Top 7 Deaths

Yet in our industry the resonance of death proves that not only has a studio done its job - writing these characters so well, so lifelike, that it's a gut punch when they fall - but that from a story perspective, games can equal other mediums for delivering moments that give us pause or even elicit a more extreme emotional response.

Of course its far too easy to discuss the subject and bring up Aeris. Yet the flower girl's death in Final Fantasy VII proved the ridiculous lengths players went to to try and find ways of keeping her alive, and serves as testament to the impact that a collection of pixels or polygons can have to us all.

And Aeris is far from alone, and in fact she didn't make our very subjective top seven deaths in video games. As with all these lists, although they're numbered it's extremely hard to rank them and this should be seen more as smorgasbord of emotional deaths in video games, rather than a definite one through seven.

Nevertheless, here we are counting down our list of impactful deaths.

Obviously it goes without saying: massive spoilers from here on in.

7. Alys Brangwin | Phantasy Star IV

Your mentor at the beginning of the game Alys is a tough as nails heroine and hunter who teaches you all the tricks of the trade while making sure no one hears about her softer side (or measurements for that matter). Her death at the hands of Zio in the early stages of the game is something you as a player will struggle to recover from. The simple comic panel graphics did much to convey the anguish Chaz and the rest of the group felt as Alys finally surrendered to the effects of the Black Wave attack Zio had aimed at Chaz.

6. Andrew Ryan | Bioshock

"In the end what separates a man from a slave? A man chooses a slave obeys."

It's that mother of all plot twists. Two-thirds into the original Bioshock, and the player is confronted with the truth of his origins and the nature of his "accidental" discovery of the underwater city of Rapture, ultimately ending with being commanded by his father, Andrew Ryan, to commit patricide.

As the developer wrestles control from the player (and we wrestle ineffectually with the controller) we're hit with the realisation of how gullible and easily lead we've been throughout our journey through Rapture ("would you kindly..." has lost none of its impact even today) and has us beating Ryan to a bloody pulp with a golf club. It's a double-whammy of emotions, and one of the most impactful deaths - and scenes - in a video game.

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5. Noble 6 | Halo: Reach

Mission accomplished; Cortana is safely deposited with Keyes and is ready to board the Pillar of Autumn, and in doing so initiates events that go on to transpire in Halo: Combat Evolved. But once the hand over is complete, and the Falcon takes off with its precious cargo (Cortana, Keyes and - for those with an eagle eye and a leaning analogue stick - a sleeping Master Chief), Bungie leave us with one of the most dramatic last stands in gaming history.

Noble 6, gun in hand, heads down into the dusty bowl, the remnants of the planet we've spent much of the game trying to save. Covenant targets approach en masse. The first few fall without much trouble, but before long it starts to get overwhelming. Like treading water in the midst of a tsunami. It doesn't take too long for the tide to come in, and soon Noble 6 is overrun. Cue the dramatic final cutscene, as the last member of the ill-fated Noble Team eventually relents to the onslaught of Elites. A fitting end to a modern masterpiece.

4. Jenny | The Darkness

Jenny was the only good thing in Jackie's life, and through a series of scenes that never felt mawkish or cringe-worthy early in the game, Starbreeze made the player see the mobster's girlfriend in exactly the same light.

She didn't die well. Captured and tortured in front of a helpless Jackie's eyes, Jenny eventually had a gun pressed against her head and with the trigger pulled, the only ray of light in Jackie's life was snuffed out in the most violent, and shockingly quiet, of exits. That you'll rarely get anyone talking about the scene that immediately followed - Jackie's suicide attempt - is proof that everyone that played the game was still reeling from what they'd seen previous to absorb exactly what happened next.

3. The Player | Journey

Technically, you're resurrected straight after, but the wonder of what happens after is only as uplifting because of what it follows.

Thegamecompany's PSN title packed a cavalcade of emotions in its relatively short running time. It had us striding confidentially across the dunes, lost in wonder through caves, terrified by flying beasts hunting us through the darkness of the underworld.

Yet the biggest impact was the acknowledgement of our own mortality. In a game filled with amazing music, the near-silent stride that met us as we struggled up a mountain-side, with only the roar of a bitter wind in our ears, the gradual freezing of our garments, the diminishing sound of our voice and the slowing of our pace as we tired struck us dumb.

When we collapsed, face down in the snow, so near the top, you could hear a pin drop. For the long moments that scene dragged out for, the message seemed clear: all our efforts weren't enough. All our trials, were for nothing. In a game full of captivating moments, in this space of time, its creator had us enthralled.

2. Eli Vance | Half-Life 2: Episode Two

The impact of the death of Eli Vance has grown with every year passing since the release of Episode Two as we await the continutation of the Gordon Freeman's journey - we are effectively sitting on one of the longest cliffhangers in history.

Yet even as time passes, the moment is still fresh in our minds - and the reaction of Alys as she witnesses her father's death is something that truly makes use of the relationship the player has built up with her. The ending of Episode Two is your classic cliffhanger moment, players are just dying to see what's next, but here we are almost five years later and we're still left with the image of Eli's lifeless body and the utter sense of helplessness felt as we witnessed the end of Episode Two.

1. The World | Final Fantasy VI

There's an argument that the human mind can only deal with so much: that when a death count reaches the double, even triple figures, the number is so staggering that there's no measure for us to fully comprehend the evil that's been done. Yet Final Fantasy VI achieved that. It underscored the shear scale of the dilemma facing us, and, for the time, did the unthinkable - destroyed the world. And we were barely half-way through the game.

About mid-way through the story events take a turn for the worse as the world as we knew ends and is replaced with a World of Ruin, with plant and animal life dying and most of what you knew being reduced to ruins.

As Kefka kills off Gestahl and disturbs the balance that has kept the world in order, not only does it have an emotional impact on the player, but it opens up greater questions (the disturbing of the natural order and balance of things is a popular subject in Japanese role-playing games) but it still evokes something fundamentally human in us, as we seek to make sense of a world that seems lost in chaos.

As gamers we'd been impressed for years we were there to save the world, it was our goal, our place - the outcome was never in question. Square stripped away that security, and for the first time we were genuinely lost as to what was next - and whether there was enough of a world left to save.