Recently, the video game industry has been under fire from the media, as well as self-aggrandizing and uninformed assholes like Jack Thompson. The reasons are as simple as sex and violence. Somehow, these archaic non-thinkers believe that video games are strictly for children, and that games that contain mature themes are poison to our youth. Well, the Nintendo generation has grown up. We are adults, and play adult video games. Adult video games contain adult content and adult content often contains violence. Only the video game industry seems to be chastised for it, though.
Anyway, here are the top 10 violent video games out there. They’re perfect for virtual stress-relief, and are generally good games, too.
10) Loaded
Look up the term “bloodbath” and you will find Loaded and its sequel, Re-Loaded. These games feature classic top-down action, where players demolish floods of enemies, staining every inch of the ground with blood. Weapons include flamethrowers, missile launchers and plasma cannons, among others. It’s a take-no-prisoners affair (which, coincidentally begins inside a prison), and anything that MOVES is fair game. When you’re done, it looks like you’ve emptied a ketchup bottle onto a doll house in the psychiatric ward.
9) Mortal Kombat
The granddaddy of video game violence, Mortal Kombat started it all. It featured character models as photo-realistic as the technology of the time could provide, and then proceeded to tear them apart. Blood flew with every strike throughout each match, but the real exhibit was the fatality system. When a player was told to “FINISH HIM,” fighters would take the liberty of tearing out opponent’s skulls, with spinal column attached, or reach into their chest and tear out a still-beating heart. Other fatalities featured full dismemberment, leaving gamers shocked… but eager to see more.
8) Grand Theft Auto
As the highest-profile series on this list, Grand Theft Auto games have become the poster children for violent video games. One must consider the entire franchise, since there have been more than a half-dozen GTA games in the past 10 years. What makes these games so offensive is the freedom players are granted to do whatever they want in a setting that mirrors real life. The move to 3D is when things became most violent, allowing the beat-down of anyone walking the streets, random gun-downs of civilians, gang members and police officers, vehicular manslaughter, and the titular offense of grand theft auto (usually involving a punch to the face and a toss onto the asphalt before driving away). There’s a reason GTA is in the news, and that very reason lands it on this list.
7) The Punisher
When a game is partially censored due to violence, you know it has to be pretty intense.The Punisher features 3rd person action much like a Max Payne game, but what sets it apart are the “interrogation” segments, which always result in some brutal ending for the one answering the questions. For each of these kills, a black and white filter is applied to the visuals in an effort to curb the violence, and for good reason. Bad guys are sawed, drilled, crushed, and fed to piranhas, just to name a few of their undesirable fates. The best part, though, is when Frank Castle shoves a knife directly into the top of a man’s skull.
6) Killer 7
Killer 7 centers around the story of a syndicate of assassins, and branches out into whatever questionable content it can manage to reach. Not only do bucketloads of blood spray out of enemies’ bodies when they are killed, but the protagonist actually absorbs it to get stronger. At one point, a character gives a man his wife’s severed head, before shooting him in the back of the head, execution style. Another scene features the methodical murder of eight people in a hotel, and yet another sees blood literally rain from the sky, covering everything below. This game is a psychological mess, and the sort of violence within is the product of insanity – or maybe genius. In any case, resurrection using a bloody paper bag full of body parts is definitely on the graphic side.
5) Soldier of Fortune
This game’s CALLING CARD happens to be its highly graphic violence. It featured a whopping 26 unique areas on its character models that could display damage independently of the others. They were called “gore zones.” Players could create all manner of semi-limbless creatures, shooting off arms and legs at various points. The results were sometimes reminiscent of a butcher shop. A head shot could leave a bloody stump of a neck or split the enemy’s skull, and shots to the stomach could blow a hole straight through or leave intestines dangling. With the amount of disfigurement encountered throughout Soldier of Fortune, anyone would agree that the name “gore zones” hit the nail right on the head.
4) Gears of War
When a game looks this good, all of its content is effectively magnified. The gore in Gears of War is as graphic as it comes. Enemies limbs are often perforated and torn off by a barrage of machine gun fire and close encounters usually result in a chainsaw to the neck, leaving SOMEBODY headless. Otherwise, enemies simply explode into bits of blood and bone, with much of the end product splattering all over the camera – and everywhere else. The sheer volume of blood in this game leaves players swimming in a sanguine sea.
3) God of War
In both the original and the sequel, action in the God of War series is a sea of unrelenting violence. Kratos is one of the most vicious characters the video game world has ever seen, never hesitating to impale bodies, sever heads, and even rip enemies in half with his bare hands. As for innocents…he’ll quickly slice them to shreds or offer them up as a sacrifice to achieve his goals. The cut scenes in God of War are particularly gory, with blood gushing as far as the eye can see, and the finishing maneuvers enacted upon enemies are some of the most brutal imaginable. You can almost FEEL the pain.
2) Thrill Kill
EA canned Thrill Kill at the last minute because they “didn’t want to publish such a senselessly violent game.” Featuring four player deathmatches between deranged inhabitants of a modern-day Hell, this game took the most violent route possible. Rather than health meters gradually declining as the battle wore on, each player fought to build up their “kill meter,” which allowed them to execute brutal “thrill kills.” Mutilation, dismemberment, blood-splattering lacerations and the like were all standard fare in this game, which earned it the rare AO (adults only) rating before its eventual cancellation. Senselessly violent? Probably.
1) Manhunt
Here’s a game with a plot that revolves around the making of a snuff film. The game’s protagonist, James Earl Cash, is already a convicted murderer, and is now at the mercy of a deranged directer who basically tells him to kill or be killed – and to make it gruesome. With weapons ranging from shards of glass to baseball bats to machetes to shotguns, Cash kills gang member after gang member in only the bloodiest of ways. The view even changes to a special TV camera perspective to provide the most optimal view of each execution, where heads roll, blood flies, and things are generally nasty.
Um…ouch?
