Poll: Taking the Non-lethal approach in games

[BodomBeachChild]

If it's possible I try to go as silent and nonlethal as possible, especially if my character isn't supposed to be. Sometimes it makes my life easier just to knock someone out and then go on with my job.

 

[kasperbbs]

i did that in Dishonored, not many games offer that option. I didn't harvest little sisters in bioshock if that counts.

 

[William Fleming]

Non lethal approaches are often harder and more rewarded as well which is what I will do if I feel I have a good chance at succeeding at. If all else fails, I just go in gun blazing if I'm able to when I screw up.

That reminds me, a stealth game I have been playing recently, Shinobido 2 (which I got during a PSN sale), that game actually PUNISHES you for ghosting. A stealth game, starring ninjas, punishes you, for ghosting. What the hell is up with that anyway?

 

[rbstewart7263]

I chose other. Of course I try to stealth or take the pacifist way in stealth games but Ill adapt if Im spotted. In shogun 2 though I always tried to be honorable which I think kept me from taking the shoguns seat.

 

[Something Amyss]

Depends on how much of a chore it is to take them down non-lethally, and the tone of the game.

Stealth often seems more a perfunctory deal. It's thrown in to add the pretense of variety and it often sucks. But if you can legit stealth your way through, and it's not made into a boring chore, I enjoy doing it.

Except when I'm specifically in the mood to blow some things up. I mean, like, I play Saints Row or Dynasty Warriors to wreck shit.

 

[bug_of_war]

I tend to go around this shit with how the game responds. In games like Hitman, I'm a killer, my contract is clear and I will do what is required to get to my contract. I played Hitman Absolution guns blazing because I found it suited me best. However, Deus Ex Human Revolution I played super stealthy. It just felt right to play that way, it made sense for me I guess.

I don't mind doing non lethal playthroughs when it feels right. But sometimes, it just feels to good to be the fucking angel of death.

 

[OneCatch]

A perhaps more interesting example is my playthroughs of Crysis 2, while this game doesn't come with a defined non lethal option I found myself sneaking past the CELL mercenaries quarantining new york during the earlier sections of the game, with the help of the nanosuits cloaking ability. While they were trying to kill me and there are documents found which indicate that they have been shooting civilians in some cases, I viewed them as the lesser of two evils compared to the alien disease outbreak and the aliens themselves.

See, in Crysis 2 I had absolutely no qualms with killing the mercs - the entire organisation is corrupt and unhumanitarian, and even the indiviuals are fairly unsympathetic for shooting civilians and torturing you and stuff.
I did tend to go non-lethal a little more in Crysis 3 because some of the Intel items point out that a lot of the front line troops are basically conscripts/indentured workers, and some of the NPC dialogue makes you feel a bit bad.

Spoiler

After you've just blown up a dam and the flood has drowned a whole load of Cell troops, a few of which you see pitifully trying to struggle out of the water and:
"Sweep the area, I want bodies on dry land. Resuscitate if you can."
"What, are we first responders now?"
*Slightly quavering voice* "Yes you fucking are!"

Plus shooting the elite troops quite often meant that the others would panic and give you more room to bypass them, wheras if you killed the grunts first then the elites zero in and attack mercilessly.

Generally I'll go non-lethal during 'finesse' playthroughs even when you aren't rewarded for it. With stealth games I'll sometimes go further - only kill targets, and even then it has to look like an accident. No-one else must be knocked out (unless a KO can be explained environmentally) or killed, or see you, or become overly suspicious. Basically, a Silent Assassin rating for games that don't even have it as a gameplay element.

But I'll usually also do noisy playthroughs as well, so it's not really a moral reason!

 

[Gizmo1990]

Depends on the game. Random gards in Dishonored or police officers in Hitman I am not going to kill them they are not part of the evil conspiricy.

The bad guy leaders in Dishonored, I killed evey last one of them. Mercs in Skyrim during Thieves guild quest where you are not ment to kill anyone, they all die. Mercs are worse than Stormcloaks as unlike Stormcloaks they simply kill for money.

 

[lacktheknack]

EDIT: It looks like the poll clipped off some of the questions, would be nice if it actually have a character limit somewhere instead of just decapitating them without letting me know beforehand Escapist.

It's not a character limit, it just REALLY dislikes apostrophes.

OT: Always. Absolutely always. Splinter Cell and Mirror's Edge are so much more fun and engaging if you refuse to engage anyone.

 

[DanielBrown]

No good answer for me.
I always start a non-lethal run because I enjoy the possible challenge. After that it takes about 20 minutes and tons of reloads before I complete give up and go on a killing spree.

 

[Xan Krieger]

Depends on my mood, if I'm in a happy mood and feel like having some fun then non-lethal, if I'm angry or depressed (my usual 2 moods) then let the bodies hit the floor for I have become the bringer of death and destruction.

 

[Major_Tom]

I always try to keep casualties to a minimum (especially when forced to fight police officers or other people just doing their jobs), but I almost never do complete non-lethal "pacifist" runs because there's always some fucker who deserves to die.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Depends on the game and character I am supposed to be playing and if they have a personality that isn't determined by me, not a blank slate protagonist. And some games just don't provide an acceptable way to do stealth or anything creative, in which case you're kind of forced to play one way due to bad design.

When I play someone like Trevor in GTAV, well, I play him like I think Trevor would behave. So a psychopath. In a game like Deus Ex, where your character seems to be an overall decent guy, I never killed cops or anyone who wasn't obviously a "bad guy". But I had no qualms about killing the enemy soldiers who I knew were murderers. And I made sure to take them all out before leaving.


If your character is more of a blank slate, I'll create a personality to play as, drawing somewhat from my own. I'll avoid killing innocents/non combatants and will generally just do what I think had the best chance of succeeding at what I am trying to do. I typically will not go for achievements that are kill everybody/don't kill anybody because it doesn't make a lot of sense to do it that way and I find that kind of rigidity tedious.



And thinking about this further cemented for me how they ruined the Saints Row story in Saints Row 4.

In SR2-3 you had room to decide how much of a psychopath you wanted to be. I avoided hitting pedestrians and killing random people, and even cops, but went after rival gang members with the brutality of a bloodthirsty monster.

In SR4, you're in a computer simulation for 90% of the game. They aren't even real people so who cares. I just plowed trough everyone and used explosives without care, because I didn't give a damn. As a result, my character was less interesting to play with the lack of personality and choice.

 

[L. Declis]

I can speak to this in Watchdogs.

Because the stealth approach was so much easier to do, what with the camera and having multiple routes and options, as well as the cover system being so good and the take-down being quick button press, and the stealth guns not being so heavily gimped, I often try to avoid combat.

So I had to kill this guy in a car shop. I scoped it out with security cameras and walked around looking for a way in. Nothing. Two guards are every door, a few guys hanging around, everyone had shotguns and machine guns.

So I caused an electronic blackout, turning off all the lights, kicked in the door, knocked out the first guy in my way, snuck into the office, killed the target, took his phone and left before the lights turned on. I had left the entire street in my car before the enemy had even realised something had gone wrong.

It was fast, brutal and intuitive, as well as rewarding for me to do. It wasn't painful and it wasn't a chore.

However, when the game makes stealth a pain in the arse, or just simply swarms the areas with guards so you can't really sneak past, and stealth is no longer fun, I break out the grenade launcher.

I also try not to kill innocent people. If you jump out of a car with a gun, expect a grenade launcher. If you're a teenager in the wrong place, expect to be slapped unconscious and left alive. However, if that teenager is about to pull out a gun and I'm not close enough to knock him out, he can expect a bullet between his eyes.

 

[Gaius Livius]

I prefer to play as the "Good guy" but an extremely brutal one. Meaning that people are safe for the most part but they second they cross me and try anything I will find the most insane way to blast them to pieces and send out a message. Don't attack me = You can keep your insides inside. Other than that I prefer a peaceful option. I will admit though I do tend to sometimes go on a nutty rampage for a while after having done the normal protocol of "Brutal good guy"(But then reload after).

 

[SanguiniusMagnificum]

Meh, I never really play as a complete pacifist. Closest that I come to that is a "consummate professional" e.g. go in, kill target, get out. No detection, no unnecessary casualties.

For example, in Dishonored my blade only touched my assassination targets. Lowly guardsmen would mostly end up getting choked into a powernap or get a sleeping dart stuck in their neck, nothing more than that. The actual targets (most of them were real scumbags...) I dispatched either by just being boring and stabbing them (they had some cool unique kill animations though) or dispatched in more... creative ways...

There was one exception but I don't know if it counts since it was during the "Knife of Dunwall" DLC. Bit of backstory (laced with spoilers, beware!). You play as Daud, master assassin. In the last mission your hideout and gang members/students get attacked by Overseers, essentially a bunch of religious fanatics bent on destroying anything heretical or magical. Seeing as how I felt that they were attacking my men at my home, I just went full berserk on them. It actually felt pretty great unleashing all those abilities and toys that I wouldn't use otherwise. In the end, every one of them was slaughtered and the ones that were captured were executed. Kind of broke my code of "only the target dies" but it was satisfying as hell.

 

[Mimic]

If the option is presented to me then yes I almost always take the non-lethal approach the first time through a game. I suppose I do it for moral reasons as I usually put myself in the character's shoes. Although it being a game and not real life I probably take the high-ground more as there's usually little consequence in most games.

Sometimes I find the non-lethal approach does lessen the enjoyment of a game for me though as I seem to develop OCD tendancies to need to do it all perfectly and undetected and will restart if things sometimes don't work out.

 

[chocolate pickles]

I was thinking about playing Deus Ex: Human Revolution a while back and I got me thinking about non lethal and pacifist approaches in gaming, violence gets talked about so much in video games that I thought it'd be good to try and balance the scales a bit.

Anybody who's played Human Revolution knows that its got quite a range of options, in both the lethal and non lethal departments, from kicking in the doors and unloading with a chain gun to sniping with a sniper rifle or tranquiliser to stealth and close quarters take downs, both lethal and non lethal, but we can talk about all the interesting ways to kill people another day.

Personally when playing I found myself slipping into a semi pacifist role, taking out purity first fanatics with the tranquiliser and saving my bullets for the masked mercenaries, I pretty much viewed purity first as a group of misinformed and dumb kids, a perspective likely coloured by the games first mission, likewise I saw the mercenaries as ruthless thugs in uniform, a perspective again coloured by the games opening tutorial section. I could go on but I'll try not to spoil it too much for those who haven't played.

A perhaps more interesting example is my playthroughs of Crysis 2, while this game doesn't come with a defined non lethal option I found myself sneaking past the CELL mercenaries quarantining new york during the earlier sections of the game, with the help of the nanosuits cloaking ability. While they were trying to kill me and there are documents found which indicate that they have been shooting civilians in some cases, I viewed them as the lesser of two evils compared to the alien disease outbreak and the aliens themselves.

I'm not saying that shooting people in games is wrong or that all games should have a non lethal option, it sure as hell wouldn't fit in some of them (borderlands comes to mind) but in some games, especially ones that are more choice oriented I think it can add an interesting new dimension. I'm very interested to hear other peoples thoughts and stories on non lethal approaches in games, and those can be any genre, not just FPS's like I've listed here, so please feel free to vote in the poll and leave your comments below, I look forward to hearing your thoughts on the subject.

EDIT: It looks like the poll clipped off some of the questions, would be nice if it actually have a character limit somewhere instead of just decapitating them without letting me know beforehand Escapist. Here are the actual questions.

Yes, always, I dislike uncessasery violence
Yes if its more challenging
Yes if it gets me a better score/rewards
Yes sometimes if I don't think the enemies should die.
No, I like using my weapons
No, just killing them is easier
No, most of the games I play don't have a non lethal option.
Other, please state.

The problem with Human revolution was that there was literally (No, I'm not using that wrongly) no benefit to picking the combat route - it made the game much more difficult (especially in the early stages when you didn't have many augments/guns), got you less XP and meant a lot of inventory space had to be dedicated towards weaponry/ammo/health.

So ultimately, i went stealth. But again, i was penalized for using lethal take downs over non-lethal - less XP, and more likely to get heard. Therefore, i was pretty much forced to go non-lethal just so i could gather as much XP as possible.

That isn't right. HR heavily advertised the idea of playing the game your way, but then trapped people into going down a singular approach with it's poor game design. The fact that non-lethal was so heavily emphasised with so little drawbacks forced me to do non lethal - not choose it.