Summary
Spoilers ahead for games created by LucasArts, Platinum Games, Bungie, CDProjekt RED, BioWare, & Arrowhead Game Studios
Despite the seeming beauty in futuristic technology found in some of the bestsci-figames, death seems to follow, and in many of these titles, the protagonist has their fate sealed in sorrow. The main character dies in thesesci-figames, showcasing that despite the advancement in technology, sometimes a sacrifice must be made, or sometimes, things just don’t work out like they are supposed to, providing both sad and bitter-sweet endings.
Inthese sci-fi gameswhere the main character dies, players can find truly immersive experiences thanks to the stellar world-building and events that transpire, so long as they can deal with the fact that some beloved characters aren’t making it past the credits, and their stories end in tragedy and final goodbyes.
6Star Wars: The Force Unleashed
Starkiller Dies Fighting Emperor Palpatine, For Friends & His Identity
Whilst the eternal debate onStar Wars’ place in pop culture as fantasy or sci-fi rages on, a pretty compelling case remains that the franchise has laser swords and starships, so it’s allowed some leeway in the debate on whether it’s a sci-fi game.Star Wars: The Force Unleashedgives players a new lens through the Legends timeline, in which they follow the narrative ofDarth Vader’s Sith Apprentice, Starkiller, as he discovers the imbalance of the Force within him whilst he questions who he is.
Starkiller’s story has him discover his name, Galen Marek, and he uses his newfound experiences with the Rebel Alliance and his discovery of the Light side of the Force to best Darth Vader in combat. Yet, this fight is interrupted by Emperor Palpatine, to whom Galen fights rather than joins to rule the galaxy. Galen is no match for Palpatine, and the Force Lightning from this Sith Lord spells fatal to Galen, who dies at peace, knowing his friends have escaped, and he is no Sith.
There are more than a handful of endings forNier: Automata. There are in fact 27 of them, but the main ending, the A-route of Flowers For Machines, is the one most players would have encountered. This ending has 2B and 9S fight Eve and the life force that connects to machines, raising an onslaught that could spell devastation. Yet, 9S hacks into Eve to put a stop to it, but in the process, becomes corrupted, and asks 2B to kill him.
2B abidesby this wish, with the emotional realization that the 9S that can be returned through a backup will not be this exact 9S with emotion. It’s a sad ending, but 9S lives on with the intact consciousness regenerating the machine network to provide emotion and consciousness, allowing a bitter-sweet roll of credits with 9S’s body dead, but the mind lives on within the machine.
There is no greater tragedy than the fall of Reach to theHalocommunity. The story and the game itself are one of the emotional highlights of the series, and immersing in the shoes ofthis Spartan group, only to see them die one-by-one in tragic sacrifice for the hope of a better world, one where the war is won against the terrors of the Covenant, can bring a tear to even Master Chief’s eye.
The end ofHalo Reachhas the Noble Team dying to protect the Autumn and bring humanity the information they need to perhaps save not only humanity but the universe. With one objective in the end, to survive, players must fight back the Covenant and their triumphant tears until death calls to them to bring peace at last.
The majority of V’s quest inCyberpunk 2077is to desperately uncover a cure that can save their life, after being shot in the head and killed, only to be brought back thanks to the Relic chip in V’s head, which held the engram of Johnny Silverhand. The two work together, begrudgingly or as friends, to try and cure V, so Johnny can be with Alt, and V can live again without having their mind taken over by a chip that’s overriding the brain.
No matter what avenue V pursues, the abusiveness of Night City shows its face at every turn, and V discovers that not even the Blackwall can help, nor the most powerful corporation in the world. V is going to die, and it’s just a matter of time after the credits roll. That is, unless they complete thePhantom Libertyending, but even then, V’s chance at life is as the average nobody.
Mass Effect 3is a controversial one, for it capped off the highly respected and belovedMass Effecttrilogy by providing an illusion of choice for the finale in which the consequence was seemingly the same. Regardless of the outcome,Commander Sheperd isn’t making it out alive, and they can either die and become a guiding AI to direct the Reapers into aiding humanity and spreading that hope across the universe, or eradicate them all, along with themselves and their allies.
It narrows down to an evil sacrifice or a good sacrifice, but at the end of the day, Shepard will die regardless. Despite numerous DLCs to try and make amends for the conclusion ofMass Effect 3, losing an icon that could rival some amazing sci-fi heroes is hard to come back from, especially after the galactic adventures had with Shepard and the Normandy crew.
Part of the amazing emerging storytelling inHelldivers 2comes from the fact that players are so integral to the narrative. Each player controls their own Helldiver, a member of Super-Earth that fights to spread Democracy in the Solar System and beyond and tohelp defend Super-Earthfrom alien threats, regardless of origin or intent.
As players battle against Automatons and Terminids, they will find themselves dying, a lot, only to come back as a redeploy as a completely new Helldiver ready for active duty, until they too are killed in action. Each death counts toward the total statistics of Helldivers lost, and the absurd satirical military narrative adds both humor and story to how death is endless and somewhat meaningless for Helldivers of Super-Earth.
