History VideoGameCrueltyPotential / ActionAdventure

** It's also possible to arrange things so that all the good guys die, TheBadGuyWins, and all possible evidence that could implicate him is gone, allowing him to get off scot[[spoiler:[[JustForPun t]]]]-free. You even get an achievement for it!

** Shelby, [[spoiler:being the [[KickTheSonOfABitch killer, can't die until the final fight of the game, so a player who knows this can deliberately have him put through the grinder just to have one of the other protagonists kill him at the end.]]]]

* in the game watch dogs 2, in a privacy invasion event you can make the car honk repeatly so the neighbour would come and try to open the garage door without any positive results, meanwhile with you seeing the guy die, knowing that the neighbour will feel guilty due to being unable to save the guy.

*** Outside Predator sections, the game introduces the Batmobile. Lots of vehicular damage to use, such as running over goons, firing at them with either a gatling gun or a cannon, and using an ejector seat attack. There's also a part of the Riddler CollectionQuest that involves shutting down a bomb implanted on a mook's head through electrocution. You need to do it from a distance given it requires Batman to stand on a pressure pad, so it's better to use an electrified Batarang, or maybe the Remote Electrical Charge if a direct shot is possible, but why not fire up the Batmobile remote control given the car shocks anyone it hits?

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', you can ride your horse over the chickens on Lon Lon Ranch. Since you can't be damaged while on horseback, a flock of chickens will fly behind you waiting for you to get off. You can also attack the harmless [[BalefulPolymorph cursed Skulltulas]] in Kakariko Village and hear them yelp and groan pathetically.

** Think attacking cuccos is not cruel enough? Remember that hole in Kakariko Village in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkToThePast A Link to the Past]]''? In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaALinkBetweenWorlds A Link Between Worlds]]'' you can throw cuccos into it. There are snakes at the bottom. Any cuccos thrown in will be gone when you enter. This game essentially lets you ''[[UpToEleven feed living cuccos to snakes]]''.

** Since it's a simulation within a simulation, you can have Batman run a crime scene of a virtual-reality ragdoll getting hit by a surprisingly high-speed old car. Then rewind. Then smash his legs in again. Then rewind. As long as you want. Too bad they didn't think of having [[DeadpanSnarker Alfred]] say "Are you trying to release your more violent urges with trigger-buttons or do you just like seeing high-quality slapstick smurfs?".
** One of the murder cases involves a mobster killing two socialites because they didn't get the girl. And given we're playing as [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique Batman]]… it's incredibly cathartic to dangle the cretin over the Gotham harbor.
** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' continues the sadistic fun of Predator sections, bringing back all the above-mentioned ways to screw with enemies and adding a few new ones. Use the Voice Synthesizer to trick an enemy into thinking their boss is ordering them to check out a secluded corner where you can take them down, or to investigate a sabotaged weapons box for a nasty surprise; use the Disruptor on a medic unit's medpacks so that when he tries to revive his fallen buddy, ''he'' gets shocked into unconsciousness; sabotage an enemy's gun so when he tries to fire it, it explodes knocking him hack; an enemy attack drone and make it zap its controller and up to two of his friends... In a particularly clever one, an enemy might have a 'Detective Mode tracker', allowing him to pinpoint your exact location if you use Detective Vision for too long. If you hide right behind him when he does so, he'll have [[OhCrap an appropriate freak out]] when he realizes where you are.

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'', you can ride your horse over the chickens on Lon Lon Ranch. Since you couldn't be damaged while on horseback, a flock of chickens would fly behind you waiting for you to get off.

--> '''Gus:''' Mickey! You chose E-Tickets over the safety of a Gremlin! You launched him to who knows where! You are supposed to be the hero! You are the hero, right... Are you?

** In ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask Majora's Mask]]'', you can either hit Sakon with your sword, or if you've made it through Woodfall Temple you can shoot him with your bow. Doing the latter will detonate the explosives he's carrying.
*** It's worth noting that doing this will end some sidequests because Sakon won't show up ever again during that 3-day cycle. Yes, you literally killed an NPC in a ''Zelda'' game.

** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' continues the sadistic fun of Predator sections, bringing back all the above-mentioned ways to screw with enemies and adding a few new ones. Use the Voice Synthesizer to trick an enemy into thinking their boss is ordering them to check out a secluded corner where you can take them down, or to investigate a sabotaged weapons box for a nasty surprise; use the Disruptor on a medic unit's medpacks so that when he tries to revive his fallen buddy, ''he'' gets shocked into unconsciousness; hack an enemy attack drone and make it zap its controller and up to two of his friends...

** There are many, many videos on Website/YouTube that show people diving Lara head first off a cliff onto solid ground. Heck, you can brutally be killed by almost anything in the series and people have happily done every single one of these things to Lara just to see what would happen (''especially'' at Lara's mansion, which is supposed to be a perfectly safe tutorial level but still has little ways you can kill Lara in her own home.)
** You can also lock Lara's butler Winston in a freezer to keep him from following you in ''II''. And on the assault course, Lara actually uses him for target practise.

--->'''Malanya:''' This horse says that YOU killed it! You! How could you?! Do you plan to revive it just to kill it again?! Are horses only a tool to you? Do you treat their noble lives so casually that you'd use them and throw them away? If I were a horse right now... I'd kick you in the chest!

* Not only can you kill all the main characters in ''VideoGame/HeavyRain'' in a variety of cruel ways, one of Ethan's trials [[spoiler:requires him to cut off his finger. You can get him drunk to ease the pain, grab a piece of wood to put between his teeth, and sterilize his finger...or you can skip all of those and grab the saw.]]
** [[spoiler:If you grab the saw or the scissors, you have to do another QTE to ''hack the rest of it off'']].
** Shelby, [[spoiler:being the [[KickTheSonOfABitch killer, can't die until the final fight of the game, so a player who knows this can deliberately have him put through the grinder just to have one of the other protagonists kill him at the end.]]]]
** It's also possible to arrange things so that all the good guys die, TheBadGuyWins, and all possible evidence that could implicate him is gone, allowing him to get off scot[[spoiler:[[JustForPun t]]]]-free. You even get an achievement for it!

* The survival adventure game ''[[VideoGame/ZettaiZetsumeiToshi Raw Danger]]'' allows you control of several characters, each of whom get multiple opportunities to be a giant prick, from insulting people to out-and-out murder one.

* In ''Blood Omen: VideoGame/LegacyOfKain'', you end up traveling through several towns and villages, and are free to slice up anybody you see and suck their blood. The game has a day/night cycle, which means you can break into people's beds and kill them in their sleep. And that's not even going into the items you can use, which include shuriken which instantly flay the flesh from enemies' bones, and an orb which forms a mini black hole centralized on your target, crunching them into the size of a marble. Kain himself describes that last item as "the cruelest" of the powers he employs.
** Not to mention, the game's equivalent of shops are fonts where you sacrifice some of your blood for items. Later in the game, you get the power to mind control other people, and bleeding them to death for items is a highly beneficial activity. "Nobody says it is Kain's blood that has to be sacrificed."
* Using your vehicle's laser gun, you can shoot at friendly boats and airships in the bay in ''VideoGame/BeyondGoodAndEvil.'' They'll shout funny things at you (one of them is even a friend of your family, who calls you out on being a jerk) until they get ''really'' annoyed, at which point they [[VideoGameCrueltyPunishment call the cops.]] The cops will fine you... if you don't evade them and escape first.
** You can also use your Disc Launcher to kill the green spiders in certain areas, which are otherwise completely and totally harmless. But they [[MoneySpider spit out money!]]
* The video game adaptation of ''Film/XMenOriginsWolverine'' is MADE of this trope. You're dealing with a man who has indestructible metal claws. People are going to be dismembered. Not to mention quick kills, environmental kills, and the VAST majority of ways you can literally tear people apart. It's a very satisfying game for that reason.
** [[WebVideo/{{Unskippable}} "Good lord man,]] [[http://www.escapistmagazine.com/videos/view/unskippable/833-Wolverine-Uncaged do you have a stabbing quota?"]]
* ''VideoGame/{{Okami}}''. You start out being able to tackle people and bite them. By the time you reach the endgame, you can explode, shock, freeze, and burn any NPC in the game, from innocent shopkeepers to kittens.
** You may also headbutt those kittens off the cat tower to have them plunge to their deaths.

* ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamAsylum'' lets you have some ''real'' fun in the challenge rooms. So there are five guys patrolling with guns, meaning you need to stick to the shadows and use stealth. Excellent! Sneak up on a guy and take him down, leaving his buddies panicking! Blow up a wall, knocking down two guys at once! Grab a guy and leave him hanging from a gargoyle -- then, when his buddies come to look him over, use a Batarang to cut the tether and scare the crap out of 'em! You can also spray some of your gel right next to them, then set it off when their friends come to check it out.
** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamCity'' brings back all of the tricks from the first game and adds a few more. Encase a goon in ice, and then leave an explosive gel trap for the poor fool who tries to free him. Use your remote stun gun to send an armored foe flying into some of his friends. Wait for a foe to set a mine, then activate the mine he just set off. Or just use a gadget to render their guns useless, drop right in front of a foe, then get the double OhCrap reaction of "It's Batman!" and "My gun is jammed!"
*** You can also single out a specific thug for "playtime", tormenting him by picking off his allies one by one then harassing him by making glass shatter, walls collapse, and fire extinguishers burst around him, making him jump at shadows and fire his gun wildly at any little sound he hears. Eventually you'll reduce him to a quivering, weeping shell of a man who's likely [[PottyFailure filled his pants]] multiple times (and the pulse monitor in Detective Mode will show that the guy's practically on the verge of a quadruple heart attack), so when you finally decide to drop down and put him out of his misery he'll just collapse into a terrified heap and won't even raise a finger against you.
** While explosive gel typically doesn't harm enemies that much, a fun trick to do is upgrade the gel to go off by proximity, leave some at the top of a ladder, and wait for the fun.
** A [[KickTheDog pettier]] example: during the Mr. Freeze boss fight, you can smash the statues Freeze made of [[FreudianExcuse his wife.]]
** Whilst Harley is tied up, it is possible to repeatedly tear off and replace the duct tape over her mouth. She even calls you out on the cruelty of doing it. (It may or may not be causing her pain; if it is, she does a good job of hiding it. She doesn't even try to hide how much you're pissing her off by continuing to do it.)
** The Riddler's sidequest in ''City'' ends with Batman forcing him to walk around a track endlessly or else be blown up by an ExplosiveLeash...except that the bombs have been removed, but Bats doesn't say that part out loud. If you want to, you're free to block Riddler's path and listen to him freak out as the warning sirens start blaring and he begs you to get out of his way. Of course, considering this was ''his'' death trap into which he'd strapped several police officers and paramedics, one might feel that a little payback is well deserved.
** In ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamOrigins'', there's a puzzle where you need to hit several targets in a correct succession, to [[SaveTheVillain release a goon captured in Joker's torture device]]. Every time you get it wrong, the thug is electrocuted. It's not lethal and you get as many tries as you want. Have fun.
** Since it's a simulation within a simulation, you can have Batman run a crime scene of a virtual-reality ragdoll getting hit by a surprisingly high-speed old car. Then rewind. Then smash his legs in again. Then rewind. As long as you want. Too bad they didn't think of having [[DeadpanSnarker Alfred]] say "Are you trying to release your more violent urges with trigger-buttons or do you just like seeing high-quality slapstick smurfs?".
** One of the murder cases involves a mobster killing two socialites because they didn't get the girl. And given we're playing as [[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique Batman]]… it's incredibly cathartic to dangle the cretin over the Gotham harbor.
** ''VideoGame/BatmanArkhamKnight'' continues the sadistic fun of Predator sections, bringing back all the above-mentioned ways to screw with enemies and adding a few new ones. Use the Voice Synthesizer to trick an enemy into thinking their boss is ordering them to check out a secluded corner where you can take them down, or to investigate a sabotaged weapons box for a nasty surprise; use the Disruptor on a medic unit's medpacks so that when he tries to revive his fallen buddy, ''he'' gets shocked into unconsciousness; hack an enemy attack drone and make it zap its controller and up to two of his friends...
* ''VideoGame/{{Messiah}}'', among other things, lets you possess someone, make them jump off a ledge so that they break their legs, then listen to their distressed screams of pain.

* In ''VideoGame/LuigisMansion3'', you can capture [[FriendlyGhost Morty]] in his editing room, after he's willingly given you an elevator button for helping him with his new film. Bonus points if you suck him in before he actually finishes said film. However, if you're squeamish about doing him in, his capture nets you an achievement, [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption so if you want the cosmetic reward for earning all of the achievements...]]
* In ''VideoGame/HollowKnight'', you're capable of committing some cruel actions. Some of these net you achievements.
** You're fully capable of leaving [[UngratefulBastard Zote]] to die at the hands of the Vengefly King. Doing this gets you the achievement [[YouBastard "Neglect"]].
** You can also [[spoiler:kill the Nailsmith after he fully upgrades your nail]]. This will also give you an achievement.
** You can kill the ghost [=NPC=]s by attacking them with your Dream Nail. Doing this will only net you a single essence.
** The mantises of the Mantis Village, the bees of The Hive and [[spoiler:the siblings of the Knight]] will become docile under certain conditions. You can still attack them, and they will fight back accordingly.

* ''VideoGame/ShadowOfTheColossus'' makes it nearly impossible for you to kill your horse, but you can still shoot an exploding arrow at him (the blast will simply cause him to fall over, limp a bit, then right himself up). With excellent timing, (as the exploding arrows take longer to adjust into position and don't launch as quickly as regular arrows), you can shoot one of these suckers into the [[EyeScream eye of the tenth colossus.]]

** In the Wind Temple of ''Wind Waker'', there is a room with a huge bladed anvil that slides back and forth. Guess what happens when the player decides to force poor little Makar to stand in its way?

*** Fit your ship with nothing but double-capacity fuel tanks and just enough fuel to go to their homeworld[[note]]Carry at least one escort ship or you'll have ''trouble'' if you encounter other Druuge ships[[/note]]. Tell the Druuge you want to have you fuel tanks and full capacity in exchange for the Burvixese caster and watch his reaction.

* ''VideoGame/StarControlII''. Oh, ''Star Control II'', were to begin:

** After defeating the Riddler, he's locked into the same device he used to force his remaining hostages to walk constantly or have bombs strapped to them detonated... without knowing that it's actually been deactivated. If you want to, you can taunt him by getting in his way and making him panic that he'll be blown up if you don't move. And given what he's done up to this point, you almost definitely want to.