10 Video Game Endings With Disturbing Implications You Totally Missed

8. Medal Of Honor: Warfighter - AWOL

Warfighter caused some serious controversy - not least when it was revealed that seven members of Naval Special Warfare Development Group who worked as consultants for EA had been disciplined for releasing classified information - and the ending was another of those modern "Horrors Of War" endings that sought to make the player think.

EA decided to have Preacher weighing up whether to report back for duty, or desert to fix his family life, despite the formerly gleeful embrace of the mythology of the soldier (the idea of them as supermen.) The idea might be half-baked, and slightly odd considering the trajectory of the rest of the narrative (and the presentation of characters specifically) but it was an interesting way to leave the game.

But wait...

Doesn't desertion still carry a fairly hefty punishment? Honour and dedication to his family is one thing, but winding up locked up in prison for ignoring a mission (which is presumably what awaits if he were to answer his mobile) is a fairly counter-productive solution.

The key thing is that Preacher's desertion would weaken the unit, especially in deployment, and his punishment would presumably be greater than any "normal" soldier. There's also a further implication. Though he's seen some serious action, and untold horrors of war by the end of the game, and the ending suggests he has had his fill of duty, Warfighter is keen to stress that the soldiers involved are action-hero-like thrill seekers, as opposed to particularly patriotic men.

And if Preacher cannot get his thrills from his own army, which he may or may not desert (the implication is he does,) he may find himself tempted to go mercenary, which would presumably be deemed joining another force while AWOL. That's often called treason (depending on the client,) and the penalty for that tends to be fairly severe...