Examples of Non-Standard Game Over in action-adventure games.
- Alone in the Dark (1992): The normal Game Over shows a zombie dragging your dead body to the altar of Pregzt, where it shows the text "The End". Nonstandard game-overs occur if you die in or near the final boss room, fall into a Bottomless Pit, get eaten by the giant plant guarding the front door, or happen to read "De Vermis Mysteriis", in which case it just says "The End" on the screen where you died.
- In ANNO: Mutationem, after the Final Boss battle, Ann is given a choice to either agree with The Consortium's demands or refuse and defy them. If she chooses the latter, then, unfortunately, it turns out this one specific time, she should have trusted The Consortium, as the security bots shoot Ryan. Ann, in a Moment of Weakness, summons Amok to try and revive him, Amok permanently takes over Ann's body, and then uses her catastrophic powers to bring about The End of the World as We Know It. Ryan later wakes up, confused and horrified at the carnage around him, to find his sister has been consumed by an otherworldly being of pure destruction.
- Assassin's Creed tells the player off if they kill civilians (with the exception of Assassin's Creed Rogue, once Shay Cormac becomes a Templar); three kills in short succession will lead to desynchronization. In the same vein, for Assassin's Creed III, if you kill a wild animal but don't skin it afterwards, you receive a warning stating that Connor always skinned the animals he hunted. If you refuse to heed the warning and leave too many animals lying around dead and unskinned, you will be forcibly desynchronized.
- Batman: Arkham Series:
- Batman: Arkham Asylum has quite a few of these. If you let Zsasz see you when he has the guard in the electric chair, true to his word, he electrocutes him. If Batman is in Joker Venom for too long, he laughs himself to death. If Batman doesn't set off his trap for Killer Croc, we are treated to a first-person shot of Croc lunging at his head, along with the sound of bones getting crushed. There are several more examples, but one of the more humorous ones is when Zsasz has Dr. Young trapped in his arms; if you are seen, miss your Batarang, or if you wait too long, Zsasz kills her, with the Joker mocking you.
Joker: Who would have thought the deranged murderer would really kill the poor, little doctor?- In Batman: Arkham City, after Catwoman successfully loots Hugo Strange's vault, she gets the option of either going to save Batman (who has just been captured by TYGER) or escaping with her loot. Doing the latter cuts to the credits where you hear a message from Oracle saying how the Joker rampaged through Gotham, Gordon and Batman are dead, Wayne Manor has been compromised, and that The Bad Guys Win. The game then rewinds all the way back to the choice and makes the player choose to save Batman.
- Batman: Arkham Knight has a few Game Overs that are different from those of the previous games.
- Occasionally, you'll receive a comforting send-off from Alfred or Robin, guaranteeing that Gotham will remember you and they'll keep fighting the good fight.
- If you fail during one of the Poison Ivy missions, she'll lament the destruction of her plant, saying that there's no way she can save Gotham now.
- A rather terrifying example comes if you fail during the GCPD defense mission. You get a cutscene of Barbara and the cops in the lockup room, when suddenly the elevator opens and a minigunner starts firing, complete with audible screams.
- In Bayonetta, Cereza gets captured by a Joy at one point. If you take too long to get to them, the Joy will fly away with Cereza in her arms, then the game over screen will show Cereza's discarded doll instead of the usual scene where Bayonetta gets dragged down to Hell by many demonic hands when choosing not to continue. The screen will also appear if Cereza is taken away by a Beloved.
- The 2003 BIONICLE game has three, two of which are in Kopaka's rail-shooter level against the Bohrok.
- First, when you fight against Gahlok, if you take too long to fight him, he will reach the Kini he is heading towards and will proceed to attack it.
- Second, when you fight against Tahnok, if you take too long to fight him, the chase will end with him calling upon multiple Bohrok to beat the ever-loving crap out of you.
- In the game's final level, in Tahu Nuva's racing/rail-shooter level against the Rahkshi, Kurahk. If Kurahk gets to Ta-Koro before you do, it's game over.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night:
- Killing the supposed Big Bad early results in an incredibly unsatisfying "ending" where Miriam discusses how many threads are left hanging. The game doesn't even dignify this with a credits roll, giving you a Game Over before dumping you back to the title screen. Doing it later on nets you a different Nonstandard Game Over as you still screwed up, one where you hear Gremory possess Miriam this time.
- Losing the rematch with Zangetsu won't play Miriam's death animation (since even when you win, Miriam notes he's holding back, and before the fight, Zangetsu states that it is not a fight to the death, but he will be fighting as though it was, and expects Miriam to do the same), but still gives you the Game Over screen, since without impressing him, Miriam can't complete the above fight properly.
- Castlevania:
- The bad endings of Portrait of Ruin and Order of Ecclesia, instead of playing the credits like the good endings do, simply send the player to their respective Game Over screens. Justified in both cases: in Portrait, there are some problems that are left hanging as a result of this abrupt ending. Firstly, Brauner fled from Jonathan and Charlotte, with exactly no comeuppance for his actions. Secondly, there's still the issue that Death has yet to be defeated properly, since the fight with him before the duo reached the Master's Keep ended only because he was holding back. And thirdly, if implications made during one of the conversations the heroic duo have with Eric Lecarde's ghost are of any indication, they pretty much lost any chance they would have had of Jonathan being able to unlock the full power of the Vampire Killer, since he needs the help of the Lecarde family. A family that, for all intents and purposes, is just flat out gone now. Meanwhile, in the case of Ecclesia, Shanoa just sacrificed her entire self to the full power of Dominus, under the impression of destroying Dracula. When in reality, her sacrifice just brought Dracula back to life in a period of time where the Belmonts are nowhere to be found.
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2:
- During Carmilla's chapter, Dracula becomes corrupted with her blood. If his health falls all the way to zero, a special cutscene will play showing him falling to her complete control and following her into the darkness with a lovestruck look in his face. In the same chapter, she disguises herself as his wife and tries to trick him into drinking her blood, with him being forced to choose which one is the real Marie. If he picks the wrong one, a cutscene will play showing a sad Marie saying she had failed and it's revealed he fed on Carmilla, turning him into her slave.
- In Nergal's chapter, Dracula is completely helpless against him and has to lure him to his castle so he is able to fight him on equal ground. If Nergal manages to catch Dracula, he will then grab him and throw him in a portal to Hell.
- In Cowboy Kid, if Sheriff Sam and/or Little Chief take up on the offer of the Mad Brothers to join them, the protagonist/s will get hanged for their crimes, and as a result, the game ends with no lives or continues, forcing you to start the whole game over again.
- Cyber Troopers Virtual-On MARZ has two:
- One mission requires you to enter the maze to stop three missiles from launching into the air. Failing this mission via timeout gives you a Downer Ending followed by a bloody-red Game Over text.
- In DYMN Chaos missions, if you let the collapse level reach 100% before you collect all the fragments, you're given the same Game Over text.
- Fear Effect thrives on this trope. The most notable example comes from the Final Boss fight, where losing gets you a different ending, but it's still a game over. The game has many more nonstandard game overs (usually from failed sequences), but there's simply too many to list.
- God of War:
- During the final battle in God of War, Kratos is hurled back to the moment his family died by his hand, only to find them alive… whereupon Ares conjures up an army of Kratos clones. The family has their own health bar in the following battle; should it run out, they die and a cutscene starts, showing Kratos collapsing in abject despair and sorrow, murmuring, "I couldn't stop them. They were too strong." The Kratos clones then gang up and chop him apart.
- During one of the last battles in God of War II, Kratos is hurled back to the moment that he defeated Ares. The boss, Atropos, was going to destroy the giant sword you originally used in the first game to slay the god of war, which would lead to your retroactive death. If you failed to defeat Atropos before she could destroy the sword, you get a cutscene of past Kratos kneeling in defeat and getting stabbed by Ares, which causes present Kratos to wretch in pain and fall over, dead.
- Grand Theft Auto (Classic):
- In the first chapter, if you shoot and kill Sonatti's right-hand man just before you get close enough to initiate the end-level cutscene, you will get a message from your superiors on the phone decrying you for the action that you just took, and the level then ends on the level-over screen with a message saying that your boss is unhappy with your work and that you should consider yourself lucky to be alive until the company makes you wish you were dead. As such, since you technically failed the chapter, no new chapter or cutscene is unlocked, which is what happens when you either lose all your lives or quit the chapter. Similarly, in the fifth chapter, you can do this against Deever, except the level will not end automatically as it did before, and all you will get is a message from Deever at the hospital saying that you have crossed him for the last time and that you are on your own from thereon. It is not possible to initiate the end-level cutscene nor any level-over screen after that.
- This can also happen in the first scenario of the GTA London expansion pack, if you either A: get the scooter that you are supposed to deliver destroyed through shunts and bumps in order to damage it or just drive it into the Thames or B: get your contact Harold killed by either letting the police shoot at you while you are on another damaged scooter/bike while next to him or just use it to push Harold onto the street so you can just run him over with a car. In the third scenario, this can be done in a more straightforward manner if you kill either one of the Crisp twins because they are not behind traffic poles. If you're curious:
- The Legend of Zelda:
- The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask: The game has two game over types; the standard death, and the ending that occurs if you let the moon fall on Termina. There's also an extension of the moon falling Game Over: If the guardians are called with the Oath to Order when even one of them isn't free, the free ones' attempt to stop the moon will turn out to be not working, at which point the player gets one minute (real time) left to play the Song of Time to escape. If the player opts to let time run out here, he or she will see a scene where the guardians fall over and the moon continues to fall. Then it continues to the normal scene of this Game Over variant. The Nintendo 3DS remake further extends this slightly: Whilst in the original game, "You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?" appears on a black screen after the Moon falls, the remake adds some text telling you "And so the angry moon fell from the sky, annihilating this world and its many inhabitants", in between the moon hitting and the "terrible fate" line. The original game had some degree of ambiguity to its game over, but the remake straight-up tells you that you were too slow and everyone died.
- The Legend of Zelda: Oracle Games: In Oracle of Seasons, after defeating the Great Moblin you can find him and his henchmen in the Sunken City, trying to eke out a living fabricating and selling bombs. You can, for no real reason or gain, blow up their stock and thus their shop. You can get away with this twice, but the third time they will catch you and lock you inside the exploding house.
- The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap: In the final dungeon, as you fight through the last few enemies, Ezlo warns you that Vaati will be done draining the Light Force out of Zelda (fatally) by the time the bell rings three times. This can happen. The first two rings are scripted, but the bell will ring again if you take too long to beat the Darknuts.
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess: You accidentally set fire to Barnes' bomb storehouse as you look for Tears of Light in Kakariko Village, and if you fail to Outrun the Fireball in time you're treated to a short cutscene of the building exploding around you and a Game Over screen. Similar situations occur if you fail to extinguish the flames on Prince Ralis' carriage quickly enough or jump off the burning Great Bridge of Hylia in time.
- The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks: When you're travelling with a character, a Pirate tank (or ship) may invade your train. When this happens, lots of Miniblins (and later a Big Blin) will try to kidnap your passenger. If they succeed, you can still rescue the character when going to the Pirate Hideout island, so this wouldn't be a big deal. But if that place hasn't been unlocked yet (and it isn't yet by the time you're taking Carben, a plot-critical character, with you), you have no way to rescue the character, and you get an automatic Game Over.
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword: The Imprisoned triggers this if it manages to arrive at the Sealed Temple before Link can reseal it. The Imprisoned requires Hylia's soul (Zelda's) in order to reclaim its true form and power, and it's in the temple where he can find it.
- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: At one point in the game, you need to have 13 full hearts to pull out the Master Sword, as doing so drains your health. The first time it almost reaches the end, the Great Deku Tree stops you from going any further, but any failed attempts at pulling the sword after that will result in a Game Over. Downplayed, in that Link just ragdolls like normal should he die this way, and there are no additional scenes or dialogue either.
- The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom: While defending Gerudo Town from a swarm of Gibdo, Link needs to simultaneously take out their hives while making sure Riju's health does not fully deplete. Failure to do this will result in Riju falling and muttering apologies to Link before the Game Over screen fades in.
- LEGO Island: If you fail most missions, the Infomaniac will simply tell you so. If you fail to catch the Brickster, though…
- Luigi's Mansion 3: Fail to escape King Boo during the prologue and he corners a helpless and terrified Luigi and traps him in a painting alongside the rest of his friends. Then the player is treated to the usual Game Over screen where King Boo looks at his now complete collection of portraits before he turns to the player and laughs.
- In The Matrix: Path of Neo, if the player takes the blue pill Morpheus will express his disappointment as Neo awakens from the dream, presumably at the start of the film. The game then returns the player to the level select screen.
- In the Amiga/Atari ST game Mercenary II, also known as Damocles (not to be confused with Mercenaries 2: World in Flames), death is normally a slap on the wrist, since you can use a safe quit option that will resurrect you and teleport to space in a cool ship that you can fly. However, you can activate non-standard Game Overs by:
- Failing to prevent the comet Damocles from colliding with the planet Eris (the president of Eris will then insult you)
- Destroying Eris instead of Damocles (the president will ask you if you understood the mission)
- Destroying one of two other unrelated planets (a newsflash will report the destruction of the planet and inform you that you are now wanted by the police)
- Destroying the author's computer, on which the game itself supposedly runs (all planets in the system will explode one by one, and your on-board computer will question your actions, telling you to reset the game. If you do not, your on-board computer will tell you that he is surprised you haven't left yet, informing you that "THERE'S NOTHING LEFT — IT'S ALL GONE — BLOWN UP". That phrase will remain on the screen until you reset the game.)
- MediEvil: The final showdown with the evil sorcerer Zarok has a battle sequence between Zarok's undead soldiers and a band of lost souls produced from the chalices you collected over the course of the game. You have to run around replenishing your lost souls with the Good Lightning. What happens if the lost souls lose because you don't heal them? Zarok mocks Dan for his failure and orders his undead soldiers to take him down. Cue the soldiers ganging up on Dan and hacking him to death.
- Metroid:
- Metroid Prime 3: Corruption: Stay in Hyper Mode for too long, and you see a cutscene of Samus turning into Dark Samus, followed by a modified death screen.note This outcome can also happen through a different means during the travel to the Very Definitely Final Dungeon: since Samus is already on a near-terminal stage of corruption, her PED Suit vents all of the Phazon out of her body, but at the cost of any further protection, so any Phazon damage will affect a yellow bar that replaces the standard energy meter (and as time passes, the atmosphere of Phazon will slowly fill it up anyway). If this yellow bar completes, Samus will reach total corruption and the Terminal Corruption scene will trigger. There's also a few escape sequences that result in one of these if Samus fails to evacuate in time.
- Metroid Fusion has exactly three Non-Standard Game Overs, all of which involve a timed mission. The first occurs when the X figure out how to hack the computer and order the engines' boiler to explode; the second when an SA-X discovers and attacks a secret Metroid breeding facility; the third occurs at the very end of the game, when Samus is forced to destroy the entire space station. If you run out of time during any of these timed segments, you will see the same cutscene you'd see if you successfully completed the mission — except that you don't survive. Of course, initiating said cutscenes are Instant-Win Condition type, so you can literally wait until the last possible second.
- Metroid: Other M: Occurs if you let a certain boss kill Anthony before you use the just authorized Grapple Beam to get to him. Fortunately, he can't die during the actual boss fight.
- Mission Impossible (1990): The final challenge is to stop a supercomputer from launching nuclear missiles by playing a game against it. Failing to tie three times or taking too long will end the game with a text scroll making it clear the world has ended thanks to your failure, and reset you back to the title screen, regardless if you had any IMF agents remaining.
- Ōkamiden: When in the swimming section of the Sage Shrine, if you get sandwiched between a wall and the left side of the screen, this happens.
- If you refuse to help Rio at the beginning stage of Operator's Side (Lifeline in North America) three times (although it may be hard to do so properly, since the game is infamous for its voice-recognition mechanic), she decides to end the game at that point.Rio: Okay, I understand. I won't ask you again. Goodbye.(she shoots the screen and walks off-screen, leading to the game over screen)
- In [PROTOTYPE], if you fail a normal mission, MISSION FAILED is displayed on the screen. If you fail the last mission, you see a nuclear bomb destroy Manhattan.
- Shadow Man doesn't even have any standard game over conditions, as dying only sends you to the nearest respawn point (the plot of the game justifies this in-universe). Except for the final boss battle, in which dying sees you strapped into a chair and all the dark souls you collected being extracted and placed into an immortal army of monsters that invade and destroy Earth.
- In Sleeping Dogs (2012), one mission requires you to succeed in a karaoke minigame. Failure grants the following game-over message:
- In Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, failing to grab hold of the falling imperial destroyer before it crashes will have it landing right on top of Starkiller.
- Tomb Raider:
- In Tomb Raider I (and loyally copied into its remake, Tomb Raider: Anniversary), if Lara makes the mistake of touching the magic hand of the Midas statue, she herself turns to solid gold, just painfully slowly enough for her to be able to realize what her mistake has cost her before she actually dies. Many players consider this to be the coolest death of the franchise.
- Tomb Raider: The Angel of Darkness:
- If you take too long in Madame Carvier's apartment, the police arrest Lara and the game resets to the title screen.
- Being too much of a jerkass to Bouchard during your first conversation with him will end with him pulling out a gun and shooting Lara dead on the spot.
