Deus Ex: Human Revolution/Tear Jerker

• Early in the game, if you check the emails on your computer, one email is from your friend Diane had your beloved dog put to sleep because she thought you had died from your injuries. Puts all those shattered mirrors in a very harsh and heartbreaking light.
  • Even without that email, the mirror counts. It shows that Jensen is clearly not in a happy state of mind about his Augmentations, and the reflection mirror is a constant reminder of what happened (The post it note suggests that this wasn't the first mirror he'd smashed in anger).
• The endings, in which Adam reflects on humankind and his life while real video footage is shown to emphasize his points. I teared up when they showed the Berlin Wall coming down.
• If you choose the self-destruct ending, after the screen goes black, you can hear creaking and groaning as the entire facility gives in to the overwhelming pressure of oceanic water, and unless you mute it, you are forced to listen to Adam's last living moments.
  • depending on the ending and your own personal morals, doubles as a Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
• you return to Detroit and the riots have broken out. After playing the first game and reading that aug research had disappeared in the face of controversy, and augmented humans were heavily discriminated against, you realize at this part in the game that it's all downhill from here. You are literally watching the world collapse from within, and it's all a long, slow slide to the first game's Crapsack World.
• Malik's murder. You've been depending on her three fourths of the game, and she's killed, execution-style, right in front of you after her Heroic Sacrifice to buy you time to escape.
  • Looking through discussion threads on the game will show that many many gamers who were previously in the middle of a Pacifist Run took one look at the situation, said to hell with the pacifist run and went lethal to save her, even if it was just for that section alone. No-one touches the flygirl!
  • Others just accepted the devastating moment and let it flow into the story and Adam's mental state.
  • Some players didn't even realize that her death was preventable as they had been trading fire with the mercs since the section began. I was still pissed though
  • To add even further insult to injury, you can also find Malik's corpse in an operating table in the Harvesters' hideout, meaning Belltower sold them her corpse to be stripped for augmentations just like they did with Sevchenko
  • To many, Malik's corpse being stripped for augmentations was the breaking point of their pacifist runs, rather than her murder.
    • At least one gamer reacted to the discovery of Malik's mutilated corpse by going back through the parking garage and deliberately executing every Triad ganger in cold blood with their silenced pistol, after having already successfully completed the level by harmlessly rendering them unconscious.
  • Just FOUR words: "Any time, fly girl.".
    • Arguably a Crowning Moment of Awesome, that. especially if you manage to do it without killing any Belltower mooks.
• The battle with Hyron. Or more specifically, the part where if you're not clever enough or packing enough nonlethal weaponry, where you realize you have to kill the Hyron Drones.
  • IIRC, all you have to do is keep hitting the drones with nonlethal weaponry or use the laser rifle on Zhao. The ending doesn't change, but you don't have to kill them.
  • You can also use Darrow's code (if you got it) on the console directly in front of Zhao.
• The entirety of Hyron and its' role in the end. Where to even begin?
  • For one, if you look at the end of many of the messages on computers or pocket secretaries in Panchea, there are small messages at the end referencing a 'mother' and 'father'.
    • If you listen to the drones' ranting, they frequently spew dialogue about a mother.
  • And then there's Hyron's original purpose. They created this machine and linked people INTO it, to drive all augs insane and cause widespread panic and bloodshed.
• In "The Missing Link" DLC in the secret laboratory area of Rifleman Base, you come across a young woman named Nina Sullivan, who is all of 20 years old and scared out of mind. While you can talk with her to and get information, due to your current circumstances, you're in no position to help her, despite her frantic pleas. Then there's an Oh Shit moment when you are on your way back out, and she is gone. Turns out a very speedy guard transferred her (just her - yeah, you have to give the apparently rushed as hell plot a lot of leeway) back to the main cell block, and she's one of the ones you can choose to save. Phew. (there is a secret to save both the prisoners and the scientist, just google 'how to save the prisoners and whistleblower' or look for the vent on the right of the bottom fo the tower and shoot the gas canister inside the room it leads you to.)
• In the police station when access to the morgue is needed deciding to be social and getting access through Wayne Haas by choosing mostly Plead and choosing Absolve once was the epitome of a tear jerker.
• What must be Faridah (if she's alive) and Frank's reactions if Adam chooses to destroy Panchaea, once the news reports what happened. Their boss is gone, a whole bunch of people are dead -- likely some of them were Sarif employees as well -- and Adam, whom both of them had grown close to over the course of the game and clearly cared about (whether Frank would ever admit it or not), is gone. Frank had just expressed apprehension over Adam going it alone. And what happened? Adam died, along with hundreds of people. There's no way for them to know that it wasn't Adam's failure, no way for them to know if either of them could have saved him or Sarif or anyone else had Faridah been there with her aircraft, or had Frank been in contact with Adam. ...And they probably won't have jobs anymore, since Sarif will likely go under in short order.
  The only consolation, ironically enough, is that they won't ever know that it wasn't Adam's failure, but rather his choice to kill himself, Sarif, Darrow, Taggart, and hundreds of innocent people.
• Not so much an outright tearjerker as just something that is genuinely saddening is some of the comments people will make toward Adam due to his augmentations. Some aren't outright mean, just misguided. Others... not so much. It's even worse because Adam never asked for this.

"Why did you do it? You were beautiful just the way you were. You poor man."
"I don't mean to judge, but I think that people who choose to augment themselves are rejecting their own humanity."
"Nothing personal, but I don't want to have anything to do with you."
"What are you looking at, pal? Scanning me with those metal eyes of yours?"
"Look, I don't have anything against you, but just stay away, okay?"
"No offense, but if it were up to me, this place would have a No Aug policy."

• • That last one is said by a janitor in Adam's apartment building. He gets it even when he tries to go home for the night.
  • On the other hand, every single one of those people who said those horrible things to Adam? You can retort.
    • But then the nice/neutral people won't talk to me anymore, either, because they're scared of me! Seriously, though, what does Adam say to these people to evoke those responses?
      "So, how about this weather?"
      "Augmenters have desecrated their own flesh! How can you even consider yourselves human anymore?!"
      
      "Do you know when the tram will reopen?"
      "You were human once... Beautiful. Why did you do it?"
• From The Missing Link DLC, there's Keitner's death. She was trying to protect innocent people, and even at the end begs Adam to save Dr. Kavanaugh so that no one else will be stolen and experimented on.