Pacifism Plus

I'm a conscientious objector (though in my case specifically it's synonymous with "coward"), and I generally find that I prefer to keep as many people - even antagonists - alive when playing through the story of a video game. There's actually a few reasons why this is: It's more challenging and more fulfilling to get through to someone and talk them down from an encounter rather than resort to violence, which is generally how modern human beings settle disputes in the real world regardless, and it also highlights the amount of complexity a game's design must have to make such a course tenable.

The games that actively reward players for coming up with non-violent solutions for their roadblocks are to be commended, because they not only recognize that people aren't inherently violent - something those that condemn the video game medium and its proponents do all too often - but also ably demonstrates the level of craft involved to account for multiple routes with separate outcomes.

The following handful of games are a few that will reward players for being less violent, one way or another. In each case, they offer both a salve for the soul (if that matters to you) and a way to challenge oneself with what is invariably the least simple path. Feel free to add more in the comments.

List items

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  1. Undertale

  As usual, I'm starting with the game that gave me the idea for the list. The player is free to fight every opponent in the game, though they might also find a non-violent way to talk their enemies down from their anger and let them go free. The game rewards an entirely pacifistic route with the best possible ending - a character will actually ask you not to play again if you load the game back up, because there's no point resetting the timeline back to the beginning when you have the happiest conclusion.

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  2. Mirror's Edge

  Whether the developers had this in mind from the very beginning or whether it was discovered during the testing phase, but someone discovered that Mirror's Edge is far more appealing - and makes far more sense for the idealistic free-runner protagonist Faith - when the player avoids lethal combat and guns and instead sticks with the adage that discretion is the better part of valor. The game has an achievement for playing through the game without using a single firearm: it turns out to not only be an enjoyable challenge, but a narratively complimentary one. (Of course, you can still knock guards and cops off tall buildings, but nobody said Faith was perfect...)

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  3. Deus Ex: Human Revolution

  The Deus Ex games, like many that present stealth as an alternative path, offers a reward for avoiding bloodshed. Adam Jensen is far stronger and more deadly than most of the antagonists he meets, excepting the unfortunately unskippable bosses, and putting his retractable arm blades away is, in a sense, him suggesting that there's still some humanity left in his heavily augmented shell.

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  4. Dishonored

  It is very difficult to avoid using Corvo's more deadly abilities in the excellent Dishonored. Not because the game's difficulty is far too stringent without eliminating sentries and guards for good, but because the killing powers are so much more fun to use. The Stranger gave you those powers to see some death and mayhem, after all, so it doesn't do him or the player any favors to simply rely on Blink and their own wits. Even so, getting through each scenario without a single NPC death has its benefit: the city and its populace will be in a progressively worse state the more people Corvo kills. If enough die, it's implied that the level of chaos makes it impossible for Dunwall to ever recover from the game's central conspiracy plot. Figures, for a game so heavily influenced by the ultimate anti-revenge allegory (and comprehensive FAQ on whaling): Melville's Moby-Dick.

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  5. Rambo: The Video Game

  This is a rare case where, were you to play this QTE-heavy rail shooter (and why would you want to?), you'd want to complete the chapters based on the first movie with as few kills as possible. Why? Because that's how it went down in the movie. There's nothing in the game that makes such a task worthwhile, and it certainly doesn't make it easy on you with its poor controls and the inscrutable "non-lethal" hitboxes of the Washingtonian cops, but if you're going to emulate the Rambo movies you might as well do it right. It's not like the next three movies won't be able to slake your bloodlust. (Oddly, the game doesn't offer a campaign for the fourth movie. Maybe they were hoping there'd be enough interest for DLC?)

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  6. Live a Live

  Live a Live felt like one of those eccentric Super Mario Maker levels where the creator just wanted to test some ideas out, rather than build a stronger stage with a singular focus. Live a Live shows a wide range of disparate ideas with its various scenarios set across time. The ninja chapter, set in feudal Japan, has the player assault the fortress of the game's recurring nemesis Odio in yet another of his insidious guises. Along the way, the player can kill every human inhabitant of the castle or let everyone live: there's room for either or a mixture of both, excepting demons and other monsters which can be destroyed with impunity. Successfully sparing everyone and still making it to the boss grants the main character of this scenario with a powerful weapon for the final chapter, which brings together the characters from every scenario for one last showdown with Odio. There's an optional boss for Oboro to fight in that chapter if the achievement and its reward eluded him, but here the challenge is perhaps worth more than the +Infinity Katana.

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  7. Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots

  Metal Gear Solid has always offered a non-lethal solution for getting past guards, whether it's a quick tranq to the neck (or balls, depending on who's playing) or an inconspicuous cardboard box to hide in, but it wasn't until MGS3 that the player could also spare the bosses they fought. At least, in theory. They had a nasty habit of exploding anyway, though they were kind enough to leave their unique camouflage behind to reward those merciful players. MGS4 continues this feature by giving every boss a stamina bar and a health bar, and by sparing the Beauties the player could feel good about themselves for not murdering a bunch of psychologically-scarred young women. They also got special face camo that allowed them to play pretend, so that's fun too. In a, uh, pretty creepy way. It's a weird game.