Top 10 Most Controversial Scenes In Video Games
#10: Racism Allegations
“Resident Evil 5” (2009) Upon the reveal of “Resident Evil 5’s” first trailer, the game began to stir up controversy. When you look at it from the perspective of somebody who hadn’t played the game because it wasn’t yet out, it’s easy to see why: the trailer shows Chris Redfield killing dozens of impoverished Africans. Capcom had to release trailers with more diverse zombies and non-white lead characters to try and deal with the outrage. The controversy disappeared somewhat when the game actually did come out, but many still thought that it was leaning into racial stereotypes. On the other hand, some experts said that the game was commenting on colonialism on purpose through its portrayal of western intervention into the developing world.
#9: The Implication
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“Tomb Raider” (2013) The first game in the “Tomb Raider” reboot trilogy is concerned with how Lara Croft went from a young, naïve archaeologist to the cold-blooded, dual-wielding killer we’re most familiar with. And it turns out that this happened because she was forced through a highly traumatic situation where she was kidnapped, attacked, and maimed over and over. One contentious scene in the first game has a man seemingly on the cusp of physically assaulting Lara, who ultimately kills her if the player doesn’t properly execute a QTE. Crystal Dynamics later had to come out and explain that the scene was “not intentional”, but when you put a female character in a situation like that, things are implied.
#8: Liara’s Romance
“Mass Effect” (2007) Right after the first “Mass Effect” released, Fox News ran an outraged segment taking aim at the game’s “explicit” content, specifically the existence of romances and sex scenes. Worse, not only were there sex scenes, the scene could be between a human and alien woman. This led to the infamous “Sexbox” headline from Fox News, and BioWare later said that the backlash to the Liara romance in the first game caused them to cut some other LGBT+ romances in “Mass Effect 2”. Other BioWare games have, of course, doubled down on being diverse and inclusive to LGBT people, but this controversy did some short-term damage to a beloved franchise.
#7: The Usual Stuff
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“South Park: The Stick of Truth” (2014) It’s a “South Park” game, so obviously it was going to be full of offensive content – that’s the entire point of “South Park”, after all. But though the game made it to launch intact in North America, in other territories it wasn’t so lucky, and lots of content had to be cut in the console versions. Specifically, all the scenes where characters are abducted by aliens and “probed” were censored, as well as scenes set in a Planned Parenthood. But this wasn’t done at the behest of uptight regulators in Europe, it was a decision taken by Ubisoft to head off any potential issues; that’s despite the fact that most of Europe has more lenient censorship rules than the US.
#6: Shower Scene
“Beyond: Two Souls” (2013) Plenty of video games have shower scenes; showering is something most people do nearly every day. So, why was this particular shower scene in “Beyond: Two Souls” controversial? Well, the game’s director David Cage had an agreement with its star, Elliot Page, that a fully nude model of Page would not be created – and indeed, Page’s body was never scanned to render the model. Considering you never see a fully nude model with the scripted camera angles, it wasn’t necessary to make one. However, Quantic Dream did build a fully nude model for those scenes regardless of Page’s wishes, and the images were leaked online. Quantic Dream refused to take action and Page threatened to sue.
#5: The Ending
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“Mass Effect 3” (2012) Nobody liked the ending of “Mass Effect 3”. After five years of build-up, you were left with three color-coded choices – one of which required a ton of extra content, including multiplayer, to unlock. You could destroy the Reapers and all other forms of synthetic life; you could control the Reapers and leave them intact; or you could merge synthetic and organic life. Your choices in the games didn’t factor into this ending at all, leaving a lot of players extremely upset. In the end, BioWare had to release free DLC to fix the ending, adding additional scenes and an additional choice: the ability to refuse to pick any of the Reapers’ options.
#4: By the Book
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“Grand Theft Auto V” (2013) You knew it was coming as soon as you saw the title of this video. This mission in “GTA V” has been infamous ever since the game launched for depicting Trevor brutally interrogating a man who may or may not have information the Agency wants. The mission is meant as a satirical commentary on the ruthless methods the CIA uses in real life, but it comes across in-game as you having a whole lot of fun pulling out some guy’s teeth. You’ll also get a trophy by going through the entire mission without his heart stopping. Unsurprisingly, this made the game even more contentious than it already was – and it’s still difficult to play even for seasoned “GTA” fans.
#3: Rescue or Harvest
“BioShock” (2007) This is a franchise all about choice – or lack thereof. So the choice to rescue or harvest the Little Sisters was a major part of the first game. Rescuing the girls is, obviously, the right thing to do, but harvesting them – a process which ends their lives in a gruesome way – will net you more ADAM, and you need ADAM to upgrade all your plasmids. Depending on what you do, you’ll get the good, bad, or really bad ending of the game. But this mechanic has gained criticism, too, mostly because choosing whether to save or murder an innocent character like this isn’t really a tough moral choice; you only lose a little ADAM by saving them, making the system feel needlessly cruel.
#2: Hot Coffee
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“Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” (2004) Though Rockstar never intended for anybody to see this “intimate” minigame, that didn’t stop modders from finding it on the game disc and releasing it online for anybody to play. This caused immense controversy because the content would have landed “San Andreas” with an Adults Only rating had the ESRB known about it, rather than the Mature rating they were aiming for. In typical nimby fashion, upset parents derided Rockstar for the minigame’s existence – even though Rockstar later released updates for the game to further lock players out of accessing it – because it was inappropriate for kids. Not that kids should be playing “San Andreas” in the first place.
#1: No Russian
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“Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2” (2009) Infinity Ward knew ahead of time that this game’s dark storyline would ruffle some feathers, and from launch, there was the option for players to skip “No Russian” without any penalties. That’s because the mission depicts an undercover agent working alongside the game’s extremist villains to attack an airport full of civilians in Russia. It’s the fact that you’re playing as one of the characters committing the atrocity – undercover or not – that made “No Russian” difficult to get through. Though, considering you were able to freely skip the level and the game makes it clear that these are the villains, it seems odd that there was so much uproar. The whole level was even completely removed in some regions.
