When you boil it down past all the gameplay mechanics, stat systems, and combat, games are here to do one thing; tell us a story. That story can be anything from a vendetta against those who murdered your loved ones, a story about adventure and excitement, or a story of simply trying to survive in a world with no hope. There are some games that allow us to get so attached to the characters, so enthralled in their stories that our emotions get the better of us and you may feel that twinge in your chest, that lump in your throat, or that tear roll down your eye. This post will be about some of the scenes in games that did so to me.
*Beware all ye who enter, spoilers lie ahead*
I'll start off with a recent game that came out, Horizon Zero Dawn. I'll be the first to admit, when I saw the first trailers for this game, I was excited at the prospect of hunting robot dinosaurs, but had no real interest in Aloy as she was presented. There's something about the whole tribal look that has started to wear thin on me for some reason, and I figured I would enjoy this game more for it's gameplay than it's story. However, I ended up being very wrong. Aloy's entire story is about trying to figure out who she really is and why she is forced in being alone in this dangerous yet beautiful world. She always puts up a fierce front because the world she knows has always been against her. That is, unless the player initiates a completely missable part of the game.
At any point, the player can return to Rost's grave and interact with it. Doing so, Aloy will sit down and speak to Rost about some of the events that have occured and what her current goal is. I had personally discovered this at one point, but then forgot about it for the majority of the game. Once I was ready for the final encounter, I remembered it and returned, and what occured was a scene that definitely tugged at my heart strings. The voice acting as she speaks to Rost of the upcoming final encounter is phenomenal, and you can see Aloy for who she really is at that moment; a lonely girl with no family, about to march into an encounter she feels she will not survive. If you have completed the game but did not see this scene, I highly recommend going back and viewing it.
The next scene is one I'm sure most of you are familiar with, the giraffe scene from The Last of Us. Anyone who has played through the game knows that TLoU is a story about loss and suffering, about the harsh realities of a world gone despot, but with such striking moments of innocence that it yet leaves hope for the future. Up to this point in the game, we know that Joel and Ellie have both suffered loss and tragedy, and while Joel has finally seemed to let go of some of his past guilt, Ellie seems to have become more subdued than usual. With the end goal in sight, there's an air of anticipation, but with an underlying feeling of something dark or sad. This is temporarily forgotten when Ellie spies something in the distance, and Joel chases her through the ruins of the city. When you finally catch up, you see Ellie entranced with a herd of giraffe. You experience Ellie's excitement and wonder in getting to pet it, then make your way to the roof, which offers a beautiful yet contrasting view of the city skyline mixed with the overgrown vegetation of a baseball field while a gentle tune plays. One of the things I love most about this scene is that the two will stand here in silence until the player chooses to leave. Having a scene so poignant happen screamed to me that something bad was waiting just around the corner, and I wished to myself that I could just leave the two here in peace forever.
Another scene that comes to mind that shares a similair vein to the two games I mentioned above is the guitar scene from Bioshock Infinite. This is another missable event that shows a moment of sombreness and innocence in a world otherwise gone mad. In Booker we have another protagonist troubled by his past and seemingly out for himself, but who comes to care for Elizabeth and the hardships she's endured. By this point in the game, we've jumped through rifts and noticed that the world seems to be heading down a darker road at every turn, with the Vox Populi rising to power and more blood being spilled in the streets. In the basement of the Shantytown bar though, there's a guitar leaning up against a chair, and the player can choose to play it. Elizabeth picks up the tune and sings a few lines from a song, and it's a truly touching scene in a game that is otherwise filled with betrayal and death, and while it is not overly long, it left a lasting impression on me. This is another time I wished I could just stop progressing through the game, because we all know that worse is yet to come.
As a bonus, below is a link to Troy Baker and Courtnee Draper going over the entire song and it sounds amazing (with special guest appearance by Ken Levine!).
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So those are a few of my favorite scenes from games that really left an emotional imprint on me. What are some of yours? Mordin's sacrifice in Mass Effect 3? The seeming loss of Agro in Shadow of the Colossus? Feel free to share below, and thanks for reading!