AT God said:
Havent had a chance to watch the trailer yet, but as a big fan of games with similar themes (Postal 1-2, Manhunt 1-2) I think the game could be interesting. Sadly, I expect the game, if it actually does get released, won't be very good mechanically. As much as I love Postal's concept, it was fairly average as a gameplay experience and Manhunt was downright bad, despite being made by big name Rockstar. However, if this "Hatred" game is what I currently think it might be, a game about a serial killer, it could potentially be interesting and maybe even fun. Hotline Miami showed us recently that a game with fun action can have a seriously dark protagonist, although more was left open to interpretation. I usually like controversial games, I think they are important to video games as a medium, even if they become punching bags for media to blame controversy on, they are important and I like thinking about them. The fact that someone showed Postal 2 footage to the Supreme Court makes me laugh just thinking about it.
The one thing I personally hope the game doesn't do is try and take the idea too far, which in my opinion would be to tie some significant political or ideological reasoning behind the actions. It is disturbing to play a game where you play a spree killer/rampage style person, but it isn't unusual, especially depending on your own opinions. However, if the game makes any real significant attempts at focusing your actions against a certain group I will be disappointed because I think any legitimate conversations to be had about the game's content would immediately be overshadowed by the inevitable argument over the groups picked out. However, a game about a person giving up and committing an atrocity is fairly interesting, and we have seen games take similar stances and be praised for it, Spec Ops The Line did something similar but with something much more real and depressing in my opinion and I think people respected it for it. I think it will depend on how the developers handle the content and message of the game. Although, reading through their inspiration, they might not be worth putting faith into, Postal is the only series that has ever pulled off the anti political correctness angle for me, and I know I am in the minority in saying that Postal did it correctly.
I find this perspective interesting. I never really thought of Postal as a game "about" anything. "You can break a guy's leg, chase them into a corner, pee on them until they puke, and then shoot them in the head. It's funny because other games don't let you get away with doing that! Tee hee!" That's the entire gameplay experience. And the next-gen sequel even neutered that in the rush to cram zombies, turret sections, cutscenes, and god knows what else into the mix.
It looks like they are trying very hard to make Hatred even less "about" anything than Postal was. They appear to be deliberately sanding off any and all personality, levity, and context. When they are required to explain to the player what's going on, for example, they take great pains to word his motivations as vaguely as possible.
You might be right that this vagueness is the only way to prevent racism or sexism or some other RL injustice from overshadowing discussion of the game itself. But won't discussion of the game itself be overshadowed anyway by the whole "murder simulation" argument?
Certainly the ludo-narrative dissonance flooding the entire industry is absent here. But unlike Spec-Ops, which strove to make a point by questioning its own genre conventions, or Hotline Miami which sought refuge in the absurd, Hatred just... doesn't bother. It's not *trying* to be anti politically correct. It's not trying to be "what gamers want."
It's just trying to be a caricature of what people who don't play video games think is the point of video game violence.
In that endeavor, it succeeds, but I don't see how they can make money by pandering to a group of people that the mainstream news media made up whole-cloth.
I'm dying to know, what would you add to the trailer to make it "Postal done right?" To make it the ultimate violent game? The violent game that you would most appreciate playing? I've killed a loooooot of things in video games over the years, but this trailer just looks like someone deliberately sucked all the fun out of pretending to kill things. I could see it working as art, maybe as a parody (even though they are trying very hard NOT to make it look like a parody, trying so hard that it becomes funnier the harder they try to present it seriously,) but I could never see this working as a fun video game.
So I'm dying to know. In your mind, how does this look good? How does this game work? What is the point of the game? How do you know when you've won? How is playing it supposed to make you feel? I keep asking myself "what were they thinking," and not getting anywhere. Other than "they saw a news report on video game violence and saw dollar signs."
