How dark is too dark for a game?

Game Development
21

Two of the greatest experiences in fiction that I have ever had were pretty dark.

In Berserk, during the Eclipse, when the Band of the Hawk risks everything to save their former leader who was being held captive by the mad king… Only for him to betray them to the sinister god-like entities who would restore his body in trade for their lives. Almost every character dies there, and the protagonist’s love interest is raped while he cuts his own arm off to try to save her. It’s a very powerful, desolate and emotional scene.

And in Gantz, when everyone dies in a mission but the protagonist. He goes back to his normal life and you think things can’t get any worse, but before you or the character have time to even to digest what happened, there is another mission. He is sent to face alone a group of aliens that he cannot defeat. I remember how desperate that situation was like it was yesterday.

I think that, overall, the power to evoke emotion on others is the greatest strength of any medium. Feelings are what stick with you even long after you have first experienced them.

Concerning a game, I think that this can be even more powerful, as what you experience is(or should be, at least here) a consequence of your own actions. And that’s the most important thing, I believe; to give players meaning, context and consequence, instead of just giving them the option to mass murder everyone because why the fuck not.

There are plenty of GTA-like games that let the player cause mayhem, kill civilians, do all kinds of crazy shit. They might be fun to someone on the short run, but who really gives a shit about it? There’s no emotional weight, there is no moral dilemma, nothing of the sorts. Just someone randomly killing NPCs.

Exploring the consequences of devastating acts is fun. The books of Broken Empire trilogy do that very well, for example. The does all sort of horrible things in many levels, from nuking a town to killing a baby. He is not always in his right mind, as there are people influencing his actions sometimes, but he takes the blame regardless, as you see how haunted he is by those things even when he justifies them to himself.

So am all in for dark stuff, as long as it isn’t gratuitous, but that’s just my personal taste. I think the player, given proper context, should be granted the choice to act as he feels he must, but there must always be some kind of payback. If you want to act as a “villain”, there should be someone ready to stand against you at some point, someone looking for vengeance from your past acts or people rebelling against you. There must be some kind of reaction provoked by your deeds.

That being said, I personally agree that there must be a limit somewhere on what the player should be able to do. A world can be dark enough without letting the player be the perpetrator of all the possible darkness in it.

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22

To me, it’s too dark if there’s no reason to care about the characters. If anyone trying to be good dies pointlessly (hello, GoT - it was interesting the first few times but now it’s stale), or if everyone is so bad that all the bad stuff collapses into apathy (hello, Exalted at certain points in the gameline).

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23

“How dark is too dark?” depends… If youve survived darks souls franchise, RE series, amnesia, F.E.A.R, doom 3 and darkness 2 then im pretty sure nothing will be too dark for you except violence like …you know like one user said physical assault and all that stuff…better not talk bout it.

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24

I think that a game can be as dark as the creator wants. Im sure that may turn off some people to the game but it may get others interested. And ultimatly this is your work of art so do whatever it is that makes you feel like its the best game that can be.

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25

This is a wonderfully but together game

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26

Most of my favorite games are dark to the point of being horrific. Deadly Premonition is about murder, mental illness, and the terrible secrets being kept by a small town. Danganronpa features a group of abducted high school students, who are given the choice of killing each other or dying in captivity. The Cat Lady starts with a suicide attempt and gets darker from there.

But what makes these games so great is their recognition of the light. There are moments of tenderness, optimism, hope. The characters have a chance to save themselves, to stop the evil, to come out the other side. Their pain allows the game to show us how people endure and heal.

It’s the same formula that makes fairy tales so psychologically powerful. Fairy tales are full of darkness and evil, terrifying monsters and abusive families. But the point of them isn’t to teach children that there are monsters in the world; it’s to teach them that monsters can be defeated. (To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, as so many people have before me.)

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27

Theoretically anything is up for grabs in the darkness category. My question is whether the author is skilled enough to put meaning behind the dark themes AND to balance them out at least a little bit.

If done without any thought or effort put into it, the story may very well end up being read like an edgy fanfic that has no reason to be that way and people turn away from it due to having nothing to look forward to except pain and suffering.

Likewise, stories that are all sunshine and rainbows might sell on their feel-good factor, but you’ll be hard pressed to find one that has any meaningful content.

Good tales never have light or dark seperate from each other. The concept of yin and yang exists for a reason: having a grey world is one that forces people to make the most questions about themselves, and have themselves change for the better. Even the stories on the dark side of the scale put in some softer themes so that the hell the characters went through was worth it, and that exudes a very cathartic feeling when done right.

So yeah, you can put in whatever themes you like, but there should always be a silver lining to your words.

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28

My God… I just played De Baron, and I feel physically ill. I’m not saying it’s not brilliant, but… urkkhh. I can’t think of another game that’s made me feel this sickened and horrible. Thank you, I now have a direct reference for where the line is when I personally can’t handle a game. :confounded:

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29

@Sashira Aww! THANK YOU… I’m not sure why I feel so grateful - maybe because I want the whole world to experience the full power that games can have on us?

I had the exact same reaction when I played it the first time. Also because it was in the middle of a work day, I was angry at the person who suggested the game to me for making the rest of my work day so difficult. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: At that moment I didn’t understand what a lasting impact the experience would have on me. I truly look up to that game now for its power to affect the player so deeply.

Even so, I apologise for kind of having put you through it. I know it feels nasty.

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30

I’m huge fans of both Deadly Premonition and the Cat Lady I played them both years ago but still love those games. Cat ladies probably darker between the two of them in tone. But they are tragically under load sadly gaming wise.

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It’s a weird game too because it’s meant to be replayed multiple times and there’s a couple different endings that’s an ass kicker of a plot twist but it’s interesting because it’s subtly hinted through out.

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32

For me, I don’t really handle dark well at all. I get too stressed out and anxious, and I cannot handle that from my entertainment.

I tried Dark Souls and The Cat Lady, but they made me too anxious.

I want light, cheerful, and funny. I don’t want to play games about horror or very stressful situations, which is why I have not played several of the most popular CoGs–even though I want to experience their narratives.

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33

I think Baron is one of the best example of real role-playing I seen in game in long time out of some works on this site.

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34

You see I LOVE dark games. All sexual crimes is a little to much though, but if your talking about mass murder, kidnapping, ransom and stuff. And if you want to make it where the MC can be is a psychopath who does horrible things or something along those lines, I think it would be interesting and fun ( I do not condone violence)

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35

Honestly if you haven’t watched or played the cat lady. I think that’s a very very good example of getting it just right. I often find myself getting sick of things like the Walking dead or Game of thrones. Not because of the violence or rape or anything. It’s just the fact the violence is the dramatic part. Fiction needs themes, and “violence” is a poor theme. I suppose what I’m trying to say is that when you introduce violence to a story for violences sake it’s poor writing, but when the violence is a backstory or a plot device or what have you, it works.

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36

The Warhammer universe gets pretty grimdark; to the point of “Why bother doing anything?” dark

37

I think the difference there is that grimdark is the intention and if you’re talking 40k for every planet with ages old feudalism and daily executions there’s another 10 to 100 with better than modern living standards and presumably a relatively normal living situation.

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I know how it feels in dksl series, the uneasiness can be overwhelming and not to mention the sudden creep attacks of paranormal creatures against which some weapons wont work at all and if you have those weps while facing them…well your screwed and not being able to use a map…dunno how many times i got lost.

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Here’s one thing I was wondering and worried about… when it comes to content related to sexual assault or exploitation… is any reference to this already in the realm of too uncomfortable, too horrific… or are the people who mentioned it referring to cases where it’s depicted more prominently, even described? I am wondering about settings where there might be references to forced marriage, and where it might be something that’s happened in a character’s backstory… but not something that the player character would be involved in, and treated with gravity; not something that would define a character, either. Not described, but… acknowledged. (And with content warnings for those who choose to view them.) Would that in and of itself be treading into territory best avoided? Or is it something that could be appropriate if respectfully done?

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I think shows like Law and Order have successfully delved into very touchy subjects for quite a long period of time.

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