7 Video Games That Broke Their Own Rules

Early on in Crystal Dynamics' 2013 reboot of the Tomb Raider series, this young and inexperienced Lara Croft is captured, bound, and beaten by a Russian man. Shortly after, the same man tries to sexually assault her, forcing her to kill him in retaliation.

Despite the fact that this guy clearly deserved it, the act of taking someone's life is utterly traumatic for Lara, who falls to her knees weeping, covered in his blood.

The game is telling us that this version of Lara isn't some happy-go-lucky, Nathan Drake-esque mass-murderer. She isn't okay with killing and she only did it out of necessity, and at the end of the day, she's just an archaeology student who's never had a proper fight.

Almost immediately after this scene though, this rule is broken: Lara suddenly becomes an unstoppable killing machine, shooting guys with arrows, stabbing them with pointy weapons, and even beating them with her bare fists. She doesn't show a lick of remorse, and she acts like she's been doing this for years.

Now sure, it wouldn't be a very fun game without combat, and Lara clearly has to fight in order to survive. But the whole rule of her being emotionally affected by killing is completely dropped after that initial scene. It's jarring, to say the least.