History Main / VulnerableCivilians

* Both installments of ''VideoGame/LethalEnforcers'' contains bystanders all over the place, and not only does shooting them remove points from your life, but will actually ''demote'' you by the end of the game (turning you from a sergeant or commander to a lowly patrolman or detective). Naturally, these bystanders have a [[TooDumbToLive nasty habit of sticking themselves out during shootouts for no reason]] other than to get into the players' way.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Crackdown}}'', jaywalking civilians can repeatedly get up after being struck by a car at high speed, provided that the driver is another civilian. However, they're very vulnerable in other ways - freaks specifically target civilians, for example.

* In ''[[VideoGame/BoilingPointRoadToHell Boiling Point: Road to Hell]]'', the player is free to engage in hostilities against everybody in Realia. This includes the civilian faction. They're not completely harmless, 'tho- cross a certain line, and old grannies will start peppering you with grenades, which they carry in their handbags. It's a tough country, after all.

** With the ''Dawnguard'' expansion installed, vampires can be even worse than dragons. Dragons can hit the small towns that are part of the overworld, but won't trouble the major walled cities (like Whiterun) that are treated as separate areas. ''Dawnguard'''s vampires, on the other hand, could care less about that-- they can and will spawn inside those cities to kill [=NPCs=], possibly before you ever reach them. And the major cities tend to contain the more important [=NPCs=], so a vampire attack in one of them has a much higher chance of locking you out of a quest or otherwise inconveniencing you.

* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' and ''VideoGame/Payday2'' has civilians that run around in panic when a heist goes down. Players can scream at the civilians to get down and even tie them up to claim them as a hostage. Because firefights between the players and the cops can get heated, civilians that are running around could get shot by you, resulting in a longer wait when respawning and losing money at the end of the mission as a penalty. Naturally, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the cops can shoot through civilians without hurting them.]]

* ''VideoGame/PAYDAYTheHeist'' has civilians that run around in panic when a heist goes down. Players can scream at the civilians to get down and even tie them up to claim them as a hostage. Because firefights between the players and the cops can get heated, civilians that are running around could get shot by you, resulting in a longer wait when respawning and losing money at the end of the mission as a penalty. Naturally, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the cops can shoot through civilians without hurting them.]]

* The ''VideoGame/FireEmblem'' series uses this from time to time. Most notably in the [[VideoGame/FireEmblemJugdral Jugdral games]], which prominently featured a demonic cult that hunted down and sacrificed children. Interestingly, saving a civilian resulted in an automatic level-up in ''Genealogy of the Holy War''.

* In ''[[VideoGame/BoilingPointRoadtoHell Boiling Point: Road to Hell]]'', the player is free to engage in hostilities against everybody in Realia. This includes the civilian faction. They're not completely harmless, 'tho- cross a certain line, and old grannies will start peppering you with grenades, which they carry in their handbags. It's a tough country, after all.

* Used in the ''VideoGame/{{Crusader}}'' games. Friendly fire is in fact quite possible if there are enough enemies, and since there are [[NoOSHACompliance civilians present in many dangerous areas of the game]]... In fact in some cases you ''should'' shoot them, as some of them will try to sound the alarm when they see you. The closest the game gets to penalizing the player for killing civilians is the fact that in the second game, they don't have anything of value to loot from their corpses.

* Played with in ''VideoGame/TheMatrixPathOfNeo'' during some escort missions. If you attack an npc they won't take damage, but if an enemy hurts them enough to kill them it's mission over.

* Used in ''VideoGame/TheSaboteur''. The Nazi soldiers occupying Paris gladly abuse and execute civilians, often just for the hell of it. It gets sadistic (as expected of the Nazis) when German soldiers pass civilians on the street and proceed punch them and beat them up for no real reason other than that they can. And if the civilians fight back, or are simply witnesses to the abuse, they get shot down as they attempt to run away, or get arrested and sent to some unspeakable fate.

Others have VulnerableCivilians. Some games, like the infamous ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' series, allow the player to go on a killing spree and cause all the chaos they want, but some put the [=NPCs=] directly in harm's way. These are VulnerableCivilians, the people whose lives are at risk from the dangers of the game world itself.

* Used in ''VideoGame/{{Prototype}}''. The zombies of the zombie apocalypse will happily chow down on the hapless citizens of New York City. [[VideogameCrueltyPotential And you can kill them yourself,]] if you want to.

* In [[VideoGame/{{BoilingPointRoadtoHell}} Boiling Point: Road to Hell]], the player is free to engage in hostilities against everybody in Realia. This includes the civilian faction. They're not completely harmless, 'tho- cross a certain line, and old grannies will start peppering you with grenades, which they carry in their handbags. It's a tough country, after all.

* The invulnerabillity of the VideoGame/GoldenEye1997 civilians depends on the difficulty levels. Turning them from meat shields into bullet sponges... which the military doesn't seem to care about either way. Of course, hiding behind them is fine... but rolling them over in a tank is not. Eventually.

* This is true of ''VideoGame/{{Postal}} 2''. A lot of [=NPCs=] will want to kill The Postal Dude, sure, but a lot of them will also readily attack each other--sometimes along ideological lines, sometimes just for the hell of it. You even get an achievement for seeing an NPC snap and start a fight unprovoked. Naturally, the rather dickish civilians of the hellhole known as [[IronicName Paradise, AZ]] are all completely vulnerable to ''your'' violence, but there's nothing to keep them from becoming threats to each other.

* In ''Videogame/DarkSouls'' and ''Videogame/DarkSoulsII'', non-player characters won't draw aggro from enemies, but enemy attacks can still hurt and kill them. Your attacks can also hurt and kill them. In most cases doing so will raise your Sin level (a bad thing unless you really enjoy being invaded).

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' uses a system similar to ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion'', where the smaller, open-area towns like Big Town, Canterbury Commons, Arefu, or Republic of Dave were occasionally subject to random monster attacks, which can result in the death of quest-related [=NPCs=]. In fact, monsters would sometimes spawn ''right inside the town itself''. At higher levels, this would often involve Yao Guai or Deathclaws, resulting in the death of everyone inside the town. Additionally, there are a number of named [=NPCs=], most notably the merchant caravans, that roam the wasteland and are likely to be eventually eaten by monsters. Especially the high-level monsters such as Albino Radscorpions from the ''Broken Steel'' DLC.

* ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' fixes the monster spawning locations so that monsters no longer randomly spawn right in the middle of settlements. It's still possible for monsters(such as the Deathclaws near Sloan or Cazadores near Jacobstown) to chase you into town and kill the residents, though. As with ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'', travelling and outdoor merchants, such as the 188 Trading Post and Grub & Gulp Rest Stop, are easy prey for Legionary Assassins, raiders, and other baddies. Often, they will [[LeeroyJenkins suicidally charge the enemy]].
* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', settlements can be attacked by Raiders, Gunners, or other monsters at any time, though Defense assets reduce the likelihood of this. Although merchants and most settlers can only be knocked unconscious by NPC attacks, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace the player can still accidentally kill them while they're down]], and one's death renders any [[InfinityPlusOneSword unique gear]] sold by them [[PermanentlyMissableContent unobtainable]]. A few NPC's, such as the Vault-Tec Rep, lack the partial invulnerability of settlers and can be killed by invading enemies. Like ''Skyrim'', [=NPCs=] have regenerating health so if they survive a random fight they won't die instantly when the next one happens.

* Done in very strange ways in VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown: during terror missions, the aliens would often ignore your soldiers for the chance to kill a civilian, if they had to choose. And FridgeLogic rears its ugly head when you realize the aliens had ''hours'' to themselves from when you were alerted of the mission to your actual arrival on scene, and apparently waited for you to show up before starting the civvie killing. Psychological warfare?

* Most of what was said about ''Oblivion'' above also applies to ''VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim'', with the added fact that a dragon can strike almost anywhere outdoors, including towns, and if you don't take it down quick then an NPC or two will most likely get caught in the crossfire and die. Some plot-critical [=NPCs=] are [[InvulnerableCivilians invulnerable]], but more often a family member, friend, or apprentice of the deceased will often take their place (if they were a shopkeeper or blacksmith or something), and those who knew them will now comment on what a tragic waste it was that their life was cut off.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', settlements can be attacked by Raiders, Gunners, or other monsters at any time, though Defense assets reduce the likelihood of this. Although merchants and most settlers can only be knocked unconscious by NPC attacks, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace the player can still accidentally kill them while they're down]], and one's death renders any [[InfinityPlusOneSword unique gear]] sold by them [[PermanentlyMissableContent unobtainable]]. A few NPC's, such as the Vault-Tec Rep, lack the partial invulnerability of settlers and can be killed by invading enemies.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'', settlements can be attacked by Raiders, Gunners, or other monsters at any time, though Defense assets reduce the likelihood of this. Although merchants can only be knocked unconscious by NPC attacks, [[IJustShotMarvinInTheFace the player can still accidentally kill them while they're down]], and one's death renders any [[InfinityPlusOneSword unique gear]] sold by them [[PermanentlyMissableContent unobtainable]].

* ''PAYDAYTheHeist'' has civilians that run around in panic when a heist goes down. Players can scream at the civilians to get down and even tie them up to claim them as a hostage. Because firefights between the players and the cops can get heated, civilians that are running around could get shot by you, resulting in a longer wait when respawning and losing money at the end of the mission as a penalty. Naturally, [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard the cops can shoot through civilians without hurting them.]]

* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Half-Life}}'', and its expansions, the player can kill just about everyone, including their fellow colleagues and security guards meant to help them. The only person that cannot be harmed is the mysterious and seemingly bulletproof G-Man.

* Played straight in ''{{Ultima}}: Martian Dreams'', where roaming monsters would attack and kill members of the Martian expedition if you left the doors to their houses open after visiting them. This made the game unwinnable, so you needed to remember to always close doors behind you to keep your buddies safe.

* ''{{Starcraft}}'' has a number of "civilian" and "scientist" units in some of the missions that are considered non-neutral units. They cannot attack at all, and have somewhat lower hit points than terran infantry units.

* In ''{{Crackdown}}'', jaywalking civilians can repeatedly get up after being struck by a car at high speed, provided that the driver is another civilian. However, they're very vulnerable in other ways - freaks specifically target civilians, for example.

* Used in ''TheSaboteur''. The Nazi soldiers occupying Paris gladly abuse and execute civilians, often just for the hell of it. It gets sadistic (as expected of the Nazis) when German soldiers pass civilians on the street and proceed punch them and beat them up for no real reason other than that they can. And if the civilians fight back, or are simply witnesses to the abuse, they get shot down as they attempt to run away, or get arrested and sent to some unspeakable fate.