10 Video Game Moments Where You Were Screwed Either Way

3. Fallout: New Vegas - Vault 34

Fallout games could have filled out this list between faction disputes, troublesome quests, and inadvertently pissing off your companions, but the biggest lose/lose we couldn’t leave out has to be Vault 34 in New Vegas. Essentially Vault 34 is a ticking time bomb. It’s leaking radiation into the water which is causing the crops of nearby farms to die and subsequently creating widespread famine among those dependent on those farms.

So, you do your hero thing and check it out, but it turns out there are still people trapped inside. You’ve got two choices, deactivate the reactor to save the townspeople outside the vault dooming those inside to a slow death in the dark, or reactivate it so they can escape, thereby dooming those outside to starve by continuing to destroy their food source. It’s a horrible choice and neither outcome is good. Even the game seems to feel super bad for putting you into that situation as there’s no karma punishment either way.