Is there a non-violent option?

[runic knight]

what about one of the original first person shooters? Duck hunt with the nes zapper. Clay pigeon mode only though, for the non-violence.

 

[Spectral Dragon]

Iji fits the bill perfectly, though it's indie. It's a 2D-platform alien shooter. And you can play it like that, sure, but it's SO much deeper and more satisfying to go entirely pacifist - you even get different scenes and opportunities!

Then... The Wonderful End of The World, Q.U.B.E. seems non-violent too. There's another... Something about perspective - you can walk anywhere you could, seen from your perspective.

And 2 in development - The Thought Saved for Last, first person puzzle, and The Samaritan Paradox, a murder mystery set in 80'ies Sweden.

 

[Dogstile]

Isn't it possible to do a pacifist run of Mirror's Edge but it's just really hard?

It's possible to go through the entirety of Mirror's Edge without ever firing a gun at another person, but it is impossible to perform a pacifist run. Almost, at least. I recall near the very end of the game, there's a large chamber packed full of guards with firearms trying to gun you down. Technically you need to fire a gun, yourself, in order to get past the room itself(you have to fire at and destroy several power sources around the room in order to advance).

You don't need to fire, just run in front of the servers or whatever they are, the guards will do it for you, then all you have to do is jump over the one guarding the exit and you're through. That's how I did my run.

 

[Andy of Comix Inc]

There was an FPS made that was, like, you're shooting lasers at flowers. It was also a skilled-based speedrunning-focused game, but that was a neat take on first-person shooting that didn't involve flesh targets and whatnot. You could also say a game like L.A. Noire is non-violent, as much as it's an action-adventure game where you're a detective with VERY rigid sense of morals with no decay, though there is still shooting sections and, well, the game is about murders. But that's an interesting take on non-confrontation in a genre that is fairly rooted in direct confrontation.

Yeah, there are quite a few, when you sit down and think about it. They aren't very obvious and there are also not as many of them when compared to the more popular stuffs. But they do exist and in surprising abundance!

 

[DazBurger]

There's plenty of non-violent games. As for games where you're rewarded for actually NOT killing... Mark of the Ninja? ;D

Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4? I think you have to kill the bosses in 3 but it's discharged to kill anyone else. Like maniacally the game doesn't just call you a bad person. I wouldn't call them non violent, but violence is almost never the best option.

In MGS 3 you can sedate the bosses... Sadly they blow themselves up afterwards -_-

Also, most of the Splinter Cell games can be done pretty non-deadly.

 

[Blackdoom]

The Metal Gear Solid games typically have a pretty strong emphasis on being nonlethal or avoiding combat when possible.

 

[DementedSheep]

Isn't it possible to do a pacifist run of Mirror's Edge but it's just really hard?

If by pacifist you mean not killing anyone, it's most certainly possible and always seemed like how the game was meant to be played to me. I wouldn't care if they just removed the ability to pick up guns. It usually easier to avoid than engage and you don't get rewarded for fighting. I can only think of 3 places in the game where you actually have to fight.

I find that description of pacifism a bit silly to be honest. Pacifism is about violence in general, not just killing. It's about your beliefs regarding conflict and your actions should show this beyond not killing. A pacifist doesn't knock out someone.

Perhaps they will completely rid the next Mirror's Edge of violence, if it ever comes out.

Isn't it possible to do a pacifist run of Mirror's Edge but it's just really hard?

If by pacifist you mean not killing anyone, it's most certainly possible and always seemed like how the game was meant to be played to me. I wouldn't care if they just removed the ability to pick up guns. It usually easier to avoid than engage and you don't get rewarded for fighting. I can only think of 3 places in the game where you actually have to fight.

I find that description of pacifism a bit silly to be honest. Pacifism is about violence in general, not just killing. It's about your beliefs regarding conflict and your actions should show this beyond not killing. A pacifist doesn't knock out someone.

Perhaps they will completely rid the next Mirror's Edge of violence, if it ever comes out.

Well usually when I hear pacifist in regards to video game people mean no killing but in the case of not fighting anyone at all no I don't think it is possible. You might be able to get up the drain pipes with people shooting at you if your really lucky but one of the doors takes 2 to 3 seconds of standing in same place unable to move to open and has a guy with a LMG standing in front of it and of course you to have to pursue and the fight the assassin.
To be fair I'm pretty sure even the most pacifist of people would knock someone out if they attacked them.

 

[Something Amyss]

Obviously there's racing/sports/simsville genre games, lets discard those. I'm talking about genres that are based almost entirely on violence, the worlds of action/adventure/fps/rpg/rts/mmo.

So the question, essentially, is "if you discard games without violence, are there non-violent games?"

You ask a rather interesting question, but then narrow the field pretty heavily.

So let's break this down a little.

Action/Adventure: Adventure isn't inherently violent. Action is pretty close, however.

FPS: How do you propose a non-violent shooter?

RPG/RTS/MMO: Really, when you strip the violence out of them, they become something akin to "simsville" titles. And then, they're no longer pertinent, which goes right back to the core problem of the way the question is phrased. Essentially, we're stuck with things that either no longer count or the "non-violent FPS" conundrum.

 

[Something Amyss]

The Metal Gear Solid games typically have a pretty strong emphasis on being nonlethal or avoiding combat when possible.

And routinely feature violence anyway.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned this, but there are a few non-violent FPS's out there. There are a few paintball games (including one that runs on the Build engine, of Duke Nukem 3D fame) plus a few Nerf video games, one of which runs on the UT 99 engine, and from what I've heard is actually pretty good. So for everyone looking for a non-violent FPS that's not Portal, there you go.

 

[Treblaine]

Are there any non-violent games?

Portal 2 is pretty non-violent/ Certainly no violence against any living beings even even then it's usually in such round about ways.

Though arguably Mann vs Machine is also non-violent as you are only smashing androids.

Ultimately violence is inherent in video games as affecting others by your actions in a competitive way IS violence. Even it it's just a game about smashing buildings, it's a kind of violence but against non-living buildings. But then again none of your opponents are really alive,they are all computer simulations, it's like shooting very realistic paper targets.

I mean is it "violent" to launch a cube at a sentry-gun causing it to topple over in distress? It's not a living organism yet it seems to have some sort of personality and doesn't like being knocked over.

I find that description of pacifism a bit silly to be honest. Pacifism is about violence in general, not just killing. It's about your beliefs regarding conflict and your actions should show this beyond not killing. A pacifist doesn't knock out someone.

Perhaps they will completely rid the next Mirror's Edge of violence, if it ever comes out.

I think he means 100% avoidance, so no directly harming any of your opponents even with knocking out.

Surely it doesn't go against pacifism to run away from people trying to kill you?

But that was the big problem with Mirror's Edge, it was ruined by how it contrived circumstances where you had to fight, it would have been much better to entirely focusing on misdirection, avoidance and stealth. And it wasn't even anything like "oh, position them where something knocks them over" it's crap like matrix-martial-arts moves snatching assault rifles out of the hands of SWAT commandos and gunning them down.

FAIL!

A complete lack of vision on what kind of game Mirror's Edge could have been, a pure free-running game. But they couldn't get out of an FPS mindset like the Valve devs were able to do with Portal. It never resorted to "well here's a fucking M16, go shoot GlaDOS Trolololol".

Though I appreciate the challenge the Mirror's Edge devs are in, how do you make a game where you have great agency in where you don't directly affect any of your opponents? Even the final climax, you can have all the running around dodging and sneaking but the big-bad will still be out to get you.

 

[Nouw]

I find that description of pacifism a bit silly to be honest. Pacifism is about violence in general, not just killing. It's about your beliefs regarding conflict and your actions should show this beyond not killing. A pacifist doesn't knock out someone.

Perhaps they will completely rid the next Mirror's Edge of violence, if it ever comes out.

I think he means 100% avoidance, so no directly harming any of your opponents even with knocking out.

Surely it doesn't go against pacifism to run away from people trying to kill you?

But that was the big problem with Mirror's Edge, it was ruined by how it contrived circumstances where you had to fight, it would have been much better to entirely focusing on misdirection, avoidance and stealth. And it wasn't even anything like "oh, position them where something knocks them over" it's crap like matrix-martial-arts moves snatching assault rifles out of the hands of SWAT commandos and gunning them down.

FAIL!

A complete lack of vision on what kind of game Mirror's Edge could have been, a pure free-running game. But they couldn't get out of an FPS mindset like the Valve devs were able to do with Portal. It never resorted to "well here's a fucking M16, go shoot GlaDOS Trolololol".

Though I appreciate the challenge the Mirror's Edge devs are in, how do you make a game where you have great agency in where you don't directly affect any of your opponents? Even the final climax, you can have all the running around dodging and sneaking but the big-bad will still be out to get you.

I suppose it's case where a game needs one direction without elements of other genres, such as the combat. Perhaps the runners could 'fight the power' through disrupting communications? Although that could result in horrible hacking mini-games.

 

[Stoic raptor]

Cant you go through Fallout 3 without violence? You have to be really good at speech and stealth, so that you can avoid combat, or have everyone else do things for you, but I think it is possible.

 

[The_Echo]

Katamari Damacy and its sequels come to mind.

You might think, "but there are people being rolled up into a ball and turned into stars!"

But I'm pretty sure it's stated somewhere in one of the games that being a part of a Katamari is actually a feeling of eternal bliss... despite their screams of agony.

 

[SkellgrimOrDave]

You probably won't find any games free of violence, but if you want anything where taking the peaceful route is a viable option, then i'd say Fallout:New Vegas.

You can talk, negotiate, barter, gift, exchange, sneak, pickpocket or buy your way out of just about every situation around. There are cases where you have no choice but to fight, but that's the world the game is set in.

 

[Treblaine]

Katamari Damacy and its sequels come to mind.

You might think, "but there are people being rolled up into a ball and turned into stars!"

But I'm pretty sure it's stated somewhere in one of the games that being a part of a Katamari is actually a feeling of eternal bliss... despite their screams of agony.

I don't think that's a very good excuse. If you played a First Person Shooter where you were shooting everyone with syringe darts that injected them with an overdose of morphine, dying in a blissful haze... now that doesn't sound to good but it's essentially the same thing but superficially more obviously wrong.

 

[The_Echo]

Katamari Damacy and its sequels come to mind.

You might think, "but there are people being rolled up into a ball and turned into stars!"

But I'm pretty sure it's stated somewhere in one of the games that being a part of a Katamari is actually a feeling of eternal bliss... despite their screams of agony.

I don't think that's a very good excuse. If you played a First Person Shooter where you were shooting everyone with syringe darts that injected them with an overdose of morphine, dying in a blissful haze... now that doesn't sound to good but it's essentially the same thing but superficially more obviously wrong.

Well, things rolled into a Katamari aren't squashed; they retain their original form, so gravity or pressure don't seem to be factors while the ball's still rolling. They might be screaming because holy shit they just got rolled up by a huge ball, rather than some kind of pain.

And it's just conjecture on my part, but maybe the King's transformation of Katamari to planet/star is a reconfiguration of matter, which could conceivably be painless and not necessarily death.

On the other hand, it's Katamari, and probably shouldn't be analyzed this thoroughly to begin with.

 

[Treblaine]

And it's just conjecture on my part, but maybe the King's transformation of Katamari to planet/star is a reconfiguration of matter, which could conceivably be painless and not necessarily death.

You "reconfigure" me into a part of a ball of white hot plasma of a star, that is no longer being alive, which is death.

Sorry, this isn't looking deep into this, Katamari is about killing people and destroying every part of their lives... just in a very cute, veiled and detached way.

 

[Lunar Templar]

The Metal Gear Solid games typically have a pretty strong emphasis on being nonlethal or avoiding combat when possible.

this.

the bosses in MGS 1-4 can all be sedated to (granted they still die but still) and it's possible to go the whole game with out being seen.