A really good read on games and kill counts.

[Wurm]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...violent-games/

I agree with most of it.

[Kamakazie]

While I agree with some of what was said regarding Tomb Raider, I do not agree with the idea that violence diminishes Bioshock's narrative.

In Tomb Raider, the only problem I have is that Lara's transition to killing machine happens too quickly, not that she becomes one at all. The Lara Croft we know from the old games does not hesitate to kill people, animals or dinosaurs, and the new game is meant to show us Lara becoming that person. Having her kill, and become comfortable killing 100+ people over the course of the game is kind of important to the narrative. At the end,

Spoiler

the main antagonist even makes the point that Lara is wrong for judging him so harshly for killing people when she has just spent the last several days doing the exact same thing for similar reasons. Lara basically responds to this by killing him.

In Bioshock, Booker is not a nice guy. This is established really early on and is consistent throughout the game. Having him kill people throughout does not feel out of place at all. The game does deliver an emotional killing scene when

Spoiler

Elizabeth kills Fitzroy. This is a character who had been relatively pure throughout the game suddenly getting her hands dirty, and you can feel that "what have I done" emotion when she does so.

It makes sense that Booker kills dozens of people in Bioshock. He is a person who

Spoiler

sold his daughter to pay off a debt and is willing to kill a child to get her back. He was known for being a monster in the American Indian War and refused religious redemption when it was offered to him.

[Wurm]

My question is, does it add to the story or distract from it? If it distracts from the story due to amount then it should have been toned down.

Strangely enough I tend to like games where the less kills the better (Thief, Deus Ex and more recently Dishonored). I also agree with the article he linked in his, that the extreme brutality of the kills in BSI make the game un-accessible for people who don't like horror games.

In ME the combat added to the story and from game to game it made sense that there was more of it due to the story.

What bothered me is that ME1 was basically a bloodless affair and by ME3, I was blowing people's heads off and blood was spraying everywhere. It added NOTHING to the game.

The same goes for Dragon Age Origins vs. Dragon Age 2.

I like my blood, don't get me wrong, but the trend to more and more gore in story driven games is bad for the industry in my opinion, it gives idiots like "he who shall not be named out of Florida" and the president of the NRA fuel for the fire, and it is going to come back and bite us gamers on the *** sooner than later.

[monroeski]

Haven't read the article yet but to your points, Kama, I get the point that the violence fits the characters to a point but I dislike that so many characters are fighters and killers. The Silent Hill series went from having random Joe main character looking for his daughter to guys that are convicts and ex-military. Far Cry starts you off as a guy running a boat rental company or something like that but then, surprise surprise, turns out you're ex-military. Then stack on top of that that the games where you don't play as some kind of rough, violent character, your Tomb Raiders and Uncharteds, still have you killing thousands of people.

It often feels like the killing and violence and such are what drives them to make the characters, not that the character decision drives the killing and violence. I'm only about 4 to 5 hours into Bioshock: Infinite right now but it really feels like the game they wanted to make isn't a shooter but shooters are what sells so here you go, here's a thousand people to murder. I've heard that the "murder hallway" aspect only gets more prevalent after you start rift-hopping.

[James]

I will say that I played through DE:HR twice doing the whole no-kill thing, and it was fun. So was completely emptying the entire city of living souls, but in a different "well, I've already seen the good stuff" kind of way. I don't think I would have enjoyed the game nearly as much if I had played it run and gun the first time through at all.

Commenting on Wurm and ME games, yeah, they definitely changed the feel of the games between the first one and this one.

As a side note: The new movie "Olympus has Fallen" gave me a similar vibe. The violence in that movie is much more brutal than in past action movies I've seen. Hell, it was much more brutal than the new Die Hard movie that came out this year.

Not sure if there is some kind of societal or "general entertainment" shift happening lately. (I'm also thinking of the whole "The Last of Us" scene that got so much attention during it's preview, and if that has something to do with this.)

[DJBeanPole17]

As a side note: The new movie "Olympus has Fallen" gave me a similar vibe. The violence in that movie is much more brutal than in past action movies I've seen. Hell, it was much more brutal than the new Die Hard movie that came out this year.

Needed more headstabs, IMO.

[TAZTG]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertco...violent-games/

I agree with most of it.

Good article and well stated. Guess GW2 would be one of the games were killing 1000's isn't considered killing enough.