Some games, especially open-world or open-level games, have the option of bypassing killing, and instead present non-lethal options, whether it’s knocking enemies out or avoiding conflict outright.

Skyrim (2012) has options along the “Thief’ path, correlate with avoiding killing every enemy soldier that enters your line of sight.  Through Lockpicking and Sneaking, players can be more effectively swathed in shadows and find alternate routes through an area, all without taking a life.  Of course, many objections in-game required players to seek out and kill bandit leaders, random creatures, et cetera; the optional bypass is very much on a moment-to-moment basis, when the experience doesn’t dictate players to explicitly kill.

Dishonored (2012) takes both approaches into account: the player is Corvo Attono, a falsely convicted murderer of his Empress, who has options from the beginning to non-lethally go about his revenge.  Once he has armed himself and been visited by an observing god, granting him supernatural powers, Corvo is free to exact revenge and clear his name whichever way he’d like.  As spoken on in Customization, the supernatural powers can align with killing or maneuvering stealthily; obviously, taking powers from one side will make that course of action easier.  Of course, as a game and as far as difficulty goes, being non-lethal is a more difficult venture; sneaking around, using longer choking methods instead of quick stabbing, all require different skills than the strength that can come with a frontal assault.

Games like Dishonored take in the variable of violence when it comes to the world they create and the reactions of characters in-game.  Violence in-game results in more heavily armed, numerous guards, more numerous plague-creatures, and negative behaviors from friendly characters.  Non-violence results in fewer guards, fewer plague creatures, and positive behaviors from friendlies.  It also has a great impact on the ending of Dishonored, too, dictating what kind of Empress the young Emily will become and what state the setting of Dunwall is left in.