The Slaying of Sandy Hook Elementary might be the absolute pinnacle of the school shooter 'genre'. It is certainly the best realised, with a beautifully abstract art style and a sense of pervasive revulsion and tension. The game is also vehemently pro-gun control, not just from a political standpoint but also from the vantage of common sense. After playing through the game's main mode, which presses the player through the shootings as they happened, a second mode is unlocked which speculates how events would have turned out differently if Adam Lanza had no access to firearms. Had his mother's guns even been locked away in a small and cheap bedroom safe - the game insists - then it would have been that much less possible for the murders to have occurred. It is a perfect work of fiction, a gut punch that expresses the horror of that day and demands that we never forget it. And everyone immediately recognised it as such like the sane, sensible adults that we all are. Hah, just kidding. People went totally nuts. Newtown First Selectman (it's like a mayor, basically) Pat Llorda of Connecticut tried to report Ryan Lambourn, the game's creator, to the FBI because apparently Newton's elected officials do not understand how government works. The NRA got all bent out of shape and a bunch of senators, talking heads and people with paid opinions did what they do best. You know how this all goes. And honestly, we could populate this entire list with video games based on school shootings. There's the cancelled School Shooter: North American Tour 2012 or Lambourn's own earlier work VTech Rampage. There are even a bunch of low-quality DOOM WADs based on the subject. But hey, that's enough violence for now. Time for some good, old-fashioned porn...
Eric Day co-hosts the Murderville Podcast at www.welcometomurderville.com
Give it a listen. Five minutes. Maybe you'll dig it. Maybe you'll hate it. But at least you'll have tried something new.
