Darkest moment in gaming you've played.

[Wallcrawler]

For me it's hands down a player initiated train robbery in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The gameplay mechanic in RDR2 that has loot on every dead body is partially to blame here, along with the inexplicable behavior of the NPC passengers in an otherwise exceptionally immersive game.

So RDR2 if you're not cheating can be grindy as hell to make money. One of the fastest ways is to rob the Annesburgh train as it passes into the tunnel heading west. With the train stopped in the tunnel, RDR2'S magically appearing lawmen do not function as they do out in the open, and you can rob the passengers at your leisure once you've killed the few armed guards on the train.

It's very dimly lit if the train has lighting, and pitch black if it doesn't, so the only light source is your lantern or your miners hat, which I prefer.

You then can systematically move passenger to passenger, robbing them of their money, as they sit terrified and begging for their lives.

You can get good money from this, but the aforementioned looting mechanic makes it more profitable to murder the npc after you rob them, as you will loot valuable items to be used in trinket crafting, selling for money, or used as health items.

This mechanic makes every NPC on this train that you're robbing, a liar. You ask for all the money, they say this is it, you kill them and loot as much if not more than they gave you.

So now, this train robbery has evolved into a robbery and mass murder, because you're trying to get the money you need as fast as possible.

The second element that makes this so dark is that the rest of the passengers do not run when the first passenger is robbed and murdered. They react horrified, crying out, begging for their lives, but they don't run.

They just sit and wait for what happened to the first to happen to them.

I remember it being enough that when I saw my girls were watching this, I turned the game off immediately.

I'm not a games make kids into killers type person, as I let my kids play gta 3 with the gore code on, exploding cartoony pixelated heads and giggling all day.

This though, this was actually disturbing. Moving through the dark, robbing them, hearing them beg for mercy and just blowing half their faces off with a sawed off shotgun, and slowly moving through the train looting headless corpses in the dimly lit train, and these character models are pretty detailed.

I was actually not willing to let my kids watch that gameplay.

I've played a lot of crazy things, like Manhunt, Punisher, tge "No Russian" airport slaughter in Call of Duty, none of it ever really move the needle for me to be like oh hell no, my kids shouldn't look at this.

Just something about them begging for mercy and my kids seeing the response to that being pull the trigger, and the passengers never ****ing run.


Like, that sequence could be extremely lessened in dark factor if after you murdered the person you robbed, no items were on the body, and if you did murder someone, the rest of the passengers should instantly run and try to escape the train.

Great game, but you can do some really disturbing things with it.

I'll note for anyone that's never played, the game never makes it an objective to do this. This us just something you can do to get money on your own. In fact, I think if you kill a passenger in the missions to rob trains, the mission will fail.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Of course, the true darkest moment in a game I’ve played probably comes from the Fallout series. Pick any one. The holotapes, journals and lore in those games is some depraved shit.

I can’t think of any one in particular because the games are littered with them.

Haha that vault that ruled that the overseer would have to sacrifice themselves to the vault every year, or the air/water would be shut off for everyone was pretty awful. Only to find out after the massive war broke out over who should be next, the last few survivors refused to sacrifice anyone, and the Vault responded with "Congratulations! You are a shining example of humanity. Your air and water won't be shut off as you were told, instead, the vault door has been unlocked. You are free to come and go as you please "
.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by Katipan

The airport in COD.
You could hear the blood in your footsteps.

Followed by that scene in FFVII where Cloud had to be a hooker.

I must have had some shit audio setup or just not paying attention. I didn't realize that sound design was so good. Of course, I didn't really stop to smell the roses on that particular scene either.

I found that on a replay of that mission, you can actually complete it without ever firing your weapon, so I found that particularly interesting.

Sort of a "you didn't have to shoot anyone, but you pulled the trigger anyway" kind of moment.

[Fish]

The Last of Us when Sam and Henry went out. Yeesh.

[DJJasonp]

The telltale walking dead series had plenty!

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

The telltale walking dead series had plenty!

Oh, man. I totally forgot about those games.. Lee is one of my favorite video game protagonists of all time too.

Clem being around when he died was pretty dark.

It’s been a while so I don’t remember all the particulars but Kenny’s kid Duck had something tough happen as well.

[ToxSocks]

Originally Posted by Katipan

The airport in COD.
You could hear the blood in your footsteps.

/thread

[Jerm]

No Russian is def. right up there...

White Phosphorous from Spec Ops: The Line has to near the top as well.

[crayzkirk]

Darkest? You mean scariest? Or cheated?

I played in a Doom tournament, long ago with a 1200 baud modem where I was in KC and the tournament was in CA. The person started the tournament with a different map than the one we were playing and at a different level. I felt cheated because he went to all of the powerups and wiped me out.

The other was when I was playing Quake on a 56k modem vs someone playing on a T1. Wow, talk about unfair. By the time I tried to move, it was over. Deathmatch... right.

[Wallcrawler]

https://t.co/QCXKDTtAUS

— Wallcrawler8878 (@Wallcrawler8878) December 19, 2023

[Gravedigger]

Last of Us II, nothing happy about that game from start to finish, outside of a flashback or two. The turn that franchise made was the darkest moments in video game history for me, not just the catalyst that happens in the first hour.

[dmahurin]

Originally Posted by Gravedigger

Last of Us II, nothing happy about that game from start to finish, outside of a flashback or two. The turn that franchise made was the darkest moments in video game history for me, not just the catalyst that happens in the first hour.

I was coming to say the same thing. When they make you press square multiple times in the hospital basement is twisted. I didn't want to keep doing it but you have to in order to progress. That's the point I started second guessing Ellie.

[DJJasonp]

Originally Posted by ThaVirus

Oh, man. I totally forgot about those games.. Lee is one of my favorite video game protagonists of all time too.

Clem being around when he died was pretty dark.

It’s been a while so I don’t remember all the particulars but Kenny’s kid Duck had something tough happen as well.

Kenny (his dad) or you (the player), has to kill duck after he's bitten.

[ThaVirus]

Originally Posted by DJJasonp

Kenny (his dad) or you (the player), has to kill duck after he's bitten.

That’s it. Been a while since I’ve played those earlier seasons.

I did recently watch the latest season with Javi and thought it was of similar quality to the others. That’s a really good series.

[Wallcrawler]

Originally Posted by Gravedigger

Last of Us II, nothing happy about that game from start to finish, outside of a flashback or two. The turn that franchise made was the darkest moments in video game history for me, not just the catalyst that happens in the first hour.

Loved the first game, the leaks ruined any chance of me playing part 2.

I refuse to play as Joel's killer.

[Fishpicker]

Originally Posted by Wallcrawler

Manhunt's sound design was certainly disturbing. The weapon sounds and the yells, screams, gurgles of the guy getting merc'd, but visually both games just looked so shitty that it was impossible to take it seriously.


Soldier of Fortune, Gold Edition for the PS2 falls into this category also. Same blocky character models to shoot at, but full body dismemberment, and the most spine chilling screams possibly ever recorded for a video game.

I was just about to mention Soldier of Fortune. the white phosphorous grenades melted faces off.