Disturbing details in games

[stroopwafel]

I agree about Fallout 3 and NV. Those games were just full of creepy places with gory little details. Another game that comes to my mind is Condemned: Bloodshot. That game was full of corpses ripped open with organs exposed in vivid detail and other disturbing imagery. Also the doll factory in that game has the creepiest and most detailed dolls I've seen.

Also the X-Ray kill cam in Sniper Elite V2 produces some disturbingly detailed deaths. Like skulls being cracked open in slow motion as the bullet tears through it and even nut sacks that burst open like a ripe grapefruit. The latest Mortal Kombat did the same but that was so exaggerated and cartoony that the effect was lost. It's much more profound in Sniper Elite. The accompanying sound effects of bullets ripping through metal, tissue and bone is also spot-on(for example if a bullet hits a helmet you hear this loud and eerie 'ping' sound).

All this detail gives the sniping a sick thrill I haven't seen replicated in any other shooter. It really elevates what would have otherwise been a fairly average shooter. A must play for gorehounds.

Another game that has a lot of disturbing detail is Hitman Absolution. Like the part with the strippers of which some had to go to 'Hawaii'. That was just unbelievably creepy.

 

[Kotaro]

Well I haven't played it myself, but Persona 3's outlook on relations between men and women creeps me out. It seems to say that there is no such thing as "just friends" when it comes to this. Every single social link with a female link ends in a relationship, even if said lady isn't human but a machine in the shape of one. Hell at the end of her link it rather heavily implies that what happens is her way of having sex. That's not even mentioning that only one of these really makes any sense and that's Yukari (to me at least). That's not even mentioning what would happen if any of these like ten girlfriends finds out about the other nine, that, would not be pretty. I find that the so called 'friendzone' is something of a harsh reality if you are like me, namely, pressed for friends, but your character in this game is not in that position. They have so many friends that having a girl turn them down wouldn't exactly be particularly hurtful. All I'm saying is that that is not how actual people think.

Yeah, that really bothered me too. I felt like a dick, dating all these girls at once. Thankfully they fixed that in 4, and relationships only turn romantic if you want them to. You can still date multiple girls at once, but if you do this in Golden, the game makes you feel like an asshole come Valentine's Day.

 

[teh_Canape]

Well I haven't played it myself, but Persona 3's outlook on relations between men and women creeps me out. It seems to say that there is no such thing as "just friends" when it comes to this. Every single social link with a female link ends in a relationship, even if said lady isn't human but a machine in the shape of one. Hell at the end of her link it rather heavily implies that what happens is her way of having sex. That's not even mentioning that only one of these really makes any sense and that's Yukari (to me at least). That's not even mentioning what would happen if any of these like ten girlfriends finds out about the other nine, that, would not be pretty. I find that the so called 'friendzone' is something of a harsh reality if you are like me, namely, pressed for friends, but your character in this game is not in that position. They have so many friends that having a girl turn them down wouldn't exactly be particularly hurtful. All I'm saying is that that is not how actual people think.

Yeah, that really bothered me too. I felt like a dick, dating all these girls at once. Thankfully they fixed that in 4, and relationships only turn romantic if you want them to. You can still date multiple girls at once, but if you do this in Golden, the game makes you feel like an asshole come Valentine's Day.

personally, I think the whole "the only way to finish a social link is to make her your girlfriend" thing is just an oversight
but it did make me clench up my ass the first time I played it, when the game went "IF YOU DATE SOMEONE ELSE SHE WILL CUT YOUR BALLS OFF", and then find out there was no way to not make them your girlfriends

 

[Happiness Assassin]

My favorite has to be the story of Vault 11 in New Vegas. Basically you piece together an experiment where the Overseer of the Vault also acts as a human sacrifice so the Vault may live. Only after most of the Vault is dead do the occupants refuse to comply with the demands, apparently winning their freedom from their hell in the process. And the final 5 survivors decide to commit suicide as a penance for their crimes, though a recording left behind and the fact that there are only 4 bodies heavily imply that the last one to kill himself didn't.

 

[Broderick]

Isn't this the whole world-building in Bethesda games? Fallout 3 and Skyrim are #1 and #3 in my top games respectively because of things like that.
Also I remember in Dark Souls there was a place I think called Anor Londo that was a dark and abandoned city. I can't remember why it was that way, but I remember the reason was very gripping and chilling. Obviously not enough to make it memorable though :L
Also read the planet descriptions in the Mass Effect games. Same thing there.

Do you mean New Londo, underneath firelink shrine? If so, it was abandoned because darkwraiths were ransacking the area, and they wanted to contain and destroy those darkwraiths in the city. Because of this, they flooded the city, killing thousands in the process. You can still see their corpses scattered throughout the area. The worst thing is

Spoiler

that the darkwraiths survived despite the flooding, including the 4 kings.

Anor Londo is pretty abandoned as well, it isnt really known as being dark though

Spoiler

at first anyways

 

[VoidOfOne]

A different kind of disturbing...

In Final Fantasy X-2 (a game that I enjoyed, in part because not so many people do), you have the main character, Yuna, being the target of the advances of another character named Brother. He's not Yuna's brother, but he is the brother of another character, Rikku. And Rikku's father is Yuna's uncle, as he was the brother of Yuna's father.

So... Brother is Yuna's cousin, and as I just spelled out, not a distant cousin.

And nowhere in that game was there ever a hint that Brother wasn't biologically related to Rikku... So... yeah...

But then you have the Honey Bee scenes in FF VII, so disturbing scenes are not new to the FF franchise.

And then in Mass Effect 3, there's a somewhat hidden bit about the fate of Joker's family. It's... what it is.

 

[likalaruku]

I probably shouldn't post a pic of it. I can recall a few games where you fight a giant hideous boss monster with bare breasts. One happens to be American McGee's Alice. If you've seen Apocalypse Zero, then you can just imagine. But that's probably not the kind of disturbing detail you meant.

There's a popular fan theory that pictures on a wall in Portal 2 implicate that GlaDos crammed living people into companion cubes. There's also the one that Mario is a mass murderer because every brick he crushes used to be a living being.

For anything else, I just point out to a few articles on Cracked.
http://www.cracked.com/article_20538_6-games-that-put-insane-detail-into-stuff-you-didnt-notice.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_20545_6-brilliant-clues-hidden-in-background-video-games.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_20017_the-7-most-horrifying-moments-from-childrens-video-games_p2.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_20673_5-video-games-with-disturbing-implications-you-didnt-notice.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19172_8-creepy-video-game-urban-legends-that-happen-to-be-true.html
http://www.cracked.com/article_19332_7-creepy-video-game-easter-eggs-youll-wish-were-never-found.html

 

[katsabas]

A particularly sad and creepy one in Arkham City is Harley's pregnancy test. Finding it before the HQR dlc and you can see the result is positive. After the DLC, however, the result changed. Which can either mean a false positive, a miscarriage or that she had an abortion.

 

[not_you]

There are a lot of things in games that usually get glossed over... Kids games in particular...
Well, KIDS in giant inverted commas...

Pokemon!

have a video outlining 3 of the 720~odd available that could kill you...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh-7kEk1ceE

Yeah...
Pretty disturbing...

 

[infohippie]

A different kind of disturbing...

In Final Fantasy X-2 (a game that I enjoyed, in part because not so many people do), you have the main character, Yuna, being the target of the advances of another character named Brother. He's not Yuna's brother, but he is the brother of another character, Rikku. And Rikku's father is Yuna's uncle, as he was the brother of Yuna's father.

So... Brother is Yuna's cousin, and as I just spelled out, not a distant cousin.

And nowhere in that game was there ever a hint that Brother wasn't biologically related to Rikku... So... yeah...

That's not so disturbing, Americans simply find it so because of the cultural values they're taught. In most of the world it is not considered incestuous to get together with your cousin, including Japan where this game was made.

In all the blue areas of this map, it is perfectly legal to marry your cousin.

 

[VoidOfOne]

A different kind of disturbing...

In Final Fantasy X-2 (a game that I enjoyed, in part because not so many people do), you have the main character, Yuna, being the target of the advances of another character named Brother. He's not Yuna's brother, but he is the brother of another character, Rikku. And Rikku's father is Yuna's uncle, as he was the brother of Yuna's father.

So... Brother is Yuna's cousin, and as I just spelled out, not a distant cousin.

And nowhere in that game was there ever a hint that Brother wasn't biologically related to Rikku... So... yeah...

That's not so disturbing, Americans simply find it so because of the cultural values they're taught. In most of the world it is not considered incestuous to get together with your cousin, including Japan where this game was made.

In all the blue areas of this map, it is perfectly legal to marry your cousin.

Yeah... knowing that it's widely accepted doesn't make it any less disturbing, but thanks for that info.

Now I'm even more disturbed. But then again, that's my problem. Perfectly fine if other people feel differently.

But since this post is about disturbing issues in games, I shall contribute another: the ending of Godhand. Heck, the entire game of Godhand can be considered disturbing, which may be part of its charm.

 

[Headsprouter]

There's child sized skeletons and coffins in a few of Oblivion's Necromancer forts. One goes as far as having an incomplete item, some "child overalls", which disappear when picked up, and have an unfinished texture. They've even crashed my game before on the Xbox version. It's clear the developers realised that they were in rocky territory.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Pokemon is almost notorious for these somewhat out of place, disturbing details.
I'll give you one more example, here's a pokedex entry for the pokemon Drifloon from Pokemon Y: These Pokémon are called the "Signpost for Wandering Spirits." Children holding them sometimes vanish.

It looks similar to a balloon, so it makes sense that a child might hang on to it, only to be whisked away and never be seen or heard from again. (Yeah. :/ )

Almost every ghost type Pokemon has a horrible description. Yamask for example, "Each of them carries a mask that used to be its face when it was human. Sometimes they look at it and cry." Black Pokedex.

White Pokedex: "These Pokémon arose from the spirits of people interred in graves in past ages. Each retains memories of its former life.

By capturing a Yamask, you are using a human soul to battle other Pokemon. That is so messed up!

 

[gigastar]

The entirety of Spec Ops: The Line is devoted to highlighting just how fucked up your typical military FPS actually is.

And in Borderlands 2, while most are easy to miss theres quite a few moments that remind you that Pandora is a really shitty place to live.

 

[Saelune]

In Oblivion, one of the necromancer caves has a tiny coffin with a tiny skeleton in it on a table. And ofcourse there is...well, all of Fallout 3.

 

[Skeleon]

Yeah, Fallout 3 was great in that regard. I loved looking around for the tiny hints at - often horrific - stories and tragedies. A skeleton on a bench with a gun next to them or in their hand. A skeleton draped over a child carriage. A recording from shortly after the nukes fell, talking about their child who didn't make it inside or got irradiated or whatever. These bits were everywhere and really added so much to the game, yet you actually had to look for them and think your part.

 

[Reed Spacer]

Fallout 3:

"If anyone can hear this, this is Bob Anderstein. My family and I have taken refuge in a drainage chamber not too far from a radio relay tower outside of D.C. My boy is very sick, needs medical assistance. Please help if you can. We're listening for your response. 3950 kilohertz."

And then you get there.

 

[Lieju]

A particularly sad and creepy one in Arkham City is Harley's pregnancy test. Finding it before the HQR dlc and you can see the result is positive. After the DLC, however, the result changed. Which can either mean a false positive, a miscarriage or that she had an abortion.

I can't see why she would abort the baby (unless it wasn't Joker's, which would add another layer of creepy, because she wouldn't have had sex with another man willingly.)or keep testing after abortion, so it's likely it was a miscarriage, maybe caused by Batman.

Even if it wasn't Batman, she probably blamed him for it anyway, thinking she lost the baby because their fight or something.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

Gibbing zombies in Left 4 Dead 2.

May not be entirely medically accurate, but the glossy finish and the sheer number of ways you can splat those poor bastards up never ceases to deliver that sublime feeling.