Some people make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, or to practice better dental hygiene, or to found a university. On January 2 of this year, though, a dedicated player of the 2011 action game Deus Ex: Human Revolution undertook a less noble but more entertaining journey: to kill every last character (or close to it) in the game’s sprawling world.
Loyal readers may recognize the person behind this deranged project, as it’s Gameological comment-thread mainstay Staggering Stew-Bum. SSB’s usual wit is on display as he narrates his quest to turn the cybernetically enhanced hero of Human Revolution into an all-out murder monster. Plenty of video games offer opportunities for wholesale killing, but SSB chose Human Revolution for a reason. Its design allows players to confront most challenges by resorting either to violence or stealth. (The only exception is boss fights, which require you to kill, and which—not coincidentally—are widely regarded as the worst part of the game.) So “pacifist” playthroughs have become popular, as empathetic players strive to complete the game without killing anyone unnecessarily. In fact, SSB had just finished a pacifist run when he got the idea to go in the opposite direction:
Anyway, DXHR is a fun endlessly-replayable game and I wanted to put an interesting spin on my next playthrough. So a comment from a pal on Steam had me wondering, could I kill absolutely everybody who was killable? Not just guards and whatnot, I mean every single resident of the hub worlds? I knew Sarif HQ and LIMB clinics were off limits as at these locations you are unable to draw your weapon or perform takedowns. But outside these places, everybody is fair game.
It might sound depressing, but the 16-post epic is consistently funny, with plenty of goofy screenshots and puckish commentary.
Plus, you get to look at corpses.
So many corpses.
Writhing corpses.
“This is even more painful than it looks” corpses.