Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Summer Game Fest
  • New games for 2025
  • Upcoming Switch 2 games
  • Switch 2 stock
Recommended reading
Hopper in Stranger Things 4
Sci-Fi Shows David Harbour once thought his fan favorite Stranger Things character Hopper should've died in season 1
Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Bart Simpson in The Simpsons season 36
Animated Shows The Simpsons pulls a Game of Thrones and 'kills' one of its best characters, leaving fans clutching their red pearls
Syril Karn and Dedra Meero in Andor season 2
Star Wars TV Shows Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy explains that shocking season 2 death: "It's so elementally Greek and dramatic"
Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Andor season 2
Star Wars TV Shows Star Wars fans are in mourning after that major Andor season 2 death, and it's made even worse by one tragic detail
Josh Holloway in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Action Movies Lost and Yellowstone star says his Mission: Impossible fate was originally very different, and very gory - and involved being cut open by Paula Patton: "They said, 'It's just too harsh'"
Kevin Spacey in Seven
Movies 32 movies where the bad guys win
Daredevil: Born Again
Marvel TV Shows Daredevil: Born Again episode 8 goes right for the jugular with devastating foreshadowing
  1. Games

Top 7 Doomed characters that are definitely going to die

Features
By Connor Sheridan published 12 January 2015

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

Not long for this world

Not long for this world

Death is usually no big problem in video games. All it means is reverting back to the last checkpoint and trying again, all the wiser for your previous misfortune. But sometimes games like to remind us of our own mortality by killing off a party member/love interest/your own dang character for good, with no takesies backsies. Usually it's pretty obvious that they're going to croak throughout the course of the game - but you're just not quite sure when.

Even if the character's pending demise isn't plainly telegraphed by the game itself ("Say, you seem to have fewer polygons than all my other party members and don't have any voiced lines"), you've probably gotten good at sniffing out the stink of death on some other common elements. With that in mind, join me in a celebration of all those characters who were clearly on the chopping block from the moment you met them.

Page 1 of 9
Page 1 of 9
7. Remember Corporal Jenkins from Mass Effect? No?

7. Remember Corporal Jenkins from Mass Effect? No?

If your last name is Jenkins you may want to rethink any impulse to enlist with the armed forces. No offense to anybody named Jenkins reading this, it just sounds pretty disposable. Like your surname is wearing a red-and-black Star Fleet uniform, or about to charge headfirst into the Rookery in Upper Blackrock Spire. You may have guessed by now that Corporal Richard L. Jenkins lives (dies?) up to this legacy. And if you noticed that there was only one non-descript white dude squadmate in all the trailers (hi Kaidan!) you probably saw this coming even before you knew his name.

Minutes into the first mission in Mass Effect, Jenkins lies dead before you. His killers? A couple of wimpy Geth drones that you'll pop as part of the combat tutorial. No, not even real Geth troopers, just the drones. What's worse is that, even though Jenkins is the first soldier to die under Shepard's command, nobody besides the ship's sawbones Dr. Chakwas seems cut up about it. You don't see Jenkins' face flash before your eyes in the final moments of Mass Effect 3 - or poor Nihlus, for that matter, whose badassitude can't save him from an off-screen death.

Page 2 of 9
Page 2 of 9
6. Jason from from Heavy Rain should've seen it coming

6. Jason from from Heavy Rain should've seen it coming

Remember Heavy Rain's opening? Ethan Mars clowns around with his two boys in his impeccably clean suburban home, teaching players how the game's unusual control scheme works as he swordfights and flexes to the delight of his kids. Everything is so idyllic and happy and goddamn saccharine that you know something horrible is about to happen.

It probably won't befall Mrs. Mars, since she gets like a minute of screentime. No, that wouldn't be nearly tragic enough. That leaves the boys and as soon as Jason disappears in a crowded shopping mall, betting is closed. Maybe he was just trying to get out of school by throwing himself in front of that car? His schoolmates must mock him for being the only one without an indeterminate European accent.

Page 3 of 9
Page 3 of 9
5. Isaac Clarke's crew in Dead Space is so much necro-meat

5. Isaac Clarke's crew in Dead Space is so much necro-meat

It's not really all that survival-horrifying if you get to spend the whole game in the company of three trained security personnel (and a computer specialist who turns out to be an ace shot with that little pistol of hers). So it's really a matter of when every member of the USG Kellion will meet his or her untimely end, rather than if. For poor Johnston and Chen, you barely have time to ponder the question before they're chopped into their constituent gibs.

I can't really blame Dead Space for being predictable here - it's damn near an essential part of sci-fi horror to kill off a crewmember or two early on to demonstrate the threat. But it really does feel more like a box being checked than an unexpected tragedy when Johnston and Chen get torn apart by the first necromorphs you see. At least Hammond and Daniels hold out for most of the campaign.

Page 4 of 9
Page 4 of 9
4. Ioreth is yet another dead wife

4. Ioreth is yet another dead wife

Talion's fair bride survives her first encounter in Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, but that's only because it's actually a harmless tutorial for the stealth system. She doesn't fare as well when her family is detained by the forces of Sauron a few minutes later, and her (and her son's) throat is slit. The son getting offed so early in the campaign may be a bit of a surprise, given the love affair that games have had with father figures in the last five years or so, but Ioreth is just the latest in a storied tradition of dead wives.

Just ask Kratos, or Max Payne, or Asura, or Dom from Gears of War, or James from Silent Hill 2, or You catch my drift. Chances are if a video game's male lead is happily married at the start of the game, his wife won't outlive the tutorial prompts. Sure, technically Talion is killed as well, but at least he gets to come back as a near-immortal ghost warrior. Ioreth is just dead.

Page 5 of 9
Page 5 of 9
3. Far Cry 2's protagonist doesn't take malaria seriously

3. Far Cry 2's protagonist doesn't take malaria seriously

Far Cry 2 lets you choose who you'd like to play from a literal rogues gallery of mercenaries, but they all have a few things in common: a healthy love of money, an itchy trigger finger, and a severe case of malaria. One of the first things your character experiences in Far Cry 2 is a fainting episode from the disease which killed 584,000 people in 2013. In other words, a medical emergency that should be taken very seriously.

But instead of calling off his contract and seeking hospitalization, your character decides to just push on. Maybe, if you're an optimist, you figure he can tough it out long enough to kill black market arms dealer The Jackal then take a few weeks off for some rest and rehydration. Here's a tip that doubles for Far Cry 2 and real life: if every half hour your vision turns yellow and you topple over, you should probably call in sick. Amusingly, it's not the malaria that kills him in the end, but it would have if he'd lived much longer.

Page 6 of 9
Page 6 of 9
2. The Carmines are hazardously faceless

2. The Carmines are hazardously faceless

You'd think Anthony Carmine would be more likely to survive a firefight than Marcus, Dom, and the other Gears in Delta Squad, right? He's the only one who actually bothers to put on his helmet. Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the anonymizing effect of the standard-issue headgear makes him a prime target for an early demise and neither did his brother Benjamin in Gears of War 2. You could see the gears (hohoho) turning in the writers' heads as soon as the poor, faceless Carmines joined the squad: "Now we can add some more tragedy without having to render more faces!"

It would have been the same for their older brother Clayton in Gears of War 3 if developer Epic Games hadn't put his fate up to a fan vote. The people showed him mercy, and his noggin remains miraculously unpopped throughout the entire campaign. Don't give Epic too much credit - it wouldn't have even been an issue if they'd just let him take the damn helmet off.

Page 7 of 9
Page 7 of 9
1. Empress Kaldwin is too good to live

1. Empress Kaldwin is too good to live

Empress Jessamine Kaldwin is the just and level-headed ruler of Dunwall. Even as the mysterious rat plague rots her city from within, she refuses to institute harsh quarantine and deportation measures, hoping instead to retain normalcy as scientists work on a cure for the epidemic. She's also a devoted mother to Emily, who is remarkably well-adjusted for being a royal heiress.

It's perfectly clear that she's way too good for the dirty, dangerous, and socially stratified city of Dunwall. She's doing her best to change all that, but if you expect her to be able to follow through on her good intentions you're either adorably naive or just not paying enough attention. Then again, the unresolved romantic tension between her and Corvo might be enough to make you think she'll live past the first act. Which is technically true, if you consider the 15-minute prologue the first act.

Page 8 of 9
Page 8 of 9
Premature termination

Premature termination

It's enough to make you feel clairvoyant, isn't it? Like you could foresee the death of anyone... as long as it's plainly telegraphed. What are some of the characters you knew were doomed from the moment you saw them? Use your future-seeing to see what you'll suggest in the comments below, then write it in the comments below.

Fancy some more tragedy? Check out our list of the saddest video games that will actually make you cry, and video game characters with the most ridiculously tragic pasts.

Page 9 of 9
Page 9 of 9
CATEGORIES
Android iPad iPhone PC Gaming Wii-u Nintendo PlayStation PS4 Xbox Xbox One Platforms Mobile Gaming
Connor Sheridan
Connor Sheridan
Social Links Navigation

I got a BA in journalism from Central Michigan University - though the best education I received there was from CM Life, its student-run newspaper. Long before that, I started pursuing my degree in video games by bugging my older brother to let me play Zelda on the Super Nintendo. I've previously been a news intern for GameSpot, a news writer for CVG, and now I'm a staff writer here at GamesRadar.

See more Games Features
Read more
Hopper in Stranger Things 4
David Harbour once thought his fan favorite Stranger Things character Hopper should've died in season 1
Homer, Marge, Lisa, and Bart Simpson in The Simpsons season 36
The Simpsons pulls a Game of Thrones and 'kills' one of its best characters, leaving fans clutching their red pearls
Syril Karn and Dedra Meero in Andor season 2
Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy explains that shocking season 2 death: "It's so elementally Greek and dramatic"
Diego Luna as Cassian Andor in Andor season 2
Star Wars fans are in mourning after that major Andor season 2 death, and it's made even worse by one tragic detail
Josh Holloway in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Lost and Yellowstone star says his Mission: Impossible fate was originally very different, and very gory - and involved being cut open by Paula Patton: "They said, 'It's just too harsh'"
Kevin Spacey in Seven
32 movies where the bad guys win
Latest in Games
Team Fortress 2 Sniper calls somebody on a payphone
A Steam Deck user with an extra thumb asked if anyone had an adapter that would fit their hand – the next day someone had 3D printed one, and then someone else 3D printed an extra thumb so we can all enjoy it
Palworld
"Save them Bucky": Fans hope for the best after Palworld and Pocketpair Publishing lead asks Romero Games about its defunded game – "Would love to hear more about this project if possible"
Super Mario Party Jamboree
The Mario Party developer's first new game on Switch 2 is already out: it's Welcome Tour, the weird and divisive tech demo
A young man scanning a reef while looking at an alien fish during the trailer for Subnautica 2.
"No subscriptions. No loot boxes. No battle pass": Subnautica 2 devs address concerns following major leadership changes, insist "it will remain a single-player first experience"
Mecha Break
Mecha Break's $47 skin packs and gameplay-boosting auction house drag user reviews down to "mixed" even as the shooter's concurrent player count hits 132k on Steam
Dying Light
Dying Light dev Techland acknowledges cancelled games but says it didn't lay anyone off: "Developers were moved to other projects and are working on a number of games"
Latest in Features
Superman
Krypto the Superdog - The comic history of Superman's best friend
All-New Spider-Gwen: The Ghost Spider #1
Spider-Gwen's new comic introduces her own personal symbiote villain, Tantrum: "Tantrum is the embodiment of everything Gwen was trying to leave behind"
A screenshot from Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 showing Maelle fighting an enemy.
I accidentally became a god in Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, and it broke combat so badly that I had to nerf myself to keep things fun even on Expert mode
Multiple Jans discuss their situation in The Alters
My current GOTY contender sold itself to me with an out-of-nowhere musical number, and I can't praise that choice enough
Death Stranding
6 years too late, I bring lukewarm takes: Death Stranding rules, and we should all play more games outside of our comfort zone
María Gabriela de Faría as The Engineer
James Gunn's Superman may be setting up The Authority movie with its enigmatic villain The Engineer
  1. Sam fires at the ghost mech squid boss in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
    1
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  2. 2
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  3. 3
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  4. 4
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  5. 5
    Dune: Awakening review: "Both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time – yet still a true Dune love letter"
  1. A T-rex in Jurassic World Rebirth
    1
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  2. 2
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  3. 3
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  4. 4
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  5. 5
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...