‘The Last of Us’ and other heartbreaking moments in video games

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than with a good cry? Here are some of the most heartbreaking moments in video games like The Last of Us and Metal Gear Solid. 

While some people may be revelling in love and fuzzy feeling this Valentine’s Day, some might prefer to dwell on heartache and pain. Don’t ask why. Perhaps Valentine’s brings out the masochist hidden in them. Perhaps you like the pain because your heart feels numb and you haven’t felt anything in years.

Well if you’re of those people and you have no money to talk to a shrink, then pursue this list of some of the most heartbreaking moments in video games. “Why can’t it be movies?”, you ask. Because films are too common. There’s nothing like playing a game and getting your emotions utterly wrecked. It’s a different kind of hurt.

Fair warning: spoilers are ahead for these games as well as for the first season and very likely the second season of HBO’s The Last of Us. You’ve been warned.

From The Last of Us to Bioshock Infinite, here are some of the most heartbreaking moments in video games.

The Last of Us – Sarah’s death

While those who watched the series were left reeling at the death of Sarah in the first episode, those who’ve played the game already knew what was happening. That doesn’t mean we weren’t affected by it though. Especially in the game, the player only spends a brief time with Sarah only to have her die tragically just a few minutes later. It perfectly set the tone for what was to come. 

Stray – B-12 sacrifices himself

Throughout the entirety of this game, your only companion is a cute little robot drone named B-12. He guides you and pretty much serves as your voice because, uh, cats don’t talk. So it was utterly heartbreaking that when you get to the end of the game, you realise that B-12 can’t make it out with you. After suffering damage from powering the various control panels, B-12 musters the last of his strength to open the city up so that you could roam free. 

Red Dead Redemption – John Marston’s last stand 

The ending of the first Red Dead game is poignantly tragic. You play John Marston, a former outlaw who’s trying to leave his past behind. But when his son and wife get taken away, he stops at nothing to get them back. In the end, he does succeed, but his past won’t let go of him and he is forced to remain and face the goons wanting to kill him so his family could go free. Outnumbered, John dies a heroic death.

But that isn’t enough. Rockstar Games decided to break our hearts a little more by showing that John’s son killed the man responsible for his father’s death years later. A satisfying retribution yet tinged with the notion that the violent life John lived has now passed on to his son. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 – Arthur gets tuberculosis

If it was any other game, a permanent debuff on your character would be very annoying. In Red Dead’s sequel, the main character, Arthur Morgan, finds out he has tuberculosis, which does have an effect on the game and not just the story. But it also serves as the start of Arthur’s reckoning with his own mortality. Knowing he’s about to die, his perspective on the world shifts and he tries to make up for all the things he’s done as an outlaw. His internal conflict and fear are made evident in this short yet moving scene with a nun. In the end, Arthur dies spending the last of his strength trying to do the right thing.

The Last of Us Part II – Joel is killed

The first game started with an emotional gut-wrench from the get-go and the second game is no different. While many gamers expected that they would spend the majority of the game playing Ellie, they also expected that Joel would accompany her or at least just, y’know, be there. But Neil Druckmann knows how not just to break our hearts but also stomp on its pieces, so what did he do? Joel is brutally killed with a golf club right in front of Ellie—by Abby, the girl you play in the second half of the game. Fun, right?

And now we have that to look forward to in Season 2.

Final Fantasy VII – Aerith’s death

Who could forget the OG moment that broke every gamer’s heart? Players spend half of the game with Aerith, a carefree young woman who would be an integral part of the party as a healer and would also be 1/3 of the love triangle with Cloud and Tifa (Team Aerith or Team Tifa? The debate rages on until today). And then bam, she suddenly gets stabbed by the villain, Sephiroth. The death took gamers by surprise. Many even thought that surely she would come back later on in the game. Nope; Aerith was irrevocably dead.

But there might be hope. The end of Final Fantasy VII Remake revealed that it’s taking place in an alternate timeline. Maybe Aerith doesn’t die in that one? Fingers crossed.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – The Boss’ death

Hideo Kojima’s critically acclaimed video game series has a very convoluted and confusing storyline and lore, though what else can you expect from Kojima? Even though the plot can be dizzying, Kojima doesn’t fail to pull off emotional moments. There have been countless of them over the course of Metal Gear Solid, but a major one was in the franchise’s third game, Snake Eater. One of the major antagonists is the legendary soldier known as The Boss, who defected to the Soviet Union and was also the mentor of the main character, Snake. Without getting into the overwhelming details, the end of the game is a standoff between the two with Snake reluctantly killing his mentor. It’s revealed later though that her defection was a ruse and that she was acting on the orders of the US government. Due to complications, the only way the US government could absolve itself of any involvement was to pin it on her, which it did. Snake would be awarded the title Big Boss for killing his mentor, but it would be the start of his jaded perspective of the world, eventually causing him to be the main villain in the series. 

Borderlands 2 – No one attends Claptrap’s birthday

Every item on this list has involved someone dying so let’s change it up a bit, though that doesn’t mean it’s going to get less sad. Players meet the annoying and somewhat xenophobic robot Claptrap early in the game. The entire game is filled with funny moments and characters but this robot is perhaps the best comic relief here. One sidequest involves Claptrap throwing a birthday party for himself. He enlists the help of the player to invite others—and everyone declines. The party is just the player eating pizza and watching Claptrap dance awkwardly before the robot realises that no one was coming and that he had bought too much pizza. He may be annoying and racist sometimes but that was still painful to witness.

Marvel’s Spider-Man – Aunt May’s death

Before No Way Home, 2018’s Spider-Man gave Peter Parker the difficult decision of saving his aunt or saving everyone else. After a mass outbreak affects many people in New York including Aunt May, Peter must fight Doc Ock to get the cure. He eventually succeeds but upon returning to May, he discovers that she needs to cure now or else she’ll succumb to the virus and die. But if he does that, that means a cure can’t be synthesised. Keeping to his motto of “great power, great responsibility”, Peter reluctantly doesn’t cure his aunt for the sake of everyone else. May dies, but not before revealing that she also knew Peter was Spider-Man all along.

Bioshock Infinite – Elizabeth and Booker’s true identities are revealed

Aside from the run-and-gun gameplay and steampunk setting, Bioshock Infinite’s mysterious plot was something that drew players in. All players knew was that the main character they were playing, Booker DeWitt, had been hired to save a girl named Elizabeth. After doing that and finally unravelling the mystery of… well, everything,  all questions are eventually answered but it’s not necessarily a happy ending. It turns out that the main baddie is actually Booker himself who has spiralled into religious delusions and that there are multiple versions of him in other timelines. Elizabeth is also his daughter who also suffers in those timelines because of him. The only solution? Booker willingly dies as multiple Elizabeths drown him.

Most Popular