I haven’t posted anything since July, and I was really in the mood to write about a gaming topic I’ve had on my mind for a bit.
Life has been alright. In terms of where I was last year, I am so happy. I am truly in a place where I can build from. I bought a newer used car finally, I’ve been working my ass off in all facets of my life, and I’ve been trying my best to navigate this current hellscape haha.
I get banned or suspended for saying any of my strong political opinions online. These multi billion dollar companies protect the ruling class, and it gets eye rolling at times.
A revolution will never start on Twitter or Reddit, let me tell ya.
Anyway, I’m not here today to start my edgy political network like Alex Jones.
Oh no, I’m here to discuss some of the edgiest games of the 00s, and in a way, a style born from the cultural zeitgeist of the pre nine-eleven era.
Twisted Metal Black, Manhunt, The Suffering, Resident Evil 4, and so many others painted a world of foreboding dread. A world that was an evil caricature of itself. These worlds were dark to a point of parody, but took themselves 100% seriously.
I don’t know who started this trend, why it was exactly a trend, and if these games share enough elements to even call it a trend.
I’m going to try my best here in this post to explore the concept a bit further.
Twisted Metal Black is the first game of the era that fits this definition of an evil world driven to the point of parody, but taking the premise seriously.
No longer was the violence and themes lighthearted like Creepshow or Tales From The Darkside. No longer was the violence “cool” in the sense of an 80s action movie.
Black was brutal, poignant, and relished in this dark world closely resembling The Crow, Seven, Jacob’s Ladder, or Sin City. I could almost describe the game as “goth”, but I’ll get back to that later down below.
Later in 2004, Manhunt hit shelves, and pushed the dark themes found in Twisted Metal Black to a literal point of controversy. No longer was the player killing just a vehicle, but rather committing murders on tape to survive.
Rockstar had created the fictional Carcer City as the ultimate murder capitol of the US, and thus a fictitious world of sleaze, violence, and blackness. Just like Twisted Metal Back, Manhunt committed its violence without parody or bombastic theatrics. It was gritty, personal, and matter-of-fact.
My best point of comparison for this sub genre/style are films. I find a lot of aspects of these films remind me of Neo-Noir and Neo-Realism works from some of the greatest filmmakers of the post World War II era. Taxi Driver seems like a huge inspiration for this entire subset of games that come to mind, because of their dark cynical look on the game world they build. It reminds me a lot of Travis’s world view that we experience throughout the film. Hell, Twisted Metal Black even hints at the game being an interpretation of the world through Sweet Tooth’s eyes.
I suppose it does make sense that a lot of these games came out in the late 90s and 00s, because the developers who grew up watching those films, and even experiencing the real world horrors of the world, were grown up. They put that cynicism and malaise back into their own work.
I also refuse to reduce this observation to just an art style. This isn’t just the equivalent of a sepia tone filter over a Michael Bay film, or the yellow filter every time they have a setting in Mexico.
These games lasted for such a short window, and I could almost perfectly spot the years they inhabited. They seemed to emerge from 1999-2005 in this post y2k world, but before the 80s nostalgia overload hit us. It’s important to note that this genre seemed to have originated before 9-11, and thus I do not think that particular tragedy or the war on terror caused this cynical violent theming in games. I actually think it predates it, and is actually more so a response to the 70s kids growing up. The 70s were a dark time in America, and despite the brainwashed consumerism, media, and Reaganomics of the 80s and 90s, those who grew up in the 70s knew how bad things could get. It’s difficult to pinpoint though, because America wasn’t the only ones who went this direction. Resident Evil 4 really steered towards a darker tone, and a lot of the campy haunted-house nature of the 1 and 2 was replaced with grit and grime. Although RE4 wasn’t quite as cynical as the US developed games that had this tone.
So what does that all mean for my tastes on gaming today?
I want it painted black, again.
I feel like gaming is in this late stage capitalist post-post-modern movement that took all of the flash of 80s nostalgia, and none of the lessons we’ve learned in the past 30 years.
If the 00s were Neo-Realism, the late 2010s and 20s is Delusionism. We let corporations take our media, and suck any of the cynicism and criticism from it. Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto 5, Call of Duty, etc is all just watered down post-post-modernist gerber baby slop on a spoon, ready to airplane into your fucking mouth.
I miss the goth black games of the y2k era that pointed the finger back at us. It tore the veil away from entertainment, and showed us the darkest sides of human nature. What’s even more fascinating is that it showed us how much we loved it.
Twisted Metal Black was one of the best selling games on the Playstation 2. Manhunt sold so well, it spawned a sequel and international bans. RE4 is considered one of the best Resident Evil games ever. The Suffering spawned a sequel and multiple ports of the game.
There is nothing quirky or silly about how these games present themselves, and that’s what makes them so enjoyable.
They ARE edgy, but they don’t care. They strip the meta self awareness of their themes, and just exist.
This may be one of the hardest things I’ve written about regarding games, only because it is such a hard feeling to convey, and yet there seems to be a word or phrase for anything these days haha.
I have been writing this post off and on the last few days, both fully awake, and half asleep, yet my consensus is still the same.
I have written a few years ago how I thought gaming media was converging into some bland singularity pushed by late stage capitalism, corporate pushed identity politics, and design-by-comity slop.
This genre of blackness was the antithesis of everything getting pushed today. The Blackness was the embodiment of everything evil in human nature, and those games captured it in theme, gameplay, and tone.
I want to wrap this up by saying I don’t know if this genre could ever exist again, only because of the nature of its creation. It was formed from developers who grew up in very specific circumstances. Much like how 70s and 80s cinema are hard to capture, because they are a product of what that crew experienced. Our environment and upbringing contributes a lot to our art, and I just don’t think today’s developers have the environment to create this kind of work again. Not to mention, no corporation would ever pay for development anyway.
I’ve found very few games in modern times capture that same feeling, with Scorn coming very close. However Scorn is very much fantasy based, and the black genre had their roots in reality.
Perhaps the genre could come back in some form, considering an entire generation of kids, such as myself, grew up with the war-on-terror, 2 recessions, political divide, and corporate totalitarianism.
There will come a subset of artists and creatives who want to strip the quirky nature of modern media away, and paint it black with the horrors of the world they grew up in.
The “delusionist” movement of art shall be usurped by a post-post-post modernist style that will hopefully once again point the finger back at us.
While my own artwork and game development casts a wide net in terms of style and creative influence, as I get older, I increasingly want to strip it all away to something raw.
Through looking at the worst of our society, I think we can build a better one. Despite what I just talked about above, I think this violent, dark, and human driven genre can shed light on the struggles we face in the modern world, and help us stop pretending life is like a bubbly tictok or a Fortnite dance. I think the increased shootings, vehicle attacks, and civil unrest are a clear indicator of our current health, and we need an outlet.
Our art is being corporatized and written into a corner to maximize profits, and it’s alienating the outcasts of society who look for that missing outlet. I will never think violent games create violent acts or people. On the contrary, I think violent games create that exhaustion of pent up steam people have, and the outcasts of society have always flocked to it. The edginess of some of these older pieces of media, even music, may seem eye rolling to many, but they exist to serve as an outlet for a certain mindset. Corporatism has forced media into a box, that’s mindset consists of a happy mild slop.
The outlet is cut off, and the back pressure is making society burst at the seams.
I think this black genre of games can help people,and I really hope with all of my heart that I can create something that can help someone, just like the games of my past helped me.
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