10 Shockingly Violent Video Games

By DivineCaroline via Common Sense Media

The names of violent video games tend to travel fast among preteen and teen gamers. And the next thing you know, your kid wants to play them.

Common Sense Media’s list of the ten most violent video games is designed to arm you with enough information to help you make informed choices about what to allow your kids to play. And beyond that, they offer less-violent alternatives with the compelling gameplay that kids want.

Why care about violent video games? Prolonged exposure to violent media leads to aggressive behavior, anxiety, bullying, and desensitization. This cause-and-effect relationship is now part of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ official policy to help doctors and parents create a “safer” media environment for kids.

1. Manhunt
Players advance by stalking and killing victims, all for the delight of a “director” who urges you to make the killings bloodier, more cunning, and ever more horrific. Manhunt 2 is more of the same, but now you’ve been injected with a drug to bring out your “homicidal tendencies.”

Alternative: Mirror’s Edge

2. Resident Evil 5
Using guns, swords, or a chainsaw, you shoot, hack, and slash oncoming enemies, producing copious amounts of blood. And the game’s racial undertones are hard to ignore, as the white hero (accompanied by a light-skinned African-American) has to kill mostly black victims infected by the zombie-causing virus.

Alternative: Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

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Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of
Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

Jennifer P.

3:26AM PDT on May 16, 2012

Thanks for the alternatives to the slasher-fest horror-baths.

send a green star

colleen p.

8:42AM PST on Feb 13, 2012

Lara K. yeah. it is always fun to bring that up. I am not a bible historian but watch educational TV shows.

then again, perhaps what horrible acts in it, even the ones with true historical basis are "justifyed"

"god said that is mine, I kill you all, all of you, even your animals and babies. you are not one of us so it dosen't matter, besides you had a war with us 100 years ago"

i am sure someone will accept a violent video game as long as the right target of violance is in it.

just as PETA. they would pay me for everything to make a reverse hunting game, where you play a deer, fox, duck or squirrel and kill humans.

Lara K.

1:29PM PST on Feb 12, 2012

Jessie, the video game makers aren't running out of ideas. Games like these are so prevalent because kids (and a lot of adults) like to play them. They make what sells. Instead of banning something, maybe we should ask why so many people want to play these games in the first place? Since when did banning books (or anything else for that matter) really stop its use? You turn it into a cult commodity and anyone who can even faintly remember being young knows that being constantly told you couldn't have or do something made that object or activity so much more desirable. Adults have been in a tizzy know about violent video games since Columbine (before that, but Columbine seemed to create a lot of heat about games like DOOM!) despite the fact that the majority of kids who play these games aren't violent. What's next, we start banning every book which has a scene of violence? Tell our kids hotdogs grow on hotdog trees?

1:24PM PST on Feb 12, 2012

So what? Every generation and most kids like "scary stuff" and trying to blame society's problems and video games is too neat and simple. The Bible itself is full of atrocious acts. Most kids from the 60s loved horror movies and horror comics which, by their parents standards, were horrific. Up until recently children have been treated as "small adults" and faced much more adult situations than people from "current" generations (who are treated very young and given very few responsibilities). Remember, even in the good old days, kids used to go see public lynchings. Humans are fundamentally violent, and so much of the media's craze over school shootings being linked to horror movies and violent video games is utter BS. Plus, the more these games are censored, the more "kids" (and teens are old enough to make decisions for themselves) are going to want them. It's part of the human condition. You can't have kids taking responsibility for themselves and growing up when you're restricting their "play activities" to Blues Clues. And most of the greek and roman myths studied in intensive college courses are full of violence. This is hypocritical.

3:48AM PDT on Jun 30, 2011

OH, I rerember the beef over RE5
"OMG you kill black zombies racism"

You are in Africa for crying out loud. If I ever make video game. everyone is going to be white or look white. will that make people happy? to have blond, blue-eyed Navajos that turned into vampire-zombies?

Renya S.

10:03AM PDT on Jun 1, 2011

no need to wonder why young people get more and more violent themselfes..

Paul T.

4:40AM PST on Jan 14, 2011

I play violent video games all the time, but I am not a violent person. Advocacy groups continue to ignore the multitude of studies that show the link between violent behaviour and video games is tenuous at best.

@johan l.
Maybe we should take something you own, paid for, and enjoy doing and throw that in a fire completely unprovoked. After that, we should watch your reaction (which would most certainly be a hostile response) and I'm sure we will find out soon enough how far on the road to doom you already are!

Please, give me a break. Throwing anyone's possessions in a fire is going to make them angry and is in no way and indicator of any influence by violent media. Throw a hobbyist's train set, a distinctly non-violent activity, into a fire and I'm sure their reaction would not be a calm one. I guess that means that playing with model trains makes you violent and we should ban them!

NatalieAnne H.

5:40PM PDT on Sep 10, 2010

To be fair, just the names of these games insinuate they might just be violent. It's not rocket science.

Nellie K A.

6:28PM PDT on Jul 21, 2010

Violent video games are about killing.

Kristen R.

9:05PM PDT on Jul 20, 2010

Great article