9 Videogame Characters Who Were Punished Far Too Severely

By Edward Owen /

Videogames tend to take place in a world of absolutes €“ good versus evil, the bad guys versus the good guys. After all, it needs to be this way so we know what we're fighting against. If our enemies are quite nice chaps really, then it kind of takes the fun out of proceedings. I know some games like to upset the apple-cart with this rule but by and large, the goalposts remain the same. However, when we transfer this black-and-white thinking into more open-world or inventive games, we can occasionally see things go ever-so-slightly wrong, with groups of characters grabbing their torch and pitchforks for minor crimes or trivial actions. Such consequences can either be hilarious or ridiculous depending on where you find themselves €“ in some sandboxes, accidentally stealing a butter knife might inadvertently put you on the other end of a vigilante boomstick, and in others (GTA IV, for one) rear-ending a police car at no speed at all can result in a trip to the slammer. The point is that sometimes games have no idea of proper retribution, and anyone who's ended up in a firefight over spilled milk can attest to this truth. So with this in mind, I've decided to take a look at certain videogame characters where the punishment almost certainly did not fit the crime. In fact, the subjects of these punishments might've just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way up, they fought the law, and the law hit them with a sack of bricks and then burnt down their house. Before we begin, I must point out that a SPOILER WARNING is in effect.