9 Video Games Where You Lose No Matter What
6. XCOM
In the XCOM games you play as the leader of the anti-alien paramilitary force, attempting to save the earth from all manner of enemies, including psychic martian-looking grey men; large, well-armored brutish mutated berserkers; giant sword-limbed insects that lay eggs in corpses; and gangly men in suits that are secretly large-breasted snake women in disguise. Yeah, it's a wild game.
But with the release of XCOM 2 you have to come to the realization that you failed in the first game. XCOM 2 takes place twenty years in the future where you play as a leader of what remains of the XCOM organization - relegated to a resistance force now.
Many argue that XCOM 2 is an 'alternate universe' where the player lost, but lacking an XCOM 1.5 where you play a happily married retired military commander, there is no canon game where the player succeeds. And even discounting that - at least in XCOM 2, you failed your mission, the aliens won. The booby snakes took over the earth, which I guess means the true victors are the aliens and the furry community.