If there’s one thing you know about Sniper Elite, it’s the X-Ray Kill Cam. Watching your bullet fly through the skull of whatever poor Nazi you target never gets old, although it may make a few squeamish. Rebellion has announced that it is hard at work on the next Sniper Elite title, and a remake of Sniper Elite V2 is also on the way. Before we see what new horrors the team cooks up, let’s whet our appetite. Here are a few other times that games got anatomically correct in all the wrong ways.
So, why are certain players drawn to such gruesome visuals in their video games? It’s hard to say definitively. Some seek out this material in all their media, from horror movies to haunted houses in Orlando. Others appreciate the over the top fun of punching 20 rib cages out of Johnny Cage after a good round in arcade mode. It certainly helps games stand out from the crowd. Sniper Elite is an excellent series, but how many people would be playing each game in the franchise if it wasn’t for those ridiculous shots of skulls ripping apart?
Whatever the reason, gory imagery is one way some games let players relax. It’s perverse if you think about it too hard, but experiencing extreme content in a safe virtual environment can be pretty healthy. For the same reasons that violence in games doesn’t cause violence in the real world, perhaps blood and guts on screen can quell a violent tendency or two. Or, perhaps we’re overthinking it and gamers just enjoy the overstretched limits that our medium always seems to take advantage of. Whatever the reason, the continual record-breaking success of the Mortal Kombat franchise means that we’ll always have plenty of fatalities from all sorts of games in our future.
Gory Special
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Sniper Elite's X-Ray Kill Cam | 10 times games got gory
If there's one thing you know about Sniper Elite, it's the X-Ray Kill Cam. Watching your bullet fly through the skull of whatever poor Nazi you target never gets old, although it may make a few squeamish. Here are a few other times that games got anatomically correct in all the wrong ways. -
BioShock Infinite
One of the first scenes of Ken Levine's city in the sky shooter introduces you to your skyhook in quite a grisly fashion. You can mash faces into a bloody paste throughout the game, even if it doesn't quite fit perfectly with the rest of the game's vibe. -
Dead By Daylight
A multiplayer game all about slasher movies and serial killers, Dead By Daylight's main mechanics feature some gruesome imagery. If you're the killer, you sacrifice victims by sticking them onto a handy giant hook right through the gut. Not the most visceral effect, but it's still effective. -
Dead Space 2
Anyone who's played Dead Space 2 knows about the needle scene. In fact, if you are afraid of needles, you might have had to operate the scene without looking at the screen. You can survive ripping apart space monster till the cows come home, but sticking a needle in your eye? That's a big nope. -
God of War 3
The last game of the original Kratos trilogy has the angry one ripping and punching anyone he can get his hands on. See as a neck tears off its body with startling realism. Rip that eyeball right out of its socket. Keep pounding that head in until you just can't take it anymore. -
Harvester
Harvester is a weird game. It's an FMV game where a group of children eats their mother. It's an adventure where an army sergeant with no legs can kill you after launching nukes. It's a game worth playing for its surprises, as long as you have the stomach for them. -
MadWorld
Perhaps the most stylish game on this list, MadWorld's striking visuals help highlight the absolute carnage your inflict on every opponent in your deathmatch scenario. The blood-soaked bodies fill the arena over and over, but it's fine. The black and white makes it artsy. Or at least that's what the critics might say. -
Mortal Kombat 11
Any Mortal Kombat can really fit this list, but 11 takes things to a new level. Brains chopped in half, eyeballs pieced out of skulls, and a healthy dose of X-Ray tech putting broken bones on display. Even outside of the fatalities, you're going to feel every crunch as it happens. -
The Darkness 2
Before they were bringing Wolfenstein back to life, the developers behind The New Order brought us Jackie Estacado. He's a mobster with two demonic tentacles on his shoulder. They eat the hearts of his foes on command and can otherwise rip humans in half. People don't mess with Jackie Estacado. -
The Punisher (2004)
The developers of Saints Row first showed their penchant for over the top action with their iteration of The Punisher. In this game, you can watch a man being gored by a rhino's horn, cook them in an oven or bash their teeth against the edge of a fountain. Truly, a more accurate version of the character has never seen been on the screen.
