Six Brutally Violent Scenes From Gaming (With Video)

dead eye

In case you can’t tell from some of my stuff in the last week, like this, and this, I have been in a pretty dark space lately. But unlike most, I don’t grab the longest stick I can find and try to fend off that darkness. Instead, I lay out a bowl of milk, with DARKNESS written on the side, and I let it come feed and nest by my side. I think it is important we all do that from time to time, for too much of anything, even goodness, can over saturate and spoil us. And it is the appeal and draw of that dark side that makes me truly enjoy survival horror games, as well as violent moments in action games.

Unlike a movie, you are not just watching it, and unlike a book, you are not just imagining it. With a game, sometimes, we are forced to come as close as we ever will (thankfully), to living such a nightmarish situation. And we can pretend that these games push boundaries (because a few of them do) but let’s be real for a moment, shall we? This level of violence is always all around us, in mass media and the decomposing ways the the world, so rather than pretend it doesn’t exist, why don’t we grab our controllers for a moment and flash back to some shockingly violent video game moments, embracing them in all their gory glory? Moments where we all looked at our screens and said to ourselves “Wow, I didn’t think they were allowed to do that”, yet they did it anyway.

Dead Space 2: Eye See What You Did There

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I hate when cat vomit grows leg and tries to kill me.

Dead Space 3 destroyed me, but not because it was good, but because I genuinely felt like it was such a huge step down from part 2, which really is, in my opinion, one of the best action horror games ever made. And what ONE moment from Dead Space 2 sold that to me, completely, even overshadowing a great deal of horror kills I have seen in cinema lately? The scene where you had to do the eye surgery on yourself. From the precision needed, it was almost a given that you would fail atleast once (which I know was done on purpose so you could see this disgustingly amazing moment), and what a moment it was:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9crCGMh4j9g

Although I sensed it coming from the tension of the scene, I was still in awe at just how visceral it played out

Eye gouging scenes have always held a very popular spot in horror for being the one kind of scene that can make anyone cringe, and Dead Space 2 took that to new levels of UGH in that single moment. Makes your eye itch when you play it.

God of War 3 Head Rip (and Nod To The Thing)

GOW3 Helios' Head

If this was an action movie from the 80’s, he would make a joke here about “getting ahead”.

The God of War series is one that does not shy away from gore, and that has been part of its selling point since the very inception of this stellar series, but there is that one scene in part three that just felt more bloody and brutal than most of the others, and that was when Kratos tears off Helios’s head. Just the idea of getting a head slowly torn off while you scream and plead is sick enough, but what most don’t know is that one of the greatest scenes in horror movie history inspired this scene.

Here, see for yourself, side by side. First, the God of War head rip:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1GLVv8KJpE

Please note the tearing of the neck flesh here.

And now, the scene that inspired it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjIXwkX1e48

Now, in comparison, please note the pulling and tearing of the skin around the neck here when it separates.

You guys all know I am a bit of a horror whore, so the second I saw that scene in GOW 3 I knew, and it only made me love the game that much more.

Manhunt: Sickle to the Dickel

hunter

Is it weird I have this mask, cuz I do.

I know all of Manhunt was full of sick, brutal, incomprehensible violence. The “snuff movie” of video games. But there was no execution in that game that was quite as violent or tough to watch as the sickle to the dick execution. There is really nothing else I can say about that.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY4mxFZGoFU

Come on, of all the ways to kill a guy, you slash his taint?

I also found the beheading with the cleaver to be super messed up as well. The worst part? I kinda loved that game.

Heavy Rain (De)Fingering Scene

LIZARD-1024x576

It’s dinner with the Dahmers!

Though I am not a PS3 guy (not anything against the system, I am just poor and had to choose one system), I made sure to borrow my friend’s for a week so I could play Heavy Rain. Why? I was a HUGE fan o Quantic Dreams former game (and spiritual prequel) Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit). I loved the drama of the game, and even though it was all QTE’s, it told an insane and engrossing story, and I wanted to see just how far they could push that with the PS3. I got my answer when I was forced to sever my own finger like some sick scene from some Saw.

And ofcourse, being a weirdo and a bit of a sadist, I loved it.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1eGF2_MWQ8

Man, I hate when telemarketers convince me to do shit like this.

Though Heavy Rain was inundated with messed up scenes, severing your own finger to seemingly keep your son alive was up there on the f*cked up scale.

Call of Duty: Black Ops: Here, Chew Some Glass

black-ops

The irony is he is about to shoot this caption. IN THE FACE!

I am pretty much aware any moment in Spec Ops: The Line overshadows any moments in the COD series, but I have not played Spec Ops: The Line, which is why it is not included. And though there are more disturbing scenes in COD to many people than this minor interrogation scene, to me, this scene was a defining moment. A moment that I didn’t even feel when I played Manhunt. A moment where it hit me that the old school gaming generation, and pretty much moral code, was dead. Don’t get me wrong, I love dark subject matter, so this is not me condemning the medium at all. But that scene in Black Ops, when I put that broken glass into that guy’s mouth, bastard or not, and punched him in the face? That was the single moment when I knew the ideals of Mario were dead.

I knew, for me atleast, that moment leveled the playing field. Nothing was sacred anymore. A fact only further proven to me when I found the demon baby in Max Payne 3.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHksOOv77YM

Suddenly, in a brief moment, I longed for the innocence of being a genocidal plumber with a hatred toward fungus.

Again, don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t offended. Just more aware that the world had changed, and can MAYBE understand why this stuff might slightly freak out some parents. Nice to see America being portrayed honestly for once, though.

The Darkness: Jenny Get’s A Head Wound 

jenny_death--article_image

I heard myself whispering no before it even happened, and it was just a game.

I know I spoke about this scene one other time in my lists about games that make grown men cry, and I want to talk about it one more  time, mainly because as much as video game violence against bad guys can have an affect on us, seeing a character we care for get killed in a game, right in our face, and putting us in a position where we feel completely impotent and powerless against it as it happens is a feeling I will never forget. And the game does not flinch or look away. You SEE your girlfriend, and up to that point, the one thing that was saving your soul, get blown away, inches from your face.

And I still think about that moment.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCzYqE7JxrY

I know that scene is necessary to plunge  you into madness needed to further the story, but I still get a little weepy.

A great way to get over Jenny’s death is to play the VERY subpar Darkness 2, where they try to suck all the sadness out of her death by using her in pretty much every scene, killing all the impact the first game had, and her death, had on the gamer.

Okay guys, so what did I miss? What visceral, gory, gross gaming moment melted your mind?

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5 Comments

  1. Great list. I can’t think of any additions off the top of my head, but I have played all those and agree 100% that they had me cringing. The Heavy Rain and Dead Space 2 ones specially had me dreading where I saw the scene going but also loving that a video game could elicit that emotion in me when movies usually cannot.

  2. Phantasmagoria – It may have just been a product of my age at the time, but I watched a friend play some of this game, and the execution scenes were just brutal. I particularly the scene where a wife is killed by being force fed animal entrails. Oh look, a video!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmy-CtePMIU

    Granted it was more of one of those interactive movie games of the mid 90s, but still.

  3. @Akari,
    Thanks, mang!
    @Deke,
    you get many cred points for bringing that game up. I totes blanked it out (as I do with most FMV games) but you are 100% right here, Phantasmagoria had some BRUTAL kills, with the skull rip being one of my favorite.
    Hell, I still think some of those effects stand up.
    Good call, sir.

  4. The darkness scene were jenny died made me quit the game for a whole year before I completed it. I couldnt get past that moment, and, I cried so hard.

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