10 Hilariously Awkward Times Video Games Tried To Be Mature

6. Niko's Various Comments On Violence - Grand Theft Auto IV

The GTA series attempting to prompt questions as to the allure of violence being the solution to all problems tends to fall on deaf ears, when said allure has made Rockstar into multi-millionaires. It didn't stop them from trying with GTA IV though, which saw Russian immigrant Niko Bellic attempting to make a name for himself in Liberty City, only to find the American Dream he'd been sold was a lie, and he'd have to carve his way through all who opposed him regardless. Somewhere in there was a truly brilliant story, but is mostly the reason why GTA IV feels so 'off' by comparison to its brethren (Rockstar would go back to enforcing ludicrousness wholeheartedly in GTA V), as by proxy of being a GTA game, the character still had to take missions for people, run errands, be up for going on killing sprees, and have no issue slaughtering anyone if the need arose. The disconnect between how Niko talked about wanting to 'leave a life of violence behind' in the cutscenes versus being a gun-toting madman in-game birthed the term 'ludonarrative dissonance'; the act of playing a game in a way that betrays how they're set up otherwise. From the moment Niko executes Vlad, to the entire blood-splattered run you take him on to vanquish your enemies, almost every time the game tries to suggest that Niko is heading down a path he can't escape is contradicted by indulging in the very same actions straight after.