History ShootTheDog / VideoGames

* In ''VideoGame/{{Wandersong}}'', the Goddess, Eya, plans to Shoot the Dog on a universal scale, sending a "Hero" to kill the Overseers (the universe's ElementalEmbodiment s), which destroys ''everything'', allowing her to start over, due to the universe itself slowly becoming increasingly (and irreversibly) corrupted and distant, as well as the Overseers turning into insane monsters that also [[MookMaker spawn monsters]], both of which attack anyone it sees. Their corruption/deaths also cause the Earth to start becoming more of a DeathWorld as things like the wind, sea, and even stars degrade from their insanity/absence. The plot also clarifies this is far from the first time Eya has done this (though it implies this time is the worst it's ever gotten before everything reset), and everyone involved has resigned to this fate because they believe that it's just how the universe works. [[spoiler: It also happens again in the ending if you skip the chapters via intentional SequenceBreaking, as it means you no longer have the connections with people for the regular ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve ending that breaks the cycle.]]

** In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Snake's ultimate mission is to [[spoiler: eliminate his old mentor, The Boss, in order to avert a nuclear war.]] At the very end, she lays there dying, and orders him to fire the bullet that will end her life. The game forces you to pull the trigger.
* Throughout ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 3: Corruption'', Samus is forced to fight and kill Rundas, Ghor and Gandrayda in order to save them, in a manner of speaking, from their total Phazon corruption. Possibly doubles into a KickTheDog moment immediately afterwards, as [[spoiler: an incorporeal [[EvilTwin Dark]] [[BigBad Samus]] appears and absorbs their bodies into its own.]]

** In ''[[VideoGame/SplinterCellDoubleAgent Double Agent]]'', one of your earlier "karma choices" is to [[spoiler:decide whether to shoot the pilot of the helicopter that the terrorist organization hijacked, as an act of loyalty to the terrorists. If Sam decides to instead hesitate and stay loyal to the government, Sam's only friend in the organization does it instead in a last-minute decision to save Sam's face]]. Said choice then leads to Sam being made to choose between [[spoiler: illing Lambert or killing Jamie]]; choosing the former option secures Sam's cover long enough to [[spoiler:kill the villain and save the day with ease]], whilst choosing the latter serves to [[spoiler:risk the entire mission as of then, as well as thousands of lives just to maintain his moral code]].

* Near the end of ''VideoGame/{{Borderlands 2}}'', you're required to kill [[spoiler: Angel, who is revealed to be a Siren and also Jack's daughter, and she's kept alive by the Eridium injectors that Jack has her hooked up to so she can power the Vault Key.]]

--> "This is a terrible thing we do," whispers [[GenkiGirl Tzaraziko]]. "It will be forever remembered as our greatest crime."
--> "There's no other choice," says [[AntiHero Urlach]], and none are left to argue.
--> Summoning their magics, the shining ones circle around the [[TykeBomb child]] and Muud. The child screams as Muud begins sinking into the swamp, pulling the child with him. Steam rises up around them, thick and putrid, billowing in the air like cancerous clouds. Slowly, they sink deeper and deeper into the ground and away from the world above - [[AndIMustScream where it will be forever silent and dark]].
* During the ''Arrival'' DLC mission in ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', Shepard learns that [[spoiler:the Reaper invasion is imminent, and s/he needs to buy the Alliance and Council time for humanity and its allies to have a hope of surviving. To slow the Reapers, Alliance operatives have rigged an asteroid to ram a Mass Relay, destroying it and forcing the Reapers to travel for months or years to get to the next one. However, the destruction of the Mass Relay will inevitably obliterate the entire system, which contains a Batarian mining colony with a population of about 300,000]]. In addition, [[spoiler: the Alliance is likely to take the heat politically, since the Batarians recently caught Alliance personnel poking around their system. With only hours to spare before the titular arrival and no other options, Shepard presses the button.]]

** In the Overlord DLC, Paragon Shepard warns [[spoiler:Gavin Archer]] that if the latter comes after [[spoiler:his abominably-treated brother]], Shepard will shoot on sight.
** Virmire in the first game--you ''will'' have to leave either [[spoiler: Kaiden or Ashley]] behind. One of the endings in the third game can count for this [[spoiler: for the Geth and EDI.]]
* The "quadruquel" ''VideoGame/MassEffectAndromeda'' has a few optional moments to gun down canines too. While rescuing the Moshae for the Angaran Resistance, you are given the opportunity to destroy a Kett Exaltation facility, though at the cost of the prisoners held within as you cannot evacuate them before you are overwhelmed by kett reinforcements. The alternative is to leave the place standing and rescue the prisoners, though the game never follows through on its mention of coming back later to destroy the base.
** Another scenario involves a hostage situation with a Roekaar cell who kidnapped a human infected with a cross-species disease that, conveniently for the former, does not affect angara. You are given two choices: either kill the Roekaar cell leader and the innocent infected woman to stop the Roekaar from having such a virus at all, or let the cell leader walk away. The sample is said to be too degraded to be of use, but SAM is uncertain to the scan's integrity.

* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid3SnakeEater'', Snake's ultimate mission is to [[spoiler: eliminate his old mentor, The Boss, in order to avert a nuclear war.]] At the very end, she lays there dying, and orders him to fire the bullet that will end her life. The game forces you to pull the trigger.
** In the original ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'', Snake has to perform a MercyKill on Sniper Wolf at her request after [[AlasPoorVillain learning about her miserable past and her motivation for joining FOX/HOUND]]. For his part, Snake is kind enough to reassure her that she lived with honor before he ends her suffering.

* The SAS and TF 141 spend a lot of time shooting the dogs in ''VideoGame/ModernWarfare''. Especially [[TheUnfettered Captain Price]].

* ''VideoGame/SonicBattle'': Emerl. A machine designed to be the most powerful warrior ever created, and yours - indeed, everybody's - closest, most innocent, childlike friend. His warrior side wakes up after he witnesses a WaveMotionGun attack of incredible power, destroying his original personality and overloading him into a supercharged death machine. [[TearJerker/SonicTheHedgehog There's nothing you can do for him, save defeat him and let him die.]]

* In ''VideoGame/SplinterCell: Double Agent'', one of your earlier "karma choices" is to [[spoiler: decide whether to shoot the pilot of the helicopter that the terrorist organization hijacked, as an act of loyalty to the terrorists. If Sam decides to instead hesitate and stay loyal to the government, Sam's only friend in the organization does it instead in a last-minute decision to save Sam's face.]]
** Said choice then leads to Sam being made to choose between [[spoiler: killing Lambert or killing Jamie]]; choosing the former option secures Sam's cover long enough to [[spoiler: kill the villain and save the day with ease]], whilst choosing the latter serves to [[spoiler: risk the entire mission as of then, as well as thousands of lives just to maintain his moral code.]]
*** The above example is made even worse when WordOfGod revealed in ''Conviction'' that not only Sam [[spoiler: killing Lambert]] is canon, but that [[spoiler: Lambert did '''everything''' in ''Double Agent'' to protect Sam's daughter, thus only adding to the guilt of killing a friend on a whim.]]
* In ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'', Tassadar is forced to [[EarthShatteringKaboom burn and sterilize]] the Terran planets that have been infested with Zerg, because it is the [[KillItWithFire most effective way to kill the Zerg]]. After a while, Tassadar refuses to shoot any more dogs and disobeys his orders. Whether true or not, this is also Arcturus Mengsk's stated reason for everything he does.

* In ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'', Yuri is defined by this trope as a vigilante, putting him at odds with the more law-abiding Flynn. Near the end of the first arc, Yuri [[spoiler:murders Ragou in cold blood and tosses his body into a river]], because in Yuri's eyes, his target was very close to escaping justice for their horrendous crimes. Later, Yuri repeats this feat with [[spoiler:Cumore, who was sending people into the desert to die basically because nobody cared to stop him from doing it]] by giving his target a choice between [[MortonsFork drowning in quicksand or being impaled on Yuri's sword]].
** Yuri also shoots a few dogs in the prequel movie, when Repede's father Lambert is possessed by a monster, forcing Yuri to kill him.
* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' games has the player make painful choices of choosing to save one character over another or let one character die or not.
** In 400 days, Vince has the painful choice of shooting a convicted rapists, or a con artist in the leg, to free themselves from their chains.
** Clementine [[spoiler:has a near literal run in with the Trope Name. She has the option to either put a dog out of its misery after it is impaled on a broken pole, or leave it there to bleed out. It did try to kill her, after all.]]
* One of the most iconic moments of ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' is the Culling of Stratholme, a mission where the noble prince Arthas is forced to destroy an entire city of his own innocent subjects as they are all infected with the plague of undeath and will soon rise from the dead to slaughter the living. While this action is defensible, if unsavory, it makes him so furious that he begins pursuing revenge at all costs and is the start of a downward spiral ending with the loss of his own soul. Things get worse from there.

* In ''Wandersong'', the Goddess, Eya, plans to Shoot The Dog on a universal scale, sending a "Hero" to kill the Overseers (the universe's ElementalEmbodiment s), which destroys EVERYTHING, allowing her to start over, due to the universe itself slowly becoming increasingly (and irreversibly) corrupted and distant, as well as the Overseers turning into insane monsters that also [[MookMaker spawn monsters]], both of which attack anyone it sees. Their corruption/deaths also cause the Earth to start becoming more of a DeathWorld as things like the wind, sea, and even stars degrade from their insanity/absence. The plot also clarifies this is far from the first time Eya has done this (though it implies this time is the worst it's ever gotten before everything reset), and everyone involved has resigned to this fate because they believe that it's just how the universe works. [[spoiler: It also happens again in the ending if you skip the chapters via intentional SequenceBreaking, as it means you no longer have the connections with people for the regular ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve ending that breaks the cycle.]]

** ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000RogueTrader'': Many Iconoclast and Dogmatic choices come down to killing someone (sometimes as a MercyKill) that proves a threat to others even if they don't mean to be. Notably, you can do this to your own party members: [[spoiler:When Idira, in her grief, summons a warp entity pretending to be Theodora, the player can choose to execute her for this. As she's an unsanctioned psyker losing control, several party members recommend it and it is the dogmatic procedure. The game even gives the player a lot of ways to do this. From having Argenta snipe her, shooting her themselves. You can also tell Idira you won't kill her, reassure her that you'll find a way to help her regain control, wait for her to pass out, then order your crew to toss her out the airlock.]]

* Practiced very realistically in an audio log of ''VideoGame/Warhammer40000SpaceMarine''. Following the ork invasion, the human forces of the Forgeworld are drowning in wounded and without enough supplies to treat them all. A veteran doctor who is well-acquainted with battlefield triage begins coldly, bluntly ordering her subordinates not to waste any time or medication on civilians who don't look like they're going to make it, and save all their supplies and attention for healthier patients. While the others are initially horrified, they quickly realize she's right.
** In fact she starts euthanizing them because she knows the Orks might soon overrun the field hospital; there is no way to move them all and (Orks being senseless, inhumane alien savages who live for the thrill of inflicting violence) [[FateWorseThanDeath the fate of any helpless human who falls into their hands will be ghastly indeed]].