For years gamers have been defending their hobby from anti-gaming lobbyists claiming that the medium incites violence. Of course, there has never been any proof to suggest that is the case, but this trailer for upcoming twin-stick shooter Hatred will certainly add more fuel to the fire of the debate.
The game, developed by Destructive Creations, places players in the shoes of a merciless, trenchcoated, long-haired antagonist as he stages a mass shooting of innocents.
“My name is not important,” the player-character says in the trailer. “What is important is what I’m going to do. I just fucking hate this world, and these human worms feasting on its carcass. My whole life is just cold, bitter hatred and I always wanted to die violently. This is the time of vengeance and no life is worth saving. And I will put in the grave as many as I can. It’s time for me to kill, and it’s time for me to die.”
If you were wondering if the woman opens her mouth so the guy can put the gun in there, then yes. Yes she does. Why would you expect anything less?
The trailer then depicts the unnamed man embarking on his killing spree, violently murdering any man and woman in his path in obscene detail.
For those wondering whether or not this is some kind of smart commentary on video games a la Spec Ops: The Line, Hatred‘s official website should serve to quell any doubts that this isn’t just a disturbing (and incredibly tacky) journey into the mindset of a development team with an alarming lack of subtlety.
The game’s description on the website reads: “The question you may ask is: why do they do this? These days, when a lot of games are heading to be polite, colorful, politically correct and trying to be some kind of higher art, rather than just an entertainment – we wanted to create something against trends.
“Something different, something that could give the player a pure, gaming pleasure. Herecomes our game, which takes no prisoners and makes no excuses. We say ‘yes, it is a game about killing people’ and the only reason of the antagonist doing that sick stuff is his deep-rooted hatred.”
Unfortunately, “something different” in this instance actually means “something that any development team could do, but they choose not to because it’s stupid.”
The trailer also featured Epic’s logo, as it makes use of Unreal Engine 4. However, Epic has now issued a statement saying they are “not involved in this project,” which reads: “Unreal Engine 4 is available to the general public for use ‘for any lawful purpose,’ and we explicitly don’t exert any sort of creative control or censorship over projects. However, the video is using the trademarked Unreal Engine 4 logo without permission from Epic, and we’ve asked for the removal of our logo from all marketing associated with this product.”
Destructive Creations’ Jarosław Zieliński replied to this issue, saying: “Epic Games has all the legal rights to issue such a request. They’ve contacted me in a friendly manner and asked for the logo removal. Following their request I’ve removed it from the YouTube version and will remove it from the press version of our trailer ASAP so everyone is happy.”
