The Pacify/Kill Games - Why always Pacify?

[kurupt87]

2. Since that is the only differnce, there is 0 reason to do a lethal takedown except for wanting to be a murder-y son-of-a-*****.

Not quite. The other difference is that dead enemies can't be woken up.

Really? I had no idea.

A mix of years playing stealth games having trained me and a minor RP reason (I always hide bodies if playing a story-heavy stealth game because, even if I know the mechanics of their pathing, the character I'm playing doesn't know a random won't just walk through) meant that I never had one woken up on me. Through numerous playthroughs.

 

[Odbarc]

In games like this, Dues Ex specifically, I over-engorge on the kill-option.
It's funnier if you keep all the bad guys alive and murder all the civilians because the game doesn't really have a tone for that kind of result. First your CO says things like how happy he is that you managed to sneak into the place undetected, disarm all the traps, recover the object or person. Then he immediately blows his top like he has bi-polar disorder, snaps, and shouts at you for killing a slew of innocent people.

That one level with the dance floor or whatever. A disco or whatever you call it. It had like 30 people. Pretty hard to ensure you kill them all because one shot and they all bolt for the door (and some might go for the back exit.)
Placed a few mines. Had to get everyone. Took a few loads to make sure I got 'em all. Took a head count.

The game really expected you to go "kill everyone or kill no one" not "kill the innocent, save the guilty" and it's really kind of funny. The only real alternative the game is prepared for is "kill the guilty, ignore the innocent".
I think it several playthroughts in that I discovered some people I didn't kill reappear later on with new information, items or quests if they're still alive in a rare passivity playthrough.





I really like games with killable innocent NPCs. It becomes it's own mini-game of how many you can kill and still go through pretending like your a good guy who ends up doing something good (beating the game) and none of the atrocities get mentioned.
Reminds me of True Lies on the SNES. You can kill no more than 2 innocents. They're really more of a obstacle for you to not shoot randomly all the time carelessly. But I'd always start off by killing two people right away on purpose.
Skyrim is pretty good with this too. NPCs are kind of numbered so you can have barren towns of only crucial and quest NPCs remaining. (And of course the infinite respawning guards.)

It's a bit psychotic, sure, but it's a different kind of fun. It's almost a puzzle game of how to actually get away with it. Extra stealthy, extra planning, extra specialty weapons, positioning... I like it.
It's like when you go on an "I'm bored" killing spree in GTA.

 

[DoPo]

I really like games with killable innocent NPCs. It becomes it's own mini-game of how many you can kill and still go through pretending like your a good guy who ends up doing something good (beating the game) and none of the atrocities get mentioned.

Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura was pretty great in that regard - one power you can get as early as character creation allowed raising the spirits of the dead. You can raise ANY spirit of ANY dead body. It honestly doesn't do much most of the time, however, if you really want a genocidal playthrough and, say, some NPC gives you a quest you have to finish for information, you can just kill the NPC, raise its spirit and force it to spit out what it knows. You can do this with all plot NPCs, too.