It's certainly not uncommon for a video games to include violent scenes that some may find upsetting.
And then there's the rare controversies that take this concept to the extreme and ramp up the shock, the horror and the ugliness of ultra-violence. Highlighted below are eight games that make us wince and think twice about carrying on. Tell us what games you find the goriest in the comments below.
THE PUNISHER
In this action game players assume the role of Frank Castle, AKA The Punisher, who has dedicated his life to punishing criminals (what else?) after the mafia murdered his family. Although there were elements of stealth and exploration, the main focus was on the brutality you could dish out to the endless waves of goons you encountered.
Enemies could be grabbed and used as human shields before being executed once they'd served their purpose, but getting your hands on them also opened up the real meat of the game - interrogations. These could be initiated at any time with a choke, punch, face smash or threat with your gun, but by dragging your foes to highlighted areas you could also perform special interrogations using the environment.
There were a large number of these special interrogations to discover, using electric drills, crushing machines, woodchippers and even toilets to intimidate your charges. Interrogations were represented by a minigame in which you controlled how much pressure you applied to your enemies, and by maintaining your threat at a certain level they would be 'broken' to reveal useful information or drop items to help you progress.
With the interrogation over you could choose to either release your target or push on and eliminate them with the equipment to hand, triggering a grisly animation as you finished them off. To avoid falling foul of ratings board judgments, the developer turned the screen black and white during these execution scenes, but players could still get a pretty good impression of the gory events that were taking place.
MANHUNT
In Rockstar's Manhunt you took control of 'executed' death row inmate James Earl Cash, who awakens to discover he was only given a sedative and has been dumped in run down Carcer City. A voice heard through an earpiece, referring to himself as 'The Director', offered Cash his freedom but only if he followed the instructions given. These involved murdering enemy gang members patrolling the area, and it soon became clear that you were trapped in a snuff film.
Although guns were available at certain points, the main focus of the game was dispatching foes with stealthy executions. To perform these you first located a weapon, which was often an improvised item such a plastic bag or shard of glass, then approached an enemy undetected from behind. After locking your aim onto them you held down the attack button, and the longer you waited before releasing it the more brutal your assault would be.
The reticule started off white to represent a 'hasty' execution, before turning yellow for 'violent' and finally red for 'gruesome' executions. Waiting for the reticule to change increased the risk of you being exposed and attacked but rewarded you with a more dramatic outcome. And, keeping with the "snuff film" vibe, executions you performed were viewed as grimy CCTV footage.
The violence increased as the game progressed, until the final stage where you faced off against the infamous 'Piggsy' - a psychopath wearing a pig's head as a mask and wielding a chainsaw. After catching him in a trap and taking his power tool, you used it to cut your way through your remaining enemies before confronting 'The Director' himself and taking your revenge by chopping his head off.
Comments
19 comments so far...
budge on 12 Apr '13 said:
Popping Ghouls' heads in the Fallout games is pretty nice and it never gets old.
MrPirtniw on 12 Apr '13 said:
Special mention should go to any of the Gears games- and also the Splatterhouse remake. It's not a great game and the repetitive death animations lose their edge after the first 50 times- but pulling the rectum out of a monsters arsehole was quite a moment.
Imaduck on 12 Apr '13 said:
Surprised there's no God of War mention.
Barry316 on 12 Apr '13 said:
I liked that Punisher game.
Wasn't the cancelled Thrill Kill supposedly gory? Or was it just s**t?
runadumb on 12 Apr '13 said:
I just played the Darkness 2 last week and didn't find it that violent...
Is that bad?
As much as I defend uber violence in games seeing Soldier of fortune brought back some memories. As games get better looking and characters act more than real people you just couldn't get away with that any more. Especially if things like the Oculus Rift take off and the immersion level in intensified.
Until then though I'll happily rip people apart with tentacles and claw their throats to pieces. My god the darkness 2 was fun
runadumb on 12 Apr '13 said:
It was more the mix of sex and gore that got it banned I believe instead of just outright gore. The game was pretty much finished. You can get it from the interwebs. StarFox 2 as well now I'm on the subject but its in Japanese and lacks both sex and gore.
badgerpog on 12 Apr '13 said:
Nut shot in Sniper V2?
silent moose on 12 Apr '13 said:
Kingpin: Life of crime is the most extreme i've seen as the violence is graphic and viscious as you actually see the horrible damage your inflicting on enemies. Their textures change to being covered in cuts and bruises, they limp and move slower when injured, they bleed leaving a blood trail if they run away and a pool of blood when they die and they don't die easily. This made a bit at the beginning of the game in which you have to kill a defenceless accountant before he alerts the guards pretty traumatic the first time I played it especially seeing as all you have at the time is a lead pipe. This gritty realism really added to the aesthetics of the game though.
tvirus70 on 12 Apr '13 said:
If you haven't played or seen it...everyone needs to go watch a playthrough of Harvester (or play it yourself).
It's an older adventure game and well, here's the wiki description of what it contains:
Harvester contains various scenes of violence and gore; implied sexual intercourse, masturbation and S&M; murder; suicide; child abuse; profanity; cannibalism; prostitution; pedophilia; molestation, serial killing; geronticide, vandalism, sexually transmitted diseases; and stereotypes of homosexuals, Native Americans, Italians, and others.
It's pretty messed up.
ChrisTypeR on 12 Apr '13 said:
Clearly not old enough to remember moonstone on the Amiga!!
ChrisTypeR on 12 Apr '13 said:
I had thrill kill on the Amiga and it was banned because the guy in the straight jacket (if you pressed the throw button) fu***ed the opponent in the ass, it was a weird game but ultimately playable
Jingee on 12 Apr '13 said:
I know you get these kinds of comments in every article like this, but seriously;
No Shadow of Rome!?
Beak both a guys legs, cut off his arms, and then beat him to death with the severed limbs. Set him on fire, decapitate him, and then use his head to appeal for favour, beat down a tiger, and then throw the head into the crowd.
illage2 on 13 Apr '13 said:
What about Fallout 3? You can blow people's limbs off.
Old Skool Gamer on 13 Apr '13 said:
Smash TV, Carmageddon, Doom, GTA, Hitman, and the list goes on.
TerrorK on 13 Apr '13 said:
There was also Dreamweb, which had several gory assassinations. The most memorable was probably the woman who then crawled after you with her entrails dragging behind her begging for her life.
sh4dow83 on 13 Apr '13 said:
It's just a shame that the PC version of The Darkness II was so screwed up and Mortal Kombat of course was never even released on that platform.
The only thing I played extensively from that list is Hotline Miami. The rest I either can't play or have no interest in because they're too dated by now. But at least Hotline Miami was damn great. And not necessarily because of the gore.
runadumb on 13 Apr '13 said:
In what way? Worked fine for me.
Agent75 on 13 Apr '13 said:
I disagree with most of these. Brutal is Man Hunt and Man Hunt 2, maybe yes for Mad World. Also, running people over in GTA is another.
sh4dow83 on 13 Apr '13 said:
Horribly low FOV. I'm not usually one to complain about that but in Darkness II I found it just too much.
I waited for them to release a patch for weeks (or even months?) but at some point, I just gave up.
I believe there was something else too but I can't remember...