10 Shocking Video Game Moments Players CHOSE To See
Think about what you did.
Shock value might be one of creative media's oldest tropes but when done right, and it conveys a powerful message. Deliberately designed to elicit an emotional reaction from an audience like disgust, upset or fear, it’s often used to highlight just how dangerous a situation can be.
Star Trek’s Red Shirt deaths popularised the idea of minor characters dying soon after their introduction, displaying just how risky a situation is. Recent years have seen creators utilise darker, more disturbing events to exemplify this, often as a means to comment on current social issues.
Video games are no exception, historically bringing shock value in through horror games, but more recently, publishers have begun taking a different approach to this method, giving us power to influence how events unfolds through interactive storytelling.
Multiple choice is hardly a new concept but more developers are leaving the onus on players for their chosen actions, Telltale Games being a significant example of this, but this also has led to criticism when choices dont change much in the end.
Either way, its seen players making some shocking decisions and these are some of the biggest moments where games saw you make horrible decisions.
10. Heavy Rain - Sawing Off Your Own Finger
Interactive Storytelling was hardly a new idea when Heavy Rain released but combined with the success of Telltale’s “The Walking Dead” series in 2012, it helped redefine this format within gaming.
Released in 2010 by David Cage’s Quantic Dream studio, Heavy Rain featured a branching storyline determined by your actions. You control four different characters but its main protagonist is Ethan Mars, a man attempting to rescue his son Shaun after he was kidnapped by the Origami Killer.
Trying to determine how much Ethan loves Shaun, the Origami Killer puts Ethan through a series of trials, one of which involves Ethan cutting off his finger. Set within “The Lizard” chapter, Quantic Dreams provided multiple options in how to cut it off, including pliers, axe, knife and more.
It made for incredibly uncomfortable viewing and Pascal Langdale’s voice work for Ethan’s screams is utterly harrowing, though there are options like whisky to dull his pain.
If you chose not to do it, you’ll end up getting shot in the shoulder by the police after leaving the apartment. Either way, Ethan is suffering even more than he already has but hey, at least that one isn’t on you, right?