There’s brutal, and then there’s brutal — and the combat tutorial in Silent Hill: Downpour is brutal of the italicized variety. Captured by our intern Nick, this video is a tutorial of sorts, depicting the protagonist Murphy Pendleton performing a brutal prison murder on an unarmed, nearly naked fat guy. All while teaching players how to wield melee weapons.
(Viewer discretion is advised here, folks — the video is exceedingly violent. Also, a few early-game spoilers follow.)
As Nick describes it, the scene’s setup implies that the victim is a pedophile of some sort — Pendleton’s line about being neighbours with him implies some sort of history. Furthermore, Pendleton “wakes up” after killing this guy, so it was all a dream. No worries!
But however it’s packaged (and whatever reality this scene is occurring in), this is one spectacular and disturbing example of video game violence. There is, of course, always a place for disturbing imagery, and it could well be that the scene feels appropriate in the context of the game. (Owen Good will be reviewing Downpour later this week.)
Either way, I can’t think of many games that require players to undertake this kind of visceral, real-feeling murder.
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