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.
Yeah Cyberpunk really made me feel for the guards. Remember one time a guy was shown chilling on a railing, kinda shirking from his post but he was on the phone like calling his kid. Like I was about to put a knife thru that phone and his head, and it just made me feel like such a pos. Hell even the name of a enemy class, whenever I see “recruit” for any of the gangs I go non lethal just cuz they’re probably kids too dumb or poor to be elsewhere.
The more shards you read the more you just don’t want to kill anyone besides the scummiest, like you said Maelstrom and Scavs mainly.