20 Most Important Gaming Deaths This Decade

The third and concluding part of our series on important fictional deaths throughout the last decade arrives with a look at the 20 most important deaths over the last 10 years of gaming (be sure to check out our TV and film lists too). Death is a considerably bigger part of gaming than it is either TV or film, given how the primary objective of most games involves killing enemies ad nauseum throughout the campaign. That said, it's hard to pay much attention to all the machine gun fodder, but what about those deaths that actually, really mattered? Whether they're the deaths of the protagonist, the villain, or a beloved supporting character, these 20 character deaths were extremely memorable, sometimes emotional and in a few cases, rather controversial. They may not have proved satisfying to everyone, but they're pretty much impossible to forget: at the best of times they made us feel something deeply, on occasion they challenged our ideas about what the video game medium was capable of, and in other instances we just flat-out raged at what was unfolding before our eyes. Did we miss any vital gaming death scenes this decade? Did any of these deaths annoy or upset you? Let us know in the comments!

20. The Boss - Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (2004)

Arguably Hideo Kojima's most grounded and engrossing entry into the Metal Gear Solid franchise, Snake Eater had us playing Big Boss, who spent the game chasing down his former mentor, The Boss, after she defected to the Soviet Union. Snake Eater climaxes with an outstanding, beautifully-staged final boss fight, in which Naked Snake has to bring The Boss down in a field of white flowers. After the fight ends, the mortally wounded Boss asks Snake to finish her, with the line, "There's only room for one Boss and one Snake." Now, the player is tasked with finishing the job themselves: the game will simply stay on the static shot pictured above until the player pulls the trigger themselves, heightening the emotion and player involvement in the scene. After pulling the trigger, the flowers begin to turn red, and at the very end of the game, we find out that The Boss had not been the defector we presumed her to be, making both Big Boss and the player feel disgusted and deceived. With the help of its genius plot twist, The Boss manages to die a hero, but not one that can ever be celebrated or championed. Tragic and devastating.