Home Gaming The violence of Gears of War 4 is meant to be “absurd, rather than disgusting”

The violence of Gears of War 4 is meant to be “absurd, rather than disgusting”

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Come-and-see-the-violence-inherent-in-the-system

We live in a funny world. A planet whose populace abhors violence yet glamorises it through various mediums, such as films and games. And when it comes to escaping reality, there’s a certain satisfaction at play when you’re interacting with various pixels in front of you in ever-increasingly violent ways. Back in the early 1990s, people were shocked at the violence inherent in the systems of DOOM and Mortal Kombat (BLOODY PIXEL PEASANTS!).

These days? Said violence is a joke when compared to visual fidelity of games today that offer all manner of peas and frames per second when players rip their opponents to shreds. Back in the mid-2000s, Gears of War was revolutionary for the new breed of Human on Locust death and destruction that it spawned with the Lancer chainsaw rifle and various other grisly send-offs.

Kait Mid Shot

Those fatalities got ramped up with each successive sequel, eventually becoming a trademark of the series. And that’s a fine line to walk for Gears of War 4 developer The Coalition, as horrific violence can be so over the top that it becomes properly silly. “We do walk a line where, as the fidelity of video games increases, as it has with every game I’ve made, there’s a point in the development process where somebody proposes a feature that forces us to have a conversation about where are we going with this,” Gears of War 4 boss Rod Fergusson said to Polygon.

You always have to test yourselves to find the line. If you chainsaw somebody and they pop like a balloon, do you say “haha” rather than “I have to go throw up in a bathroom” — I think that’s the line we walk. You always have the conversation. You can push things really far if you want to with the visual fidelity you can achieve today, but we want to go back to the fun version rather than the realistic version.

And that line is drawn between “making it absurd, rather than disgusting,” creative director Chuck Osieja added. “When we were doing focus testing one of the brand identifiers that kept coming back was “brutal.” People love that it’s brutal,” Fergusson explained.

Kait Knife Battle

So, OK, that’s a good thing to know. And our game doesn’t look like any other multiplayer game, with our executions and the gibs and all that, that’s Gears. Let’s not shy away from it. It’s avoiding where it’s nauseating or gross. We don’t want to do the eyeball dangling out of the head.

And I’m down with that. When it comes to violence, there’s a certain thrill over seeing moments of pure crimson gushing out at the player in extraordinarily over the top money-shots. It’s not about desensitising an audience, but about shocking them in the right way. Something that Gears of War has always excelled at.

Last Updated: June 21, 2016

14 Comments

  1. There’s a VERY fine line between absurd and disgusting when it comes to violence in games.

    Reply

    • BakedBagel

      June 21, 2016 at 12:54

      So GTA is disgusting then?

      Reply

      • VampyreSquirrel

        June 21, 2016 at 13:09

        Not to me

        Reply

        • BakedBagel

          June 21, 2016 at 13:22

          What game would you say has “disgusting” violence?

          Reply

          • VampyreSquirrel

            June 21, 2016 at 14:02

            Yet to REALLY find one, but Manhunt, Postal 2 is probably up there somewhere

          • BakedBagel

            June 21, 2016 at 14:20

            Where i disagree with you is that i find any pixelated, based in fantasy, violence, to be just that. Fantasy.

            So for me there is no line at all.
            🙂

          • VampyreSquirrel

            June 21, 2016 at 14:22

            I don’t have an issue brutally murdering someone in Manhunt… none at all… I haven’t found a SINGLE game that I won’t play because of the violence in it.

          • BakedBagel

            June 21, 2016 at 14:24

            I refuse to play candy crush because of the down right cruel violence towards gelatin

            WHAT DID JELLY DO TO YOU?

  2. Admiral Chief Maximum Effort

    June 21, 2016 at 12:45

    When Lara Croft died in the TR game, man, it was terrible.

    Also, violence in Manhunt was quite different. Not gory, but intense violence

    Reply

    • Greylingad[He Charges!]

      June 21, 2016 at 13:26

      That game…. I played it years ago, many many years ago, to this day there are scenes that make me shudder…

      Reply

    • The Order of the Banana

      June 21, 2016 at 13:40

      Manhunt was just too much for me… :/ I just couldn’t. sniff!

      Reply

  3. Greylingad[He Charges!]

    June 21, 2016 at 13:18

    DOOM Pulled it off…

    Reply

    • Ir0nseraph

      June 21, 2016 at 13:36

      I agree 100% with you on that, the doom violence made me chuckle and not feel bad for a demon at any time.

      Reply

  4. The Order of the Banana

    June 21, 2016 at 13:41

    There was a time that the words “Gears of War” would leave me with a stirring in my pants, now-a-days, I just shrug, while the missus watch 7de Laan.

    Reply

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