Poll: Tired of killing?

[smeghead00]

SWAT4 is an excellent example of choice between killing and a non-lethal approach.
You either take the easy approach and just shoot them, or the far more satisfying approach and complete a level with all hostiles arrested, having tazered, bean bag shotguned and pepper sprayed them all.
For a satisfying and yet infuriating experience, it works great LAN

 

[Frybird]

I always thought it would be fun to play another FPS along the lines of the first half of Stranger's Wrath, where you wear down bounties with nonlethal weapons and bring them in. You could have a taser, a gun that bags people a la fifth element, non-lethal bear traps, that kind of thing.

Prey 2 (The cancelled game that turned out to not have been cancelled after all) seems to go a similar route, since you also are a bounty hunter who has to and/or can capture some of the bounties alive.

On Topic:
Yeah, kinda hard for most action games and RPGs to get rid of killing people due to concept alone. But i'd like to see a kind of action/beat 'em up game along the lines of God of War or such in wich you pummel opponents into submission instead of slashing them into pieces. Perhaps a more "grounded", realistic-ish game.

Until that, some recommendable games in wich you don't (always [have to]) kill people (but still fight them, wich you obviously don't in Puzzle or Racing Games or such)

Ghostbusters The Video Game

The Hitman Series (of sorts, of course you kill at least one person per mission, and have the option to go full-genocide, but the game recommends and rewards going for the silent approach wich means generally not killing people)

The Metal Gear Solid Series (You get rewarded for not killing a single person in most of these, even though people may be killed by you in Cutscenes)

SWAT 4 (See above. There is also a wider variety of possible non-lethal takedowns)

 

[Veroxx]

We need more FPH: First Person Huggers

Everything you need is already here

OT: Non-lethal options in multiplayer games would be interesting, especially any multiplayer RPGs (not MMOs), taking hostages and all that...

 

[Rheinmetall]

Prince of Persia (the 2008 release) didn't involve any killing at all. The defeated monsters/ opponents run away. It fitted well in the context of the game, which had a romantic atmosphere. Perhaps you should try it for a change. Personally I never finished it, because I was a little bored after some point, but surely it was one unique game.

 

[CatmanStu]

Snip

Huh- my friend actually was talking to me about this problem a week back. He was tired of playing Skyrim, Assassins Creed, Mortal Kombat, and other games because they all had you kill someone whether you like it or not (I know you can 'try' to avoid killing people or creatures in Skyrim but you have to avoid a lot of missions that require you to kill.. and the dragons to unlock shouts- ect.)

The solution: Playing Pokemon. Yep, he said to play Pokemon for no one ever dies in the game. Fun to play, violence and fighting involved, but no one dies. Sounds like the game for you bud, I suggest you get the Pokemon Ruby since the newest Pokemon games confused me to much and my friend said you have to REALLY be into Pokemon to get a kick out of White and Black.

Oh god; Pokemon flashback.
I tried Pokemon back in the N64 days and found that my memory wasn't good enough to remember the hierarchy of the powers. I would always end up choosingg the wrong ones for the job, plus I also really liked the duck one (PsiDuck if memory serves me right) as I thought he was funny and couldn't resist using him whenever possible; it was like bringing a wet biscuit to a gun fight.

 

[MelasZepheos_v1legacy]

I love taking the path of non-aggression, even when I'm not supposed to. Like in FPS where it's possible to run past gunfights I'll run and gun from cover and sometimes not even hit a single enemy.

I was raised on Metal Gear Solid, my default response is to hide and wait until I can move through sneakily.

 

[NathLines]

I just played through the whole Space Marine campaign(Steam daily deal).

Yes, I'm a bit tired of killing.

 

[ElPatron]

No mentions of Metal Gear Solid on the first page and only two on the second? Escapist, what the hell?

Deus Ex and Human Revolution make non-killing a pretty viable option. I always thought it would be fun to play another FPS along the lines of the first half of Stranger's Wrath, where you wear down bounties with nonlethal weapons and bring them in. You could have a taser, a gun that bags people a la fifth element, non-lethal bear traps, that kind of thing.

You have the Fulton Recovery System in Peace Walker, does that count as "bagging"?

 

[CatmanStu]

We need more FPH: First Person Huggers

Go play puzzle and iOS games if you're tired of violence.

Interesting that you would equate killing with violence. Is a soldier violent? Is a policeman shooting a gangbanger in self defense violent?
I would say that violence is the use of excessive force and in that regard there are very few violent games. Most games give you no option than to kill your enemies so killing them can have no moral repercussions as there was never a choice. I am advocating that more games give you that choice so, in essence, I am asking for MORE violent games.

Yes, as those, by definition, are violent acts.

violence
Noun:

Behavior involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something.
Strength of emotion or an unpleasant or destructive natural force.

The reason for the violence doesn't make it not violence.

What you want is more choice in how the violence is committed(and even whether it's committed in the first place), and those choices to have consequences. And if you ask me, that would be great. I'm always for moving away from "press button > receive reward" gameplay into more involved and fleshed out methods.

My bad. I keep forgetting that words have numerous definitions. In my defense violence can also be described as an 'unjust use of force' which is the context I normally use it in. By that definition any force used when force is the only option is not violence; so you see, my initial comment is true, from a certain point of view.

 

[CatmanStu]

I love taking the path of non-aggression, even when I'm not supposed to. Like in FPS where it's possible to run past gunfights I'll run and gun from cover and sometimes not even hit a single enemy.

I was raised on Metal Gear Solid, my default response is to hide and wait until I can move through sneakily.

I was raised on point and click adventures so I am always picking up random objects and rubbing them together to see if I create something useful.

 

[Phototoxin]

Syphon filter was quite non-fatal friendly.

 

[AngloDoom]

I forget the game, because it was otherwise pretty unremarkable, but in it you played as a Samurai in feudal Japan. The one thing I loved was the ability to press the Back button and to turn your sword around, hitting an enemy with the blunt side. It reduced the damage by a significant amount, but it meant that if some random punk started a fight on you because they were drunk, you weren't forced to gut them or flee.

Unless someone truly deserved to die, I just pummelled them into submission. One time I did it to a random person who just jumped out and attacked me, thinking he was just a mugger or something. Turns out he was actually a serial-killer and killed several people since I last encountered him due to my mercy.

 

[verdant monkai]

It depends on the situation, if they attack me with an intent to kill then I will mercilessly butcher them. If they run I will generally pursue and kill them. I get especially annoyed when they beg for mercy, then I put on a twisted smile and bludgeon their face in until they are devoid of features, and there is a ruined mask of gore where there face was.
(I am not like that in real life, just when I have to level up my strength)

I never really attack unarmed npc's, I let them live. But everything else I just kill, so no I am not tired of killing.

 

[rutcommapat]

You know, I'm pretty sure you could go through most of GTA 4 without killing anyone (Save for specific missions) - If you shoot enemies in a certain way, their health bar disappears, but they continue to crawl away from you, and you don't have to finish them off (In fact, whenever I saw enemies in this way I often decided whether or not to finish them on how angry Niko was going into the mission - For example, the mission where Roman gets kidnapped I made sure everyone was dead, but any mission where I was only there because someone told me to be there, I let whoever I could live).

Although I'm not sure this works, seein as I haven't played the game in a while and I wasn't exactly trying to be non-lethal my first time.

 

[suitepee7]

i like the option to kill. my opinion on the matter is best summed up via deus ex:HR. that game had an option to just not kill, as a viable playthrough style, and i loved it. that being said, sometimes i want my enemies to be in fear as they find a pile of 10 of their friends...

 

[Auron225]

I noticed this recently when playing Fallout 3 - the side quest, Superhuman Gambit (I think its called that). You have to stop two semi-lunatics, one a "superhero" and one a "supervillain" and all their fighting cause they're just causing trouble and the hero isnt much better than the villain. You can stop one or both of them, but if you only stop one than you can imagine the other one will continue causing trouble either another way or just somewhere else so its better to stop both.

You can talk them out of it peacefully or just kill them outright. I found myself reloading again and again and again until I passed the speech check to talk the villain out of it rather than just killing her - it just seemed unnecessary.

Having said that, when it came to Col. Autumn I showed no mercy so I guess there is a line somewhere...

 

[Kargathia]

Interesting that you would equate killing with violence. Is a soldier violent? Is a policeman shooting a gangbanger in self defense violent?
I would say that violence is the use of excessive force and in that regard there are very few violent games. Most games give you no option than to kill your enemies so killing them can have no moral repercussions as there was never a choice. I am advocating that more games give you that choice so, in essence, I am asking for MORE violent games.

Yes, both your examples are undeniably violent. Violence is not dependent on justification, it merely means that you're physically harming somebody (or even something).

Other than that, I wouldn't mind seeing a few more games that leave you the choice, if some common pitfalls are avoided.

- Find a way to recompense players for avoided enemies. Alpha Protocol does this, but it is one of the very few. In almost any other game involving experience you will be worse off if you artfully avoided combat.
- Make the non-lethal approach significantly different from the lethal one. Deus Ex, I'm looking at you here.

 

[Zorg Machine]

I hated it when I was playing skyrim or halo and the enemy ran away or surrendered. I put down my weapons and expected them to keep running or possibly lie down on the ground....and what did they do? They attacked me!a bandit on 1 hp goes down on one knee and says "spare me" I spare him and he attacks me and instantly gets killed....why.