10 Video Games That Punish You For Showing Mercy

In The Witcher 2's first chapter, players are given the option of either siding with rebel elf Iorveth or Blue Stripes commander Roche when the latter crashes your meeting with Letho.

If you decide to give Iorveth his sword back at his insistence, this has the later consequence of prompting Bernard Loredo to start a race massacre in Flotsam, whereby the humans there band together to slaughter the non-human residents.

That's... quite the butterfly effect moment, especially considering that if you rebuff Iorveth and instead punch him in the throat, Loredo will throw a party in Flotsam, and the only immediate casualty will be the suicide of brothel proprietor Margot.

In terms of pure body count it's clear that one choice is less harmful than the other, yet this isn't at all obvious while you're making the decision. And so, if you felt like giving Iorveth a break by handing his sword back, you probably regretted it a short while later.