7 Video Game Character Deaths That Carried Real Weight

Being a medium that is has so many nameless and faceless monsters dying and respawning without consequence, gamers tend to take life and death for granted.

It's those rare cases when a character dies - and stays dead - that really stick with you. The cases are rare for a number of reasons: Killing off a major character in a game is a very daunting task, and most developers don't want to pull that proverbial trigger without good reason.

Death has to be permanent in order to carry the proper weight, and the prospect of suddenly and permanently removing an aspect of the story or a particular game mechanic can be extremely daunting.

How does the player replace the functionality of a lost character, and how does the loss of said character impact the story? These questions and more go into the removal of a key character, and with the inevitable and merciful death of 2016 being imminent, here are seven times a character death was done right.

This is your blanket spoiler warning. Enter at your own risk...

Ryan may not be the final boss of Bioshock, however make no mistake, he is most definitely meant to be an antagonist. In his own words, "It is only when we struggle in our own interest does the chain pull society in the right direction."

In a sense, Ryan makes the argument that greed is not only good, but necessary for the benefit of all. Of course, the decaying and splicer-infested corpse of Rapture shows just how well that worked out for him.

Once confronted, Ryan lays bare the motivation the player has - namely that the player was told to do things and did them without thinking for themselves because that was how they were programmed. A sleeper agent sent to Rapture by Atlas to take down Ryan. All using a simple question that doubles as a trigger phrase to strip the protagonist of will:

Would you kindly?

Ryan then proceeds to demonstrate his power over the character in a chilling sequence as Rapture bursts at the seams around him. With one last order he commands the player to kill him, and the player character obeys without input.

In essence, Ryan won. He chose his own death and forced you to do it.

After all, a man chooses. A slave obeys.