Stealth games in 1981: "You have to escape from the literal fucking Nazis, who are seeking to genocide most of Europe."

Stealth games in 2019: "You are a goose"

Alternately, videogames now: I have a farm and it's the nicest farm of them all, and all the chickens have names and are demonstrably happy. Also I moonlight as an interior decorator for all my friends with whom I have deep personal relationships.

Just saying, we may be playing different types of games here.

Nintendo is still making run, jump, eat this flower, collect the coins games and they’re still excellent.

The "Video Games Now" part basically describes Castlevania II.

There was sex and violence in 1980s games too!

Wasteland from 1988

"In 2087, generations after the devastation of a global nuclear war in 1998, a remnant force of the United States Army called the Desert Rangers operates in the Southwestern United States, acting as peacekeepers to protect fellow survivors and their descendants. A team of Desert Rangers is assigned to investigate a series of disturbances in nearby areas. Throughout the game, the rangers explore the remaining enclaves of human civilization, including a post-apocalyptic Las Vegas."

Splatterhouse from 1988

"Splatterhouse is an arcade-style sidescrolling beat 'em up with platform elements[2] in which the player controls Rick, a parapsychology college major who is trapped inside West Mansion. After his resurrection by the Terror Mask, Rick makes his way through the mansion, fighting off hordes of creatures in a vain attempt to save his girlfriend Jennifer from a grisly fate."

Leisure Suit Larry from 1987

"The games follow Larry Laffer, a balding, double entendre-speaking, leisure suit-wearing man in his 40s. The stories generally revolve around his attempting, usually unsuccessfully, to seduce attractive young women."

1982: You are General Custer and trying to rape an American Indian woman. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer's_Revenge

The last game I played gave me the option to remove the vocal chords of tens of thousands of people because they annoyed someone I'd just met. That was not a "bad guy" choice.

Made me laugh quite a lot.

Missile Command is one of the darkest games out there.

I guess if the only game in the 80's you played was Mario Bros and not Pacman...

Bethesda games: you are a prisoner about yo be executed

I personally don't mind games being like they are now so long as the story and gameplay together make the game enjoyable. It's why I, for the most part, avoid online games.

Also, I don't know about the antihero part, but the downtrodden hero trying to survive in a dystopian world immediately made me think of Brok The Investigator.

you're a downtrodden anti-hero trying to survive in a dystopian world...

Is my alarm clock the game?

fire in the hole

You have crashed your spaceship in a drunken stupor. You should do genocide about it until you can build a new one.

Play it out. Mario is a game where a plumber from New York visits a land of mushroom people who's princess is kidnapped by a dragon turtle, and he must eat mushrooms to get stronger and eat flowers to spit fireballs. In the most recent iteration, there are piranha plants that jump out of giant pipes, walk around, and do a whole song and dance number for you.

Clearly, there were a lot of drugs involved in its development.

Mark my words, Ashen-one. You shall remain among the accursed

Disco Elysium vibes

Also video games now: You're a robot and all you know is blood is fuel and hell is full, therefore you need to kill everything you see that can bleed

No Harry here, name's Raphael I don't care about apricots.

This is one of the reasons why I'm mostly a retro gamer.

You just described the original Jak trilogy.