8 Video Games That Punished You For Being Good

When it comes to video games, it's not uncommon for players to take up the mantle of the forces of good and work together or strike out alone in order to take down whatever horrible evil is plaguing the land.

It all stems from our collective narrative structures love of "The Hero", and through the medium of video games, we can actually be that Warrior Of Light and Justice.

However as the industry has progressed, and player choice has come to be something valued more and more, video games have adapted to offer playthroughs that aren't quite as shiny and pure as those tales of old.

Here we can be anti-heroes, renegades only looking out for themselves, and in many cases, video games can actually reward us for being jerks and scumbags!

Yet some games take this even further, by not just rewarding Evil choices, but actively punishing those that try to walk the Path of Good. These games teach you that purity is akin to piety, and it's going to be that much harder to take on evil when you're rocking naught but a loincloth and a positive outlook on life.

Papers, Please is one of the only video games I can think of that manages to get over a sense of pure intimidation in its title alone. That singular comma between the two words tells you everything about this game before you've even played it. It's authoritative, restrictive, and altogether exasperated.

You play as a glorious member of Arstotzka working as an immigration inspector at the border of your country. A cease-fire has recently been announced between your homeland and its neighbor but political tension is still at an all-time high. Therefore you need to examine and cross-check those looking to move from one country to another to limit events escalating once more.

However it's not as simple as things might first appear, as while people show up without the proper documentation or with things that were completely correct yesterday, new rules have rendered their application obsolete. As then spin you sob stories about how they want to see their family, Papers, Please becomes a battle between your moral compass and the Big Brother state in which you live.

And of course, bending the rules to let people through results in severe punishment, not just for you but for your family as well. By being fined you won't be able to afford heating or medicine for your family, and thus it becomes a pretty harsh experience of ignoring what is right to do what you're told is right.