10 Video Game Protagonists Who Were Doomed From The Start

Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs features one of the most tragic protagonists in gaming history with Mandus. 

Mandus is, on no uncertain terms, a a genius - but one that became hampered by an increasing cynicism with the human form. Upon witnessing a vision while in Mexico that told him of WWI, the most devastating war in human history (a war that would claim the lives of his sons), Mandus' cynicism morphs into unbridled hatred. His machine - his masterpiece - originally built to help humanity, would be made instead to wipe them out before the coming of the 20th century. 

At the 11th hour, when the game actually begins, Mandus suddenly awakens from the years-long madness he has been trapped in. He spends the entire game trying desperately to stop the machine, to stop the horror he had set in motion, only to realize that there can be no redemption for what he's done. To build this horror, it's revealed that he killed his two sons before the human race could do it for him, and had sacrificed countless innocents to build his army of man-pigs. There is only one way a story like this can end. 

Mandus travels to the centre of his machine and gives his life to stop it. And, moments later, the clock strikes midnight, and the 20th century begins.