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I just had a conversation with my friends about creepy things that happen in video games and it eventually became a talk about really messed up decisions that can be made in video games that will haunt you for the rest of your life.

1. (Mass Effect) Who Lives? Kaden or Ashley? Really. This one will haunt you through two sequels and for those of us who were there 5 years. I honestly can't think of a better example because it literally follows you through the series even after having to figure out which of the two you hated the least and didn't mind letting die when both are viable candidates (/joke).

2. (Knights of the Old Republic) Going dark side in the end. Between all the insane horrible things you can do this one is pretty mess up as far as decisions can go.

3. (Dragon Age: Origins) Killing the Arl's son. I have a friend who jumped right at this. He just killed the kid and we have never let him live it down so this one is a little more personal for him because we still bring up how he killed the child

4. (Skyrim) Killing Parthenax. This one was a huge middle finger to anyone who actually liked both Delphine AND Parthenax (me) and was then forced into a position of having to choose which of them you preferred not dying/kicking you out of their club. Also a mention to the Civil War storyline which is kind of a mind screw between the racists revolutionary and the crumbling imperial power.

5. (Pokemon Red and Blue) Picking Charmander. Cause the first two gyms are gonna make you their , especially the first one.

6. (XCOM: Enemy Unknown) For all those times you sent a soldier forward only to see them get gunned down by over watch fire from an enemy you didn't even know was there. Praise to the Iron Men on this one.

HM (League of Legends). Face checking. Don't do it because your team sure as hell won't let you live it down

Who else has some?

GTA 4
Killing Dwayne.
I had already played through the game once before killing 'Playboy X' because you get a neat crib but was annoyed by Dwayne's 'friendship', as he was protrayed as being really clingy and Pathetic. So on my second go i decided to kill him instead.

The mission to kill Playboy X involves an epic firefight and a tense footchase. In contrast the mission to kill Dwayne just feels like a murder. Instead of wasting a dozen armed thugs in a swanky penthouse you blow away a couple of dope fiends in a dingy project crack-house and Dwayne himself who puts up no resistance. Left a really bitter taste.

Skyrim.
Although it's technically the right decision morally, Choosing to Kill Astrid out of the Four in the Abandoned Shack was defo 'Haunting'. IIRC she whispers something like 'You passed, Thank you' as she dies, was actually quite moving. Of course every other playthrough i kill ALL the other three.

Fallout 1. Choosing to reveal the location of your vault. I did it just to see what would happen, and watching super mutants beat down and drop everyone you knew into a vat of toxin was pretty traumatizing for me at my age when I first experienced it.

Since then I don't think I'm capable of playing evil characters in games. I can try, like in KOTOR, but I really hate every minute of it.

While not a big decision, or really much of a decision at all, I had a friend who played morrowind on xbox. Whenever he found a cave with slaves in it, he would kill everyone inside, including the slaves. I asked him what was he doing, and his response was freeing them. Sheesh.

The only thing that really bothered me in a game was putting my controller down in mass effect 3 and missing the prompt to say goodbye to Garrus. The checkpoint before that is like an hour before so I was super disappointed.

I picked Charmander as my very first starter Pokémon, and never looked back. Sure, the first two gyms were tough as nails to beat, but it only made the Pokémon-trainer bond stronger when we finally pulled through!

That, and I just didn't use Charmander against Misty xD.

Dragon Age - my first play through I was a playing as a hardline victory at all costs type, but not evil or overly malicious. So Shale fit my personality pretty well, and she was my enforcer/tank (I was a ranged thief), so of course I had her with me while I fought my way through the lost thaigs and found the Anvil of the Void. Needless to say, I thought golems would be much more useful in containing the blight than dwarven warriors... it didn't end well, and I actually felt bad.

Pretty much every one in Heavy Rain. If you haven't played it (and you own a PS3), seriously, go try it. It's an incredibly powerful game. Some of the decisions you have to make are:

1. Drink a deadly poison, ensuring your own death (but getting 1/5 of an address to save your son)
2. Cut off one of your own fingers, with no tools other than some whiskey, bandages and a hacksaw (with the same consequence as above)
3. Kill a known drug dealer who has a wife and family that love him (same as above)

I don't think I've ever played a game that made me quite as uncomfortable as that one.

FNV-
Choosing to blow up the Brotherhood of Steel bunker...when Veronica is your companion

I don't think anything I've done in a video game haunts me. Saying that I was a bit miffed at how Skrim, in the Dark Brotherhood quests, makes you go kill a ton of people with no moral justification whatsoever. Don't get me wrong I killed them anyway, they were cluttering my quest list.

In Mass Effect 2, I botched up Tali's loyalty mission so she lost her rank in the fleet. I don't really give a care for her, but then ME:3 rolled around...

I cried.

I'm sorry Legion. I am so sorry. I hope there's a special spot in robot-heaven for you buddy.

There's a quest in World of Warcraft where you return an Undead woman's ring to her husband's grave not because she still loves him, but because she's fed up with him. You get to read his tombstone, and there really isn't anything else to it- but it still gets me every time, like I'm trespassing in a moment I have absolutely no business intruding upon. It's like breaking up with someone's husband for them.

I bought a 32x when it was on sale. That was a decision that haunted me.

I have never made a decision on a game that has haunted me...
Apart from KoToR 1 and 2 when I found out I didn't kill as many people as I could have done...

Destroying the Dark Brotherhood in Skyrim. The money.. I could have gained so much money..
Atleast I didn't have to sleep with a dead body.

Is haunted the same as feel bad about? I think I may have to retract my earlier statement.

The only things that really haunted me in games were the things where you didn't really have a choice. Like in bioshock where you had to kill Andrew Ryan, for example.

@OP: Maybe you want to stick *possible spoilers* in your thread title.

I can't think of many decisions that haunt me mostly because I'll just replay the game and maybe try the other option... or sometimes I'm just so sure of the option I've picked (Ex: Kaiden will always... ALWAYS... die if I'm playing Mass Effect 1).

EDIT: You know what I take that back about not being able to think of haunting decisions. The decisions at the end of Bastion felt eerie to me in someway; no matter which one I chose. For some reason, it felt like no one 'won' or 'lost'... it just felt surreal.

Actually yeah Bastion was an odd one...

In Mass Effect 1 the choice between Kaiden and Ashley, at that time they were my 2 favorite characters in the game (I didnt feel Garrus became awsome until 2) so it was a hard hitting decision.

I did go with Ashley and it was actually a no brainer decision but one of those "damn it"



In the Walking Dead EP.3 not being able to save the first character who dies in that episode. (Followed by letting that bastard join my group in EP.2, If I had any idea what would happen I would have called the zombies to his attention at the start)



I cant think of anything else but if I do Ill post it

I think my signature makes it apparent what video game descision "haunted" me the most. Having to choose between two entire races/awesome characters. When Tali stabbed legion, and he asked "Does this unit have a soul?" as he died, I literally paused the game to think about what I had done .

OH I GOT ONE

In my first play through of Mass Effect 3 with Wrex still alive

Though I did it in a heart beat, the argument with Moridin when I told him he couldnt cure the Genophage, he attempted to call my bluff and turn his back to me... except I wasnt bluffing and I would do whatever it took to stop the Krogan from being cured... god it was hard putting a round into his back.


My second play though I had killed Wrex so I was able to convince him to not do it.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Pulling the trigger.

It's not really a choice, since you have to do it anyway, but they do everything they can to make it feel like one, and it hurts.

 Fafnir wrote:
Metal Gear Solid 3: Pulling the trigger.

It's not really a choice, since you have to do it anyway, but they do everything they can to make it feel like one, and it hurts.

Dang you... I had that memory successfuly repressed until now...

*runs to find blanket and cookies

I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

 Dr H wrote:
I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

I didn't... feel like is deserved it.

 purplefood wrote:

 Dr H wrote:
I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

I didn't... feel like is deserved it.

You heartless murderer you...

Didn't mean I didn't enjoy the hunt as well as the rest of those quests...

 Dr H wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

 Dr H wrote:
I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

I didn't... feel like is deserved it.

You heartless murderer you...

Didn't mean I didn't enjoy the hunt as well as the rest of those quests...

I don't usually regret killing people in games. More often than not it's funny.

 purplefood wrote:

 Dr H wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

 Dr H wrote:
I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

I didn't... feel like is deserved it.

You heartless murderer you...

Didn't mean I didn't enjoy the hunt as well as the rest of those quests...

I don't usually regret killing people in games. More often than not it's funny.

Ditto. Especially when rag doll physics and dismemberment is involved.

 purplefood wrote:

 Dr H wrote:

 purplefood wrote:

 Dr H wrote:
I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

I didn't... feel like is deserved it.

You heartless murderer you...

Didn't mean I didn't enjoy the hunt as well as the rest of those quests...

I don't usually regret killing people in games. More often than not it's funny.

No, I don't either. I manage to remember that it is a game and what you do doesn't really matter / was what you were meant to do anyway. And yeah, often funny.

Oh, just thought of the end of Far Cry 2. Where you have a choice to take the briefcase with the diamonds and a handgun or climb the mountain and blow yourself up. That was quite a dark moment.

I never connected with Kaiden in ME1, partly because he was a Sentinel and they were completely useless at that time in ME history, but mostly because he lacked personality. As a result I chose him to die in every single game I played, Paragon or Renegade, Male Shep or Fem Shep. He was the one to die every time and I don't regret it.

The decision that haunted me most was in Mass Effect 2, taking a Renegade stance with EDI for the sake of a 100% Renegade playthrough. She is one of my most loved characters in the series and I will always regret alienating her during that game. I cannot recall the exact lines, but from what i remember after you dress her down during the Suicide Mission Briefing, she tells you that she assumed there was a mutual respect between you, and that she was wrong. That line hurt, and I have never made that choice in any playthrough since, even renegade.

 Dr H wrote:
I suppose the closest thing that has got to haunting me at the time was in Oblivion, Dark Brotherhood questline, The "Next of Kin" quest.

You have to kill every member of the Draconis family and start off by visiting the mother and pretending to be buying gifts for her children. She really seems to care about them and has put thought into the presents. She even gives you money and has no idea that she's just told an assassin the locations you need to find them all... Until you smash her head in and then off you go to hunt all these relatively harmless and nice people and kill them all.
Then when you visit the mother's home again you find a gravestone for each of them to show you that someone else out there cared about these people as well...and then you get attacked and feel like you deserve it.

I always kill her last, i like the idea of her knowing that all her children are dead.