather terrible, because the sheer difficulty of handling them makes them rather useless in actual combat.
** Heavier, more protective helmets tend to obstruct your vision, reducing your viewing distance as a result.
** The "Water Supply Fluoridation" debuff is in there as a ''Film/DoctorStrangelove'' reference, and your bodily fluids are sapped, but the tooltip helpfully remarks it also did what it ''actually'' does and strengthened your teeth, buffing your resistance just slightly.
* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'':
** The huge material properties overhaul resulted in a few of these, as a simple damage multiplier for each metal was replaced with actual stats for tensile strength, shear and compressive yields and so forth. Adamantine turned out to be incredibly strong and lightweight, making for excellent edged weapons like swords, but when players forged blunt weapons like warhammers and maces from it, the results were disappointing.
** You planning on subverting that river into your base for a fresh water supply? Water carries motion still, so without proper planning you might just flood your base. See that awesome battle on a mountaintop, with people fighting and dodging? Well, one combatant just dodged off a cliff, and is now plummeting to his death. Despite the odd, and often fun, physics of the game, sometimes it will start behaving realistically enough for you to realize that you've just screwed up.
** The mechanics behind that most insidious of threats, the Catsplosion[[note]]an event where cats breed out of control in a fortress. Dwarves are quick to adopt them as pets, which causes them to become depressed if someone kills them. Eventually, the depression escalates into a "Depression Spiral" that could cause the whole fortress to fall to madness[[/note]] seems pretty ridiculous. But think about it for a second; how would you feel if someone killed your pet, even for "the greater good"?
** The Dwarven Economy was a dire case of ArtisticLicenseEconomics, but that's not what lands it here. Getting the economy to "work" required minting hundreds, possibly thousands of coins. All of which were treated as unique objects, tracked individually and each with their own crafting level and description. Modern (2019) computers would struggle with that, hardware at the time was inevitable brought to a crawl. That was the main reason it was DummiedOut and ultimately nixed completely.
** The update that fixed the BonsaiForest problem, instead giving out huge trees that yielded multiple logs, also showed one of the problems with the aversion of this trope; namely, that a giant tree's collapse can and will injure anyone it falls on, including the woodcutter if he's standing in the wrong spot. Don't give woodcutters pets if you don't want a tragedy, and remember: Accidents happen.
-->''The oak wood log strikes the woodcutter in the right foot [[AgonyOfTheFeet and the injured part explodes into gore]]!''
* Many of the cutscenes in ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriors 7'' invoke this with AnnoyingArrows. In one scene, Pang Tong succumbs to a wound that resulted from taking an arrow intended for Liu Bei, Zhou Yu dies in a similar fashion, and another cutscene has the famous EyeScream scene with Xiahou Dun (at least [[GoryDiscretionShot as much as can be shown in a T-rated game]]). To say nothing of Wu.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:E-I]]
* ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'':
** Using Dragon Shouts in a city or town will result in a guard asking you to stop. Magic or not, those shouts are awfully loud, and some of them can cause a lot of collateral damage, so of course it would make the locals nervous. On the other hand, when pressed, the guard will admit that there's not actually a ''law'' against it since there's only a handful of Tongues in the world, who generally don't leave their monastery, and of course using Shouts outs you as [[TheChosenOne the Dragonborn.]] But they'll still ask you to knock it off.
** If the Dragonborn already has a bounty on them in Whiterun when they try to enter the city for the first time, the Guard will try to arrest them, since a known criminal just walked up to them.
** The Vigilants of Stendarr are a sect of {{Church Militant}}s that aggressively hunt the daedra and other supernatural beings. Walking up to them while carrying a daedric artifact, or while wearing full daedric armor, will cause trouble.
** Realizing he's lost, [[spoiler:Alduin]] decides TheBattleDidntCount and retreats. While he plays it off as inconsequential, his followers, staunch believers in AssKickingEqualsAuthority, are none to pleased that their leader ran from a fight his opponent rightfully won, making quite a few question his authority and right to lead.
** The BigBad of the ''[[OurVampiresAreDifferent Dawnguard]]'' DLC plans to block out the sun, in order to allow the vampires to dominate Tamriel. It's pointed out that, while such a plan would give the vampires a huge advantage over the mortal races at first, it would eventually lead to their doom, as practically everything else on the planet - including the vampires' prey and ''their'' sources of food - needs sunlight to survive. It's also mentioned that the danger from such a scheme would likely force an EnemyMine between the Empire, the Stormcloaks, and perhaps even the Aldmeri Dominion.
** Also from ''Dawnguard'', the aforementioned Vigilants of Stendaar try to go after the Volkihar Vampires, a clan directly created by Molag Bal and thus ''much'' stronger than the feral vampires around Skyrim. They not only get massacred in the field, but the Volkihars lead a counterattack on their HQ that completely wipes the order out. For all their preachiness on cleansing daedric corruption, they were a group that only killed feral vampires, daedric cults which at best are six members strong, and the occasional Werewolf, so they were completely caught off-guard by an organized counterattack from a large force.
** In the ''Dragonborn'' DLC, cultists approach [[PlayerCharacter the Dragonborn]] in a public (and possibly well-guarded) place, and proceed to taunt and attack them. [[CurbStompBattle I think you can figure out what happens next.]]
** The Dwarven Crossbow has the highest base damage of any ranged weapon in the game. This is because it uses the same pulley system as modern-day compound crossbows, making it mechanically superior to even the highest-end standard bows.
** Being locked in prison for an extended amount of time will lower the Dragonborn's skill scores, or at least their progress towards their next skill increase. Showing how out of practice they have become from prolonged incarceration.
** Committing a crime will have consequences. No matter how unpopular your victim is, you will still be attacked by guards or civilians for being a threat to their community.
* In ''VideoGame/FableII'':
** [[spoiler:You can shoot the villain as he is doing his MotiveRant. If you hesitate, one of your companions (TokenEvilTeammate Reaver) will pull the trigger.]]
** In one of the weapons' descriptions, a marksman named Wicker challenged Reaver to a duel. [[spoiler:Reaver simply [[CombatPragmatist shot him in the head.]]]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 1}}'':
** [[CrossesTheLineTwice Hitting a woman in the groin]] hurts them every bit as much as it does with a guy.
** You can actually try to talk the BigBad down from his evil plan at the end without fighting him, but it won't work if you go about it by trying to convince him his plan is evil. As far as he's concerned [[UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans he's already doing the right thing by turning people into mutants because it's the only way to unify the wasteland]], so he'll just brush you off as an obstacle to progress. To succeed in talking him down, you have to [[spoiler:find out that his Super Mutants are all sterile so his planned "unified humanity" will die out within a generation. He'll accuse you of lying to him, so you should counter by [[ArmourPiercingQuestion asking him if any of his mutants have had kids]], at which point the penny drops.]]
** If you convince the water merchants to sell water to the Vault, [[spoiler:then congratulations, you've made it easier for the Super Mutants to find it, giving you less time to deal with them. NiceJobBreakingItHero]]
** If your Intelligence is 3 or less, you play as a bona-fide IdiotHero with altered "dumbspeak" dialogue options. You'll be locked out of a lot of side-quests because most people won't even give you the time of day, nevermind ask you for your help. Why on earth would anyone trust their dangerous/important tasks to someone who is obviously brain-damaged in such a dangerous world? Plus, you'll probably end up screwing over a lot of people in your poorly thought out attempts to "help" them.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'':
** The first villain you encounter is the Overseer of the Vault you start in. You might think you could just kill him, but doing him in will cause his daughter and your friend Amata to angrily confront you about murdering her father- a completely justifiable reaction if your friend killed your parents.
** Colonel Autumn learns just what happens when you stand, pretty much unarmored, less than ten feet in front of someone in a fire fight. It'd be hard to find a player who didn't just turn on VATS and shoot him in the head repeatedly.
** The core game also ends with the player activating Project Purity and fulfilling their father's dream of supplying clean water to the entire Capital Wasteland. Then ''Broken Steel'' came along, acting as a PlayableEpilogue, and if the player visits Project Purity they'll find that said dream isn't quite as glamorous as James made it out to be, as ''somebody'' has to deal with all the bureaucracy and paperwork that comes with running a massive water distribution network, and they're ''not'' happy about it.
** It gets even worse if you proceed to activating Project Impurity. [[spoiler:Anyone with even the slightest hint of radiation exposure is targeted by the modified FEV - i.e. ''anyone who's ever set foot outside of a Vault''. You can even kill yourself in ''Broken Steel'' after activating Project Impurity by simply drinking three Aqua Puras.]]
** Double-pointer with the ghoul Roy Phillips. He is one of the biggest assholes in the series, plotting to slaughter the inhabitants of Tenpenny Tower so he and his band of ghouls can move in (which he justifies by them being racist assholes, even though just being around him for 5 minutes makes it clear that he's no better than they are), and even working out a peaceful solution in which the ghouls can live in the tower without bloodshed will still lead to Roy killing the humans at the first provocation. Sometimes, there are just some people that absolutely cannot be swayed from their mindset or personal beliefs.
** But unfortunately, unlike every other evil character in the game, killing Roy will award you ''negative'' karma, because the popular radio DJ Three Dog is absolutely convinced that [[HorribleJudgeOfCharacter Roy is the real victim in this scenario]], making him a VillainWithGoodPublicity. Even if journalists are ethical and committed to reporting the truth, sometimes they get the facts wrong. You kill Roy and get caught, Three Dog will treat it like a cold-blooded racist murder and broadcast your "crime" across the Capital Wasteland. The only way to avoid bloodshed is to negotiate an agreement between the two sides, and then assassinate Roy without being caught - with his influence removed, the other ghouls will settle down in peace.
* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas''
** The human wave tactics utilized by Caesar's Legion had proven effective in the past against tribals with similar close-combat weapons as themselves. Then the First Battle of Hoover Dam showed the Legion exactly what happens when you use human wave tactics against a more modern-styled army with automatic weapons and explosives.
** The NCR might be the strongest faction of the Mojave, but they still have to move men and resources to the area from their home territory. Naturally this means the military force in the Mojave is so spread out that the Legion can send small strike teams into NCR territory without much resistance, and Raider groups can form quickly because the NCR can't police the areas enough to get rid of them. This also means towns under the NCR have grown disgruntled about being tax-paying citizens that don't get anything in return for doing so, especially when their towns get attacked.
** The conflict between the NCR and the Great Khans was a curbstomp in the NCR's favor, nearly wiping out the Great Khans in the process. The Great Khans, an openly hostile raider group, was deliberately harassing the NCR for petty reasons. Naturally this incurred the wrath of the NCR to fight back, which nearly spelled total doom for the raider group. The NCR is a cohesive military force with well trained soldiers and supply lines, while the Great Khans are just a group of raiders sticking together with whatever they can find in the Mojave.
** In relation, the Bitter Springs Massacre. The Great Khans attempted to hold-up in a canyon area to hold off the NCR. When it was clear the NCR would be victorious, the Khans tried to move their non-combatants safely away, which ended with them being gunned down by the NCR. Not only did the Great Khans not attempt to warn the NCR that they were going to do so, the NCR had no way of knowing the non-combatants were even not a threat during the middle of an intense fight between the two. As for the NCR, when they did realize what was going on, it was too late. Without lines of communication set up like phones or some manner of telecommunication, the soldiers and leaders had no way of communicating information quickly enough.
** Having a technological advantage, even a large one, won't matter much if you're facing a numerically superior force, as the Mojave chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel trying to hold the HELIOS One Solar Power Plant found out when they ended up nearly getting completely wiped out by the NCR. The only reason the NCR avert this is because they actually provide both numbers and good equipment, meaning that they can trade blows with the Brotherhood, while the Brotherhood cannot with their limited numbers. Also, it's a really, REALLY bad idea to appoint a scientist with absolutely no knowledge of military tactics whatsoever and who cares for nothing other than obtaining his prize [[WeHaveReserves no matter how many of his soldiers he has to sacrifice to do it]] as the leader of your faction.
** Having a nation run by a single person isn't new, but making yourself the sole defining trait that unifies your people together will result in things falling apart when you eventually die. As smart as Caesar is, because he formed a CultOfPersonality around himself and is setup to be seen as a god among men, it meant that should he somehow die, the Legion will fall apart because he was the only thing holding it together to begin with. If you kill him, pretty much everyone agrees that the Legion will break even with Lanius as their leader because Lanius simply lacks that power to keep them united. You can actually point this out to Lanius if you sided with the NCR, letting him know the Legion is doomed to fail after they lose Hoover Damm and that winning doesn't mean anything.
** On the flipside however, the game defies DecapitatedArmy with the Legion. You killed Caesar? You made sure that in the long term the Legion will fall apart, but at the present the Legion is still too big of a force to simply keel over without him. Just killing the leader doesn't mean the army will automatically give up and surrender, if anything it drives them to war more because now they have a personal reason to fight.
* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'':
** Using Stealth Boys or legendary armor with the Chameleon effect turns the player character invisible, along with anything they're holding. Good luck trying to aim with transparent gun sights.
** To get people to join your settlements, you have to set up radio beacons broadcasting invitations and signals that they can follow to reach their new home. You know who else can listen to those signals? Raiders, Gunners and Super Mutants looking for a new target.
** The Commonwealth Minutemen are a militia group pledged to each others' mutual defense, not a formal army or government, and their weak command structure almost led to the group's extinction. Losing their headquarters of the Castle, its radio tower, and their best leader all at once meant that members stopped supporting each other, so when a band of hostile mercenaries attacked one settlement, not enough people came to its defense to fend them off. After [[TraumaCongaLine being massacred by Gunners, mirelurks and ghouls]], by the start of the story there is only ''one'' remaining active Minuteman in the entire Commonwealth. Most wastelanders admire their intentions but thought their end was stupid, and are reluctant to entrust the safety of their settlements to them again.
** The Brotherhood of Steel are operating in the Commonwealth from their huge, slow-moving zeppelin, the ''Prydwen''. The Minutemen can build artillery batteries in their allied settlements, all over the Commonwealth. If the latter go to war with the former, one sudden barrage will wipe out most of the Brotherhood in a cataclysmic fireball.
** The Railroad is actively battling the Institute, but has little support from the rest of the Commonwealth. That's because the Railroad is focused on liberating Synths, which most people view with fear and suspicion due to the Institute's use of them as infiltrators. Deacon, a Railroad agent, will express his frustration that his group doesn't do more work helping ordinary humans, since it would build goodwill, give them access to more resources, and help them sell their message of synth/human coexistence. As the Railroad doesn't have the same power of authority as the Brotherhood or Institute does, the Commonwealth is essentially back to square one unless you ponied up in the Minutemen and developed your settlements.
*** The Railroad ending also shows what happens when you deviate from an established plan and lock someone out of the loop, even for their own safety: Liam Binet, who had been assisting synths escape from the Institute but was intentionally not informed of his own involvement with the Railroad or any of their plans, is devastated and ''severely'' pissed when the Railroad puts their final plans in motion that results in the Institute getting destroyed, and ends up giving a ''massive'' TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to the Railroad before [[DrivenToSuicide killing himself.]] Fairly understandable, considering they kept him completely in the dark and just killed everyone he ever knew and loved in the name of freeing ''synths.'' Desdemona is deeply ashamed by this, because she knew that Bidet was right; the Railroad just wiped out not just a family, but arguably an ''entire community'' in the name of freeing synths, something that seriously does bring to light that the Railroad cares more about synths than actual humans.
** The Railroad's secret password to access their hidden underground base [[spoiler:is [[ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish Railroad]]]]. The player character can point out to the Railroad's leaders how bad that password is, for them to counter that most wastelanders ''don't know how to spell''. This ''is'' a post-apocalyptic setting with no public education, remember? That said, the Brotherhood of Steel has Scribes who are extremely erudite and therefore do figure it out and storm the lair.
** If the player sides with the Institute, they can become its new Director... and still have only minimal control over its operations. After all, Father gave you the position without consulting the other department heads, and you're some unknown actor who walked out of the wasteland, not a fellow scientist who worked their way through the ranks normally.
** Siding with the Brotherhood of Steel gives a rather unhealthy dose of reality, especially for those who played ''VideoGame/Fallout3''. Without Owyn and Sarah Lyons' influences, the Brotherhood's interests in helping the Wasteland community has pretty much dwindled to almost zero and they're returned to their quasi-feudalistic and religious ways reminiscent of the West Coast Brotherhood. Because of this, should you destroy the Institute with their help and establish them as the dominant power, they pretty much subjugate the Commonwealth and declare martial law, sending heavily-armed patrols out to exterminate synths and "negotiate"[[labelnote:*]]basically either forcing settlers to sell products to them at a low price or confiscating the products outright[[/labelnote]] for needed resources. Needless to say, many of the Commonwealth's citizens, while relieved to be rid of the Institute's threat, are unsure if the Brotherhood's authoritarian ways are a better or worse solution.
** The Wreck of the FMS Northern Star shows the sad reality of the LanguageBarrier. The raiders here are ''Norwegian'' so nobody speaks English and the game doesn't provide any translation for what they're saying. So they are actually defending themselves from ''you'' because you didn't understand their warnings. All these raiders are also ghouls, they've been around before the bombs and their paranoia is more than warranted.
* ''VideoGame/Fallout76'':
** There are a variety of ways in which you can contract deadly diseases. A few examples include getting bitten by infected animals, eating uncooked or spoiled food, drinking water that hasn't been filtered or boiled first, and sleeping in beds that are low on the ground or exposed to the elements.
** An additional danger to water is the fact that, with the game [[{{Prequel}} taking place very soon after the war]], the water is much more irradiated, so you run increased risks of radiation sickness from both drinking and swimming in water.
** Food spoils if left uneaten in your inventory for too long. If you keep it in a refrigerator, it will stay edible.
** Unlike in ''VideoGame/Fallout4'', cooking food will not eliminate radiation. It does make it safer to eat by eliminating disease, but radiation isn't something that you can cook out of food. Same deal with boiling water.
** Because there are no [=NPCs=] outside of a small handful peaceful robots, there are very few ways to earn caps, and just as few ways to spend them on items. To succeed in this game, you will need to not only complete quests for rewards, but learn survival skills, such as repairing your equipment and living off the land.
** The survivors in Appalachia had more than enough resources between them to fight off the Scorched, with the Responders' vaccines, the Brotherhood of Steel's technology, the Free States' early detection systems, and so forth. Unfortunately, the various factions of the region would not learn to trust one another. The Brotherhood found this out the hard way when they tried to request the Responders' aid against the Scorched, only to be snubbed as a result of the Brotherhood's bullying the Responders for tech. As a result, the Scorched spread through the region until nearly all human life was wiped out.
** The Order of Mysteries was run by Shannon Rivers who is a [[WhiteDwarfStarlet washed up former actress]] who never ran any organization her entire life. Sure, she develops a “rank” system predicated on skills learned, missions completed and mentor ship of younger girls by older girls, but her lack of organizational leadership leaves her blind to a deep seated morale problem in her daughter Olivia, and is caught off guard when mission failures and casualties rack up. She never ever suspects betrayal and compromise and is flummoxed when Olivia betrays her. And then Olivia gets her own dose of hard reality when the raider gang she betrayed her mother to, turns around and kills her.
* ''VideoGame/FarCry4'': At the start of the game, Pagan Min asks you to wait for a bit as he takes care of some business. The game expects you to leave the table and start the plot. If you ''do'' wait for a bit (around fifteen minutes)... he comes back and resolves the business he invited you for, which actually leads to an alternate ending of the game.
* Racing game ''Fatal Inertia'' has the Time Dilator power-up, that slows time around you while leaving your craft immune, adding up to a few seconds of enemies stuck the wrong side of BulletTime while you surge ahead at normal speed. However, the way the powerup works in-universe means outside observers see everything still moving at normal speed, and the device's user suddenly going at several times their previous velocity. One of these outside observers is ''[[InertiaIsACruelMistress physics]]''. So much as glance off a solid obstacle and one suddenly finds out where the title comes from.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' ends on a BittersweetEnding where [[spoiler:Ramza defeats Ultima, meaning the Church is more or less depowered, and the world is free from the Lucaiv's threat]], but Ramza goes down in history as a Heretic and a traitor to his house. Ramza's actions occurred during a massive world war like conflict, meaning the crowning of Delita as king overshadows much of the events that occurred. With nobody able to vouch for Ramza in a influential way, he goes down as a HistoricalVillainUpgrade instead of TheHero.
* [[ItWasHisSled Infamously]], when Aerith is murdered by Sephiroth in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' there are no theatrics to it at all. No HopelessBossFight, no HeadsIWinTailsYouLose, not even a chance for Aerith or Cloud to react, Sephiroth just ambushes her while she's alone with Cloud with in the middle of the night and impales her through the heart with his Masamune, killing her almost instantly.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX''.
** What, you thought you'd be branded as a traitor, waltz into their most sacred place in the city, and just waltz out of there without getting captured?
** Tidus' reaction to most of Spira's quirks are fairly realistic of a response. When told why the Summoner cannot receive help from anyone while praying to the Fayth, he pretty bluntly asks why and refuses to sit back, deciding to help because it doesn't make sense why. Later when he learns the AwfulTruth about Summoners; that they die defeating Sin, he is horrified by the revelation, realizing he was talking to Yuna about all the things they could do once Sin is defeated, unaware she wouldn't be there if they did defeat Sin. He also reactions fairly realistically when he learns that Jecht is Sin; he gets angry at Auron for dragging him to Spira and then dropping such a reveal on him, and, for a short time, is heavily upset at it, going so far as to even somewhat deny it for a bit before accepting it.
** Wakka, who was a devout believer in Yevon, goes through a CrisisOfFaith after learning that Seymour killed his father and the group fights him. Unlike in most works of fiction where a character going through a CrisisOfFaith typically resolves themselves to turning against their beliefs quickly, Wakka remains conflicted for pretty much the rest of the game. Having grown up his whole life being taught Yevon's teachings, he struggles with what to do because it was all he knew and believed in. Also, Wakka's hatred for the Al Bhed doesn't automatically go away either; Wakka has to re-evaluate his beliefs over the course of the game to fully let go of it.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyX2''
** After a millennia of forced MedievalStasis, Spira's freedom from Yevon's oppressive Machina ban causes the world to change ''drastically'' in just the small time skip between the two games. Formerly untamed wildernesses like the Calm Lands, and religious sites like Zanarkand have turned into flat out tourist attractions, augmenting technology into combat has forced off most wild beasts, leaving formerly endgame zones safe at best, and the fiends that do show up are very low-level. The thunder plains in particular, for what a pain to navigate they used to be, has turned the lightning storms into a non-issue with machina-augmented lightning rods laid out across the entire road.
** Since Summoners relied on Aeons and the teachings of Yevon, when the truth came out and Yevon was overthrown, Summoners became obsolete and thus anyone who was training to be one, or was one, were forced to suddenly change their entire lives quickly. Several Summons in game admit to having no idea what to do and thus are conflicted on their life choices. This also means that Fiends have become more dangerous as without Summoners, as they were the only ones capable of preventing pyreflies from becoming Fiends.
** Politics have also shifted, after it was revealed that Yevonism was both hypocritical and led by ghosts upholding an AncientConspiracy, Yuna told the entire story to the world. As a result, not even the most staunch followers of Yevon stayed loyal, instead creating a "New Yevon" religion who keeps to the positive morals of the old religion, while preaching for conservatively giving machines to the world, and the Youth League who thinks that since most of Yevon was lies, they don't deserve the time of day for redemption and want to tear down as many walls as possible to augment the world with machines, and the Al Bhed, who have centuries of persecution from Yevon behind them for their use of Machina, naturally sides with the League. [[spoiler: When the two factions go to war, the story angles towards the Youth League being the "right" faction, as while neither is technically in the right and both are at fault for tensions getting so high, siding with a church that has risk slipping back into their old corrupt ways is considered the worse option of the two. Showing New Yevon any favoritism at all locks you out of the game's GoldenEnding.]]
** The Guado and the Ronso are both feeling extreme tension towards one another at the start of the game due to Seymour's actions. Seymour massacred a ton of their race as well as their Maester when the party went to climb mount Gagazet to reach Zanarkand in the first game, and as the official leader of the Guado as a whole, his psychopathy made everyone else look at the Guado with suspicion at best and hatred at worst, not helped that some Guado continue to revere Seymour, even if they admit that he was misguided and what he did was awful. [[spoiler: If the party doesn't talk the Ronso down, this leads to tensions boiling over to a race war that it's implied leads to the extinction of the Guado.]]
** As the one who defeated Sin for good, Yuna is beloved by the people and many see her as a rallying figure, which results in all the major factions wanting her to ally with them because it will make their side look more legitimate to the rest of the world. As a result, when Yuna finds a potentially important sphere and has to choose who gets it, it results in one side getting what they want, but the other factions become openly hostile because someone like Yuna can't just make choices freely when she carries so much weight in the world.
* The FinalBattle in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII''. Once it's done, everyone gazes thoughtfully at the sky to contemplate the villain's death and the implications of victory (and, in Fran and Balthier's case, to do a fist-pound) Then a destroyed fighter crashes in front of them because the two airship fleets have naturally been focused on the enemy ships, not tiny people running around on a stationary object, and don't magically know that they can stop shooting. Cue the heroes' frantic scramble to announce a ceasefire before any more lives are lost.
* As a world that enjoys a bit of realism, ''Videogame/FinalFantasyXIV'' has no small shortage of examples.
** The guildmaster of the Leatherworker's Guild, Geva, is a CausticCritic who believes in constantly belittling even the best leatherworker's accomplishments as a way of rallying them, except she doesn't make nearly the attempt to rally them alongside her insults. As a result, at the midway point of their original storyline over half the guild quits to get away from her abusive mentorship, leaving her to run herself to exhaustion trying to fill in an impossible amount of backlogged orders. Thankfully she learns her lesson from this... sort of. Being hostile is just who she is, so while she doesn't get kinder, she does get some more sense about giving proper praise where it's due.
** ''A Realm Reborn'' shows that while ultimately Bahamut was stopped, it doesn't mean the world is simply back to how it was. All the major city states are damaged and the people are not living in the best of situations because of the apocalyptic events that occured only a few years beforehand. Several areas have had their entire weather regions changed, such as Ishgard and the Coerthas going from grassy landscapes to snow and ice covered rocky landscapes, and the Mor Dhona area, being the spot where the two largest events in ''Legacy'' occured, is now barren with crystals everywhere. The main story of ''ARR'' deals with how the world is trying to recover from the damage of the events, but ultimately struggling to do so because of how much damage was down by Bahamut's awakening. Also, the Eorzean Alliance that allied to stop it? They somewhat fall apart because they have too much on their hands to work out and don't have the resources or manpower to help each other out, it isn't until the Scions step in and help that they reforge the alliance.
** In the Stormblood Astrologian quests, it's shown that there's a strong demand for geomancers in Kugane, as the local businesses consider their divinations to be essential to success. Unfortunately, this also means that there's no shortage of fraudsters willing to play on the general population's ignorance, aided by a general attitude of "buyer beware" and lack of regulatory authority. And, as Kyokuho discovers the hard way, it's all too easy for a genuine and honest geomancer to be branded a fraud.
** The Ishgardians have spent almost their entire history as a nation fighting dragons, so when they have to face threats that aren't dragons, they do poorly because they aren't equipped to fight against it properly, which is why the Heretics begin to become a massive issue in the lead up to the ''Heavensward'' expansion, especially when Iceheart gives them a unified leader. Furthermore, in Heavensward itself, after Aymeric pushes to end the war between Ishgard and the benevolent groups of dragons, the people are heavily resistant to peace, and some even try to sabotage the proceedings because fighting dragons is all they have. Aymeric has to set up a war game between Ishgard and the other three city-states to try to prove that fighting dragons isn't the only thing that can bring them national pride.
** Magic being in play doesn't make wounds any less serious. Resurrective magics are more like magical defibrilators instead of putting a dead soul back into a body and even healing spells have limits to what they can do. The Conjurer's guild delves heavily into this, and [[spoiler: Haurchefant, Moenbryda, Conrad and multiple others]] all die decisively because they suffered wounds too immediately-lethal or severe for healing magic to save them, and several characters spend chunks of the story PutOnABus because they suffer injuries that are too deep for the quick patch-job that magical healing can do, and need to spend time in proper hospitals under doctor care.
** The [[PlayerCharacter Warrior of Light]] has reality strike them every now and then as well. Sometimes their allies will outright force them to take a rest, because god-slaying walking armageddon or not, they're still only mortal and have mortal limits, those limits are just a bit higher than a normal person's. They're also not immune to poisons or drugs, which results in at least one scenario where you get laid out because of a spiked drink.
** In a solo instance, Krile, who is of the Lalafell race, gets grabbed by a magitek deathclaw (basically a giant metal steampunk hand) and you have to break her out of it. Once freed, she ends up spending the rest of the duty and questline having to sit out and recover, because while the claws were made for restraint, they were made for restraining larger races, so it nearly ended up crushing her smaller frame.
** The "Return To Ivalice" raid shows that when the people of Rabanastre saw their brothers in Doma and Ala Mhigo rise up and reclaim their home from the rule of the Garleans, they too rose up in defiance. However, while the Domans and Ala Mhigans succeeded because they had the Eorzean Alliance to assist them and the Garleans ruling their lands were either incompetent, or were essentially left to their own devices due to various factors, the Rabanastre people were not so lucky, and so when they rebelled against Garleans, they were defeated easily because they simply lacked resources or mainpower to take on a more focused military force. Even when they used auracite to even the odds, the demonic beings inside the auracite then used their wielders to bring ruin to both sides. When you arrive in Rabanastre, its clear that the people never stood a chance against the crushing might of the Empire and the auracite wielding monsters; just because their neighbors succeeded doesn't mean they were guaranteed success.
* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV,''
** After a particularly brutal WhamEpisode [[spoiler:the party's resident TeamMom and healer Ignis]] goes blind. Instead of being a HandicappedBadass, they promptly and immediately become TheMillstone as you're forced to [[EscortMission help them get through a tough dungeon]] with no assistance. And even when the character tries to fight, they just end up flailing wildly, more often than not hitting the player's party. And the character is fully aware of how unhelpful they've become, too. [[spoiler:It takes the ten-year TimeSkip and constant practice for Ignis to get any semblance of his talent back. Even then, he still uses a cane to walk.]]
** On a slightly more humorous note, your party members are not immune to friendly fire when you use magic. So, for example, using a Thunder spell sees them all paralysed by the electricity, using Blizzard sees them all shivering from the cold, and using a Blizzard spell while standing in water [[https://youtu.be/INeJspIsUjU causes everyone to get stuck.]]
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemGenealogyOfTheHolyWar'' has several examples, most of which [[UnbuiltTrope predate what would later become series cliches]].
** The typical ''Fire Emblem'' plot of "Prince invades evil empires, kills their dictators and everyone lives happily ever after" doesn't end so well here. Both Verdane and Augustria end up crippled by Sigurd's actions, and even one generation later neither country has fully recovered. Sigurd becomes hated by many within both nations because of this, and it isn't until his son rises up to save the realm that they change their views on Sigurd's actions.
** Eldigan is of the [[MyCountryRightOrWrong Camus Archetype]], fighting Sigurd's army under orders of King Chagall. He used to be friends with Sigurd and his sister is part of your army, so normally Fire Emblem recruitment logic applies, right? Well, Lachesis ''can'' convince him to think twice about Chagall's orders, causing him to retreat to question him... upon which he's immediately executed for treason. The only consolation is that you don't have to personally kill him.
** Keeping HeroicLineage going ends up requiring a lot of incest, both of the KissingCousins and [[BrotherSisterIncest Brother-Sister]] variety.
* ''VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance'' plays out like a typical HighFantasy story, with a group of mercenaries and a secret princess going on a world trip and gathering allies before defeating the bad guy and liberating their hometown. The direct sequel ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn Radiant Dawn]]'' then shows all the ugly aftermath of this. Crimea's nobles don't like suddenly answering to a Queen whose existence was a secret until she led the liberation, and her soft-heartedness leads to unrest and insurrection. Daein's citizens had no interest in the Mad King's War, and launch a liberation campaign of their own to regain sovereignty from an abusive suzerain. Begnion's apostle made a deep cut into the senate's corruption and openly pledged to do much more; all this did was consolidate them against her and ended up with her removed from power, the senators feeling free to commit all sorts of atrocities with their overwhelmingly powerful military. The Laguz nations find themselves needing to fight a war while having no cultural knowledge of the logistics and consequences of doing so, and the lingering FantasticRacism throws more fuel to the fire. The unrest and upheavals in every corner of the continent results in a '''world war''' [[spoiler:or would have, if not for a timely DiabolusExMachina.]]
* Late in the story mode of ''VideoGame/FireEmblemWarriors'', a villain has the protagonists' mother on an altar ready to sacrifice, and says he'll spare her if they set down their swords and step away. They hesitate, but do so, only for the villain to pull an ILied and sacrifice her anyway... [[spoiler:or try to. He didn't make the rest of the army put down their weapons, not even the expert marksman wielding a divine bow that can manipulate wind. Takumi puts an arrow through the villain's hand before lampshading how short-sighted that was.]]
* ''VideoGame/FiveNightsAtFreddys'':
** In [[Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys1 the original game]], Freddy Fazbear's Pizza suffered a combination of highly violent events, including a man [[WouldHurtAChild murdering five children]], [[NoOSHACompliance blood and mucus leaking from the animatronics]], and [[NoodleIncident the bite incident of]] [[ArcNumber 1987]]. The restaurant is set to close a few months after the game is set.
*** The Custom Night allows you to set the difficulty of the separate animatronics, from a number between 1 to 9. After you beat the Custom Night, you get fired for tampering with the animatronics.
** In ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddys3'', set thirty years after the original game, the management of Fazbear's Fright insists on using the old wiring of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza, despite it being very outdated and in a state of extreme disrepair. [[spoiler:This ends up causing a fire that burns the whole place down, as shown in the game's good ending.]]
** The climax of ''Videogame/FiveNightsAtFreddysSisterLocation'' has the player character [[spoiler:killed when Ennard scoops out their internal organs to use as [[GenuineHumanHide a disguise to escape Circus Baby's Entertainment and Rental]]]]. The Custom Night's minigames reveal that [[spoiler:Ennard never realised that human skin doesn't last long after its owner has been killed, and as such people quickly notice his skin turning [[ColorMotif purple]]]].
* ''Videogame/ForHonor'': [[spoiler:Killing [[BigBad Apollyon]] doesn't stop all of her manipulations and plans cold. By the time she dies, the factions have been at war for years and aren't going to stop just because the ChessMaster is dead. She even lampshades this by asking the Orochi if they thought everyone would just go home after she was dead. ]]
** Runa interrogates a Samurai {{Mook}} for information, [[DidntThinkThisThrough forgetting she can't speak his language]], and learns nothing.
** This actually happens during a few of the heroes' multiplayer executions. Such as the Lawbringer preparing to give his wounded opponent the coup de grace, only for them to fall over and die from their injuries before he can. Or the Warlord getting his sword stuck in someone's chest after ramming it through them and having trouble getting it out.
* ''VideoGame/FragileDreamsFarewellRuinsOfTheMoon'':
** Weapons degrade and break when used, with no means of repairing them. The end result of this is that you can end up wielding a ''broken stick'' against the FinalBoss. On the other hand, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu it's still entirely possible to win under these circumstances]].
** The robot character PF dies when her batteries run out ([[spoiler:as does Crow]]), since there's no way to recharge or replace them, and nobody who knows how to do so.
* ''VideoGame/FridayThe13thTheGame'': Counsellors can leap through windows as a last-ditch attempt to escape Jason. If the window is closed, or positioned on the second story, or both, [[DestinationDefenestration the player will injure, or possibly kill, themselves]].
* In ''[[http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=19865 Get Dumped]]'', Michi's boyfriend Arashi has decided to break up with her and she's desperate to win him back on their last date. Except that it turns out there's no magical formula to do so; sometimes someone just doesn't love you the way you love them, as painful as it may be. In addition, Arashi points out to Michi in the true ending that her obsession with spending as much time as possible with him and putting him on a pedestal has left her with no time to have a life of her own and unable to act normally around him, and that she's [[LovingAShadow more in love with her idealized image of him than with the real him]].
* ''VideoGame/{{Geneforge}}'': Completing quests for one faction still doesn't prevent you from accepting and completing tasks from opposing ones. They will inevitably catch up to your playing as a double agent and snuff you out in full force.
** And if you come clean about your double-crossing with a task-giver they will promptly order everyone in the room to kill you. [[RewardedAsATraitorDeserves What did you expect, a pat on the back?]]
* ''VideoGame/GhostRecon: Future Soldier''
** [[InvisibilityCloak Adaptive camo]] is your primary means of hiding from enemies. Most other games would simply say "you're invisible" and leave it at that, but not one under the Creator/TomClancy brand. One of the two major things shown about it is that it only works on non-living objects - your characters' weapons, equipment and clothes are all cloaked, but bare skin isn't, thus they take precautions to cover as much of their bodies as they can. The other is that it also doesn't work if the thing trying to be cloaked moves too fast - you yourselves cannot move faster than a crouch-walk without losing camo ([[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard AI teammates notwithstanding]], and that's assuming you're not playing multiplayer or the PC version's hardcore difficulty where moving at ''all'' drops it), firing a gun temporarily knocks it out from the movement of your gun's bolt and hammer and the like, and your autonomous drone's own camo only works while the drone itself is inactive and strapped to your belt or in ground-crawler mode, rather than in its flight mode where its propellers would be moving too fast for the system to work. The issue of aiming an invisible gun is also addressed, with the regular ironsights and the actual crosshair on powered and/or magnified optics left uncloaked. And, all be told, just like real camouflage it ''isn't'' perfect - get too close and people will notice something's off (as several missions do by having civilians running around, who will stop and stare or start to panic when they notice the mostly-invisible figures passing through). There's also only so much it can do against enhanced vision or sensors, as well; while it does actively cloak your heat signature to counter thermal vision, [[XRayVision backscatter X-ray optics]], or "magnetic view", see through it just fine. {{Tank|Goodness}}s are also able to see right through it, so whenever you find one on patrol you ''need'' to put something solid between you and it even with camo up.
** Tanks themselves are subject to this as well. A more standard ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty'' clone would give you a rocket launcher with a nearby infinite supply of ammo, C4 charges, or anything to just take care of tanks yourself every time you came across them - even the original ''Ghost Recon'' frequently had enemy tanks that you yourself had to destroy with anti-tank weaponry, and friendly tanks who would go down just as easily to enemy AT soldiers if you didn't scout ahead and take them out first. This game, however, is barely willing to let you get away with this on an IFV (a smaller and much more thinly-armored vehicle compared to a tank); as highly-trained and extensively-kitted as you are, you're still a four-man team against a ''tank''. Just about every time a tank shows up, your best bet to surviving the next five seconds is simply sitting tight and letting it pass. Even when you do get into trouble with one, you still can't take it out yourself - every time, you simply need to keep your head down and hold out until [[DeathFromAbove air support]] can drop a bomb on it for you.
* ''VideoGame/GhostTrick''
** The country the game takes place in hasn't used the death penalty for several years, with the result that when the need to carry out an execution arises, they have to use a very old electric chair. Said chair short-circuits and blows up when the guards try to fire a test charge through it.
** At one point, you have to try to help an innocent man escape from prison. It's later pointed out that regardless of whether or not the escapee's guilty of the crime they were convicted for, escaping from prison is still a crime; [[spoiler: had Cabanela not stopped Jowd's escape, it would have caused Jowd problems even if he did manage to prove his innocence]].
** Making a hard hat hit a guy in the face with the force of a moving bullet leads to [[NonStandardGameOver exactly what you think will happen.]] [[spoiler:Also, if you trick an item in front of Yomiel, he will notice and [[NoNonsenseNemesis cut his monologue short]], resulting in ''another'' non-standard game over.]]
** As Cabanela and several others point out, if you want to become the head of a special investigation unit - or get any major unelected civil post really - you're going to need a pretty spotless career record to have any chance of getting the position. [[spoiler:This ties back into the above about catching Jowd when he tries to escape from prison - Cabanela doesn't believe Jowd is guilty of what he was imprisoned for in the first place, and his obsession with his spotless record is because becoming the head of that special investigation unit is the best way Cabanela can think of to get Jowd off the hook ''legally''.]]
* ''VideoGame/GodOfWarPS4'':
** Kratos's apparent downgrade of combat prowess from the previous games makes sense as Kratos has spent years trying to live in peace. He's not as good as he used to be because he is out of shape.
** A good portion of the game has Kratos keeping his dark past from his son and deliberately keeping himself distant from Atreus as a well-meaning attempt to protect the boy from him. Because of Kratos's refusal to properly communicate this, Atreus naturally perceives his father's cold attitude as Kratos hating and disapproving of him.
** [[spoiler: Freya]] thinks that explaining her intentions and telling [[spoiler: Baldur]] that she genuinely loved him would be enough for the latter [[EasilyForgiven to forgive her]]. [[spoiler: Baldur]] remains furious and still wants revenge for what she had done. A simple explanation was not enough to make up for [[spoiler: Baldur]]'s suffering.
* ''VideoGame/GodEater'':
** Fellow God Eater [[SacrificialLion Eric der Vogelweid]] decides to take the time to introduce himself to to the player character midway through his first mission with the player character. As a result, an Ogretail sneaks up on him and attacks, killing him before the player or Soma can save him. Even if the player had been able to react fast enough, Eric would of been likely killed anyway. Not paying attention during a mission is easy way to die after all.
** The God Eaters get to live somewhat comfortable lives in Fenrir, but that's because they have a role to play for the Fenrir command. As a result, the normal people, or even families of God Eaters such as Kota's, are living in slums or relatively poorer living conditions. Its shown that the people frequently are protesting Fenrir's policies because the living conditions just kinda suck for normal people, and Fenrir can only do so much to keep them happy.
* ''VideoGame/GranblueFantasy'':
** Lecia heads off on her own to confront the heroes personally, in order to understand where their strength comes from. However, while she was gone, Ghandarva lead an attack that devastated Amalthea. While Lecia is vital in defeating Ghandarva, she's still punished for abandoning her post and is strongly recommended by Monika to resign her position as Captain.
** The Grand Blues Channel quest "Bittersweet Symphony" has the captain set up a band of different musicians in the crew with different styles, and places the meek member in the leader role. The outcome? He's unable to get any of them to cooperate or compromise after days of practice, and the thing ends up a failure.
* ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'',
** The game's {{Final Boss}}es [[spoiler:are hardly any tougher than any of the other random {{Mooks}} you've been killing. They have slightly more health thanks to body armor, but other than that, they're no tougher, and will likely go down quickly.]]
** In previous games, using a Pay n' Spray to alter your car at any moment would automatically dispel your wanted meter to zero, even when the cops had you in their sights. Do it in plain sight here with cops watching you, and that won't fly at all: they naturally saw you going into the shop, so of course they're not going to be fooled by a sudden new paint job.
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'', after spending five years being [[WorfHadTheFlu a meth addict]], [[spoiler:Johnny from ''The Lost And The Damned'']] was [[TheWorfEffect killed easily]] by Trevor.
** In a more humorous example of this trope, pressing the jump button next to a surface too tall to climb will lead to you smacking off it and landing flat on your ass.
** The Merryweather Heist. As badass as the crew are, even they know they won't survive if they keep the nuclear device they stole, because just about every military force in America would try to snuff them. They make the wise move to put it back.
** The premise of the "Legal Trouble" mission is that a lawyer has taken the only analogue copy of a film Michael has been co-producing, prompting him to go and chase her down to get it back. At the end of the mission, Michael's co-producer points out that - in the age of modern filmmaking - they've got several copies of the film saved digitally.
** Similar to the GTA IV example above, the final antagonists pose no threat and are killed in rather offhanded ways without any real build-up for final confrontation.
** Constantly jumping into and out of cars means that the main characters don't wear seatbelts. Which means that if you hit something at high speed, you're going out the windshield.
** Parachuting out of an aircraft doesn't make that aircraft disappear, it just means that there's now an uncontrolled aircraft that's going to crash somewhere. See online videos for ''hours'' worth of abandoned aircraft crashing into that car the player parachuted down to steal, the escorted vehicle that has to reach the destination untouched, the player who just landed, the player still parachuting down...
*** Adding onto this, in real life, an aircraft crashing, no matter what kind, ''will'' result in someone calling the police, so try not to act too surprised when you suddenly get a two-star wanted level when your abandoned plane plows into a residential neighborhood.
* The first third or so of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', the missions set in Los Santos, has CJ following in his predecessors' footsteps by doing whatever he's told by whoever tells him without question. [[spoiler:The rest of the game, from his exile from Santos up to at least returning to it after San Fierro and Las Venturas, is all about him learning his horribly violent and destructive actions have actual consequences. Help his aspiring rapper friend by breaking into the mansion of a professional rapper, killing his entire security detail, stealing his lyric book, and later brutally murdering the rapper's manager? Said rapper attempts to commit suicide after CJ's aspiring rapper friend makes it big with obviously-stolen lyrics. Kill everyone who had concrete proof of a {{Dirty Cop}}'s dealings? When said cop finally goes to trial, he gets off scot free due to the lack of evidence, resulting in riots.]] The first half also has this come up much quicker, possibly as foreshadowing to the above - one mission has you set a Ballas stronghold on fire, then immediately have to brave those flames to rescue an innocent woman you accidentally trapped in the building. She goes on to be the first character you can date in the game, though there's the implication that it's because she only knows you as the man who saved her from a burning Balla stronghold and not as the crazy Grove Street OG who set it alight in the first place.
* ''VideoGame/HalfLife'':
** ''VideoGame/HalfLife1'' laughs at the EasilyThwartedAlienInvasion trope: the scientists come up with a Clever Plan to shut down the Xenian's teleporters and prevent them from sending additional troops over. Long story short: the Clever Plan fails. It turns out that advanced alien civilizations are also smart enough to cover the weak points in their invasion strategies and come up with Clever Plans of their own. Who knew?
** [[BadassBookworm Gordon Freeman]] kills a chunk of an alien invasion and almost a whole battalion of soldiers, fights through a warzone, and goes to the aliens' homeworld and kills their leader, [[OneManArmy all by himself]]. Unlike [[DudeWheresMyRespect nearly every other video game ever]], stories of his exploits spread to make him a living legend ShroudedInMyth, and by ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' somewhere in the ballpark of two decades later, LaResistance instantly rallies around him, [[HeelFaceTurn the Vortigaunts]] practically worship him, and the new alien invaders target him on sight and relentlessly try to kill him, because they know ''exactly'' what's coming for them.
** The back-story for ''Half-Life 2'' showed what would really happen if an advanced alien empire actually decided to [[AlienInvasion invade Earth]]. It resulted in a CurbStompBattle that lasted only seven hours before humanity surrendered. The only reason humanity survived afterwards was because Dr. Breen convinced the Combine that they were worth more as soldiers & slaves than as corpses.
** ''Half-Life 2'' is all about fighting back against an oppressive regime, taking the fight to them, killing their figurehead and destroying their main stronghold. ''Episode One'' is all about how severely damaging a colossal alien structure powered by an exotic, dangerous substance has destructively explosive consequences. ''Episode Two'' is all about how losing one leader and one stronghold is a mere inconvenience to an interdimensional empire, and that a counterattack would be swift and terrible.
* ''Franchise/{{Halo}}'':
** A minor one: the Arbiter's armor might look cool, but its quickly explained that his armor is very out of date compared to the more common armor of the Covenant forces. This results in weaker shields, and the built in camouflage being very short compared to the standard armor of the other Covenant forces. Even if the armor has practical uses, the armor was made first and foremost to be a symbol to the Covenant forces to see, so its actual military application will be behind as a result.
** In ''VideoGame/HaloReach'', most of the deaths of Noble Team count as this. Jorge blows up a Covenant super-carrier, and Carter crashes a dropship into a [[SpiderTank Scarab]]. Both of these have little effect on the overall Covenant war machine; they still keep coming (Jorge's instance in particular is demonstrated immediately - the player [[HopeSpot gets to watch the first super-carrier break up for just a few seconds]] before at least a dozen more start jumping into the system in sequence). Emile takes down one Elite, and is then quickly killed by one behind him. Kat is a genius SuperSoldier in high-powered armor, but if her shields are down and she's not paying attention to her surroundings, she can be shot in the head and killed like anybody else. Noble 6 is finally overwhelmed by the endless Covenant forces, and makes a LastStand [[TheLastDance taking as many Covenant with him/her]] as (s)he can. Jun is the only member of the team to survive the events of the game, because [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere he was sent to escort Dr. Halsey off the planet right away.]]
** The backstory takes the time to explain a lot of the realities behind creating super-soldiers out of [[ChildSoldiers pre-teens]]. Two standouts come from the PoweredArmor they wear - what happens when an unmodified human wears a half-ton suit of armor that moves in response to their thoughts and tries to move his arm? The armor moves its arm from one spot to another in a flash, their arm gets liquefied, and then they promptly paste the rest of themselves convulsing in pain from that. [=SPARTANs=] can only wear the armor safely because of their improved reflexes and advanced materials grafted onto their bones to make them virtually unbreakable - but that also came with the risk that the prepubescent candidates for the program could have their bones essentially pulverize themselves once growth spurts started hitting them; 30 of the first 75 children abducted to become SPARTAN-[=II=]s were killed from complications during or following the augmentation process, and another 12 were crippled badly enough that they couldn't serve on the front lines.
*** Also, the armor itself is ludicrously expensive (one admiral once complains that the cost for a single SPARTAN could produce a small fleet of ships), and only the [=SPARTANs=]' proven effectiveness keeps them in the game. Which doesn't mean there aren't various factions trying to exploit them and/or create knockoffs, with varying levels of success.
** This also comes up in regards to {{cloning|Blues}}. The quickest and most common manner is creation of "flash clones", which are designed to age at a hundred times the rate of a natural-born human - the result being a human that lacks the muscle memory of their progenitor and, within a month or so of creation, will begin [[CloneDegeneration degenerating]] until they invariably die of some manner of neurological or physiological disease. Flash cloning is as such usually restricted to the creation of new organs for someone in need of a transplant, programmed to start aging at the normal rate once they've been transplanted. There are also two notable cases where the short life for a flash clone is not a hindrance: [[spoiler:first, ONI is able to draw suspicion away from themselves for the kidnapping of the children that became the SPARTAN-[=IIs=] by replacing them with flash clones - for all their parents knew, their children suddenly died of natural causes early in their lives. It also allows for the only confirmed case in the series of there being both a live person (Dr. Catherine Halsey) and a "smart" AI based on them (Cortana) - creation of such [=AIs=] is done by scanning the neural pathways of a human brain in a manner which destroys that brain, so naturally most brains used for the purpose are taken from corpses, but a flash clone's brain would work just as well.]]
** [=AIs=] themselves are also subject to this. "Dumb" [=AIs=] are programmed in a more traditional fashion, and while they are very well-versed in whatever they're designed to do, they can't learn new things or adapt under changing circumstances. "Smart" [=AIs=] are instead created by replicating the neural pathways of a human brain on a nano-scale, giving them more human-like abilities to learn - but since their "brain" is artificial, that gives it a hard limit on what it can learn and process before it starts devoting so much processing power to analyzing and processing what it already knows that it overloads itself and can no longer function under normal parameters. "Smart" [=AIs=], as such, have a lifespan of about seven years - and any that get close or even go beyond that time limit start to [[AIIsACrapshoot go rampant]].
** In the wake of the defeat and dissolution of the Covenant, the alien species that formed it almost immediately begin suffering civil strife in the post-war aftermath, and many of the constituent species are suddenly having to adjust to the removal of what was the center of their culture, politics, religion and military for upwards of three and a half millennia. Both the Sanghelli (Elites) and the Jiralhanae (Brutes) are dealing with civil wars, with the Sanghelli in particular dealing with a faction that wants to re-establish the Covenant. The only species to thrive after the end of the war are the Kig-Yar (Jackals), who as HiredGuns had no real investment in the Covenant, and thus were able to adjust quickly to its fall.
* In ''VideoGame/HarvestMoon64'', if the player romances Elli, they can see a unique event where Elli's grandmother Ellen dies. And not of anything violent or preventable; Ellen just dies of old age. That doesn't stop Elli from [[HeroicBSOD going into a deep depression]] about her grandmother dying, requiring the player character to keep helping Elli work through it by talking to her and being there for her. And it takes almost a full season of time before Elli starts to feel better, even if the farmer is there for her every day. Just because WeAllDieSomeday doesn't make it hurt any less.
* A lot of the fails in the ''VideoGame/HenryStickminSeries'' happen because of the eponymous character being hit with this trope, which the fail screen often lampshades if you do:
** One example is when being chased by prison guards in ''Complex''. If Henry chooses to shoot back at them, he ends up crashing into a tree, because he wasn't keeping his eyes on the road.
** When Henry tries to [[BlobMonster liquefy himself to bust through the walls]] in ''Diamond'', he ends up becoming just a plain liquid water as he has no solid objects to hold his body firm and intact.
** Henry tries to use a [[VideoGame/FZero Falcon]] [[MegatonPunch Punch]] to get past a guard in ''Diamond'' [[EpicFail only for him to realize that he is not a superhuman capable of doing such feats and makes a normal, weak punch, promptly getting the guard's attention]].
** Henry likewise tries to use a Falcon Kick on the guard in the records room, and is actually successful in replicating the attack - the only problem is he then [[RequiredSecondaryPowers incinerates himself with it]].
** In one of the stealth options to take the diamond, Henry just drops to the ground, only to end up both injuring himself and alarming the museum. [[WhatTheHellPlayer The game even mocks you for thinking it will work]].
** In the final stealth option, Henry attempts to use the guard's rifle to shoot him down, only to end up missing all of his bullets. After all, FirstPersonShooter games never address the problems of inexperience with firearms, the weight of the weapon, the recoil during firing, or even the shooter's requirement to retain proper aim of the weapon, making it look easy in the eyes of FPS gamers.
** Another option one has Henry attempting to jump far away from the guard, but because he's carrying such a large diamond, he only manages to jump a small distance before falling.
** In the epic option, Henry tries to use a gun from a museum exhibit to shoot down the two guards, only for it to fail because it is just a museum exhibit, [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets meaning it has no ammo.]]
** ''Diamond'', when choosing the {{invisibility}} pill to get into the museum, Henry falls off the roof since he can't see a thing now - eyesight requires light to be refracted by the cornea and lens, then absorbed by the rod and cone cells of the retina, which naturally won't happen if you are invisible and the light goes straight through you.
** In ''Complex'', choosing to steal a boat has Henry using it to escape The Wall. Only for the crew on-board to realize they're in the middle of an unscheduled departure.
** One of the options to get down an elevator shaft in ''Complex'' is for Henry to bungee-jump all the way to the bottom. He ends up [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe ripping his own body in half]] because he used an [[NotTheFallThatKillsYou ordinary rope]], instead of the specialized bungee rope that can help sustain his fall.
** During the Hallway Showoff segment, if you choose Henry with a sniper rifle and Ellie with a crossbow, Henry will try to snipe the guards by spinning (or rather, 360 noscope them), only to end up shooting Ellie, because spinning makes you dizzy, which ruins accuracy.
** Two of the options Henry could use to enter the ''Airship'' is to use either the C4 or the acid. Both of them fail, the former because Henry didn't take cover and got knocked off the airship by the blast debris, and the latter because the wind blew the acid onto Henry's legs.
* In ''VideoGame/HotlineMiami'' the player character starts suffering some horrific PTSD hallucinations as a result of all the ultraviolence he takes part in.
** On a larger scale, any single hit from a melee weapon or gun (barring the use of a certain mask) will insta-kill the player by pasting his skull. Likewise the mooks of the game all go down from a single hit to the head.
* ''VideoGame/{{Iji}}'':
** Going [[OneManArmy One Woman Army]] and slaughtering everyone in your path, then asking the enemy leaders to ''leave peacefully'' goes about as well as expected, and does [[SanitySlippage serious psychological damage]] to Iji. Even in a PacifistRun neither the Tasen or [[spoiler:the Komato]] are going to just pack up and leave, because they're fighting for their own reasons. And despite Iji's efforts she's still one person in a war, most people dying no matter what she does.
** The horrible deconstruction of the AlienInvasion trope. There's no sneaky infiltration or {{Old School Dogfight}}s with alien vessels or a heroic LastStand against swarms of invaders. The Tasen do just what you expect of a civilisation capable of interstellar travel meeting an unfamiliar, possibly hostile world; they park their fleet in orbit and fire on ''everything'' at once, devastating the entire surface of the planet. And because NoBiochemicalBarriers is very much not in effect, they didn't even need to preserve the biosphere. Iji isn't fighting to save the Earth from destruction, she's fighting to save what they ''missed''.
* ''VideoGame/InjusticeGodsAmongUs''
** It turns out the whole "superstitious cowardly lot" thing only works when nobody knows who you are. Thanks to Superman revealing Batman's secret identity in the tie-in comics, criminals simply aren't afraid of him anymore.
** The way Superman does it is ActuallyPrettyFunny; Batman, [[CrazyPrepared being Batman,]] disables the Watchtower's power and sends it plummeting out of orbit seconds before Superman outs his identity to the world. So what does Superman do? He gets Cyborg, who's basically a living supercomputer, to post "Batman is Bruce Wayne" on ''Twitter''.
** This is further enforced by one of Scarecrow's intros with him in ''VideoGame/Injustice2'':
-->'''Scarecrow''': I used to fear the Batman.\\
'''Batman''': You still should.\\
'''Scarecrow''': Nobody's afraid of Bruce Wayne.
* ''[[Videogame/Infamous2 inFAMOUS 2]]'' shows that Cole's best friend [[IJustWantToBeSpecial Zeke]] wasn't EasilyForgiven for [[spoiler: betraying Cole to have powers from the first game.]] While Zeke's had a change of heart, he also has to [[TheAtoner do everything he can to make it up]] to Cole, since he is still very wary of Zeke after what he did. In fact, it took near the end of the game for Cole to fully forgive him and reconcile.
* [[BigBad Augustine]] spends the entirety of ''[[VideoGame/InfamousSecondSon inFAMOUS: Second Son]]'' [[KickTheDog kicking puppies]] with wild abandon and [[ScrewTheRulesIMakeThem abusing her power to suspend people's rights]]. When there are [[FantasticSlur Bio-Terrorists]] to "protect" people from, she gets away with it. When a Good-Karma Delsin undermines her rhetoric by fighting the DUP's oppression and ultimately subduing her for the military to take away? He doesn't even have to follow it up, a backlog of very public human rights abuses means she's ''screwed''.
* ''VideoGame/{{Inside}}'': During the final stage of the game, [[spoiler: you become part of and take control of a giant BodyOfBodies.]] While said monster may be able to smash its way through walls and windows, that doesn't mean that doing so doesn't hurt it- every time you do so, expect to hear a lot of moans and groans of pain. In addition, given how big and heavy said monster is, it manages to crush humans it lands on and break floors by sheer accident.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:J-P]]
* ''VideoGame/KaiserreichLegacyOfTheWeltkrieg'':
** If the Chinese Triads take over the Legation Cities, it usually results in several major powers (including Japan and the Entente) deciding that a collection of cities run by a ruthless criminal syndicate is something they cannot allow on their borders, so they declare war on the Triads. Oddly enough, the ragtag Chinese gangsters tend to [[CurbStompBattle get horribly fucked]] in the resulting war, as unlike Japan and the Entente, they don't have things like organised armies and a navy and air force...
** If the Entente succeeds in retaking Britain and restoring the United Kingdom and doesn't ban the socialist leaning Progressive Party, then they will run in and almost certainly win the first general election. The British people have lived under a socialist regime for more than a decade until now, a regime that came into being because of massive popular resentment against the monarchy and a brutal reprisal against a miner's strike.
* ''Videogame/KerbalSpaceProgram'', as an extremely accurate simulation of space flight, has plenty. Parachutes are realistically portrayed. They aren't foolproof. Parachutes won't deploy properly if you are traveling too fast (i.e: still firing off a rocket), aren't oriented properly and for reasons that should be obvious, don't work in a zero-atmosphere environment like space. It's recommended you don't try building your favorite Sci-fi show's iconic spaceships at first. Disappointment, and plenty of explodiness, will probably ensue.
* ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}''
** KAEDE is the only one of the Smiths to lack an UnorthodoxReload (while everyone else just effortlessly flings empty shells and magazines out of their guns and slaps in new ammo in less than a second, she takes the time to slide her magazine in properly). Unfortunately, this also means that she has the slowest reload in the game, and if she reloads while zoomed in, it causes her to fumble with the magazine while putting it in, making it take even longer. [[spoiler:This eventually proves to be her downfall in the fight with the Handsome Men, as Handsome Light Brown reloads faster and takes her out while she's reloading.]]
** How easy or hard it is to get blood from an enemy is also dependent on this. Kevin's knives cause noticeable amounts of the stuff to bleed from whoever you hit with them because that's how knife wounds work. Conversely, except for the few enemy types that only he can kill, MASK never gets blood from enemies because direct hits via the explosions from his {{grenade launcher}}s would not cause wounds that bleed.
* In ''Videogame/KingdomsOfAmalurReckoning'', during the House of Valor questline (focusing on GladiatorGames), the reigning Champion, who has been sabotaging all of your fights, sends the PlayerCharacter meet with an "agent" in a secluded spot. The agent is an assassin meant to kill you, but with a fairly easy persuasion check you can just tell him that you've been slaughtering entire teams of hardened, deadly gladiators almost singlehandedly. The assassin will realize he's ''vastly'' out of his league and promptly hightail it out of there.
* ''Franchise/KingdomHearts''
** Early on in the first game, [[TheHero Sora]] ends up in a HeadsIWinTailsYouLose fight against both Leon and later Cloud. While Sora will eventually grow up into an army-destroying Keyblade Master, he's just beginning his quest and can barely take out the most basic of Heartless without having issues. Going up a seasoned warrior like Leon with no support is a difficult battle, and even if you manage to win, Sora exerted himself so hard to pull it off that he passes out anyway. Same for Cloud, even if you manage to win in the difficult story fight with him, he's both a veteran warrior and supercharged with Darkness. Hades backstabbing him by letting Cerberus into the arena is the only reason Sora survived the encounter.
** Later on in the series, Master Yen Sid tells both Sora and Riku that they'll effectively have to reset their training from Step 1 to prepare for the final battle with [[GreaterScopeVillain Master Xehanort]], as while their self-taught Keyblade styles have been sufficient for Heartless and Nobodies, fighting another Keyblade wielder is a different matter, especially one as dangerous as Xehanort who could already keep pace in a 2V3 against other master-level Keyblade wielders. Not to mention that not having official training doesn't let them tap into the truest of a Keyblade's powers like Formchanging and Shotlocks, both of which are remedied by the time of ''III''.
* In Episode 3 of ''VideoGame/KingsQuest2015'', Graham learns from a magic mirror that his future wife is locked away in a tower on the other side of the world. He grabs a ring and sets off. When he arrives and climbs to the top of the tower, he finds two princesses and immediately proposes to one of them. She immediately rejects him on the not entirely unreasonable grounds that ''she has absolutely no idea who he is''. When he goes to propose to the other one, she cuts him off by pointing out that [[ImStandingRightHere she was present when he proposed the first time]], and also points out that she doesn't really like the idea of being Graham's Plan B. Courtly true love just leads Graham to an embarrassing EpicFail.
* The final boss of ''VideoGame/KunioTachiNoBanka'' is the only enemy in the entire game to use a gun. Unless you're at full health, if you get shot by that gun you ''will'' die - being one of the two toughest high-school brawlers in Japan doesn't mean you're tough enough to shrug off bullet wounds.
* ''Videogame/TheLastOfUs'': Ellie is very handy with a knife when an enemy is focused on Joel. However, she's significantly smaller than any of the game's enemies and lacks the strength and reach to effectively take them on in melee combat without the element of surprise. She won't try it as an NPC, and if the player tries it while playing as her, it won't end well.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel'': Just because [[TheHero Rean]] has just acquired a SuperRobot and has knowledge of how to pilot it implanted in his head, doesn't necessarily mean that he can pilot it ''effectively''. Sure he could take on a RealRobot and coast on through the superior firepower that his mech has, but against a guy who has more experience in piloting his own super robot? [[CurbStompBattle Tough luck.]] Cue the BolivianArmyEnding of the first game.
* Some games in the ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' have hidden caves that you can access by chopping up a fern or blowing up part of a cliff. These areas are inhabited by old men who will typically give you a reward for finding them, but sometimes they will take some of your money as compensation for their destroyed door.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime'' loves this trope:
** Early on Link has to prove his worth for Mido, but once this is accomplished, this doesn't endear Link to Mido one bit. It's not until a whole seven years later that Mido has anything remotely nice to say about Link.
** The Chosen Hero (you) are too young and sealed away in a safe spot for seven years... which leaves the rest of the land vulnerable to being taken over by the evil overlord, who isn't about to do so polite a thing as to [[OrcusOnHisThrone sit around waiting for you to be ready for the evil confrontation]]. Ganon does get lazy ''eventually'', though, and this is what makes it possible for him to be beaten.
** Link defeats Ganondorf and goes back to his childhood where he foils Ganondorf's plot to assassinate the king and steal the Ocarina of Time. With all that done, Link is free to go home, right? Nope, having mentally developed into a warrior and now being stuck in a child's body, he is now well aware Kokiri Forest isn't his home anymore, and his quest having been fulfilled leaves him with a sense of wanderlust. And with no big bad left to grow up to fight, he instead spends the rest of his life becoming a master swordsman, until becoming the Hero's Shade/Golden Wolf in ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess'' to pass off the techiques he developed.
* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaBreathOfTheWild'' goes for a more realistic approach than previous ''Zelda'' games. Thus this trope will be in effect quite a lot.
** Link will not be able to find the supplies he needs just by [[RewardingVandalism cutting grass and breaking pots]]. Instead, he can only scavenge them from places where one would expect to find them, like taking arrows from bow-wielding Bokoblins and restoring health by eating the meat gathered by hunting animals. He also doesn't [[ItemGet hold items dramatically in the air]] whenever he collects them.
** Unlike most other Zelda games, you are free to ignore where the story tells you to go and even skip to the final boss, missing out on a lot of secrets and Link's origin. In real life, you are not restricted to follow a plot, but you won't be able to find answers to your questions unless you search them out.
** If you're caught in a thunderstorm, your metallic sword can actually act as a lightning rod and draw lightning towards you. If you're expecting it to act as the lightning version of the Skyward Strike from the battle against Demise in Skyward Sword, you'd be sadly mistaken, as it actually does damage you.
** Going into freezing cold environs without wearing heavy insulated clothing will be bad for your health. Likewise, wearing clothing that's too thick (or nothing at all) and letting the sun beam down on Link in a desert biome will cause him to overheat. In addition, equipping a flame weapon will keep Link warm in colder climates, and ice weapons will keep Link cool in hotter climates.
** As usual, Link can kick open treasure chests, but doing this while barefoot will ''hurt''.
** Trying to use bomb arrows in the rain will make them useless, due to their fuses being wet. Conversely, trying to use bomb arrows in deserts and volcanoes is ill-advised, as the heat will cause them to explode in your face.
** Weapon types play an important role in resource gathering.
*** Small blades like swords and spears will dull and break quickly if swung against trees. Swinging an axe at them or blasting them with Remote Bombs is more effective, however.
*** Trying to use bladed weapons to mine ores will be time consuming, in addition to wearing your weapons down quickly. Using blunt weapons like sledgehammers, heavy axes or Drillshafts will let you mine the resources much more quickly, and with much less wear-and-tear on your chosen weapon.
** Gerudo Town only admits women, as per tradition, requiring Link to be DisguisedInDrag to enter. This is true even after saving the town from Vah Naboris. Just because the Gerudo are thankful Link saved their town doesn't mean they'll bend the rules for him. For that matter, just because their leader Riju is okay with Link being in her town doesn't mean the rest of the town would agree with her.
*** The logistics of a {{Ladyland}} are also given a bit of a realistic spin. Part of the male ban is so Gerudo women go out to see the world in their desire to find mates, thus a lot of marketeers if you small talk with them will vent about being separated from their husbands and male children when they came back home to sell their wares, a class is held to help them acclimate to actually ''talking'' with men, and if you find female Gerudo on the road, they seem a bit quick to romanticize any male they find, and some that Link helps hook up with men seem to form relationships of questionable (though implied to be happy and loving offscreen) nature.
** Going by the memories, Link used to be a OneManArmy capable of killing even several ''[[BossInMooksClothing Lynels]]'' and only have a slight abrasion to show for it. A hundred years in a healing stasis has left Link so atrophied that he initially can't even take out a camp of Bokoblins in a straight up fight without difficulty and has to fight smart, stealthy and dirty. Even in the endgame with the Master Sword, Hylian Shield, and fully-upgraded armor, killing even a single Lynel is a slip-up-and-die battle, showing just how far his near-death experience and the following time out of the fight has degraded his skills.
* ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry''
** ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry1InTheLandOfTheLoungeLizards'' can have you get an STD that destroys your genitals from unprotected sex with a prostitute, be shot by a clerk for stealing from his shop, and try to leave a cab without paying its cabby only to get beaten by him.
** A non-lethal example happens in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry2LookingForLoveInSeveralWrongPlaces'', where Larry goes to the home of Eve (the woman he ended the previous game with with) only for her to not only forget about him but angrily demand he gets his stuff out of her garage before going away. Turns out having what was a one-night stand with a woman doesn't mean she'll stay fond of you, let alone remember you. This happens again with the next game, which has Larry's wife from the last game tell him she's dumping him for another woman. As Larry learns the hard way, you saving a woman's island doesn't mean the two of you won't have any marital problems or that any annoying behavior of yours she notices after getting to know you won't offend her.
** Patti in ''VideoGame/LeisureSuitLarry3PassionatePattiInPursuitOfThePulsatingPectorals'' can try to offer sex for a male stripper, only to get shot down by said stripper refusing then pointing out how her [[ReallyGetsAround experience]] has made her a STD risk. Patti gets told upfront that the stripper won't touch her unless she shows him what is, in his words, a ''clean bill of health.''
* ''VideoGame/TheLiarPrincessAndTheBlindPrince'': The Princess, who is actually a wolf that has hunted for her food all her life in the forest, gives the Prince raw meat, thinking he'll enjoy it, and is completely caught off guard when he spits it out instead. The Prince has to explain to her that people eat meat ''after'' cooking it.
* The Indie RPG ''{{VideoGame/Lisa}}'' is a complete {{Deconstruction}} of the NoWomansLand and [[AfterTheEnd a Post-apocalyptic world]] ala ''Anime/FistOfTheNorthStar''. [[{{Gendercide}} When all the women mysterously died out]] under the "Great White Flash", society crumbled instantly, and the entire male population is doomed to eventual extinction of the human race. This leads the men to insane, amoral acts as a way to cope with themselves before dying off. Electricity is out, so all the health restoring items are jerky and other foods that don't require refrigeration. Water is now filthy and alcohol is now a safer choice. When party members die in battle, [[FinalDeath they stay dead]]. Campfires are more common than the safer tents, but leaves players open for predators, thefts, and kidnappings. The main character [[spoiler: Brad himself isn't exactly an ideal father.]] Finally, Buddy being the [[LastOfHisKind only living female left on the planet]] leaves her an open target for nearly the entire population. While others want to keep her around to give hope by repopulating the Earth, some want her for [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil some nefarious plans.]] Even worse, [[spoiler: Buddy simply wants to have her own life around but everyone, no matter how well-intentioned they were, controlled her, leaving her quite resentful to most of the males.]]
* Frequently in ''VideoGame/TheLongDark'':
** Fighting a wolf in hand-to-hand combat, even with a weapon, will almost always result in extreme injury or even death. It's impossible to fight back against a bear, which will just pin you down and rip you to shreds as your character screams in pain and terror.
** Eating uncooked meat will result in getting food poisoning, and drinking untreated water will result in getting dysentry.
** The cold is a constant threat and even just a few minutes of exposure can cause great harm. If you catch hypothermia, getting better from it will require several hours of rest and keeping your temperature above a certain level.
* Drive around like a maniac like you do in that [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto other open-world crime game]] while playing ''VideoGame/MafiaTheCityOfLostHeaven'' and the police ''will'' chase after you. They won't just blow your head off for a traffic violation, though. Pull over and pay for a ticket and you can go on your merry way. Don't, and they'll start chasing you to arrest you. Pull out a gun or act too violent on the road, and then they will use lethal force, just like cops in real life.
* ''VideoGame/MafiaIII'':
** As you play as a (half) black man in 1960s Louisiana, not only do normal white people not trust you, but no other race does, either. You can't even walk in front of the (white) police without raising some suspicion, and they are all too happy for an excuse to beat you up.
** If enemies see Lincoln, they'll be hostile to him. If they hear a gunshot or find a dead body, they'll go looking around and attack Clay when they see him.
** The people running Marcano's businesses aren't blindly loyal to him; if faced with death, they will offer to work for Lincoln Clay instead.
** If you kill the witnesses of your crimes, nobody will report them to the police.
** When Lincoln is asked for the most striking Vietnam memory, his tale is that of brutally torturing a Vietcong soldier's mother to make him surrender.
** The hastily-planned loosing of a safe with explosives ends up with Danny Burke getting his leg crushed by the falling safe.
** The fact that the Marcano crime family helped organize the opening bank heist does not stop them from killing the rest of the heist crew except Lincoln, who lives after the bullet merely graces his skull, leaving him with a permament scar.
** In the final mission, Sal Marcano's [[spoiler: death is not the result of a spectacular boss fight, but rather Sal, depressed after losing his son and criminal enterprise, begging Lincoln to shoot him or shooting himself.]]
** The Commission does not care if [[spoiler: the Marcano crime family is replaced by the Clay Mob]], as long as the new mob pays its kickback.
* ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' has golden tires as one of the final unlockables. They're remarkably terrible and close to useless in terms of actual driveability, being literally made of solid gold.
* ''VideoGame/MarkOfTheNinja'': RockBeatsLaser is averted, in gameplay and as a plot point. Elites can't be stealth killed with your sword unless you stun them first, but die easy if you trick a fellow mook into shooting them for you. The only reason your ninja clan has survived into the modern era, despite not using firearms and body armour, is because they have a trump card in the form of a poisonous flower that acts as a PsychoSerum that gives you magic powers. [[spoiler:Also, the game begins as a result of your clan trying to rob advanced gears from a well-armed security company (due to the aforementioned flowers being all dead without replacement) ''without'' getting help from their sole member that can use said magic powers, and possibly use violence against said company's personnel as well. They, predictably, got caught, and the company retaliates as a result.]]
* ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'': The trip from the Milky Way to Andromeda took 600 years. As a result, while the Initiative's destination might have seemed like a good place to start new colonies 600 years ago, by the time anyone actually gets there, things have changed a ''lot''.
** Due to [[spoiler: your PlayerCharacter's father sacrificing himself to save the PC and making Scott/Sara the new Pathfinder]], the leadership of the Andromeda Initative have an EnsignNewbie as the Human Pathfinder instead of the experienced soldier they were hoping for and at least one of them is extremely vocal about it; the others have accepted that you're their best shot at this point and are much more supportive, ex. giving you a CoolStarship because inexperienced or not, [[ClosestThingWeGot you're the only Pathfinder they have]].
** The angara, the species native to the cluster the game takes place in, had a brutal FirstContact with the kett who preceded to oppress and outright murder them for eighty years. So, naturally, they don't trust the Milky Way species right out of the gate and it takes a major victory against the kett and the rescue of a major angaran leader before they become open to diplomatic relations. Even then, some angara are suspicious of the Initative and their resident anti-alien faction still tries to kill you even as you help the angaran resistance fight the kett. Even in another galaxy, people still have different opinions when confronted with the same situation.
** Vetra's LoyaltyMission ends with the party confronting a crime lord who's holding her sister hostage. Said crime lord is an entirely normal human, lacking even specialized armor or biotic powers, so the minute the fight starts, she's gunned down the same as her henchmen.
** A side-quest on Kadara has Ryder track down a geologist for a "businessman". They eventually find his body in the cave he'd been gathering samples in. Ryder wonders what, on a crapsack world filled with violent scavengers and hungry creatures, was the cause of death. As SAM states, it's gravity. He fell and broke his neck.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'':
** Wrex's [[AncestralWeapon family armor]], instead of being equippable and possibly the best piece of armor for Wrex, is obsolete by the time he retrieves it three centuries after his father's death. It turns out that he only wants it for sentimental reasons. In a setting where new advances in weapons and armor are constantly being developed, old pieces of technology don't hold up very well.
** At the beginning of the game, Ambassador Udina attempts to expose Saren's operations and crimes to the council. However the only evidence to his argument is Shepard's "vision" and possibly one unreliable eyewitness. This goes about as well as you'd expect. Saren even points out the audacity of such a claim, since even if Shepard was their top spec-ops soldier instead, no civilized court could accept a ''dream'' as hard evidence. One dialog option can even have Shepard point this out. With that said, when solid evidence ''is'' obtained of Saren's crimes, the Council immediately dismisses him from the Spectres.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect2''
** You ''can'' ignore the loyalty sidequests, but what do you think will happen when you take a team of people who aren't properly motivated to fight millennia-old EldritchAbomination servants?
** Or if you ignore the upgrades, what do you think will happen when a mere frigate with little in the way of weapons and armor is going to do against a race of aliens that cleaved your ship in half at the beginning of the game? Or, if you're feeling extra stupid, make dumb choices about the roles each of your teammates have during the final mission?
** Ashley and Kaidan show what happens when a close ally is [[LockedOutOfTheLoop left in the dark]] when there are people who want them out of the picture. After two years of mourning, they are not even remotely happy when [[NotWhatItLooksLike everything available to them]] says that Shepard faked their death to join a known terrorist group and they're not inclined to believe that Shepard was the first proven resurrection in recorded history or that [[PlayingWithSyringes Cerberus]] really wouldn't do anything to alter Shepard even if it was true. Of course, [[PoorCommunicationKills this is the one time in the series when Shepard isn't even allowed to make a token verbal defense]], like pointing out that they weren't in touch because they'd been in a medical coma for two years as their body was rebuilt due to all the damage they'd suffered from being spaced and crashing into a planet from orbit.
** Ever wonder why real spacesuits have as much of their life-support system stored inside the suit as they can? The destruction of the Normandy and Shepard's subsequent suffocation before re-entry shows you just how dangerous external air hoses would be in the off chance that they got snagged on something.
** The ''Normandy's'' destruction is also notable as a reminder that even Shepard is mortal. By the end of the first game, Shepard has killed entire armies... but having their ship blown out from under them is just as fatal as it would have been at first level, and it's only the quick intervention of Cerberus that lets you continue using the same character.
** Not stopping the reckless teenager from joining an assault against a renowned vigilante leads to the poor dude unceremoniously biting it the second he enters the fray.
** Delaying the final mission [[spoiler: after your crew has been abducted leads to their messy liquefaction at the hands of the Collectors.]]
** After the events of the first game, the council, and most people across the galaxy switched to using Thermal Clips as a way to deal with their weapons overheating in combat. In reality, as cool as having a weapon never running out of ammo is, the heating system was a huge double edged sword that made it possible for soldiers to be defenseless should their weapons overheat at the wrong time. Thermal Clips at least allow soldiers to use their weapons more consistently without fear of them overheating, and can be salvaged for their weapons since they are all designed to be used by any weapon.
* ''VideoGame/MassEffect3''
** In the [[spoiler:Eva Core]] fight, if you fail to gun her down before she gets to Shepard, you catch a HotBlade through the face, and die. No medigel, no HeroicResolve, no barriers biotic or kinetic, nothing will save you.
** The Extended Cut adds the [[spoiler:Refusal ending, in which Shepard refuses to accept the options that the Catalyst provides]]. This promptly leads to [[spoiler:the armada fighting for the Crucible to be completely wiped out, heralding the fall of galactic civilization once again at the hands of the Reapers]]. What else would you have expected from [[spoiler:rallying the galaxy into devoting their resources into constructing and protecting a superweapon regarded as the last hope against the Reapers… and then deciding ''not'' to use it]]?
** While TakeYourTime is in full effect for most of the series, there are two notable exceptions in the third game, which drive home the fact that when you receive word that the enemy is [[spoiler:besieging a school full of biotic students]] or [[spoiler:searching for a bomb that can destroy much of a planet]], you cannot afford to wait around.
** Similar to the second game's suicide mission, you should not assume that Ashley or Kaidan will simply take your word that you aren't being controlled by Cerberus, [[spoiler:especially not when Cerberus troops are being turned into Husks]], or that they will simply accept you cheating on them in the second game. How much effort you put into regaining their trust determines [[spoiler:whether they survive the standoff at the Citadel]].
** In preparation for the war against the geth, the quarians have armed every single one of their 50,000 ships, and some have the kind of guns ''dreadnoughts'' have. You'd think that'd be a hell of an advantage against the geth... except it isn't, because what the ships ''don't'' have is good armour, so they've just become even more vulnerable. Worse, by arming all the ships, the quarians forced the geth to target and destroy ships that they normally would have ignored if they hadn't been armed.
*** It's actually even ''worse than that.'' By arming all of their, previously noncombatant, ships, the Quarians effectively doubled or possibly ''tripled'' their offensive capabilities before re-engaging with hostilities with the Geth. This sudden increase in total firepower, combined with [[spoiler:a newly developed technology that specifically '''hoses''' the Geth]] made the entire Geth Collective [[spoiler:''defect to the Reapers'' as a means of ensuring their own survival. Under Reaper control, the Geth would engage every Quarian ship down to the last man, armed or not. They wouldn't have any choice in the matter because, due to the fact that they are a machine race, being subservient to the Reapers means that they are simply avatars of the Reapers, rather than unwilling slaves.]]
** The finale of the game brought us the long-awaited confrontation between Shepard and Harbinger. Feeling pumped up and ready to take on the leader of the Reapers? [[spoiler:Harbinger utterly massacres the entire assault team with little effort from miles away, Shepard included (though they survive, barely). What exactly did you ''think'' was going to happen when foot soldiers go up against a 2-km tall Reaper dreadnought?]]
*** The entire final battle is like this. No matter how many War Assets you've amassed, you're still facing an entire fleet of reapers. Even ground battles against their (expendable) husks go rather poorly, and the heavy weaponry intended to destroy the one(!) Destroyer in the way of the [[spoiler:Conduit into the Citadel]] is mostly wiped out before it can even get into place, and interference prevents the few shots actually fired from landing on target until EDI finds a way around that. And then when you finally seem to be home free, guess who shows up?
** As pointed out by Nyreen in ''Omega'', DatingCatwoman might seem like a good idea, but that kind of relationship tends to result in conflicts because of the differing ideologies and often won't last long.
** One might expect the different races to start cooperating once the Reapers arrive and it becomes apparent that everyone is royally fucked unless they start working together. HaHaHaNo. Just about every race Shepard asks for help wants something first: the turians want the krogan to help, the krogan want a cure for the genophage, the salarians [[spoiler: want the krogan to not get the cure]], the asari are focused on their own fight, the hanar, drell, volus and elcor are basically nonentities, the batarians want the humans to get fucked, the quarians are too focused on wiping out the geth and getting their homeworld back to care about the Reapers, and the geth ''would'' have helped, but the quarians trying to kill them all drove them straight into the arms of the Reapers, because it was that or get killed.
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'':
** Reality ensued all over [[ButtMonkey poor Vinnie]], a mob lieutenant with more enemies than friends and such an incurable fanboy for a cartoon KidHero that he'll cosplay without hesitation. Doing so straps him into explosives, and since that puts him in an EnemyMine situation with Max, you figure TheHero should be able to save his life. [[EscortMission And he did]]. [[ShaggyDogStory Temporarily]].
** In the third game, the favela GangBangers can threaten Max because of their numbers and Max's CutsceneIncompetence. They are still an untrained rabble, however, and are utterly dominated by trained, better-equipped paramilitaries or military police special forces.
** You could say that reality ensues every time you exit bullet time in the middle of a jump in ''3'' and land with an audible thud. Or when you don't consider your trajectory properly and, thanks to Euphoria, collapse over an inconvenient couch or slam roughly into a wall and drop straight out of bullet time, struggling to stand up while continuing to take pot shots. Max's experience in this game is much more tactile than the previous games.
*** Leap down a flight of stairs and Max will slide down them and smack into whatever's at the bottom.
** At one point, a character suicide bombs some mooks. Rather than leave a few burnt corpses, it results in the victims going from mooks to messes.
** Max spends most of the first two games popping painkillers in his mouth like M&Ms in order to restore his health. Sure enough, come 3, he's addicted.
** After you defeat the final boss of 3, [[spoiler: Max and [=DeSilva=] let him live because they already have more than enough to put him away for a while. He even gloats that he'll walk. Luckily, he's later found dead in his prison cell.]]
** If you find a gun with a laser sight in 3, it will shake violently whenever you do anything, making it very difficult to aim with.
* In the opening cutscene of ''VideoGame/MechWarrior 4'', a lone pilot, the last remaining defence unit left, tries to pull a YouShallNotPass on the enemy. [[CurbStompBattle Against their entire might, he alone lasts about twenty seconds]].
* ''VideoGame/MegadimensionNeptuniaVII'' plays this for laughs by applying it unexpectedly. Arfoire assumes direct control of a Dark CPU, a skyscraper-sized humanoid. The protagonists scout her out as she chases them, and find out she's moving a lot slower than they expected. Arfoire has no idea of [[SquareCubeLaw her new body's physics]] and keeps tripping over.
** Battling against one runs into this trope in a slew of ways as well. A special field is required just so the party can get high enough to take a proper shot at them. Dark [=CPUs=] are so big that basic attacks would be pointless, only special attacks can be used (and certain specials that require being grounded are still unusable). Despite violating the SquareCubeLaw, the Dark CPU is still so massive that simply jumping straight up and falling back to earth produces enough of an impact to injure everyone present. And so on.
** In another scene, the protagonists discover the villains have an airborne battleship and wonder how they were able to procure one. Cut to the villains having a SeinfeldianConversation about having bought the thing on finance and its effect on their budget overheads.
** A CosmicRetcon is applied to the nations, changing their government structure. Lowee now has a lot in common with an RPG class system, with aptitude tests needed to get any sort of job, and when you do, it's all you do. This is a horrific dystopia that gives the guy on top far too much power and prevents those under him from organizing any ability to do something about it.
* More than a few enemy descriptions in the ''[[VideoGame/MegaManClassic Mega Man Legacy Collection]]'' compilations or in ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' mention the corners that Wily had to cut when making them due to time, resource and budget constraints. Even when you're an evil genius, building an army of {{Killer Robot}}s every other year or so is incredibly costly.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManZero'' shows that just marching up and killing the dictatorial leader of a dystopian nation-city isn't going to magically solve everyone's problems. The first time it happens, the Four Guardians simply keep his death a secret and everything in Neo Arcadia continues on as normal, and when said leader is brought back as a puppet leader for Dr. Weil and Zero kills him ''again'', Weil publicizes his death to demonize Zero (because even as a dystopian hellhole, the populace have still been propagandized for years and won't just change their minds at the drop of a hat) before stepping up and taking the reigns himself, turning Neo Arcadia into even ''more'' of a nightmarish hellhole.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'':
** The need for proper computer security is hammered in repeatedly, as every almost single incident in the game is caused by black-hat terrorists hacking every element of the heavily networked and computerized world.
** Megaman.Exe may be the strongest netnavi in the world, but Lan himself is just a normal preteen. Multiple times across all six games the usually thuggish, expertly trained and morally unscrupulous villains actively try to kill Lan with their own two hands or with deathtraps that Megaman can't save him from, requiring a BigDamnHeroes from a more physically powerful character. Battle Network 5 even explicitly opens with the villains ambushing Lan and his friends and stealing their Navis to make sure they can't interfere, Lan and Megaman only escape because the villains FailedASpotCheck because Lan passed out behind a dividing wall.
** In the first sequel, Lan goes to a foreign country. At the airport, a random NPC offers him a ride to the town. Lan takes it, and gets his battle chips stolen. [[SomeAnvilsNeedToBeDropped This is why you don't talk to strangers, kids.]]
* The ''VideoGame/MentalSeries'' has the three protagonists kill their way through four games to get to where they need to be. This is all glossed over until the fifth and final game (befittingly entitled ''Murder Most Foul''), where the three are now the most wanted criminals in the country after all the murders that they have committed.
* ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends2'' combines this with BagOfSpilling as Roll is forced to sheepishly admit that she had to sell all of Mega Man Volnutt's weapons and gear, all high-end and worthwhile, to pay for all of the repairs done to the ''Flutter'', which was damaged near the end of ''VideoGame/MegaManLegends''. They're Diggers and they just came out of the last game empty-handed and broke (The Bonnes took the gigantic crystal for themselves)
* ''VideoGame/MegaManX5'' revolves around the Maverick Hunters attempting to prevent [[ColonyDrop the Eurasia Colony from crashing into the Earth]] by destroying it. However, even if the player succeeds in destroying it, pieces of the colony still make it through the atmosphere and crash into Earth anyway. It's not the near-extinction-level event that it's implied the entire intact colony colliding with Earth would be, but ''VideoGame/MegaManX6'' makes it clear that even in the good ending the aftermath is still devastating.
* ''VideoGame/MegaMan11'' has Mega Man utilize an old prototype of Wily's Double Gear system made during his university days, after Wily decides to revisit the concept in his next world domination bid. While this initially gives him a slight leg-up on his opponents (who are only equipped with either a Speed or Power Gear,) Wily eventually unveils his perfected Double Gear system, which can run indefinitely, making it objectively superior to Mega Man's years-old, antiquated prototype.
* ''VideoGame/MetalGear'':
** In ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 3|SnakeEater}}'' there's a point where you see The End out in the open and defenseless. If you're quick you can [[WhyDontYaJustShootHim shoot him in the head, averting a boss battle with him later]]. Or since he's old, you can just wait a week (according to the [=PS2=] internal clock) and he'll die of natural causes. On the other hand, the area is then manned by ''twenty'' guards instead of one boss character.
*** Also of note is the camo system. If you decide to hide yourself in a bunch of tall grass but you still have that blue camo you used for the water, you are going to get spotted. Likewise, even if your current camo matches up perfectly with the environment, standing up and running around is going to make you much more noticeable than if you properly crawl through or simply stay in your hiding spot until the enemy passes by.
*** Any meat you keep in your inventory for too long will start to decompose, as Snake has no way of preserving it while on missions. [[NauseaFuel Having him eat the rotten meat anyway will work as well as you'd expect.]] The only way to keep meat that won't expire is to catch live animals, but not everything is small enough for you to carry around on you, and you can only carry three at most.
*** Twice in ''Snake Eater'' Snake does the JanitorImpersonationInfiltration routine, once as a scientist and once as a a maintenance technician. It works fine with the soldiers, who don't know every single scientist or janitor, but if one of the real scientists or technicians gets a single good look at Snake's face they'll realize he's an impostor and your cover will be blown.
*** Don't use a fake death pill while in somewhat deep water, you'll drown before you get the chance to use a revival pill.
** ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 4|GunsOfThePatriots}}'', even though one of the game's "features" was an expanded arsenal of firearms and associated controls, only on the lowest difficulty, "Liquid Easy", can Snake take enough damage to get away with anything approaching a stand-up or run-and-gun fight, as he's still one old operator against however many enemies, whether human or Gekko.
*** Mention also goes to the game's FinalBoss, [[spoiler:which goes from a two-part nostalgia trip, to a romanticist revisit of ''[[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic Snake Eater]]'', to a sad scene of two ragged, tired old men slowly slugging their fists at each other.]]
** ''VideoGame/MetalGearRisingRevengeance'' showed that just because Snake and allies shut down the Patriots and their System, the war economy couldn't stop cold. It just went on to the next leg of the arms race, cybernization and nanomachines. Courtney even points out that the other cyborgs Raiden fights are basically SOP troops under another name - only, since there's no System to suppress their emotions or prevent them from knowingly committing atrocities, they're even ''less'' predictable than the guys from four years ago.
** ''VideoGame/{{Metal Gear Solid 2|SonsOfLiberty}}'' had [[PresidentEvil Solidus Snake]] point out that, while the huge Metal Gear/sea craft Arsenal Gear was an impressive weapons platform complete with an army of Metal Gear [=RAYs=] and a full complement of high-yield nuclear weapons in addition to its information control capabilities, without a proper naval and air escort it was completely useless. "A floating coffin", as he put it.
** And of course there's the whole stealth aspect of the series. SuperSoldier or not, and [[CutscenePowerToTheMax no matter how badass the previous cutscene made you look]], you're still just one guy against a heavily-armed compound full of guards. You're not going last very long without some sneaking, trickery and guerrilla tactics.
** Try rolling up stairs and you'll bash your head against them and tumble back down. Raiden can at least cartwheel ''down'' stairs without knocking himself on his ass, because his cartwheel doubles as a jump, but only insofar as he can cross short gaps if his destination is level with or below where he starts from - trying to cartwheel up stairs has the same result as Snake trying to roll along them.
* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'':
** A Space Pirate Log in ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime'' reveals that their Science Team tried to make their own versions of Samus's Chozo technology for their use, including the Morph Ball. For reference, the Morph Ball is a device that [[ShapeshifterBaggage compacts Samus into a sphere almost one meter in diameter without any lasting physical harm]]. However, [[BlackBox the mechanics of this technology are a mystery]] even InUniverse (except maybe to Samus), the species that developed the original is endangered if not extinct, and the Pirates are only working off what they've seen in action (not to mention the one person who uses it [[BountyHunter hunts them for a living]]). Their attempts at replicating the Morph Ball end up [[BodyHorror lethally mutilating their test subjects]], Science Team deemed it a hopeless investment and moved on from it (which is saying something for [[ForScience Science Team]]). The closest any non-Chozo entity has come to safely replicating the Morph Ball is [[VideoGame/MetroidPrimeHunters Sylux's Lockjaw]], which is stolen Galactic Federation technology, and the Federation is Samus's most frequent contractor.
** While the outcome is the same as [[VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus in the original game]], ''[[VideoGame/MetroidSamusReturns Samus Returns]]'' shows Samus being prepared to kill the Baby Metroid as soon it hatches. Even ignoring that Samus was sent to [=SR388=] to exterminate the Metroids because they've been repeatedly used as living [=WMDs=], one should still be cautious around the newborn spawn of a hostile animal. Samus only dissipates her Charge Beam after enough time to conclude that the hatchling means no harm.
** ''VideoGame/SuperMetroid'' features Crocomire, who is defeated by being backed onto an unstable bridge and has its skin gruesomely melted off in acid. After it vanishes off-screen, the ominous pre-boss room theme starts playing. After Samus runs over to the spiked wall, the boss theme starts playing again, which seems to indicate that [[NotQuiteDead Crocomire is still alive and ready for another round]]. The skeleton of Crocomire breaks down the wall... only to comically collapse and die before it can do anything else.
** ''VideoGame/MetroidFusion'' has two cases.
*** One that makes up a major part of gameplay is the emergence of the X parasites, which are revealed to have been kept in check by the Metroids - the same ones [[NiceJobBreakingItHero Samus wiped out]] over the previous two games. Turns out you can't just entirely remove a species from its food chain and expect what's left to sort itself out without severe repercussions to its ecosystem.
*** At the end of the game, Samus is forced to draw a line in the sand by [[EarthShatteringKaboom destroying SR388]] with [[ColonyDrop the BSL space station]]. While her planet-destroying exploits have been ignored in the past because the likes of Zebes and Phaaze were space pirate bases or other extremely dangerous places and their presence wouldn't be missed, the Federation had vested interest in [=SR388=] and it was one of their space stations [[spoiler:used for extremely dangerous black-ops bioweapon research]]. Samus' final narration states she fully expects to be court-martialed or declared an outlaw for what likely amounts to an act of terrorism against the Federation's interests.
* ''Mindshadow'' (an adventure game released in 1984) - At one point fairly early in the game, you tie a vine around some rocks near a cliff to climb down. If you're carrying too many items (which, given the genre's "take anything that's not nailed down" mentality, is fairly likely), the vine will snap under the load, resulting in a game over.
* ''VideoGame/{{Minecraft}}''.
** Swords can be made of (in order of ascending rarity) wood, stone, iron, gold, and diamond. For the most part, the rarer starting materials result in stronger weapons, except golden swords deal as much damage as wooden swords and break even faster. It came as quite a surprise when the players realized the second-rarest material made the weakest weapon, and a lot of people thought it was a bug... [[FridgeBrilliance until they remembered gold is one of the softest metals in the world]]; just like in real life, gold weapons are only good for decorative purposes. However, gold is also used in conjunction with redstone in a number of craftable items that are considerably more useful, such as powered track. This is because while gold is a terrible material to make armor, weapons or blunt instruments out of, it is well known as an integral component in precision electronic devices.
** When parrots were first introduced in Snapshot 17w15a, they were tamed with cookies, likely due to being the closest thing Minecraft has to a cracker. This was a bit problematic as the cookies were clearly chocolate chip and chocolate is actually poisonous to parrots. They tried to anticipate the problem by adding a splash screen in the same update that said [[DontTryThisAtHome "Don't feed chocolate to parrots!"]], but decided to instead invoke this trope in 1.12-pre3 by making cookies insta-kill parrots, complete with poison particles as it dies. Now you have to tame them with seeds, which are a far more reasonable parrot food.
** Hostile mobs with a known weakness to environmental conditions (such as sun or rain) will actively seek shelter from those conditions. Skeletons and Endermen won't pursue you into an area hazardous to them.
* ''VideoGame/MonsterHunter 3[=/=][[UpdatedRerelease Tri/TriG/3U]]'' has a quest that pits you against the colossal Elder Dragon Jhen Mohran, chasing it down with a [[CoolShip Sandship]]. Contrary to environmental damage not normally appearing in the game, Jhen actually can and ''will'' destroy the Sandship if you don't learn how to use its armaments to hold it off, resulting in a quest failure.
** ''World'' is set in the New World, where the only human settlement is the Research Commission's base in Astera. While it's fairly safe, it must be self-sufficient, as getting a ship there and back is a very risky proposition that depends entirely on the tides cooperating, which often doesn't happen for ''years at a time''. Resources are pretty tight, and everywhere outside Astera's walls is untamed and dangerous wilderness; it's not the sort of place where you want to be having kids. It doesn't stop accidents happening, and with the vicious currents, sometimes they simply have to grow up in the New World.
*** In the crossover event with ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'', when the Commission tries to pay Gerald a hefty bounty for killing a Leshen, he's forced to turn them down. As he notes, whilst what they're offering him might be a small fortune, it's in a currency none of the kingdoms in his world recognize, meaning it'd be worthless the minute he returns.
* ''Franchise/MortalKombat'':
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat9'' is the first game in the series where Johnny Cage performs his infamous GroinAttack against female Kombatants. In previous games, he'd do his split but not punch them, under the assumption that it wouldn't have the same affect on someone lacking testicles (despite the fact that he'd perform the move on ''robots'' in ''[[VideoGame/MortalKombat4 Mortal Kombat Gold]]'', which realistically would hurt him more than the robot). In reality, getting hit down there hurts women just as much as it does men, and ''9'' finally reflected that. No idea why it still works on the robot characters, though.
** For all of its emphasis on {{Gorn}}, a tie-in comic to ''VideoGame/MortalKombatX'' shows some surprisingly realistic consequences for Kotal Kahn. He earned his nickname of "[[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Blood God]]" by drinking the blood of his enemies, even encouraging a Central American tribe to do the same with Spanish invaders. When Kotal Kahn went into the future, he found the tribesmen were all dead because they weren't used to the diseases in the Spaniards' blood, which effectively wiped out their civilization.
** Brutalities, in general, are essentially what would happen if the special moves acted in real life (i.e. D'Vorah's and Reptile's acid burning the flesh off someone, Kotal Kahn's macahuitl cutting someone in half, etc.).
** ''Mortal Kombat X'' takes place 25 years after the events of the original trilogy, and the returning Earthrealm characters are appropriately older with their adult children joining the fight. While the Edenians are relatively unchanged due to their slower aging, and the divine and undead characters don't age at all, the older humans are at least 50 (Kano is ''60'', as he was [[AllThereInTheManual already 35 in the first game]]) and they look it.
** Sonya Blade has been established as a FrontlineGeneral since VideoGame/MortalKombatX. [[spoiler: This catches up to her in VideoGame/MortalKombat11 and she ends up KIA, which is the last thing you want happening to a leader and exactly why modern generals do ''not'' lead from the front.]]
** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' examines Kitana's desires in her arcade ending. [[spoiler:She gets to go back in time and view Edenia in its prime. However, despite being Edenian royalty and Edenian by blood, their cultures, attitudes, cuisines and tradition is utterly foreign to her. Turns out, the abuse and restriction from Kitana learning of her heritage is also what shaped her into the woman she is today; and she can't simply unlearn or change that; coming to accept that she is really an Outworlder. However, it doesn't end all negatively, for Kitana will learn the Ancient Edenian ways to make Outworld a much better place in the meanwhile.]]
** Losing his wife causes Jax to become a recluse. When someone loses their LivingEmotionalCrutch who helped them get over their trauma and PTSD, they do not take it well. And knowing his daughter is out there fighting supernatural forces, Jax had a panic attack due to the sheer stress of [[AdultFear being unable to reach Jacqui]] when Earth's communications went down. [[spoiler: It makes him very susceptible to Kronika's charisma and promises to change the past.]]
* The ''VideoGame/{{Mother}}'' trilogy is no stranger to this either, being devoted to deconstructing the RPG genre:
** Various adults will question the party's [[FreeRangeChildren free-range nature]], with some pointing out that they should be in school.
** In ''VideoGame/EarthBoundBeginnings'':
*** The game pits Ninten and co. against three giant robots, each more powerful than the last. In a normal RPG, the heroes would defeat the robots with their strength & abilities alone after a challenging battle. As it turns out, giant robots tend to be very resilient and very powerful. These three can instantly KO a single party member, and can only be damaged by heavy artillery or another giant robot.
*** Related to the above, the fight against R7038 ends up leaving Teddy in critical condition, presumably dead in the original 1989 version. Being beaten to a pulp by a robot the size of a large building will do that to you.
*** The Bla Bla Gang stops attacking the party once Teddy joins. Sounds reasonable enough. However, as soon as Teddy leaves the party, the gang members go right back to assaulting the heroes at the slightest provocation. Just because Teddy was acquainted with you doesn't mean that his gang members will consider you an ally.
** In ''VideoGame/EarthBound'':
*** Buzz Buzz is basically the ExpositionFairy and tells Ness of his upcoming journey to save the world. He's also a powerful PSI user and is necessary to defeat the first Starman you meet. Despite this, he is still a bug, and no amount of PSI can stop him from dying when he gets swatted.
*** After Ness defeats Frank Fly and forces the Sharks to disband, he earns the key to the Traveler's Shack and can access Giant Step from there. After completing the dungeon, he is immediately arrested for trespassing. Then, given the trilogy's [[CrapsackWorld setting]], Ness gets subjected to a police beating (he manages to defeat the police, though).
*** Jeff has a very strained relationship with his father, Dr. Andonuts, since the latter's been absent from most of his son's life. Anyone with a working grasp of human psychology (or has watched ''Neon Genesis Evangelion'') will know that reuniting with an absent parent is a very strained process, as the parent is essentially a stranger to their kid.
*** Many of Ness's enemies show up in Magicant (a world inside Ness's mind), calling Ness out for killing them and their acquaintances. This is inevitable, as what kind of mentally composed person in real life shows no remorse over harming others?
*** Near the end of the game, Giygas pulls a last-minute invasion on Onett, implied to be the start of his conquest of Earth. At this point, Giygas's men have been dropping like flies because of Ness, who's already awakened his true potential and is growing closer and closer to achieving victory. Given this, it's understandable that Giygas would panic and throw in everything he's got to try and stop the kid.
*** After Giygas is finally defeated, you'd expect Porky to be left at the mercy of Ness and his friends, begging for, well, [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mercy]]. Guess you forgot that Porky's a devious, borderline-psychopathic child who always finds a way to bail out. Porky proceeds to travel to a different era, and decides to taunt Ness about it ''twice'', as expected from a kid of his nature.
*** Though it was {{Bowdlerized}} pretty handily in the US release, Porky's descent into villainy comes from a grounded place in the original translation. An early game scene implies his father's a deadbeat lowlife whose idea of punishment is close to abusive, and the second Porky steals the Mani-Mani statue and starts serving Giygas, his father joins him to ween off his success without so much as telling his family where they're going, only to be left alone when Porky takes Monotoli's chopper to make his escape from Fourside. In the ending, his dad's drowning his sorrows in a [[FrothyMugsOfWater "coffee shop"]] without even thinking of returning home and his mom's started an affair and doesn't even seem to care where her son and husband got to. With a trainwreck family like that, Porky becoming a sociopathic monster serving an EldritchAbomination isn't surprising in the least.
*** After Giygas' defeat, a boy in Onett taunts Ness about all the homework he'll have to make up after skipping possibly weeks of school to go save the world.
** In ''VideoGame/{{Mother 3}}'':
*** After Lucas loses his mother, the trauma he experiences is portrayed disturbingly realistically. He is virtually catatonic for much of the first three chapters, seldomly talking and spending most of his time crying in solitude. As an adolescent, meanwhile, he has several flashbacks of his mom when she was still alive, and [[MindScrew chapter]] [[TearJerker six]] can be interpreted as a product of his grieving imagination. Overall, Lucas forgoes both AngstWhatAngst and {{Wangst}}, instead mourning his mother's death as any other person would.
*** On the subject of Hinawa's murder, Flint's immediate response to it is also very realistic for someone like him. He's not afraid to put up a fight and get his hands dirty, and spends the first half of chapter one literally fighting his way through a burning forest. So, when he hears that his wife was found mauled to death, his aggressive side kicks in and he physically lashes out at everything & everyone around him.
*** After Lucas learns that Claus is the Masked Man, the inevitable IKnowYoureInThereSomewhereFight occurs. However, Lucas can't do anything to fight back for most of the fight. This is a kid who's lost most of his family at a young age, and has been sent to hell and back trying to save the world, all because he is one of a select few people who can use PK Love. Seeing that his final challenge is to relive one of his darkest memories is clearly gonna trigger something in him.
*** Then, when Claus finally regains his senses, he kills himself. Why? His mother died when he was young, his own life nearly ended during a failed revenge attempt, and for most of his life he was the mindless slave of a PsychopathicManchild. Given the fact that he is still a youth with a developing brain, he instantly jumps to the first (and easiest) solution he can come up with: suicide.
* ''VideoGame/MystIIIExile'': Saavedro's plan hinges entirely on Atrus being the one to come after him, and he's so certain that this will be the case that he never bothers to check once the player has followed him. When he's finally confronted with the reality, he flips his shit.
** Similarly, the fact that you're not Atrus doesn't mean Saavedro's just going to let you go. Once in Narayan, you have to find a solution that works for all parties, because if you don't, this trope will hit you hard: [[spoiler: and in most of the options, literally. If you go back to Tomahna without finding a solution, Saavedro will follow and kill you, Atrus and his family. If you leave Saavedro on the platform but go back to him, he'll kill you. If you do as he asks and flip the switches, he'll throw the Releeshahn book into the water and leave. If you get the book back but leave him stuck between the platforms, Atrus will call you out for it. You have to get the book back and let Saavedro go home to get the ideal ending.]]
** After ''Myst'' firmly established Sirrus and Achenar as a pair of psychopaths who tortured and murdered hundreds of people, is it really so surprising that there's at least one person out there who came looking for revenge?
* The entire plot of ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle'' kicks off because Travis [[spoiler:[[{{Revenge}} killed most of]] [[BigBad Jasper Batt's]] [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes relatives]]]]. This was something that happened in [[VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes the first game]] in a bunch of copy-pasted side missions with almost no fanfare, and neither Travis nor the player expected it to come up again or have any real consequences. That extends to ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'' as well, since Bad Man is out for Travis' blood for killing his daughter, Bad Girl.
* ''VideoGame/OctopathTraveler'' functions like a LowFantasy with magic, meaning that reality has its place even with the magic.
** Cyrus could not save several townsfolk from dying during a kidnapping spree [[spoiler:because the volumes of blood required to create the hoard of blood crystals the chapter villain possessed had to come from somewhere]].
** Supplies and concentration are required in order for humans to sustain a flow of reinforcements. [[spoiler:Vanessa extorted the people of Goldshore and was unaccustomed to resistance, and thus was unprepared for her guards being knocked out more than once by Alfyn. Likewise, Orlick's automaton is costly and difficult to repair, and will not function in the slightest once Therion trashes it.]]
** Alfyn treats Miguel despite Ogen's request to let the man suffer; it is only revealed after the fact that [[spoiler:Miguel is a mass murderer and thief who terrorized Saintsbridge many a time, and once he's back in proper health he goes right back to lawlessness]]. And while [[spoiler:killing Miguel]] does end his threat to the village, [[spoiler:Alfyn had to break the apothecary's oath and his own personal beliefs to do so, and the resulting damage to his convictions lasts into the next chapter]].
* The [[BadEnding bad endings]] of the ''VideoGame/{{Oddworld}}'' games certainly qualify: making less than a token effort to save a group of people/creatures in dire straits will make them much less willing to help you when ''you're'' in trouble, if they don't decide to just screw you over beforehand.
* ''VideoGame/{{Paladins}}''
** PlayedForLaughs with Maeve, who is a KnifeNut with a seemingly bottomless supply of throwing knives. However, if she loses a match, she'll complain about having to retrieve all of the knives she's thrown.
** In the backstory for Furia, she tries to protect her sister from the Magistrate's forces. Try as she might, she is easily defeated because she is just one untrained civilian fighting trained soldiers.
* ''VideoGame/PapersPlease'' has the player working border security, determining who can or cannot enter the country, and morality frequently comes up against practicality. You ''can'' let people in who are desperate but don't have the right forms, but too many penalties mean you won't have enough money to care for you and your family. You can accept bribes, but the extra money will get the authorities suspicious of you. Denying someone you've been warned about entry when their paperwork is in order will get you a penalty, but letting him through will result in him killing the young woman who warned you. And revealing that you have evidence linking you to the local subversive element [[NonStandardGameOver will get you arrested]].
* ''VideoGame/ParasiteEve2'' features a type of special, genetically engineered bio-weapon called a GOLEM which is outrageously strong, resistant to small arms gunfire, and armed with a gigantic sword. Eventually, a plot development leads to a unit of [=GOLEMs=] squaring off with an entire company of US Marines... where it turns out that 'being really strong' and 'having a big melee weapon' doesn't quite compare to dozens of highly trained and coordinated soldiers [[CurbstompBattle opening fire from long range with assault rifles, sniper rifles, light machine guns, and grenades.]]
* In ''Videogame/PeasantsQuest'', the humble peasant hero Rather Dashing goes through a bunch of trials to prepare himself to fight Trogdor the Burninator. When he finally reaches Trogdor's cave [[spoiler:he's immediately flash-fried, because he's one ordinary guy trying to fight a giant fire-breathing monster.]]
* ''Desert Bus'' from ''VideoGame/PennAndTellersSmokeAndMirrors'' is RealityEnsues incarnate, made as a response to the violent video game controversy and meant to be the most realistic video game ever made. The entire game is about driving a bus from Tuscon to Las Vegas. For eight hours. ''Of real time''. There's no pausing the game ("Does real life have pause control?"), and you can't just hold down the gas button with something while you do something else because the bus constantly veers to the right, and if you crash, you have to get towed back to Tuscon. ''Also in real time.''
* ''VideoGame/Persona3''
** The Condition mechanic. Characters you take into battle will be in worse condition the next day, affecting their performance in battle, and using them for consecutive days will cause them to catch a cold. After all, your party has to stay up until midnight if they want to explore Tartarus, limiting their sleep schedule along with the pressures of a normal school life. The protagonist is most affected, since you CantDropTheHero, and have to go through their social life with limited social stat gains and limited actions if you allow them to get sick. Managing your schedule, Tartarus included, is important for keeping your party in optimal condition.
** Takaya's WeaponOfChoice is a magnum revolver. In combat, the characters have proper armor and can stand up to his gunshots, but [[spoiler: Junpei (though he gets revived) and Shinjiro]] get ambushed and shot in weaknesses in their armor (if they had armor on at all at the time) and die within a minute of being shot. The game's empowered cast may be Shadow-killing, Persona-empowered individuals, but they're still humans, and without proper protection a gunshot to the vitals is just as deadly as it is in real life.
* ''VideoGame/Persona4''
** An early-game scene has the player character and Yosuke gather weapons to defend themselves in the TV-world... and both are arrested by mall security because Yosuke was waving them around in public, in a town that recently had one of its residents murdered. The only reason that the protagonist and Yosuke weren't interrogated by the police was due to the protagonist having a relative (Uncle Dojima) on the force.
** At the end of Yosuke's Social Link, Yosuke confesses that he'd always been jealous of the protagonist, and they work out their issues with a fist fight. Unfortunately, someone saw Yosuke and reported him to the police, resulting in Yosuke getting in trouble for fighting.
** The Inaba police hire GreatDetective Naoto Shirogane to help investigate the serial killer case. Naoto is an InsufferableGenius who continually contradicts and questions the police... which causes them to remove Naoto from the case entirely late in the game. Turns out you can't piss off your bosses over and over and get away with it, and that's without even getting worthwhile gains to back up your poor attitude. That said, it's also implied that not only is the adult male-dominated police force somewhat dismissive of Naoto as a high school student [[spoiler: as well as a woman, which is why she hid her true gender]], but they also didn't want to admit that the juvenile suspect they publicly arrested didn't actually kill the first two victims, an unfortunate reminder that some public authorities prefer to save face rather than do what is right.
** When the SchoolFestival rolls around, the protagonist is given the option of voting for what the class will be working on. ButThouMust make a Group Date Cafe, because the protagonist is one individual in a class and is in no position to decide for the others.
** Late in the game, [[spoiler:Adachi]] uses a pistol as his weapon and just uses it as his basic (read: weakest) attack and nothing compared to his powers. The AnimeOfTheGame, however, treats the protagonist having a gun pointed at him with all the realistic threat and severity of someone bringing a sword to a gunfight, supernatural powers or not.
* ''VideoGame/Persona5'':
** The protagonists inflict HeelFaceBrainwashing on corrupt adults. Eventually, they successfully manage to do this to the BigBad [[spoiler: who's been leading a political conspiracy to exploit the Metaverse to become Prime Minister.]] However, this doesn't immediately solve everything. [[spoiler: The evil conspiracy ends up covering for the Big Bad because they would also be screwed over, and due to their control over the media, the public doesn't care. In order to ensure the Big Bad can be found Guilty by society and that the conspiracy won't continue to exploit the Metaverse, the Thieves decide to destroy Mementos, the Palace of the Collective Unconscious and the source of all other Palaces, even if this means not being Phantom Thieves anymore.]] Furthermore, [[spoiler:even after Mementos is destroyed and society starts moving to convict the Big Bad, he can't be found guilty without evidence. And since the Metaverse is gone, TheDragon is (presumed) dead and the conspiracy obviously unwilling to testify against themselves, the only person left who can testify against the Big Bad is the Protagonist, who has to confess to being the leader of the Phantom Thieves and be sent to Juvenile Hall due to his prior record... for all of two months, as all of the good he had done as the leader of the Thieves lead to his Confidants and allies proving how unfair and bogus the initial arrest was and getting it removed from his record and released early since prosecuting him as a phantom thief would rub in to a now very aware society that they were scapegoating him and cause unrest.]]
** The game itself begins with the protagonist ambushed by the police and arrested. He may be a Persona-using window-jumping PhantomThief, but even he doesn't stand a chance all alone against an army of armed policemen, especially with his ThouShallNotKill policy.
** The protagonist's backstory starts out with saving a woman from being raped by startling her attacker (later revealed to be [[BigBad Masayoshi Shido]]), causing him to stumble to the ground. However, the man has a ton of connections to the police force and political world, so the protagonist gets arrested and sued by the man he "assaulted", ending up with a criminal record.
** The Phantom Thieves meet in fairly public places to discuss their activities. Combine this with Ryuji, who has NoIndoorVoice, and he very nearly spills the beans several times. In fact, Makoto, already tailing the gang under orders from the principal, gets solid proof that they're the Phantom Thieves thanks to Ryuji's inability to keep his mouth shut.
** Most of the protagonist's Confidants have someone antagonizing them, and leveling up their Confidant link requires going to Mementos and changing that someone's heart. The Confidants ''will'' notice that this change of heart happened after the protagonist learned of their problems, leading them to correctly conclude that the protagonist is one of the Phantom Thieves.
** Related to just above, despite being Phantom Thieves who operate in another plane of existence, they eventually get fingered with suspicion because every party member (with the exception of Futaba) started grouping up and hanging out together after somebody close to them who victimized them had a high-profile change of heart. When public opinion turns on them and the police starts working overtime, they're more or less immediately made prime suspects, the only reason they're not arrested immediately is because their methods are supernatural and therefore unprovable in normal courts. [[spoiler: However, once they start getting desperate, it becomes perfectly clear that the police and conspiracy are perfectly willing to forge evidence to get them locked up, or worse, scapegoat someone completely innocent to claim victory.]]
** The [[SittingOnTheRoof school rooftop]] is repeatedly stated to be off limits. When the group's trespassing up there is finally noticed they get a warning and it is properly locked up.
** Late in Sojiro's Confidant link, [[spoiler:Futaba's uncle claims that Sojiro is an abusive parent to Futaba (so he can get money from Sojiro) and that Joker attacked him. The lead detective doesn't arrest Sojiro or Joker, instead asking a series of questions to everyone involved, including Futaba. By the end, it's clear that the uncle filed a false police report, so the detective bids the group good day and leaves with no one getting arrested.]]
** What happens when you put an SMG, airsoft or not, in the hands of an average schoolgirl with no firearms training? It's all she can do to not hit her allies, and each bullet hits an enemy at random.
** For the entire game ace detective Goro Akechi has made no secret of his intention to capture the Phantom Thieves and bring them to justice. [[spoiler: As soon as the Phantom Thieves' popularity hits an all-time low and the police are working overtime in trying to find them, Akechi approaches the group and offers to join. He gets accepted in because he says he's grown fond of them, and plans to let them escape the cops if they disband... except not really. The Phantom Thieves aren't fooled for a second; they figure out that Akechi plans to sell them out to the police, and only let him in to keep him in the dark about their plan to circumvent him. After all, nobody changes their convictions that easily.]]
** Ann is BornLucky in regards to her metabolism; she can maintain a model-quality body while subsisting on a diet of fast food burgers, junk food, and candy. However, physical attractiveness doesn't equal fitness. Without a proper diet or exercise, Ann has almost no muscle, thus she has the lowest Strength stat out of all the party members.[[note]]Makoto, by contrast, has the same body type as Ann, but is also loaded up with physical skills and is the party's BareFistedMonk with a decent Strength stat because she practices martial arts to maintain her muscles.[[/note]] Ann also can't handle the recoil on her SMG, and is the first to get tired and complain about it during Mementos dives or Palaces due to her low stamina (which also means she has [[SquishyWizard a low HP pool]]). Also, because Ann works in the cutthroat and often ''very'' physically unhealthy world of modelling, her genetic advantage earns her plenty of envy, and once a BitchInSheepsClothing model finds out that Ann has to put no effort into her physique, she actively starts trying to sabotage Ann out of spite.
* ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' gives us Deoxys, one of the OlympusMons who travels through space in... a meteor. In most stories the [[ColonyDrop obvious]] [[TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt consequences]] of this are ignored for the sake of the plot - ''except'' in ''[[VideoGame/PokemonRubyAndSapphire Omega Ruby / Alpha Sapphire]]'', where the meteor([[CallARabbitASmeerp oid]]) in question is '''six miles wide''' and would likely make not only Hoenn (the predicted impact point), but the whole world go the way of the dinosaurs. And when you succeed in destroying it? Deoxys emerges from the rubble and, [[BlueAndOrangeMorality the uncomprehending alien being that it is]], attacks you for destroying what could reasonably be called its interstellar wheels.
** In ''Alpha Sapphire'', if one has Kyogre, and Surf around the general Sootopolis area on their Kyogre, nobody will challenge him/her to a battle, since the trainer is riding on the very same legendary Water Pokémon that nearly destroyed the Hoenn region a short while ago.
* In the first ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeon'' games, the main plot culminates in the heroes adventuring to the sky to get Rayquaza to destroy a meteor that will destroy the world if it impacts. Not only does the backlash from Rayquaza destroying it nearly kill you, the meteor ends up breaking into lots of little pieces, some of which naturally go everywhere and end up causing subplots (one piece hits Latias, breaking her wing and making her fall into a dungeon, driving Latios to go a little crazy in the process of trying to rescue her; another piece hits a cave and fills it with one real Deoxys and a bunch of phantom Deoxys).
** ''VideoGame/PokemonMysteryDungeonGatesToInfinity'' has the player character, who's called to the Pokémon world to save it. After the main plot concludes and the player returns to the human world, they get a message via the partner's Frism that says, among other things, that while the partner wants the player to stay, he's also realised that in all likelihood, the player has friends and family in the human world who must be worried sick about them, and he thinks it'd be selfish to ask the player to stay and leave all their loved ones wondering if they're even alive, so he won't protest the player's leaving. Later, when the other main characters suggest that he could wish for the player's return, he says that it'd be unfair to pull the player away from their loved ones again, and they suggest changing the wish to making the player able to move between the two worlds at will, so nobody will have to suffer from the player's absence.
** In ''VideoGame/PokemonSuperMysteryDungeon'', it's not established how old the player character actually is, but you look like a child- and the partner actually is a child. FreeRangeChildren is firmly subverted in the first part of the game- you and your partner have to go to school, the adults refuse to let you do anything dangerous and get mad when you do, and nearly everyone in the village thinks you're too young to leave it... at least at first.
* In ''VideoGame/PokemonReborn'', the titular critters are directly used to attack people. [[spoiler:A Chandelure [[DeaderThanDead burns a woman's soul out of existence, and a Garchomp kills another woman with one move]].]]
** [[spoiler: Amaria is very depressed, and Titania only dated her because she was afraid that Amaria would kill herself if she didn't. When Amaria finds out that Titania never loved her, she jumps off a waterfall. Worse, while Amaria survives, she wakes up with amnesia, having forgotten the last few days. Titania doesn't take it well.]]
** The game makes no bones about the fact that Pokémon are weapons of mass destruction. Using the PULSE machines, which can power up even weak Pokémon, Team Meteor lays waste to parts of cities, causing earthquakes and massive damage to both people and buildings. A single Tangrowth makes vines and trees grow everywhere, including through the roads.
** [[spoiler: Corey's]] story shows what happens if you take away someone's reason to live: either he's exposed as a Meteor Admin and his daughter runs away because she's horrified by his actions, or he's not exposed and his daughter runs away because she's sick of his controlling nature. Either way, having lost the only thing keeping him alive, he throws himself off a bridge. The result is not pretty.
*** Worse, one of the people in the crowd who found the body is another Gym Leader... who's 12. The poor girl has a breakdown from the sight.
** During Team Meteor's attempt to [[spoiler:use a PULSE Camerupt to make Pyrous Mountain erupt]], [[spoiler:Cal]] pulls a HeelFaceTurn and [[BigDamnHeroes saves the day]] [[spoiler:by destroying the PULSE before it fires up]]. Unfortunately for him, he does this ''after'' it's revealed that [[TheMole he was working for Team Meteor]] and he was [[spoiler:forced to throw Kiki's Medicham into a pit of lava]], so he's remembered not as a hero but as a coward who betrayed both his friends and Team Meteor. By the time you meet him again, [[NeutralGood he's been forced to work as a third party]], unable to reveal that he [[spoiler:[[GoodAllAlong sabotaged the PULSE when he installed it]]]]. Solaris even lampshades this:
--> '''Solaris:''' Do you thing such a reckless act redeems you? [[ReformedButRejected On the contrary, it condemns you.]]
** When you storm Yureyu HQ to free your friends, two Grunts threaten to cut Shelly's throat if you get closer. As later pointed out by Charlotte, you can easily make someone lose control simply by making them believe that they don't have any: after telling the Grunts that she didn't care if they killed Shelly and just walking up to the panel and unlocking the gate, the Grunts were left with no idea of what to do, giving Charlotte an opening to rescue Shelly.
** Team Meteor hooks an Abra up to a PULSE machine to see if they can amplify its teleportation powers enough to get them where they want to go. But as it turns out, the Abra doesn't want to play along, leading to it randomly teleporting things that it wasn't meant to teleport. Worse, they can't turn it off because as soon as they try, [[TemptingFate it just teleports them away from the machine]].
** Team Meteor's attacks are designed to drive people out of the places they attack. Given that they don't care about killing innocents, they kill and hurt a ''lot'' of people. But while some of the Grunts are OK with that, others aren't, especially when it comes to the people they care about. [[spoiler: Unfortunately for Eclipse, Sirius does not take desertion well.]]
** Blake extorts the Ruby Ring away from the player and flees up the peak of Ametrine Mountain. At the top, once the player beats him, Shelly suggests that since Blake lost, he has to give the player the ring... only for Blake to refuse and mock her. Not only is he an enemy, but he's an enemy with no respect for the rules- why the hell would he play along?
* ''VideoGame/PoliceQuest''
** As police lieutenant Sonny Bonds, you have to follow police procedure by the book to avoid [[TheManyDeathsOfYou the myriad of ways]] you can get a game over. While some decisions are obvious (such as [[TooDumbToLive not shooting someone who has a gun drawn at you]]), some are not. Shoot someone who only ''might'' be reaching for a gun in his glove box? Turns out he was an unarmed FBI agent, and you're fired. Forget to frisk the raving lunatic? He'll draw a knife and kill you. Need to open a door with a battering ram? You have to get permission from a judge to use it first.
** There are also non-fatal ways this shows up, too. In the third ''Police Quest'', you can miss points if you fail to follow proper procedure when writing someone up for a ticket. You can also question witnesses, some of whom lie or are [[BeAsUnhelpfulAsPossible uncooperative with the cops]]. Many of them aren't even hiding anything, and have no real reason to lie; they just don't want to talk to the cops, simple as that.
** ''Police Quest II'' ends with a shoot-out in which Sonny shoots a suspect; as a result, the suspect dies. Sonny is immediately put on administrative leave for three days as the Internal Affairs division of the Lynton Police Department reviews if his actions were justifiable homicide. Thankfully it's deemed to be so, and they award Sonny by giving him a two week vacation with pay for taking down the bad guys... ''unless'' Sonny pulled the trigger first in the shootout. In that case, his actions were not in self-defense, and Sonny instead gets arrested for murder.
** ''Police Quest III'' has Sonny notice that his wife isn't getting proper medical care on one of the machines in the hospital. Rather than fiddle with the dials himself (like many an adventure game would expect you to do), the correct solution is to bring it to the attention of the hospital staff, and let them fix it.
** ''SWAT 1'' has internal affairs coming in anytime you had to use a firearm, even if the mission was a success. This is done to review if the shot you took was justified. Accordingly, justified shots has you reinstated and commended, while unjustified shots has you arrested, ending the game.
*** Using a flash bang on a woman with a bad heart has her die immediately.
** ''SWAT 2'' would suspend an officer for shooting a suspect as well, even if it was justified.
** When playing the terrorist campaign in ''SWAT 2'', any terrorists who are severely wounded during a mission [[CareerEndingInjury will be labeled "maimed"]], and cannot participate in any further missions. It's not like they can just go to a hospital, after all.
* In the backstory of ''VideoGame/{{Portal 2}}'', Cave Johnson is the CrazyAwesome PointyHairedBoss of Aperture Science, who has no qualms whatsoever about working with hazardous experimental substances, blatantly ignores the advice of his scientists because ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney, and wildly misapplies potentially revolutionary scientific breakthroughs because he doesn't realize what they could do. Unfortunately, it's not a cartoon, and these practices have the same result they would in real life, i.e., [[spoiler:he dies slowly and agonizingly from exposure to dangerous chemicals while his company collapses into financial ruin.]]
** Chell's boots are what happens when people apply this to a game during design. During testing of the first ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'', the playtesters refused to accept that a human being could survive the falls Chell has to survive on a regular basis, some pointing out that Gordon Freeman, the protagonist of Valve's earlier ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' series, would be pasted by the kinds of falls Chell has no problem surviving. The developers applied a HandWave by giving her boots that are described as diffusing the shock of landing and ensuring she lands on her feet. This restored the playtesters' suspension of disbelief.
** It turns out that moon dust actually can be dangerous. Who knew? [[note]] Read here for more. https://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2005/22apr_dontinhale [[/note]]
** One of the pre-recorded messages from an {{alternate|Self}} Cave Johnson in the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC is Prison Warden!Cave telling his test prisoners why the AirVentPassageway trope is dumb: ventilation shafts are not a secret escape tunnel, they're how the PrisonShip is ventilated. You try to escape that way, you're most likely just going to end up in the air conditioning unit. And since it's also pretty dusty up there, you have a good chance of dying, especially if you're asthmatic. In short, just don't try it.
*** Also, Prison Warden!Cave installed a ForceFieldDoor on all of his prison cells instead of metal bars. Then the power goes out, and all the prisoners get loose.
--->'''Warden!Cave:''' Man, those blue force fields looked good, though. Every time I saw one, I thought, "Wow! I am in space." Still, though... A door made out of paper would have been better in the long run. Would have at least slowed 'em down for a second.
* In ''VideoGame/ProjectZomboid'', [[spoiler:the power grid and, more devastatingly, the water works will stop working after about a month of in-game time, as the society keeping those amenities up and running have ([[ZombieApocalypse literally]]) died off. If you haven't stockpiled lots of receptacles of water and built wells and rain collectors by that point, you're pretty much screwed.]]
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Q-T]]
* ''VideoGame/RadiataStories''.
** At the start of the game, Jack is defeated easily by Ridley in their duel. Ridley is a noble with access to the best trainers, money to buy better gear, and in general the conditions to make it into the knights without issue. Meanwhile Jack is a peasant with nobody to really teach him, and little resources on hand to use. Naturally, the more skilled fighter easily wins.
** If the player goes with the Non-Human route, Jack gets labeled a traitor who kidnapped Ridley, the princess. Although Ridley left on her own, and Jack only went along at first to protect her and try to convince her to return home, because he was the last person seen with her, and was leaving with her, he gets labeled a traitor since for all the people know, he really did do it. After all, Ridley didn't tell anyone she was going to leave.
** When Jack and Gantz try to join Theater Vancoor after being kicked from the Knights, they both fight Jarvis, arguably the second best fighter in the guild in a SecretTestOfCharacter. While both lose, Jack is given the okay to join from Gerald, while Gantz is rejected. His reasoning is because Jack has the aptitude for the group, while Gantz, who was a sheltered nobility, would not fit in well at all. Not helping is that Gantz applied just after [[DrowningMySorrows drinking heavily in response to being kicked out of the knights]], whereas Jack, being younger, doesn't drink and thus is able to at least seem professional despite his younger age.
* ''VideoGame/RadiationIsland'': Since it's a survival game, many common sense rules apply: starvation, infection, and radiation can all kill you; falls can break bones; sleep means you aren't eating, so you're going to wake up hungry; water will drown you if you stay submerged for too long. Other nasty realities:
** Taking too long to root around in your pack or loot a chest gives mooks a fine opportunity to sneak up on you.
** Escaping mooks by taking to the water in a canoe won't work--crocodiles just swim after you, zombies follow you by walking along the bottom.
** Everything is out to kill everything else, not just you. It's common to wander the island and find random OrganDrops from animals killed by mooks. And what do you get when zombies can infect animals? Poison-spewing zombie beasts that are much worse than their mundane versions, and travel in packs.
* ''VideoGame/RainbowSix: Vegas 2'', [[spoiler:while the final villain of the game is delivering his MotiveRant, [[MexicanStandoff he pulls his gun on you, you pull yours on him in return]]... and then he continues ranting at you for a few more minutes before shooting, at any point during which you can shoot him in the face.]] This contrasts with the confrontation with one of the CoDragons much earlier in the game, where you're not given control back until almost the very end of the interaction with him - if you shoot him at any point before [[ISurrenderSuckers he pulls his gun on you]], you fail the mission and have to restart; but at the same time, you've got maybe half a second to react once he ''does'' pull the gun before he blows you away with it.
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption'':
** No matter how much of a badass you are, taking on the army in a standup fight won't end well. [[spoiler:And that's how John Marston dies, when Edgar Ross decides that YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness.]]
** The game's epilogue. [[spoiler:So you faced your father's killer and killed him in a duel? Hooray! After all these years, you finally got your revenge! Too bad your father is still dead and remembered as a brutal criminal even if he was a good guy, and no one but you knows what Ross did so ''he'' goes down as a retired cop who was brutally gunned down while fishing. Oh, and also too bad that the days of the old west and vigilante justice have come and gone so you'll spend the rest of your life as a depressed loner on the run from the authorities]]. What? You thought you could get revenge and everything would be awesome? Nah, what do you think this is? An old western movie?
* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'':
** If Arthur is CoveredInGunge and/or hasn't bathed in a while, people will refuse to interact with him. Being covered in blood may result in people actually running away from him, possibly to the point that the local law enforcement acts hostile to him. And of course, walking around with a mask covering your face while openly armed isn't the best way to get people to talk to you...
** People you beat up have a chance of getting up and can either try to continue the fight or limp away. However, [[PistolWhipping hit them with a gun in your hand,]] and they will stay down for good. After all, getting hit in the face with a fist hurts, but being hit in the head with a heavy metal object can actually kill you.
** Enemies that are set on fire are unable to be looted because anything of value they might be carrying would be charred and thus worthless.
** John can get away with a lot of carnage in the first game since he's basically a government-sanctioned hitman; the Bureau will turn a blind eye to John's crimes as long as he stays useful. Here? He, Arthur, and the rest of Dutch's gang have no such luxury. Every time the gang pulls off a high-profile stunt (like the shootout in Valentine or the raid on the Braithwaites' house), they have to immediately GTFO because the law isn't just going to wait until they strike again.
** It doesn't matter how many deputies, policemen, Pinkertons or bounty hunters they kill or escape from, the Van der Linde Gang is ''still'' only a handful of struggling, nomadic criminals going up against the limitless, established resources of the United States government. [[ForegoneConclusion The outcome is never really in doubt; it's more a matter of when.]]
*** Related to the above, [[spoiler: killing the man financing the Pinkertons isn't going to stop them. Considering Leviticus Cornwall was ''extremely'' powerful and wealthy, the Federal government can't ignore such a high-profile assassination, resulting in even more people being deployed to find the gang.]]
** [[spoiler: While the Grays and the Braithwaites hate each other, they aren't stupid enough to not realize that Dutch's gang is working both sides, [[EpicFail especially since the gang never wore masks and attacked one side immediately after attacking the other side.]]]]
** [[spoiler: Much like [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV Devin Weston]], [[TheDon Angelo Bronte]] believes his vast wealth means he can get people to do anything he wants; [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney all he has to do is name the right price]]. Also similar to Weston, he finds out the hard way that having more money than God is worthless when offered to men [[UndyingLoyalty who are devoted to ideals other than wealth]].]]
*** [[spoiler: Beforehand, his men also discover that intimidating local businessmen and murdering the odd policeman does ''not'' mean you're capable of going toe-to-toe with seasoned, skilled, and heavily-armed outlaws who have survived dozens of gunfights over the years.]]
*** [[spoiler: Finally, murdering [[IOwnThisTown a man as influential as Bronte]] by storming his mansion guns blazing is bound to bring the law down on the gang. When the gang's bank heist in Saint Denis goes sideways, [[CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot John says they should have left Bronte alone.]]]]
** Just because you're the protagonist doesn't mean you're invincible; Arthur might be a hardened badass who cheats death on an almost daily basis, but he's still only human. This is best exemplified when he's kidnapped by the O'Driscoll Boys and tortured by them. Even though he escapes with his life, Arthur passes out from his injuries while riding back to camp and takes at least two weeks to fully recover.
** Relating to the above, since this game is a prequel to the first one and Arthur doesn't appear in it, what happens to him? [[spoiler: Is he killed in a robbery gone wrong? Is he gunned down in a defiant LastStand like John will eventually be? No. [[YourDaysAreNumbered He's diagnosed with tuberculosis]] after contracting it from one of Strauss's debtors near the beginning of the game. Arthur's death is a slow, painful, and completely unavoidable one, because the medicine and technology to treat diseases that in this day and age aren't such a big deal don't exist yet.]]
*** [[spoiler: Similarly, traumatic brain injuries weren't widely understood or easily treated at the time. After a botched robbery results in a trolley crash where he hits his head, Dutch begins showing signs of a TBI, which goes untreated. This is implied to be one of several reasons for [[SanitySlippage his rapid mental decline and erratic behavior.]]]]
* What happens when you put structures designed with mostly RuleOfCool in mind under real-world physics? According to ''VideoGame/RedFaction Guerrilla'' and its extremely robust destruction engine, they collapse. The game designers had to take a crash course in real-world architecture to create buildings that would stay up long enough for the player to destroy them.
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil2'':
** Because Lickers are completely blind, [[LogicalWeakness they rely on their hearing to hunt their prey.]] As such, it's completely possible to sneak right past them just by walking slowly and not bumping into them. In the same vein, Claire's bowgun in the original game and her SMG with the silencer upgrade in the remake are the best weapons to fight them with, since they don't make noise when they fire. Which means you can pelt a Licker to death with zero effort while it blindly flails around trying to figure out what's killing it.
** The remake is essentially Capcom [[{{Reconstruction}} updating classic survival horror mechanics for modern times.]] As such, they've made it so that several conveniences people have been asking for in older-style survival horror games actually ''work against you''. Hate the static camera angles? Say goodbye to auto-aim, and zombies are now much tougher to kill to compensate for your ability to make headshots. Hate the loading screen doors? Now every door can be easily opened, but just about every single enemy can now follow you through them.
** Leon was a rookie cop in the original game, but in the remake, it shows heavily. He has trouble handling his first zombie because he's unprepared, he nearly has a breakdown when he fails to save a fellow officer, and has to be reprimanded by Marvin because his training and heroic mindset will get him killed. This is also seen when he meets Ben; he refuses to let him out of his cell before checking with Chief Irons, even when Ben tells him that Irons can't be trusted, simply because he's following protocol, which results in Ben's death when Mr. X breaks through the wall and crushes his skull.
** Leon arrives in Raccoon City in his civilian clothes, instead of his police uniform, which he receives upon arriving at the police station. Uniforms are almost never issued before the first day, so Leon wouldn't have had it with him until he reported for duty.
** Claire is just a regular civilian with some gun training for self-defense. Like Leon, she is unprepared for what's happened in Raccoon City, especially because unlike Leon, she was never expecting to run into a dangerous situation like this. Like Leon, Marvin has to reprimand her because if she hesitates, she's as good as dead, but he's noticeably gentler about it than he is with Leon, since she's just a concerned citizen looking for her brother. This can also be seen in how Claire and Leon often react to certain traumatic moments; whereas Leon tends to give a sad sigh or restrain his anger, Claire nearly breaks down in tears, and is more vocal with her frustrations.
** Leon's fellow officers were planning a welcoming party involving a puzzle for him to figure out to open his desk for the first time. When the outbreak happens, the party decorations and puzzle remain in place because with how chaotic things were, removing them was pointless.
** With the exception of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil3Nemesis'', previous games rarely show children being victims of a B.O.W. attack. In the remake, AdultFear is on full display; Robert Kendo refuses to let Leon and Ada come near his infected daughter, who is implied to have been bitten by her mother, whom Robert may have already killed. Moments later, when he takes her back inside to [[MercyKill "put her to bed"]] with her mother and they hear a gunshot, even ''Ada'' is left in StunnedSilence for a moment.
** Unlike almost every single game in the series, the knife can break after being used too many times. Using the knife to break things or stab enemies will naturally have it lose durability. Even worse, it's possible for it to be stuck in the enemy if used to escape since usage of it was quick and meant to escape. If you want the knife back, you need to kill the enemy and get it back. Furthermore, unlike in the first game's remake, the knife is used to stab zombies in the torso when used as a defensive move. And if a zombie attacks you from behind, you're unable to use your equipped subweapon to free yourself.
** As opposed to being crushed by debris or attacked by G-Birkin like in the original game, Annette just gets slammed against a concrete wall. Claire tags in to finish off her husband in her scenario, and Annette survives long enough to get back to Sherry and cure her of the G-Virus, but dies from her injuries moments later.
** Unlike in the original game where Leon blindly accepts Ada and puts his trust in her, Leon is rightly skeptical of Ada for a while, and it isn't until she tells him she's going after Umbrella that he even remotely begins trusting her. Ada is being suspicious, knows more than she's letting on, and is skilled enough that she's been able to survive where others haven't. When Annette later warns him about Ada, Leon drills her for answers. Because what reason would Annette have to lie to him about Ada while she's dying?
* ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4'':
** Used amusingly at the beginning. How is the evil Umbrella corporation finally destroyed? Through a daring black-ops raid with soldiers fighting its myriad monsters in one final battle? The heroes of the previous games banding together and taking out its leaders one by one? Nope! The U.S. government freezes its assets in retaliation for the destruction of Raccoon City, and the highly publicized disasters plaguing the company cause its stock prices to drop, sending it into bankruptcy! One statement from the developers in a Nintendo Power article says that there was no way the US government would have allowed Umbrella to continue operating after being responsible for a disaster that forced them to nuke one of their own cities.
*** That too gets a dose of Reality Ensues. Simply removing Umbrella from business does not magically evaporate all the data, personnel, research data and equipment. Their B.O.W.s and viruses are sold to the highest bidder on the black market, the highest level researchers are able to continue their viral weaponry without a traceable line, and the BSAA is formed to counteract the outbreaks that follow.
*** The fact that the BSAA is an NGO also results in reality ensues, as the US Government decides to have its own group to deal with it, the FBC(Federal Bioterrorism Commission), leading to InterserviceRivalry. Later, the FBC is replaced by the Division of Security Operations after [[spoiler:the FBC is dissolved due to them giving bioweapons to terrorists in a plot to get rid of the BSAA]]
** Apparently, Salazar believes TalkingIsAFreeAction. Too bad for him that Leon does not. Both times that Salazar tries EvilGloating, Leon makes him pay for it, first by pinning his hand to the wall with a knife, and the second by seriously damaging his hearing.
** Speaking of the BSAA, they take massive casualties in both ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil5'' and ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6''. The [[VideoGame/ResidentEvil7Biohazard next time they show up]], they send [[spoiler:a single agent leading operatives that are part of "[[TheAtoner Blue Umbrella]]", a [[PrivateMilitaryContracter PMC]] dedicated to bioweapon containment and disposal[[note]]It was founded by the few sane Umbrella executives using left over assets from the old Umbrella, in order to help clean up the damage caused by Umbrella and the various groups that have taken up the role of "evil corporation/conspiracy making bioweapons"[[/note]]. Turns out, all military or paramilitary groups have limited amounts of personnel and resources, so if they keep taking large amounts of casualties, they'll eventually need to rely on others to provide manpower for their operations]].
* In most video games, a weapon with a LaserSight will always be steady as a rock so the player can see where the laser is pointing at. In ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil6'', like in real life, attaching a laser sight doesn't magically remove the hand sway.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Rimworld}}'':
** Assigning a colonist with poor cooking skills as the town chef or using a filthy kitchen can result in food poisoning from tainted meals.
** A colonist receiving poor medical care can have an infection and die, or be left with a scar that causes them pain and loss of motor control for the rest of their lives. Infections are much, much more deadly than the wounds that cause them, and sometimes amputation is the only option to a bad one.
** Smoking too much smokeleaf can lead to asthma and lung cancer, and likewise, too much alcohol consumption can lead to cirrhosis of the liver.
** Make a body purist wear a cybernetic limb? They will most likely revolt or be upset.
* ''VideoGame/{{Riven}}'': Gehn taught himself the Art, and as a result, his understanding of it is flawed. While he managed to successfully write Ages, writing an Age does not necessarily mean that it's a ''stable'' Age, and as a result, Riven is on the verge of collapsing. Atrus has to stay behind so he can edit the Riven descriptive book enough to keep it going while you're in there.
** If you use the Trap Book to trap Gehn, and then link into it again, Gehn will just leave you in there. Why the hell would he free you, knowing what the book does?
* In ''VideoGame/TheSaboteur'' the final boss is just an average human that has gone insane due to your actions up to this point. He is left broken, drunk and just accepting death as even if you don't shoot him, he will just jump to his death on his own.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow'':
** Benjamin King went the same pathway the player does in later games: He built a gang with the purpose of stopping the violence caused by Los Carnales. After many bloody battles, the Vice Kings were able to put a dent in their operations to get them to stop. However, King got too accustomed to power and didn't want to give it up, even going as far as to venture into white collar crime. Because of this, the Vice Kings ended up doing prostitution rings to bring up money and keep the finances for the rank and file, while the Carnales' regained their strength ''and'' allowed a third gang made of white suburbanites to come to fruition.
** The end of the Vice Kings arc. [[spoiler:Tanya usurps power by sleeping her way to the top, but because she doesn't have any real street cred to her name like Benjamin King did, many members start infighting and/or dropping their flags. Furthermore, it's obvious that Tanya doesn't have King's business sense which would've fared horribly for Kingdom Come Records. It's highly implied that her reign would have been short lived regardless if the Playa didn't kill her.]]
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRow2''
** The Boss' no longer caring about "cleaning up the neighborhood" mirrors what happens to gangsters in real-life: a lot of gangs have, in fact, been formed to establish a semblance of stability in their neighborhoods, but as soon as the money and the drugs and the perks come in the gangsters are simply in it for power.
** Kazuo may be a successful crime boss back in Japan but he knows nothing about how American gangs operate. When he takes over the Ronin, he ends up being an even worse boss than [[WellDoneSonGuy his son Shogo]] - who, for all his ineptitude, at least understood how different things are in the States compared to back home.
* ''VideoGame/SaintsRowIV'': The Boss may have beaten countless numbers of gangsters, policemen, even a StateSec with futuristic weapons, but nothing prepares them for a massive alien overlord with superpowers. The Boss tries, oh do they put up a fight, but once Zinyak decides to stop playing around and use his powers the first fight quickly becomes a CurbStompBattle in the villain's favour.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Scribblenauts}}'', you can create anything and put it next to anything, with fairly realistic results: people will eat food, run from wild animals, die when attacked; predators and animals who were attacked will fight back and kill each other; buildings will be destroyed if sufficiently damaged; [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking putting two rabbits together will result in them breeding until they fill the item limit...]] and while you can put things like walls and fences in the way to hinder attackers, don't expect them to last long if the attacker's big enough or strong enough.
* ''VideoGame/TheSecretWorld'': You're a supernaturally-empowered secret agent who works for one of three ancient conspiracies and goes to the worst eldritch hotspots in the world, killing monsters and saving the world... but half the [[=PC=]]s have never heard of you and a quarter hate your guts. Thing is, ''you're basically a good super-villain'': (1) You're using a major connection to Agartha that most magic users will never be allowed to touch, (2) you started this job just a few months ago and are borrowing power from conspiracies that are stronger than you will ever be, (3) said conspiracies are borderline psychotic and regularly ruthless (Templars are classic KnightTemplar no matter how fervently they try to pass that era off as a teenage phrase, TheIlluminati outright admit they're selfish pricks, and the Dragon like to poke butterflies so they can get data on the hurricanes). No matter how much power you get or how self-justified you feel, your character would be next to nothing without the conspiracies, and those conspiracies are 90% super-villains - to the point that the Illuminati had to issue threats just to make sure you joined and the Dragon flat-out abducted you. You are not the hero, you're the ''cleanup roadie'', and most of the epic showdowns are just you stalling the boss so the real heroes can get into position with magic stronger than what you're wielding - or you've been empowered by forces you don't have access to on your best day. In fact, on the one day you end up taking the fight to the apparent BigBad in Tokyo, the only reason you survive the encounter is because said character doesn't actually want to fight you.
** Illuminati players are warned of [[YouHaveFailedMe dire consequences if they piss off their chosen faction]]; given that they're the apparent "heroes" of the game, this might be taken lightly by said players... up until the failures in Kingsmouth and Egypt make it abundantly clear that the Illuminati weren't joking. After all, they wouldn't be the organization they are today if they weren't prepared to make good on their threats: letting [[spoiler: Excalibur]] slip through your fingers results in you being KO'd and hauled off to [[TortureCellar Questions and Answers]] for a very thorough dressing down; getting on the bad side of the Orochi Group in Egypt results in a diplomatic backlash so severe that when you get back to HQ, ''' ''there's an assassin waiting for you.'' ''' And the only reason why you don't end up dead is because Kirsten Geary steps in.
** The Tokyo story arc ends with the players leading an all-out attack on the [[MegaCorp Orochi Group's]] headquarters and attempting to kill the apparent BigBad. As you progress through the penthouse, CEO Samuel Chandra flat out warns you that he is going to make your life a living hell if you continue; naturally, you ignore him - after all, even with Orochi's vast resources, Chandra can't very well declare war on a secret society like the Illuminati or the Templars, can he? Well, it turns out he doesn't need to: after all, Orochi's a legitimate corporation, and [[VillainWithGoodPublicity actually has even more pull than the secret societies because it doesn't need to conceal its existence]]. [[spoiler: You arrive home to find that Chandra has sent the security footage of your break-in to the media, successfully framing you as an international terrorist. From then on, ''you are a fugitive'' - in both the legitimate world and the secret world - and the only way to avoid ending up being subjected to random assassination attempts is to have your face surgically altered.]]
** As demonstrated in both ''The Secret World'' and ''VideoGame/ThePark,'' Nathaniel Winter spent a fortune building Atlantic Island Park on a relatively obscure island off the coast of Maine, using his [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney immense wealth]] and [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections government connections]] to ensure that the construction continued despite the numerous fatal accidents. Once the park was actually opened, the "accidents" continued, this time killing several guests - some of them children. End result? The Park was closed within two years, and Nathaniel Winter's continued attempt at bribery left his reputation in tatters and his finances ruined. Because construction is a dangerous business, corruption can sweep a few worker deaths under the rug, but once paying guests and children start turning up dead, nobody's going to look the other way.
** After four combat zones populated by BadassNormal types able to ward off zombies, ghouls, cultists and Filth infectees with minimal resources and often minimal training, the spinoff game ''The Park'' and its continuation go to great lengths to show what happens when untrained {{Muggles}} are pitted against the heavyweights of the secret world. Hint: it's not a DavidVsGoliath scenario, but an unmitigated tragedy. There's no fighting, no gunplay, no HeroicWillpower, no chance to resist, just an entire game featuring Lorraine being tormented, tortured and traumatized for life.
* ''VideoGame/SenranKagura'': when the Homura Crimson Squad goes on the run as renegade Shinobi, their greatest threat turns out to be... getting enough to eat. They're assassins, not survivalists, and while they have a working knowledge of edible plants, they live in a city. Their only recourse is to find jobs - minimum-wage part-time jobs that don't mind the fact they have no legal papers or proof of education. Plus they're all busty, healthy young girls... you can imagine where this would go if this point was taken to its logical conclusion.
** Shinobi are capable of some pretty outrageous stunts and special powers, but these require them to be at their physical peak. From a story perspective, the very first serious blow landed is the match ender, since being injured will slow a Shinobi down, making them easy to finish off. First blood means the loser has to choose between running or dying, with very few exceptions. The only exception to that, [[{{Hikikomori}} Murasaki]], is armed with a special power that would make her TheDreaded if she were actually training.
** The narration does occasionally mention that living with [[WorldOfBuxom such huge breasts]] comes with its own problems - it's mentioned the girls only avoid back pain because they're physically strengthening themselves anyway, Asuka notes hers can get in the way and speculates the only reason Katsuragi's even bigger pair don't is because she [[KickChick doesn't use her arms]], and Yumi laments that she'll never be able to wear a kimono properly (at the time they became popular, the female ideal was a slim, straight figure, so Yumi can't get one that fits which doesn't show enormous amounts of cleavage).
* ''VideoGame/SeikenDensetsu3'':
** Angela's prologue has her thrown into the aptly named Sub Zero Snowfield wearing nothing but a highly {{Stripperiffic}} leotard. Less than ten minutes later, she starts coming down with hypothermia.
** In contrast to the LovableRogue type of mercenary, Duran is loud, brutish, uncouth, and smells bad. Also, the first time Duran goes up against the Red Wizard, he gets curbstomped, because Duran's never faced anyone who uses magic before.
** Hawk is a thief in a gang of them. Once Hawk decides he no longer wants to be part of the gang because of their growing corruption, they don't graciously let him leave; [[ResignationsNotAccepted they try to have him killed]] (it didn't help that he was framed in the murder of one of their own). When he returns to the gang as a hero trying to stop the end of the world, only two of them side with him and the rest are all {{Mook}}s who have to be cut down.
** Kevin can transform into a werewolf and kick major amounts of ass, [[InvoluntaryShapeshifting but he can't control it]]. The first time he transforms, Kevin kills his beloved pet Carl ([[spoiler:or so he thinks]]), and spends the rest of the game [[CursedWithAwesome hating his power]].
** Both Kevin and Carlie are HalfHumanHybrids whose genetics give them significant abilities, but also cause a fair share of problems. Both of them have some sort of brain deficiency as a result of being a mix of two species, with Kevin talking in HulkSpeak and Carlie still having the mindset of a small child (and looks to match) despite actually being sixteen.
** Lise is an ActionGirl, but she's not a OneManArmy. When raiders invade her kingdom, kill her people and kidnap her brother, she has to run in order to find help. She also never gets a chance to go on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge, instead having to find ways to stop the plans of the BigBad while putting her kingdom's reconstruction on hold.
* ''VideoGame/ShadowComplex'':
** The writers go through the trouble of fleshing out a personality for the evil quasi-Nazi MadScientist who has kidnapped your girlfriend... and instead of an epic boss fight or the scientist pulling out ninja moves or something to get away, [[spoiler:he is KilledMidSentence in one shot by the hero, right in the middle of saying that the hero "doesn't look like a killer". [[DramaticIrony Even though the hero has killed dozens of soldiers by this point]].]]
** At the end of the game, [[spoiler:the BigBad is ''not'' killed by the hero, whose family and loved ones he was threatening, but by the girlfriend, who is--surprise!--an NSA operative. Which explains [[ContrivedCoincidence what they were doing in the woods right by the enemy base]], but she ''really'' should've captured the guy alive.]]
* In ''VideoGame/ShadowrunReturns''
** [[spoiler:Choosing to reveal you killed his community elders to Law causes the PC to pause and actually consider the consequences. Mainly, that informing a large and skilled hacker group that you killed their leaders is a great way to have all your secrets dug up and made public. It's so stupid that the PC decides ultimately not to do it.]]
** The PC has the option to give Law some meta-data on their runs so he can post it on the Shadowland BBS. This lands him in hot water with Kindly Cheng, who is rather upset that he's been posting information about her team and their runs online, putting everyone at risk.
* ''Videogame/ShadowWarrior2013'': After spending a big part of the game chasing after [[spoiler:Zilla]], Wang duels him for about five seconds before simply cutting off his sword hand since, despite gaining SuperStrength from his [[spoiler:deal with Enra, Zilla is still just an old man who appears to never have held a sword in his life]] while Wang is a trained assassin.
* A lot of the deaths or otherwise failure scenarios in Creator/{{Sierra}}'s games fit under this. Among other events in them.
* If you check the right area in ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'', you can swipe [[EldritchAbomination Pyramid Head]]'s [[{{BFS}} Great Knife]] and use it for yourself. Sounds pretty awesome, right? Unfortunately, it turns out that a gigantic knife with a blade roughly the same dimensions as a surfboard is fucking ''heavy'', so James can only drag it around behind him, and it takes all his might just to hoist it up for an attack.
* ''VideoGame/SlyCooper'':
** The ending of ''[[VideoGame/Sly3HonorAmongThieves Honor Among Thieves]]'' has the title character fake amnesia in order to be with his love interest. When she discovers his deception early in the fourth game, she pretty much dumps him on the spot, and it takes nearly the whole game for them to reconcile.
** Penelope's FaceHeelTurn isn't so surprising when one remembers she's a criminal who had her enemies in a flying competition killed so that she could win and joined Sly's gang under the lure of riches. It's a reminder that not everybody who Sly works with is a {{Noble Demon}} who'll stick with him and his friends through thick and thin.
** There are clue bottles in the [[VideoGame/SlyCooperAndTheThieviusRaccoonus first]], [[VideoGame/Sly2BandOfThieves second]] and [[VideoGame/SlyCooperThievesInTime fourth]] games. When you collect them, you break the glass bottle to collect the clue inside. Given that these bottles bounce up and down like {{Animate Inanimate Object}}s and have no regard for gravity, occasionally floating in midair for no reason, they're very clearly established as a gameplay mechanic, so you'd think that guards wouldn't be able to hear you collect the clues. You'd be wrong.
** In ''Band of Thieves'', Sly and the gang's attempts to win Jean Bison's Lumberjack Games by sabotaging him are all for naught, since the judges are in Jean's employ and he just threatens them into giving him a good score. Then when they incapacitate and disguise themselves as the judges in a last desperate attempt to win, Jean almost immediately realizes they're not the real judges and knocks them all out.
** Also from the second game, [[spoiler: when Clockwerk's jaw clamps down hard on Bentley at the end of the game, he's instantly left paralyzed and he spends the rest of series in a wheelchair.]]
* ''Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog'':
** With the addition of the Sonic Boost in later games, we see a more realistic take on what happens when an object gets hit by another object moving at the speed of sound.
** If you're moving at the speed of sound, your ears can only pick up sounds whose audio waves are moving faster than you are. Later games take this into account and mute the lower audio frequencies while you're using Sonic Boost.
* Mitsurugi of the ''VideoGame/SoulSeries'' is a Ronin who once challenged an Imperial rifleman to a duel to prove the superiority of his discipline and [[KatanasAreJustBetter weaponry]]. His motivation from the second game on is to wield Soul Edge in the hopes of defeating the Tanegashima rifle, because that duel did ''not'' end in his favor at all; he charged the rifleman and was quickly shot down.[[note]]The player can get an alternate ending where Mitsurugi comes out on top, but in canon he ended up springing a leak.[[/note]]
* Of all things, ''VideoGame/SouthParkTheStickOfTruth'' does this for its InfinityPlusOneSword. As the game is a LARP, everyone uses weapons hodgepodged out of normal supplies. The Sweet Katana? It's an actual sword, purchased from a shop.
* In the opening of ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestVIRogerWilcoInTheSpinalFrontier'', Roger is court-martialed and bumped back down to a lowly space janitor for all the mayhem he caused and the regulations he broke saving the day in the last game, ''VideoGame/SpaceQuestVTheNextMutation''.
* The later games in the ''VideoGame/{{SWAT}}'' series are realistic shooters, much like ''Police Quest'' above is realistic to police procedure. You play a member of a SWAT team, who realistically must break down doors with specialized ammo, not fire on civilians, and must secure a scene, including all evidence in it such as dropped weapons, before moving on. The game is even set in the same universe as ''Police Quest'', with Sonny Bonds being a SWAT captain in [[VideoGame/SWAT4 the fourth game]]. That said, the game does go a little too far in its portrayal of what SWAT officers are expected to do; for instance, in ''SWAT 4'' you're penalized for "[[ScrappyMechanic unlawful use of deadly force]]" if you shoot a bad guy with a regular firearm at any point before he shoots (at) you - in a game in which you can barely survive taking five bullets across a mission.
* A key part of ''VideoGame/SpecOpsTheLine'''s project as DeconstructorFleet is its use of this trope. At one point Capt. Martin Walker and his squad use a white phosphorous mortar to kill a large group of soldiers in a base barring Walker's way to an objective. The game cuts to an overhead camera depicting each soldier as a white blob, as the player gleefully rains down death from above upon the helpless foes. Then, you get to walk through the carnage you just caused, seeing and hearing your soon-to-be-dead enemies crawling around on their hands and knees, screaming in agony and begging to be put out of their misery. [[spoiler:And that group of stationary enemies huddling in the back of the base? They were ''civilians''.]]
** A bigger one is the central premise. Walker and his team are a recon crew, they're supposed to bring back word if they find survivors so the army will know it's worth sending in a full-scale rescue. Trying to play hero and get directly involved instead of doing their job [[spoiler:not only gets the team killed, it means hundreds of survivors that would have been saved die needlessly too.]]
* ''VideoGame/SpiderManPS4'':
** The prologue ends with Spider-Man putting away his long-time ArchEnemy, [[ComicBook/TheKingpin Wilson Fisk]]. Do things get easier from now on with the crime rate going down? Nope! Putting away the largest crime boss in New York results in an EvilPowerVacuum with several gangsters and criminals going wild to take his place and/or take whatever Fisk has left. Likewise, putting Fisk away doesn't automatically put a stop to his operations, as several missions involve going after several of his underlings trying to continue Fisk's heists and businesses or trying to release him.
** What happens when you're in PerpetualPoverty and regularly fail to pay your rent on time? You get evicted from your apartment, as Peter finds out the hard way.
** Miles attempts to sneakily KO a Demon, only to be quickly disarmed and grounded. Since the Demons are professional terrorists that can take on international mercenaries and Miles is an ordinary teenager, this is to be expected.
** If you fail to prevent a street crime from going down, you can't retry it. If you don't even try to stop a crime, Jameson gets a call from the victim or a friend/relative of theirs saying that they now agree that Spider-Man isn't a hero after all.
** A side mission deals with a copycat Spider-Man, who ends up being a BadassNormal capable of saving lives and defeating thugs with nothing more than his karate skills and bravery. However, when he tries to take on Wilson Fisk's men - hardened criminals armed with machine guns - he's completely out of his depth and would have certainly died if the real Spider-Man hadn't shown up in time to save him.
** [[BigBad Martin Li]], AKA Mr. Negative, is a powerful and dangerous supervillain... but he's also never fought another super before, while Spider-Man has spent eight years doing just that, and all previous bosses were long-time arch-enemies of his who have repeatedly upgraded. As a result, Martin constantly wears himself out from using his powers too much, and Spider-Man doesn't need much more than dodging and punching to ultimately defeat him despite explicitly holding back to try and help him, as opposed to the previous bosses who require far more strategy and effort to defeat. And unlike Kingpin, he fails to even inflict ClothingDamage on Spider-Man.
** One of the backpack collectibles you can find is the Spider-Signal. Peter never used it because he couldn't figure out how to make it bright enough without making it too hot to safely handle.
** The constant string of accidents and small fires caused by Otto and Peter's experiments eventually leads to them losing their funding and having all their equipment confiscated by Oscorp.
** Peter's tendency to act the same both in and out of the suit means that while the average person likely couldn't make the connection, those who actually know Peter can easily figure it out. Otto did have the benefit of seeing the damaged suit, but his intelligence combined with the hints Peter gives him subconsciously without even noticing (Both Peter and Spidey crack jokes in tense situations, for example) allow him to connect the dots. And since Aunt May raised Peter, she would have little trouble noticing their similarities. Peter's small social circle is one of the main reasons why his identity isn't more widely known.
* ''VideoGame/SplinterCell'':
** Across the original trilogy, at least, Fisher is a clandestine operative who needs to be equipped as lightly as possible for the purposes of quietly moving and fitting into or jumping up to places leading to where he needs to go. As such, bullets tear through him easily because he's wearing very light armor, and even in an advantageous position pitched firefights will quickly exhaust your ammo supplies because you can only hold, at maximum, two extra magazines for your handgun and one for your rifle.
** The LaserSight added to the handgun in ''Pandora Tomorrow'' gets a healthy dose of this. The presence of the laser does not, in fact, make Sam suddenly hold his arms more steadily than he already could, even when holding still in a crouch. What it ''does'' do, however, is tell you ''exactly'' where the bullet you fire will hit, rather than having to work with the crosshair giving an estimate on where it ''could'' go, unlike in many pure shooting games where the laser (if it even [[RuleOfCool serves an in-game function]]) simply tightens that crosshair a little bit but otherwise does nothing to prevent bullets from exiting the barrel at angles you'd expect from buckshot. You still want to shoot from a steady position and from close range with the pistol, but as long as you can see the dot and time your shots right when the laser is on top of what you want to hit, you're going to be much more accurate with the laser than without.
** In ''Chaos Theory'', Sam is facing down [[spoiler:Shetland]] on the rooftop, with their guns drawn. [[spoiler:Shetland]] goes on a MotiveRant, ending it by saying that Sam "wouldn't shoot [[spoiler:an old friend]]" and putting his gun away. Sam can, at this point, opt to put his gun away, triggering an ISurrenderSuckers moment where [[spoiler:Shetland]] draws his gun and catches a bad case of knife in the heart for his trouble. The other option is to just shoot him in the face the moment he puts his gun away.
** ''Conviction''. Normally, EMP devices in media are depicted as being rather benign, temporary things. Even a large EMP bomb only takes about a minute or so to recover from. The game even includes a small EMP device that only temporarily disables electronics. But when two of three EMP bombs go off in Washington DC, the results are horrifyingly realistic. The traffic grid immediately breaks down, all the lights go out and in general, anything electronic including cell phones and defibrillators go out and ''stay'' out.
* ''Videogame/StarCitizen'' prides itself on its ([[MisaimedRealism relatively]]) realistic physics for space combat. However, it pairs these realistic physics with fanciful SpaceFighter designs, leading to some glaring design flaws in many ships. The Mustang is one of the most glaring, as it has the main engines mounted off-center from the center of mass, which means that it continuously nosedives unless its ventral thrusters are firing.
* ''VideoGame/StarCraft'':
** The Terran Campaign of the [[VideoGame/StarCraftI original game]] has as its main focus a classic story of rebels trying to overthrow a corrupt confederate government. As it progresses however, it becomes increasingly clear the RebelLeader, Arcturus Mengsk, [[TheRevolutionWillNotBeCivilized isn't quite the idealistic revolutionary he appeared to be]]. The campaign ends with him crossing the MoralEventHorizon by causing an AlienInvasion on the Confederate homeworld, resulting in billions of deaths, and the new government he establishes ends up being [[MeetTheNewBoss just as bad as the old one]].
*** Expanded Universe material shows that before the events of the game, the Confederacy was a laughably inept, top-heavy government run by corrupt and incompetent people who would gladly nuke a planet into oblivion just for opposing them and being ArrestedForHeroism was a very real possibility, and most of the people under their rule were looking for any excuse to be rid of them. Only superior firepower and a consolidation of military training and supplies kept them in power for so long; the moment they were up against Mengsk, a charismatic figure who won much of the Confederate military over to his side and a competent strategist who knew how they operated and could think around them, the war was over before it even started.
** The Protoss campaign in the first game ended with [[TheHero Tassadar]] committing a HeroicSacrifice to kill the [[HiveMind Overmind]], leaving the [[HordeOfAlienLocusts Zerg Swarm]] [[DecapitatedArmy without a leader]] and putting an end to their invasion of Aiur, the Protoss homeworld. Right at the beginning of ''Brood War'', it's revealed that, even without a leader, the Zerg are ''still'' rampaging everywhere on Aiur, just in a more disorganized way, and the Protoss are forced to leave anyway to ensure their survival.
** In ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'', Rory Swann discusses how he and some fellow miners rose up against the Kel-Morians oppressing them... and almost got themselves all killed if not for an intervention by Jim Raynor, because they were hopelessly out-gunned.
--->'''Swann:''' Havin' right on your side ain't no match for Gauss guns and combat walkers.
** ''[[VideoGame/StarcraftIIHeartOfTheSwarm Heart of The Swarm]]'' shows that even after Kerrigan is cured of Zerg infestation, she's still nobody's best friend. As the Queen of Blades she went out of her way to antagonise and backstab everyone else in the galaxy just because she could, and no one has any reason to think differently of her because as far as they know, she was still herself when she did all those things. Only Raynor has any real appreciation for her, and even he can't accept it when she ''voluntarily'' goes back to being a Zerg-Human hybrid considering she killed an old friend of his and he was forced to kill another to keep her alive in ''[[VideoGame/StarCraftIIWingsOfLiberty Wings of Liberty]]'', so as far as he's concerned she just invalidated his sacrifices.
** The Nova campaign ends not with a BossBattle but Nova executing the BigBad, since she's the best Ghost in the Dominion, and her opponent is [[spoiler:an elderly general]].
* ''VideoGame/StarFox64'': The titular Star Fox team is a mercenary band hired by the Corneria Defense Force to take on bioterrorist [[BigBad Andross]]. And sure enough, once you beat the game, TheStinger after the credits is an invoice to Colonel Pepper for their services. The amount, and Pepper's reaction, differ based on your final score.
* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'': "Broken Circle". Turns out that frontally attacking a fortified position where the other side outnumbers you thousands to one tends not to be a particularly bright idea.
* ''Franchise/StarWars: VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'':
** The entire war with the Sith in the first game is seen largely as a Jedi matter. Since very few people outside either the Jedi or Sith orders understand or can even particularly tell the difference between the two, the conflict is even called the Jedi Civil War by most of the galaxy in [[VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords the sequel]].
** Revan killing Darth Malak in the first game didn't instantly fix everything. While the larger war is over, its aftermath still has a massive effect on the galaxy. The monumental damage alone from both the Mandalorian and Jedi Civil Wars will take years if not generations to fix, and political tensions are high as the Republic struggles to regain its footing and begin the reconstruction. Part of it is that Revan, [[{{Retcon}} at least in the second game]], was presented as something of TheChessmaster, fighting the war in such a way that no matter who came out on top, the galaxy would be stronger for it, able to continue functioning as it did before the wars, and ready to take on [[spoiler:the True Sith]] once they came knocking. Contrasting this is Malak, your typical [[StupidEvil Saturday morning cartoon-type villain]] with no greater agenda other than total conquest and making up for a lack of tactical prowess by having limitless reserves of personnel and ships to throw at everything that got in his way - perfect for the usual tone of ''Star Wars'', mind you, but also so prone to mindlessly and absolutely obliterating even a minor obstacle with the full force of every fleet that could aim in its general direction that the Republic had to spend ''decades'' rebuilding afterwards.
** The remaining Sith didn't just disappear, either. The remnants simply went into hiding and continued attacking the Jedi from the shadows - and without any sort of centralization to give the Jedi a big, easy target the way the Jedi have given them every time they tried to gather after the war, they've come far closer to wiping out the Jedi than they did in open combat.
** While Visas Marr in ''The Sith Lords'' has a lightsaber and Force powers, Kreia points out that she's had little formal training, since her master is less an actual teacher and more an EldritchAbomination that simply saw a useful tool among the millions of other people he fed upon. The Handmaiden, likewise, took a vow from her master Atris ''not'' to learn the ways of the Jedi or Sith, but it's surprisingly easy to make her break that vow with little more than [[ExactWords some wordplay]] - because, for one, she feels she can learn more about her Jedi mother by following in her footsteps, and for two, her master set this rule for her disciples [[ColdTurkeysAreEverywhere while furnishing practically her entire academy with Jedi artifacts and holocrons]].
** G0-T0's story arc is [[ThreeLawsCompliant about what you'd expect to happen]] when the kind of droid intelligence seen as adequate for handling the reconstruction efforts of an entire planet is programmed in a ridiculously simple fashion. He was given only two directives - producing options to rebuild the Republic, and following all the laws of the Republic. Unfortunately, [[CrapsackWorld the kind of state]] the ''Star Wars'' galaxy is in on any given point in its history, much less in the immediate aftermath of a devastating war, meant that he quickly determined that it was simply not possible to follow both directives; any practical plan to rebuild the Republic would require breaking one or more of its laws. Notably as well, when he "broke", he decided to follow the first directive while ignoring the second rather than going berserk and building a robot army to kill everything with like he probably would have if he were written by the first game's team - while all of his activities in the game are illegal to some degree, most of it also works out in such a way to remove people or organizations that would cause further destabilization in areas that the Republic is currently too preoccupied to deal with themselves. Half of your problems in the game as well come from the fact that he's posted a bounty for live Jedi, because he needs their help, but is having trouble finding bounty hunters that will actually ''bring'' a live Jedi rather than a dead one.
* ''VideoGame/StardewValley'' opens with you learning you inherited a farm property from Grandpa who died XX years ago. Since it's been abandoned for over a decade (at least), the property has become overgrown with trees, shrubs, grass, and erosion-exposed rocks, which you will have to clear away if you want to do anything useful with the land.
** Raiding trash cans for items will disgust anyone who sees you at it (except Linus, who does the same).
** Fixing up the Community Center and driving the cheap but oppressive Joja Mart out of business doesn't do any favors for Jodi or Pam, who shop at Joja because they can't afford Pierre's high prices, or Shane, who worked for Joja and consequently loses his job.
** A lot of characters with severe personal problems simply ''can't'' be fixed by ThePowerOfFriendship or ThePowerOfLove. You're a farmer, not a therapist. Penny will still have a rocky relationship with her mother, Pam will merely become a [[FunctionalAddict Functional Alcoholic]] if you get her job back, marrying Shane and having him live on a peaceful farm won't undo years of poor mental health, and Sebastian will still be estranged from Maru and Demetrius.
* In ''VideoGame/SuperPaperMario'', the fourth world you visit is in outer space. And maybe BatmanCanBreatheInSpace, but Mario ''can't!'' The first time you enter it, you have to be taken back to Flipside because of this, where you obtain a "helmet" of sorts. If you repeatedly [[SchmuckBait refuse to put the helmet on]] when you go back, you ''will'' get a NonStandardGameOver. What else did you expect to happen?
* In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBros'':
** In ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosBrawl'' in the Subspace Emissary story mode:
*** Snake attempts to hide from Lucario and Meta Knight using his trademark cardboard box. In [[VideoGame/MetalGear his home game]], mooks would be fooled. But not Lucario, who immediately notices something strange about a cardboard box in the middle of an otherwise-empty hallway. Likewise, once more enemies arrive to harass the group, Snake [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere immediately tries to hide behind a wall]], because in ''Metal Gear'' proper, taking on that many enemies at once head-on would be suicide.
*** Captain Falcon makes a DynamicEntry from his speeding Blue Falcon. But because he is going so fast, he doesn't notice the crowd of Pikmin and promptly kills them all as he lands and strikes a pose.
*** Ganondorf and Bowser's battleship's defensive cannons manage to hit and destroy the Halberd, whose large size makes it an easy target.
*** Likewise, one good hit from Kirby is enough to take down the battleship.
** ''VideoGame/SuperSmashBrosUltimate'':
*** The World of Light trailer has countless rays of light disintegrate the characters with barely any effort from them meaning anything. Seeing as this is, well, ''light'', only an object moving at relativistic speeds can hope to avoid being annihilated. Because of this, VideoGame/{{Kirby}}'s Warp Star, which in canon can travel between distant planets in minutes if not seconds, was the ''only'' thing that had any chance of dodging such an onslaught, and even then, Kirby had to push the thing to its limits to pull ''that'' off. Despite being labeled as "the fastest thing alive", [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sonic]] canonically cannot outrun a pseudo-singularity, let alone an actual black hole, and time spent evoking the Chaos Emeralds would be time not spent ''evading radiant death'', Pikachu's well-being notwithstanding.
*** Likewise, characters with powers or equipment that are less fantastical than their compatriots are outright hosed in the face of such overwhelming destruction; Snake's cardboard box might fool guards in a stocked facility, but out in the open it can't buy even one extra second of life, while the Inklings are not immaterial when submerged in ink, and even that does no good when the attacker is willing to tear up the land to rid itself of them. The Duck Hunt duo and the Villager panic like the end of the world is coming (''because it is''), while the Wii Fit Trainer doing yoga poses is all she can do to stay calm in the face of the apocalypse.
*** This is what ultimately defines [[spoiler:all three of the endings to World of Light]]. [[spoiler:Galeem is a light-based being of absolute order, Dharkon is a darkness-based being of absolute chaos, and both are absolutely antipodal to each other, seeing the fighters as merely pawns, albeit very rebellious ones, in their 'game'.]]
*** [[spoiler:If you focus one down, the other will gleefully use the opening to harness all its power to obliterate all its opposition in one fell swoop. The entire purpose of a pawn is to be used by a higher power, and the defeat of its sworn enemy is the end of any pawn; did you expect your "benefactor" to spare you in the end?]]
*** [[spoiler:This actually works against both Galeem and Dharkon; they are so antipodal to each other that the mere concept of working together for any length of time is anathema to them, and fighting both at once is a melee a trois where attacks from any party can hurt both other parties indiscriminately. This abject lack of cooperation between the two superpowers makes the fight against both sides at once easier than it should be as a result.]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesFromTheBorderlands'':
** The series really likes to point out the physical weaknesses of the protagonists Rhys and Fiona. In the first episode, Rhys tries to kill a bandit with his bare hands, only for the bandit to be amused by the attempt and later be annoyed by it. Rhys is a corporate businessman turned janitor, he's out of his element on Pandora and has had no reason to train for this sort of thing.
** Fiona is just as unprepared physically, as she is mainly a con-artist and scavenger. When she tries to shoot Vallory (who is incredibly strong and is effortlessly holding a missile launcher) mid-air, Vallory simply throws the gun at her, causing Fiona to be knocked to the ground and pinned by the sheer weight of it. To further elaborate on how heavy it is, both Sasha and Fiona had to hold it, just so Fiona can have a steady aimed shot.
** In the episode "Catch a Ride" the gang is caught in a car chase. While laying on the hood, face to face with August pointing a gun at him, Rhys assumes he was going to fire and quickly rolls out of the way. Only for August to stare at him in confusion and point out how futile and naive it is to try to dodge a bullet at that distance.
--->'''August:''' [[WhatWereYouThinking What, you think you can just roll out of the way of a bullet? All I have to do is move my hand a little bit and oop, I'm aiming at your face again!]]
* ''VideoGame/TalesSeries'':
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfSymphoniaDawnOfTheNewWorld'' shows the after effects of the heroes actions from the previous game by showing how they saved the worlds yes, but made many new problems by not warning either world of their intentions. Since the worlds of Sylvarant and Tethe'alla were seperated with minimal contact or understanding, when the two worlds are merged together suddenly, the people of both worlds suddenly become afraid and form military groups to defend their way of life from what they see as basically aliens. Also, while the protagonists are hailed as heroes by some, just as many despise them because their actions caused problems unaddressed in the original game; Marta's mother was killed when the Mana Tree rampaged in Palmacosta, and none of the heroes did anything to stop it nor save them, so from her perspective, she has every reason to hate Colette for her failure because she was supposed to prevent events like that. Oh and the racism Half-Elves endured? It doesn't go away at all, instead now pushed aside to a degree by the new racism found by the two worlds merging.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfBerseria'':
*** The game likes to shine a harsh light on the collateral damage [[AntiHero Velvet]] causes. One of the biggest examples is Hellawes, where early on, Velvet has the entire port firebombed as cover for stealing a ship. Most games would go the InferredHolocaust route or show the town bouncing back from the damage - not here. The town remains inaccessible for over half the plot because it simply doesn't have a dock big enough to moor the [[CoolShip Van Eltia]] anymore. Even once the port is repaired, it's still only barely functional because sunken wrecks are blocking most of the docks, and they can't be moved from the arctic waters. The destruction of the merchant fleet cratered the town's economy, they're limping along on relief supplies and being lucky enough to have an older generation who have the know-how to resurrect the fishing industry. Austerity measures are in place, and the town has been all but cut loose by the Abbey for no longer having a worthwhile export. And things go FromBadToWorse late-game, when Velvet [[spoiler:commits an act of terrorism in the sister village (as in, [[ExactWords terrifying the population to get something from the government]]) causing it to be evacuated and the Abbey to declare it a no-go zone, meaning Hellawes is now flooded with refugees and cut off from its only cheap source of fuel]]. It's stated that if not for another upheaval [[spoiler:waking the Emperians and undoing a decade of global cooling]] every settlement on the landmass would have been abandoned.
*** On a subtler note, EasyCommunication is averted. The ability to teleport meaningful distances is extremely rare, and far-speak artes are the domain of only one or two mages like Melchior. This means the party, [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight as distinctive as they are,]] have no trouble going wherever they want once they obtain some reasonably legit ID - news travels slowly, and when their reputation does precede them, the reports are [[FacialCompositeFailure an exaggerated mishmash of all the individual party members]] that doesn't even resemble them individually.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfTheAbyss'':
*** What happens when you take a ten year old noble who recently lost all of his memories, motor skills, and general knowledge about the world, throw him back home and tell him he can't leave until he's almost twenty? As the game shows us with Luke, it causes them to grow up into a {{Jerkass}} with no social skills, no friends, and nobody to truly turn to. Then, when Luke gets teleported outside the city, he's completely ignorant about simple things, like buying food requiring money.
*** Also, being totally sheltered and ignorant about the world around him makes Luke incredibly easy to manipulate. [[spoiler:This is exactly what Luke's sword teacher, Van, was counting on. By setting himself up as the only person Luke could trust, Van makes Luke into an UnwittingPawn.]]
*** Luke [[NeverMyFault refusing to own up to his mistakes]], even if he wasn't entirely responsible, doesn't mean his new friends will just ignore his behavior, [[EasilyForgiven forgive him]], and be happy to talk to him. Instead, they abandon Luke in disgust for his attitude. While Luke does [[TheAtoner genuinely start trying]] to make up for his mistakes later in the game, and [[CharacterDevelopment becomes much nicer and respectful]], not everyone forgives Luke for what he's done. For a while, even Luke doesn't think he ought to be forgiven, no matter how much he tries. His depression and guilt briefly turns him borderline [[DrivenToSuicide suicidal]].
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'':
*** Out of the all the recipes, including the new ones from the UpdatedRerelease, Repede hates a resounding 18 out of 42. Those recipes are either sweets or include onions, both of which are toxic to dogs.
*** Estelle being a princess is revealed early on in the game, and save Karol, all the heroes already knew. Not only did Yuri find Estelle in a castle, but her mannerisms, naive outlook on things, and her obviously sheltered life made it clear she was someone important.
*** As skilled as Yuri is, he is still only a young adult with a few years of combat training under his belt. When he tries to duel Don Whitehorse in the UpdatedRerelease, Whitehorse [[HopelessBossFight easily overpowers Yuri and defeats him]]. Whitehorse might be a bit old, but he's an incredibly skilled swordsman with many years under his belt.
*** A lot of Karol's actions before his CharacterDevelopment fall into this. He's a twelve year old kid in a world with monsters and many other threats; naturally, he grows up being scared of them and being a bit of a coward. He's fighting things even grown adults would struggle with, after all.
** ''VideoGame/TalesOfXillia'':
*** What happens when [[ActionGirl Milla]] loses the Four Spirits of the Elements, on whom she has relied for all sorts of things, ranging from being able to swim, fight or use magic? She can barely do things on her own. She can't swim, has no idea how to properly use her sword and [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration can't do any proper combos during battle]], until she gets a little instruction from Alvin on how to fight. Once she gets that part down, her [[InstantExpert natural ability]] lets her improve very fast.
*** Alvin has repeatedly [[ChronicBackStabbingDisorder backstabbed]] the party, but keeps getting let back onto the team. While this mostly is allowed and shrugged off by Jude, who is rather idealistic and naive, the rest of the party keep their suspicion about Alvin. Eventually, they do allow him to return, but only because they know that he'd follow them anyway and willingly taking him in would give them the advantage of being able to keep a close eye on him. As such, he is not EasilyForgiven. The [[VideoGame/TalesOfXillia2 sequel]] proves that he is still trying to better himself, so that people can trust him again.
*** Once again for Alvin, he is trying to shake Jude out of his HeroicBSOD while on the cusp of one of his own by trying to egg him on into getting angry. During this event, Alvin accidentally shoots Leia and almost kills her. Contrary to it being dropped after Leia is healed up, their interactions become extremely awkward, stilted and they try to avoid each other. Things take some time to get better between them.
*** The shooting has another aspect of this trope to it as well. Despite being a trained marksman, Alvin was emotionally distraught at the moment and waving a loaded pistol around. [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace It was only a matter of time before someone took a bullet.]]
* The backstory of ''VideoGame/TheNewOrderLastDaysOfEurope'' gives the Axis massive breaks to let them win a decisive victory in World War II... and then ''stops'' giving them breaks the moment the final peace treaty is signed, leaving them with the consequences of draining occupations of huge chunks of Europe, Asia and Africa, costly genocidal campaigns, political infighting, economies built on looting and a liking for grandiose projects ranging from wasteful to outright damaging[[note]]especially Germany -- Italy benefits from not being as genocidal or ''quite'' as encouraging of political infighting, but still gets hit hard and has to find alternative alliances, and Japan hasn't had enough revealed on it to make it clear how bad their situation became and is[[/note]]. Consequently, it does not take long for their economies to collapse, leaving them barely hanging on and tearing the Axis apart, with Germany in particular on the brink of collapse by 1962. This in turns leads to the Italy-founded economic compact and counter-German alliance being nearly impossible to keep together -- uneven distribution of the economic benefits breeds resentment between the members, and EnemyMine between rivals gets shaky when the common threat begins to look obviously weaker.
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Thief}}'' series Garret is, well, a thief, and not equipped or trained for a stand-up fight, something the player will painfully learn if they try going OneManArmy like in so many other games.
* ''VideoGame/TombRaider2013'' depicts Lara's transformation from an optimistic university student to a ShellShockedVeteran after besting the horrors of Yamatai. The trailers for the sequel ''VideoGame/RiseOfTheTombRaider'' show Lara in therapy to treat her PTSD.
* ''VideoGame/{{Touhou}}: Mountain of Faith'''s plot is all about this! The stated job of a shrine maiden is to protect human settlements by battling youkai; Reimu is too lazy to even investigate all but the most dangerous youkai incursions, so the human village doesn't like her very much or pay tribute to the god she represents. When the Moriya gods move in with a shrine maiden who ''actually does'' take youkai-hunting seriously, they are instantly popular and nearly put Reimu's shrine out of business entirely.
* Used wonderfully in ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTheRudra''. A few days after the other protagonists have already received their magical PowerCrystal, SquishyWizard Surlent is still lacking his. Being a scholar, he finds it inside an ancient artifact he's set out to research. It promptly flies towards him to merge with his body... and the impact kills him. Instantly. He has to claw his way back up to the surface all the way from the realm of the dead.
* In the third game of the ''VideoGame/{{Tropico}}'' series, pissing off either the USA or the USSR too much will result in them invading you - at which point you will get an instant game over. No matter what you do, the military of a small island republic would have no chance against one of the Cold War superpowers. The only surefire way to protect yourself from an invasion is to either ally with the other superpower - which will anger the nationalists of your nation for becoming beholden to a foreign power - or develop the capacity for nuclear weapons.
* ''VideoGame/TrillionGodOfDestruction''. The eponymous antagonist is a world-destroying mass of a trillion curses. Your Overlords are going up against it solo, with short-notice training and limited opportunities to retreat. [[FinalDeath They're going to die.]] It is hammered into the characters, and then the player, that going up against Trillion is a true SuicideMission and the best they can hope to do is do enough damage before their inevitable demise that they might be able to wear it down before they run out of time or candidates. This realization, especially the first fatality, horrifies everyone and morale starts to become a serious problem.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:U-Z]]
* In ''VideoGame/Uncharted4AThiefsEnd'', Captain Avery's utopia of Libertalia goes ''exactly'' as well as you'd expect from a society run by ruthless, cunning, and greedy pirates. [[spoiler: The concept was a great way to lure wealthy pirates into joining, which made them easier targets to track down. Libertalia's founders hoarded all the wealth for themselves and forced the rest of the population into poverty and enslavement. Eventually, the founders turned on each other in a brutal GambitPileup that resulted in everyone getting slaughtered, and their massive treasure was lost to history.]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Undertale}}''
** Shopkeepers won't let you sell items to them. The first shop you visit even lampshades the absurdity of buying random junk from people who walk in. You can sell items at one specific shop, but it's said outright that it's because that shopkeeper belongs to a race of {{Cloud Cuckoolander}}s, and they're also really bad with money and desperate for patronage.
** Poor [[spoiler:Sans the Skeleton]]. When he realizes he is too tired to outfight a player on a [[VillainProtagonist No Mercy Run]], he resorts to an alternate tactic: [[spoiler:[[SealedEvilInADuel trying to trap you in battle forever]] by never finishing his turn. Unfortunately, he fails to factor in the fact that standing around forever is pretty damn boring and falls asleep within minutes, giving you the opening needed to finish him. But, to be clear, he was trying to bore the player into quitting the game.]]
*** [[spoiler: Sans' boss fight in general]]. He only has 1 HP and outright stated to be the weakest monster. The only reason he's the hardest boss in the game is because he [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard breaks every single combat rule he can]] [[spoiler: such as dealing continuous frame-by-frame damage instead of allowing MercyInvincibility, sidestepping attacks instead of tanking them like every other character, getting in a sneak attack at the start of the fight, attacking the player in the menu, and the aforementioned last resort of never taking his turn in hopes of getting the player to quit out of boredom.]]
*** The following is also a trend in ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle'': [[spoiler:He eventually uses up all his energy in a powerful and flashy attack that doesn't kill you. This backfires horribly]].
** Undyne on a PacifistRun is defeated by failing to factor in the fact that [[spoiler:that big heavy suit of armour may protect her from all sorts of attacks, but it just becomes a wearable oven when she's trying to chase some little kid through LethalLavaLand. She quickly gets exhausted and collapses from heatstroke, which is where you come in to dispense a nice cool glass of water and a dose of DefeatMeansFriendship. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential Or empty out the water cooler on the ground and walk away.]]]]
** A No Mercy Run overall can be seen as this in regards to playing as a VillainProtagonist. Most games that have the option of being "evil" often try to play it off for RuleOfCool, RuleOfFunny, or still have you in a "lesser of two evils" situation. Not ''Undertale''. To do a No Mercy run, you need to go out of your way to hunt down and kill absolutely everything you can, and the game will make you feel horrible for it. The quirky humor of the game vanishes, replaced by a dark and dreary ambiance. The [=NPCs=] will either run from you in terror or treat you like the despicable scum you are. All the encounters are either [[AnticlimaxBoss pathetically easy]] or [[ThatOneBoss hair-pullingly hard]] so that you never get to actually enjoy yourself in battle. Your sympathies throughout the whole thing will lie with the victims. All of the game's puzzles are automatically solved (because [[BigBad Flowey]] is helping you), and all non-essential areas are warded off by force fields, so you can't do anything except fight. And most importantly, if despite all that you still go through with it, you can never "reset" your way out of the consequences - short of tampering with your computer, your sins will remain with you forever.
** If players accept [[spoiler: Sans' offer of mercy]] in the No Mercy fight, he then [[spoiler:[[ISurrenderSuckers kills the player in an unavoidable attack.]]]] What? You'd think [[spoiler:Sans would simply forgive you for killing his brother and the others?]]
** Killing anyone, even if it's just one person, ''will'' net you consequences: Sans will call you out for it, Undyne will refuse to make friends with a murderer, and a lot of the [=NPCs=] will react if you murder their loved ones.
** On that same note, if you go on a murderous rampage but stop short of a No Mercy run, you will absolutely ''not'' be EasilyForgiven. You're still a killer, just not a genocidal killer. Sans will still hate you if you murder his brother, Undyne (if left alive) will be plotting your death, and Alphys will say she should have killed you when she had the chance.
** Undyne's cooking lesson goes exactly how you'd expect it to: pounding the vegetables for the sauce just covers you and all available surfaces in crushed vegetable matter, using energy spears to stir the pasta dents the pot, and turning up the heat to maximum sets the whole place on fire. As Undyne herself admits, [[LampshadeHanging "Man, no wonder Papyrus sucks at cooking."]]
** Many bosses on PacifistRun will be clearly holding back against the player: [[ActionMom Toriel]] stops attacking them if their HP drops below certain value (though she can still kill them by accident, leading to a minor NonStandardGameOver), [[PunchClockVillain Papyrus]] can't even kill them, as even his strongest attacks will only bring their HP to 1, Asgore won't kill the player until after he reduces their HP to 1, and both [[TheDragon Undyne]] and [[BigBad Asgore]] can be [[BreakThemByTalking talked down, resulting in their stats getting lowered.]] At the end of the day, they're all fighting against an innocent child, whose only crime is the fact that their death is required to free a race of completely innocent and peaceful monsters from their eternal prison. With even the BigBad Asgore being an AffablyEvil [[TragicVillain Tragic]] AntiVillain [[VillainWithGoodPublicity with a well-deserved good publicity,]] it's obvious that their consciences make them hold back.
* The ''VideoGame/UnrealTournament'' games play this in regards to NoOSHACompliance. A lot of the "real world" (for the [[TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture games' time period]]) venues the player can battle in are workplaces which would be incredibly unsafe to work in, including being able to easily wander into something that smashes you to bits, tendrils of flesh-searing energy easily jumped into, no guardrails along walkways that you could fall a long way off of, etc. They're available as arenas for the Tournament thanks to the Liandri corporation confiscating them from their original owners ''because'' of these dangerous working conditions - the only reason they remain as such afterwards is that people dying in them is the point now, and it adds to the challenge of fighting for your life in them.
* ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'':
** The end of Matt and Emily's section in one chapter has them [[{{Cliffhanger}} cornered on a cliff by a herd of deer]]. The next chapter promptly defuses the cliffhanger when Matt points out that they're ''deer'', not predators, and he and Emily calmly walk through the herd, which (unless you [[PressXToDie trigger the QTE where you attack one]]) just back away peacefully.
** In any ending where Sam is one of the survivors, she'll outright refuse to tell the police [[spoiler: that the true threat on the mountain is explicitly supernatural]] and just cryptically tells them to explore the mines. Even as broken as she acts, she's probably aware she'd either [[CassandraTruth be laughed off or it would be attributed to a mental break like Josh suffered.]] In the GoldenEnding [[spoiler: this does get two officers eaten by Josh as he's turning into a wendigo]], but likely means word will come back that there's a serious threat on the mountain as opposed to letting history repeat because it's passed off as an urban legend or a scared teen suffering PTSD after [[spoiler: her mentally unwell friend spent part of the night terrorizing them]].
** It's revealed that Josh has been on a wide variety of antidepressant medications for a very long time, and that just prior to the game, he decided to give up on his meds altogether. Needless to say, his doctor warned him that quitting the drugs mid-course would be extremely dangerous, but Josh was under the impression that he could cure himself via catharsis - [[spoiler: more specifically by committing a karmic prank on the friends who accidentally got his sisters killed]]. It doesn't work: GoingColdTurkey on antidepressants only makes Josh even more volatile, a fact that only becomes all the more obvious when you find a list of devastating withdrawal symptoms among his medical history - and realize that he's been suffering from just about all of them over the course of the game. The whole thing ends up with him being reduced to a sobbing, barely-coherent wreck of a human being, assaulted from all sides by terrifying hallucinations - to the point that he can't even defend himself. [[spoiler: And then he gets either killed or captured by the Wendigos.]]
** In the first half of the game, while playing as Chris the player can repeatedly attempt to try and sacrifice Ashley's life. [[spoiler:Doing so will bite him ''hard'' late in the game. When attacked by the Wendigos, Chris attempts to get inside the locked cabin Ashley's currently hiding in, and if you did choose to sacrifice her earlier then she'll refuse to open the door and leave him to get killed. This is the same man who hours ago showed a perfect willingness to sacrifice her to save his own skin, so do you really think she'd trust him at all by this point?]]
* ''VideoGame/UrbanReign'': The final boss of the game is [[spoiler: the corrupt mayor, William Bordin]]. Not being a hardened street fighter or skilled martial artist like the other characters, he falls easily to a few attacks.
** On the other hand, [[spoiler: Bordin]] is the only character to use a gun and it deals a OneHitKill... no matter how tough your character is. Turns out that being a skilled martial artist or hardened street fighter doesn't make you capable of surviving a bullet to the head.
** [[spoiler: William Bordin]] is also a playable character. He is a secret character with ''very'' high requirements to unlock. Naturally, you'd expect him to have amazing stats befitting an [[InfinityPlusOneSword Infinity+1 Character]]. Well, you'd be wrong. Turns out that former head of a security company turned city mayor isn't conducive to being a skilled brawler.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Utawarerumono}}'':
** The [[spoiler:rabbit-people bring out their ultimate weapon: HumongousMecha.]] The best anyone else has amounts to pointy sticks. They slaughter their enemies en masse, and are completely invulnerable to you, the player, fighting spirit be damned. Well, until you become [[spoiler:a giant divine monster yourself.]]
** Early on in the game, Hakuoro and the villagers start an uprising and are ultimately successful in overthrowing the corrupt, despotic emperor. Do they live happily ever after? No, because now Hakuoro has to actually run the country as its new emperor, and there is a ''ton'' of work involved in ruling a country, especially one that is just recovering from a civil war. Not to mention that other surrounding nations try to take advantage of the country's weakened state by launching their own invasions.
* ''VideoGame/UtawarerumonoMaskOfDeception'': Anju, the young Princess of Yamato, has a PrecociousCrush on Oshtor, one of her father's generals. So she decides to fake a kidnapping of herself to get Oshtor to come save her and invoke a RescueRomance. Well... Oshtor does come to her rescue, and he is ''furious'' with her. Not only did she put herself in danger, but the people who were involved in her "fake" kidnapping are now all wanted for high treason and will certainly be executed when caught. While Oshtor is aware the kidnapping was fake, the rest of the Empire only knows that their Princess was kidnapped, and Oshtor's word is not enough to sway the courts. Anju is deeply disturbed that her rash actions have resulted in people being put to death for crimes they did not commit.
* Early on in ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead: Season Two'', you meet and befriend a PostApocalypticDog. [[spoiler:Unlike most examples of this trope, it's a starving animal which has been living in the wilds with no human contact, and it has absolutely no sense of loyalty to its new-found human friend. When Clementine attempts to share a can of beans with it, the dog snatches the whole can and then attempts to maul Clementine when she picks it up. This is TruthInTelevision, as [[BerserkButton taking food away from a dog is a really good way to get bitten]], even in the case that the dog in question is not particularly hungry and thoroughly domesticated and friendly with most people.]]
* ''VideoGame/ValkyriaChronicles:''
** After Welkin reads Faldio's journal, discovering that [[spoiler:he was the one who shot Alicia, causing her dormant Valkyria powers to awaken]], he confronts him on the matter in Varrot's office and asks if he really did do the deed, which the latter admits. Enraged, Welkin slugs Faldio and [[WhatTheHellHero blasts him for his actions]], believing it only escalated the conflict between Gallia and the Empire, while Faldio argues that [[IDidWhatIHadToDo he did what he had to do]] to ensure Gallia would stand up the threat. Varrot interrupts their debate while [[BothSidesHaveAPoint acknowledging their logic]], but states that infighting among comrades is unacceptable, FreudianExcuse [[FreudianExcuseIsNoExcuse be damned]]. For his transgression, Faldio is sent to the stockade until further notice. Now, at this point, you would think that since he was [[JustifiedTrope justifed]] in hitting Faldio, Welkin would get off the hook. Well, think again, because he's stuck with 24 hours in isolation, though it's practically a slap on the wrist compared to Faldio's punishment.
* ''VideoGame/{{Warframe}}'':
** The Tenno themselves are [[spoiler:actually human teenagers controlling surrogate bodies. When they first awaken they're so weak they can only crawl, since they haven't had to move in god knows how long. Even after regaining their awesome powers and the ability to move freely in ''The War Within'', they're still an extremely vulnerable SquishyWizard, being a frail teenager with no armor or shields. While this can be mitigated somewhat with Focus trees adding extra health or armor, they are still far more vulnerable than their armored and shielded Warframes.]]
** [[spoiler: The creation of the Warframes themselves came about as a result of this. Yes, the Tenno have astonishing powers that can vaporize enemies and make mincemeat of anything that stands in their way, but their bodies and minds are still only human, and [[BlessedWithSuck not capable of adequately containing and utilizing those powers]]. The Warframes were created both to protect the Operator and provide a more effective outlet for their Void energies]].
** If the player takes too long to abduct the target in capture missions after incapacitating them, they will bleed to death as a result of the wounds they've sustained.
** While its possible to go through levels breaking every container and opening every locker in sight you will rarely ever find more than a paltry handful of credits. Considering that the owners are either dirt poor cloned soldiers, or brainwashed wage slaves it's not surprising. Most of your real income comes from the payout for completing the mission, rather than what you find during it.
** Firing a non-silenced weapon, even while invisible, will allow enemies to figure out your approximate location. Just because they can't see you does not mean they can't hear you.
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wasteland 2}}'':
** While pistols are the only firearm which can be used at close-range with no accuracy penalty, that's the only range they're really useful at, and they're usually not packing much power either. Pistol specialists will soon find themselves being horribly out-ranged and out-gunned by practically everybody else by the time the mid-game rolls around, and the player who decided to try and build one will feel very silly.
** Of the recruitable companions you can get later on besides your initial squad of four, one is a ruthless raider who [[BloodKnight only wants to join you for the chance to kill people]], one is a deranged alcoholic hobo who wants a life of adventure and danger, and one is [[MilesGloriosus an old wannabe-badass with delusions of grandeur]]. That is, [[TokenEvilTeammate they're all crazy fucking idiots]] with no sense of team-work or discipline and hence have absolutely no place in your professional military outfit. You'll need a very high Leadership skill to stop them from going rogue and getting themselves or your teammates killed at every turn.
* Wellington Wells, the setting of ''VideoGame/WeHappyFew'', is kept running by overpowering the guilt of having done A Very Bad Thing by everyone taking Joy, a powerful antidepressant. Joy, however, is ''not'' some sort of perfect miracle drug - like any pharmaceutical, different people react differently. Some need it more than others, and some can't handle it at all, either having no effect or aggravating their depressive symptoms. And in further reality, a society built around the [[StepfordSuburbia facade of happiness]] enforced Joy use brings don't tolerate these "Wastrels" well at all, let alone the "Downers" who voluntarily avoid the stuff. As for Wellington Wells itself, [[spoiler:it's already circling the drain. With a population perpetually high off their tits, civil upkeep has fallen massively behind, food shortages are hidden only by the drug-induced haze, and a total collapse might already be inevitable.]]
* The '_____' ending of ''VideoGame/TheWitchsHouse'' is achieved by this. The titular witch is [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe a bloody torso]] [[EyeScream who is also missing her eyes]]. If the player just waits at the opening screen for an hour, the witch dies from her wounds, and the player can leave without ever entering the house.
* ''VideoGame/{{The Witcher}}'' franchise is known most for its dark and more serious take on fantasy. What happens when you're an alchemically enhanced mutant trained to hunt monsters which are far less of a problem than they were before? Work is hard to come by, and people call you a freak and monster for being a mutant. Geralt may have abilities greater than a regular person, but he's still a man. Run head long into enemies with no planning and expect to be killed.
** In a shout-out to ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreed'', a white robed man can be found dead near a cart in ''VideoGame/TheWitcher2'' prologue. Turns out a small amount of hay isn't enough to cushion the impact from falling several stories.
** ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3'', it doesn't matter how much of a KavorkaMan Geralt is, or how impressive his bedpost count is, he is not in a DatingSim. If Triss and Yennefer find out Geralt's been romancing them both they will dump him, permanently, after they humiliate him.
** Geralt's choices in the third game can also be this, if you [[spoiler:assassinate Radovid and allow the Nilfgaardian Empire to conquer the Northern Kingdoms, rather than helping Radovid win the war. Turns out that, if the player believes it so, a mad tyrant of a king that allows a cult to persecute people for no good reason is far worse than allowing an empire to roll in and conquer the unstable and nearly constantly-warring Northern Kingdoms.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Wolf}}'', you're perfectly capable of killing cattle - if you don't mind the rancher showing up and shooting you (and, naturally, killing you very quickly; no AlmostLethalWeapons here). You can also attack human hunters, assuming you're feeling suicidal. The smart thing to do is exactly what real wolves do: avoid humans if at all possible.
* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'', despite being a world where magic is common, still manages to have a few brushes with reality from time-to-time.
** In the original release resistances and immunities were logical. Realistically, fire did no damage to fire enemies, ice did less damage to water, machines and golems couldn't bleed, ect. ect. Eventually Blizzard changed this to be an AcceptableBreakFromReality and made all types of enemies equally vulnerable to all types of damage because some classes and specs revolved entirely around one type of damage and making enemies immune to it would make them a TierInducedScrappy who literally couldn't damage the enemies (especially bad for fire mages and destruction warlocks, both specialized in fire but the entry level raid was all fire enemies immune to their major spells).
** In ''Cataclysm'', the rogue Forsaken Lord Godfrey shoots Sylvanas in the back of the head with his pistol while she's distracted, killing her instantly (she gets revived shortly after, but it's made explicit she's dead). She may be an (un)living legend who can single-handedly take down armies, but a BoomHeadshot is still likely to be extremely damaging, especially in an ambush.
** In the novel ''Wolfheart'' Genn Greymane has a hard time convincing King Varian to accept Gilneas back into the Alliance. While Genn has turned over a new leaf Varian is loath to forget how he abandoned them during the Third War. Withdrawing his Kingdom into isolation when its allies needed them most. He also flat out tells him that if any Worgen goes feral he'll have them put to death and refuse to allow infected Gilneans to remain in Stormwind. Even though they have the Worgen curse under control now, up until that point they were feral, maneating, AlwaysChaoticEvil werewolves and it was still fresh in the mind of Stormwind since the neighboring Duskwood had been victimized by roaming Worgen packs.
** Gnomish Engineering, fitting in with the Gnome's racial stereotype that they get struck with inspiration, work on a project, but usually get distracted or come up with something else and move on with bare minimum QA testing, thus almost every specialized Gnomish gadget has a chance of backfiring with various humorous, usually harmless effects.
* ''VideoGame/{{XCOM}}'':
** ''[[VideoGame/XCOMUFODefense UFO Defense]]'' has you command a hopelessly underequipped and out gunned force of humans fighting against endless hordes of alien monstrosities. Most of the soldiers die early. The most likely cause of death even for a battle-hardened Colonel is some random {{mook}} with a plasma cannon.
*** The backstory for the game demonstrated the follies of the logic behind AmericaSavesTheDay, even if it doesn't actually involve America. Japan was the first country to do something about the threat the aliens posed and created their own unit to deal with it on their own, the Kiryu-Kai - a perennially-underfunded unit that ultimately failed to intercept a single UFO in five months before it was shut down, leading the world to realize they ''all'' had to pull together to do something meaningful about the aliens and create XCOM.
** ''[[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown Enemy Unknown]]'', but in the player's favor, mostly by averting WithThisHerring: the member nations of the XCOM project know it's their last hope, and supply it accordingly. Good-quality Earth-native equipment is free and standard issue. Your soldiers are also properly trained and very competent with said gear, they're the member nation's best of the best; since they're all that good though, they use XCOM's internal rank and specialization hierarchy.
** ''VideoGame/XCOM2'' has the aliens win the war in ''Enemy Unknown''. They do this by completely ignoring the SortingAlgorithmOfEvil and bringing in late-game enemies (Sectopods are stated to have been seen 20 years ago, despite XCOM falling within months) right away after they see both that humans have what they want and that they're ''very'' capable of fighting back. Lacking the more advanced tech the player needs to beat these enemies results in a quick and decisive victory for the aliens once they stop testing humanity. It also strongly implies the first game was just a series of simulations the Ethereals were running to exploit the commander.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenoblade}} Chronicles'':
** Shulk's [[CombatClairvoyance ability to see the future]] allows him in both cutscenes [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration and gameplay]] to ScrewDestiny. However, the mortal body has limits, resulting in several situations where even with the Monado's future sight, YouCantFightFate occurs because Shulk or a given party member aren't fast/strong/durable enough, even with its augmentations.
*** Shulk's CharacterDevelopment with these powers is also realistic. Shulk's visions are only of people being hurt or dying and as a result he starts out the adventure feeling like it's his responsibility and doesn't share any visions he has. This mistake of it only being his burden nearly gets Reyn impaled by the Arachno Queen's claws because he would be TakingTheBullet for Shulk (and only developing Monado Shield averts it) and later Otharon almost suffers an avoidable HeroicSacrifice to help kill Xord, which is only averted when Reyn, who noticed how sulky Shulk had been when Otharon was brought up, put two and two together, after which Shulk is much more open about his Visions and willing to tell his allies a way to avert it ([[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration which unlocks the party warning system]]).
** The Mechon are regarded as TheDreaded for their immunity to every known type of weapon except the Monado and extremely heavy artillery unless they get knocked over to expose weak points, as a result the attack on Colony 9 near the start of the game's story is a brutal combat in a civilian zone that results in both soldiers and innocent civilians being killed and [[HumanResources eaten]] by the invading Mechon, they only flee once Shulk awakens to the Monado and Metal Face suffers damage from Fiora blasting him in the face with a tank. Colony 6, which by comparison ''didn't'' have the heavy artillery or Monado to repel the Mechon, is destroyed in a CurbStompBattle that only leaves a small refugee camp of scared women (including future party member Sharla), children, elderly and noncombatant men and the rest of the colony razed to piles of rubble.
* ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'':
** The game world has its landmasses be mobile [[OurTitansAreDifferent Titans]] constantly migrating on a sea covered by clouds. The implications of a world like this are explored in detail:
*** Since the Titans move around each other and turn as they do, magnetic north is useless as a navigation tool. Local directions are given relative to the Titan itself (such as moving towards the head). Compasses have the WorldTree - the only terrestrial landmark poking out of the Cloud Sea - at the center and one winds them to see where the major settlements will be on a given date.
*** Some Titans walk on the seabed instead of swim or float. This gives them "tides" as they travel peaks and troughs of the ocean's floor, the Cloud Sea lowering and rising around their biomes.
*** The lack of any permanent borders and even short trips between Titans taking days makes military action a complicated affair. Supply lines are delicate and the only way to hold a territory is to have a permanent occupation force. Mor Ardain's simple ability to do this has the rest of the world on edge.
** [[StarterVillain Doughal]], governor of the occupied province of Gormott, was a self-important blowhard clearly assigned to the new territory to [[ReassignedToAntarctica get him away from the capital]]. After he's kicked out of office following a ruckus caused by the party, racial tensions with the native Gormotti rapidly get worse, as the occupying Ardanian military isn't being kept on a tight leash anymore - pointless egocentric micromanagement was at least keeping them away from the locals. Lampshaded when the party return later and are genuinely shocked that Doughal's administration might have actually been doing some good.
*** On the same note, the party manages to defeat the fiery Inquisitor Morag during said incident by dropping a water tower on her. Later, they find out that the locals are very much upset with them wrecking the local water supply, and some even attack them over it.
** [[ArtificialHuman Artifical Blades]] are incredibly complex, the culmination of three generations of engineers' life's work. However, they were trained engineers, meaning every step of the design process was well documented. After the prototype is stolen, the only thing Tora needed to make [[RobotGirl Poppi]] was parts and time, and [[spoiler:strong-arming a single one of the engineers was enough to establish a full production line]]. By the same token, the creator of the original Ether Furnace ''didn't'' document the design and thus the ability to make a full spec one died with him. Consequently, Poppi outperforms any other Artificial Blade as they're running on inferior power sources.
* ''VideoGame/{{Xenonauts}}'':
** Players who try to reverse-engineer Alien Alloys to replicate their metals will be disappointed to find [[spoiler:that they can't craft armour from it because [[RequiredSecondaryPowers they don't have any tools or machinery made of a material capable of cutting and shaping it]]. You actually have to research alien weapons to craft armour that is proof against it from Earth-made materials.]] At the start, your soldiers will be kitted out just in bright blue {{Highly Conspicuous Uniform}}s: there's no point in weighing down troops with body armour that may well offer no protection at all, and camouflage is pointless because who knows what kind of visual spectrum the aliens see in.
** Likewise, while psionics is a powerful game-changer in ''XCOM'', in ''Xenonauts'' [[spoiler:it's [[NotHisSled a dead-end tech]]: humans have no psychic potential.]]
** You ''can'' pluck plasma weapons out of the cold dead hands of your alien foes right from the start, but troops using them take severe accuracy penalties due to being made of materials too strong to be made ergonomic for human hands and [[SightedGunsAreLowTech lacking optics]].
** Your troops' stats are improved not by any sort of level-up mechanic, but by performing context-specific actions: lugging around a load of equipment near their limit will increase strength, shooting at targets in the field increases accuracy, etc.
* ''VideoGame/{{Yakuza}}''
** No matter how much of a OneManArmy you are, a trained gunman is still the most dangerous person in the room, able to take large chunks of health off and stagger you with each shot. This extends into the story as well, since even if you're controlling someone who can fight off hordes of Yakuza thugs (who are armed with hand weapons or nothing at all), a man aiming a gun at you will be just as dangerous as in reality. Every time the main characters get surprised by someone with a gun, they either back down until someone can surprise the gunman or they get shot.
** In ''VideoGame/Yakuza0'', some random encounters are with individuals who all go by the nickname "Mr. Shakedown". They're all hyper-muscular, seven foot tall abnormalities of human beings. As a result of their mountainous size and spending just as much time as the protagonist smashing faces, they're the beefiest and hardest-hitting enemies in the game. Even being Yakuza scrappers, Kiryu and Majima are normal-size people going against walking brick walls, trying to power through them will result in a hilariously one-sided CurbStompBattle. The best way to take out Mr. Shakedowns are to play it safe using quick attacks and agility, the same way a matchup like that would go in real life.
** In one scene in ''VideoGame/Yakuza4'', a panty thief leaps from buildings to get away from his target and slips off the railing, beginning to fall he flings one of the bras he had stolen onto a nearby fire escape like a GrapplingHookPistol. It slides around it and stops his fall... for all of half a second since it had nothing to clip onto (and would have just ripped if it did), sending him crashing into the street below.
* Since ''VideoGame/YandereSimulator'' is meant to be a fairly difficult StealthBasedGame starring a VillainProtagonist, it's expected that elements of this come into play:
** Anything to do with the "Reputation" stat. Students ''will'' talk if they see you doing something suspicious (such as being covered in blood, [[EvilLaugh laughing]], or carrying a weapon). If they see you commit a murder, most of them will not stay silent; they will tell as many people as possible, slowly lowering your reputation over time. The easiest solution is to [[LeaveNoWitnesses silence them the second they see you]]. It's also possible to get a lower reputation other ways, such as spreading rumors (people will see you as a gossip, even if they believe you), ObfuscatingStupidity too often (it'll work too well), or not attending class (you'll be seen as a {{Delinquent}}). You ''can'' apologize if you're spotted doing something odd, but it only lowers the penalty rather than removing it outright, since you've still been publicly caught doing something weird in the first place.
** If you steal an item to frame a rival but don't go through all the steps, the person stolen from will take extra care not to lose it again, making it impossible to steal it a second time (a teacher will take closer care of her answer sheets, a student will be more careful setting a ring down, etc.)
** Go on, try to attack a teacher, a martial arts master, or an armed delinquent without raising your "Strength" stat. It won't work out badly for you, an average teenage girl, right? [[CurbstompBattle Wrong.]] And even if you do up your "Strength" stat, it's still possible to be overpowered. Additionally, killing someone with a group of students nearby will result in them actively joining up to bring you down.
** Repeatedly using the same tactic to make the rivals go away will make Senpai give up on love. If a person's prospective 10 love interests ''all'' die, get love interests of their own, go mysteriously missing or suddenly lose interest in them, with all this happening uninterrupted for weeks on end... do you think anyone would really believe in number 11 being a winner?
** Getting Senpai to reject a confession requires the player to have sabotaged all rival events. This is particularly noticeable with [[ChildhoodFriendRomance Osana Najimi]], who has been friends with him since childhood days. The player can make Osana look like a perv by stealing her phone and taking panty shots with it or have her damage Senpai's book, but those are minor events, and nothing to end a life-long friendship over. It's not until all rival events have been sabotaged that Senpai rejects her confession, thinking that he's seeing other sides of her that he doesn't particularly like.
** Genka, the school guidance counselor, is a ReasonableAuthorityFigure who legitimately wants to help. That said, she has a limit to her patience. If you're proven to be a problem student, she'll get increasingly more angry with you. If you use the same excuse multiple times, she'll call you out on it. If she thinks you aren't taking it seriously, she will get frustrated. Trying to threaten or flirt your way out of trouble is a guarantee that she won't let you off the hook. She can give you a GameOver where she expels or suspends you, and will make it very clear she wants you out of her office immediately.
[[/folder]]
----

** The Ishgardians have spent almost their entire history as a nation fighting dragons, so when they have to face threats that aren't dragons, they do poorly because they aren't equipped to fight against it properly, which is why the Heretics begin to become a massive issue in the leadup to the ''Heavensward'' expansion, especially when Iceheart gives them a unified leader. Furthermore, in Heavensward itself, after Aymeric pushes to end the war between Ishgard and the benevolent groups of dragons, the people are heavily resistant to peace, and some even try to sabotage the proceedings because fighting dragons is all they have. Aymeric has to set up a war game between Ishgard and the other three city-states to try to prove that fighting dragons isn't the only thing that can bring them national pride.

** In a solo instance, Krile, who is of the Lalafell race, gets grabbed by a magitek deathclaw (basically a giant metal steampunk hand) and you have to break her out of it. She ends up spending the rest of the duty having to sit out and recover, because while the claws were made for restraint, they were made for restraining larger races, so it nearly ended up crushing her smaller frame.

** During the Non-Human route trip to Algandars Castle, the Dark Elf Mikey explains the history of the castle and the ruler within, painting it all as you would expect with a setting featuring magic, dragons, and other fantasy elements. By contrast, when you go to the castle on the Human Route, Ardolph explains the origin of Algandars Disease in a way that is more scientific and makes more sense logically. As much as magic might exist in the world, there is still a scientific root to many parts of the world, even a seemingly magical disease has to have some scientific root to it.
** When Jack and Gantz try to join Theater Vancoor after being kicked from the Knights, they both fight Jarvis, arguably the second fighter in the guild in a SecretTestOfCharacter. While both lose, Jack is given the go to join from Gerald, while Gantz is rejected. His reasoning is because Jack has the aptitude for the group, while Gantz, who was a sheltered nobility, would not fit in well at all. Not helping is that Gantz applies while drunk, whereas Jack, being younger, doesn't drink and thus is able to at least seem professional.
** In both paths, the BigBad is fought regardless of choice, and expresses confusion why Jack and the heroes would stand against him. [[spoiler: Turns out a WellIntentionedExtremist only works when people can understand your motives or actions, Aphelion's motives don't make any sense to Jack in the Human path since Jack was not at all aware of the Dragon's greater motives, while in the Non-Human side, Jack, despite having better knowledge of his plans, cannot understand why he thinks his plans are even remotely a good idea.]]

** [[spoiler: Just because you're the protagonist doesn't mean you're invincible; Arthur might a hardened badass who cheats death on an almost daily basis, but he's still only human. And since this game is a prequel to the first one and he doesn't appear in it, what happens to him? Is he killed in a robbery gone wrong? Is he gunned down in a defiant LastStand like John will eventually be? No. [[YourDaysAreNumbered He's diagnosed with tuberculosis]] after contracting it from one of Strauss's debtors near the beginning of the game. Arthur's death is a slow, painful, and completely unavoidable one, because the medicine and technology to treat diseases that in this day and age aren't such a big deal don't exist yet.]]

** [[spoiler: Arthur may be a hardened badass who cheats death on an almost daily basis, but he's still only human. And since this game is a prequel to the first one and he doesn't appear in it, what happens to him? Is he killed in a robbery gone wrong? Is he gunned down in a defiant LastStand like John will eventually be? No. He's diagnosed with tuberculosis after contracting it from one of Strauss' debtors near the beginning of the game. Arthur's death is a slow, painful, and completely unavoidable one, because the medicine and technology to treat diseases that in this day and age aren't such a big deal don't exist yet.]]

** The LaserSight added to the handgun in ''Pandora Tomorrow'' gets a healthy dose of this. The presence of the laser does not, in fact, make Sam suddenly hold his arms more steadily than he already could, even when holding still in a crouch. However, unlike laser sights in many pure shooters, what it ''does'' do is tell you ''exactly'' where the bullet you fire will hit, rather than have to work with the crosshair giving an estimate on where it ''could'' go. You still want to shoot from a steady position and from close range with the pistol, but as long as you can see the dot and time your shots right when the laser is on top of what you want to hit, you're going to be much more accurate with the laser than without.

** In ''VideoGame/StarCraftII'', Rory Swann discusses how he and some fellow miners rose up against the Kel-Morians oppressing them... and almost got themselves all killed but for an intervention by Jim Raynor, because they were hopelessly out-gunned.

* ''VideoGame/StarFox64'': The titular Star Fox team is a mercenary band hired by the Corneria Defense Force to take on bioterrorist [[BigBad Andross]]. And sure enough, once you beat the game, the {{stinger}} after the credits is an invoice to Colonel Pepper for their services. The amount, and Pepper's reaction, differ based on your final score.

** No matter how much of a OneManArmy you are, a trained gunman is still the most dangerous person in the room, able to take large chunks of health off and stagger you with each shot.

** John can get away with a lot of carnage in the first game since he's basically a government-sanctioned hitman; the Bureau will turn a blind eye to John's crimes as long as he stays useful. Here? He, Arthur, and the rest of Dutch's gang have no such luxury. Every time the gang pulls off a high-profile stunt (like the shootout in Valentine), they have to immediately GTFO because the law isn't just going to wait until they strike again.

*** [[spoiler: Similarly, traumatic brain injuries weren't widely understood or easily treated at the time. After the botched bank robbery mentioned above results in a trolley crash where he hits his head, Dutch begins showing signs of a TBI, which goes untreated. This is implied to be one of several reasons for [[SanitySlippage his rapid mental decline and erratic behavior.]]]]

* ''Franchise/SlyCooper'':

** The ending of the Dwarves SuccessionCrisis shows how the situation is not as black and white as "appoint the ReasonableAuthoritativeFigure as king" like you might expect. Harrowmont is a good man who wants to do what is right, but he is also a firm traditionalist, so he doesn't push to bring reforms to society because the status-quo is more important to him and the majority of the senate. So if he is appointed king, he ultimately fails as a king because he is a SlaveToPR that wants to keep the senate on his side, causing the already DyingRace nature of the Dwarves to get worse. By contrast, while Belen is not a good person, [[CainAndAble especially if you are a Noble Dwarf background]], his radical viewpoints are ultimately what is needed to improve Orzammar and the people living in it, as the ending shows him making things better for the regular people, as well as establishing relations with the surface.

** The epilogue is one big dose, showing the real consequences of choices and side quests.

** The Dwarven Economy. Simply tracking each dwarf's wealth with a variable wasn't nearly realistic enough for Dwarf Fortress, so the player had to have individual coins minted. Hundred and thousands of coins, each an individual object with a craftsmanship level and item blurb tracking what's on each side. ''Modern'' (2019) computers would struggle with that, hardware used at the time slowed to a crawl. This (along with dwarves wasting entire seasons moving their coin hoard around, and massive logical inconsistencies with the system in general) is why the system was DummiedOut for ''years'' before finally becoming one of the few features ever to be completely removed from the code, with WordOfGod promising a complete redesign if it's ever brought back.

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' examines Kitana's desires in her arcade ending. [[Spoiler:She gets to go back in time and view Edenia in its prime. However, despite being Edenian royalty and Edenian by blood, their cultures, attitudes, cuisines and tradition is utterly foreign to her. Turns out, the abuse and restriction from Kitana learning of her heritage is also what shaped her into the woman she is today; and she can't simply unlearn or change that; coming to accept that she is really an Outworlder. However, it doesn't end all negatively, for Kitana will learn the Ancient Edenian ways to make Outworld a much better place in the meanwhile.]]

** ''VideoGame/MortalKombat11'' examines Kitana's desires in her arcade ending. [[Spoiler: She gets to go back in time and view Edenia in its prime. However, despite being Edenian royalty and Edenian by blood, their cultures, attitudes, cuisines and tradition is utterly foreign to her. Turns out, the abuse and restriction from Kitana learning of her heritage is also what shaped her into the woman she is today; and she can't simply unlearn or change that; coming to accept that she is really an Outworlder. However, it doesn't end all negatively, for Kitana will learn the Ancient Edenian ways to make Outworld a much better place in the meanwhile.]]

** [[spoiler: While the Grays and the Braithwaites hate each other, they aren't stupid enough to not realize that Dutch's gang is working both sides, especially since the gang never wore masks [[EpicFail and attacked one side immediately after attacking the other side.]]]]

*** [[spoiler: Beforehand, his men also discover that intimidating local businessmen and murdering the odd policeman does not mean you're capable of going toe-to-toe with seasoned, skilled, and heavily-armed outlaws who have survived dozens of gunfights over the years.]]
*** [[spoiler: Finally, murdering [[IOwnThisTown a man as influential as Bronte]] by storming his mansion guns blazing is bound to bring the law down on the gang. When the gang's bank heist in Saint Denis goes south, John says they should have left Bronte alone.]]
** [[spoiler: Arthur may be a hardened badass who cheats death on an almost daily basis, but he's still only human. And since this game is a prequel to the first one and he doesn't appear in it, what happens to him? Is he killed in a robbery gone wrong? Is he gunned down in a defiant LastStand like John will eventually be? No. He's diagnosed with tuberculosis after contracting it from one of Strauss' debtors near the beginning of the game. Arthur's death is a slow, painful, and completely unavoidable one, because the Old West didn't have the medicine or technology to treat diseases that in this day and age aren't such a big deal.]]

** [[spoiler: Arthur may be a hardened badass who cheats death on an almost daily basis, but he's still only human. And since this game is a prequel to the first one and he doesn't appear in it, what happens to him? Is he killed in a robbery gone wrong? Is he gunned down in a defiant LastStand like John will eventually be? No. He's diagnosed with tuberculosis after contracting it from one of Strauss' debtors near the beginning of the game. In fact, [[RewatchBonus upon replaying the game]], you'll notice those coughing fits Arthur starts having becoming more and more frequent until he passes out in the street and has to be led to a doctor, who basically tells him his life is over. Arthur's death is a slow, painful, and completely unavoidable one, because the Old West didn't have the medicine or technology to treat diseases that in this day and age aren't such a big deal.]]