The moment that inspired this question:
A long time ago I was playing an MMO called Voyage of the Century Online. A major part of the game was sailing around on a galleon ship and having naval battles in the 1600s.
The game basically allowed you to sail around all of the oceans of the 1600s world and explore. The game was populated with a lot of NPC ships that you could raid and pick up its cargo for loot.
One time, I was sailing around the western coast of Africa and I came across some slavers. This was shocking to me at the time, and I was like “oh, I’m gonna fuck these racist slavers up!”
I proceed to engage the slave ship in battle and win. As I approach the wreckage, I’m bummed out because there wasn’t any loot. Like every ship up until this point had at least some spare cannon balls or treasure, but this one had nothing.
… then it hit me. A slave ship’s cargo would be… people. I sunk this ship and the reason there wasn’t any loot was because I killed the cargo. I felt so bad.
I just sat there for a little while and felt guilty, but I always appreciated that the developers included that detail so I could be humbled in my own self-righteousness. Not all issues can be solved with force.
Red dead redemption 2 for sure. It’s hard to pick because there are a lot of profound experiences in that game. The part where Arthur is riding back after Guarma when d’angelo starts playing definitely stands out. It just made me think about how some people just get trapped in these shitty situations that are just tragic. It’s easy to say what you would / wouldn’t do in that situation but the gang were Arthur’s family and it’s not that easy to just walk away from the only community you have and the only life you’ve ever known.
The writing in RDR2 is just incredibly good, and Rockstar’s engine, the meticulous level building, and fluid animation seal the deal. It really felt like a movie that I could play, in a much more meaningful way than eg. Quantic’s games.
It’s honestly a bit hilarious how antiquated Starfield looks and feels and how stiff the animation still is compared to RDR2, considering it’s… what, 6 years old? 5?
This one came to my mind too. What’s surreal is it comes out of nowhere, and just adds a level of rawness and authenticity to the game you never thought existed. I think it’s brilliant.