What we're looking at here is when games made us jump out of our seats and say, "Woah, did that really just happen?!". Moments that were transgressive, scandalous, exploitative or downright offensive.
Some of these instances were lambasted by the moral majority, demonised by the press and held up as gaming witchcraft, while others were less publicised. One thing unites them all - they broke gaming taboos. Bask in their illicit thrills...
Resident Evil 4 | Getting decapitated by Doctor Salvador | 2005
What’s that noise? Sounds a bit like whirring to us. Ah well, we’re sure it’s nothing. Oh look, here comes a fat chap with a bag on his head. What’s that he’s got his hand? Best shoot him. Shit, we’ve missed… AAAHHHHHH, holy f**k! That’s pretty much an accurate recounting of the first time we’ve ever got our head torn off by Resi 4’s Doctor Salvador and his rusty chainsaw.
Just hearing the noise of the dull instrument of death in the distance growling at you like an aggressive pit-bull, long before you can see Salvador, is hugely unsettling. In a series built on suspense, the sense of dread that’s drilled into you at the sound of the doctor’s weapon is unmatched. And for the sheer nerve-wracking build-up and genuinely shocking gore – that the game revels in with its close up death cams – this merits a place in the list.
Silent Hill 2 | Pyramid Head raping mannequin monsters | 2001
Oh dear God. We had to watch this about three times before we could finally make out the soul-souffléing terror that’s going on in the above Silent Hill 2 scene. When you actually clock what Pyramid Head’s doing with that razor-sharp bonce of his, there’s simply no question that this one of the most shocking moments of the past ten years. The vigorous gyrating, the fact his helpless mannequin victims can’t scream because they’ve got legs of where their mouths should be; it’s just a shocking moment of sexual violence.
C’mon, a dude that goes around molesting other monsters? It may be seven different shades of wrong, but it undoubtedly makes him one of the scariest characters ever to grace the medium. We’re used to our foes murdering and maiming, but throwing the sexual element into the equation adds such an uncomfortable rawness that this moment easily out shocks almost every other act of violence from the last decade.
Next: Full-frontal nudity, snuff movies and pissing on people...
