- In the Passing campaign, it takes this trope to a more personal level. We already knew somebody from the original cast would die, but when you see Bill's corpse lying right next to the power generator, still clutching on to his signature M16.
- On "The Sacrifice", listening to the last lines on the titular sacrifice for each character is heartbreaking. Especially a lot of the surviving characters' parting lines, many of which sound like they're about to break into tears. Especially the reaction of either Zoey or Bill if the other sacrifices themselves.
- In the second game's Last Man on Earth mutation, it's just you and the Special Infected. As if the pants-wetting Paranoia Fuel wasn't enough, your character continues to speak as if the other Survivors are still around. One particurly depressing example is in the Dark Carnival campaign while playing as Nick: "You finally got your wish, Ellis. We're in an amusement park ride."
- In "The Sacrifice" comic:
- It is revealed that in Zoey's first encounter with the Infected, her mother was infected and bit her father, who was then forced to shoot and kill her. Zoey and her father then say their tearful goodbyes before she shoots him before he can turn into a zombie. What really gets the tears flowing (for both Zoey and the reader) is that Zoey flashes back to this moment when she learns that the gene for carriers is passed down from the father, meaning that her father was never going to turn in the first place.
- Some of the final lines after Bill leaves the bridge:Zoey: He's gone, Francis.Francis: You don't know that! Bill's the toughest old buzzard I ever met, and he's down there and he needs us! We—Zoey: Francis. He's gone. He did this for us. And if you go down there, he did it for nothing.Francis: Goddammit.
- Made even more meaningful that Francis and Bill were always the most hostile to each other, yet Francis is most determined that he's still alive.
- To add to this, Louis's first encounter, which involves Bill being ambushed and being obviously terrified and depressed about the whole thing.
- The simple dialogue players say once their health is so low that the screen turns grey.Zoey: "Oh God... I'm gonna die..."
- Everyone's reactions to one of the party members dying, and you just watch, knowing that you could have saved them. Kind of moot when they just pop out of a closet a few minutes later, but it still tugs at you. Then this wraps around to being sad in the second game's Realism mode, where closet respawns are disabled, and far more so in custom Mutations that are Final Death Modes played straight.
- Ellis is normally extremely talkative and lighthearted about their predicament, but if Nick dies, a depressingly sad glitch (now patched) may occur where Ellis and Coach are silent until Nick is brought back, even while being attacked by another Special.
- A lot of the graffiti is this too, if you take the time to look at it. People apologizing to loved ones because they had to move on without them, people leaving mourning messages for lost friends or loved ones, messages to family members (one reveals someone telling a family member that they found Mom...she was crying in a ditch and killed their father when he tried to help her. She's one of them now.)
- "Uh Ellis, you know I was just kidding about all that right?" The poor kid dying is bad enough, but Nick's responses to it are real tear-jerkers.
- In the Passing, Ellis falls head over heels for Zoey, and it's hinted that she feels the same. Then comes the end of the campaign, and she invites Ellis to go with her and her group. He says no, because he wants to stay with his friends, who refuse to derail their plan. Poor Ellis is heartbroken.
- Okay, bit of WMG with the way the survivors may be thinking but.. You'd probably think Ellis, Coach, Rochelle, Nick, Bill, Zoey, Francis, and Louis are all lucky to be immune right? Think again; these people may have seen their friends, co-workers, and family turn in front of them! Then, they have to uneasily group up with 3 other people who, at specific points in the story, don't know if they're immune! And even if the military doesn't shoot them when they escape, everything about humanity is gone and overrun with infected. They can never go back to their old lives! All things considered, it's a miracle they don't shoot themselves...
- If any of your teammates are incapacitated when everyone else gets on the rescue vehicle, they will be left behind. As long as they're not dead, you'll get the sound of them screaming for your help playing over the cut scene of the rescue vehicle leaving, abandoning them to the zombie hordes. You will feel like an asshole. If a survivor fails to make it to the rescue vehicle for this or any other reason, the credits sequence will not open with "The survivors have escaped!" Instead, it will begin with: "In Memory Of: [Player Name]"
- Really sympathetic players will find this game full of Cry for the Devil moments, especially when you really think about it:
- After the Witch kills someone, there is a brief pause where she looks down and realizes what she's done. She then runs of crying again, clearly ashamed.
- In the moments where the Charger starts to lean towards English, one of his screams sounds vaguely like "Please don't shoot me!"
- Even common infected can, in the same vein as the Charger, scream things that sound like "Run for your lives!"
- The Jockey can become this due to Alternative Character Interpretation. Some fans theorize that the Jockey was wheelchair-bound Pre-Infection. And the fact that he laughs even as he rips the flesh off your face is just heartbreaking in how messed up the Infection can make you.
- This fan comic
really hammers it in. - If you look up the hood of a Hunter you will discover that Hunters claw their eyes out. Whether he did this when he turned or after he turned was never explained. Either which way it was likely painful
- The Spitter's face was corroded by her mutation. It's likely this happened after she was turned and conscious. Also...she has a wedding ring on her hand.
- Pretty much all the mutations were likely painful and the victim was likely conscious when it happened. For clear examples....
- The Hunter clawed his eyes out when he turned. He also might've felt his leg muscles strengthening themselves to ludicrous degrees which is likely painful.
- The Boomer clearly wasn't that big before the infection if you look at him (or her in the sequel). The infection likely caused him (or her) to suddenly expand while the body made the victim expel copious amounts of vomit.
- The Spitter also suffered the same thing but much much more painful. After she contracted the infection she vomited copious amounts of stomach acid that burned through her mouth and neck. Her stomach bloated and her neck elongated to adjust to the mutation.
- The Witch's fingers elongated suddenly and painfully. Your body cannot handle bones growing that fast, no matter what. It's likely that the pain could be so bad that she still feels it after she turned which might be why she is crying.
- Same thing with the Charger and Tank. Their bones and muscle masses growing in a short amount of time produced a disturbing amount of pain and agony. The Tank likely went mad/insane when it happened and the Charger might've remained sane enough... up until he caved his part of his head while trying to attack a non-infected.
- The Smoker started to feel horrendous pain in his abdomen and parts of his body started to grow out of control and leak noxious smoke. As his name might suggest, he is coughing due to the smoke and due to his small intestine being lodged in his throat.
- The same can be said with the common infected as well as this video shows what a couple of them mumble in their passive state (with the exception of the last one). Also, make matters worse as driving home this horrific thought, there's graffiti that is seen that says, "They talk!"
- The Midnight Riders' song Save Me Some Sugar, particularly after you have played The Sacrifice campaign and watched all those Bill Tribute videos on YouTube. Even worse if you take the lyrics to heart and just went through a breakup.
- Some graffiti on the safe room walls can be kind of upsetting if you look into it.
- Lars we found mom. She was sitting in a ditch crying. She killed dad when he tried to help her. She's one of them now. Kat
- We held out longer than Shreveport. We held out longer than Baton Rouge. We held out longer."
