History SadisticChoice / VideoGames

* ''VideoGame/GoldenSun'' has a big one in regards to Alchemy being unleashed. It is said that the world would be destroyed from Alchemy's sheer power if it was unsealed, so Isaac's party fight to prevent that from happening. [[spoiler:In the second game, Felix (who later tells Isaac) learns that the world is on the brink of destruction ''because'' Alchemy is sealed due to the world being starved of it. Isaac sums it up best when he basically says "So we either keep Alchemy sealed and let the world be destroyed or we unleash Alchemy and the world gets destroyed anyway. What a choice." The party opts to break the seal on Alchemy and while several towns do get destroyed and the landmasses shift, the world is survives and is much better off than it was before.]]

* ''VideoGame/XCOM2:''
** The Dark Events system in the main campaign is even worse than the old abduction missions. Each month, [[VichyEarth ADVENT]] will get dealt a hand of actions it can take to screw you over - a penalty to your monthly supply income, extra enemies on missions, additional enemy equipment and abilities, etc. You'll eventually be given the choice between three different Guerilla Ops, each countering a specific Dark Event and offering different mission types and rewards. So what will it be: the Op whose mission is a Medium-difficulty scenario that even your C-list soldiers can clear, the one that counters the least-dangerous Dark Event but offers an Engineer you desperately need for base construction, or the Very Hard mission that counters the Dark Event that could cripple your activity for the next month?

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'':

* Being a SpiritualSuccessor to ''VideoGame/BaldursGate''-model [=CRPGs=], ''VideoGame/PathfinderKingmaker'' contains a lot of these.
** What will you choose: send the militia to protect your helpless citizens or secure the merchants' trade routes? The former are innocents civilians and contribute hard to your community. The latter are the backbone of your economy and it will collapse if you don't help them. Of course, you can always delegate someone else to make the decision.
** Happens in the third part, where you have to choose to either [[spoiler: assist Kesten in storming the Womb of Lamashtu and abandon the capital to be sieged by the monsters, or save the Capital but leave Kesten to die]]. [[spoiler: Being Lawful allows you to TakeAThirdOption, ordering Kesten to protect the capital while you storm the Womb alone.]] A possible bit of LoopholeAbuse involves [[spoiler: saving one or the other but ''not talking to them'' prior to saving the other as well. Doing so will also spare both men]].
** Prior to this, dealing with the cult behind it has [[spoiler: you decide whether or not Olika, the widow [[ChekhovsGun of a merchant whose body you'd found during Troll Trouble]], should be allowed to receive Lamashtu's "blessing" to save the life of her unborn child, knowing full well what a blessing from [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast the Mother of Monsters]] could entail. If you let her, the WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue states she was killed by an angry mob.]]
** The end of Jaethal's companion quest line, especially for non-Evil players -- [[spoiler: either pull a GrandTheftMe on her daughter, or kill her and raise her up as an Undead.]] While she ''can'' TakeAThirdOption depending on prior choices, [[spoiler: this option kills ''Jaethal'', as she effectively tells Urgathoa to go pound salt -- and Urgathoa responds with a BoltOfDivineRetribution that makes Jaethal KilledOffForReal]].
* In the 2005 version of ''The Bard's Tale'', you get a choice between saving the princess you've been trying to save, and killing her at her kidnapper's request (who insists she's a demon). [[spoiler:If you choose to kill her, she turns into a demon. If you choose to kill the wizard, you beat him and THEN she transforms into a demon, who keeps you as her right-hand man.]]
** [[spoiler:You also have a third option, to ignore both of them, go back to the bar you started at, and just get used to the undead horde that's been rising to conquer the world. They're not that bad.]]

* Although this is put in a rather subtle way, in ''VideoGame/BlazBlue'' this occurs to [[spoiler:Litchi Faye-Ling. Hazama invites her to join the NOL because he has the cure for herself and Arakune. Her condition is worsening and if left be, she'll be at best a burden to Orient Town, at worst turn into the next Arakune and eat her former friends. If she just refused, there will be a big chance that Hazama will dispose the cure and her only lead for salvation lost. It boils down to either "Go betray those who expect you to be a good person and join TheDarkSide" or "Slowly wither and die, or if [[SarcasmMode lucky]], turn into a monster that eats everyone who looks up to you." There's just no [[TakeAThirdOption third option]] for her.]] She ''did'' have a third option: [[spoiler:give up on Arakune and get Kokonoe to help her deal with her Boundary corruption which Arakune himself begs her to do in his true ending.]] She just refuses to take it because [[spoiler:giving up on Arakune would have made all of her efforts pointless.]]

* A slightly different spin on this occurs in ''VideoGame/CallOfDuty: World at War'' during the Soviet campaign level ''Eviction''. After being ordered to kill wounded Germans crawling on the ground in the streets of Berlin, you and your squadmates stumble upon three unarmed German soldiers cornered in a subway entrance. Your Sergeant gives you the choice of gunning them down yourself or letting your vengeful Red Army comrades throw Molotovs at them.

*** The Quarian-Geth War arc has two of them. Fairly early on you have to decide whether to save Admiral Zaal'Koris or the squad of soldiers he's been separated from. He wants you to choose TheMenFirst. [[spoiler:As it turns out, however, saving Zaal'Koris is critical to getting the GoldenEnding, since the Civilian Fleet which he commands becomes more panicky without him.]]\\
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Then at the end of the arc, the quarians open fire on the geth while Legion is [[spoiler:uploading Reaper-written code to them that will allow every individual geth program to become sapient]], and Shepard must choose whether to save the geth or the quarians. [[spoiler:The GoldenEnding has Shepard convincing the quarians to cease fire, letting the geth achieve sapience and rejoining the quarians as their allies.]]
*** The ending of the third game also qualifies to an extent. [[spoiler:Shepard has to choose between destroying all synthetic life, taking control of the Reapers, or melding organic and synthetic life. The first involves murdering the geth [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential (assuming the player didn't already do that)]] and a popular squad mate, does more harm to galactic infrastructure than the other endings, and leaves open the possibility of future wars between organics and synthetics; on the bright side, it's the only ending in which Shepard can survive as an organic. The second results in [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence Shepard giving up their humanity in order to take control of the Reapers]], essentially giving Shepard indefinite control of the galaxy. The third is advertised by the Catalyst as the "ideal" ending; it kills Shepard, and subverts the free will of the affected species in a way that bothers many players, but it at least resolves the organic-synthetic conflict in a fairly durable way. There's also the [[TakeAThirdOption Refuse ending]]: the Reapers eventually get defeated in a subsequent cycle, but [[DownerEnding the current harvest succeeds, every sentient being from the current cycle dies.]] ]]
** ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda:''

* The gameplay of ''VideoGame/NooneHasToDie'' involves you making these to decide who lives and who dies in a fire, due to a [[NoOSHACompliance ridiculously terrible security system]] that makes it impossible to get everyone out alive. Your goal is go through all the possible paths in order to find the way to the true ending, [[spoiler: in which you ''can'' save everyone.]]

* ''VideoGame/OneShot'': [[spoiler:at the end of the game, you have to choose between SavingTheWorld (or possibly just [[ItIsBeyondSaving prolonging its doom]]) while leaving Niko alone on a tower forever, or sending Niko home and dooming the world.]]

** There's one that only becomes sadistic on a second playthrough. In Chapter 4, [[spoiler:you're given the option of having Max warn Victoria that Nathan is targeting her. If you've got Vic to the point that she believes you, this leads to her death as she goes to the actual villain, Mr Jefferson, for protection, and he disposes of her before he does Max. In the second playthru, this leads to the difficult choice of sending Vic to her death, or either being a jerk to her through the earlier chapters, or having Max act on knowledge she can't have (or change to a jerk characterization at a strange time).]]

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIV'': One of these forms a major crux of the motivations for the Warriors of Darkness, introduced in the post-''Heavensward'' storyline. The Warriors come from the First, one of fourteen alternate worlds that serve as "reflections" of the Source where the main game is set. Upon triumphing over the Ascians that threatened them, they inadvertently unleashed a force of primordial light upon the First - an equal and opposite force to the darkness which turned the Thirteenth into a hellish Void from which hail the aether-starved voidsent. The Warriors ultimately decided to join hands with the Ascians and try and bring about an Umbral Calamity on the Source; Urianger discovers that the process of an Umbral Calamity involves ''destroying one of the reflections'' - in this case, the First - and ending all life upon it.

[[caption-width-right:347:The small text in the center says it all. [[note]][[http://manapsart.deviantart.com/art/Plumber-s-Dilemma-181579785 Image]] by [[http://michaelmayne.deviantart.com/ Michael Mayne]] on Website/DeviantArt]][[/note]]

*** At the end of the prologue, the protagonist Corrin must choose between siding with their blood relatives, the royal family from the kingdom of [[{{Wutai}} Hoshido]], or the foster family that raised them from birth, the royal family of [[TheEmpire Nohr]]. To compound things, both sides are decent people that love the protagonist very much and '''Corrin can't choose both sides.''' No matter which side you pick, the other side will label you a traitor. There's a [[TakeAThirdOption third path]] where Corrin sides with neither [[spoiler:which ultimately is the GoldenPath that leads to the two nations joining forces to defeat Anankos, the GreaterScopeVillain]].

** ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoV'' does something similar with its final mission: [[spoiler:As Franklin, you're given the choice either to kill Trevor and clear yourself with Steve Haines and the FIB, or kill Michael and clear yourself with Devon Weston, a multi-millionaire with strong ties to the private militia Merryweather.]] Unlike ''IV'', however, [[spoiler:you can also TakeAThirdOption which results in [[GoldenEnding the three protagonists killing all of the main antagonists of the game and walking away scot-free]].]]

** If the famine happens and Sol doesn't manage to end it, they will have at least one opportunity to obtain extra food with the full knowledge that it's being taken away from someone else who needs it. However, stealing food ''deducts'' from your food supply since you still feel bad for it, but at least you'll get a card for it.

* ''VideoGame/InFAMOUS'': Kessler pulls this on Cole. Cole is given the choice to save six doctors, or save Trish, his girlfriend. The doctors are more relevant in context, because the setting is a city under quarantine due to disease, and the quarantine has been causing basic social services to fail while gang violence escalates to the point of insanity. [[spoiler:If Cole goes for the doctors, Trish dies. But there is a twist if you go for Trish instead; the choice is rigged and Trish will be a decoy, with the real Trish hidden with the doctors Cole has chosen not to save.]] Notable for two reasons: [[spoiler:First, the hero doesn't get to TakeAThirdOption, and second, it's actually a subversion. Kessler isn't doing it because he's a sadist, he's doing it because his ultimate goal is to harden Cole against emotional trauma earlier in his life than he would be otherwise.]]

* In the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series: