Bit of an explanation as to what prompted me to make this post: I recently played through Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 1 and 2 and I just felt off. I've slaughtered hundreds of innocents for my amusement in games like Fallout and TES, I play through No Russian with a grin, but for some reason, I refrain from killing bad guys in SGW? The first one has you hunt down Russian oligarchs and war criminals, while the second one is about Middle Eastern terrorists and this is the game where I feel bad about killing? There's just something about the soldiers talking about their daily problems like making no money, uncomfortable boots and sweating too much, or showing eachother pictures of their dogs, not to mention the absolute horror when you've got a knife against their throat or when they find a body. I hope this isn't weird, but I've never experienced remorse for killing a video game enemy, and I've played a lot of different games. I'd like to hear about your experiences, and which games do a good job humanising common enemies, the concept intrigues me.
I felt genuinely bad when GTA V forced me to torture some dude. I hate that scene and it stuck in my memory.
Stopped the campaign there in 2013 and haven't touched it since. Played some GTAO during the pandy but completely otherwise completely lost interest in the series because of that.
If you stopped during the torture scene, it may influence your opinion on the game to know how that mission ends. Trevor (the absolutely unhinged redneck lunatic you're playing as) helps the victim escape while ranting about how the entire concept of torture is flawed.
Rockstar is basically saying "Look, even this batshit insane criminal who regularly kills people without any sign of remorse knows that torture is useless."
I appreciate they were willing to go that far in the game. Kind of makes me wonder what 6 will have in store.