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Weekend Hot Topic, part 2: Best non-violent video games – Metro.co.uk


Animal Crossing: New Leaf – does fishing count as violence?

GameCentral readers discuss their favourite games that feature little to no violence, from Pokémon Snap to Endless Ocean.

The subject for this week’s Hot Topic was suggested by reader Ishi, who wanted to know whether you play non-violent games as a respite from other games or as a way to relax. Or if when playing violent games you try to avoid hurting people unnecessarily.

We had lots of letters in on the subject but were surprised how strict most readers took the concept of non-violence. We had only expected to feature games that don’t have violence as the primary gameplay focus, but many ruled out everything from racing games to Portal as not being pacifist enough.

 



Group activity

It’s got to be Animal Crossing hasn’t it? I’m a Nintendo fan but I play a lot of other games as well, including ultra-violent stuff like Doom and Grand Theft Auto, so even though it was a Nintendo game I wasn’t really drawn to Animal Crossing when I first heard about it.

But I figured it might be something my girlfriend – who does not generally approve of video games – would approve of and I was right! She loved the simple pottering about, talking to people and collecting things. The game never expects you to play for too long at a time and that meant I was happy to join in and look after my own house.

We’re both now really looking forward to the Switch version and it’s gone from something that didn’t look of too much interest to one of my favourite franchises, just because it’s something I can do and play with someone that doesn’t otherwise like games.
Coolsbane
PS: My other choice would be Stardew Valley/Harvest Moon, although I admit I do tend to get bored of them fairly quickly, even though there’s technically more to do than Animal Crossing.

 



Collateral damage

This Hot Topic has made me realise how much violence is in games that I play. Even tranquil games like Stardew Valley have caves with monsters in that you can kill, so are not free of violence. Then there are games like Virtue’s Last Reward and Danganronpa where even though the player is never violent, have their main focus on death and murder.

I have recently played RiME and Untitled Goose Game, which are mainly violence free but you repeatedly hurt a (very aggressive) bird in RiME and make a boy and an old man fall over in Untitled Goose Game. The only racing game I have played this year is Mario Kart 8, which involves firing projectiles at other racers, so is still violent. That pretty much leaves puzzle games as the only completely non-violent games I have played recently, although even then I have unwittingly caused Baba to commit suicide many, many times.

I do try and take the pacifist route in games that allow it, such as Dishonored, however when I played that three people were killed. And in my playthrough of Undertale there was one casualty early on in the game.
PazJohnMitch

 



Civilian casualties

I would say that the level of violence in a game has little to no influence in choosing what games I play. However, I would say that when I do play open world violent games, I always make a point of not killing civilians if I can avoid it.

Regarding my favourite non-violent game, it’s actually quite tricky when you think about games that have no violence in whatsoever. My favourite game is Portal, but then I remembered you could get killed by the sentry turrets. So when I had a really good think, I would probably say it’s Super Mario Galaxy. Platformers often have little to no violence, unless it’s one like Super Meat Boy, and Mario Galaxy is my favourite platformer ever.

More recently I have enjoyed Celeste and Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair. Of course, you could say that there is some element of violence by jumping on enemies heads’ to kill them, so if you want to go to extremes, there is only one totally non-violent game choice that is my favourite, which would be the Football Manager series or Roller-Coaster Tycoon.
Angry_Kurt (Twitter)
Now Playing: Yooka-Laylee And The Impossible Lair (Switch) and Judgment (PS4)

GC: We’d say Portal was less violent than the platformers you mentioned. Those turrets had probably backed up their personalities on a hard drive or something.

 

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

 



Relaxing swim

I quite enjoyed Endless Ocean on the Wii, not necessarily as a needed respite from my usual genres but because it tried to do something different. It proved to be more interesting and relaxing than I had initially thought; the visuals were reasonably realistic and I liked the Hayley Westenra soundtrack – though if not to your taste you could also play your own music from the SD card.

There was something oddly satisfying about exploring the various reefs, ruins, etc. and ultimately I saw the title through the story mode. I never tried the sequel though.
Graham Wade

 



Violence free sound shower

This is a tough one, for me – most of my games have violence to some degree! This doesn’t mean I’m some kind of bloodthirsty maniac! I swear! On the graves of last three psychiatrists! My current, and seventh psychiatrist really hates that joke.

So, let’s think: even Undertale has some fighting in it, even in the Pacifist route. The racing games I tend to like have some underhanded tactics – Micro Machines and Sonic Racing Transformed have weapons in them and shunting your opponents off the track are viable ways to get by.

I guess Super Monkey Ball has no enemies in the main, but you can slake your thirst for violence in both the race and fight modes. I suppose that leaves… OutRun? Yeah, you can roll the car – but neither the driver or the blonde lady get hurt and you don’t get attacked by other vehicles and if you run into them you just crash the car, although never fatally.

So that makes OutRun my winner? Without any cheating side modes that have a degree of violence.

I think every game needs some element of conflict, like stories, in order to be a game. Be it actual combat or something more abstract like going up against the clock. Otherwise, what is the game? I mean, take something as innocent as hide and seek is the conflict between those that want to find and those who don’t want to be found. In all human activity there must be conflict and competition. Which is almost depressing.

Not that I have many games that are extremely violent. Mortal Kombat is something of an outlier in my collection and I mostly prefer role-play games and bright, cheery platformers which are never really grisly. Unless you don’t think about all those flattened Goombas…
DMR

 



Violent life

I’m not sure I’ve ever played a game that doesn’t have a measure of violence at least on one way or another. Even the Dizzy games.

I’m stumped on this one.
Bobwallett

GC: What violence is there in Dizzy? And you’ve never played a racing game or puzzler?

 

Catch up on every previous Games Inbox here

 



Avoiding violence

My favourite non-violent video game is Deus Ex: Human Revolution and getting the pacifist Trophy on the PlayStation 3! Well no one died and I was like a Batman type hero. OK, let’s be serious regarding the latter part of GC’s question about not taking out characters with lethal measures and just getting through the game as a good guy.

I have to admit in games like Fallout and The Elder Scrolls, the only people I kill are people attacking me and I have no choice but to kill them or I get killed. But if I can negotiate a conversation branch with the power of speech and then going out of my way to avoid harming anyone, I would. Usually in games like that which I have just mentioned, it’s the more exciting and adventurous route, as killing is just too quick and something I do in so many of the other games I play.

I feel when I spend many, many hours in a game world I then become a part of that world and need to be respectful to my fellow non-player characters. The immersive abilities of this is quite high and working to help people in the various side quests is what makes me play these games, which then creates so much of the enjoyment that comes from them.

I don’t play many puzzle or non-violent games or simulations, so racing games, or more precisely Mario Kart games does me just fine. The Mario Kart series is my all-time favourite non-violent video game. That’s if firing a red shell into the rear end of your mate’s vehicle is not considered very mean!

Tetris is something I can claim to have enjoyed a lot on the original Game Boy but otherwise give me something like The Outer Worlds and let me have a choice over the situation and I’ll decide if things are going to get bloody or not!
Alucard

 

E-mail your comments to: gamecentral@ukmetro.co.uk

 

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