Any good truly miserable fantasy games? :)

[MrTargareyan]

For some reason; I feel an urge to by a fantasy game that is so miserable, it makes people want to be culled. I'm not really sure why, but after playing Skyrim and oblivion for ages they don't seem quite..well..miserable enough. So I am looking for a medieval fantasy game where you play a warrior who seems to spend all his time watching your family, friends and children get eviscerated because someone, somewhere enjoys it. Preferably where the protagonist meets a horrifically brutal end. Kida like the game of thrones game, but with a better combat system. Any recommendations? p.s I would prefer 1st person games, I find 3rd person breaks my immersion in the plot for some reason

[Chairman_Tiel]

You have very...intriguing, tastes.

[Prototype]

How about this:
http://www.silvergames.com/nyan-cat

[Iv121]

OOH YOU OBVIOUSLY DIDN"T PLAY SKYRIM AND OBLIVION . Do what I do when I get bored by those two - Skyrim Nexus and Oblivion Nexus. I bet you will find there that specific mod that will make your game so screwed up you will throw your keyboard out of the window and as a result feel miserable , or at least not boring for a change - those things can really turn the game upside down . Apart from that most fantasy RPGs don't really make you miserable as hey nobody likes to feel miserable ...

Also in Skyrim you can adopt a child then kill him with the killable children mod and get your miserable experience (especially if they jump around you when you come home "daddy daddy !" *Takes out the axe* ) .

[Prototype]

If you're feeling miserable, I have the cure right here:

Spoiler:

If you want a miserable game, I dunno really, I would say bioshock, but that's too good to be miserable.

[Chairman_Tiel]

Mount and Blade, perhaps? That game has a fairly high rate of attrition and while you can't die, you can certainly be dragged around and lose everything if you happen to be cut down in battle. But like Iv said very little games go out of their way to make the protagonist suffer - it just isn't conducive to anything resembling plot or immersion.

I'm assuming you're looking for one of those satirical titles, though, the ones that sorta play out like A Series of Unfortunate Events in that the main appeal is grim humor, yes?

[҉]

Go read Consider Phlebas by Iain Banks.

Spoiler:

Everyone (I mean, like, every named character in the book) dies, most of them in some horrible and pointless manner.

The Doomsday Book by Connie WIllis (I think) is similar.

[Prototype]

Saw, the game, that's what you're looking for here

[Iv121]

Yea pretty much though I think it borders with sadism ...

[MrTargareyan]

I might have misread the description but mount and blade:Warband looks a bit like chivalry with horses?
@proto Saw the game probably wouldn't be my sort of thing, I prefer things were you come to genuinely love the characters, and things look relatively hopeful, but at the end you all get killed to death by a giant nyan cat. Kinda like oblivion but with the music played in a minor key. Its a shame there aren't many games that decide to upend misery on the protagonist, I rather like things like that. Speaking of which, if deanerys Targeryan gets killed off in the next book, im going to have to kill myself My online name for everything will have no meaning anymore Also, Bethesda really need to make a elder scrolls game set back in the time of the Ayleids, I would love to see Miscarand when it was shiny and new.

P.s Nyan game thingy made me so sad, when my poor cat ate 1 too many brussel sprouts :'(

[ACH0225]

A lot of our older literature has a focus on martyrdom. While dying for a cause isn't miserable, some people's families get martyred. You could also just write a sad book then read it to feel miserable.

[Chairman_Tiel]

ACH died.

The end.

[Iv121]

Well the conquest of Tamriel you want to see huh ? It could be an interesting setting but not one for the standard TES engine. The standard TES engines cannot support many characters on the screen while from such times I would expect massive scale battles. An experience like that in a video game is yet to be made and it will sure as hell drop the jaws of the gamers in its epicness (Compared to the 10 vs 10 TDM matches Skyrim allowed you to play when you joined the imperials or the stormcloaks ).

I think the thing you try to find is uncertainty. In most games you are sure you protagonist will be fine and so you never feel in danger or intrigued to find out if he made it. I really rarely recall games that give you such feeling, actually I rarely see the main character dying (at least in dramatic ways).

<WARNING: Real spoiler inside about Bioshock infinite>

Spoiler:

The latest death of this sort I can recall actually is the main protagonist in Bioshock infinite, but that death was so unexpected I didn't have time to feel anything for it apart from a slight shock from the great reveal

The closest anyone actually got to conveying this feeling to me was the old Russian WW2 movies. Unlike most of their American counterparts the main characters there died left and right and you never knew if the protagonists survives, just like in a real war. That is why most of them kept me intrigued throughout the whole movie. The Russian movie industry was never considered top notch but in my opinion they actually made the best ww2 action movies. That is only the old ones OFC, the new ones try to get closer to Hollywood and loose their charm, making em just another action movie.

In games ... I guess Sheppy makes you feel something when he or his friends die (or not) as the choices you took with him make the story quite personal so that would be a good place even though if you do it right they will all make it through (which in my opinion adds more charm to their survival)

[Chairman_Tiel]

In Skyrim sieging a castle = fighting 12 npcs with 4 buddies.

[Prototype]

Just remembered a game that would perfectly fit this, sorry for the slightly late post but:

Mother 3, I cannot believe I forgot about it.