Can a game where you murder hundreds show the horror of war?
- Thread starter lionrwal
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Some parts of Red: Orchestra 2 do this well, but you see them so rarely that it usually doesn't sink in too deep. But stuff like hearing a soldier get shot next to you and whimper for his mother for about 2 minutes before dying gives a pretty good impression. Likewise you can often hear soldiers saying things like "I can't get their faces out of my mind." But obviously this doesn't do justice to how much of a living hell Stalingrad really was for the people trapped in it.
No, I agree with you completely on that, I was just pointing out that I hadn't included those things you did in my post.Nouw said:
No. Games won't be able. It's a simple as that. Yes they can, but due to their nature as game they can't.
The only way a game can represent the TRUE horrors of war is by placing the protagonist as the person who is on the other side of the gun, not the one holding it. Horrors is not seeing thousands die, it's that you feel that is your life that has descended to a hell, that you can be killed just in one second, that you can trust in no one. A perpetual fear for everything. That is war. That was my life.
I stopped playing games because playing in killing someone and then going out of my house finding people murdered with the same weapons I used in the game left me a mark. Games are only that. Games. Yes they can reach to a certain degree of art like Silent Hill 2, Pathologic, The Void and Planescape Torment have proven themselves. But in the end they are only that. Games.
The only way a game can represent the TRUE horrors of war is by placing the protagonist as the person who is on the other side of the gun, not the one holding it. Horrors is not seeing thousands die, it's that you feel that is your life that has descended to a hell, that you can be killed just in one second, that you can trust in no one. A perpetual fear for everything. That is war. That was my life.
I stopped playing games because playing in killing someone and then going out of my house finding people murdered with the same weapons I used in the game left me a mark. Games are only that. Games. Yes they can reach to a certain degree of art like Silent Hill 2, Pathologic, The Void and Planescape Torment have proven themselves. But in the end they are only that. Games.
No. The horrors of war are completely removed from the experience of an immortal badass who kills hundreds of people in personal combat. Even a war movie from the perspective of a person too frightened to kill anyone couldn't really get the horror across. The closest I've seen is this documentary [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1559549/], but it's still glossed over... and it's just real footage with some narration by the guy who shot most of it.
I've never really seen war games as horrifying since the part that is fun is the action and a lot of the horrors happen before or after the battle. Plus a bunch of pixels on screen are not going to come anywhere close to the effective of something that is live-action (movie) and especially real life. Maybe its just me but I can sit through the most gruesome Mortal Kombat fatality, but show me a live-action slasher movie and I'll have a hard time sitting through it because it looks real. No matter how good graphics get I don't think they will ever be able to fool the eye enough to really replicate what it feels like to be on hte front lines of war.
A scene I could see playing out is where you step into the shoes of a refugee (this would be a 3rd-person view) who's encampment is under attack from ["evil" militia] soldiers and you have to escape within a certain time. But it won't be easy because you'd have a wife and child in tow and that slows your escape. So you're running with a small child in one arm, your holding your wife's hand with the other, and you need to avoid catching the enemies' attention as well as get to safety in time. First "time penalty" you'd receive is your escape doesn't go unnoticed and the soldiers are shooting and actively looking for you, which results in the character's wife being shot dead. Now you still have the child in your arms, crying and screaming, but now you can move a little faster. Second "penalty" would be that you get shot and are incapacitated, then (cutscene) you can only watch, helplessly, as the character's child is violently taken from his arms and carried off to a fate unknown, then the soldiers are preparing to execute you when rebel forces take out the soldiers and take you to safety, although you'd only catch glimpses as the characters slips in and out of consciousness (too predictable?). There wouldn't be any "Game Over", no "Restart" or "Mission Failed", you'd continue the game knowing that the character (you) failed to bring his wife and child to safety. Maybe there shouldn't be "penalties" and the event should be set pieces for the story, just to make it seem less like a video game (who wants an immersive experience to be broken because of "time limits" and "penalties"?)
This may seem too dark or perhaps too "edgy" (although I doubt it) but the game could end with a great triumph after a long road of redemption/vengence to keep it from being completely depressing.
This may seem too dark or perhaps too "edgy" (although I doubt it) but the game could end with a great triumph after a long road of redemption/vengence to keep it from being completely depressing.
The problem is the retarded masses and Game Publishers believe "the horrors of war" are brutal, up-close violence played via Quick Time Events, and end with a fade to credits and a Linkin Park song.
The "horror of war" is a slow burn: watching your close friends that have trained beside you for years being torn to shreds by an unknown enemy isn't something they can reproduce on a yearly basis with $15.00 Map Packs.
Keeping you awake at night with the terrible memories of what you did to the men who killed your friends when you finally caught them doesn't sell as well as "AMERICA: FUCK YEAH: THE VIDEO GAME".
The "horror of war" is a slow burn: watching your close friends that have trained beside you for years being torn to shreds by an unknown enemy isn't something they can reproduce on a yearly basis with $15.00 Map Packs.
Keeping you awake at night with the terrible memories of what you did to the men who killed your friends when you finally caught them doesn't sell as well as "AMERICA: FUCK YEAH: THE VIDEO GAME".