Death Wish 3 / most violent CPC games?

[Loki]

So I'm not really trying to come at any sort of angle here by either advocating or frowning on violence in games. I'm just curious, and I'm curious about this because I've been playing Death Wish 3 earlier, another childhood favourite and one I still enjoy now from time to time, and it set me off thinking about whether it could well be one of the most violent games around at that time, and how it was received then compared to how it'd go down now? It's also made me think if there were many games comparable to Death Wish 3 on that level, as this was a game many of us played as kids and nobody really batted an eyelid back then. I don't think it was enough to give them reason to, as it's far from realistic but even so, if you're not familiar with Death Wish 3 you were able to take down enemies with four different weapons, all having the effects you'd expect them to have, for example you could pump 50 rounds into somebody with the machine gun, or turn them into a bloody pile of gore and limbs with the rocket launcher.


It just set me off thinking, comparing to today's standards as well, obviously violence in games looks far more graphic and realistic now, and kids playing violent games is frowned on a lot more than it was when we were younger. It's hard to compare, but I don't think they'd get away with selling something like Death Wish 3 to kids today although as I say, I don't think it did any of us any harm back then either. That said I'm sure there's not many kids who played this who didn't at least once turn some old granny inside out with a rocket I'm just wondering though, what other games that we played on the CPC as kids were similarly violent, and how do we think they'd fare by today's standards?

[Carnivius]

I still play this game from to time. Usually when I just wanna relieve stress and brutally kill bad guys (and some cops and grannies accidentally) and enjoying a ton of blocky blood.
Weird how the hookers were invulnerable but the grannies weren't.     But did love that sometimes, when the grannies were getting mugged by robbers, the granny would actually win and beat the guy with her purse.  Also another nice touch is all the medical folk dragging the corpses off the screen rather than the bodies just flickering away. 

Fantastic tune too by Ben Daglish (RIP).

[SharkusMaximus]

Renegade might not be as full-on gruesome as Death Wish but there's no denying it's pretty unflinching in its depiction of violence in a way that other beat 'em ups don't come close to, and you really feel every single punch, kick or knee to the nadgers. It's also hard to play level three today, given the brutality that you're being asked to inflict on Big Busty Bertha and her ladies.


Nemesis the Warlock is quite graphic too, with a highly disturbing atmosphere that makes me think my mum wasn't really paying attention to what her kids were playing back in the day.

[Loki]

I was always surprised as well that the hookers in Death Wish were the only people you couldn't shoot and it made me wonder what sort of thougts were going through the developers' minds as they designed this game, given it's perfectly fine to kill sweet old ladies and cops while playing. Oh, yeah you couldn't kill the medics either, probably a good thing as the screen would get very messy with nobody to clean up!


I think with Death Wish though, the game is so gratuitously over the top that it's kinda hard to take too seriously. Renegade on the other hand, yeah the gameplay in that is quite gritty, even with bright cartoon like graphics on the Amstrad it did kinda feel like you're actually in a fight with thugs and street gangs. Just the way they fight, dirty brawling with knees to the groin, headbutts, enemies ganging up on you and holding you in place while another guy works you over, I also haven't seen that many beat em ups where you can punch out your opponents as they're laid out on the floor! I also remember similar in Target Renegade, and the second level in that has you fighting prostitutes, it even has the pimp coming on screen and randomly shooting at you!


I think there's quite a few games like that which probably wouldn't be deemed acceptable now. Then again, the majority of us who grew up playing these games turned out fine, and being honest I kinda think being too protective of kids can be as damaging as being too liberal anyway. There's some unpleasant stuff in the world and if you try and shut kids away from it completely they'll end up unprepared for the reality of life, and games I think can actually be a safe and harmless way for young people to realise the world can sometimes be a dangerous and nasty place, without actually being exposed to anything harmful. Within reason of course. It's a bit like Theatre Europe which I mentioned on here a while back, the depiction of nuclear war in that game actually scared me as a kid, it was through playing that game I first realised we actually had weapons that can destroy all life on earth and I learned the wider implications of that as well. It taught me more than any news clip ever did, still sticks with me to this day. Not that kids need lessons in shooting granny in the face with a bazooka in the case of Death Wish 3 but hopefully you get my point

[Carnivius]

Many of us 80s kids watched gorey films back then anyways that we weren't supposed to.  RoboCop being a popular example. Why is it's game not more bloody, eh?  Well...my version is. 

[ComSoft6128]

Brilliant!

That made me chuckle - "shooting granny in the face with a bazooka".

Sweet memories and childhood innocence are straight out the window with that comment.

I don't feel so bad now for running over all those pedestrians in the PC game "Carmegeddon" and crushing the woman with a pram(?) in Moscow under my tank in the Nintendo "Goldeneye" when I played them in the nineties.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmageddon

[GUNHED]

Barbarian of course - with one hit you can chop a head off.

[Gryzor]

Must be the only one who had to look it up?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze4ouKESWYE

I can't understand what's going on there!

[Carnivius]

I can't understand what's going on there!

What's to understand?  You're Charles Bronson, walking about violently killing bad guys while a fantastic Ben Daglish tune plays.  Most days I don't really need much more than that from a video game.

[Gryzor]

Heheh yes you're right but from the vid I didn't even understand who I am or why rooms change

[Carnivius]

oh yeah the rooms might take a lil getting used to if you're new to it. It's got a sorta '3D' map in a way cos apart from just walking off screen left and right to the next room horizontally you can flip the room around a bit (kinda like Marsport or Tir Na Nog) which if you're not familiar with can feel very confusing.  And is why the lil map radar thing in the HUD is crucial to get your bearings.

Also if you press W when indoors and near windows it goes into a simple Operation Wolf sorta targetting thing looking out of the window.

[Gryzor]

...that's not MINDLESS MURDERING FUN

[Carnivius]

well it is cos you gotta know where you're going to murder the gang leaders.

also i dunno if it clear from the video but you're really supposed to avoid killing cops and grannies... but y'know... accidents happen.

[zeropolis79]

I think this could tie with Barbarian (PAlace) for most violent CPC game with all the decapitations.