I'd be very interested to know if it's even possible to create a game where you genuinly feel remorse for killing an innocent person while chasing "the bad guy".
Many games have innocent bystanders, and there is a spectrum of consequence, from none (GTA), to inconvenience (Oblivion), to an instant game-over (Ghost Recon). In any case, I've never felt bad, since it's just a game.
Can a game elevate the characters to a point where you feel, even for a moment, real loss? I don't think it's very easy, if even possible.
Even just a small reminder that "you might want to consider the moral consequences of what you've been doing" is beyond what most games do. It doesn't necessarily require branching consequence paths and other silly mechanics, it doesn't require building up an attachment to the fictional character, just a small reminder that makes the player think about something in a broader context instead of focusing on the action. Of course game content around these things is fine, it's just not usually done that well.
One thing that stood out for me while I was playing Lord of the Rings Online (noting that the LotR universe is a very black-and-white-morals one) was a bounty hunter quest line where I made money killing some wanted thugs. This led to a bounty poster on me:
"For the death of Jachad, Hunter of no account, Cuthbert Sprunt offers two gold pieces.
This Elf has come to Evendim and caused nothing but trouble. Just ask Mrs. Idden where her boy Andy is, or the widow Tripper why her son Will is missing a brother!
If you think you've been wronged in this, Jachad, "bounty-hunter," then you come talk to Mr. Sprunt at the Sparring Circle. We'll sort it out, fair-like."
Of course the game quickly reminds you that Sprunt is a low-life villain, and I subsequently defeated him (though he lived since he gave up in the fight). But it was one of the few times the game ever questions the morality of player's actions, and even though it was incredibly brief it stood out for that reason.
"Can a game elevate the characters to a point where you feel, even for a moment, real loss? I don't think it's very easy, if even possible."
I've read reports of gamers crying when they had to kill the companion cube in Portal.
Gamers can and do form quite intense attachments to game characters, and I think they can and do feel genuine loss upon some of these characters' deaths.
However, the problem with many video games (and movies, and much other media) is that "the enemy" is usually just a faceless, almost less than human cardboard cutout that you're often either manipulated to feel glad to get rid of or indifferent over having killed.
It need not be that way, but it often if not almost always is.
Many games have innocent bystanders, and there is a spectrum of consequence, from none (GTA), to inconvenience (Oblivion), to an instant game-over (Ghost Recon). In any case, I've never felt bad, since it's just a game.
Can a game elevate the characters to a point where you feel, even for a moment, real loss? I don't think it's very easy, if even possible.