Gaming's most emotional moments

Features
By published

Let's all shed some tears for the most weep-worthy scenes

It’s always an awkward moment. Your mom/roommate/girlfriend walks in on you in a dark room to find you clutching a controller, sobbing like an X Factor finalist. They’ll never understand. They’ll never ‘get’ why you’re so upset or why the death or sacrifice of a video game character can have any emotional impact; especially when you express your pain by going on an in-game revenge-fuelled rampage as a result. But forget about them.

The Darkness

The moment: It’s bad news discovering, on your 21st birthday, that you’re about to be possessed by an evil spirit that’s cursed your entire family for generations. So it’s good to have a lifelong sweetheart to fall back on. You can even cozy up with her on the sofa at the start of the game, watch an old movie and exchange love banter. It’s a nice touch, and one that makes the scene where you’re forced to watch your mob-boss rival shoot her in the head all the more powerful.

As sad as… Watching a busload of kittens drive off the side of a cliff.

Shadow of the Colossus

The moment: He’s been your faithful companion throughout everything. Your transport, friend and only constant, helping you find and kill massive creatures as you attempt to revive your dead girlfriend. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking when, as you gallop across a collapsing bridge, he bucks, throwing you clear as he falls to his apparent death. Worse still the game then hangs, leaving you standing at the ledge and forcing you to choose to walk away and leave him. But if you think that leaves you crying big salty man tears, you just wait until he limps battered but alive through the door at the end.

As sad as… Old Yeller being ‘put down’ by a shotgun

God of War: Chains of Olympus

The moment: True, Kratos did kill his wife and daughter in a murderous red mist while working for Ares. But it was sort of an accident and he was really sorry. During the events of Chains - which sees the world put to sleep when Helios, the god of the sun is kidnapped - Kratos ends up in the underworld to confront Persephone, Hades’ missus who’s behind everything. There he finds his daughter and gives up everything to be with his little girl. Unfortunately, Persephone reveals she’s going to commit suicide to end her unhappy marriage, destroying all existence. As a result the only way Kratos can save his daughter is to leave her forever in order to punch Persephone into a fine paste.

As sad as… Stubbing your toe on a cabinet.