Bit of an explanation as to what prompted me to make this post: I recently played through Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 1 and 2 and I just felt off. I’ve slaughtered hundreds of innocents for my amusement in games like Fallout and TES, I play through No Russian with a grin, but for some reason, I refrain from killing bad guys in SGW? The first one has you hunt down Russian oligarchs and war criminals, while the second one is about Middle Eastern terrorists and this is the game where I feel bad about killing? There’s just something about the soldiers talking about their daily problems like making no money, uncomfortable boots and sweating too much, or showing eachother pictures of their dogs, not to mention the absolute horror when you’ve got a knife against their throat or when they find a body. I hope this isn’t weird, but I’ve never experienced remorse for killing a video game enemy, and I’ve played a lot of different games. I’d like to hear about your experiences, and which games do a good job humanising common enemies, the concept intrigues me.
Finally someone said it, hotline Miami and especially its sequel both do a fantastic job at instructing and encouraging the player to be violent and then chastises them for doing so.
The first game asks you “do you like hurting people?” And the player already knows the answer. If you play the second game, the question becomes “to what end?”.
The best part of the series is that in the end, it was all for nothing. I won’t spoil it but the games do a good job in making the player regret and even question if they enjoyed the violence they’ve just committed.