Being games set during World War II, this series is guaranteed to have a number of genuinely downer moments.
NOTE: Moment Subpages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.
- The death of Allen and Garnett. Hell's Highway takes this up to eleven by showing the guilt Leggett repressed, ending up in him taking on a tank with a .45. Baker feels guilty about this and keeps hallucinating him (or seeing his ghost). Even in Road to Hill 30, the entire incident is heartbreaking. Instead of his usual quiet thoughts on the matter, Baker screams and curses about how he could have saved them in his monologue.Baker: How can a man stay focused on life, when all he sees is death? I can't get it out of my head that sending Allen and Garnett with Leggett got them killed. If they'd just been with me... FUCK! IF THEY'D JUST! BEEN! WITH ME! MAYBE THEY'D STILL BE ALIVE! MAYBE I COULD'VE SAVED THEM!......... Maybe.
- In Earned in Blood, when Red remembers a patrol with Desola, Allen and Garnett. His voice when he tells Marshall they all died later...
- And the death of Doyle, Red's 82nd Airborne buddy. There's not even enough left of him to bury after he takes a direct hit from a German tank's cannon.
- And then immediately after, Paige, who spent the entire game as a bit of a sarcastic Jerkass and Deadpan Snarker, is mortally injured by the same tank blast that killed Doyle and knocked Hartsock down. While Hartsock is still dazed as a gunfight starts up around him, Paige calmly stands up, grabs Hartsock, and drags him to cover...before turning around and revealing the utter mess that the tank shell made of him. He sits down next to Red, mumbles about how it took him all his strength to get them that far...and then just dies. The guy just used his last bit of life to save his comrade.Paige: I'm...pretty fucked up here, Sarge...I used...everything...I had to get us here...
- In Hell's Highway, Franky's death. Especially since the girl he was running of to save was shot by German sentries anyway, making it a Senseless Sacrifice. Baker tries to tell him she got away okay, but Franky sees through it.
- Red getting wounded by the mortar, and how it affects Baker. The last thing he and Hartsock were doing before the attack was arguing over Franky's death, and the PTSD-ridden Baker is deeply affected by the fact that the argument was his last words to Red. Not long after, he starts hearing Red talking to him in his hallucinations, like how he hears the voices of other (dead) soldiers, showing that in his mind, Red has already been killed.
- Following up with this, Baker having to tell Red that he is paralyzed from the waist down. However, it also counts as a Heartwarming Moment as Baker reaffirms his friendship with Hartsock after everything they've gone through.Baker:You're my best friend, Red.
