The world can be a nasty place, and often video games serve as a safe way to temporarily detach from the stresses of reality. Sometimes, though, the real world seeps into video games in surprising ways, whether that be in the form of politics rearing its ugly head or actual murders being depicted for entertainment. Sometimes, for example, a shooter is actually a propaganda tool for a regressive regime or an advertisement for a private military company known for its rampant abuses. Yeah, games can get every bit as real as the world outside.
On occasion, games drawing on real-world events can offer a chance for introspection. In other instances, the game is just as bad as the person who developed it, as is the case with a series of poorly made shooters from a hate group seemingly more interested in using a controversial game's release to sell their hate music.
Then there's the obsessions. What draws us back 70, or even 100 years into the past to look at a murder through a digital lens? At a certain point, we have to admit that putting Lizzie Borden or the Black Dahlia into a video isn't going to solve those cases–and likely nothing will. But games offer a space were real-life can be filtered into something controlled, and the truly insidious explored. The following is a list of games that draw their inspiration from the real world, and sometimes become a little too real.
21 Kojima Warned Us About The PMCs
Countless video games have depicted real wars over the course of the medium's history, but few have been so bold as to cast the player as a member of a real, highly controversial private military company. Blackwater does just that. The video game is a Kinect on-rails shooter developed by Zombie Studios that tasks the player with gunning down enemies in a fictional African country. Released in 2011, Blackwater debuted a mere four years after members of the real Blackwater private military company were convicted of murdering 14 Iraqi civilians in Nisour Square, Baghdad. The Blackwater private military company is still around today, though it has rebranded twice. The company initially changed its name to Xe Services in 2009. It became Academi in 2011, and remains so today.
20 The Great War Wasn't So Great
There's a reasonable argument to be made that some moments in history are too horrendous to be replicated in certain mediums. For many people throughout the world, World War I is one of those moments. That didn't stop the developers at EA DICE from tackling one of the messiest wars in recent history and turning it into the online competitive shooter Battlefield 1. While the game's story-driven campaign was lauded for its smart, energetic writing, that story remained problematic in Europe, a region that saw nearly an entire generation of young men and boys wiped out during the Great War. And that's not hyperbole. World War I saw 60 million European troops mobilized, of which nine million perished. That's not even counting the seven million civilians that died.
19 A Game By Al-Qaeda? Yeah, It's What You Think
The video game medium is bursting with potential–games can simulate very nearly anything. Unfortunately, that means almost anyone can spend a little time in the Unreal or Unity engines and make a video game about murdering a public official. That's the case with Quest for Bush, a 2006 first-person shooter that lets the player assassinate former United States President George W. Bush. If that all sounds intensely politically charged, just wait: it gets worse. The game was developed by the Global Islamic Media Front, which is a pretty innocuous name for an al-Qaeda propaganda organization. No one's really in the clear here, though. Quest for Bush is actually just a mod of Quest for Saddam, which has the player hunting down the late president of Iraq.
18 The Great Detective Takes On Jack
Jack the Ripper has found his place in the cultural lexicon as a kind of mythical boogie man, a serial killer so far removed from the actual pain and terror he caused that he has become more like a character than a historical figure. While Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper manages to find a decent middle ground between being exploitative and sincere, it begs the questions: when does tragedy transition into entertainment? At what point does the murder of five women in London's slums become fair game for the media? Released in 2009 by Frogwares, Sherlock Holmes Versus Jack the Ripper is the fifth game in the Sherlock Holmes adventure game series, which has also pitted the fictional detective against the likes of the thief Arsène Lupin.
17 Not What The Warren Commission Intended
JFK Reloaded casts the player as the assassin of John F. Kennedy–so that's a little bit weird. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States of America, was murdered in 1963 while riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the assassination, but his case never went to trial as he was gunned down by Jack Ruby, a Dallas nightclub owner, two days later. JFK Reloaded's developer, Traffic Games, claims the game is a historical simulator that was built to confirm the Warren Commission's findings. The commission, formed by President Lyndon B. Johnson, determined that Oswald committed the murder and acted alone, and that Ruby acted alone in killing Oswald. Naturally, the commission's findings have been refuted over the years and numerous conspiracy theories have taken root.
16 Revenge Or Not, This Game Is Infamous
Few will likely now recall the just how many adult games were on the Atari 2600. Before video games became the multibillion dollar industry that they are today, they were just another new form of media–which meant it was only a matter of time before the adult games showed up. Custer's Revenge doesn't fall neatly into the category of "adult" as it's profoundly lacking anything remotely close to titillation. The gameplay in Custer's Revenge is simple. The player controls Custer, a pixelated version of the United States Lieutenant Colonel who lost spectacularly to the combined forces of the Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes in the Battle of Little Bighorn. A naked Custer inches his way along a horizontal plane, dodging incoming arrows, to his goal: a naked and bound Native American woman. Another version of the game, General Retreat, reversed the roles, but was still bad.
15 An Icy Mystery Best Served Cold
The Dyatlov Pass incident is one of the strangest events in Russian history, and its mysteries have inspired generations of conspiracy theorists. In 1959, nine experienced ski hikers set off for a trek in the Ural Mountains and disappeared. Their frozen bodies were later recovered, but that's where the mystery comes in. The hikers' tent was slashed to bits from the inside, and in their flight the group had left their shoes behind. To make matters worse, one of the group had her eyes and tongue removed. That's where Kholat picks up. The game places the player in the role of a hiker following the party's doomed expedition route. While an official investigation found that the hikers had died of natural causes, some have posited that the likes of an avalanche, infrasound-induced panic or even the Russian government were responsible.
14 Call Of Duty With A Touch Of War Crime
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare redefined the console shooter when it was released back in 2007, but it also did some pretty messed up stuff along the way. One mission in particular, "Death from Above," allowed the player to control an unmanned aerial vehicle with the objective of killing as many enemy targets as possible. While the Call of Duty franchise has largely steered away from addressing actual wars since Modern Warfare, instead opting to pursue fictitious conflicts with made-up antagonists, the kind of UAV technology feature in the game was effectively ripped from the headlines–the rules of engagement, however, were not. For example, the UAV can be used to destroy civilian buildings, which is a direct violation of the Hague Conventions' treaties and declarations about how war should be conducted.
13 Kratos' Rage Finally Explained
It's easy to forget that at some point much of the ancient Greek world was dominated by a belief system that purported the pantheon of gods that included Zeus, Hades and Athena was real and very involved in human civilization (or at least the manipulation and frequent destruction thereof). Kratos, the protagonist of the God of War franchise, basically tears a hole through said pantheon, leaving little unbroken in his wake. While it would be easy to call out God of War for poorly adapting the Greek gods into moustache-twirling monsters for the modern age, the reality isn't too far off. The Greek gods were actually an incredibly nasty, petty bunch whose crimes include genocide, assault, and turning people into animals against their will (and then violating them). No wonder Kratos is always so mad.
12 Furbies As A Source Of Trauma
Let's take a break from the war crimes, holocausts and general assault on all things decent and talk for a moment about Furbies, the fuzzy animatronic toys from the '90s that took the world by storm. While a novel concept, Furbies were actually incredibly taxing to maintain and kind of annoying. The game Tattletail brings that all back in one frenzied rush of nostalgia. Tattletail is a game developed by Waygetter Electronics that puts the player in charge of feeding, charging and grooming a Furby-like creature, all while a malevolent force is hunting you throughout your house. Just like an actual Furby, Tattletail won't shut up, so it's always drawing monsters to you. Whoever did the sound design on this game deserves all the accolades in the book–Tattletail is just as sonically grating as a real Furby.
11 Turns Out Incendiary Weapons Are Serious
White phosphorus is no joke, and that seems to be one of the major takeaways from the 2012 third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line, which attempts to tackle the madness of war while adhering to the run-and-gun style of the time. As a result, the game frequently dips into the surreal. One such moment comes just minutes after a white phosphorus attack, which sees an entire city block of enemies seemingly petrified by the deadly chemical. White phosphorus is a gas that burns on touch. The gas can burn both structures and flesh. In the case of Spec Ops: The Line, the white phosphorus attack was used to show the horrors of incendiary weapons, the use of which are regulated by the Geneva Convention's guidelines.
10 A History Of Madness Explored
Video games have never been great at portraying mental health issues, but luckily some games, like The Town of Light, have stepped in to shoulder the responsibility. The Town of Light follows a girl, Renee, as she explores an abandoned asylum in Tuscany, Italy. A former patient herself, Renee recalls some of the hospitals more gruesome practices as she wanders. The asylum setting is actually based on a real place called the Ospedale Psichiatrico di Volterra, an Italian mental hospital that harbored 6,000 people at one point, and was notorious for its cruel treatment of patients. It's said the asylum kept only 20 sinks and two toilets for every 200 patients, while barbaric practices like electroshock therapy and induced comas to treat illness were not uncommon.
9 It's Your Eyeballs That'll Need Cleansing
Look no further than Ethnic Cleansing if you're on the prowl for a truly reprehensible video game. Ethnic Cleansing bears that title easily, as its one of just a few games to be developed by a white supremacist organization, in this case National Alliance, as a form of twisted propaganda. The game's content is depressingly predictable. A first-person shooter, Ethnic Cleansing tasks the player with gunning down stereotypical depictions of people of color. According the chairman of National Alliance, the game was designed to be proactive and push a racial segregation agenda. In case the real-world tie-in isn't obvious enough, the game was released on Martin Luther King Jr. Day for $14.88. The number 14 is a white nationalist code linked to the now-defunct newspaper Fourteen World Press, while 88 is hate group slang for... well, praising Hitler. What's up with these guys and numerology, anyway?
8 American History Like You've Never Seen Before
Assassin's Creed III isn't a terrible game by any means, but its wonky, often downright wrong portrayal of American history mixed with the fact that the game never really felt like much of an Assassin's Creed game combined to make it a disappointing outing for the series. To its credit, Assassin's Creed III didn't shy away from key issues of the time. The slave trade, for example, couldn't be foiled simply by assassinating a few overseers and freeing their slaves. A downloadable story for the game took the opposite approach, though, imagining the first American president, George Washington, as a tyrant every bit as bad as the repressive regime from which the colonists had fled. For every step forward Assassin's Creed III took, the game itself seemed intent on taking another two back.
7 C Is For 'Cancelled' And 'Controversy'
Perhaps one of the most controversial video games in recent memory, this war game would have been set during the most recent Iraq War, but was cancelled shortly after its announcement. Perhaps deemed too prescient, Six Days in Fallujah would have focused on a battalion of U.S. Marines fighting the Second Battle of Fallujah, a six-day firefight that took place in 2004. The game itself was announced in 2009, a mere five years after the battle. Controversy enveloped the title after its announcement, with veterans and advocacy groups alike claiming the title was disrespectful. The developer, Atomic Games, which had interviewed U.S. Marines, war historians and even Iraqi insurgents, cancelled the game, causing significant layoffs. The studio apparently went on to finish the game, but it was never released.
6 Take Up Arms As Shiva
Graven images have long been taboo in many religions throughout the world, but an upcoming fighting game called Fight of Gods looks to buck that cultural trend. Much of the game's godly pantheon of fighters consists of deities long out of vogue in the worshipping world, but a few are timely enough to ruffle some feathers. For example, the game recently revealed its latest fighter: Jesus. While Jesus has long been portrayed in every medium from stained glass to potato chips, the sight of a cross-bound Christ fighting the likes of Zeus and Guan Gong will certainly cause some Christians to do a double-take. Luckily, the game hasn't gone down the route of including Muhammad as a playable character, which is smart since images of the Arabic prophet are considered deeply offensive to his followers.
5 It's All About That No Russian Moment
Video games court controversy for all kinds of reasons, the main one being that a bombastic, crass scene in a game invariably gets people talking. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's "No Russian" mission is just that. The mission sees the player walking astride a group of terrorists as they gun down civilians in an airport terminal. Joseph Allen (the player character), undercover as Alexei Borodin, is able to engage in the massacre with an array of supplied weapons, or simply watch the chaos unfold. The scene was a thematic follow-up to a moment in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare that forced the player to endure a nuclear attack. While the scene was largely considered bold upon release, time has cooled that opinion as mass shootings have become commonplace and terrorist attacks on civilians have only increased. Too real, and maybe a bit too now.
4 North Korea's Shooter: Exactly What You Think
Hunting Yankee is a video game that was created by a North Korean firm as a propaganda tool that allows players to take aim at American soldiers. It's a first-person shooter and graphically looks terrible–a little like a poorly textured Counter-Strike. Hunting Yankee is just one of many North Korean propaganda video games. Others, like Confrontation War and Guardian, are crude mobile games that focus on naval warfare. Interestingly, North Korea's navy, called the Korean People's Navy, is one of the country's weakest military branches, boasting less than 800 crafts, most of which are antiquated and only fit for river and coastal patrol, not warfare. It goes without saying that relations between North Korea and the United States have been strained lately, but hopefully that aggression stays contained to game jams.
3 This Game's Heart Is Darkness
Vietnam was a hellish war that stretched on for 19 long years. Only now, 42 years after its conclusion, are we starting to fully understand its ramifications. While game series have occasionally flirted with settings based on real wars, the Battlefield franchise saw fit to tackle this messy war in 2004 with Battlefield Vietnam. To its credit, a lot of thought went into this online shooter developed by Digital Illusions CE. The gameplay was somewhat asymmetrical. Players' loadouts would vary wildly depending on which team they were assigned. The American team relied more on heavy artillery and vehicles, while Vietnamese soldiers were reliant on their ground forces and map mobility. Still, it’s a fairly grisly prospect to play a video game based on a war known for its misuse of chemical weapons, civilian casualties and traumatized veterans.
2 A Full Moon Rises
While murders like those of Jack the Ripper have become ripe for media interpretation, cases like the Black Dahlia murder have seen less adaptation, likely due to the mysterious, but brutal, nature of the crime. LA Noire does tackle the case, though, even going so far as to let the player solve the murder, which has actually remained unsolved for 70 years. The case starts with the discovery of a body: a woman, badly beaten with a message scrawled on her chest. The murder isn't directly linked to that of Elizabeth Short, the victim posthumously dubbed the Black Dahlia, but rather that of Jeanne French, who was found stomped to death with the initials "B.D." written on her chest, seemingly short for "Black Dahlia." French was murdered mere weeks after Short was slain, leading some to believe there was a connection.