10 Brutally Hard Decisions Video Games Forced You To Make

3. Using White Phosphorus On 'Enemy Troops' - Spec Ops: The Line

Another determinate masquerading as a choice - but that's entirely the point - there's a beat in Yager Development's military shooter that really makes you question just how desensitised we've become to violence in video games. Or have we? Is it all just mindless fun (yes), and is there something worth pointing out about how if you give a player the means to enact carnage on the biggest scale possible, that we'll do it without question?

Spec-Ops attempted to highlight this idea by having your trio of soldiers come up against a closed-off, enemy-filled expanse of land. You quickly notice they have within their possession some hazardous and skin-burning white phosphorus, yet you're given the choice to try and move through the area stealthily, or by other means. Following a few minutes of trying though, it's clear you're going to have to 'bring in the big guns'. That is, if you hadn't leaped at the chance of torching the whole lot of them already, and it's in pursuing this bloodlust that Spec-Ops made a point for the ages.

The mode used to control the phosphorus deployment is not that far away from Call of Duty 4's AC-130 heat-cam, and as you drop the bombs on various platoons, you'll find a group of heat signatures all clumped together, and pull the trigger with glee. Except... they weren't soldiers, they were hostages. If the whole setup played out as intended, the resulting "What have I done?!" sensation is something games very rarely - if ever - get right, and it remains one of the best medium-specific examples of a feeling games can pull off better than anything else.